Chapter 2
Ryekit opened his pale green eyes, but all he could see was white. Shaking his head, Ryekit saw a faint outline of Amberkit through the whirling snow, her eyes wide with shock and concern as she slid quickly towards him. Ryekit sprung out of the way, dragging the sleeping Cloverkit with him. He winced as Amberkit crashed into the stone wall. Cloverkit's eyes fumed with anger and then curled up in her feather nest.
Ryekit sighed and pretended to be sleeping. He heard scrabbling claws on the den, and Cloverkit was gone. Nosing Amberkit, Ryekit's eyes are glazed with worry as he examined her. No blood. Heartbeat. Eyes blinking. She's fine. Rolling her over with his white paws, Ryekit noses her to her feet.
Glancing at the small paw prints leading outside the den into the cold, and the back at his littermates, Ryekit shook his head.
Running swiftly after the small footprints, Ryekit opened his jaws to smell. Fresh snow, pika and … maybe Cloverkit... Following the scent Ryekit broke into a steady run. Have to find Cloverkit. Have to find Cloverkit. After a while the tundra sloped downward and- Oof!, Ryekit tripped over a rabbithole and flew into a snowdrift. Amberkit's scent was strongest here, and Ryekit knew she had been around here. Digging fiercely in the snow drift Ryekit uncovered a tuft of brown fur. A dead pika! Amberkit appeared out of the blizzard behind Ryekit.
"AMBERKIT!" Ryekit called and then paused.
"R-right h-here." The ginger she-cat was huddled under a small bush, fur fluffed up twice her size as she crawled out.
"You look like a fox!"Ryekit exclaimed. Rolling her eyes Amberkit flattened her fur.
"I slipped into the den when I came back. Then I went to follow you. The blizzard picked up when I followed you out again and I decided to shelter here." Amberkit mewed. "I caught a pika though!" Amberkit looked at a small brown body.
"I had to wait a while but it ran right past this bush." She meowed happily. Ryekit's mouth watered as the warm, inviting scent drifted into his nose.
"We better get back before the snow really picks up." Ryekit meowed.
"Okay, but is Cloverkit up?" Amberkit meowed. The thought of Cloverkit made her wince. Cloverkit was horrible, she was a brat- and that was putting it nicely. Ryekit nodded grimly.
"Let's go." Amberkit led the way up the rocky slope until the familiar scent of home flooded the air.
Chapter 3
Feeling sharp teeth on her neck, Cloverkit woke with a start and jumped out of the way, hissing viciously. Her only brother Ryekit was scampering away to Cloverkit's sister Amberkit, who was slumped against the den wall covered with snow.
"You pika-heads!" she hissed. Ryekit looked up with concern.
"I think she's OK!" he said.
"Who?" Cloverkit mewed gruffly
"Amberkit! She just came crashing in here like a bear!" Cloverkit groaned.
"Go back to bed."
"But-"
"Ryekit, you do you, I'm gonna sleep." And with that, she curled up again, probably trying to sleep again. "Ugh! What's with all of this snow?"
"I think Amberkit broke the snow when she tried to come in."
"I don't CARE about what Amberkit did. Go back to sleep." Ryekit sighed and fluffed the feathers in his nest, curled up, and went to sleep. Still bitter as always, Cloverkit stormed out of the nest, her tiny claws scratching the ice-cold rock. She was blasted by freezing air and blinding snow as she climbed out, her pale green eyes squinting against the huge snowflakes. Her dark grey pelt blowing around in the wind, she set off out of the camp, not caring about Flamewhisker's nursery tales of kits who wandered and were eaten by mountain lions. The wind suddenly blew another way, and the scents of Juniperwhisker, Driftcloud, and Cherrypaw hit Cloverkit's nose. Looking back at the camp only to see snow, Cloverkit hoped rock to rock, following the huge pawprints of the patrol. They were going to PineClan territory! Cloverkit found motivation in her lazy paws to follow them. Sprinting, she tracked them down the hill, leading to a huge rock. The prints continued below it, and there seemed to be no other way down. Cloverkit hardly thought. I'm two moons old. I'm a warrior. And with that, she jumped headfirst off of the boulder.
Chapter 4
"I call being the leader!" Acornkit called, scrabbling on top of a rock.
"Fine, but I wanna be it next time." Ryekit meowed.
"Ooh! I'll be Frostflower." Cloverkit mewed, wrapping her tail delicately around her paws.
"Now you want to look best for your apprentice ceremony," Cloverkit started, "Just look at you, you look like you just got chased by mountain lions!" She mewed and started to quickly groom Amberkit's unruly fur.
"All cats old enough to catch their own prey gather here beneath LittleRock for a clan meeting." Acornkit meowed and Amberkit stifled a laugh at Acornkit's imitation of Flintstar. After Acornkit flashed her a stern glare, Amberkit focused again.
"You have reached your sixth moon. And it is time for you to become apprentices."
"I'm so proud." Cloverkit mewed, as she watched the ceremony.
"Ryekit, from this moment on forth you will be known as Ryepaw. Your mentor will be.. Uh… Juniperwhisker." Acornkit glanced at the empty place where the mentors stand. "Uhh…"
"I'll be Juniperwhisker!" Amberkit mewed excitedly, hopping over to the place where mentors stand.
"Juniperwhisker, I trust you to teach young Ryepaw your battle skills and pass on your patience and speed."
Amberkit puffed out her chest, and doing her best to imitate Juniperwhisker's deep grumble, "I will, Flintstar. You will not be disappointed." All of the kits begun to cheer, "RYEPAW! RYEPAW!" Acornkit touched her grey muzzle on Ryekit's head and then Ryekit touched noses with Amberkit.
Cloverkit, rushed over to Ryekit. "Oh, my kit. You are growing up so fast," she gushed, and then rolled her eyes. Amberkit saw Heronsky approach out of the corner of her eye.
"Hi kits." Heronsky mewed, her strong shoulders rippling. Ryekit looked at her in awe.
"Can you teach us some battle moves?" Ryekit asked eagerly. Before Heronsky could respond, Amberkit meowed, "I know one!" throwing herself on top of Ryekit and began to play-wrestle.
Chapter 5
The sun glared down onto the mountainside. The day was clear and sunny, and the snow glistened in the brief mountain spring sun. Bouncing out of the nursery, Acornkit and her littermates were now five moons old.
"Come on, Cloverkit!" Cloverkit was worse than ever for Acornkit, Ryekit, and Amberkit. Her dark grey coat seemed to be riddled with bitterness, but they could admit she was a pretty kit. There were three new litters in the nursery, born to Appletail, Roseclaw, and Flightspirit- Hopkit, Leapkit, Aspenkit, Pinekit, Treekit, Dovekit, Eaglekit, Hawkkit, and Jaykit. And even the kits were aware of the tension rising in their Clan. Flamewhisker was gone for very long periods of time, and he said it was for training and patrols. As time passed, Frostflower began leaving them alone in the nursery. "She needs to stretch her legs," said Flamewhisker whenever their mother was gone.
"Can we come, too?" asked Leapkit, Hopkit following behind her out of the nursery.
"Sure!" mewed Ryekit.
"I'm not coming if some kits are allowed to join," hissed Cloverkit.
"Scared of falling down a cliff and passing out, then spending a quarter moon in Yarrowspring's den?" teased Acornkit.
"You're so MEAN!" yowled Cloverkit violently as she ran back into the nursery, tripping over a snowdrift on her way into the cave.
"Well, I guess Cloverkit's not coming!" said Leapkit. "Come on, let's go!" The kit bounced into the snow in front of them. "Tunnel game?"
"Nooooooo I wanna play tig!" groaned Amberkit.
" Here's what Cloverkit would say about that- 'that's a kit game, Amberkit!'." said Ryekit to the Amberkit, his long dark brown fur waving in the mountain breeze. Acornkit stood still as a stone, his eyes locked onto something in the distance.
"Acornkit?" Leapkit glanced at Acornkit, who was still petrified.
"Look," he hissed under his breath. "Mountain goats!" And there were certainly mountain goats. Big, white fluffy mountain goats grazing on the scarce dead alpine veggies through thick blankets of snow.
"CHERRYTAIL!" shrieked Leapkit to the pretty young tortoiseshell she-cat nearest to them.
"WHAT?" Cherrytail shrieked back. "The way you're screaming, you're going to wake all of the prey from here to WillowClan territory!"
"Sorry, Cherrytail."
"So what did you want to tell me?"
"Look!" mewed Amberkit. "Mountain goats- they're right there!"
"Well, I'll tell Driftcloud to tell Squirrelfeather to warn the patrols," she said, stalking off to the deputy's den.
"She wasn't to interested," sighed Leapkit. "But we are!" Acornkit, Amberkit, and Ryekit looked at her. "Right?"
"Okay. Let's go!" mewed Ryekit, on his way to bound out of the camp.
"WAIT!" said Acornkit with a mixture of fear and annoyance. "We can't just go bounding out of camp like a bunch of baby birds." She paused for emphasis. "We have to be stealthy. Follow me." Acornkit flicked her long plumey white tail as a signal.
She padded back towards the nursery, avoiding the hateful glares of Cloverkit as the band of kits passed. She knew nothing about the fun they were about to have. "Alright, everyone! Let's pretend to be playing tig, then when I call, we go out of there-" she flicked her tail to a gap between two boulders. The kits all started to imitate the game of tig- a version of tag where no one is it, it's just everyone running around tagging people shouting, "tig." After a minute, Acornkit flicked her tail to leave. The path was free.
"Acornkit! Ryekit! Amberkit! Dinner!" Ryekit turned to see their mother's pale, gentle face, calling them back to the den.
