STINGER

The daily act was as frustrating as ever, which is to say excruciating.

Bendy, my group's leader came over to me and asked, "Have you been sneaking any prey in for your kits?"

"No," I say, lying very well.

"Right. Why are they so soft then?"

"They're kittens, what do you expect!?"

"They're kittens, sure, but four moons already and they still don't know how to hunt. Food is rare enough here and they need to contribute!"

I look at the dusty ground, unsure how true that is. It's at least true enough though that I can justify him not wanting me to give the kits extra prey. But they're starving, and anyway, it's not rare enough to make them hunt.

"LOOK ME IN THE EYES!" shouted Bendy. He knew I hated that so any time when I was acting even slightly out of line he told me to do so. "If your kittens are not out hunting in FIVE DAYS they will be killed, along with you."

"But their mother is dead! I have to keep them alive, and I can barely do my duties because of it! How is that MY FAULT!?"

"We can always kill the kittens immediately."

"Whoa!" I say, stepping back.

"THEN GET TO WORK TRAINING THEM!" he screams at the top of his lungs, and then moves to say some endearing (awful/evil) things to Mouse, the cat next to me.

"Wait, how much do you want them trained!?" I ask.

"Just enough so that we can have a steadier supply of food."

"But we're in a drought! They could die out there without any water."

"Less mouths to feed."

"You sure are merciless alright!" I shout.

"WE NEED TO SURVIVE! THESE KITS NOW HAVE FOUR DAYS!" Bendy growls.

Well that went well, I think to myself.

I need to start planning. There's no way that the kits will be able to get enough food for a steadier income alone, they're obviously trying to get rid of them.

But in the nighttime, I go by their plans. We'll attempt to escape by day.

Later

"What are we doing?" asks Germanium cheerfully.

"We're teaching you how to hunt."

"That sounds fun!"

"Sure, if you like a side of possible death, getting abandoned in tunnels, and being unable to find anything. It doesn't look very promising to me," says Deer, the analytical of the three remaining kits (there were five when they were born but Jasper and Lily died.)

Germanium looks at Deer and says, "We'll figure something out, I'm sure of it. We've got a large territory, maybe some of it isn't affected by drought!"

Suddenly I hear a rustling in a tiny patch of grass. A rabbit pops out from a hole concealed by the grass and heads for the more lush territory of RedClan, our perpetual enemies.

"Shh!" I say to the kits, and show them how to stalk the rabbit. I jump on to it and catch it, then realise I'm one fox length over the border.

I step back and hope no difference is made.

"Wow! That's such a cool thing to do! How are you so quiet?"

I yank off some grass, having some actual fun and place it in three piles on the ground.

"What you do is you lower your body, treading slowly and lightly, claws out, and keep your tail up. When you get close, you pounce," I say, explaining the basics.

Germanium goes first. She slowly maneuvers her way across at first, her tail up, but then she starts thudding down her paws really hard. She jumps onto the grass and flips over into RedClan territory.

Again, we step back closer to our Clan and hope no difference is made.

"STINGER, YOU MORONIC TOAD!" shouts Bendy from nearby. Apparently he was watching me. He comes over to me angrily, close enough that he almost touches my nose.

"Three days," he whispers angrily. I hear some movement from RedClan, as if a spying cat was darting away.

Then Bendy storms off and I'm left in the clearing with my kits. "Pay him no mind, he's just going crazy from the drought," I whisper.

"Ha! Drought Defect!" Germanium says, obviously not realising how wrong that is.

"Why are you calling him a defect?" I ask.

"They call Cloud one all the time!"

Cloud is still hunting the grass behind us. He is imitating me from earlier nearly perfectly, except his tail is doing... something, I guess.

"He's just deaf is all!" I say, "It isn't his fault. Also he's very smart. He's social and usually gets what's going on around him. You realise he IS currently doing what we set out to do! I can't believe they would say that!"

"Neither can I," says Deer, "But they did. Also, Germanium, calling someone a defect is very rude."

"I didn't know, I just thought they were talking factually like you always do!"

"Look, let's just go. It's almost daytime and all of the prey hides during the day. I'll bring back the rabbit, you three go ahead."

I look down and see Bendy took the rabbit to claim he hunted it himself. How. Shocking.

Even later

It's the middle of daytime when I wake up to get the kits. I know it'll be hard to escape, but we have to try. It's the only way.

Cloud mews in annoyance (no particular word) when I poke him to wake him up. He yowls and I try to get him to quiet but he doesn't immediately. Then he does as soon as he sees me, which is VERY relieving. Next I try to wake up Deer. She gives me one look and says, "I knew this was bound to happen soon," which wakes up Germanium, who also mews in annoyance but I shush her and we get up, ready to leave.

We slowly pad out, except for Cloud, who I put on my back. He can't measure how much noise he's making so we often do this, and he seems to like it.

The day guards are facing outwards, so as long as we stay quiet inside of the base we'll be fine. I pad up a little rock hill, Germanium and Deer right behind me. We look out and see the forest far in the distance.

"Pretty nice," says Deer.

"Shh!" Germanium whispers.

But it is nice. We bask in the warm sun for a moment and then start our descent. This one area is fortified, but it's the least fortified and I should be able to take the one guard who can see us if he does. The problem is the steep cliff.

"Mew!" mews Cloud, but very quietly.

I climb down as carefully as I can. Germanium stumbles down, but jumps from rock to rock and ends of fine. Deer just jumps down, but I can't because Cloud is on my back.

Suddenly I feel Cloud jump off my back and onto the top of the hill again.

"No!," I whisper aggressively, but it changes nothing. Cloud meows loudly in terror, so I quickly grab him by the scruff (which is hard because he's getting heavy) and jump down the cliff. He's mewing a million mews a millisecond.

Germanium, Deer, and I dart forward, Cloud on my back again.

We come to the river, the only water source around, and also the border between us and PuddleClan. I see that we're being chased and I say, "JUMP!" and we land on a rock floating down.

"Jump again!" I shout right before it falls over a waterfall.

I feel Cloud jump off my back and into the water.

"CLOUD!" I scream. Deer gasps. Germanium stumbles onto the ground midjump.

I hear a faint mew and then silence.

OWLKIT

Recently, the rumors of the camp were around Owlkit (is that really a surprise?)

They focused on whether she wanted to be a medicine cat or a warrior, which was obvious to Owlkit but she couldn't tell them.

"Warrior!" is what she tries to say. "Figure of speech!" "Chestnut!" "Uncertainty!" "Pressured dynamics!" and more meaningless words (or phrases) came out.

So she stopped sorting things. She wouldn't go near the medicine cat den.

The day came for the three's apprentice ceremony.

Owlkit unexpectedly came first in line, as if the leader wanted to get it done with.

"Owlkit, you have- um- well, you're a peculiar case, so I modified the ceremony for you."

Owlkit held her head high above these inferior cats. Just because for some reason they didn't understand their own language didn't mean she was worse than them. She must be too elite to communicate with them. No, she was just going to try to do her best. What actually made her better? Lots of things. She was smarter, she was more observant, and deep down she felt like she could do anything. But she wasn't meant to do everything. But she wanted to. But it was wrong, the Clans needed protection. And you are you for a reason. No, there's no reason. You were just born. A kit. You aren't more. But I know I am, I sense it. YOU ARE NOT! NOW STOP ACTING OUT OF LINE, YOU'RE MESSING UP YOUR CEREMONY! I'm sure it's fine. Their ceremony isn't what matters anyway. I just need to be a strong warrior. You'll be stronger if you pay attention. Why do I need to? They don't deserve my attention. You're the side that doesn't matter. You're the original. You know, I hate saying things like this, but you make me so mad. I feel the same. You shouldn't even exist anymore. I'm aware of that and I care not. This is a mistake. No, I choose what is a mistake. I rule the world, and don't you ever change that. Well, that's a very big claim from a kit so worthless. I'm sorry, did I hear you correctly? WORTHLESS! WORTHLESS IS THE WRONGEST THING YOU COULD SAY, HEAR THAT! Neither of us even have a name. Together we are Owlkit, so how about we don't act like TYRANTS and pretend to be this kit for a while longer like we are supposed to. Do I have to tell you the prophecy? I know the prophecy. I'd prefer you tell someone else! By StarClan, how the hell would we do that!? I don't know, you seem to be drilling in the point that right now I'm some dumb kit and not what I'm destined to be. I'm done with waiting. THEN STOP WAITING! YOU ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE YOUR MENTOR FOR GOODNESS SAKE, TIME IS ABOUT TO SPEED UP SO FAST! AND WE BOTH KNOW THAT WE CAN COMPLETE OUR TRAINING FASTER THAN ANY OF THESE OTHER KITS COMBINED! That's true. Seriously, we need to get along with the goal though. StarClan can't wait forever, and this Clan could be destroyed quite easily. That's what unites us. We need StarClan. It's true I don't remember who I was, and I kind of took away your life, and all of it's opportunities. And it was needed. That's fine, this is better. You've hinted my life wouldn't have been good without you. I'd have died as a weak, little, runty, mute kitten. I'm sorry I overreacted. Me too. Just please let me have a little bit of world domination. You do realise we're going to be the leader of the Clan when we restore it? If we restore it, let's not sugarcoat this and look at the bright side, it'll make us weak. I think you might be a reincarnation too... No, there's no way.

"Well she's officially insane," declares Shadowpaw. The ceremony is over and the entire time Owlkit just stared off into space and screamed random words at herself at the top of her lungs.

"We already knew that," says Reedstar, sighing. I feel kind of like a dissapointment, as if he thought even behind Owlkit's inability to be understood she still was capable and she proved that she was out of it and didn't have real opinions. Relax, I was watching. Our mentor is Shellstream (who's that? I don't know,) and she looks like a very good match for us. Feirce, determined, and strong, yet compassionate, patient, and quiet. One of those mentors who shows you what to do and then helps you through it. How do you know what types of mentors there are? I think I was one. But I just remember leaves.