AN; Yeah, I know WindClan dig tunnels, but tunnel runners do not dig in tunnels. They merely do things like send messages through them, parol them, hunt in them, fight in them, and attack other Clans through them. They don't dig them. Here's chapter 1, enjoy.

Chapter 1

Fawnkit sat watching the four other kits sleep. She had opened her eyes three days ago, and Riverkit had offered to take her outside, but Gingerwhisker had told her to wait until two more of her siblings had opened their eyes. Waiting seemed like forever, even if it were only for a few more days.

In the back of the nursery, Riverkit rolled Lakekit to the ground, as Acornkit watched, blinking his eyes sleepily. The reddish brown kit never showed much interest in play-fighting, though when he did, Acornkit was much stronger than Lakekit and Riverkit put together. When Mistpelt told Fawnkit about ground dashers and tunnel runners, she had described the tunnel runners as cats with wide, strong shoulders and strong paws. Acornkit had both.

He stretched his legs before padding away from his siblings to look outside. Hi tail flicked, an annoyed sign with most cats, but Acornkit's tail only twitched around his father, who he seemed to love even more than his mother.

"Feathernose is here!" he called over his shoulder, his tail twitching excitedly and their father's dark gray muzzle pushed through the entrance. He pushed the rest of the way inside and watched as Riverkit and Lakekit got off of one another and sat in front of Feathernose, purring.

The dark gray tom licked each of his kits in turn, then turned, surprisingly, to Fawnkit. "Mistpelt said you'd opened your eyes," he meowed happily. "I wanted to come and see the Clan's newest members. I'm Feathernose, and I'm a ground dasher. Who are you?"

Fawnkit swallowed nervously, then lifted her chin. She was surprised to be adressed to formerly by such a respected warrior. "Fawnkit," she answered. "Those are my siblings sleeping next to Gingerwhisker. They're called Pinekit, Smallkit, Mosskit, and Copperkit. Mom says I'll have lots of fun with so many siblings, but none of them have opened their eyes yet!"

"I have." Pinekit's sleepy mew came from in between Mosskit and Copperkit. "I was awake last night, and was bored, so I decided to open them. Only nobody was awake yet, so I went back to sleep."

The little she-kit bounced excitedly. "Cool!" she said happily. "I wish Gingerwhisker would let me go outside now, but we need another cat with their eyes open."

Pinekit stretched his tiny brown tabby mouth into a yawn. "I think Smallkit has, too," he told Fawnkit. "I heard somecat talking to mother while you were off talking to Riverkit and Lakekit. It sounded like a she-kit. And Gingerwhisker did adress her as such. She called her Smallkit."

Feathernose turned away from the kits' conversation and back to his own offspring. Gingerwhisker's kits turned their heads to look at the small black and white kit, who had lifted her head and was staring at them. She blinked her eyes. Fawnkit looked into their deep amber depths and saw only kindness and determination.

"Hi, Smallkit," she meowed. "I'm Fawnkit, and this is Pinekit. We're your brother and sister."

Smallkit nodded, as if she had already known. "The sparkly black cat told me all about you," she mewed. "She says I have two other sisters as well!"

Pinekit and Fawnkit exchanged a quick glance. Sparkly black cat?

"Well, Pinekit, wake up Gingerwhisker!" Fawnkit mewed excitedly as she realized what she could be doing right now. "Tell her you and Smallkit have opened your eyes. We can go outside now!"

In the back of the nursery, Mistpelt stirred, her gray tabby fur shining like silver in the light. She looked up at the kits, amusement shining in her amber gaze. "Well, it looks like you won't have to wait much longer to be outside then, Fawnkit," the queen purred. "I'm sure Riverkit, Lakekit, and Acornkit will show you around once Feathernose has left. They were awfully eager to show you younger kits around. Now that I think about it, I was excited too when I gave my first camp tour."

Just then, Gingerwhisker sat up, her ginger and white fur ruffled from sleep. She listened kindly to Pinekit, who was jumping happily from paw-to-paw. "I suppose now it will be alright," she murmured. "But be careful! Don't get under the warriors' paws and make sure you stay away from Ravenstar! He doesn't need interupting right now."

All three kits nodded and ran after Riverkit as he jumped out of the nursery entrance. Sunlight streamed down through the pine trees, and a warm wind blew, telling the cats that newleaf was coming very soon. Everycat seemed to be occupied with cleaing out the snow from the camp. Even a frail-looking dark brown she-cat was pushing an extremely large lump of the snow out through the entrance. She looked too tired, but her breathing was steady and she wa pushing it quite quickly.

"That's Mothdrift," Lakekit told her. "She's the oldest warrior we have, but she's never weakened or gotten too slow. She's a ground dasher, so she spends most of her time running after prey through the forest."

Fawnkit nodded, hanging on to every word. The five moon old kits led her over to two large den near a hole in the wall, and Fawnkit guessed the hole was the camp entrance.

Riverkit pointed to the left den with his tail. "The ground dashers sleep in here," he meowed. Then he pointed to the other den, saying, "That's for the tunnel runners. They prefer to be underground, so their den in through that hole. I've never been down there, but Mistpelt says she went when she was an apprentice, and that it is the warmest den of all."

The younger kits stared at it in awe. Such a warm den should be for the kits and elders, but then, they would hate being underground so much!

The older kits took Fawnkit to the next den, slightly smaller than the ground dashers' den. A dark gray and black tom was sitting outside the den, grooming himself. He gave the kits a slight nod as they approached, then went back to grooming. "Welcome to the apprentice den, kits," the tom meowed. "I'm Rockypaw. And you must be Smallkit, Fawnkit and Pinekit. First time out of the nurseryy, right?"

Smallkit nodded. She looked more excited at every den than the last. Her tail twitched as Riverkit explained the apprentices' den. "All the apprentices sleep here," he meowed. "I'll be here with Lakekit and Acornkit next moon. And then we'll be apprentices!"

Fawnkit sighed. She wouldn't be an apprentice in forever. Five whole moons? That was a long time! She waved her tail goodbye to Rockypaw and followed the kits to the next den. It was a tunnel to a clearing, with a large rock inside. The rock has a hole inside it, and a brown tortoiseshell she-cat was sorting through some leaves on the floor. She looked up as the kits entered.

"Hi, Riverkit," she meowed. "And Lakekit and Acornkit, of course." Then she caught sight of the newer kittens. "This is the medicine den," the tortoiseshell told them. "I'm Maplepaw, the apprentice medicine cat. I'm apprenticed to our official medicine cat, Oakfall. We sleep in this rock. Our job is to heal cats that are sick or wounded."

Fawnkit nodded, knowing she would never, ever sleep permanently in here. Smallkit, however, seemed excited at the thought of healing. She turned to look at Riverkit. "I'm going to stay here and look around," she meowed calmly. "I'll see the rest of the camp later."

Lakekit shrugged. "Whatever you say," she meowed, turning and leading the rest of the group out of the medicine den and clearing. The next stop was an old burned up log. It was hollowed out, and three cat-shapes could be made out in the darkness of it. One of them lifted its head as they aproached.

"Kits, welcome!" it purred. "Riverkit, how is Mistpelt? Is she doing well with the new bundles in the nursery?"

Riverkit nodded happily. "Smallkit, Fawnkit, and Pinekit have already opened their eyes, and now we're showing them around the camp," he meowed. "Smallkit is talking to Maplepaw now, so she'll be here later." Then he turned to Pinekit and Fawnkit. "This is Burnwhisker. She's the youngest elder, so she remembers what it was like to be, uh, young."

Burnwhisker grunted. "Yeah, right. I couldn't remember what it was like being young if my life depended on it. I may be the youngest elder, but I've been in here for three seasons already. However, I do remember tunnel running. Why, there was this one time where Stonedrift, he was my apprentice then, and I were going through the new tunnel WindClan had dug, since they had been our allies. It was a dark tunnel. I could see perfectly, as all tunnel runners could, but Stonepaw was having trouble, since he'd never been through tunnels this deep before. He crashed right into a pair of young WindClan tunnel runners, Snakebite and Rabbitpaw. They told us to run as fast as we could. The tunnel was collapsing! So We turned tail and ran, and sure enough we came out onto RiverClan territory. Right next to the river! We were still running, and we splashed right in. Oh, Fogstar was so angry, he thought we were attacking. Never heard so much hissing in my life from a tom. Well, we never went into those tunnels again, or tried to build more. Ask Stonedrift about it, and to this day he shakes his fur out as if it were still wet."

Fawnkit stared at the she-cat, amazed. Did all tunnel runners have cool stories like that to share to the Clan when they got old? She hoped so. Maybe the other two elders had tunnel runner stories, too!

The older kits laughed. "Burnwhisker, you should get some better stories," Acornkit meowed. "I hope I get some cool stories when I'm a warrior."

Burnwhisker chuckled happily. "Well, now, you'll all get stories like that if you just train hard and be the best warrior you can be. You should ask Stumpyfoot about the time he got stuck on the same branch as the old wasp's nest. It'll make you laugh harder than you've ever laughed before."

Fawnkit nodded, hoping Stumpfoot would tell hr now, but Riverkit pushed her away again, bidding goodbye to Burnwhisker. Now they were in front of a tree with a large cave under its roots. A black she-cat was sitting inside. "That's Ravenstar," Acornkit whispered. "We shouldn't bother her. She looks busy. You'll meet her later, at your first Clan meeting."

Ravenstar suddenly looked up at the kits, mewed hello, then went back to her work. Wow, Fawnkit thought. I just got a hello from Ravenstar, the Clan leader! I wonder... is she a ground dasher or a tunnel runner?

Just then, she heard her voice being called from the nursery. Fawnkit turned to look to se Smallkit sittiing next to Gingerwhisker by the den. Pinekit waved goodbye to the older kits with his tail, and they ran for thei mother.

"We saw the whole camp!" Pinekit squeaked exctiedly. "I can't wait for tomorrow."

Suddenly, a cry came from the camp entrance as a pale gray tom led a battle-scarred patrol into camp. "Stonedrift!" Gingerwhisker ran to the gray tom and rubbed against him. He was breathing heavily, but seemed comforted that his mate was with him now.

Ravenstar padded coolly from her den and gazed calmly at Stonedrift.

He took a deep breath before reporting to her. "ThunderClan are stealing are prey. And they killed Pricklethorn!"

AN; Hope you all liked this chapter. Pricklethorn is just another tunnel runner. ThunderClan killed her because they needed to steal the prey. Well, I'll update later. Until then, peace! And happy Lithuanian Monday!

~GreeceXCats527

(Don't forget to submit your character as a kit! I'm really looking forward to using them. Send in as many as you'd like, but I may end up having them die, or changing their personality a bit to bend with the story)