Hi Birdfeather here, and this is the first official chapter of "Try Again" Thank you everyone for your amazing OCs, I tried to introduce them if I could, in this chapter!
Chapter 1
Maplekit blinked, she looked at the nursery. Have I been here before? Well of course, she was in it right now. She was the first to open her eyes of her siblings. She couldn't wait for them to open their eyes! She walked over to the silver tabby she-cat and started prodding her with one paw.
"Wake up!" she hissed. Her mother gently moved her away from the sleeping kit with her tail.
"Featherkit will wake up when she's ready dear," purred Birdwing.
"But I want to play!" she meowed circling the nursery.
"Well I assume Featherkit or Hailkit will wake up soon," Birdwing meowed.
"But-"
"Why don't you go get the mossball and I'll throw it to you?" Birdwing suggested.
"Mossball?" Maplekit asked.
"Oh right! You don't know what that is!" Birdwing laughed to herself. Maplekit waited for Birdwing to tell her what a mossball was. "The mossball is the round piece of green stuff over there," she purred. Maplekit ran over to the mossball, but she tripped on a twig. She fell on top of a ginger tom who hissed and shrugged her off.
"Watch it!" he growled.
"Sorry," Maplekit mewed sarcastically.
"You should be, what's your name anyway?" grunted the tom. When he locked eyes with her she was sure she had known him before. But when? "Adder got your tongue?" hissed the tom.
"No, I'm Maplekit. And who are you?" Maplekit hissed.
"I'm Applekit!" he meowed proudly. Applekit… why does that seem so weird? Maplekit wondered.
"Can you pass me the mossball?" Maplekit asked, trying to hold back her anger.
"Only if you can take it from me!" growled Applekit.
"Maplekit! Are you Maplekit?" a silver tabby she-cat asked.
"Yes, you're Featherkit aren't you?" she asked. The silver tabby nodded.
"Well, Featherkit, this old badger stole our mossball! We have to get it back!" Maplekit yowled, she expected her sister's face to light up with playful energy but instead she looked confused.
"What's a badger?" Featherkit asked.
"A badger is a huge black and white striped creature who eats cats and ravages territory!" Applekit chimed in. Featherkit nodded and smiled at Applekit, but Maplekit wondered why he knew what it was, why she knew what it was. Maplekit shook it off and dropped into a stalking position her eyes narrowed in on Applekit. She pounced on Applekit and held him down while Featherkit ran for the mossball.
"Got it!" she meowed proudly. Maplekit got off Applekit who shook himself and licked his fluffy fur.
"I hate you," he growled playfully and sprang at her. As they rolled together, Poppykit, Applekit's sister joined in. All Maplekit wanted to see was Applekit's face…. In pain and humiliation. As the kits played Fierypelt came to visit Birdwing.
"Hello my sweet, I thought you said there were four kits?" he meowed looking at Hailkit and Leafkit who were still asleep.
"You have two kits," she gestured to Leafkit and Hailkit, "and two warriors," she finished gesturing to Maplekit and Featherkit.
"I see," remarked Fierypelt.
"Maplekit! Featherkit!" called Birdwing, "come meet your father!" As the two kits scrambled over to Fierypelt a name flashed in her mind, Firestar! She hated Firestar! Where did that come from? Maplekit realized she had said at least "Firestar" out loud.
"No Maplekit, Fierypelt, I'll only be Fierystar when Ripplestar dies, which hopefully won't happen anytime soon," Fierypelt meowed. Why don't you want to be leader? wondered Maplekit.
"Have you taken them outside yet, Birdwing?" asked Fierypelt.
"No, and I don't plan to until Leafkit and Hailkit wake up," Birdwing meowed firmly. As if on cue, Hailkit stirred and blinked open his blue eyes.
"He's awake now can we go outside?" whined Featherkit voicing Maplekit's thoughts. She wanted to go outside! And see the River and the apprentice den and the ThunderClan border and… wait, how did she know what ThunderClan was. She forced her doubts aside, she just wanted to go outside!
"Hi," she meowed to Hailkit.
"Maplekit?" he asked.
"Yes?" she mewed happily.
"Welcome to RiverClan Hailkit," purred Birdwing.
"I'm Featherkit!" Featherkit squeaked. Hailkit just nodded. "Let's play!" encouraged Featherkit, her silver tabby fur standing on end with excitement. Maplekit felt a surge of excitement, now they had a real game!
"Hailkit might be tired," warned Fierypelt.
"But I wanted to play as soon as I woke up!" protested Maplekit.
"But Hailkit's smaller than you," pointed out Fierypelt.
"And I want to know about RiverClan!" meowed Hailkit. Maplekit sighed, she could disturb Applekit…. yes that would be fun. She snuck up on him coming up from behind….
"I'M A THUNDERCLAN WARRIOR THIS IS AN INVASION!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. Applekit got up and ran.
"Goldenfur! ThunderClan warriors! Here!" he yowled.
"There are no ThunderClan warriors here fish-brain," meowed Poppykit laughing, she grinned at Maplekit.
"Oh well I knew that…" protested Applekit looking at his paws.
"Sure you did…" laughed Maplekit. Applekit glared at her.
"It was you wasn't it?" he asked scowling.
"No of course not! It was a ThunderClan warrior!" said Maplekit sarcastically.
"You fell for it!" purred Featherkit.
"Maplekit!" called Birdwing sternly.
"What?" asked Maplekit padding over.
"That was very mean of you to do that to Applekit!" scolded Birdwing. Maplekit supposed that was true, but she didn't regret it, she didn't regret anything. Nothing at all. But Birdwing didn't need to know that, and she wouldn't do it to anyone except for Applekit. So she meant what she said next.
"I'm sorry Birdwing, I won't do it again," Maplekit meowed.
"You're forgiven my precious kit," purred Birdwing. Just then an apprentice walked into the room and tripped. She had a golden-white pelt and blueish-amber eyes.
"Ha! Ha! I knew I'd beat Darkpaw!" she boasted after standing back up.
"Hello Lightpaw," meowed Birdwing calmly. She's so big! Thought Maplekit staring at the tall apprentice.
"I brought you the best fish in the entire lake! The one I caught, and Darkpaw missed," meowed Lightpaw puffing her chest.
"Lightpaw, last I checked Darkpaw beat you in a fight and caught two more fish than you yesterday, Flamewing told me when he came to visit Goldenfur and her kits," Birdwing remarked. Why does Birdwing dislike Lightpaw? wondered Maplekit.
"It's only because I have RiverClan's worst warrior as my mentor! I have Halfwing! She used to be a rogue! Ugh! I'm far more skilled than Darkpaw!" Lightpaw grumbled.
"Who's Darkpaw?" asked Maplekit.
"Darkpaw is my fish-brained sister, and I'm not surprised you don't know who she is," scoffed Lightpaw.
"This kit only woke up today, she didn't know who her siblings were until today," hissed Birdwing. After that Darkpaw finally arrived.
"Hi Birdwing," she meowed, her black pelt ruffled in the rush to get to the nursery.
"Hello Darkpaw," Birdwing meowed pleasantly.
"Get behind me!" grunted Lightpaw.
"Did Lightpaw already give you her fish?" asked Darkpaw.
"Yes Darkpaw, and Sunpaw gave Goldenfur one, but I'm sure Snowclaw or Pinenose hasn't been fed yet," meowed Birdwing. Darkpaw nodded and turned to Maplekit. Maplekit looked at Darkpaw and the two made eye contact. She could feel Darkpaw assessing her, as if she was a good kit or nod. Than Darkpaw nodded and smiled pleasantly at her.
"You have beautiful kits Birdwing," she commented. Looking at Hailkit who was listening to Fierypelt tell about great RiverClan leaders and Featherkit who had finished a rally of Mossball with Seedkit, who had just woken up. As she gazed at Leafkit, Leafkit seemed to sense she was being looked at, and blinked open her green eyes. She shrank timidly away from Darkpaw and Lightpaw, obviously frightened.
"Welcome to RiverClan Leafkit," purred Birdwing. Hailkit came bounding over.
"RiverClan is awesome! I learned about River Ripple, and Mistystar and learned about the river!" Hailkit meowed happily.
"Hi," Leafkit said shyly.
"Hi Leafkit, you opened your eyes!" purred Hailkit, "just wait until you hear about RiverClan! We're in the best clan ever!" Lightpaw grumbled something about 'boring' and left. Darkpaw soon left also, and Fierypelt went to organize patrols.
"As soon as Leafkit's ready you can go outside," purred Birdwing.
"Are you ready Leafkit?" asked Maplekit hopefully. Leafkit got up and shook herself.
"Yes!" she purred. Birdwing led them outside. Maplekit smirked at Applekit, who had to wait, because Goldenfur insisted that Seedkit 'get used to the nursery' first. Maplekit was in awe at how huge the camp was, she thought the nursery was big! As she walked around she saw warriors look down and smile at her. They began talking about how seven kits had been born in the same night. Applekit and I must have been born on the same day, Maplekit thought. The last cat she saw was a black tom with amber eyes and a long black tail. He introduced himself as Ripplestar and Maplekit wondered what it would be like to be leader. When they returned to the nursery Maplekit found Applekit, Poppykit and Seedkit had just gone out. Nothing eventful really happened that day. Maplekit and Leafkit beat Featherkit and Hailkit in a game of mossball, and they met Moonpaw, she was nice and polite, but demolished them all at mossball. It was dark when Maplekit finally felt tired, and Birdwing insisted she rest. She listened to the sounds of the night, the running river, the heavy breathing of the other cats. She felt happy she was in RiverClan, and finally fell asleep.
Fairly slow chapter, mainly used for introducing characters, and developing Maplekit's personality and her relationship with Applekit. Yep, she has positively no idea who she is, but she definitely notices something's different about her! Next chapter will hopefully be more interesting!- Birdfeather
