A/N : So...been awhile, hasn't it? Yah...sorry about that. I could promise to give more regular updates, but I can't, 'cause I'm rude and horrible like that. If you've forgotten the first part, maybe have a little look back xD Anyway, I hope you enjoy the further adventures of Swiftkit and RiverClan. As always, reviews are appreciated, and if you spot anything wrong, just let me know
"Is it worth risking our lives yet again for these rocks?" - - - Crookedstar's Promise
She woke slowly, feeling the light filter onto her eyes, penetrating through the eyelids and making her squirm uncomfortably. Blearily she blinked, squinting as she peered out through the fur that covered her face. She wiggled a little, feeling like the weight of the world was on top of her, so tired that she could hardly move. Was this the effect of being awake in the middle of the night? Swiftkit already disliked it, and tried to think of how she would be able to get out of hunting at night once she was a warrior. When she became an apprentice, she was going to have to have a serious talk with her mentor on the importance of sleep, and the weighted feeling that went with sleeplessness.
"Wha-?"
Swiftkit flinched at the sound, twisting her head sharply around to her back. Cottonkit blinked back at her, his body a dead weight on top of her. Well, at least that explained one thing about the morning.
"Get off, you overgrown furball," she snapped, heaving upwards, panting with the exertion. The white kit rolled away into an empty section of the nest, and the she-cat realised that their mother was no longer with them.
"Why is it cold?"
She tilted her head at the mumbled voice of the kit in the corner, lying belly up with paws batting at imaginary mice. Lionkit kept his eyes squeezed shut as a yawn escaped him, tiny teeth bared at the ceiling. "It's cold because it's early, and Mother's gone," Swiftkit explained, stumbling to her paws and padding over to prod the smallest kit of the group. "Rosekit, wake up, we have to go say goodbye to the warriors."
It wasn't just that she wanted to say goodbye to them, knowing that at least a few of them would return swathed in cobwebs to stop bleeding cuts. Swiftkit longed to be caught up in the excitement and anticipation that went with the whole event. Even as she poked her sister sharply, she could feel the butterflies in her stomach, fluttering about. It was like she was heading into battle, a keen warrior, fearless with courage in her heart.
She was, in her head, Runningstar. She just wasn't as mousebrained as Lionkit to think that she could go running into battle. Should she tell their mother what she thought he was planning? She stopped prodding Rosekit as the female blinked sleepily awake, and disregarded the idea completely. She owed him one for the previous night; it would be a poor favour to rat him out to a bigger cat just because she was worried about him. No, she would do what she had decided to do while falling asleep; simply save him from himself.
She just hoped she wouldn't have to knock him out or something.
"Come on, Rosekit, move it! And be quiet," she mrrowed, hissing the last words to the other three. They were not welcome to Clan meetings, and Ashfeather was a stickler for that rule – although, Swiftkit knew that Runningstar had spotted her on more than one occasion, and had said nothing to Whitetail.
Of course, they weren't quiet. They were kits after all, and clumsy ones at that. Cottonkit clambered over Rosekit and lost his footing on her smooth fur, tumbling out of the nest and crashing into Swiftkit's rear. The she-cat flicked her tail at him in response, hitting him square on the nose, which caused a meow of protest to emerge from the white tom. Lionkit, fully taking the 'be quiet' command seriously, lifted his paw to bat his brother on the muzzle, promptly cutting off the sound. Rosekit pushed her way through the two brothers, her tiny frame barely brushing against their fur on the way.
"I should go first. I'm the littlest."
"Yeah but you'll tell everyone that we're watching, Rosekit. I should go."
"Don't be such a fish head. He's too clumsy. Let me go," Lionkit mumbled as they reached the entrance to the nursery, not quite touching the wall to avoid receiving pokes from the sturdy sedge that made up the bulk of a wall. "Well, I'm not missing out on this, and we're wasting time deciding. Why don't we all just poke our heads out and be really quiet?" Swiftkit meowed, determined that at least that way she would get to see what was going on, "we can think of it as practice for stealth!"
The siblings could at least agree on that, and cautiously inched forward, dropping to their stomachs to creep out of the hole in the wall, their eyes squinting as the filter of the roof was removed and they felt the full blast of sun on their faces. Swiftkit adjusted quickly, her eyes darting straight for the willow tree that held the leader's den in the roots, but also provided a good vantage point for Runningstar to address his Clan. He was standing on the gnarled tree already, meowing at the cats around him in clear tones.
"I can't see," Rosekit hissed, wiggling out of her position between Cottonkit and Swiftkit, and climbing on top of Lionkit's back, being the largest of the three. She nestled into lightly spotted fur, her nose poking out between the tom's ears. "That's better," she meowed happily.
"Shut up, you mousebrain, I can't hear with your yowling," Lionkit grumbled, though he didn't try and detach her from his back. Swiftkit ignored the two, focusing on Runningstar's words. His voice rose and fell with the wind, almost lyrically, and she missed some of the things he was saying. She knew what he was talking about anyway; ThunderClan had, to their obvious folly, decided once again to breach the borders of the territory, and claim Sunningrocks. Her noble and inspiring leader was not about to let that go unchallenged, especially with the Gathering approaching, when niceties were expected.
'How could his Clan be courteous to ones that had stolen their land?'
The kit was startled out of thinking as she realised that her exact line of thought was being spoken by the green-eyed tom. Could he see inside her head? She knew that the StarClan cats could, if they were looking at her at that particular moment, but could a living, breathing tom cat see them too? Swiftkit took a sharp intake of breath, her head spinning for a heartbeat at the sudden burst of air. She would never be able to think that he was a smelly old tom if she was angry!
Oh great StarClan, she had just called him a smelly old tom – twice! She shrank down closer to the ground, her eyes fixed on the cat that had no doubt heard her thoughts, and would probably make her remove ticks from the elders every dusk from the start of her apprenticeship until she became a warrior. All for calling him a smelly cat.
'He isn't even smelly,' Swiftkit thought desperately, 'he keeps his coat very clean. He is a lovely tomcat. He is not old either.'
Her mind went blank as she caught another cat glancing in their direction, from the corner of her eye. Dreamstorm was half gaping at the little kits, remembering to close her jaws after a few blinks, and turning back to listen to Runningstar once more. Swiftkit let out the breath she was holding, her body protesting slightly at the irregularity of her breathing. The leader had yet to call her out on her insulting thoughts. Perhaps he hadn't been listening in to her mind anymore.
"Gorseclaw, Rapidtail, you will remain behind and guard the camp – Lilypaw, you will stay behind too," Runningstar meowed, continuing with his speech. Swiftkit noticed the apprentice's shoulders sag with disappointment, and watched the tortoiseshell Rapidtail nudge his apprentice in a small gesture of comfort. "ThunderClan thinks that they are better than us, that they are stronger than us – but they are wrong. We'll show those tree huggers what it really means to fear the RIVER!"
The last word was a roaring yowl, and brought with it a chorus of meows and cries of encouragement. There would be no stealth in this operation; the RiverClan cats would be waiting for their foe's dawn patrol, and claim back what was always theirs.
Swiftkit's heart rose with Runningstar's words, and she felt a passion take hold of her; his words made her want to join the cats that were moving through the exit of the camp. "Hurry!" Lionkit meowed, springing to his paws. Rosekit, startled by the sudden movement, was bowled backward into the nursery, head over paws, the dry dirt marring her coat immediately.
"Lionkit, you stupid mousebrain!" she yowled, picking herself back up onto her paws, threatening to wail for their mother and wake the sleeping Brightkit in the other nest. "We'll have a good view by the shore line of the nursery," Lionkit answered, flicking his tail at the idiocy of his siblings for not thinking of that before him. Swiftkit nodded rapidly, seeing the sense. If they didn't hurry, not only would they miss the warriors reaching the opposite banks, they would also have to face their mother's disapproval of listening in to matters that didn't concern them.
The bank of the nursery was well protected with walls and reeds, but in a few areas it had worn away slightly, small holes opening up for a view of the river. They were small enough for kits, but now was not the time to be scrambling through the wall, and so Swiftkit bounded past their nest to the worn area at the ground, dropping to her belly and crawling forward until her nose brushed underneath the twigs. It wasn't large enough for her whole body to get through, but at least she had a clear picture of the cats leaving.
"I wish I was going," Lionkit whispered beside her, his mismatched eyes wide open with awe at the sight of the crossing cats. The long fur of the majority wafted out beside them, acting as a buoyancy as the water flowed languidly about it. Oakblaze, with her short hair, seemed oddly out of place among the RiverClan cats, although to any other Clan, that would be the norm.
"Look, there's Ashfeather!" Cottonkit whispered excitedly in Swiftkit's other ear, the appendage swivelling towards him at the sound. "There – with Toadheart!" Her eyes darted around the water, spotting the two torn-eared tom cats, her heart beating rapidly with anticipation. "I wish I was there too, Lionkit," he continued, stifling a yawn.
Swiftkit saw Runningstar reach the other side of the bank first, his claws digging into the wet ground and dragging himself away from the stubborn current that was caused by the earlier gorge waterfall. Right at his tail was Dreamstorm, shaking her pelt as soon as she was entirely out of the water, the fur quickly falling slick against her sides. The other warriors emerged from the water, skulking low to the ground, unable to resist the idea of a stealth battle until they reached the rocks.
"Rosekit! Lionkit! Swiftkit! Cottonkit! What in StarClan's name do you think you are doing?"
Swiftkit jumped at the sound of the yowl, her nose jerking upwards and slicing against the reed wall, reinforced with sparkling shells and bits of stone. "Ouch!" she wailed, her tail lashing from side to side at the shock of the pain, "Mot-HER!"
Whitetail crossed to her kit in a heartbeat, her head bending down to nudge the area she had hit. "Oh Swiftkit, you're okay. You're not even bleeding," she meowed, rubbing her cheek against the young she-cat, "You kits shouldn't be ruining the nursery wall. The warriors work hard to keep it safe for you, and sticking your noses where they don't belong will just cause you to repair it when you're apprentices." Swiftkit meowed, unable to form intelligible syllables, too focused on the throbbing sensation on her nose to concentrate on words. "Come along to the elders, and leave Brightkit to sleep."
"All she ever does is sleep," Cottonkit grumbled as he fell into step with Swiftkit, "I wish I could go back to sleep."
"Shut up, fish-head, you sleep more than all of us put together," she snapped back, still wincing from her battle with the stony reeds.
"Hey, do not! You kept me awake all night because of the mud monster you know." Cottonkit turned his head away, stung by her words. The two fell silent, and Swiftkit wondered if she should apologise, or just forget about and hope it would go away. She decided on the latter option, if only because that was the road she usually travelled, and told herself that the elders' stories would make Cottonkit forget it too.
Pushing through the tangle of reeds that separated the den from the main camp, Rosekit bounded past Whitetail to the oldest cat in the Clan, touching noses affectionately with Berryfall. Swiftkit followed at a more subdued pace, falling behind Cottonkit as he padded to the other white kitten, plonking himself down unceremoniously before Berryfall, his eyes unable to not stare as she shuffled about to make room, her whole left side sagging downwards with each pawstep. "Cottonkit," Whitetail hissed as she noticed his behaviour, "Don't be rude."
"Not to worry Whitetail; at least part of my body is taking my warrior name seriously," the old queen chuckled as she fell heavily into a sitting position, her tail curling around her left side protectively. "Willowbreeze, the warriors have left already; why are you waiting? Are you guarding us? Are you protecting us from the ThunderClan tree-huggers?" Rosekit turned her head towards the tom in the corner, cocking her head to the side as she stared at him.
Swiftkit struggled not to pounce on her sister for being so empty-headed and forgetful, moving away from her mother to approach the tom cat instead, her eyes curious; she wanted to hear what he had to say for himself. Would he say anything? Would he snap, or be kind to a kit's obvious mousebrains? Willowbreeze turned his head and gazed down at the spotty she-cat, and as always, she struggled and successfully kept horror out of her face – no easy feat for a kitten, she thought smugly – as the ragged remains of Willowbreeze's face took her in fully.
No. He would not be protecting them. He could not even protect himself in his state.
"Willowbreeze is going to protect us from the mud monster, Rosekit," Swiftkit meowed, eyes lighting up as she noted his demeanour soften at her words. She clambered to his side, stretching her neck up to rub her cheek against his own ravaged one. It wasn't the tom's fault that his face was torn and broken. He had earned the injury in a border scuffle with WindClan a moon previous, along with a damaged shoulder, and it had yet to heal properly. Swiftkit hoped she would never have to go through that sort of wound when she was a warrior. Her siblings couldn't look past it when they spoke to Willowbreeze. Would they do the same to her if she was so disfigured?
"Yesss, exhachly what she shaid," the tom mumbled, his words slurring as his jaw tried to work as painlessly as possible. He fell silent, and Swiftkit sat down beside him in the corner, managing to stay silent as Rosekit began to ask the old she-cat for battle stories. She saw Berryfall glance in Willowbreeze's direction, the back of her neck bristling with concern for the young tom, before tilting her head down to Rosekit.
"Why don't I tell you about a very brave warrior who single pawed won Sunningrocks for RiverClan?" Berryfall meowed, "His name was Mudfur, and he was one of the strongest warriors who was ever seen by the four Clans, since the Ancients roamed the forest. Mudfur was plagued with misfortune, but he was a good, loyal Clanmate who knew right from wrong. His mate and nearly all of his kits died, and only one remained. When this happened, he grew weary of bloodshed, and skirmishes. Some cats thought he had gone soft; and then came the time when RiverClan tried to take Sunningrocks back from ThunderClan, and reclaim what is ours."
Berryfall paused for effect. The old she-cat was an excellent story teller, and even Swiftkit, who had heard the story before, leaned in in excitement. "But before any battle could be fought – and cats could have died – Mudfur said that no more blood should be spilled, and he would duel a ThunderClan cat – Adderfang. The ThunderClan tom thought that he could win easily, and Mudfur was covered in blood during the ferocious duel, but eventually, RiverClan's traits won out, and our warrior pinned the tom like a trout beneath his paws!"
Cottonkit made an appropriate gasp, and Rosekit gaped up at the elder. Swiftkit was wide-eyed in the corner, waiting on baited breath for the final part of the story. "Mudfur decided that his paws were better healing lives than breaking them, and became a medicine cat – and do you know who that little kit that survived was?"
"Who?" breathed Cottonkit, his fur bristling with excitement, tail high in the air.
"One of our greatest, and most noble leader, Leopardstar."
Swiftkit thought that was her favourite bit in the whole story, when Leopardstar was mentioned, her idol long dead. Rosekit and Cottonkit meowed in thanks at the she-cat, dropping to a crouch beside each other. "You think you can defeat me, Adderfang?" Cottonkit meowed at her, his rump wiggling high in the air as he pounced on top of her. "You have fish-breath, Mudfur!" Rosekit huffed out in response, pinned by the larger kitten.
Swiftkit was about to join them, her claws digging into the dirt, when she cocked her head to the side, her ear rotating around the den. Whitetail was meowing something to Mudfoot, the only other elder in the den, and Berryfall was watching her siblings' with an amused expression, but not all of her siblings. She twisted her head from side to side. Where was Lionkit?
She inhaled deeply, breathing in his scent, smelling it strongest at the entrance. He had slipped out during the story, she was sure. She glanced at her mother, back turned and no longer paying attention to her offspring, and Swiftkit's eyes narrowed. No way was Lionkit going on some adventure without her!
Darting her gaze to Willowbreeze, who had closed his eyes during the tale and forgotten to reopen them, Swiftkit lived up to her name and sprang away from the den as quietly as possible, nose in the air to smell her brother. He wasn't very good at this sneaking around business, the kit mused as she followed, her paws light on the ground, retracing her route back to the nursery. Entering as stealthily as she could manage – which wasn't very stealthy at all – she cast an eye at Firepelt's nest, noting the queen's absence and Brightkit still fast asleep, twitching a little in some dream of StarClan's.
She knew where Lionkit was going now.
Reaching the holes of worn wall, she selected the lowest one to the ground that was big enough for her to get through, clawing her way up the side and pulling herself through. For one, heart-stopping moment, she thought she had gotten stuck at her shoulders, and started to panic, her jaws opening to emit a frightened squeak. The movement however, twisted her slightly, and she slid the rest of the way through with surprising ease.
Her brother sat in the mud on the bank, transfixed at the scene that was unfolding across the river. "Look, Swiftkit," he whispered, his eyes never moving to observe her, "Don't you wish you were there?" Swiftkit wasn't sure she did wish that, remaining standing as she reached Lionkit and viewed the scenes. She knew why they had been moved to the elders' den now, the furthest from the bank that overlooked Sunningrocks. Not only had the kits a view of different cats crashing together in a melee of claws, she could hear them.
She could hear the yowls of her Clanmates across the river, and some were more than just battle cries. She could hear their pain. "It's scary," she whispered to Lionkit, her heart seeming to skip beats. She was feeling the way she had the previous night, while contemplating her death by the monster of the river.
She was feeling frightened.
She caught a glimpse of a cat careening into the water, away from the fight, and recognised it as Sedgefoot, the grey she-cat swimming strongly away from the bank and meeting the medicine cat on the RiverClan shore. Swiftkit couldn't see who was who on the opposite bank. Was RiverClan losing? She couldn't even count the amount of cats present. Her eyes widened at two cats locked in a furious tussle, rolling into the mud directly across from the kits.
"Pow! Get him with your claws! Bite the shoulder!" Lionkit still had his voice at a whisper, but the excitement was clear as he craned his neck forward.
The two cats yowled, claws raking across each other, blood splattering onto the ground and coating the fur until it was difficult to know what colour each was. One reared backwards as the other scrabbled front and hind paws at the sensitive underbelly area, and yowled, high-pitched and screeching with pain. It toppled back, dropping onto the muddy bank heavily and laying still. The other cat spun back around and leaped back into the fray.
"Oh StarClan," Swiftkit whispered, unable to take her eyes off the bleeding cat. She couldn't even tell who it was, with bits of fur clumped out. Was this how battles always went? She could hear the cat giving a low meow of pain, even above the clamour of the fight, and the butterflies that danced in her stomach flip-flopped around at the sound.
It seemed to take an age before a loud yowl sounded on the top of the largest boulder in the clearing. Swiftkit tore her eyes from the fallen cat on the bank to see Runningstar, framed by the dawn light, victorious. "RiverClan…won?" Lionkit tilted his head to view his sister, realisation dawning on his features, "RiverClan…won!" He jumped to his paws, batting Swiftkit with a mud soaked front, and then spun around towards the hole they had so illicitly escaped through. He scrambled back into the nursery, rushing to get back to Whitetail before the disappearance was noted.
Swiftkit hesitated on the bank, worried that the fallen cat that continued to moan would be forgotten. Her paws shuffled as she observed the river, wondering if she was strong enough to cross the river yet. She could tell Runningstar about the injured cat. He would be able to help it. She took a small step toward the water, then froze as the RiverClan warriors spilled back onto the bank, ready to return home. Only a couple would remain to mark the borders. Runningstar padded down to the fallen cat, nudging its head gently. He glanced up.
Swiftkit felt her heart stop as she came into his line of vision, one paw raised in the air, frozen in mid-step. He turned away to speak with a cat Swiftkit thought was Fernwhisker, and she unfroze, squeaking with the fear of getting caught. She whirled around and followed Lionkit, her paws falling into his own imprints exactly. She leaped through the hole, twisting and contorting to slide into the nursery without the earlier struggle. Landing in a heap, she picked herself up, shrinking into the shadow of the nest as Firepelt loped into the nursery towards Brightkit.
Once the queen's back was turned, Swiftkit streaked through the entrance and across the main camp, rewarded with a surprised look from Mistypaw, Silverfur's apprentice, carrying a selection of cobwebs in preparation for the return of the warriors. "Waking up Brightkit," Swiftkit lied and garbled quickly as she raced back to her siblings.
"They're back! They're back!"
Lilypaw entered the den a tail-length behind Swiftkit, but the time difference was long enough for the kitten to slide to a stop beside Willowbreeze, trying to be discreet about her panting. Lionkit, who Swiftkit eyed darkly for his uncanny ability to not get caught by their mother, sprang forward and pushed his way out into the clearing, this time with permission. Swiftkit followed beside Willowbreeze, who still hobbled on his mangled shoulder, his head cast downwards to hide his injury. He still had his eye, which he could be grateful for, but Swiftkit guessed he was embarrassed at how his wounds hindered him.
The returning party seemed to lack the vibrancy Swiftkit expected. Fernwhisker and Runningstar were behind Ashfeather, walking smoothly to avoid jarring their package. Silverfur bounded away from Sedgefoot as soon as she spotted them, meowing at Mistypaw to treat cuts on the warriors that weren't serious. Swiftkit took a sharp intake of breath as the two carriers set the cat down between them. Since she had left the bank, the bleeding cat had grown silent. Swiftkit couldn't even see her side move anymore. From the crowd of cats that had stayed behind, Rapidtail pushed through, jostling others in the process. He took a shuddering step as he saw the blood-soaked she-cat, and his jaws opened in a wail of grief.
"Rippleberry! NOOO!"
