Covekit's ears perked at a strange, new sound. Something was rushing past, going by with a soothing sort of sound.
"Do you guys hear that?" she asked. The other two kits perked their ears, then nodded their heads. "Let's check it out." They nodded again. They were lost anyway, what was the harm? They'd all silently agreed that some warriors would find them at some point.
Covekit led the way towards the sound. The wheat and heather stopped abruptly, and they were met with a river. Water passed by with a strong current, as well as a new scent. Vixenkit scrunched up her nose.
"What's that stench?" she asked.
Covekit sniffed. "It's not that bad," she meowed.
"It's pretty bad," Whitekit put in.
"I bet DustClan is worse," Covekit took a step forward, much to her littermates dismay, but she didn't bother listening to their complaints. This river, she was actually interested in. The View was amazing, but she had seen how in awe her littermates were of the territory itself. That was how she felt about the river in front of her. She stopped at the edge and gave a tail wave to her littermates as she crouched down, looking at her shaky reflection in the water.
"It is not alright, Covekit!" Vixenkit hissed.
"You're on FogClan territory!" Whitekit added.
"When kitnapping is a very common thing!"
"And it was fine on our territory?" Covekit asked, still looking on the water.
"Yes!" they both chorused.
Covekit sighed. "I'm right next to the border, I'm fi-" she felt the soft ground from under her fall, and she slipped into the strong current. She rolled over in the water, her belly facing Silverpelt, not realising what had happened for a few heartbeats and just enjoying the feeling of cool water in her fur and watching the river bank go by.
Then, she just had to think: How do I breathe under here? She thrashed around, trying to get to air. Her head broke the surface. "He-" she began to yowl, but was cut off as she was taken under again. She turned on her back, trying to get her muzzle above the water as her lungs screamed for air. When she broke the surface again, she took a deep breath, but it ended with water filling her lungs and coughs shaking her body as she got dragged under the surface again. She watched as bubbles left her mouth and rose to the surface.
I'm going to die. She thought. I'll never be an apprentice, I'll never be a warrior, I'll never see anyone from ViewClan again, I'm going to StarClan.
She did another flip in the water, her lungs still screaming. Her legs kicked weakly, but there was no chance that she was being saved now, she knew.
Or… not. She felt teeth dig into her scruff and her body lift out of the water, but the water wasn't magically relieved from her lungs. She started to panic, but she was too tired to move. Her body felt heavy with the water clinging to her fur. She felt herself get set on the ground, and paws press at her stomach. Water spilled out of her mouth and onto soft grass, and she took deep lungfuls of air- so deep that she started coughing.
"The poor kit," a voice meowed. "How scared do you think she was?"
"Very?" another voice suggested. "She's a ViewClan kit who had probably never even seen water before now."
"Well, I guess that'll change," the first voice meowed. "Stemwing, let's take her to see Rainflight."
She heard a hum above her as she got picked up by her scruff again. The cat padded forward, making Covekit thud against their chest.
"She's so young, Wolfspirit," the second voice meowed.
"Yeah," The first voice, Wolfspirit, agreed. "She's, what, two or three moons? And to think, she'll…" Covekit stopped listening as she started shivering, the water in her fur and the cool air chilling her.
"We need to hurry up," the cat holding her, Stemwing, meowed around her scruff, quickening his pace to a run. Covekit swung back and forth in his jaws. She was convinced that her fur was going to freeze. She saw light in front of her closed eyelids. She lost track of the time before the cats slowed down, the scents of cats drenched in FogClan scent filling her nose. Stemwing brought her into a place that had no light, and was filled with the smell of herbs, then set her down gently.
"Rainflight?" Wolfspirit called. She heard a cat pad towards the group from farther in the den. The cats that had brought Covekit to the FogClan camp didn't need to speak before Rainflight set to work. She felt her fur being licked the wrong way. She would have complained in she had the energy to. After a few heartbeats, she started feeling warm.
"Can you open your eyes for me?" the tom asked her between licks. Covekit let out a soft noise of complaint before she opened her dark blue eyes.
Rainflight was a blue-gray tom with kind, hazel eyes. Stemwing was a pure white tom with cold, green eyes. He sort of reminded Covekit of a grown-up version of Whitekit. Wolfspirit was a brown and white tabby she-cat with orange eyes, and the last cat was a dark brown tom with blue eyes.
Rainflight finished licking her fur the wrong way, and sat back to look down at her. "What's your name?"
"C-Covekit," she murmured.
"Covekit's a nice name," the Medicine Cat meowed. "How old are you, Covekit?"
"Three moons."
Rainflight nodded, before gesturing to the other cats. "These are Stemwing, Wolfspirit, and Cliffpaw." Covekit looked cats again. "I'll get you some poppyseeds, so that you can sleep a bit, before you meet the rest of the Clan."
I've been kitnapped, Covekit finally thought. She looked down at the ground she was on. The soil was soft, much softer than the ground from ViewClan. She felt a soft paw nudge her. She looked up at Wolfspirit.
"You should probably move to a nest," she meowed. "It's a lot softer than the ground." She nodded numbly before she stood on shaky legs, then padded over to a soft-looking nest and collapsed. Rainflight set a poppyseed in front of her.
"Just lap that up, and you'll be asleep in no time." Covekit listened to her new Medicine Cat and set her head on her paws, closing her eyes.