Reedkit looked at me, his eyes wide. "I'm sorry, Lilykit. I didn't think they'd hurt you," he murmured, mellow.

I stood up, albeit a little shakily, but padded up to Reedkit to put my shoulder to his comfortingly. It had been his pride that had gotten them into this, but I didn't blame him. No, I admired his courage for standing up to the older cats. "Then we just have to catch enough that it won't happen, 'kay?"

"Okay," Reedkit said, a little of his cheerfulness returning. I turned and led him to the river, where we both crouched on the bank awkwardly. I tried to shove all my paws beneath me, but my legs were too long and my middle to short and stubby. I growled in anger and shoved my legs behind me. I didn't care how silly I looked anymore. Finally my front paws were free to cut and slash at the water.

I looked over at Reedkit and saw he managed to do what I couldn't: all of his paws were tucked neatly under him. "Do you remember how the warriors said to fish?" I asked.

"Do you?" he asked back and I shook my head. "Well it can't be too hard. I guess we'll just have to figure it out on our own."

I watched my shadow ripple across the water, my image reflected in it with bumps and squiggles where they shouldn't be. Why haven't the fish come yet? I thought, more than a little ruffled that neither of us had seen a fish yet. We both sat there for quite some time, until the sun, which had been a little in the east, now sat directly over our backs.

Suddenly, silver streaks started flowing under the water. I leaped forward, surprised by the sudden motion, and tried to grab the silver blurs with my floundering paw. One of my claws snagged a scale and the fish pulled forward, unbalancing me and tossing me into the water as it swam away.

I gave a quick mrow in shock as my body was pulled downwards. I can't swim yet! I panicked, thrashing my paws around. Owch! My paw hit something hard and I pushed the rest of my paws towards it, seeking to grab a hold, my breath quickly disappearing in bubbles. I'm going to drown! I found the hard thing and pushed up to find it was the bottom of the creek... and that the water didn't even come up to my belly.

Reedkit was purring in laughter as I slogged up to the bank and shook myself off. "It wasn't funny! At least I tried," I mewed indignantly. Reedkit still smiled as we repositioned ourselves on the bank, ready for another go. Water still dripped from my fur to puddle on the sand beneath me, turning it dark and wet.

Soon enough, the fish came back, little streaks of silver twisting through the water beneath my paws. This time I waited, making a plan on how to get the fish out of the water.

Suddenly, I knew.

I remembered.

It felt like I had pulled hundreds of thousands of fish out before. I darted my paw into the water, pulling one of the silver fish out and slapping it onto the bank. Reedpaw was staring at me as if I had pulled out a fallen star instead of a small fish.

A flush of pride ran through me and I moved over to teach Reedkit my newfound skill. "Keep your shadow off the water; that's what startled the fish before," I meowed, realizing the words were true only after I had said them. "Then when you see a fish, quickly scoop it out. With no claws, otherwise they'll get caught on the scales and pull you in! Curl your paw like a leaf- yeah, like that- and then..." I flashed a paw in the water and pulled out another fish. I killed the fish with a flick of a claw and pushed it far enough away so it wouldn't flop back in the water.

I watched as Reedkit repeated my motions flicking drops of water in the air as his paw missed. He tried again and again until, finally, a fish came up with his paw onto the sandy bank. A little while later, red spots of fish blood speckled the yellow sand and a large pile of small fish sat between us; more than enough to feed the elders.

I looked back at the water, smiling, when I saw something large and red flicker through the water instead of the usual silver. My eyes widened and I whipped my paw down to catch it. It flew up in an arc and landed behind me, flopping and shining, glittering red and pink.

"I-I think Emberfoot called it a 'salmon'. She said it melted in a cat's mouth, tasting of everything good." Reedkit walked over to the fish and cracked its spine. "I think we have enough. It's a bigger haul than those three apprentices have ever caught in one day."

I looked at the pile of fish with satisfaction. "Now we have to sneak it all in. We'd still be in trouble even if we did only hunt right behind the camp." I took two of the small fish in my mouth and peeked through the reeds to find the clearing errily silent. The dusk patrol must have left early. I purred at our good fortune and darted over to the fresh-kill pile, leaving my fish and going back for another set, motioning Reedkit to go next.

In this way, we transported our stack to the fresh-kill pile. Only the salmon still lay in the sand, glittering in the late afternoon light. I looked at it longingly, but forced my eyes away. Even if we weren't apprentices yet, the Clan had to be fed first. "We should take it to Emberfoot. She hasn't been feeling good and... and Laurelstone said she probably didn't have... well, have too much more time left here," I whispered.

Reedkit looked at the salmon like he wanted to eat it right then and there, but finally, slowly, nodded. He sighed, "It's the right thing, even if we are hungry." I realized my belly was growling after our long day out hunting.

We could always get another salmon sometime.

This could be Emberfoot's last.

I smiled and pulled the large fish towards the sparkling elder's den. "We brought you a surprise, Emberfoot!" I heard Reedkit's voice echo through the den. I pulled the fish inside and over to the elder before falling onto the soft moss in exaustion.

"What do you think?" Reedkit mewed. I looked up at the ancient cat, her ginger fur still bright after all her moons of living. Her green eyes still sparkled although there was a tinge of something mellow, sadness that she was soon to go perhaps.

She flicked an ear and leaned forward until her breath tickled my ear. "I think a certain pair of kits were quite naughty. But I thank you," she mewed, biting into the salmon, "it's delicious. You will both turn into loyal warriors and believe me, we need them. I won't tell Wavestar." She winked and took another bite of fish.

"You don't have to; I was watching them the whole time." A large tom was standing in the entrance to the elder's den, only a silhuette, but I knew enough of the RiverClan cats by now to identify him immediatly.

Wavestar.