Chapter Six

Darkstar woke up rather early the next day, just after sunrise, with his hands hurting again and his ears hurting a little bit. He looked at his hands and found that they had shrunk even more and, he looked closer, the thumbs seemed to be higher up on his wrists. He shook his head, dismissing the change so he could think about other things. He tried to pick up a pencil and notebook but he found that his new hand shape hindered that. He tried again and found that he could hold the pencil and write but it was sloppy and difficult.

'If this goes on, I won't be able to get out my books to read them.' He realized, sadly.

With that thought, he pulled all of his books out of his backpack and laid them in a row on top of his trench coat so that he could easily reach them. Then he stood and went to talk to Snaketail, knowing that she also had books that they might want to access later.

However, when he got there she was still asleep, so he decided he would try again later. He found himself wandering through the camp rather aimlessly until Silverfire woke up.

"Good morning. I ate a fish that looked like your head. Wildear threw it against the wall."

Darkstar looked at her for a couple minutes. "What?"

"I had a really weird dream."

"… I see."

"So, how are you this morning?"

"Well, I didn't eat a fish, but I guess I'm alright. My hands are hurting again but not too bad."

"Yeah, so are mine. And my ears are getting pointy. And I'm hungry."

"There's food." Darkstar gestured to the backpack hat was sitting next to them. "Your ears are pointy?"

"Yeah, just a little bit." Silverfire nodded and opened the backpack, pulling out an orange. "Do you want something?"

"No thanks. I don't like breakfast."

"Okay." Silverfire returned to trying to peel her orange and Darkstar wandered away again, feeling at his ears, which were also a little sharper than they should have been. After struggling with her orange for a little while, Silverfire looked up to call Darkstar back.

"Can you help me with this?" She held up her orange as she asked.

"It'd be easier to peel if you would just use your teeth." Darkstar responded, walking over.

"I don't like how the peel tastes." Silverfire complained, wrinkling her nose.

"Fine. Give it here." Darkstar took the proffered orange and used his claws to rip part of the peel off.

"Show off." Silverfire muttered as she reclaimed the orange.

"Naturally." Darkstar said with a smile. "You should save the peel for Snaketail. She likes them."

"Yeah, I know. It's weird. But sure." Silverfire agreed, setting the torn orange peel parts on her lap.

Snaketail stumbled out of her den a few minutes later, still tired. She nodded in greeting to her clanmates.

"'Morning." Darkstar greeted her.

"I was nice and sweet enough to save my orange peels for you." Silverfire said in a falsely sweet voice.

"I'm so grateful." Snaketail replied sarcastically. Then she laughed and spoke more seriously and accepted the peels. "Thank you though."

As Snaketail began chewing on the last piece of orange peel, a small light brown and white tabby kitten wandered out of the nursery. His short tail twitched and flicked as he looked around with big, blue eyes.

Silverfire, whom was closest to the kitten, picked him up and looked at him more closely.

"Hey, Sc-Darkstar. Is this Aron?" Darkstar walked over so that he could examine the kitten also. He noticed that the kitten had round, human pupils, and his ears were a bit too small and they were lower on his head than they should have been.

"I think so." He decided

"We're turning into cats?" Silverfire asked, her voice gaining volume and pitch.

"It seems so."

"But, what about Grandma, and Mom, and Jinx?"

"I don't know. I guess you'll either have to stay here, without them, or you'll have to become a kittypet and live with one of them." Silverfire looked down, saddened.

"Maybe they're changing also." She suggested hopefully.

"Maybe. Once we can walk through the streets without attracting too much notice we'll check on them. Them and everyone else's families. Okay?"

"Can't we call them or something?" Aron wriggled a bit as Silverfire tightened her grip so she loosened it enough that he could get comfortable again.

"I'll see who all has a cellphone when they wake up."

"I have Mom's cellphone with me." Snaketail cut in. "And I think Wildear also has hers."

"Okay. Thank you Snaketail. And I have mine. If you want to call now Silverfire, you can use my cellphone." Darkstar offered, pulling his cellphone out of his pocket and holding it out to her. Silverfire accepted it and walked a few feet away as she dialed.

"Hello. Grandma? … Yeah, I wanted to call and see how everyone was doing…. Okay. Do your hands hurt or anything? … They do? Are they smaller? … Well, my hands have been hurting and I thought they seemed a bit smaller…. Yeah, almost. How's Jinx doing? … Okay. Thank you. …Bye." Silverfire hung up and handed Darkstar his phone back. "We need to go get them. Now."

"Why? What's wrong?" Snaketail asked, approaching her.

"Grandma's changing too. And she hasn't seen Jinx since I went over to your house last time."

"Okay. Let's go." Darkstar decided.

"Can we get there without being questioned?" Snaketail asked, pulling her hair back to show her distinctly pointed ears.

"If we're careful we should be able to." Darkstar answered, heading towards the warriors den to wake up his deputy. He stopped and looked back before he got there. "Oh, but Silverfire, we're going to have to walk." Silverfire groaned.

"Okay." She reluctantly agreed. "I don't like walking that distance."

"I know. But we don't have any other means of transportation."

"Yeah, I know." Darkstar gave a final nod and went into the warriors den. He came out a minute later with a bleary-eyed Brighttalon following.

"So we need you to take care of camp while we're gone." Darkstar was just finishing explaining as they emerged.

"M'kay." Brighttalon agreed.

"Oh, and Brighttalon," Snaketail began. "Can you tell Nightpaw where we are when she wakes up?"

"Sure."

"Thank you." Snaketail turned to follow Silverfire to the exit. "Um, Silverfire?"

"Yeah?" Silverfire asked, turning around.

"Wouldn't it be better to leave Aron here?"

"What? Oh yeah!" Silverfire said, realizing that she was still holding the kitten. "Can you hold on to him Brighttalon?" She asked, handing the kitten to the deputy.

"Alright." He agreed, accepting Aron. "You're all asking things of me."

"Yeah, sorry." Silverfire apologized, already nearly to the tunnel. Darkstar and Snaketail followed her, leaving Brighttalon with Aron and the rest of the clan.