Ch. 8 The Fish

Moonkit and Sunkit quietly snuck back into camp, they crawled in the snow towards the medicine cat's den. It was really hard for Sunkit because her water mouse was about the size of her, so she had to drag it. Finally there, Sunkit laid down her fish and called gently, "Leaffur, are you there?"

Soon, the tortoiseshell tom appeared and said, "Yes, I am here, Sunkit. What do you want?"

Stepping forward, Sunkit nudged the water-mouse to Leaffur's feet. "Can you tell us what it is? Is it good to eat?"

Leaffur's pale green eyes opened wide, he gently sniffed the animal and said, "This is called a fish. They swim at the bottom of our river. Warriors have tried to catch them before but it was hard and catching mice is easier, so we forgot about them. How in Starclan's name were you ever able to catch this?"

"So it's good to eat?" Moonkit asked.

"Yes, Moonkit, these are very good to eat, they make your coat shiny and they are very fattening." Leaffur replied.

"Wait!" Leaffur hissed with realization, "You've been out of camp again! Sunkit, how could you after what has happened?"

The two kits were shocked; they had never expected Leaffur to react that way.

"Well, Leaffur," Moonkit explained, "We noticed the fresh-kill was really low and so we decided to go out hunting. We are almost 5 moons old! So, first I smelled a mouse; I crept closer (Moonkit began illustrating here) and closer and it saw me but I was too quick for it!" Moonkit paused with pride.

"Then," Sunkit began extremely excited, "We decided to go down to the river because prey might want to have a drink or something; well anyway, we came to the water's edge, where it was quieter, and I looked over and saw this thing!" Sunkit said poking the fish with one paw, "And…"

"And then," Moonkit interrupted too excited to wait, "Sunkit waited for forever at the water's edge. Just when I was going to say something, she flashed out her paw, like this," Moonkit demonstrated by flashing one of his dark grey paws at the fish, "Then, the fish leaped out of the water, Sunkit screamed at me to kill it, so I dropped my precious mouse and bit it! After I killed it, we decided to go back to camp to see if we could eat it!"

"Your mother can give you the talk about not leaving camp because I am very proud of you two!" Leaffur concluded. "Moonkit, you may add your mouse to the fresh kill pile and Sunkit, you need to present your fish to Glimmerstar."

Leaving the medicine cat's den, the two kits split up, each of them to deliver their fresh-kill.

"Glimmerstar?" Sunkit called as she reached her leader's den.

A voice sounded from inside, "Yes, I'm here, Sunkit. You may come in!"

Sunkit entered the den, dragging her fish with her. Inside it was cozy and warm, much better than the now snowy clearing.

"Glimmerstar, Leaffur would like me to show this to you." Sunkit explained.

Glimmerstar's amber eyes moved to the fish that Sunkit was carrying and asked, "What is this?"

"It is called a fish."

Glimmerstar had the same reaction of the wise old medicine cat, "Are you sure?" the she-cat demanded.

"Well, that's what Leaffur said."

"If this is true, Sunkit, you should be proud of your accomplishment. We are the Riverclan and the water brings life to the valley, if you could catch more fish then clan will fair better this winter! Bring the fish closer, Sunkit, so I may examine it."

Sunkit watched Glimmerstar's eyes as her leader closely examined the fish. After a while, Glimmerstar looked up and said to Sunkit, "Thank you, Sunkit, you may add this fish to the fresh-kill pile."

Picking up her fish, Sunkit backed out of Glimmerstar's cozy den and back into the snowy clearing. The icy wind hit her like a blow, but she turned her head aside and kept walking towards the fresh-kill pile. She proudly dropped it on the where the fresh kill pile was, the mice that where there in the morning were now gone and those cats return from the forest would have a fresh fish to share, then ran back to the nursery to tell Streamkit of all that had happened today.

"Now, I hardly noticed the snow," she thought