AN: Before we begin (sorry for the cliff hanger) I want to thank allygirl56 for her continued support of this story! You're awesome!
7
Tigerkit had to stop himself from letting out a mewl of fright. It's all going wrong! He thought. What did you think was going to happen? Another voice inside his head asked sarcastically. That they would just welcome you in with open paws? That was exactly what he had been thinking, but he wouldn't admit it.
"Don't rough him up too much, Blackheart," Darkstar said. Tigerkit shot a pleading glance at Fogwind, but she didn't appear to be worried for him as she had before.
"We're going to get the prey we caught from before we found him," Fogwind said, and then she and Hailstorm padded out of camp.
"Okay then, kit, time for your crash course in ShadowClan!" Blackheart said, turning to him. "How old are you. Three moons?"
"I'm older than that!" Tigerkit exclaimed, bristling. "I'm…five moons!" He added an extra moon just to be safe. He didn't want ShadowClan thinking he was weak.
"So you've been weaned?"
"Well…." Tigerkit trailed off. Most kits were weaned around their second or third moon, but he was in his fourth and had never eaten real prey. His other always insisted that milk was better for him, and that he was too small to eat meat yet. "Yeah," he lied.
"Good. Now, if you're going to be in ShadowClan, you have to eat ShadowClan prey. Come with me." Blackheart led him to the fresh-kill pile. Tigerkit sniffed it uncertainly.
"Our most common prey is toad or frog," Blackheart said, and selected a bumpy toad from the pile. She pushed it towards him. "Eat."
Tigerkit wrinkled his nose. It was slimy and smelly and bumpy, and couldn't he get warts in his mouth from eating them? He blinked up at Blackheart, but she showed no signs of relenting. If Tigerstar ate them, so can I, he thought, and took a bite. The texture in his mouth was slimy and the taste was enough to make him want to vomit. It was all he could do just to choke it down. Not at all what I thought my first prey would taste like!
"Hurry up, eat the rest," Blackheart said, but Tigerkit could only stare at the toad. "Saving it for later? Good idea!" Blackheart purred. "You'll need the food after your patrol and training session."
"What?" Tigerkit squeaked. "I'm tired! I need to rest!" He collapsed on the ground to illustrate his point.
"Rest? Rest? ShadowClan cats don't believe in rest! Our apprentices begin training at three moons! They patrol and hunt every morning, and train all day! We train and fight with our claws unsheathed." She crouched and unsheathed her claws to illustrate her point. "What's your name again?"
"Tigerkit."
"Tigerkit, Tigerpaw…it's a good name, but not nearly fearsome enough. You need a more intimidating name. Let's see…Clawpaw? You're claws are pretty long, but that's not very scary. Scarpaw would work much better! And we can even give you some scars to match…." She took a step forward and flexed her claws, as if she was itching to scar his face this very moment.
It was all too much for Tigerkit. He let out a yowl of defeat as misery swelled up inside him. "I want to go home! I want to see my mother, and Foxpaw and Gingerpaw and fight with Lionkit and Whitekit and just not be noticed! It has to be better than this place!" He buried his face in his paws, shaking. He heard Blackheart approaching him. He tensed, but then was surprised as she licked his head.
"Are you sure?" she asked in a gentle voice. Tigerkit blinked up at her with misty eyes and nodded.
"Why didn't you say so?" Blackheart asked, amusement in her amber eyes. "Let's go, then!"
"D-do I have to walk?" Tigerkit asked, his voice trembling from exhaustion and fear.
"Not if you don't want to. Just hang on a moment." She padded over to Darkstar, and said something to her quietly. Darkstar glanced at Tigerkit and then let out a surprisingly cheery laugh, and nodded.
"Alright, I got permission from the big guy," Blackheart said, and picked up Tigerkit gently by the scruff. "Let's go."
* * *
Blackheart halted on the edge of the Thunderpath. It was almost dusk, now, and so fewer monsters were rushing up and down the sticky black path. Blackheart waited for a lull, and then dashed forward over the hot path, halting on the edge.
She set Tigerkit down gently. "I can't go much farther without getting into real trouble," she said, "and your camp is right around here. There will probably be a patrol looking for you now, so you won't have to go far. You can make it. You're a tough kit, to make it into ShadowClan camp."
Tigerkit blinked up at her, uncertain of what to say. "Thanks," he said quietly. Blackheart nodded and then turned, running over to her side of the Thunderpath. A twinkle in her amber eyes made Tigerkit wonder if his "crash course" actually had anything to do with real ShadowClan life at all.
Tigerkit let out a weary sigh and struggled to his paws, stumbling through the forest. The fight and adventurous spirit had been worn out of the little kit; all he wanted was to go home. The familiar scents of the territory gave him strength, and when he scented ThunderClan cats, he nearly cried with relief.
"I think I smell something!" he heard an unfamiliar voice exclaim. There was a rustle of undergrowth, and a black face with a white stripe between the eyes blinked at him. "Here he is!" the strange cat exclaimed.
"Good work, Badgerpaw," another voice purred. "Your tracking skills are improving." A scary-looking gray tom joined Badgerpaw.
"Thanks," Badgerpaw purred. "Birchpaw! Firestorm! We found him!"
More rustling, and then a young, pale gray tom and a ginger tom appeared as well.
"Are you okay?" Birchpaw asked, his nose wrinkled.
"He stinks," Badgerpaw said, wrinkling his nose as well. Tigerkit realized how he must look, covered in burrs and mud and stinking of ShadowClan.
"I just want to go home," he said weakly.
* * *
"Dapplefur!" Badgerpaw called as they entered camp. Tigerkit's mother raced out of the nursery, her eyes wild.
"Did you find him?" she demanded, and then she spotted Tigerkit in Firestorm's mouth. "Tigerkit! My poor darling!"
Firestorm set Tigerkit down, and Dapplefur immediately covered him with licks. "ShadowClan?" she asked, drawing back. She wrinkled her nose.
"You found him?" Brightstart asked, padding forward. "He reeks of ShadowClan. Did they steal him?"
Viperfang shrugged. "We followed his scent back the way he had come. It mixed with ShadowClan scent there, and then we could smell ShadowClan strongly on their side of the Thunderpath. I don't know what happened, exactly."
"I ran away to ShadowClan," Tigerkit croaked. "N-no one wants me here."
Dapplefur paused in her licking. "Baby, how could you think that?"
Tigerkit was too tired to explain. He simply shook his head. "I ran over the Thunderpath and two warriors found me and took me to camp and then Blackheart taught me about ShadowClan…and I didn't want to be there anymore so she took me back home."
Brightstar listened, nodding. "ShadowClan's deputy is known for her love of pranks," she said, causing Tigerkit to blink with surprise. He hadn't known that Blackheart was the deputy!
"She showed you a false way of ShadowClan life to scare you, I expect," Brightstar said. "But you are unhurt?"
Tigerkit nodded.
"Are you going to punish him?" Viperfang growled. Brightstar laughed quietly.
"Punish him? Look at him! He desperately needs rest and food. I'm not going to punish him like this. And if he felt he didn't belong here, he's been punished enough. Dapplefur, you may take him to the nursery."
"Clean him up before he stinks up the whole place, though!" Badgerpaw joked.
Dapplefur picked up Tigerkit and padded into the nursery. She curled around him and groomed him gently.
"You're okay!" Whitekit purred, and then recoiled. "Ugh! You smell like crowfood!"
"ShadowClan," Dapplefur said, by way of explanation. Even Lionkit was impressed.
"You went to ShadowClan?" He asked in amazement. Tigerkit simply nodded, and then closed his eyes. He heard Lionkit and Whitekit chattering, but their words were indistinguishable, and he drifted off to sleep without another thought.
AN: The longest chapter yet, hurray!