"Can you repeat that for me?" Skykit said in a dazed voice. He wants to be a whaaaat….?
Darkkit snapped in embarrassment," You heard me the first time!" His ears flattened against his skull tightly ,as if he expected Skykit to rip them off. Which she was feeling inclined to do.
All of her dreams of them training to together…..becoming warriors together….Gone. Sure, being a medicine cat was a respectable position, but it also meant a cat had to live half a life. Isolated from clan mates, not allowed to have a mate, never having kits, and never knowing the passion of battle.
Skykit could understand the first three parts, but she would never give up fighting.
Skykit opened her mouth, prepared to lay it on thick of how upset she was. But then she met her brother's eyes. Fear of rejection glittered in the amber depths, also a stubbornness and determination to do what he wanted.
She forced herself to shrug nonchalantly meowing," So? Would you stop with all the drama."
Darkkit went rigid and gaped in shock at his sister. Skykit felt a little miffed about that. Even she could be understanding. Sometimes. Okay, rarely.
"Wait a heartbeat….. You're not going to kill me?" Darkkit asked questioningly, his head tipped to the side, eyes narrowed in suspicion.
Skykit looked boredly at her melodramatic older brother and snapped," If I wanted you dead I would've done it already."
She yawned her eyes drooping," Now, will you please shut up and let me"-yawn-"sleep."
Just as she fell into unconsciousness, Skykit felt her brother curl up next to her, his tail wrapped around her body.
It's good to be home.
/
Skykit opened her eyes to the pitch black of the Dark Forest. She looked around, trembling when she realized no one else was there.
''About time you showed up!" snapped an irritated voice.
Skykit whirled around in panic, meeting a pair of dark amber eyes.
Breezepelt, who had apparently had his eyes closed making his black pelt blend into the shadows, stalked forward saying irritably, "Mapleshade can't make it. So she sent me to teach you." He rolled his eyes, as if the very idea was ridiculous.
Skykit curiously asked," Teach me what?"
Breezepelt answered her incredulously," How to run like a WndClan cat." Then he sneered," As if you could."
Skykit huffed," I can!" She leapt to his side, waiting for instructions.
Breezepelt sighed. He swiftly padded to her side snapping ," Alright, first place your paws like this-NO! Not like that, like this!" He demonstrated again, muscles visibly bunched on his hind quarters, front paws extended, one forepaw farther than the other.
"The key trick," he explained," is to keep your claws unsheathed, and dig them as deep into the ground as possible, but the second you get them in you have to push out as quick as possible and use that force to propel as fast as you can forward."
In a blink of an eye, Breezepelt became a dark blur as he raced around the clearing, blending into the bleak background. Skykit barely saw his paws hit the ground .
With one last leap, Breezepelt skidded to a stop in front of her panting lightly.
"Did you get that? Or do you want me to demonstrate again? Cause if you do then you're out a luck."
Skykit put her front paws in a V-like shape, bunching her back legs, digging her claws in deep into the damp, dark soil. Breezepelt snorted, critically eying her stance though not saying anything.
"Fourteen laps, on the double!" his voice whip lashed.
Skykit leaped forward, remembering to dig her claws in, and hurtled around the clearing.
"Run faster!" he bellowed.
Skykit, panting heavily, struggled to keep up the pace let alone increase it. Black dots invaded her eye sight. Dear StarClan, she thought, this is worse than drowning.
Her heart was throbbing painfully, claws feeling as if they were about to be ripped out, lungs felt like they were about to burst. I'm gonna die!
The world became a blur. Skytkit felt bile in her throat. Her legs gave way and she collapsed on the cold,damp earth.
"Skykit?" a panicked Breezepelt meowed in her ear. She barely heard him over the blood rushing in her ears and the heavy thuds of her heart.
Skykit woozily raised her head asking," Are we done yet?"
/
Skykit limped out of her nest, although, she honestly just wanted to crawl back in and go to sleep. Stupid Breezepelt and his stupid running. Skykit vowed revenge…after she learned what would hurt him the most. The more painful the better.
Darkkit was snoring softly, one of his long back legs stretched out and hanging out of the nest.
"So, ya finally decided to wake up, huh?" questioned a high-pitched voice. Skykit whipped around to come face to face with her cousin, Splashkit, a pretty white tortoiseshell that had bright amber eyes.
Skykit rolled her eyes and stepped toward her favorite(only) cousin, wincing slightly at her tight and sore muscles.
"Nice to see you too," Skykit replied coolly. Splashkit and her usually got along, though their version of getting along was to bicker endlessly until told to shut up and then they'd turn on the cat that told them to shut up. Both loved a good fight.
" How were the River-rats?" questioned Splashkit in a sneering tone.
Skykit shrugged." They were alright. Not as good as Shadowclan, and they smelled like fish!" She wrinkled her nose in mocking disgust. The smaller she-cat didn't tell her cousin that after a while the fish scent hadn't seemed so bad and was even a comforting scent towards the end of her imprisonment.
Splashkit laughed." It must've been nauseating to be around all that fish-breath all day for two moons!"
Skykit laughed along, feeling a small pang of guilt as she thought of Leafkit, Tabbykit, Willowshine and all the kind cats that had helped her in the enemy camp.
Skykit shook herself. The clan comes first, rang in her head.
She vowed that no matter what happened her friendship would never get in the way of protecting her clanmates.
The clan must always come first.
/
" Splashkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Splashpaw."
Splashkit looked like she was fixing to burst out of her pelt, and Skykit felt a little bit of jealousy flow into her veins. Blackstar had said ,though, that since Splashkit had been born first ( a few days before Skykit and Darkkit) that she should get her apprentice name first and have the moonlight for once.
"Your mentor will be," Blackstar continued," Olivenose and I expect you pass on all you know to her."
Olivenose padded forward, whiskers quivering with excitement, and touched noses with her first apprentice. Splashpaw eagerly followed the older she cat to the other side of the clearing.
Skykit flicked an ear at her friend and sighed impatiently. She wanted to be an apprentice now! But no, the blue gray she kit had to wait until Darkkit got his apprentice name.
Her father repeated, pride lighting up his usually brooding eyes," Darkkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Darkpaw . Your mentor will be Littlecloud. I hope he passes on all he knows to you."
Darkpaw practically sprinted over to Littlecoud, bumping noses with his new mentor roughly.
"Klutz," Skykit snickered under her breath, although her tail twitched nervously at walking in front of the whole and messing up. She briefly pictured her self falling flat on her muzzle and the whole clan laughing at her clumsiness. The tiny cat shuddered, it wasn't a pretty image.
"Skykit," Blackstar began for the third time," you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed.," -Skykit noted that her fathers voice was trembling slightly-,"From this day on, until you have received your warrior name , you will be known as Skypaw."
Skypaw eagerly scanned the faces of her clanmates around her, wondering who her mentor be.
"Your mentor will be Sunnytail."
What the…?
Sunnytail pelted forward, puffing out his chest with pride. Skykit blinked dumbly up at him with hazy blue eyes. She had expected an older warrior with at least some experience, not a NEWLY made warrior who was no more than an apprentice himself.
Sunnytail tapped her nose lightly with his whispering a promise," I know I may not be the best warrior but I'll do my best in training you, little warrior." Yeah right, she thought glumly.
" I hope you pass on to her all you know," Blackstar finished. Then he jumped down from High Branch, landing softly on his front pads, turning to discuss patrols with Rowanclaw.
Darkpaw was following Littlecoud out of camp, talking about the best places to find herbs. Skykit shook her head, sighing and wishing he could at least come with her to the borders.
Sunnytail cleared his throat and said in a studious voice," Today I will be showing you the borders of the Shadowclan territories." Skykit immediately perked up.
She followed the ginger tom out through the bramble tunnel, the thorns lightly scathing her sides.
Sunnytail trotted towards the direction of what she knew was Riverclan territory.
"I'm going to tell you the best hunting spots tomorrow night, but I figured it'd be best to show you the boundaries so we don't have to look for you in the middle of Windclan hunting rabbits," joked Sunnytail. Skykit rolled her eyes. She knew that all you had to do was smell out where border patrols marked the border line.
"This," he said while gesturing with his tail to a large pine tree that had a strong Shadowclan scent on one side and a strong Thunderclan scent on the other,-"is one of the marking places for the Thunderclan and Shadowclan border."
Skyki nodded, memorizing the path they had taken to get there and then taking note of where the tree was.
He turned back and continued,"I would show you the whole territory edge but that would take all day and we don't have the time." With that he shot forward, Skypaw eagerly diving after him and easily catching up. Breezepelt's lessons were still a pain but she had gotten faster and found herself having to slow down to keep pace with the taller tom cat. She briefly felt a sense of power as the lithe she cat dodged around pine trees, the world now becoming a blur.
The two skidded to a stop when they heard the sound of the river and an extremely strong smell of fish.
Abruptly, Sunnytail shoved Skypaw into a nearby holly bush hissing," Keep down and be quiet.
Skykit snorted and glared ahead. She could take care of herself! Unsheathing deadly claws she peered through the branches.
A few moments later, she over heard faint voices. Familiar voices. In fact one of them sounded almost exactly like…
" Do ya think we'll see any Shadowclan cats? Will we get into a fight? If we do can I go home? Cause I don't wanna get my claws all bloody and stuff," said the overexcited voice of Leafkit.
" We had this discussion in camp, Leafpaw," snarled a tired, exasperated voice that Skypaw easily noticed was Mooncricket," if there is a fight you run back to camp and alert your mother."
Skypaw padded out of the holly bush's shielding branches, coming into view of the Riverclan patrol. The patrol consisted of Mooncricket, Leafpaw, Mintfeather, and Hawkpaw.
Skypaw purred as she heard her old pal bicker with what was presumably the silver tabby's mentor. Moonshine was an albino she cat with pinkish eyes and was pink tinted around her ears, toes and tail. Mintfeather, Hawkpaw's mentor, was a dark gray tabby with a white belly and ear tips.
Leafpaw shrieked,"SKYKIT! YOU"RE BACK! YOU HAVEN"T GROWN AT ALL! Are you coming back to Riverclan? We could share a nest and .." Leafpaw continued onward. Not even stopping to breath and Skypaw was seriously starting to worry about Leafpaw's health. Was it possible to pass out from talking too much?
Hawkpaw, she noticed while the silver tabby ranted, had grown into a slender tom cat with a sleek and shiny coat.
Leafpaw, on the other paw, was still fluffy, although her fur was shinier than the last time Skypaw had seen her.
Sunnytail walked forward, flexing his muscles, not saying anything but clearly saying he wasn't in the mood for a fight with his body language.
Skypaw corrected Leafpaw," I'm not Skykit anymore, I'm Skypaw."
The Riverclan apprentice purred happily," Yep, and is this you're mentor? He seems kind of young. This is my mentor, Mooncricket, and this is Hawkpaw's mentor, Mintfeather, but personally I think I got the better deal because Mooncricket is so awesome! She lets me talk for however long I want to and doesn't tell me to shut up or to go attack Scarheart, like everyone else does!"
Sunnytail spoke then,"As nice as this reunion is, Me and Skypaw have to get going."
Skypaw glanced sharply at her mentor. Then she padded towards the edge of the border, flicked her tail on Leafpaw's ear, meowing," I'll see you guys at the Gathering."
Leafpaw huffed but said," You better keep that promise."
Skypaw just purred and turned to follow Sunnytail back to camp, only to find him a few trees away from the camp entrance, waiting for her.
Sunnytail started," Well, I know you've probably hear this lecture before-"
" Put the clan first. Your loyalties must always lie with your clanmates," recited Skypaw, cutting him off.
Sunnytail brightened and then said," Let's get back to camp, you must be starving."