"Hey Mottlepaw!" Morningmist called, waving her tail in greeting. The blue-eyed apprentice brightened at the sigh of the friendly queen.
"Morningmist!" He said, bounding over to the nursery. Morningmist was basking in the sunlight while Dewkit and Cloudkit tussled in a heap of flying paws and tails.
"Dewkit and Cloudkit have been asking after you." The SkyClan queen told him. Mottlepaw beamed. "Do you mind watching them while I go for a walk to stretch my legs?" Mottlepaw shook his head. "Great." The she-cat purred. "I won't be long; I'll just go down near the ThunderClan border and hunt a sparrow or two." The blue-gray she-cat got to her paws, arched her back in a long stretch and trotted out of the camp barrier. Mottlepaw sat down next to the two kits.
"I heard you wanted to see me." Dewkit and Cloudkit broke apart and hurried over.
"We wanted to ask you what happened with the ThunderClan cats again." Mottlepaw's shoulders drooped. One way or another, the only reason cats wanted to talk was to find out what happened when the ThunderClan leader and his green-eyed deputy had visited about a moon ago. Now, there was a new addition to the warrior code, and it made Mottlepaw rather popular but no cat would listen to anything other than the story.
Don't they get tired of it? Mottlepaw wondered. Why am I living in my mother's shadow? Am I just an echo of what happened? Oh StarClan, please don't tell me this is the only reason I'll be remembered.
"Story! Story!" Cloudkit demanded. Mottlepaw rolled his bright blue eyes.
"Now, I was out hunting and-"
"Wasn't Poppycloud there?" Cloudkit interrupted. Mottlepaw twitched his ears.
"Yes. Of course she was."