Chapter 1- The Lost Robin

"Mintkit!"

"Wake up, Mintkit!"

Mintkit blinked open her eyes, and immediately leaned backwards. A pair of innocent dark grey eyes were all she could see. "Silverkit! Get off me!" She shoved the kit away from her- he had put his face super close to her eyes, and now she felt dizzy. It was a good thing she was lying down, or she would have fallen over.

"Yeah, Silverkit! I told you that she likes me more!" Spiritkit, his sister, sneered. "You owe me a mouse. And make it a BIG one!"

Silverkit glared at her, or rather, he did what kits thought was glaring. They're just too cute to consider them as angry.

"I never said that!" he protested.

"Did!"

"Did not!"

"Oh, stop bickering, both of you!" Mintkit sighed dramatically. She was lounging at the edge of the nursery, watching the kits argue disdainfully. "Do you want your mother to catch you?"

"No!" Silverkit mewed stubbornly, glaring at her.

"Miiiiintkiiiit!" A voice rang out from the back of the nursery. "MINTKIT! Where in StarClan are you?"

Mintkit groaned. That was the voice of Bluepetal, her horrid so- called mother. She was always mean to her, and she didn't know why. In fact, everyone except Silverkit and Spiritkit treated her differently, like she was a piece of dirt, or something that they couldn't bear to look at, and she never understood why. She was always alone- even the kits squabbling in front of her had only come to mess around and annoy her. What she wanted, so badly, was a friend.

Not just any friend, though. She needed a mature one, a sensible one, someone she could rely on and confide in. However, MountainClan just seemed like a gigantic bunch of idiots.

"Mintkit!" The indignant voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Bluepetal was staring at her, or more accurately, glaring. She looked absolutely furious.

"How dare you wander off like that! And why weren't you making sure that Spiritkit and Silverkit stayed clean!? Look at them! I wish that StarClan had actually blessed me with normal kits for once!"

"Mother, wait!"

But Bluepetal had already retreated to the back of the nursery, Silverkit and Spiritkit following behind her. They both wore smug expressions on their faces, and as they walked by, Silverkit stuck out his tongue, and Spiritkit smirked.

Oh, well. She could do without their annoying presence anyway.

Mintkit stretched, yawning. She had been having a really good dream before she was rudely woken up. There was this weird glowing ghost thing in it. There was no point in going back to sleep, anyway.

"All cats old enough to catch a hawk, gather round the Highboulder for a Clan meeting!"

She grinned. Now she definitely wasn't going back to sleep.

Cliffstar's clear call broughts cats trotting from all round the clearing towards him. Like usual, Mintkit caught a few disgusted looks cast in her direction before pushing past her to get outside. Silverkit went by, and kicked Mintkit's face while pretending to trip.

"Whoops! Didn't see you there!" he laughed cruelly.

"Stop getting in the way of other cats, featherbrain!" Bluepetal snapped when she saw this.

Ugh, ugh, ugh! Why did everyone have to treat her so badly all the time? She padded back to her nest and cried. Her tears soaked her fur until it looked like she had been caught in a rainstorm.

"Don't worry..."

Mintkit whipped her head round in alarm. She looked around wildly, but saw no one. Soft laughter echoed in the cave.

"I'm right behind you, silly kit!"

She turned round, an indeed, the mysterious speaker was behind her. "Took you long enough!" it smiled. "I'm Blossomshoot, the medicine cat apprentice!"

Blossomshoot was a pretty light brown tabby, and Mintkit had only heard about her because she was a well- respected healer, and many of the toms who came to see their family in the nursery had secret crushes on her. Bluepetal hated her, because she was prettier and more talented than her. Her mother actually didn't have any talents, and wasn't very pretty at all.

"What's troubling you, young kit?" she asked kindly. Her bright green eyes seemed to light up the dark cave, and her smile warmed the darkest of hearts. Already Mintkit felt a bit better.

"I- It's just that Mother doesn't love me anymore, and Silverkit kicked me on purpose!" she sobbed.

Blossomshoot rushed over, and licked the kit's head. "I'm sorry to hear that!" she mewed. "Some kits can be mean sometimes. You need to show that they don't bother you," she advised her. "And I'm sure your mother loves you very much," she said reassuringly.

"B- but she keeps scolding me and treating me different from all the other kits!" Mintkit cried sadly.

The medicine cat frowned. With a more detailed description, she probably knew who Mintkit's mother was. "Is your mother Bluepetal?" she asked.

"Yes!" the kit said, shocked. "How did you know?"

"Well... I've heard... things, and your description matched the things I know about her," she said carefully, not wanting to hurt her feelings.

"Oh."

Mintkit was slightly brighter than the other kits: she knew the reason Blossomshoot was being so careful was because she had heard bad things about her mother. This didn't upset her, it just made her wonder what in StarClan's name had her mother done to offend so many Clan cats.

Blossomshoot stayed with the kit until her tears dried away. "Did you hear about Robinpaw?" she questioned.

The kit frowned. "What about Robinpaw?"

All she knew about the apprentice was that she was kind, smart, and a bit annoying. She was the fastest apprentice in all the Clans, and also Wingflight's apprentice, who had taught her extremely well and enhanced her abilities further. Wingflight was rumored to be scary, though, and Mintkit thought that she might mistreat her apprentice, and that was why she was so obedient.

"She died last night," Blossomshoot murmered, her voice heavy with grief. "She was in Wingflight's den, and the whole thing collapsed on her. There was no chance of survival, and Wingflight herself was the first cat to notice it, of course. Poor her, losing her apprentice like that!"

Poor her. Mintkit could only agree that it was very sad that Wingflight lost her apprentice, after moons of hard training, and forging memories together. Robinpaw was even worse, as her life had been so short, her potential cut off and her talents wasted. The kit pitied both of the she- cats.

"Everyone's grieving for her outside," Blossomshoot mewed. "I'm going out to join them."

"Me too!" Mintkit piped up. She had not known Robinpaw very well, but she was a fellow Clan member, and it was honourable just to say goodbye.

She padded outside and touched her nose to Robinpaw's deathly cold fur. Roses, marigolds and violets had been scattered around the body, and the body itself was laid out on a shiny, flat rock which was raised above the flowers. Mint had been pasted onto the rock to mask the stench of death. All around the flowers, cats huddled together, silently grieving for the lost apprentice.

Goodbye, Robinpaw, my lost robin.

Mintkit stepped down from the body to let Bluepetal step up. "Get out of here, filthy kit," she growled. "Robinpaw wouldn't want you here."

However, this time Mintkit would not be intimidated by her bully of a mother. She stared right back, before stalking off proudly to the nursery. As she entered, Silverkit called, "Mintkit!"

She ignored the kit and continued on to her nest. There it was: a cosy circle of mountain moss, in which her mother slept too. Bluepetal didn't like sleeping with her daughter, though, so she often went to sleep in the warrior's den with her mate, Redstorm. Her father often ignored her, and pretended that she didn't exist, but it was beter than being treated like a pile of foxdung.

"M- Mintkit?"

Mintkit looked up to see that Silverkit was standing shyly in front of her. "What do you want?" she snapped.

"I'm sorry," he blurted out. "It's just that, Quartzfoot was angry at me for playing with you yesterday, and she said you were a rogue or a filthblood, or something like that."

Oh. So that was why Silverkit and Spiritkit had been acting out of character. But the part about being a rogue? Mintkit was now curious. Did Bluepetal or Redstorm have rogue blood in them? Or was she adopted? The kit didn't know, but she was one step closer to finding out why everyone hated her so much.

"Thanks, Silverkit," she said quietly. He smiled nervously, and scampered off to find his sister. Mintkit curled up in her warm nest. Its been a long day, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.