Umm, what was i gonna say... Oh yeah! Please read and review!
Chapter Two: Captive
Surprisingly, Ferncloud fell in love with her adopted cub. Brackenfur spent a lot of time simply watching the thing grow. She was purely oblivious to all hateful eyes watching critically. She had been named Foxkit and found her new litter mates to be quite the playmates.
"Brackenfur, can we come with you on a patrol, please?" begged Foxkit with Barkkit, Moonkit, Deerkit and Sharpkit staring up hopefully at their elder. The warrior shook his head with a tired sigh. He had heard the stories that foxes were notoriously mischievous, but he would have never suspected that his fox cub would be so ill-behaved.
"No, kits. Go back to the nursery. You can come when you're apprentices," Brackenfur ordered. Foxkit's expression turned sour as she was herded back to her subordinate mother. Ferncloud and Goldenflower smiled serenely once their kits sat safely at their side.
"But that won't be for another four moons!" Foxkit howled as Brackenfur vanished through the fern tunnel. The golden brown tabby tom gave a bittersweet smile. In four months, Brackenfur would take Foxkit into the mountains.
Foxkit gave a very fox-like growl of frustration. Their nursery mothers were busy eating. She knew it was now or never.
"Come on, guys," the vixen yipped. "Let's go." Moonkit, Barkkit, and Sharpkit leapt to their feet. An adventure with Foxkit was never very boring. Deerkit sat up timidly with an apprehensive look in expression.
"Oh, I don't know. Ferncloud and Goldenflower told us to stay here." She mewled shyly. Barkkit told her she was a scaredy-cat. Deerkit puffed up her soft fur in anger. Without a moment's hesitation, the white flecked she-cat took the lead straight through the walling beside the nursery. Each kit followed, tails twitching and pelts tingling with excitement.
The forest floor looked as is some mad artist had splattered bright paint on a dark brown canvas. Foxkit jumped into each puddle of brilliant light. She snapped at bugs and yipped with the bird-songs. It was only when everything was ominously silent did the young fox realize what her mistake had been.
The vixen whipped around and pounced into the group of kits behind her, all the while screaming, "Duck!" Sharp, black talons whizzed past Barkkit's head and hooked into the nape of Foxkit's neck. The hawk registered the scrawny fox in its talons. The young vixen howled in fear and pain as she was taken higher and higher through and eventually above the trees…
Brackenfur recognized the high cries of scared kits as would many other predators. He dashed through the undergrowth at his fastest speed with the other members of the patrol were struggling to keep up. The brown tabby burst into a small clearing with the kits grouped together, wailing in distress. One, two, three, four, Brackenfur thought as he counted the kits. Foxkit is missing.
Meanwhile, soaring high overhead was Foxkit in the talons of a hungry hawk. The young fox struggled to free herself, then thought twice as she looked down. They were very high above the tree tops and Foxkit shuddered in fear as she imagined herself tumbling to the ground. She forced herself to stare down to see a safe place to fall. There was none, unless one called a rushing river safe.
Foxkit gave a gulp as the hawk prepared to land and sank her sharp, thin teeth into the leg of her attacker. The raptor screeched angrily and immediately released the fox cub when she drew blood. Down, down, down, Foxkit tumbled towards the ever-looming water. With a sharp gasp, the young vixen plunged beneath the water's surface. Foxkit kicked furiously as her head burst above the surface. She opened her jaws as wide as she could and sucked in the air. She slammed against a rock and yelped in pain.
Through blurring eyes, the young fox could see a shore looming to her side. Foxkit struggled as she attempted to gulp in air and found nothing but endless, freezing water. A strange calm spread through the young cub as Foxkit sank beneath the surface. Blackness covered her eyes. There was not a sight nor sound, except for swirling, endless rapids.
Along the river bank, Mistyfoot spotted the reddish-gray cub drowning in the river. The deputy instantly dove smoothly into the water. Within the first few moments, the blue-gray queen had lifted the cub out of the water and dropped it onto the bank with a disturbing plop. Mistyfoot immediately began licking feverishly. Her instincts told her it was a fox cub, but she recognized the ThunderClan scent imprinted into her pelt.
Foxkit spluttered and vomited water. The vixen gasped in air and fell unconscious. Mistyfoot buried her nose in the fox's neck fur and breathed in deeply. There was no doubting that it had ThunderClan scent. The deputy didn't pause to consider not taking the cub to Mudfur, her clan's medicine cat.
Mudfur was certainly shocked when the clan's deputy brought in a fox, a hated enemy of the cat.
"What do you think you're doing?" the old tom growled when Mistyfoot placed the cub down with a mix of tenderness and cautiousness.
"It belongs to ThunderClan." she stated simply.
"Then you are trying to start a fight?" Mudfur asked suspiciously. The deputy sighed with a shake of the head.
"This cub was drowning in the river. I couldn't let it die."
"Let me see it."
Mudfur created a poultice to revive to the young vixen. He placed the mixture against her black nose. The cold tingle it brought woke her sufficiently. The medicine coaxed the half-conscious cub to swallow the bitter medicine. Foxkit blinked slowly, her senses gradually returning. She staggered weakly to her paws. For the first time, Mistyfoot noticed the blood on her lips from lifting the fox by the scruff. Her ears twitched from embarrassment as Mudfur moved forward to treat the long, deep wounds from the hawk's talons.
The vixen gave a not-so-repressed yawn and blinked tiredly. "Brackenfur? Ferncloud? Is that you?" she asked as her sight returned.
"I am the deputy of RiverClan. I found you in the river," Mistyfoot explained gently. "Do you live among ThunderClan?" The blue-gray queen already knew the answer to that. The fox's eyes became wide with fear and her fur clumped with wet bristled.
"Y-yes," the cub stuttered. She knew RiverClan was a rival of her clan. "I am Foxkit. Please don't hurt me! I didn't mean to come into your territory!" Foxkit's normal confidence crumbled once she realized there was no one to protect her. The vixen knew that she alone could not defend herself.
"Don't worry. You're safe with us. We'll just get you back to your-" Mistyfoot was cut short by someone. She didn't know who it was, but merely noticed it gasp at the shocking sight of the fox cub and dart away. Oh no, the deputy groaned inwardly.
"Mistyfoot! What is this?" Leopard's unmistakable voice snarled a moment later. Her leader came into view from Mudfur's side, claws unsheathed to attack the cub.
"I thought this was a kit drowning in the river. I retrieved it and found out, not only it was a fox but that it carried ThunderClan's scent." Mistyfoot replied as she moved between Foxkit and Leopardstar.
"Aren't you going to kill it?" Leopardstar demanded.
"That would be unnecessarily cruel. We should simply let cross back into ThunderClan territory."
Leopardstar was outraged. "First of all, it is a fox, not a intelligent, thinking kit of our own kind. Second of all, if it's a member of ThunderClan, we would miss a beneficial opportunity. Why not simply use it to get back Sunningrocks?"
Foxkit gulped. Use me? she thought fearfully. What does that mean? The fox cub shuffled on her dainty paws uncomfortably. The vixen realized she must looked pathetic- clumped fur, fresh wounds and being so small in the first place. Suddenly the RiverClan's leader cut into her thoughts.
"Come here, fox-filth!" Leopardstar ordered, a heartless snap in her voice. Foxkit staggered, more from her trembling than pain and weariness, before the powerful queen. Leopardstar looked down in disdain.
"Do you belong to ThunderClan?" the leader sneered.
Foxkit noted how the queen considered her property. "I live with the kits in the nursery," the young vixen replied, trying her best to not shake and stutter. Leopardstar's eyes glittered with malevolence.
"Lovely. Mistyfoot, take this thing to the cove in the corner of camp. Keep her there until we meet with the other clans at the gathering. I hope they'll pay a hefty price up for it."
Wheeee! Another chappie done. Please review!