Chapter 1

EYESTAR WALKED into the nursery, looking inside at the only queen there, his mate, Mayflower. His kit, Moonkit, was sleeping peacefully next to his mother's belly in one corner. Looking around, Eyestar spotted the only other kit in the nursery, Starkit.

Starkit wasn't his kit, but Eyestar was trying to get the feel for him. Both kits were almost ready to be apprenticed, just give them another moon or so. Eyestar thought it was about time to choose their mentors. Backing out of the nursery, he bumped into his deputy, Firewhisker.

"Ah, Firewhisker, I wanted to speak to you. About Moonkit's and Starkit's mentors."

"Oh, I think I know the perfect cats." meowed Firewhisker brightly. "I can mentor Moonkit, and, I suppose, you can mentor Starkit."

"What do you mean?" Eyestar snapped at her, his neck-fur rising.

"Oh, Eyestar, you know perfectly well what I mean. I've seen the way you look at him. I just thought it'd give you a better chance to know him if you were his mentor. I've seen how bright he is, he knows the warrior code by heart and knows every history there is."

"Histories? Don't be stupid Firewhisker. Histories are for kits, not for leaders and deputies who have their paws full already with important Clan business."

"Yes, Eyestar. I was just suggesting—"

"No, Firewhisker. I make the suggestions here! And if you like Starkit so much you can mentor him! I will mentor Moonkit!"

"But sir, one of the most important things about choosing a mentor is for the apprentice to get a greater diversity of Clan life. If you mentor Moonkit, he'll be greatly deprived of a great education.'

"Fine!" spat Eyestar. Than he stalked off, long tail lashing behind him in anger.

Firewhisker shook her golden-red head with amusement. Really, Eyestar could be quite amusing sometimes. Just than, a slight frown crossed her face, and she swung around toward the nursery. What she had said back there to Eyestar, it was all true, she just hoped he would realize it and act upon her advice.

Sticking her head into the nursery, Firewhisker's whiskers twitched with amusement. Starkit was trying to get the sleepy Moonkit to play with a ball of moss. The moss-ball hit repeatedly against Moonkit's side, until finally Mayflower stopped him and told him to either settle down or play somewhere else. Muttering mutinously Starkit settled nearby Mayflower's belly and curled in a ball, head laying on hindpaws.

"Hello, Mayflower. Hello, Moonkit. Hello, Starkit." mewed Firewhisker.

"Hello Firewhisker!" chorused Mayflower and Moonkit. Starkit just lay glaring at the ground.

"Mayflower, you sound exhausted. It's not very easy taking care of kits, is it, sister? Remember what I told you after I had kits, of course you couldn't keep your eyes off Eyestar, could you?"

"No, I couldn't." laughed Mayflower.

"Well, that's okay. I couldn't keep my eyes off Hazeclaw, either."

Moving on, Firewhisker came to stand over Starkit. The kit was still trying his best to ignore her, but that was pretty hard to do seeing as she was standing right in front of him. "Starkit?" she mewed. No answer. "Starkit, come with me."

Without waiting for the kit to reply, the deputy extracted her head from the nursery and with a flick of her fiery tail had exited the camp entrance.

Starkit poked his head out the nursery after Firewhisker. Seeing her tail disappear out of the camp entrance, he scrambled out of the nursery and went running after her, tail held straight up, ears perked and legs stiff. Soon he was taking his first steps out of the camp. Exhilaration flooded through every vein in his body.

He was just going to follow her scent trail when he bumped into a big black furry leg. Looking up, he found himself looking up into the strong, resolute, broad face of the most handsome, muscular warrior in the camp, Furfang.

"Now what would a young kit like you be doing out of camp unaccompanied, I wonder?" he meowed, looking down at the kits face, Furfang bent his head down, picking up Starkit by the scruff of his neck. He was just about to go back into camp when a voice hailed him.

"Where do you think your going with that kit Furfang?" asked a challenging voice.

Furfang whirled around and found himself face-to-face with Firewhisker. At first he looked furious, than the anger receded from his eyes when he realized that it was the Clan deputy he was facing. Muttering "Sorry" under his breath, he dropped Starkit and stalked back into camp after the rest of his patrol.

After he had gone Firewhisker led Starkit into a cat-sized hole underneath a boulder. Inside, it was perfectly hollow with a floor lined with soft silver sand. This was usually the place where mentors took their apprentices to train. The soft sand lining the floor was ideal for practicing fighting skills.

Starkit looked around him in wonder, the feeling of the soft silver sand under his paws was refreshing after the rocky stubble he was used to. The hollow rock was also nice and cool, with a ventilation on the left side to catch the cool winds from the north.

But instead of stopping, Firewhisker stalked right to the other side of the hollow and sat down. Her tail twitched twice. She waited a few more minutes before she rolled her eyes, walked over, and hit him on the side of the face with a soft ginger paw. That brought Starkit back to reality.

He blinked his eyes and followed her curiously across the hollow. "Stay there!" ordered Firewhisker, flicking her tail sternly. She sat down again and shook her paw.

Starkit looked at Firewhisker curiously and cocked his head to one side. He licked his lips and righted it. Than in seemingly sudden understanding he sat up straight and stared directly at Firewhisker.

Firewhisker smiled. Than she meowed, "Attack me."

Starkit looked surprised at first, than crouched down and wriggled his haunches. He didn't really have a strategy yet, but he did have an idea. Without further thought he flew at her paws.

Firewhisker decided to go easy on the kit this time. When she saw him coming at her, she spread her paws and stood her ground. Starkit was still small, and he squealed with surprise as instead of landing on her paws he slid under her belly on his back. Then he thought of something.

Hastily he scrambled to a position that would allow him fast get-away, then he kicked her. All four of his kitten paws went up beneath the deputy's belly and pushed up with all their might (not much). But it was enough to take her by surprise and over-balance her. The deputy had been standing lightly on her paws, and it didn't take much to overturn her.

"Ahhh!" she yowled as she crashed to the ground, the side of her face falling heavily on the silver sand. Starkit walked up to her and mewed in a cocky sort of way, "How was that?"

"Fine, just fine." moaned Firewhisker. She was in no mood to say anything against the kit. "Great StarClan, where did you learn that?"

"I didn't learn it anywhere, it just seemed like the reasonable thing to do, so I did it."

"Well, my face is sore, that's for sure. Come on, let's get back to camp before your mother misses you." With that the two cats went back to camp.