Hey guys! Here's the first chapter! Hope you like it!

Chapter 1

She was sleeping, like she always did. Sootkit stared at her, irritation building up inside of him. She was curled against Cinderskip, her fluffy pelt rising and falling with each breath. Cinderskip was watching her with a calm happiness. That was a look only Lilykit got. Sootkit was ignored for the most part.

"Mom, I'm bored!" Sootkit complained.

"Hush, Sootkit," Cinderskip mewed. "Lilykit is sleeping. Go outside if you're bored."

"But I want to play with you!" the gray tom kit protested. "You only ever pay attention to her. It's not fair." Cinderskip glared at him fiercely. It was probably the first time she'd really looked at him since Lilykit had been dropped into her nest half a moon ago. When Flutterheart, Lilykit's mother had died in kitting, Finchpad had asked Cinderskip to feed her, and she agreed. But she didn't just feed the small calico kitten. She acted as though she was her own kit, seemed to forget that Sootkit had been born with a sister, and stopped paying attention to him.

"You can take a nap or leave, Sootkit," Cinderskip mewed. Then she tucked her head down next to Lilykit's and closed her eyes. Once she was asleep, Sootkit nudged Lilykit.

"What?" the tiny calico whined, opening her eyes.

"Come on, Lilykit, let's go outside!" Sootkit exclaimed.

"Okay," Lilykit yawned, climbing out of the nest. She stretched each leg individually and bounced out of the nursery before Sootkit could say anything. He rolled his eyes and followed her outside, but she was already half way across the clearing, going toward the elders den. Boring, Sootkit thought. He trotted over to the apprentices to play with them instead.

...

Sootkit licked a paw and swiped it over his ear. Cinderskip was sitting a few tail lengths away from him, grooming Lilykit. She hadn't said anything to him yet today. But it didn't matter anymore. He was going to be an apprentice!

"All cats gather in the center of camp for a clan meeting!" Sagestar yowled, bounding over to the edge of camp where large pointy stones formed the front of the clan meeting area.

"Yay!" Lilykit squealed, shaking her pelt and trotting to the front of the group that was starting to gather. Sootkit wrinkled his nose at her kit like behavior and stalked over to stand beside her.

"Sootkit," Sagestar began, "from this day forward, you will be known as Sootpaw. Your mentor will be Goldensplash."

"Sootpaw, Sootpaw, Sootpaw!" the clan cheered. Sootpaw walked to his new mentor and touched his nose to hers, feeling smug at the knowledge that just for these few moments he was an apprentice and Lilykit was still a kit. By the time Sootpaw had turned around to sit down, Lilykit was Lilypaw and she was touching noses with Petalflame.

"What are we doing first?" Sootpaw asked his mentor, turning to her excitedly. She was talking to Petalflame, excitedly making training plans.

Goldensplash glanced back at him. "We're going to go hunting with Lilypaw and Petalflame. Does that sound good?"

"Yes!" Lilypaw mewed, jumping up excitedly. Then she looked sideways at him and her gaze turned cold. "We don't have to go together though. Won't it scare the prey with all four of us?" Oh. That hurt. Lilypaw was normally to absorbed in her own perfect life to pay any attention to him, but when she did, she didn't bother to hide her feelings about him.

His pelt bristling, Sootpaw snapped, "I don't know how you can hate me! You're the one who stole my mother!"

Lilypaw's eyes widened and she flinched away from him. "You take your mother for granted!" she hissed. "Don't you think I wish my own mother was still alive?" Her voice almost quivered as she spoke. Unsure what to say to that, and surprised by her sudden emotion, Sootpaw backed away, looking at the ground.

The mentors exchanged alarmed glances, and then Petalflame mewed, "Lilypaw, we can go battle train with the older apprentices instead."

Goldensplash nodded. "That's a great idea. We can hunt on our own, Sootpaw. Let's go." She waved her tail over his back and urged him out of camp.

Still seething, Sootpaw followed her into the forest. It was leaf-fall, and a layer of red-orange-brown leaves littered the forest floor. Wow, he thought. It's so big! Unwilling to show Goldensplash how daunted he was, he looked around for something that would impress her.

Pricking his ears, Sootpaw could hear the rustling of prey in the bushes. Not waiting to listen to Goldensplash's instructions, he dropped down and stalked forward lightly. When he was close enough, he pounced on what he thought was a mouse scuffling beneath the leaves.

Yes! Something cracked in his paws and he picked up the mouse, radiating pride. That would have shut Lilypaw up, he thought smugly. Goldensplash was staring at him, her mouth hanging open.

"That was amazing!" she mewed.

Sootpaw shrugged. "The apprentices have been teaching me to hunt for moons. I just hadn't had a chance to try it." Since Lilypaw had been the only other kit, he'd become good friends with the apprentices instead, and so now he was going to excel in the skills his adopted littermate would just be starting to learn, since she had spent her time as a kit throwing around mossballs alone and listening to stories in the elders den.

Goldensplash shook herself. "Well, since you seem to have a basic grasp of hunting, let's work on technique. Show me your crouch." Sootpaw put his mouse to the side and dropped into a hunters crouch. Goldensplash padded around him, tucking in his paws and pushing him closer to the ground. "That's better," she meowed. "Try to do it more like that. Let's go find some more prey."

...

By the time he and Goldensplash returned to camp, the sun was setting. Sootpaw held his head high as he walked, proud of his catches. In addition to the mouse, he'd found a vole. If this doesn't impress Cinderskip, I give up, he thought as he dropped them onto the fresh-kill pile.

"Hey, Sootpaw!" Robinpaw called. "Did you catch that?" He was sitting with Sedgepaw, Nightpaw, and Redpaw. They had a mostly finished rabbit in front of them.

"Yep!" he meowed. "The mouse was my first try!"

"Good job, today," Goldensplash meowed to him. "We'll explore more of the territory tomorrow. Go eat with your denmates." Then she walked away to join a group of warriors.

Sedgepaw beckoned him over. "You'll never guess what happened during battle training," She mewed in a gossipy tone.

Sootpaw sat down beside her and took a bite out of the rabbit. "Tell me."

"Kestrellight showed up. Did you know he and Petalflame are a thing now? Lilypaw flipped out. It was hilarious."

"Kestrellight? Isn't he Lilypaw's father?" Sootpaw mewed.

Nightpaw joined in now, nodding enthusiastically. "That's why she flipped out! Did you know Kestrellight was still an apprentice when he and Flutterheart were mates? I'm pretty sure he was just with her because she was pretty."

Sootpaw snorted. "Obviously. I don't think he's said a word to Lilypaw her entire life. Did he say anything to her today?"

"No, he just came to whisper in Petalflame's ear and try to get her to go with him into the forest. Petalflame has it bad for him. She would have gone with him if it weren't for the rest of the mentors making Kestrellight leave," Robinpaw explained.

"And Lilypaw was crazy," Redpaw added. "I've never seen a cat look so upset. Don't you think she would understand by now that Kestrellight didn't really love her mother?"

Sootpaw rolled his eyes. "Lilypaw is crazy." He pushed the rabbit away. "I'm going to sleep. See you guys tomorrow."

He padded to the apprentices den and was about to go in when he heard crying. Lilypaw. He felt a pang of guilt for talking about her with the other apprentices, but he pushed it away. She had stolen his mother. He didn't owe anything to her. He pushed through the ferns at the entrance and looked around. Lilypaw's crying stopped immedietly, but he could hear her sniffling. He curled into an empty nest and closed his eyes. Then he looked up again. Lilypaw's small shape was shaking violently.

"Lilypaw?" he whispered. No answer. He tried again. "Are you okay?"

"Shut up, Sootpaw," she mewed. "You don't need to act like you don't hate me. I don't care."

So that's chapter 1! I hope you liked it! I'll work on making my chapters longer but I felt like this was a good stopping point for this one! If you liked it, please review! Or if you didn't like it, review and tell me what I can do better! Constructive criticism is appreciated!

~Hazel Sparks Fly