Another chapter! ^^ Thanks to all of you who reviewed, it really means a lot! Also, about my uploading schedule, I'm thinking I'm going to try for one chapter a week. If I find more time to write I'll definitely post more, and if I'm super busy it'll be a little less, but once per week will be my goal. Now to see if I can actually stick to it... ^^;
QLKwriter: Haha, thanks! I love writing about Ivy and Rowan, they're absolutely adorable! This chapter is mainly Ivy, but you will see more development in Rowan next chapter.
Willow: Do you need to work on being more impulsive? XD
ShadowHawk540-2: The Clans will play a part in this book, but I don't think they'll come in for a little while. Yep, it really was a raven! ^^ Was that too weird or was it okay?
Leafy: Hey, you found time to read! :D *hugs* Thanks so much! It's just going to be Ivykit narrating, I'm afraid, but that doesn't mean you won't see a lot of Rowankit's personality! They spend quite a lot of time together. I'm afraid Toby doesn't play too much of a role, but I might put him in a later chapter. And I've been developing this idea since last summer, so I've been able to grasp what Ivy and Rowan are like through outlining and plotting and looking forward, and all. :) Thank you!
A Ravenclaw in RiverClan: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it and I hope you like this chapter just as much!
ThiefofSong: I think my writing style naturally mimics kit behavior... I might have to work on that as they start growing up. ^^; Thank you!
Shadows of Weeping Wolves: Haha, I'm glad someone is! XD Hasta pronto! (see you soon?)
Skyshine: Thanks! ^^
ilovewarriorcats: I'm tentative to say much about the parents, but I will say that the mother isn't another Ashthorn. Her kits were a bit of an accident and she wouldn't have been able to keep them in her situation. Also, though I did write a book with winged cats in it, Ivykit isn't going to have wings, it's a figurative sort of thing. I get the eyesight thing too, I've been wearing glasses almost for as long as I can remember, since elementary school, and I'm planning on getting them fixed as soon as I can. Because of my sorta-late upload, I'm guessing you've already decided on a name, but if I still get a say I'd suggest Hollystar. :)
Silverkitty16: I'm hoping the raven wasn't too unexpected... I'll explain it at some point I think, but for now it's just going to be a thing. ^^; My trip was fun, thanks! Hope this wasn't too long of a wait!
I came to in a strange den, surrounded by clutter. I blinked, my eyes adjusting quickly to the darkness, and objects began materializing out of the gloom.
Someone had laid me on a soft but dirty blanket, spread on a patch of ground beside a stack of boxes turned gray by the accumulated dirt of several years. Across the den, I spotted another pile of old boxes, rising in uneven layers to the crumbling roof.
Where am I?
A soft pawstep warned me I wasn't alone. I tensed instinctively, eyes darting around until I spotted an unfamiliar cat rounding the corner. He was rather short and looked young for an adult cat, though this didn't dissuade my wariness. His lean frame was softened by pale brown tabby fur and his large, gold eyes gleamed at me through the dim light.
When the tom saw how I pressed myself against the damp wood behind me, his eyes widened and he slowed immediately to about a quarter of his previous pace. "Hello, Ivykit," he murmured gently. "My name is Shaq. I promise, I'm here to help."
Shaq darted over to the pile of boxes on the other side of the den. After a few heartbeats of rummaging around inside, he was back, holding a dried, crumbly leaf tenderly in his jaws. "Here," he meowed, dropping the herb in front of me. "A lily leaf, to grant you sleep."
But I didn't want to sleep. And besides, how was I supposed to know this Shaq was really trying to help me? For all I knew, he could be trying to poison me. Thalia had warned me about the dangerous cats in the Twolegplace proper, insisting they all wanted to kitnap me and Rowankit and murder us.
Despite my suspicion, my mind bubbled with questions I was dying to get answered. Maybe I could ask just a few while I figured out how to get back home to Rowankit's and my den behind the metal cans.
"Where am I?" I asked, glancing quickly around, trying not to take my eyes off Shaq for too long. "The… the last thing I remember is falling from that horrible Twoleg den. How did I even get here?" Then something occurred to me. Rowankit! He wouldn't have dared let me out of his sight after a fall like that! He must be around here somewhere, right? "Where's Rowankit? And Thalia?"
Before I could get another question out, Shaq shoved his tail into my mouth. I coughed as the tickling hairs brushed the roof of my mouth, the back of my throat. "Quiet, kit!" he hissed. "Other cats are trying to sleep!"
Was it nighttime? But since I'd been unconscious or sleeping or whatever since the afternoon, I was wide awake. Shifting a little, I tried to see past Shaq, dipping my head to glance under his belly at the doorway. It would explain the darkness. But before I could get a good look Shaq sat down, forcing me to look back up at his face.
"Okay then," Shaq took a deep breath. "How about I answer your first questions? Would you like that?"
I nodded.
"How about this, how about I answer your questions only as long as you promise to stay quiet? Can you do that for me?"
After a slight hesitation, I nodded again. If he attacked me or something I would reserve my right to scream, though I guessed that was allowed since if he attacked me he technically wouldn't be answering my questions.
"Great. Now, your first question was about where you are, correct?" He looked at me for confirmation. I opened my mouth to reply Yes but remembered my promise and froze. Instead, I forced my jaws shut and nodded. "This is the Peaceful Loners' Enclave, commonly referred to as just the Enclave. It's a courtyard of sorts where loners come to share tongues or make their dens. Some just come for the open air and sunlight. It's a safe place for us to hang."
Peaceful Loners? I could feel the fur along my spine beginning to flatten. If they were peaceful, they must be okay… right?
"I don't see a courtyard."
Shaq laughed a little. "We're inside one of the dens. Tomorrow, when it's light, you'll be able to see the courtyard. Now, I thought you had another question? How you got here, I believe?"
"Yeah."
"You were brought here by an elderly she-cat with gray fur. Talla, I believe her name was?"
"Thalia," I corrected him automatically.
"Yes, that sounds right. It was her and a young, russet-brown tom about your age."
"Rowankit!"
"Yes, I believe that was his name. Anyway, Thalia set you down and instructed me to get you well overnight, and she'd be back to pick you up in the morning. She said she'd be bringing a couple pigeons as payment." I noticed his lips curl inward, as though he were surreptitiously swiping his tongue around his mouth to keep in his saliva. I suddenly realized how thin he looked—I could see three ribs on each side of his body.
"Thalia and Rowankit were here? Did she look angry?" I asked, suddenly nervous. I realized I was still standing and quickly sat down, mirroring Shaq and wrapping my tail around my paws.
"They looked worried, especially the tom, but they left too quickly for me to really tell." Shaq shrugged. "I was looking after you."
"Oh."
Shaq hesitated a moment, then meowed, "I… I believe I've answered all your questions. Will you eat the lily leaf now so you can sleep until morning?"
I paused, staring down at the leaf. Shaq didn't seem too bad, but still… it was difficult to just throw away all Thalia had taught me about strange cats. Should I really just eat it? Would Thalia be mad if she came back and found me worse than when she'd left me? Would she think it was my fault?
Sensing my hesitation, Shaq murmured, "I'm positive it will work. I've used this leaf many, many times, and it's worked the way it should every single time." He nosed it toward me. "Eat. Thalia and Rowankit will be here when you wake up."
I grinned at the thought of my brother. Then, figuring Shaq wouldn't dare murder me if Thalia was coming back soon, I began munching on the leaf, chewing it to a pulp. It didn't taste like anything in particular, so I managed to swallow it easily and curled back up on the blanket.
As Shaq padded away, taking the remains of the lily leaf with him, my eyelids began to drift shut. Just before the leaf pulled me back into sleep, I remembered the raven. But before I had time to properly ponder what the heck it had been doing, I was overwhelmed by sleep.
"Ivykit!" Rowankit's voice filled the den as I blinked open my eyes. Glancing up, I spotted him bounding through the den entrance, full of nervous energy. His eyes widened when he saw me. "Your eyes!" he gasped. "They've changed!"
My breath caught in my throat. Was it true? Rubbing my paws quickly over my face to wipe away any last traces of sleep, I stared excitedly around the den. Yes, I supposed it really did look much clearer. A couple of boxes close to the ceiling still looked a bit fuzzy, but I guessed that would fade as I grew older.
"What color are they?" I demanded, though I was sure I already knew the answer.
Sure enough, Rowankit replied, "Dark green. Just like me!"
I mirrored his grin, pulling myself forward out of the blanket to rub affectionately against him. It was a mark of how shaken he must still be that he didn't pull away.
When I blinked open my eyes again, I gazed over Rowankit's shoulder to see Thalia standing in the entrance, talking to the tabby tom from last night. What was his name again? Shack? Why would he call himself the same thing as his den?
As Rowankit and I padded over to the two older cats, Thalia's slow, raspy whisper grew audible. "Thank you for watching Ivykit for the night, Shaq. I'm afraid I could only find one pigeon as payment."
Oh, right. His name was Shaq.
"That's fine," Shaq assured Thalia, smiling. "You can pay the other pigeon back whenever. It's no problem."
Thalia dipped her head in acknowledgement of his generosity. "She wasn't hard to get to settle down?" she pressed.
Shaq cast an amused glance my way. "She acted just how I'd expected," he meowed, smiling. "Full of questions, but went right to sleep with the help of a little lily."
I noticed something scratching against my back, tangled in the kit-fluff between my shoulders, and stopped listening to the conversation for a moment to try to dislodge it. It wouldn't budge, though, so I figured I might as well try to ignore it for now. I still had a couple questions for Shaq.
"How many other cats are here?" I stretched my eyes wide, hoping he wouldn't mind satisfying my curiosity a couple more times.
He didn't seem to mind. On the contrary, he turned toward me and settled himself into a comfortable crouch, anticipating a long Q&A session. I could barely keep myself from bouncing into the air in excitement.
"That," Thalia snapped, "is something you don't need to know. Now come on. Rowankit, you too. We're going home."
I planted my paws, glaring at Thalia. "But I wanna look around!" I wailed, hoping that maybe, just maybe, I could use the I'm Sick! excuse this time. It had worked before when Thalia let me out into the alley for the first time after I'd just recovered from a bad cough.
But Thalia glared right back. "No. We're going home. Now."
Shaq glanced from Rowankit's and my mutinous faces to Thalia's annoyed one. "It couldn't hurt to let them at least look around a little?" he suggested hesitantly.
"Yes it could!" I'd never seen Thalia this insistent about something before. With a quick glance at Rowankit and me, she lowered her voice a fraction and hissed, "They don't belong here. They belong in the alley, where they'll be safe."
Shaq looked coolly at her. "We all can belong wherever we choose," he meowed evenly.
"They were entrusted to my care! I refuse to let them near any danger!"
"You've done a good job of that so far, I see. It's why Ivykit almost died falling from an abandoned Twoleg den!" Shaq took a deep breath, returning to his neutral tone with surprising ease. I wondered if he had a lot of practice calming cats down. It wouldn't surprise me. "These are very curious kits you have here. I figure they'd come right back here the moment your back was turned."
Thalia hissed again, but to my relief she didn't argue further. Turning to us, she huffed, "Fine. Look around here for one day only. I'll be back at nightfall to pick you up again."
"Yes!" I dashed for the entrance, but skidded to a halt almost immediately. The something was still stuck between my shoulders. Turning, I glanced up at Shaq, hesitant to ask Thalia since her tail was still puffed up like a long cloud. "Um… I think there's something stuck in my fur," I muttered, slightly embarrassed.
Out of the corner of my eye I spotted Rowankit watching me. Heat rushed into my cheeks and I looked down, scuffing a paw against the ground. Why couldn't I just have pulled it out on my own?
Shaq ran his claws lightly through my fur. "Oh," he meowed. Then, "Oh."
"What?" I turned to see him holding up a single black feather.
My heart turned over. It was the raven's. It had to be the raven's. Maybe it had fallen out of its tail when it caught me.
"What's that?" Rowankit asked, padding forward.
"It is a raven's feather," Shaq replied, staring shrewdly at me. I looked right back into those huge, gold eyes, inwardly grinning because I'd identified it correctly. What was he thinking?
Shaq turned away and began messing with something inside one of his boxes. I glanced over at Rowankit, suddenly a little nervous. That feather had obviously meant something to Shaq. What if it was bad? Would he punish me? But why would he, I hadn't known it was there!
He turned back to face me, holding the feather in his mouth. But he'd done something to it; from the sharp tip hung a loop of what looked like half-dried grass. "Here," Shaq muttered around his mouthful of feather, placing the loop around my left ear. It felt slightly scratchy like Thalia's whiskers. I flicked my ear instinctively, trying to get it off, but it stayed put.
Shaq leaned down so his face was on a level with mine. "Ivykit," he said seriously, solemnly, "you keep his feather wherever you go, you hear? I gave you that loop so you can take it off in a fight, but make sure it stays with you at all other times. You owe that raven your life. Carry this with you always as a remembrance of that."
I lifted a paw, batting gently at the night-black feather now dangling from my equally black ear. Turning his words over in my mind, I realized that carrying that feather wasn't the only honor I could give the raven. It had saved my life, after all.
"I want to change my name," I meowed firmly.
Shocked stares met my words. Shaq looked like he was pondering my decision, his face impassive. Rowankit looked plain dumbfounded and a little confused. Thalia stepped forward, her face a grimace of disapproval. "Are you sure?" she asked warningly. "That name is the only thing you have left of your real mother."
I hesitated. It was true; I didn't want to give up my one way of remembering my mother. But then I realized my name wasn't all she'd given me. Puffing up my chest, I grinned and retorted, "I have a brother. Rowankit can help me remember her." And maybe even find her, I added silently.
Thalia glared at me, opening her mouth to snap back, but Shaq cut across her. "She's made her choice. You can't change a kit's mind once it's made up." He half smiled to himself. "Believe me, I've tried many, many times." He turned to me. "So your new name. Should it be…?"
"Ravenkit," I decided. "I am Ravenkit."
Shaq dipped his head. "Ravenkit it is, then."
I grinned, elation bubbling through me. Ravenkit. My name is Ravenkit!
Rowankit bounded over, his eyes alight with enough excitement to match my own. "Wow! I… just, wow!"
"I know!" I pranced around him, pretending to almost tackle him a couple times.
Rowankit growled a little, but then his eyes fixed over my shoulder and he froze. "But our time's getting away, we only have one day to explore, remember?"
I turned to look out the entrance, too. The sun had risen and light poured into a large open area. Even through this small opening, I could make out several cats scattered around, walking back and forth or lying in the sun. My paws tingled with excitement. "Well come on then, let's go!"
"Yeah! Yeah, Ravenkit, let's go!" Rowankit grinned as he bounded past me and I got the feeling he'd repeated my words just to be able to say my new name. Ravenkit. I followed him at a run, our tails lifting jauntily into the air. As we passed Thalia, I caught a glimpse of her nettled glare. But she couldn't do anything to punish us—she'd already agreed to our one day and my name change was my own decision. She couldn't do anything about it. I leaped a little in exhilaration. She couldn't control me! She wasn't even my real mother!
As Rowankit and I burst into the warm sunlight, something dark and rather feathery caught my eye. Glancing up, I saw a raven perched on the den's roof, staring down at me with black, beady eyes. As I watched, it cocked its head at me, gave one soft, croaking call, and took off into the air.
I watched it flap away. Thank you for saving me, I thought. But… why? You're prey. A cat wouldn't save a dog, so why would a raven save a cat?
"Ravenkit!" Rowankit called. "Come on!"
"Coming!" I bounded after him. It was time to explore!
Thanks for reading! ^^ Next chapter I'll introduce a bunch of other characters, which I hope you'll find entertaining!
AOTD: I think I'm going to have to go with Ivy-no, Ravenkit and Rowankit. They're super adorable and really fun to write about!
QOTD: (scrambles to think of something) What's your favorite type of bird?