Tawnykit stretched his stubby legs and started to groom himself, noticing that Starkit was already up and energetic. "Hey Starkit, race you to the fresh kill pile!"
"Oh, you're on," he replied confidently. The two kits sprinted as fast as their tiny paws could carry them to the mound of freshly killed prey the hunting patrol had brought back, When Tawnykit got there he was barreled over by Starkit and the two went rolling the rest of the way to the fresh kill pile.
"Well, I guess it was a tie," Tawnykit mewed. The two chose a mockingbird and padded over to the Nursery wall to eat it there. In between bites, Tawnykit asked " Hey Starkit, why were you up so early?"
Starkit looked at him, "Well, I woke up and didn't know what to do so I walked outside for a breath of air and what I saw scared every scrap of fur off my pelt," he meowed. Ignoring Tawnykit's flash of interest burning in his eyes, Starkit dug his face into the mockingbird again. He came back out with an eager chewing face and scraps of food entwined in his whiskers. Tawnykit shook his head for his brother and gave a mrrow of laughter. "You eat just as sloppily as those ThunderClan warriors!" Tawnykit purred.
"No I don't!" Starkit hissed and tackled him. Starkit was the biggest and burliest of the litter while Tawnykit was the runt, so Tawnykit battered his paws at Starkit in the play fight hoping that his older brother wouldn't squash him. Once Starkit had calmed down and his playful flare had died out the padded over to the mockingbird to begin eating.
"What'd you see?"
Starkit froze and closed his eyes to explain a vivid image of what he saw. "I saw Dovefeather… well I saw her talking to Scarface -" he paused as Tawnykit overlapped him with opinion.
"Scarface, that dirty, lying, piece of fox dung. What is he up to?," Tawnykit hissed.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that Scarface was talking to her in secret and it can't be about anything good." Starkit finished. He raised his hackles and even Tawnykit could feel his own fur standing on end.
"But, Dovefeather, knows that. We don't have anything to worry about," responded Tawnykit.
Starkit gave him a hard look. Tawnykit sighed and began his proposal, "Ok, we'll have to explore that later, but right now we should tell the others," Tawnykit said. He took a few more swift bites of the mockingbird and sprinted off to get the others. Looking irritated for Tawnykit to leave him behind like that, Starkit ate the remains as fast as possible and raced up. He was at Tawnykit's heels wanting to be there to help explain and see the other kit's reactions.
After Tawnykit explained what Starkit had seen the night before to the rest of the kits, Frostkit strutted up to the two kits and crouched down, her eyes blazing with concern, "Well," she began, "We know now that Scarface is up to no good, even Applekit can see that." Frostkit turned around to twitch her tail at one of the other kits in the nursery. "Have you seen them? They're beautiful."
Tawnykit looked at Starkit to see him cover his face with one of his paws. Every cat in the forest could see Starkit liked the long-furred, dark brown she-cat. Frostkit turned around again to finish."We can't let anyone find out we know what they are up to. If we so much as tell StarClan know what we do then we'll be crow food for sure," Frostkit flattened her ears angrily.
"Agreed," Tawnykit meowed back, " But I want to know what exactly they were discussing," he shot a glance at Scarface who was sharing tongues with Poisonfang.
After telling them Tawnykit thought about what Starkit had seen, while settling down for a nap, and began to wonder about what Scarface and Dovefeather were talking about. Then he thought to himself maybe it was about Sootstar's death. Maybe he didn't get killed by a collapsed badger set, maybe Scarface betrayed him cover it up. But, there was a good possibility that other reasons could also be true.
Tawnykit found he couldn't sleep and waited in silence, with only his thoughts, until the other kits woke up. Finally, they did and he shared his thought about Sootstar and his demise with them. "I think you're right." replied Moonkit, "Maybe, we should ask him what really happened."
Frostkit replied, "Sure... that would be a cheerful visit, marching into his den. Hi Scarface, tell us, did you kill Sootstar so you could be leader? Or is what you say true."
"Besides, his plan didn't work because now Dovefeather is clan leader," Frostkit pointed out, "I think our main priority now is to continue on with our lives."
" I agree," Tawnykit stated.
"Ok, I agree," Eclipsekit said.
" I proposed it, so I agree ," said Frostkit, giggling
" Same," announced Starkit
Tawnykit said he would and Moonkit was the only one left. "Okay, fine but it is going to take really long time at this rate," Moonkit finally relented.
"Deal," Tawnykit stated and with that the "meeting" was at a close. Just then Dovestar walked into the camp with her head held high but humble. As she padded into the camp she greeted cats and seemed to blush when cats called her by her new name.
Dovestar jumped onto the Clan Rock and announced, "Warriors of Shadowclan, it is an absolute honor to lead such a strong and capable Clan!" Dovestar glanced around as Tawnykit rolled his eyes. He glanced around to see Scarface sitting angrily in the background. "It is my duty as the new leader to bestow apprentice names on several patient kits who've clawed their fur off waiting to become move up a rank in our Clan. Now, don't worry I haven't forgot about my other duty as clan leader I will name the new deputy at moonhigh. After the naming of Sparrowkit and Runningkit, Tawnykit."
This really got the clan's attention for every cat was muttering about who would the deputy be, asking around to see if the kits named were old enough to become apprentices, wondering who the mentors would be, and whether or not the mentors attitudes would match or oppose their new apprentices?
After a while Dovefeather got them to calm down. "It may seem a bit early for our kits to become apprentices but ThunderClan numbers are increasing like never before and they are bound to attack sooner or later, so it is vital that we increase our number of trained and able cats as fast as we can," Dovefeather concluded. She then sighed and muttered some inaudible words while padding into her new den.
Tawnykit thought to himself , This was a little odd. Tawnykit and the others were close to six moons, but were not yet. Suddenly, Tawnykit had his doubts about Dovefeather's leadership skills. He pulled his littermates aside, "Everyone's thinking what I'm thinking right?"
"Right," they chorused back.
"Okay, I'm just thinking out loud here but did anyone see Scarface during the clan meeting?" Asked Moonkit.
"Yes, I did. He was in the back and very upset that Dovefeather was clan leader and not him."
"No. Scarface was in the front next to Toadleap. Did you notice that Dovefeather was glancing down at them every few seconds?"
"No, I didn't. Do you think that maybe Dovefeather asked the two for help? They are one of the oldest Senior Warriors."
Moonkit nodded her head. After his conclusion, Tawnykit and the others all came to a silent agreement. Frostkit was unsure at first, but soon she too agreed. Somehow Tawnykit knew that his life, and the four other cats', would be changed forever. And,judging by the others' uneasiness, Tawnykit knew that the others felt this way as well.
~.~.~.~
"Every Cat who is old enough to catch their own prey meet under this branch for a clan meeting," Dovefeather exclaimed while bounding up onto the top of the branch. Slowly everyone in the clan padded out and sat below the branch leaving a semicircle so the ceremony had space to be performed. Dovefeather started off with Runningkit and Sparrowkit, performing the ceremony and assigning them to their mentors. Runningpaw's mentor was Thornheart and Sparrowpaw's mentor was Foxstripe. They both were exhilarated at becoming apprentices. They did not realize that the others were under age, unlike them.
Tawnykit couldn't help noticing that both kits seemed to get mentors that were very close in personality to them. If that was how he was choosing mentors he would probably end up with the smallest, most sharp tongued cat in the clan. Oh, great, Tawnykit thought, at this rate I am probably going to get Toadleap.
One after the other, Starkit, Frostkit, Moonkit, and Eclipsekit went up and got their mentors and became Starpaw, Frostpaw, Moonpaw, and Eclipsepaw . Tawnykit's fears only increased because all of the other kit's mentors were almost identical to their personalities. When Dovefeather called his name, he couldn't help from worrying about whether he would be assigned Toadleap for his mentor or not.
"Tawnykit, you have proved it's time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Tawnypaw. Your mentor will be Scarface. I hope he passes down his fighting skills and quick thinking to you," Dovefeather finished. But, Tawnypaw barely heard his last few words. He got Scarface, Scarface! Everyone knew he was sneaky, cunning, and ruthless. Is that really what everyone saw that Tawnypaw could be, a cold-blooded, untrustworthy cat? He started to feel his ears heat up and his vision blurred over a bit, until he realized that this was how Dovefeather saw him. On the other paw, if Moonpaw's theory was correct, and Scarface and Toadleap were controlling Dovefeather, Scarface was the one who thought he could become like him.
His ears seemed to just started working in time to hear Dovefeather finish up his ceremony, "- and I expect you to pass on all you know to Tawnypaw." As he padded over to touch noses with Scarface, he saw a glint in his eyes and knew this was no mere accident, not a coincident. Scarface and Toadleap saw something in him that they didn't in the other paws they saw a ruthlessness, and coldness this made them think they could turn Tawnypaw over to their side. They were horribly wrong.
Tawnypaw would make them regret this. He may use it against them in his and his littermates fight to keep Dovefeather safe. Even though he and his littermates hadn't talked of rebellion, he somehow knew then that they would work behind the scenes to gain Dovefeather's trust and in the end, make her realize that Scarface and Toadleap were controlling her leadership. For she might not of been leader for long, but Tawnypaw was certain no good would come from her rein because of Scarface and Toadleap.
But, Tawnypaw couldn't help but feel worried, "What if what they saw in me is real? What if I am ruthless? I know I can get a little angry sometimes and have trouble with my anger, but I'm not cruel like them." No matter what Tawnypaw told himself, a small bit of worry remained.
