CHAPTER ONE
"Oi! Shove over, will ya?" squeaked Brownkit, a white tom kit, at his sister Whitekit, a brown she-kit.
Whitekit stuck her tongue out at her brother and punched him in the face. "Nyah!"
Their mother, Dewseed, a tabby she-cat, swatted her daughter's rump with her paw. "Enough of that! Leave your brother alone!"
A calico trotted into the camp clearing with a dead bird dangling from her jaws. "Who's that, Mama? Is that a he or a she?" Whitekit asked.
Dewseed glanced up. "Oh, that's Hollytail, the Clan deputy. Calicos are always she-cats," she replied.
Another calico struggled into the camp fighting with a frantically fluttering finch. Brownkit scampered up to the newcomer, and before Dewseed could stop him, he asked, "How many kits have you had?"
The calico released the finch, and it tried to fly away. The calico tried to catch it, but Hollytail got it first. The second calico turned gaped at Brownkit. "What?"
"I said, 'How many kits have you had?'" Brownkit replied.
"Uh, none?" the calico replied questioningly.
"Why?" Whitekit asked.
"I can't have kits," the calico replied.
"Oh." Whitekit was silent for a few seconds. "Why?"
"Because I'm a tom."
The kits glared at their mother. "You said calicos were always she-cats!" they mewed accusingly.
Dewseed bit her lip. "Well, um, that's Twistedclaw for you."
A small apprentice crashed into Whitefoot as the big tom was grabbing a vole from the fresh-kill pile.
"Whitefoot! Whitefoot!" he squeaked. The big tom glanced down at him with a quizzical expression on his face. "Elmheart's having her kits!"
Whitefoot shoved the apprentice aside and dashed to the nursery, where a tortoiseshell queen was shrieking in agony and squirming in great discomfort...