A/N- ZOMG! AN UPDATE! It's a whole new chapter, wow! Sorry this took so long to get up, I had horrible writer's block and I've been really busy. My teachers are piling on the homework now that they realize school's nearly over x.x

Chapter 3

Five kits tumbled out of the nursery, blinking their huge eyes in the sunhigh light and tripping over their own paws.

Instantly, Eaglekit bellowed, "Race you to the Stormstone!" He launched himself over the ground towards the huge rock at the end of camp. Foxkit followed.

He was going so fast that he could feel the wind in his fur whistling, and his feet hardly seemed to touch the ground. He felt so free and joyful, he let out a yowl and leaped ahead of Eaglekit. He slowed to avoid bashing into the stone, and skidded to a stop, putting a paw on the smooth, cool rock. "Beat ya!" he called gleefully.

Eaglekit, who never liked being beaten at anything, scowled and marched off. "I didn't want to play with you anyway. You're too weird. I wasn't born with my eyes open, like you."

Foxkit's happy mood fell, and his whiskers seemed to droop. Eaglekit could be a bully sometimes. But now he had no one to play with. Leafkit and Thunderkit were tussling together, and Eaglekit was trying to convince Patchcloud to let him eat the raw vole, and not have her chew it up for him beforehand.

"Buck up," said a cheerful voice from behind him. "He's just jealous."

Foxkit whirled around to see a smallish gray, brown, and gold kit behind him. His eyes were light green.

"Who- who are you?" Foxkit stammered.

"I'm Falconkit," the kit chirped. "Who are you? You look awful glum."

"Foxkit," said Foxkit, feeling his whiskers rise up again. He smiled and said, "Just my brother teasing me. He went away and now I have no one to play with."

"That's what I'm here for," mewed Falconkit. "Wanna play?"

"Sure!" meowed Foxkit. "What that?" He pointed his nose towards a black creature crawling in the dirt.

"I dunno, let's stalk it!" whispered Falconkit eagerly. "Shh, don't scare it away." He started creeping after the thing.

Happily, Foxkit mirrored him, crouching in the dust. Today he had made his first new friend.

Three moons passed, and the kits were almost ready to become apprentices. At four moons, they were not quite set but they were getting there. Their fur was thickening so they could fluff up and keep warm by themselves, and their vision was sharper. Their scent of smell was more advanced, and they knew the different scents of their friends and mothers and fathers. They were eating meat by themselves now, not needing their mothers to grind it up for them. Their mothers were quite agitated when their children practiced sheathing and unsheathing their claws late at night when they lay by their mothers. Patchcloud complained to another queen that sleeping with Thunderkit was like "trying to nestle in with a squirming hedgehog."

Foxkit and Falconkit were becoming fast friends. They played together every day and had adventures, like exploring around the Stormstone or sneaking into the warriors' den, where they were shooed out by one of the senior warriors.

Falconkit was the spitting image of his mother, Spottedfern, one of the senior queens. His only sibling was a pretty, longhaired black she-cat who Foxkit didn't know, although when he asked about her, Falconkit said that she was nice and smart, and that his father, Slashclaw, who was also black, liked her very much. Falconkit was often jealous of the close bond between Slashclaw and his daughter. But Foxkit would always distract him by yowling, "Race you to the pine tree!" or "How many mouse tails can you eat in a minute?"

One sun, Falconkit screamed a battle cry and leaped into Foxkit, bowling him into the fresh-kill pile. Foxkit gave a startled yelp as he landed among voles and sparrows. He emerged, laughing, with a vole's tail draped over his back and a rabbit's leg across his head. He shook these off and screeched at Falconkit, "Oh you are gonna pay for that!"

But he stopped himself just as he was about to jump, because Falconkit was staring at something that was behind Foxkit, with a questioning look on his face. Foxkit looked behind him.

"What's that?" he blurted, staring at the long coil of mottled brown. He stroked it with the pad of his paw; it was smooth and cool, scaly and slick. Falconkit was equally dumbfounded.

"I dunno," he said, confused. "I've never seen it before."

"That's an adder," said a voice from behind them. The two kits whirled around to see a dark gray warrior looking down at them. Foxkit recognized Stormypelt, one of the senior warriors.

"A what?" echoed Falconkit with a frown.

"An adder," repeated Stormypelt. "It's a snake, one of our enemies. They bite, and their fangs are poisonous. The venom can kill kits like you instantly. However, they can be hunted, if you bite them right at the neck. Dawnpaw brought this one in this morning. They're edible, but not very tasty. I suggest you don't eat it."

He selected a vole from the pile and went off to eat with Blackmask, Foxkit's father. As soon as he was gone, Falconkit turned to Foxkit, a devious grin on his face.

"Dare you," he cackled.

Foxkit grinned back. "I'll show you! I'll eat the whole thing."

Falconkit stepped back. "Get on with it, then."

Foxkit ran forward and sank his teeth into the snake's flesh. A bitter taste met his tongue, but he was determined to keep eating. He took bite after bite and reflected that it was a good thing he was hungry.

After a while, Foxkit stepped back. Only the snake's head lay in the fresh-kill pile now. Falconkit looked very impressed.

"Wow!" he said. "Yeah, Foxkit!

That night, Foxkit got a very unpleasant stomachache. He spent most of the night throwing up behind the nursery.

As his stomach churned and he opened his mouth to vomit once more, he vowed that he would never, ever eat snake again.