AN: The 'this is no time to make our with our ancestors!" was really satisfying to write, believe it or not. Yay, hanging lampshades on every terrible cliché from the books and fics/rps!

The story behind Mossstar's blessing (the triple s's are so hard to do, I want to stop myself at two!) is funny too. :D

CHAPTER 2

Kitekit padded out of the nursery – Sweetheart was oh-so-conveniently asleep again. Kitekit paused to glance at the pool, remembering the excitement from the day before – it was clean again, of course – before padding upwards to find Yellowbelly. She was surprised to find that the golden medicine cat was not there, nor were her herbs or even Nightlight, who had a bad cough. Kitekit frowned and wandered around the camp for a bit, wondering where Yellowbelly had gone, when a loud cough startled her.

"Shut up, shut up!" she heard Yellowbelly hiss. "Eat this, then, don't cough! We can't have them finding me, oh no…."

Kitekit peeked into the nearest crevice, and was surprised to find Yellowbelly there, along with Nightlight. "You moved dens?" Kitekit asked, surprised.

"Yes," Yellowbelly said crossly, glaring at the kit."After the fiasco yesterday, I figured it would be wise….You wouldn't believe how hard it was to drag her useless weight around." She nodded to Nightlight, who bristled.

"You knocked me out with your stupid herbs, and dragged me over here to hide from the Clan!" Nightlight said indignantly. Yellowbelly waved her tail dismissively.

"I could have drugged you and left you there for Stonedstar to find, you know," Yellowbelly sneered. "He would have had a field day."

Nightlight bristled again, but forced her fur to lie flat, glancing away from the medicine cat. Yellowbelly blinked at Kitekit. "What do you want?"

"I was just looking for you," Kitekit said, and sat down. "Why did you tell everyone Butterflywing was dead?"

"It was supposed to be dramatic," Yellowbelly said with a disdainful sniff, "but the Clan doesn't appreciate my dramatic talents. I was going to 'revive' Butterflywing and everything. It was supposed to be cool!" Yellowbelly sounded like a jealous kit, and Kitekit felt a stirring of pity for her.

"I'm sure it would have been neat," Kitekit said consolingly.

"Can I go?" Nightlight asked crossly. "You already gave me your stupid herbs."

"You can't tell anyone!" Yellowbelly warned her, her eyes slightly wild. "The last time I tried being dramatic, the apprentices put fleas in my bed! I'm sure Wormfoot will do even worse."

Nightlight rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she growled, before stalking out of the den.

Kitekit gently poked a berry.

"Don't touch that," Yellowbelly screeched, swiping at her paw. "Eat it and it'll kill you!"

Kitekit's eyes widened and she stared at the little berry. "Why do you have it?"

Yellowbelly's eyes suddenly looked shifty. "For…things," she said, and scooped the berry up, putting it on a large pile of identical berries. Kitekit blinked at her.

"Hey, do you know what these are?" Yellowbelly asked quickly to distract her, pointing at a flower.

"Oooh, what is it?" Kitekit asked eagerly.

"Marigold, for keeping off infection," Yellowbelly explained. "It also helps unsightly rashes.

"What's this?" Kitekit asked, pointing to several black seeds.

"Poppy seeds," Yellowbelly explained. "For pain and sleeping. Eat enough of them, and they provide a nice alternative to catnip, and a much more easy to find one."

Kitekit nodded, and Yellowbelly went on to explain several other herbs – tansy for joint pain, also for convenient miscarriages, deathberries to kill off cats you don't like, cobwebs which can cause infections, and others – which Kitekit listened to eagerly. She soon completely forgot about Yellowbelly's secret stash of deathberries (despite Yellowbelly teaching her about them) as she eagerly listened to how warriors could actually be blinded by rabbits, thanks to the vermin's filthy claws.

"You're quite sharp, for a kit," Yellowbelly purred finally, causing Kitekit to smile.

"Is it true that medicine cats do a 'sharing tongues' thing with StarClan?" she asked eagerly. "That sounds delicious!"

Yellowbelly simply blinked at her. "Sharing tongues means sharing news and speaking," Yellowbelly said slowly. "And yes, we do. They also give us prophecies and the like."

"Oh!" Kitekit said eagerly. "Have you ever gotten prophecies?"

"Well, I've made up quite a few good ones," Yellowbelly said proudly. "However, I've only ever gotten one real one." Kitekit blinked at her curiously, and Yellowbelly allowed a dramatic pause, before saying,

"Two kits be born

On one bright morn

One flying free

Like death, the other be

One with Twoleg's whisperings in her ear,

One with death never near

Two kits be born, to kits be birthed

Two kits be born to save the earth."

Yellowbelly finished proudly.

"How exciting!" Kitekit purred, and Yellowbelly nodded.

"I got that one a couple days before you and your brother were born," she purred. "funny, huh?"

Kitekit's eyes widened. "Do…do you think we're those kits? Gravekit and I, I mean? It makes sense…."

Yellowbelly snorted. "Don't be silly, kit. Only super-special-god-cats get prophecies after them, and you're nowhere near special enough for that."

Kitekit's ears flattened. "Why not?" she whined.

Yellowbelly rolled her eyes. "Do things no other kits can do and get away from it," she laughed. "Then we'll see."

Kitekit stared down at her paws, and then padded out of the den, thinking to herself. Do things that no other kits can do? Like what?

Gravekit might have an idea, she decided, and headed for the nursery. It was a good thing she hadn't told Gravekit about the emerald pool only a leap and a bound out of the nursery, she reflected, for if he had known….

Then, a sight stopped her dead. A little dark figure was perched on the top of a cliff, preparing to spring. As Kitekit watched with horror, the figure leaped into the air and plummeted down down down into the green water.

"Gravekit!" Kitekit howled, and raced forward towards the pool. "Gravekit!"

A sleek warrior slipped into the pool, padding strongly after the drowning kit. She brought Gravekit back to the shore, and laid him down gently. His body was very still.

"Let me through, let me through!" Yellowbelly demanded, pushing through the gathering throng of cats. Two drownings in two days? How exciting!

Yellowbelly sniffed his body, and then bowed her head. "He's alive," she said softly. Gasps rippled throughout the gathered cats. Yellowbelly said he was alive? But, she liked being dramatic…so he must be dead!

"No!" Kitekit squeaked, rushing to her brother's side. "Gravekit can't be alive…I mean dead!"

Gravekit opened his eyes slowly. They were unfocused at first, but as he stared up they slowly focused in on Kitekit's face. "It didn't work, did it?"

Kitekit looked up at Yellowbelly, who was smirking.

"Even more dramatic than the last," she crowed, before hurrying away, presumably to move her den again. The cats dissipated as they had the day before, shaking their heads in disgust.

"I'm glad you're okay," Kitekit whispered.

"I'm not," Gravekit said grumpily, sitting up. "StarClan-burn-it! It didn't even hurt me!" He rose to his paws, surveying himself in the water. "Not one single drop of blood! What's up with that? Butterflywing was sore, at least!"

One with death never near, Kitekit thought, and her pelt prickled with foreboding. Maybe they were involved in the prophecy after all?

"But how did you find out?" Kitekit growled, "I didn't tell you about the cliff or the water!"

Gravekit glanced away from her, and Kitekit's eyes widened. "Greenkit!" she spat, and after sending a glare in her brother's direction, she stalked after her so-called friend.

"Greenkit!" Kitekit yowled, coming up from behind her friend. He had been staring into the water farther down, and nearly leaped out of his fur when she came up behind him. He retched, and then turned to face her.

"W-what is it?" he stammered, trying to act cool but failing.

"YOU TOLD GRAVEKIT," Kitekit roared.

"I-i-it wasn't my fault! H-he made me!" Greenkit protested, flattening his stomach to the ground with terror.

"I DON'T CARE! YOU KNOW YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO TELL HIM THESE THINGS! HOW DARE YOU!"

"Stop using capital letters in a row! It hurts the reader's eyes!" Greenkit protested.

"What are you TALKING about?" Kitekit hissed. "You're crazy!"

"Well he's FINE, isn't he? It isn't like he's dead!" Greenkit said hotly.

"Shut up," Kitekit growled, not wanting to admit he had a point. "He could have died! It was a miracle that he didn't!"

"But he's alive! He's fine!"

"No," Kitekit growled. "This is the defining moment in our relationship! We have to have a big fight and then turn our backs on each other until someone is at risk and then we save each other and things are awesome. "

"And then we get married and have mountains of kits?" Greenkit asked hopefully.

"What?"

"Nothing," he said quickly.

"I'm not talking to you EVER AGAIN," Kitekit announced. "At least, not until you almost die and I realize what a dear friend you are, or something."

And with that, she stalked away.