A/N No reviews. Can't say I don't care, so please review? Stories get buried really quickly on here.
So, completely ruined my formatting. Originally there was a large gap between the POV switches, so I apologize for confusion. The last section was supposed to be Rainkit's point of view. To clear up possible uncertainty, Rainkit IS indeed Sorreltail's unborn kit, who wasn't supposed to come to StarClan. I assume she was named for Rain putting out fire and resulting in cinders. Um, no, that won't have any symbolism anywhere, nor will it be a cheesy prophecy. This story will hopefully be cheese-free… I don't even like to eat cheese… anyway.
Please, please, please, please review. I'm very young and this is the first time my writing has been put up online, and I would love to know what you think. Even if you think it's Narmful and badly characterized and canon rape and with horrible prose. Tell me!
Chapter One
Rainkit woke in the night, a shaft of cold moonlight dappling the tiny bodies around her. Instinctively she began to stretch my stiff limbs, hissing slightly when she noticed Greenflower was curled reverently around her. Rainkit distangled herself from her infatuated foster mother's grasp and slipped away from her neglected pelt. Greenflower could be so stifling sometimes.
The kit's area was wide and frosty in the midnight; pale stars were tumbled amongst the disarray of ferns, and a shallow expanse of stream was rippling and inky black. Rainkit glanced once around the dark clearing surrounded by arching silver forest, then padded aimlessly to the wading-depth stretch of river.
She had been in StarClan for eight moons. It wasn't supposed to be pointed out, but she grew; more intelligent, and more advanced, physically the size of an apprentice.
She was quite large but relatively slender; her dark brown pelt was a solid color, unbroken by ripples of stripes. Her eyes were expressionless and emerald-green, with complex layers of texture and gold. She wasn't naïve, but had no idea of the way she seemed to everyone else; she appeared just slightly off and wrong; something about how she moved and spoke and looked, that put most cats off. Expect Greenflower, and a few other queens.
She dabbled a single paw, pale claws unsheathed, in the icy dark water. Freezing droplets flicked onto her nose and face; she winced and drew back with an indignant splutter.
Her younger-kits nest (due to official ignorance of her growth, she was forced to remain there) smelt of stale milk and desperation. The nests were frequently soiled; most nights, the tiny kits awoke writhing, screeching of nightmares of their deaths. It irritated her. Once when a tiny gray kitten approached her for comfort, she had practically sliced his face open. She gave a little giggle remembering his shocked howls and Greenflower's fury at her favourite kit's sleep being disturbed. That kit was another one who she assumed had been taken away for being nasty to her.
She rarely left the kit's area. A few times she had sneaked away to the apprentice's area, where interchangeable young cats battled each other and played forgettable tricks on their weary 'mentors', She felt out of place. Not exactly disdainful, but out of place.
From far away in the silver forest, she heard a faint laughter-filled yowl. Most StarClan cats half-slept during the day, drifting in and out of mousechase dreams to check the seeing-pools. They were active at night, hunting and speaking and haunting dreams, not willing to let frays of memories fade, taking them with it. Kits, however, were considered too feeble-minded to deviate from their routines in life.
Rainkit clawed once at the ground. She didn't belong here.
…
'Y-you asked for me?' Spottedleaf said uncertainly, slipping into Bluestar's tranquil den. The gray-blue she-cat was sitting primly in a neat nest of pale moss and firm bracken; a bloodless squirrel lay in front of her.
'Yes. I did.' Bluestar said no more, her dark eyes fixed on the slender tortoiseshell as she shuffled her paws and sat lightly on the sand. 'Have you met Rainkit, Spottedleaf?'
She had to look away. 'No.' She had intentionally shied away from seeing the kit.
'She appears to be growing older. I've spoken to Dappletail and Brindleface, and they both tell me-'
'Are you going to punish me, Bluestar?' Spottedleaf couldn't help breaking in, not wanting the unease of an ambiguous threat.
Her former leader looked genuinely shocked and wounded. 'No! Why do you think… I'd never…' Her eyes found Spottedleaf's once more. 'What must you think of me?'
'That you lie to us,' she said softly. 'That you prevent us from knowing what's really going on inside the founder's head, and that you make everything for us appear perfect and don't even acknowledge- the, the Dark Forest threats, the tension, the murders-'
'The technical term is forced fading,' Bluestar corrected her.
'Forced fading?' Spottedleaf couldn't keep the heat out of her voice. 'Bluestar, scores of innocent StarClanners have gone missing, even more who dared speak against you- and you don't even care! Most are carried out by you and your… um… cats who carry out.' Flustered, but enjoying Bluestar's shocked look, she went on: 'The Clans are in constant flux and danger. It's our job to look after them, but you're even censoring the seeing-pools now!'
'How did you-'
Spottedleaf glared at her. 'What did you want to speak to me about?'
Bluestar rose to her feet, lashed her tail furiously, and opened her jaw only to hesitate and instead mew, 'Rainkit should be transferred to the apprentice area.
'So, you finally decide to do something about it,' the tortoiseshell she-cat snapped. 'Congratulations. I'm sure you're redeemed.'
Bluestar just gazed at her, her eyes wistful. 'What happened to you, Spottedleaf? You used to be so… enthusiastic, innocent, naïve, playful… you were so idealistic…'
Spottedleaf looked incredulously back at her. 'Thinking for myself is not a bad thing. You want to move Rainkit to the apprentice area.' The change of subject wasn't concealed.
'…yes. I wanted to know if you agree.'
'Why does my opinion matter?'
'Haven't you always been a crucial member of my discussions?' She tipped her head.
Not lately. 'I'd like to meet her first,' Spottedleaf said through gritted teeth. 'I think it's time I finally see her, anyway.'
'Do that.' Bluestar gave a dissmissive nod. 'But know that… there'll be consequences for what you said today.'
The words froze Spottedleaf. I'm not ready for this! she wailed inside, feeling her stomach churn in nausea. She had always reacted like this when her actions caught up to her. 'Yes, Bluestar,' she forced out in a mutter, then escaped outside.
Despite her regret for what she had just said, exhileration soared through her.
….
'Somebody wants to see you, Rainkit.'
Greenflower poked her head through the den entrance, squinting in the shadows of the arched branches overhead to make out her foster kit. Rainkit was sprawled out on her squashed nest, playing lazily with a scrap of moss.
'Who is it?' Rainkit swivelled her head to stare, seemingly incriminating, at the pale golden she-cat.
'A medicine cat. If you… wouldn't mind?'
With a grudging sigh, Rainkit raised herself from her nest and padded out into the kit area. 'I've never met a medicine cat.'
'It might be interesting!' Greenflower burbled, dashing to keep at her side.
'I wasn't being pessimistic. Merely pointing out a neglected factor of my life thusfar.' Seeing her foster mother's expression, she muttered 'Never mind.'
A slender, pretty tortoiseshell she-cat was sitting near the fresh-kill pile, her pelt splattered with various shades of white and her eyes serious and worried. Her face lit up in confused recogniton when she spotted Rainkit.
'This is her,' Greenflower purred, nudging Rainkit forward. 'Isn't she beautiful?'
Spottedleaf examined the young she-cat. She wasn't particuarly good-looking, and something about her made Spottedleaf's skin crawl,, but… 'She looks just like she did as a kit,' she meowed, unable to keep the rasp of a purr from her voice. 'Good morning, Rainkit. My name's Spottedleaf.'
Rainkit returned the searching look, her eyes carefully and intensely studying Spottedleaf's own in a way that sent shivers down her spine. 'Hi,' she said finally. 'How do you know me?'
Spottedleaf blinked. 'I, uh, saw you once as a kit. And I went down to collect you from the holding area.'
Holding area. Kit. She knows me. Rainkit's heart began racing. 'Oh,' she managed. 'Did… you come to speak to me?'
Spottedleaf nodded once. 'Excuse me, Greenflower, is there a place..?'
The golden tabby nodded towards the forest. 'That should be fine. Be good to Rainkit.' After hesitating, she padded off to scold a little tomkit for hitting another kit with a mouse.
'So, what is it you want?' Rainkit meowed when they were settled underneath a pale oak tree.
Spottedleaf frowned. What was it she wanted? She had only come here to meet the kit, not to specifically inform her of anything. So far, she knew nothing; Rainkit appeared coolly neutral so far. She had to tell her about the apprentice area. 'Do you like living in the kits' camp?' she meowed experimentally.
Rainkit's eyes flashed. 'I get condescended to daily, I'm the biggest one here, the kits are imbeciles, Greenflower never lets me out of her sight. I know I'm not.. really that bad off, but it still…'
Spottedleaf nodded. 'Do you go out much?'
'What are you, a therapist? I go in the woods a little, but kits are too impressionable or whatever to do anything.' Rainkit glared, hunched up, at the ground for a moment, then looked back at Spottedleaf.
'Rainkit, we're going to put you in the apprentice area.'
…
'And you didn't consider that I may still not have made a final decision?'
Bluestar glared at the frozen she-cat, her claws unsheathed and tearing at her nest.
Spottedleaf struggled to conceal her terror. 'Yes,' she meowed, her voice almost steady. 'I did, but it wasn't an act of intentional rebellion.'
'Unlike your outburst yesterday,' Bluestar snapped. 'Spottedleaf, you are not worthy of my trust.'
'All I did was tell her she was transferring! We shouldn't make such an outcry about an obvious, trivial-'
Her words were silenced when Bluestar sprang onto her without warning, claws flaying at her ears and mouth. Spottedleaf splat out clumps of blood and with a moan fell to the ground; Bluestar slashed at her side, tearing off scraps of pelt and exposing bloodied fat. Spottedleaf let out a single cry before the gray cat ripped her throat open with a slick red paw. Her protests died into silence.
Bluestar sprang off her and stared almost wistfully at the warm corpse. 'I'm sorry,' she meowed. 'I'm not the villian you think I am, you know.'
The body faded, leaving only the sand slightly damp.
A/N So, not a great chapter. Very… padded. Nothing happened, except for infodump on Rainkit. Don't worry, in chapters later on she's going to get a personality beyond formalness. Please review and tell me what I could do better. PLEASE.
