Chapter 1
Orangekit looked around. Why did his brother and mother have to be asleep?
He had been awake for ages trying, to preoccupy himself instead of waking up his kin. But he was reaching his breaking point. He wanted to go outside already.
Finally he heard his mother grunt then stretch.
She saw him, and then mewed, "Hello my kit."
She bent down to lick him, but he dodged her tongue.
"Can we go outside now?" he asked. He wanted to go now!
"Wait until your brother wakes up," promised his mother.
Yah right! You just don't want me to ever see sunlight! He thought bitterly to himself as he began to rip apart a piece of moss. While all the other kits at his and his brother's age had gone out, his mother always kept them cooped up. He didn't understand why. The camp was supposed to be a safe place, right? Then why did she force them inside this stupid place!
His brother suddenly moaned and, on his back, stretched his legs in the air
"Great! You're awake!" He turned to his mother. "Now can we go?"
His mother hesitated.
Why are you so nervous? Orangekit wondered.
Suddenly, he got the wind knocked right out his lungs as something his him.
"You just think you'll get a better advantage of winning with more space around, huh?" his brother teased. His brother had always been better at fighting then Orangekit was.
Orangekit pushed Bronzekit off him, turned around and took a swipe at Bronzekit's ear. He dodged easily and threw himself at Orangekit.
They squabbled at eachother and Orangekit suddenly hit something soft.
Looking up, he saw Wolffang hovering over him. She was mad.
Wolffang was a really grumpy queen. Orangekit didn't like her much.
"For StarClan's sake! Crystal-Eyes, just take them outside already! They're too big to be roughhousing in here!" snarled the expecting queen.
"Um…alright then," his mother said, unsure whether it was a good idea.
Thank StarClan! Orangekit thought. For once, he was glad that Wolffang always complained.
"Stay behind me," Crystal-Eyes warned, but it was already too late. Bronzekit had catapulted himself over Crystal-Eye's foot and was already outside. Orangekit had to scramble over her paw to try to get outside.
He hated to be the youngest and the smallest.
"Wow! It's huge out here!" gasped Bronzekit as soon as Orangekit was out.
Orangekit understood why he was so excited. He could see the vast blue sky over the MountainClan camp.
The clearing was like worn down stone, and Orangekit could see the leader's den at the front of the camp. It was located in a hollow near the bottom of a tree where the leader would hop up on a branch and make announcements.
He saw other dens too but didn't know what they were for.
"Stay near the nursery kits," Crystal-Eyes warned, looking warily around.
Orangekit barely heard her. He was so excited to finally be outside that he just wanted to soak in the sunlight.
He loved the warmth it gave him, even though it couldn't compare to the warmth his kin gave him, but it was a close second.
"Look who finally got out of the nursery," someone mewed, making Orangekit jump.
He turned to see Goldheart with her sister Whitepelt. They were both warriors.
Orangekit couldn't believe how big they were!
"Glad to see you finally got over your fear, Crystal-Eyes," whispered Whitepelt, to his mother.
What fear? Orangekit wondered, but before he could think Bronzekit threw a moss ball at him.
"Catch it!" Bronzekit called.
Orangekit dove for it but missed.
"I got it!" he mewed reaching for it as it rolled away. He chased it until it rolled into a small stone cave. He stayed there, wondering what it was for when his moss ball suddenly rolled out of it. Then Huckleberry, the medicine cat apprentice, padded out of the cave.
"You should make sure it doesn't roll out of reach again. If it rolls into the elder's den, that's the last you'll see of it," teased the black and orange apprentice as he stretched.
"I'll catch it next time," Orangekit promised as he batted the moss ball around. Orangekit had met Huckleberry a couple of times in the nursery when he went to check up on the kits.
"Huckleberry, Lostpaw got a thorn in her pad," a voice came from behind and Orangekit turned to see who it was.
It was a large dark mottled tom. Orangekit had never seen him before. He felt Huckleberry step on his tail and dragged Orangekit behind him.
"Umm… alright then," Huckleberry stuttered. "Bring her over to me."
Orangekit peaked over Huckleberry's leg. Why didn't he want this tom to see him?
The tom managed to spot him anyway. His cold glare made Orangekit cower behind Huckleberry.
"Are you Crystal-eyes kit?" he snarled.
"Y-y-yes," Orangekit squeaked.
The tom snarled reveling teeth and began to walk closer towards them.
Huckleberry got up and shielded Orangekit while backing away further into the medicine cat den, pushing Orangekit along with him.
"He's just a kit Blacktooth," Huckleberry warned. The large tom payed no attention to the medicine cat apprentice, keeping his eyes on Orangekit with a cold look in his eyes.
A look to kill.
Without warning, Crystal-Eyes leaped at Blacktooth, knocking him over. She pinned him down and hissed in his face.
"Stay away from my kits," she snarled.
Orangekit's heart was in his throat. Would this turn into a fight?
"Stop this nonsense," a large gold tom snarled, pushing Crystal-eyes off Blacktooth, and making sure they were far apart from eachother.
"What happened here?" a great spotted black and gold tom questioned.
That must be Cheetahstar! Orangekit thought, staring up at the MountainClan leader. The gold tom must be Lionclaw!
"Blacktooth was going to attack my kit!" Crystal-Eyes spat, ears down and teeth showing.
Blacktooth made no attempt to defend himself. He just crouched down, ears flattened, teeth shown.
"Blacktooth, is this true?" Cheetahstar questioned, padding up to stand with his deputy, Lionclaw.
Blacktooth said nothing, just stared menacingly at Crystal-Eyes.
Cheetahstar padded up to him.
"If I ever hear you tried to attack a kit ever again, you will be severely punished," he snarled.
By then, most of the clan cats were outside of their dens staring at them.
Orangekit could see Bronzekit staring at the mess near the nursery where Henfeather was guarding over him, eyes narrowed.
"Come on," Crystal-Eyes hissed, scoping Orangekit up in her mouth.
She gave one hard glare at Blacktooth and slowly made her way to the nursery.
"Bronzekit," she growled as she passed her oldest kit, while still carrying Orangekit in her mouth. Bronzekit got up, seeming a little dazed and made his way to where Crystal-Eyes was waiting by the nursery.
As soon as she got in, she plopped Orangekit down and stared down at both her kits with a look of sadness that was mostly covered by anger.
"Now do you understand why I don't want any of you to go out?" she snarled, reveling long viper like fangs.
Orangekit bowed his head, feeling a little guilty. He saw that Bronzekit was doing the same.
Crystal-Eyes sighed and lied down in her nest.
"I'm sorry for being so harsh," she murmured, licking them both on the head. "It's about time I told you where you both came from.
"I know both of you know that you weren't born here but in a different clan. But I'm going to tell you where. You were both born in CannibalClan."
Orangekit stared at her, shocked. He had heard many terrible stories about CannibalClan, when the elders sometimes went to visit the kits.
"Their monsters, that's what they are," Grayfoot, an elderly tom, had snarled. "They eat other cats whenever they get the chance. They even have a special place in their camp where they kill trespassing Clan cats!"
Crystal-Eyes had stiffened up the whole time they were talking about anything to do with CannibalClan.
"You both were born in a terrible time," Crystal-Eyes continued after giving them some time to soak in the news. "A fire had blazed through our part of the forest, scaring away prey and any cats that were in the territory.
"With so little prey, some of the clan cats went crazy. The warriors convinced Ratstar that eating the kits would be best for the clan. They said that more kits would come later on and that the warriors had to be strong enough to defend the clan.
"Ratstar agreed on one condition; they spare Darkflower's kits becuase she was his mate. Your father, Sharpclaw , heard this and went to warn me. Darkflower heard this and was outraged, but could do nothing.
"She is my sister, your aunt, as you know. She was especially angry that Ratstar would offer no protection over me but I expected no special treatment. I never really liked Ratstar.
"So Sharpclaw came up with a plan to help me escape. The only problem was I had three kits and between the both of us, Sharpclaw and I could only carry one kit each. Darkflower, really helped me at this time.
"She said that she had room for one more kit ,and with a heavy heart, I relized that I had to give up one of my own."
Crystal-Eyes was speaking as though she was talking to someone in a distance, not her kits that were right in front of her.
She suddenly turned towards Orangekit.
"I was going to chose you, Orangekit. You were the youngest and the weakest and I wasn't sure you would be able to survive the rough path in front of us."
Orangekit puffed up his chest a little bit and lifted his head.
"I'm not the weakest anymore!" he crowed.
"Of course not," Crystal-Eyes mewed affectionately before continuing. "With a heavy heart, I gave up your older brother Orangekit and he was also your other younger brother Bronzekit. So, after a half-moon because that is another condition Ratstar made, that if the clan could not find prey in half a moon that they would eat the kits. Anyway, on that day your father and I took you both away, out of the camp."
Crystal-Eye's eyes showed deep pain as she said, "I-I remember hearing... screaches as mothers t-tried to fight. Of course they were...no match."
She was swallowing hard then, trembling.
"So your father and I made it to the river, which separated CannibalClan territory with MountianClan territory. this was our plan: to go downriver to the TwolegPlace where we would live the rest of our lives together as rogues. We never expected Snakefang of following us. He is the CannibalClan deputy as I'm sure the elders have told you. He followed us and as we were prepared to leave, trapped us.
"He, along with three other warriors cornered us and demanded we give you both up, if we wanted to be spared.
"I knew this was no bluff. He would do it. That's when your father handed you to me Bronzekit and told me to run. He began to fight, tooth and claw, not allowing any of them to come near me and you both.
"I knew eventually they would overpower him eventually and that they would eventually catch up with me as I ran considering how I was holding two kids in my mouth at once. So I did something that other cats would think as stupid and foolish. I leaped into the river with both of you.
"I remember seeing two toms , I couldn't tell who, break away from Sharpclaw and saw me jump into the river," she spat her fur bristling. "They said they would see my body on their shores eventually and that would be able to feed most of the clan!"
Crystal-Eyes shook her head then continued on, more gently, "I was trashed around harshly in the whipping waves, struggling to keep a grip on both of you. I almost lost grip of your scrffs but hung on. Then, I landed on the bank of the river, absolutely exhausted."
Crystal-Eyes sighed. " I lay there for a while, not thinking, just gasping. That's until I heard cats coming. I had tried to get up but was too late. There were three cats; Whitepelt, Greyshadow, and Crownose.
Crownose spat at me and demanded to know why I was trespassing on MountianClan territory. He hadn't even noticed the two of you. That was until Whitepelt heard you mewling Orangekit. She calmed Crownose down, saying that had to protect you both.
"They argued back and force until Greyshadow finally spoke up. He reminded them of what Galestar said; MountianClan was supposed to protect the weak. So they brought us to MountianClan and took care of us."
She sighed again then stood up straighter, staring down at her kits. "As you now Orangekit, by today's experience, that many cats disagreed with the decision of us staying in their clan. CannibalClan is one of the most hated clans in the mountains. I can't say I blame them..."
Crystal eyes purred slightly then lied down. "Come on now, it's time to sleep. You've had a rough time. I promise to take you out tomorrow, just as long as you're more careful.
Bronzekit nodded, his eyes seemed filled with protectiveness. He slowly padded to his mother lying next to her.
Orangekit followed him slowly, digesting the story his mother had told him.
Questions rushed through hid head; did their father miss them? Was he ok? How about his brother? Did HE miss them? Did he even remember them? Was he mad at them for abandoning him?
Orangekit couldn't think up an answer for a single question.
His mother began to soothingly lick him, and his eyes began to droop. As much as he wanted to stay awake, he couldn't help himself. His eyes slowly shut and he fell asleep.