Chapter 2
Orangekit batted at the leaf that had fallen in front of him. It had been two days after Blacktooth.
Orangekit had been trying to avoid him since. It wasn't that hard actually. Blacktooth never visited the nursery to see the kits.
"Grrr!"
Orangekit turned to see Gorsekit pretending to be tough, his little back arched, his small teeth showing.
"I'm a CannibalClan warrior and I'm going to eat you up!" he snarled and catapulted himself at Orangekit. Orangekit easily dodged the younger kit's so called attack.
Gorsekit turned and tried again. This time, Orangekit let him catch him.
"Ahh! You got me!" Orangekit cried, half-laughing, falling onto his back.
"Hurry, before he eats Orangekit!" cried Rosekit, pouncing on her brother, pulling him off Orangekit. Turtlekit hopped out of nowhere and joined on with her sister, play-attacking Gorsekit.
Orangekit purred and slinked off, letting the younger kits play on.
He began to groom himself, licking his one orange leg.
His mother was always saying how he was the spitting image of his father, orange leg and all.
So Orangekit guessed his father also was black and white with green eyes as well as an orange leg.
Bronzekit looked exactly like their mother, with pretty eyes and that shining bronze pelt that earned him his name.
Orangekit wondered how his other brother, Longkit, looked like.
"Hey," Bronzekit mewed, padding over to him. Bronzekit had been helping Huckleberry organize herbs while Leafclaw had been out collecting more.
Bronzekit had actually been looking, not really helping though. Huckleberry hadn't minded really.
Orangekit had stayed when Bronzekit invited him to go along with him. He didn't want to run into Blacktooth again.
"You know what I heard while I was in the medicine den?" Bronzekit asked, his eyes shining with excitement.
"Hmm?" Orangekit murmured, still grooming himself.
"I heard they found some badger sent along with some cat blood near the CannibalClan border in the dawn patrol. They think a rouge must had been attacked or something because they smelled no familiar cat scents!"
"Weird," Orangekit muttered deep in thought. It was really weird. If a rouge was attacked, then shouldn't it still be where it was hurt? Maybe it fell into that river that marked the border of MountianClan and CannibalClan. Maybe it ran away or swam across the river. If it had swum across, it would surely attract a CannibalClan patrol. It would be dead for sure.
Orangekit doubted the other ideas of the cat's escape. If it got hurt, it would be too weak. And they did find cat blood, so the cat had most defiantly been hurt. Maybe the badger dragged away the body.
Orangekit would probably never find out what happened.
"Maybe it's nothing," Bronzekit said after a long pause.
"Maybe it is," Orangekit replied.
"Who cares?" came the mew from inside the nursery. Out came Rainkit, followed by his sister Gentlekit.
Orangekit didn't like Rainkit. He was always complaining about something or saying something negative. Gentlekit wasn't that bad but she always tried to defend her brother, no matter what he did.
"I do," growled Bronzekit, fur bristling with irritation. Bronzekit disliked Rainkit a lot more then Orangekit did.
"Don't be so mean!" spat Gentlekit, her eyes angry.
Bronzekit just rolled his eyes, making Gentlekit even angrier.
"There's nothing really to fight over about," Orangekit said quickly. "It's just something the dawn patrol found."
As he said this a yowl of fury echoed close to the camp entrance.
Orangekit bristled, eyes alert, and Henfeather came rocketing out from the nursery, followed by the other queens.
"Are you alright?" Crystal-Eyes said, alarmed, sniffing them over.
Before Orangekit could reply, a patrol came in dragging a blue, sleek furred she-cat who was yowling and hissing ferociously.
She was about the age of an apprentice, her fur blood streaked.
Orangekit couldn't tell where her wounds were because she was struggling so much.
"Calm down or you'll hurt yourself more," Talonfoot murmured, trying to stop the she-cat from fighting.
The she-cat paid no attention to her and only fought harder.
"Stay back!" snapped Snowhare at Gorsekit, who was trying to get a closer look.
"We found her asleep in a den, not far from the camp entrance," Blacktooth meowed to Cheetahstar, who had come running out of the medicine den at the commotion.
Leafclaw slowly walked out followed by Huckleberry. In Huckleberry's mouth, he carried some herbs. Leafclaw must have suspected that someone was hurt.
"She must be the injured cat from the CannibalClan border," Cheetahstar muttered softly. "Surprised she came this far."
Goldenheart dragged the she-cat by the scruff as Greyshadow and Longclaw walked beside.
"She's injured," Longclaw informed Leafclaw.
"Calm down," Leafclaw said to the she-cat. "We're not going to hurt you."
The she-cat stopped fighting and laid there exhausted.
Slowly, Goldenheart let her go. Before Orangekit could see what was happening, the she-cat shot out and sank her claws deep into Huckleberry's neck and threw him into the middle of camp. She screeched and began to claw through his pelt as he fought and struggled to get away.
Goldenheart sank her teeth into her scruff and tried to rip the she-cat off Huckleberry with no avail. Greyshadow jumped in and together they managed to take her off him. The she-cat swiped her paws at Huckleberry, her eyes wild as they dragged her into the medicine cat den.
Huckleberry was crouched in the center of camp, frozen, his eyes wide with shock.
"Are you all right?" gasped Longclaw as she ran to his side. The young warrior sniffed Huckleberry over as Leafclaw joined her.
Orangekit knew that Longclaw and Crystal-Eyes were best friends, even before Crystal-Eyes joined the clan. They had been friends as apprentices and had meet often at Gatherings. She had been thrilled when she joined. Orangekit liked the young tabby, who would often bring them a feather or a piece of moss she had found while on patrols when they were younger. Orangekit had loved playing with them inside the nursery. The she-cat was tough though and would not show weakness. Orangekit also heard that for a while she had tried to be a medicine cat because she wanted to be like her favorite elder, Whiteclaw. She eventually decided that it was best for her to be a warrior, and then Huckleberry became an apprentice.
"Come on," Crystal-Eyes said nervously, nudging him to pay attention. Orangekit didn't want to go in. He was so curious. Why was the she-cat fighting if she was hurt?
His mother pushed him along anyway.
"But I want to see what's going on!" Gorsekit wailed.
Snowhare ignored him and began grooming him. Gorsekit didn't complain anymore, only grumbled quietly.
Orangekit understood exactly how Gorsekit felt.
A lot of exciting things are happening, he thought to himself. He was sort of happy he got out of the nursery to see them. Except for the whole Blacktooth thing.
Orangekit suddenly yawned. It felt like rocks had suddenly piled up on his eyelids and he slowly felt himself getting sleepier and sleepier.
. . .
Orangekit woke up and was in a beautiful forest. The trees glowed and looked like they had stars for leaves. The bushes also glowed and Orangekit could smell prey everywhere.
StarClan.
The word flashed in his head. It had to be. He could just feel it. He began to walk, his eyes taking in everything. A scary thought suddenly filled in his head.
If he was in StarClan, didn't that mean he was dead?
Orangekit shook it off. Impossible! If it was so, cats would be there to greet him, to tell him he was dead.
He padded slowly down a path that seemed to be appearing with ever step he took. He came to a curtain of lichen that was hanging off some tree branches. He pushed pass them and saw a glistening river down below. He slid down the slope and landed inches from the river bank.
He peered into it and saw his reflection.
He put his paw down on the river and saw that it wasn't wet; it was solid! Orangekit backed away. How can a river be solid?
This is StarClan, Orangekit thought. It doesn't really have to make sense. I wonder…
Orangekit bent down and stuck out his tongue to drink. He could drink from it!
Weird, Orangekit thought.
He lifted his head up and for the first time noticed a cat was staring at him from the other side of the river.
It was a tom, black and white, with stars on his pelt. His eyes seemed to be begging Orangekit over. Orangekit had to know what the tom wanted. He carefully stepped his first paw on the river.
He didn't care if the river was solid or not, he still didn't trust it. As soon as he managed all his paws onto the river he bolted across. He was panting by the time he was on the other side. He looked up after catching his breath and stared at the tom.
He stared back.
"Who are you?" Orangekit asked. The tom said nothing, just continued to stare.
"Why are you here, in my dream?" Orangekit wondered. It had to be a dream, if he wasn't dead. The tom answered the question with the same response, just staring.
Orangekit flicked his tail in frustration. Why wasn't this tom answering anything?
Orangekit turned around to leave but saw everything was gone, from the river and beyond. It was just blackness.
Orangekit turned around again and saw that the tom was leaving.
"Hey! Wait!" Orangekit cried and dashed after him.
He was gone and Orangekit was back where he started, in the forest. Everything was so confusing! Orangekit wouldn't be surprised if he was upside down.
"Observe your surroundings and the cats around you."
The voice drifted toward him and made Orangekit shudder. Suddenly Orangekit noticed he was surrounded by darkness and only the spot he was standing on was light.
Soon, that began to fade. Orangekit panicked. Was he going to fall? What was happening?
. . .
Orangekit woke up gasping. All around him, cats were asleep. No one seemed to be been disturbed by him. Orangekit crawled closer to his brother, whose ear was twitching in his sleep.
Orangekit's heart was still pounding.
What did "observing" have to do with anything anyway?
Orangekit wasn't sure what his dream had meant. Should he tell the medicine cats?
Whether he should or not, he was positive he was not going back to sleep that night.