Black Frost

Disclaimer: Copperstar belongs to Shadz (the name, at least o.o) and Warriors belongs to Erin Hunter.

Claimer: Every other cat, however, comes from my own imagination, and I don't want to see any copy-cats. That includes Winterkit, Whistlekit, Gingerheart, Barkpelt, Sunstreak, Silkwing, Swampleg and Sharpclaw

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Black Frost

peofun1

Chapter One: Revelations

It was that time of night that Winterkit loved. It had been a moonless night, but with the clearest sky he'd ever seen. The stars had shone so brightly in the sky, like little pinpoints of icy fire. Winterkit had stared at them all night long, unable to sleep. Now the dark shadow that blocked out the moon had wandered off beyond the horizon, but the sun had not yet poked its head over the trees. The first streaks of light were jut beginning to cut through the inky black sky, swallowing up some of the dimmer stars. Winterkit watched with wide eyes through the small entrance of the nursery as the very tip of the sun emerged over the treetops.

Today was an important day for him. He and his brother Whistlekit were one moon old today, and their mother had agreed to take them on their first trip out of the nursery. Winterkit had been so excited he hadn't been able to sleep. Whistlekit hadn't seemed as enthusiastic, and had curled up against their mother against the cold of leaf-bare. Winterkit, on the other hand, had pestered his mother with questions until she had fallen asleep, and then contented himself with watching the night pass by.

Some cats were frightened by leaf-bare and the frosty weather that came with it. But the cold invigorated Winterkit. His mother spoke of the warmer weather that came with new-leaf, but he thought it would be harder to work the way the warriors did in the heat. When it was cold, Winterkit wanted to move around, running and play-fighting and doing whatever his mother asked of him. If it were hotter, he wouldn't want to move at all. The other cats were even better protected from the cold than he was! After all, after a whole moon it was apparent that Winterkit's thin fur was not going to thicken up.

Winterkit's mother stirred behind him and he wrenched his gaze away from the brightening sky to look expectantly at her. But she was only rolling over in her sleep. Seized with a sudden burst of impatience, Winterkit padded over and prodded his mother's ginger fur with his own white paw. "Mother, wake up!" He urged quietly. "Can we please go outside now?" But Gingerheart, Winterkit's mother, only groaned and squirmed away from his extended paw, falling immediately back to sleep.

"Are you still awake?" A voice growled from the opposite corner of the nursery. Winterkit narrowed his bright red eyes at a silver tabby she-cat curled around her own three kits. This was Silkwing, the only other queen in the nursery right now. Her kits were a moon older than Winterkit and Whistlekit, and none of them seemed to like Winterkit. Silkwing was glaring at the small white kit, the beginnings of a snarl beginning at her lips. "You've been keeping me up all night with your fidgeting! Why don't you go to sleep and let the rest of us get a moment's peace?"

Winterkit bowed his head respectfully, though he would have liked to snap back at the irritable queen. Silkwing lowered her head and curled around her kits, while Winterkit laid himself down near his brother. Whistlekit had slept like a rock through the whole night. Then again, he always did. Pressing against his brother's warm body, Winterkit managed to doze off for a while.

He was awakened by his mother standing and shaking moss from her pelt. Immediately Winterkit jumped up and nudged his brother with his nose. Whistlekit raised his head, yawned widely and looked around. "Wha's goin' on?" The little dark ginger kit mumbled, blinking sleepily. "Is it time ta go?"

"Yeah! Get up, you lazy porcupine!" Winterkit mewed happily, bouncing around his mother. Gingerheart cast him an anxious look before pushing through the protective wall of the nursery. Her two kits scrambled out excitedly, skidding to a halt on the slippery surface of the camp. The leaf-bare cold had left a long-term covering of frost over everything, making the hard-packed floor of the hollow that made ShadowClan camp slippery and cold.

Winterkit and Whistlekit gazed around in wonder at the new sights and smells that resided just outside of their den. Many cats that Winterkit didn't even recognize crossed the clearing, their shoulders hunched up against the cold. A patrol was entering through a gap in the bushes surrounding the hollow, one of them his father, Barkpelt. He was carrying a few scrawny pieces of fresh-kill and split off from the rest of the patrol to drop them on a fresh-kill pile in the middle of the clearing. The other cats headed over towards a large pile of rocks, where the ShadowClan leader Copperstar was speaking with her deputy, Sunstreak.

The deputy finished speaking with their leader and noticed Gingerheart with her kits. A warm look came over his eyes and he bounded over. Sunstreak, a light brown cat with ginger tabby stripes, was Gingerheart's brother, and he often visited her and her kits in the nursery. Winterkit actually knew the deputy better than his own father. Barkpelt visited often, but never spoke more than two words to him. Sunstreak however loved Winterkit as much as his own kits (who were apprentices now), and came to visit the nursery everyday after an exciting patrol. He would gather all the kits around him and tell them fantastic stories about his latest feats. It was usually the highlight of Winterkit's days.

"On our first trip out of the nursery, are we?" Sunstreak purred as he approached his sister and his nephews. His wide paws made hollow thumping sounds on the frozen ground and his shaggy fur was fluffed out to keep out the cold. "You look tired, Gingerheart. Why don't you go get something to eat with Barkpelt? I'll look after the kits for a while." The deputy jerked his head towards where Barkpelt was tearing into a skinny squirrel.

Gingerheart glanced worriedly at her kits. They were looking up at her with pleading eyes. Uncle Sunstreak was always so much fun to hang out with. Finally she smiled and gave an exasperated sigh. "Alright, Sunstreak. They're all yours." She brushed her fluffy ginger tail across her brother's shoulders. "Good luck." Then she bounded away to meet Barkpelt.

Sunstreak turned to the two kits, a mischievous gleam in his golden eyes. "Are you two ready for the best damn day of your lives?" He asked. Winterkit and Whistlekit squealed and jumped on top of their uncle and deputy. They spent the rest of the day with him, running about and exploring every nook and cranny of the camp. Winterkit was having so much fun that he almost didn't notice the looks some of the cats were giving him. Even so, it was hard to miss it when a young warrior called Swampleg snapped at him for tripping and falling in front of him.

"Watch where you're going, mouse-brain!" The mottled gray warrior snarled, drawing back as if Winterkit was some sort of hideous bug. Swampleg turned swiftly, whipping Winterkit across the face with his tail and stormed away, spitting, "Little nuisance!" over his shoulder as he went. After that Winterkit noticed that Swampleg wasn't the only cat treating him strangely. An elder named Sharpclaw chased him away from the elder's den and the apprentices taunted him whenever the little kit came near one of them, calling him 'Redeye'.

"Sunstreak?" Winterkit mewed shyly at the end of the day, as he was taking him and his brother back to the nursery. "Why are all the cats so mean to me? They give me weird looks and everythin'…"

The fur on Sunstreak's shoulders stiffened and he glanced around uncomfortably. "W-What do you mean, shorty? You're just not used to being outside. Let's find your mother." He acting like his usual goofy self, but Winterkit could see he was trying to change the subject. The clever kitten wasn't fooled.

"It was weird how the apprentices called me 'Redeye'." Winterkit mused thoughtfully. "They shouldn't be calling me by a warrior name, right?"

Sunstreak sighed heavily and beckoned for Winterkit to come aside. Whistlekit nodded to his brother and hurried away to find Gingerheart. The deputy looked around to make sure no one was listening before saying in an urgent whisper, "Listen Winterkit, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but you're…Not normal."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean everyone thought it was strange how you were born white when your parents and brother are ginger…" Sunstreak continued, his eyes darting nervously about the camp. "And…I'm really not supposed to tell you this but…The medicen cat, Dreamstep, had a dream about a half-moon before you were born. It said that 'Winter will bring great strife and fear for all the Clans'. This terrible leaf-bare started the day your eyes opened." Winterkit's unusually red eyes widened in dismay. "Most of the cats in ShadowClan think that you're some sort of…Demon sent by StarClan to punish us…It's true that this is the worst leaf-bare we've seen in a long while…"

The white kit was shaking his head. "B-But I'm not a demon!" Winterkit insisted. "I haven't done anything wrong! It's not my fault that my eyes are red…It's just a coincidence that the frost set in that day, isn't it?" The poor scrap was distraught.

Sunstreak pressed against him comfortingly, giving his ears a rough lick. "I know you're not a demon, Winterkit." He murmured in his nephew's ear. "The Clan will see that someday. Until then, just be the best warrior you can be and stay out of trouble." The deputy looked around suddenly at a call from Copperstar. Sunstreak bid farewell to Winterkit and hurried away.

His heart heavy with the revelation that the Clan he loved so much hated him, Winterkit trudged back to the nursery. He tried to ask his mother about the prophecy, but Gingerheart wouldn't hear anything on the subject. She kept herself busy fixing the bedding and suckling the two of them so Winterkit didn't get a chance to ask about it. Whistlekit on the other hand was furious when he heard.

"That's complete fox-dung!" The smaller of the two kits yowled when Winterkit explained, earning himself a sharp scolding from Gingerheart for using such language. "You've done nothing to deserve this, Winterkit. You're the best-behaved kit in the nursery! It's completely unfair that you should be looked down on for something you can't control!" Whistlekit had always been infuriated by unjust situations such as this, and had often stood up to his mother or one of the other queens when he felt his punishment was unfair.

Winterkit only gazed sadly into his brother's blazing blue eyes, wishing that his were a normal color like his brother. It was obvious that Whistlekit's blue eyes were inherited from their father Barkpelt. But where had Winterkit's red eyes come from? And his white fur? Sure, Barkpelt always boasted that he could trace his bloodline back to the great ShadowClan leader Blackstar, but it was a long time since a white cat like Blackstar had been in the family. Some sort of evil power was the only explanation for Winterkit's appearance.

Whistlekit stepped forward and pressed his dark ginger pelt against Winterkit's white one, a sharp contrast like a splash of blood in the snow. "Don't worry, Brother." He purred softly. "I'll protect you. I'll never let anyone treat you unfairly, whether they be an enemy or from our own Clan." His face was set with determination, jaw twisted in defiance and eyes bright. Winterkit felt overwhelmed by this show of affection from his usually soft-spoken brother.

"Thank you, Whistlekit." Winterkit rubbed his muzzle against his brother's cheek. "I know I can count on you."

A smirk played across the dark ginger tom's muzzle, an expression not often seen on Whistlekit's lips. "You just wait until I get my claws in whoever picks on you next." He growled, trying to look menacing. "I'll flay them."

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Like whoa it's a first chapter. :O

I wrote this in about three yesterday. I had time 'cause we got let out of school early and school is canceled today 'cause the NJ heat is too much for us poor high schoolers in the building with NO GODDAMN AIR CONDITIONING. So I went to see Kung Fu Panda today. It was pretty good.

Hooray for unused snow days! XD Man I love life today.

So this first chapter goes good with U2 songs…Simply because that's what was playing in iTunes while I was typing.

One last thing…I don't care that in the Warriors book they always say 'leaf-bare' instead of winter. In this story, though leaf-bare is the most commonly used word, winter is understood to mean the same thing. Thus, Winterkit's name makes sense. This is a fic that takes place in the future, after all. Maybe enough kittypets joined the Clans that a lot of Twoleg words are now used.

Please read and revieeeeew