"Don't go!" He screamed, feeling frozen air run down his throat and coat his lungs with ice. "Don't leave me..."
The red tom looked at him, gray-faced, dead behind the eyes.
"You don't deserve me." Almost at once, his red tabby fur vanished in the white of the snowstorm.
"No!" The kit pleaded, breath whipped away by wind.
Leafbare will come. And take everything you ever loved away. Things cannot be reversed. We learn from the times that we are cursed, from the ones we fear the most, from the ones we hate the most.
White swallowed him, pressing so thick he held his breath and waited for the snow to swamp him like water.
...So leave me in the cold until the snow covers me up, so I'm just embedded in the frost...
In his bloodstream flowed his mother's last words.
"...I'll hunt you down."
Panic surged through Nightkit's pelt. He lurched up in his nest, a scream painfully trapped in his throat. Swallowing, he felt anger and frustration replace his panic. Nightmares. There never seemed to be a shortage of those.
"Fox-dung!" He yelled.
Dogkit shot up with a yelp next to him.
"You scared my tail off!" He said.
Nightkit looked away quickly and began smoothing fly-away tufts his shoulder, hoping Dogkit couldn't smell the lingering fear of his dream.
Oblivious, Dogkit grumbled and began prodding through the dried pine needle nest that they—Dogkit, Nightkit and Bearkit—had shared since they agreed they were too old to sleep with their two foster queens. Finally he had pulled out a round pine cone and turned to Nightkit.
"Wanna play Cone-kick?" His yellow eyes glimmered.
"Not right now." Nightkit sighed, noting that fierce daylight was shining down the entrance. He had woken up later than usual; his schedule thrown off.
Dogkit's tail drooped and Nightkit had to admit he held sympathy for the fluffy black tom. It had been a few sunrises now since he had been found trying to leave camp, and was confined to the nursery by a furious Birdsong.
"Cheer up," Nightkit brushed Dogkit's spine with his tail. "Today's the last day of your punishment."
Dogkit looked up at him with big, sad eyes.
I told you it would come back to bite you in the tail. Nightkit had to hold back his words; they never seemed to help. He shook his head and headed out, squinting at the harsh light.
"Morning, sleepy-slug!" A shrill, almost cloying mew greeted him, belonging to a pretty white she-kit with creamy-brown points and pale blue eyes. She stood over Bearkit, pinning her down.
"Hey Briar." Nightkit cocked an eyebrow. "I usually go by Nightkit, but thanks."
Suddenly remembering what she was doing, Briar turned to Bearkit and peeled her lips back in a mock snarl. "I win this ti—"
Nightkit flinched away from the spraying dust as Bearkit bowled Briar over in one fluid move, quickly overpowering the older she-kit. She smiled smugly.
"I was close." Briar giggled, rolling away.
"Nicely done Bearkit," Birdsong had been watching with her tail neatly curled over her paws. "You too Briar." Nightkit had expected the queen's tone to be curt toward the rogue's kit, but Birdsong had begrudgingly warmed up to the sweet and bubbly kit. Behind her, Honeypool and a ginger tabby were watching too.
"Isn't she cute?" Honeypool purred.
"But she shouldn't be here," The ginger tabby said, blue eyes slitted. "We might not have found her kin, but that doesn't mean she should stay."
"But where would she go, Sunflame?" Honeypool sighed.
Briar had heard. Nightpaw could see her flinch with hurt, and make an effort to keep smiling.
Nightkit's hackles bristled. Rowanheart, Bearkit's father, had stood up and bent down to rasp his tongue between his kit's small, neat ears. Nightkit could hear a deep, proud rumble in his throat, and feel a wave of anger wash over him. Even he had gotten much affection from the Clan— all because they didn't know where he came from.
"Nightkit!" Briar called. "Come and play." She flexed her claws eagerly, and Nightpaw was surprised to see how well she hid her dejection.
"No thanks." He shook his head. Play fight? Not in a thousand moons! He always made a fool of himself when it came to play-fighting, and Dogkit was glad to point it out. He had never won.
I'll be a medicine cat anyway.
Briar scowled with disappointment, and it seemed she was about to insist when a new voice joined the chorus.
"Kits!" A long-legged, spotted silver tom bounded towards them, carrying something wet in his jaws. Stormwing!
Birdsong nuzzled her mate in a rare show of affection and coiled back when a sticky substance dripped unto her head. Stormwing snorted with laughter.
"Honey!" Nightkit was the first to practically barrel into him.
"Keep your fur on." Stormwing chuckled and set down the dripping chunk of honey comb. Bearkit, Nightkit and Briar clustered around it, lapping eagerly.
"You can come out," Birdsong twitched her tail-tip at Dogkit who perched at the nursery's entrance. "Only for a moment."
He skipped delightedly and elbowed himself in to taste some honey. Nightkit relished the warm, rich texture that traveled down his throat, and he purred from deep in his chest. He was the last one left licking at the honey comb when Stormwing and Rowanheart began teaching the kits a hunter's crouch.
Nightkit glanced to see Willowsong and Toadbelly sharing tongues in a pool of light, their eyes half-lidded with contentment. Nightkit imagined Willowsong's mate never once bothered to interact with them like Stormwing because they weren't his. Or maybe he just didn't like kits.
Nightkit licked the last bit of honey off his whiskers and decided to head to the elder's den. His usual glare softened at the sight of Tangletail and Silentwind sharing a fat toad between them. The old medicine cat had finally decided to retire half a moon ago, when he mistakenly gave an apprentice ragwort for a bellyache. Nightkit raised his tail in greeting.
Tangletail looked up and hesitated, a perpetual cloud of forgetfulness in his pale green eyes. Finally his eyes lit up and he smiled. "Nightkit! Hi there kiddo." He rasped. "Wanna eat?"
Nightkit returned his smile and settled down between him and Silentwind, tucking his paws under his chest and nipping at the toad.
"Youngsters have no manners these days," Silentwind was twitching his mangy, bald tail-tip with annoyance. "Brokenpaw came to leave prey, and I told her I had a tick behind my ear, and she left! Something to do, yeh right! And martens fly. Apprentices do nothing but sleep these days."
Nightkit snorted with laughter. "She has her warrior assessment today." He reminded the thin-pelted warrior.
"Eh?" Silentwind said loudly. "Speak up! I can't hear you, youngsters these days... always mumbling."
Nightkit rolled his eyes. "Does he still have that tooth ache?" He turned to Tangletail. The old tom nodded, washing Nightkit's pelt with soothing strokes of his tongue.
"Tell Quillheart to bring him some... some of that..." Tangletail trailed off, frowning at his paws.
"Alder bark?" Nightkit guessed.
"Alder bark!" Tangletail barked triumphantly. Nightkit swallowed back a purr.
They finished the toad Nightkit helped Silentwind with that tick behind his hears. "You're a good little warrior." Silentwind sighed with relief once Nightkit had hooked it off.
"All cats old enough to fight in battle," Stonestar's strident howl suddenly demanded the attention of the Clan. "Gather here beneath the Highbranch for a Clan meeting!"
Nightkit buried the toad, and scrambled toward the low-hanging hazel branch where the huge scarred tom stood. With pleasure, Nightkit noticed that Dogkit had been allowed to stay outside.
"Frozenpaw, Brokenpaw." Stonestar beckoned the two apprentices, and Nightkit felt strangely excited watching their warrior ceremony.
"Frozeneye?"
Softpaw gasped after Stonestar had given them names. "Brokenback?" She turned to her littermate, Ryepaw. "Stonestar's always been a bit insensitive, but this is too much. Why in Silverpelt would he—"
"Shh!" Ospreytuft silenced her with firmness. "Listen."
"Frozeneye," Stonestar began. "StarClan honors your skill in battle, and the sacrifices you're willing to make to protect the Clan." He touched his nose to the ugly scar where her eye had once been.
The anger that had glimmered in Frozeneye's icy blue eye was replaced by surprise.
"And Brokenback," Stonestar turned to his daughter. "StarClan honors your perseverance and determination to overcome any hardship in the way of becoming warrior." He was referring to her back injury; spine sloping downwards from a healed injury that almost paralyzed her as a kit. Brokenback nodded, pride shining in her wide smile.
"Brokenback! Frozeneye!"
The Clan cheered their names loudly, previous murmurs of doubt like Softpaw's gone.
"Now," Stonestar spoke as the Clan began to disperse. "There's still one more thing left."
The Clan perked their ears up with surprise, some stealing glances at the kits. Nightkit felt a thrill of excitement run through up his lean legs.
"The naming of new apprentices."