Ooh! Mischievousness! These two kits are ALWAYS getting into trouble! But what about Pathkit's father, Voletooth? Will he stop the kits' escapades forever? Oh, no! Find out and enjoy the plot in this edition of Chapter 4! :)
CHAPTER 4
Gingerkit
It was dawn, the day after Dovetail and Brownpine had told them about the tornado on CloudClan's territory.
Gingerkit leaped down from a branch in the copse of trees that served as MoonClan's camp. Pathkit, a light brown tom, landed right behind her in the soft, rotten pine needles that she landed in.
"This is fun!" he mewed. "Gingerkit, let's go to the fresh-kill pile! And jump down on that!"
"Okay!" she agreed, and they raced over to the pile – which only had 3 mice and a thrush on it – and clawed their way up a tree.
"Okay, Kit Path," Gingerkit cried. "Let's show each other our stuff!"
"Don't call me Kit Path," Pathkit whined. "I don't like it."
"Okay, okay, alright, Pathkit," Gingerkit sighed. "You don't have to bite my nose off, you know...."
Pathkit's eyes got a lively glimmer in them again. "Don't have to bite your nose off? Oh, I can, all right. Just watch me fight!"
The two kits were on their "bridge" which was a bunch of branches all stuck together, and more branches formed a barrier so that they wouldn't fall off. It was a kind of fortden.
Gingerkit struggled beneath Pathkit's stronger hold, and she fell limp. Pathkit loosened his grip, and she burst up, firing him into the pine-needle and leaf wall. They had gotten the leaves from other trees and put them into piles along the wall so that no cat would get hurt.
Pathkit got up, yowled a playful challenge, and starting running really fast at Gingerkit, however, she just jumped out of the way and gave him a kick to send him on his way across the floor, and he rolled to the entrance of the fort, almost falling down out of the tree.
"Nice move!" he panted. "Where'd you learn it?"
"I made it up," Gingerkit mewed slyly. "I'll be a great apprentice when I become one."
"Well, really, it's still a while. We're all quite young. I'm three and a half moons old, you're three moons old, and Redkit and Thistlekit are two moons old! And Driftwind is still expecting kits! Face it, none of us will be training for at least two and a half moons."
The kits listened to Nightstar and Silvertail talking in the clearing below.
"Silvertail, you need to send out the dawn patrol...." Nightstar was saying.
"Is it okay if I am at the head of the patrol?" Silvertail asked. "And also, the fresh-kill pile is low. Do you mind if I send out a hunting party as well?"
"Send out both. That was a good idea." Nightstar nodded.
"Who wants to go on the dawn patrol and who wants to go on a hunting party?" called Silvertail.
"I would like to come on the dawn patrol," Darktail called. "I am a medicine cat, I know, but I need to find some burdock root, and that grows right on the border."
"I want to go hunting." Oakpelt padded up to Silvertail and Darktail. "I'll take Hollowpaw with me. Amberheart and Birdpaw offered to come as well." He looked at Silvertail for assent, and she nodded.
Amberheart, Birdpaw and Hollowpaw came out of their dens and the four cats were off. Silvertail turned to the other warriors.
"I'll come on the dawn patrol," Orangewing announced, padding up with Flamepaw.
"Okay," Silvertail agreed, and with a last call to Nightstar she led the patrol out of camp.
"That will be me one day," Gingerkit murmured, gazing down upon the camp.
"You think you have a chance? I want to be deputy," Pathkit protested.
"All of us want to," Gingerkit remarked. "But only one cat gets the privilege, you know."
"Yes, I know," Pathkit sighed, jumping down into the camp.
"I know you know," Gingerkit said seriously and leaped down after him.
It was sunhigh on the same day. Gingerkit had just taken her daily nap, with Pathkit and Mistywing by her side. My, though, she had been sleepy. Now she was wide awake and ready to leave the copse with her foster mother and Pathkit.
"So remember, kits, don't run off without me," Mistywing was saying. "I am taking Bushtail's kits out as well and I expect you to behave around them so that you don't give them any bad examples!"
"Yes, Mother," Pathkit sighed.
"Yes, Mistywing," Gingerkit replied, a little more cheerfully than Pathkit had.
"Good. Now, let me just find Redkit and Thistlekit and we'll be on our way." Mistywing hurried off and Pathkit and Gingerkit looked at each other with excitement. Pathkit squealed, and Voletooth came up and wrapped his tail around his son.
He cast a wary glance at Gingerkit, and she sighed. Cats would always be remembering that she did not come from this Clan.
"Now, be careful out there. If that Gingerkit gets into something that is unsafe, don't tell your mother. We could get rid of her yet," Voletooth whispered to Pathkit. Gingerkit pricked up her ears. She had heard every single word.
Just then, Mistywing burst out of the main camp area where the dens were, Thistlekit and Redkit by her side, and said, "We can't stay out too long. Leafpaw, Hollowpaw and Birdpaw will become warriors soon, at sundown!"
There was no mistaking the pride in her voice. Leafpaw, Birdpaw and Hollowpaw had been her first litter.
There had been a fourth kit, named Frostkit, or so Gingerkit had heard, but he had died soon after birth. There was something else, though, some other piece of information that Gingerkit had overheard Nightstar telling Stormbelly.
Mistystar, a leader of RiverClan, which still existed like ThunderClan, WindClan and ShadowClan did, had fallen in love with a ThunderClan tom named Cloudtail, and bore his kits. Mistykit and Whitekit at the time, had become Mistywing and Whitewind, and each wanted to bear kits. Then, they had split up into different Clans when the new Clans were made because some cats wanted to leave the other Clans, but still wanted to live in a Clan of their own.
Well, Frostkit was related to both ThunderClan and RiverClan, wasn't he? And he had died of greencough, but still....
"That's great, Mistywing!" Voletooth's voice jolted Gingerkit out of her thoughts. "I wonder.... if Frostkit will be watching them tonight down from SkyClan?"
"Maybe.... oh, his death caused me so much distress!" Mistywing wailed. "Now only three of my kits are becoming warriors. Anyway—let's go outside now." She seemed desperate to change the subject.
She led the way outside, but Gingerkit could tell that something was up.
When they got back to camp at sundown, Nightstar was just calling a Clan meeting.
Gingerkit hurried up to the Oak, and sat down beside Pathkit, who was congratulating his bigger brothers and sister.
"Hey, Gingerkit," Leafpaw greeted her. "Birdpaw, Hollowpaw and I will get our warrior names soon."
"I know, and I'm SO excited for you!" Gingerkit cried. "That will be me one day!"
Leafpaw chuckled. "Indeed, Gingerkit. Indeed it will be."
Then she had to go up to the Oak with her brothers, and Gingerkit couldn't talk to her anymore.
"Leafpaw, Hollowpaw, Birdpaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code and protect and defend your Clanmates, even at the cost of your life?"
"I do," the apprentices chorused.
"Then by the powers of SkyClan, I give you your warrior names. Leafpaw, from this moment you shall be known as Leafwhisker. SkyClan honors your bravery and your honor, and we welcome you as a full warrior of MoonClan."
Nightstar did what always happened at the warrior ceremonies – resting his muzzle on top of the new warrior's head and the new warrior would lick his shoulder in return – and turned to the other apprentices.
"Hollowpaw, from this moment you shall be known as Hollowbranch. SkyClan honors your patience and your wits, and we welcome you as a full warrior of MoonClan." They did what Leafwhisker had done with Nightstar, and Hollowbranch padded back to sit with the other warriors and Leafwhisker.
"Birdpaw, from this moment you shall be known as Birdwing. SkyClan honors your strength and loyalty, and we welcome you as a full warrior of MoonClan."
Then they did the same as Hollowbranch and Leafwhisker and Birdwing went to sit with the other warriors.
"Hollowbranch! Leafwhisker! Birdwing!" the Clan all cheered enthusiastically.
"Now, according to tradition, the three new warriors must sit a silent vigil for one night until dawn."
The three new warriors went off to find vigil spots in the middle of the clearing, and Gingerkit yawned. She hadn't realized how tired she was.
She padded slowly off to the nursery, curled up in her side of the empty nest that Mistywing and Pathkit shared with her, and fell asleep.