Lightning flashes, and suddenly, there's a cat standing in front of me. He's a dark reddish-brown; the tip of his tail and his paws are a darker shade then the rest of his body, and his eyes are amber. He smiles at me, then vanishes. After he vanishes, there's a rumble of thunder, and out of the thunder comes a grief-filled wail. Everything turns dark, then three points of light appear. One dies out almost immediately, but the others grow until they become blinding. They flash, then become the night sky. Then everything fades again.

Somebody's poking my shoulder. No, wait, that's real. I roll onto my other side. "Quit it."

"Get up, Thunderkit." Birchkit's bright, chirpy voice creeps up on my sleep and rips it to sheds. "It's morning, and the whole clan is awake."

"Birchkit, it doesn't matter if the whole clan is awake, but if I want to sleep, I am going to sleep." I open my eyes just a little bit, and I see Birchkit looking at me with the most mournful expression I've ever seen. "Okay, okay, I'll get up." Her face brightens. I smile inwardly; it doesn't take much to make Birchkit happy.

I get up, walk out of the nursery and squint in the bright light. The nursery's opening faces east, so the sun shines into of the nursery when it rises.

"Come on Thunderkit! Let's go see if we can find Mother!" Birchkit squeals happily.

If you know me, then you know that I wasn't born here. Birchkit's mother took me in, because there was no other queen who would. That, and Birchkit likes me.

I watch Birchkit run for a second, then I run after her. And I slam into Chesnutfur.

Chesnutfur's name is pretty self-explanitory. The only thing you can't get from his name is that his eyes are light blue.

"Hey, watch it!" He snaps at me. "Do you ever watch where you're going?"

Birchkit responds before I even get to absorb that he's mad at me. "It was an accident. The sun was shining in her eyes."

His gaze shifts from me to her. "You can't talk to me like that, I outrank you!"

She meets his gaze evenly. "You may be a warrior, but you're still my brother. We're going to apprentices tomorrow anyway."

He opens his mouth to say something.

"Chesnutfur, we need you for the patrol!" A voice calles out from the far side of the camp. Darkpelt. I've been part of this clan for almost three moons now, but I still don't like him. But his voice makes Chesnutfur start trotting across camp. Just before he leaves the camp, he calls over his shoulder, "You two might be becoming apprentices tomorrow, but it'll take you forever to become warriors!".

I watch him leave, and then somebody barrels into me from behind. Judging from the scent, it's Sparrowkit; he has a habit of attacking cats from behind.

"Um, could you get off of me, please?"

"No. Hey, I have a great idea!"

Uh-oh. His great ideas always get us into trouble.

"Let's go to the Deathclan border!"

Oh Starclan, I was afraid of that.

"You want to what!?!" I yowl at him.

Here's another thing about Sparrowkit. He's kinda sarcastic. "Well, first, I want you to yowl it to the entire clan." He climbs off me. "What's the big deal? We're going to be apprentices tomorrow anyway. They can't do anything to us."

I get up and look straight into his yellow eyes. "But Deathclan can."

"I'll do it!" Birchkit chirps. They should have named her Sparrowkit. "Just as long as we don't get caught."

Sparrowkit smiles slyly. "Don't worry, we won't. As long as Thunderkit doesn't rat us out." He shoots me an accusing look at the end of this statment.

I sigh. "I'll go. But if we get killed, I'm going to re-kill you when we get to Silverpelt."

He smiles triumphantly. "No problem."

Five minutes later, we're slinking through the forest. "You do this a lot, don't you" I ask.

"Yup. That's how I know where to go." Jeez, he could at least deny it.

A sharp, pungent scent reaches my nose. But Birchkit asks before I get to. "What's that smell?"

Immediately we hear sharp yapping behind us. And Sparrowkit says the exact thing we're thinking: "Run!!!" and then instinct kicks in, and we run.

You know, when you're running, you barely hear anything other than your running. But I definently heard Sparrowkit yowl. I skid to a stop, and spin around to see him hanging from a big fuzzy red animal's mouth. Thankfully he's hanging by his back leg. I start to run towards them.

"Thunderkit! What are you doing!?" Birchkit yowls, still running.

"Saving Sparrowkit!" Trying to, at least. I launch myself at the creature's face, clawing anything I can reach. It yips, drops Sparrowkit, and snaps at me. I leap backwards, narrowly avoiding its jaws. We continue that until I hear a battle cry. A very familiar one. It's Leafdrift. I turn towards her, then feel a sharp pain in my back leg and let out an involuntary squeal. I run, limping, towards Leafdrift. Then she and about three other warriors run towards the animal and attack it. Chesnutfur stands beside me and Birchkit.

"What is that?" She mews, scared.

"It's a fox." He answers.

Fifteen minutes later, Sparrowkit and I are in the medicine cat's den. And believe it or not, we're not in trouble. I turn towards the medicine cat, Elmfur, and ask "Will Sparrowkit be okay?"

He sighs. "I don't know. But you will be."

"Thanks."

I hear Boulderstar call Elmfur, and he gives my a slight nod before he walks out.

I can't hear most of their conversation; all I hear is this:

Thunder will come after lightning ends...