"Can't get me!" Mousekit's tease sounded on the other side of the tall grass.
"Can too!" Wildkit called back. She leaped out of the vegetation on top of her gray-furred brother. His amber eyes widened in surprise.
Mousekit squealed in pretend pain. "Ow! You caught me!"
"Die, you stinky RiverClan warrior!" Rainkit screeched. He pounced on Mousekit's tail, showing his tiny thorn-sharp teeth.
Wildkit jumped off of her brother and hissed, grinning happily.
"Kits! Come back inside! It's getting too cold out!" the three kit's mother meowed.
Rainkit bounced enthusiastically to his mother, night-black tail waving.
"But Silverclaw, we aren't cold! Look, my nose is still pink!" he argued, pawing his nose thoroughly for emphasis.
Wildkit looked at Mousekit. His nose was still pink too, not pale like it would be if he was too cold.
"Yeah, we aren't cold at all," she ran up to Rainkit and faced Silverclaw, mewing indignantly
Silverclaw bent down to touch noses with her daughter. "I know you aren't, I just worry about you."
She lifted her head and padded over to Mousekit. Mousekit licked the bottom of her muzzle affectionately.
Suddenly Rowankit bundled out of the nursery entrance, paws and legs flailing around as they slipped on the icy ground, and nearly crashed into Wildkit.
Wildkit fumbled to move out of the way. Her white paws moved fast as a frightened rabbit as she gritted her teeth in surprise.
Rowankit skidded to a halt and cried out excitedly, "Leafpaw and Redpaw are back with fresh-kill!"
"Oh, great! I'm hungry!" Rainkit mewed.
The kits ran to get to the fresh-kill pile, nearly bowling over Silverclaw in the process.
"Don't get in the hunting patrol's way!" she called after them.
Leafpaw was dropping his vole on the pile, with Redpaw right behind him.
The fresh-kill pile had been pitiful the past few sunrises. Leaf-bare was not being kind to ShadowClan this season, nor to any of the other Clans.
Even the vole Leafpaw caught had been clearly starving, judging by it's thin frame.
Whitefall was watching the apprentices, his eyes thoughtful. But they lost their calmness when they flicked over in the direction of tiny pounding paws. He stood up, tail flicking from side to side.
"Hey!" he put his paw in front of the kits to stop them. "It took us all morning to catch that!"
Wildkit glanced up at the warrior. "But we just want to eat a little." she meowed.
Whitefall's eyes softened, and he looked towards the apprentices behind him. He sighed, "Let Softflower and Silverclaw get your food. They won't destroy what the Clan needs."
"We won't destroy the fresh-kill pile!" Rowankit begged Whitefall.
Wolfsong padded up to the warrior. Her whiskers twitched in amusement.
"You'll be able to get your own food soon enough, kits. Only one more moon until you're apprentices," she meowed.
Rainkit whined. "But that's forever!"
Wildkit glanced at her brother. She was willing to wait the one moon, if that was what it would take to be an apprentice. One moon wasn't much, was it?
And why other young cats complained about hunting puzzled her. She thought hunting would be fun, stalking and hiding from prey. Like a game of hide-and-seek with her littermates.
"Kits! Don't bother the warriors," Softflower scolded, approaching the group of kits.
She turned to Whitefall and Wolfsong. "I'm sorry. They are just very restless. They don't get to play as long as they used to. They just can't stay out very long. This cold is too harsh for their thin pelts."
"Our pelts are fine!" Mousekit spat at the queen.
Whitefall nuzzled his son's head. "Of course. But staying out too long can make you catch a cold. You wouldn't want to spend the day in Toadleap's den, would you?"
Mousekit lowered his head. "I guess not."
Softflower turned to lead the kits to the nursery entrance. Wildkit pawed at the ground. She wasn't used to walking on hard earth, as the frost was making it so. Her paw pads were still soft from walking on the muddy ShadowClan camp terrain.
They entered the nursery to find Silverclaw goading on Moonkit and Sorrelkit to take a nap.
"But we're not tired!" Sorrelkit's quiet mew was still scratchy from a past bought of Whitecough.
"You will be. Now go to sleep. Look, your sister is already falling asleep."
Softflower looked at Wildkit. Wildkit saw her eyes had been dulled with hunger.
Wildkit had not ever known true hunger. Her mother always had brought enough food for them.
"I think you might need some sleep too," she said.
"But I'm hungry!" she argued.
Softflower sighed. "You can eat later. Right now, the Clan needs as much food on the fresh-kill pile as possible."
Wildkit grunted in annoyance. Couldn't the Clan just hunt more? The warrior code clearly said to feed kits and elders first!
Mousekit clawed the cold ground beside her. "Can't we just go steal the other Clan's food? And if we get caught, we could make them give us some!" he spat.
Silverclaw gasped. "That's against the warrior code! Don't you dare speak like that! I don't even know what the Clan will think of you if anyone else heard you say that!" her eyes widened in anger and shock.
Mousekit bowed his head. "I'm just saying what I think is best," he muttered. His amber eyes glinted with annoyance.
Wildkit stared at her brother. Had he meant for anyone to hear him say that? They must follow the warrior code!
She remembered Mapleheart telling her stories of great leaders like Blackstar who followed the warrior code nobly. Mousekit had told her so many times he would be leader in the future, didn't he know following Clan laws was first priority to being appointed even deputy?
"Alright, kits. I think it's time to go to sleep," Softflower said, as if to escape the tension in the den. "Silverclaw, I can take care of your kits for you."
Silverclaw shook her head. "I appreciate the offer, Softflower, but six will be just too much for one cat. I'll stay here. Hunting for the Clan can wait for a little while."
Silverclaw quietly got up and moved over to her kits. Softflower took her place in her own nest.
A cold breeze suddenly entered the nursery. Wildkit shivered. Her ginger fur bushed up like a hedgehog. Her littermates made their way to their nest, leaning against each other for warmth.
Silverclaw sat down and waited silently for her kits to pad over, glancing at Wildkit as she noticed the ginger kit was moving.
Wildkit blinked absently, then bustled over to her mother, blue eyes glazed over in a daydream. She almost leaped on top of Rainkit and settled beside Mousekit.
Her mother's fur quickly warmed her up. She looked up slowly, every move becoming harder as an urge to fall asleep washed over her.
The blue eyes were close to closing.
"Silverclaw, can you tell us a story?" she pleaded.
Mousekit licked his mouth, then lifted his fluffy head. "Yeah, can you tell us about the forest?"
A dreamy look came into her mother's eyes. Was that a glimmer of regret or sorrow?
"Well, as you know kits, I never knew it. Our elders never knew it. But the past generations that live on in StarClan know. It was a place where living was like by the lake, but just in a different environment. Cats caught prey, followed the code, fought in battles and mere skirmishes, everything we do today."
Wildkit and her brothers listened with rapt attention. They knew little about the forest. All they had ever heard about it was the apprentices gossiping loudly after a gathering.
"ShadowClan lived near a Twoleg landfill, and when prey was scarce they would eat the rats there. Sometimes cats got deathly ill from eating the rats, and the leader Nightstar died from this same sickness. But mostly life was hunt and protect the borders. Well, as long as there wasn't a danger. Long ago, a group of cats from Twolegplace threatened to take over the forest. They called themselves BloodClan, and their leader was an evil cat named Scourge. And he killed Tigerstar!"
Rainkit gasped. "Big bad Tigerstar?"
Silverclaw purred in amusement. "Yes, big bad Tigerstar," she licked Rainkit's muzzle.
Wildkit tipped her head. "That's how he died?"
Silverclaw nodded. "Yes, dear. There was a great battle. The four Clans united temporarily into LionClan. Firestar of ThunderClan led them into battle. Firestar was the one to kill Scourge. Many cats died in that fight, cats of all Clans. During the battle, even kits were trained to defend the camp against BloodClan cats."
Wildkit's eyes widened. Even kits were trained? How exactly bad were these BloodClan cats?
Mousekit spoke her thoughts in a curios squeak. "What were BloodClan cats like?"
Silverclaw tilted her head and thought for a moment.
Eventually she looked back down on her kits. "BloodClan cats were vicious and menacing. The highest ranked cats wore kittypet collars lined with the teeth of dogs and cats that fell victim to them. Their claws were tipped with sharpened dog teeth. They killed stray dogs threatening their food."
Rainkit gasped excitedly. "They killed dogs? How? The elders always say you can't kill a dog unless it's really young or small. Was it that they only killed small dogs?"
"I don't know. No cat alive knows, unless you lived in BloodClan. But it's said that the dog teeth they lined their collars with were the largest any cat had ever seen."
"How many were there?" Mousekit asked, his voice extremely high with excitement and disbelief.
His mother breathed in. "There were very many. Enough to match all the forest Clans combined, maybe even more."
"Wow..." Wildkit whispered. She knew BloodClan cats were evil, but it was hard not to admire their strength in the story. Why wasn't ShadowClan strong enough to kill dogs? Maybe the BloodClan cats had some kind of special battle technique the Clans didn't.
Silverclaw lowered her voice. "Would you like to hear another story?"
Rainkit bounced up. "Oh, yes!"
"Quiet, Rainkit. Lie down." Silverclaw pushed her kit down with her silver tail.
"This story happened long ago, when five living Clans roamed the forest. That fifth Clan was called SkyClan. They lived in peace with the other Clans. But one time intruders from a faraway place called the Others lived in small Clans of their own. But they weren't true Clans. They worked differently, much more different then the Tribes do compared to the Clans. One Clan ruled above all three of the Other Clans. It was called MistClan. The other two were SnowClan and MountainClan. They were promised by an immortal spirit that the forest Clans would forever serve them, if they won a war against the Clans of the forest."
Mousekit dug his small claws into the nest. "ShadowClan will never serve any cat, powerful or not," he hissed.
Silverclaw licked his head. "Of course not. We drove them out, but they vowed that the battle was not over."
Wildkit hadn't heard her brother. She was deep in thought. Not over? It must be a story just to scare kits. Wildkit wrinkled her nose in the beginning of a sneeze.
"Wlidkit! Don't sneeze on me! Gross!" Rainkit whined loudly to his sister.
Silverclaw yawned. "Go to sleep kits. The sun has set."
"But-"
"You can play outside tomorrow." the silver tabby rested her head on her paws.
Wildkit flicked her ginger tail. She wasn't even tired!
Silverclaw fell asleep quickly. Her rhythmic breathing was long and soft, signaling she wouldn't wake up any time soon.
Wildkit slowly got to her paws. She would go explore the territory. No cat would let her yet. She and her littermates were all anxious to do it. The Clan was stupid that they wouldn't let her. How could she ever become a proper warrior if she didn't know the territory from the start?
The darkness outside would hide her bright pelt. No cat would notice her if she was quiet.
Wildkit padded out of the nest, careful not to wake Mousekit or Rainkit. Her bright blue eyes reflected yellow in the dim light, and her pelt looked like a bundle of brown twigs. She couldn't be spotted if she stayed to the ground.
She was just about to leave the nursery when a bracken twig snapped behind her.
"Wildkit! Where are you going?" Mousekit's voice whispered.
Wildkit spun around. Her brother's gray and white pelt was almost glowing in the darkness.
"Go away, Mousekit! I'm a warrior!" she said to her brother.
Mousekit grinned. "Then I'm a warrior too."
"Be quiet! Only senior warriors get to hunt tonight."
"Then I'm coming with you!"
"No!"
"Then I'll wake mother and tell on you!"
Wildkit snorted. "Fine. You can be a warrior too."
"I want my name to be Mouseleap!" he mewed.
Mousekit puffed out his chest in pride. "And you can be Wildclaw."
Wildkit hissed quietly. "I want to be Wildheart!"
Mousekit purred. "Okay, Wildheart. Lead the way," his voice was annoyingly submissive.
Wildkit nodded. She left the nursery and headed for the camp entrance.
"We can't go that way, frog-brain," Mousekit whispered. "Vixenfur and Viperfang will spot us."
Wildkit looked up at the guard post. Both Viperfang and Vixenfur were on guard tonight, their ears pricked and eyes attentively staring across the camp. Still, she hated to be showed wrong.
"Uh, right. Let's use the dirtplace tunnel."
Wildkit turned around to the small exit from the camp.
"Follow me, Mouseleap. It's slippery here."