Chapter 1
This is the updated version of this chapter because when I decided to continue this story, I also decided to polish the already published chapters. A big thank you to ChildofWolf and Jerenbee for reviewing and Deserttail and Jerenbee for following this story.
"Wake up, mousebrain!" mewed Nettlekit, his eyes lit with excitement as he prodded Silverkit with his forepaw.
The silver-furred kit yawned and sat up, stretching her long legs and swishing her plumy tail irritably. She opened her eyes to reveal two dazzling leaf-green orbs which might have been beautiful if they hadn't been burning with anger and annoyance as she glared at her impatient littermate. "Can't a cat get a moment of sleep?" she grumbled as she washed her ears.
"Let's explore camp!" mewed Nettlekit, bouncing up and down excitedly. "Mistheart left the nursery so she won't see us."
"Of course Mistheart won't notice us gone and none of the other cats in the clearing are going to realise we're there," drawled Silverkit, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "And you look like an out of control rabbit, Nettlekit."
"I opened my eyes first so you should respect me more," retorted Nettlekit.
"What a magnificent achievement," she replied dryly, rolling her eyes.
Nettlekit was so proud of having opened his eyes first and had wanted to explore camp immediately. She sighed as she remembered the constant whines coming from annoying Nettlekit to explore camp when her eyes were still closed. However, Mistheart had said that Nettlekit had to wait for Silverkit and Pinekit to open their eyes as well.
Silverkit had opened her eyes shortly after Nettlekit but Pinekit was taking considerably longer and Silverkit was surprised that Nettlekit had not snuck out of the nursery yet. Then again, Nettlekit was anything but stealthy. He would charge all over the nursery and was so loud that prey from the other side of the forest would have heard him. And even if Nettlekit suddenly became stealthy overnight, there was no escaping Mistheart's eagle eyes.
At that moment, an elegant silver she-cat slipped into the nursery so silently that the kits would not have known she was there if they had not seen her.
"Mistheart!" they mewed excitedly.
"Don't make so much noise. You'll wake Pinekit," murmured Mistheart trying her best to be stern but unable to conceal her amusement at the kits.
"Sorry, Mistheart," mewed Silverkit disingenuously. If Mistheart had observed the insincerity in her kit's apology, she gave no sign.
Silverkit nudged Nettlekit, who was rolling his eyes, a blasé attitude written all over his face.
He apologized hastily but when he sensed that Mistheart was not paying attention, he threw an angry glare at his bossy and arrogant sister who had a knack for making him seem impudent with her impeccable manners. She thinks she's so good, he thought scowling.
Silverkit bushed up her fur and narrowed her eyes till they were slits as she glared at her brother.
"Why don't you play together but just make sure that you don't disturb Pinekit," suggested Mistheart, sensing the mounting tension in the air.
"Let's playfight," proposed Nettlekit immediately, and didn't wait for a reply before throwing himself at Silverkit.
Silverkit saw him coming and dodged to the side neatly. Nettlekit landed on the ground on his four paws and whisked around, hissing playfully, all feelings of resentment forgotten. He charged at Silverkit raising his paw to swipe at her but she quickly unbalanced him the moment his paw was off the ground and knocked him to the ground, pinning him. Nettlekit attempted to wriggle out of Silverkit's hold but her grip was firm.
"I win again, Nettlekit," purred Silverkit haughtily, puffing up her chest with pride before releasing her hold on Nettlekit who stood up grumbling as he shook the dust out of his pelt.
"Someone definitely taught you how to fight so it wasn't fair," he pouted. "Who did anyway?"
"You can learn quite a bit by observing the apprentices practise," she replied.
"Instead of stomping around the nursery like a badger," she added mockingly.
Nettlekit growled and was about to pummel Silverkit with his paw when both of them heard purring from the other side of the nursery and pricked their ears to listen to what was going on.
"You've finally opened your eyes, Pinekit," purred Mistheart.
A small, dark brown-furred she-kit stood up, stretching her paws. She had dark green eyes which were flitting around the nursery as though trying to see everything as quickly as possible.
"These are your littermates, Silverkit and Nettlekit, Pinekit," mewed Mistheart glancing at the two littermates.
"Let's go and explore camp now," announced Nettlekit.
Pinekit turned to Mistheart.
"Can I?" she asked her moss-green eyes widening eagerly at the thought of exploring the camp.
"Of course you can," murmured Mistheart, giving the kits an affectionate nuzzle each before they bounded out of the nursery. She watched them leave, a warm, cosy fire crackling in her gaze.
Nettlekit had charged ahead as usual but Silverkit was padding alongside Pinekit who was gazing in awe at the canvas of colours around her. The trees were a variety of shades of green while the sky was a great expanse of azure dotted with magnolia clouds. As Pinekit looked at the earth underneath her paws, she was surprised to see how the same thing could have a different colour or feel at different places. When she observed the cats who were resting in their dens, sharing tongues or eating fresh-kill she could hardly believe the variety of pelt or eye colours that all the cats had
"I can't believe there is so much to see," purred Pinekit. "I wish I had opened my eyes earlier. Where should we go now?"
"Well, I think Nettlekit went to the elders' den so we should probably go there too," suggested Silverkit.
Pinekit nodded in agreement and the sisters bounded to the elders' den.
Nettlekit was already there and was telling the elders how he would be the best warrior in all the clans and become leader one day. The elders were looking on and it seemed as though Hazelclaw was trying hard not to laugh while Sunfur looked ready to shove moss into Nettlekit's mouth to shut him up.
Silverkit rolled their eyes at the arrogant furball's bragging.
"You do remember that I beat you earlier don't you, Nettlekit?" asked Silverkit innocently.
"Only because you watched the apprentices," countered Nettlekit.
"And who stopped you from doing the same?" retorted Sunfur irritably before Silverkit opened her mouth to respond.
Nettlekit seemed lost for words at the outright answer of the half-tailed elder.
"Could you please tell us a story?" requested Pinekit politely, sensing the tension in the air and Nettlekit's hopelessness.
"Of course," mewed Hazelclaw cordially. "How about the story of Firestar, the great Thunderclan leader a long time ago?"
"Yes please," mewed the kits simultaneously.
Hazelclaw complied and told the kits the story of Firestar and the kits listened intently as she told them about how he was a kittypet but became one of the greatest warriors in the clan.
"In the end, it doesn't matter where you're from. It's what you do that determines who you are," concluded Hazelclaw. "I mean just look at Firestar. He was a kittypet but he became leader and saved the clans from Tigerstar."
"Wow!" exclaimed Nettlekit. "I'll be just like Firestar and one day I'll become leader."
"Of course you will," snorted Sunfur grumpily.
Nettlekit, blissfully oblivious to the elder's sarcastic remark was ecstatic that the elder thought that he might become clan leader.
"Really?" asked Nettlekit, his eyes shining.
"Of course, dear," said Hazelclaw quickly, shooting Sunfur a warning glance.
The only reply that Hazelclaw got was a snort which she took to mean that the golden elder had understood her.
"Can you teach us the hunting crouch?" asked Silverkit suddenly.
"Sure," mewed Sunfur, a bright gleam in his eyes for the first time, and dropped into a perfect hunting crouch. "Why don't you kits try?"
Nettlekit and Silverkit immediately dropped to their paws in attempt to copy Sunfur's hunting crouch while Pinekit observed him for a short while before doing the same.
"This is not low enough Nettlekit. Your tail should be lower and your belly ought to be higher, Nettlekit, otherwise you are going to rustle all the leaves and create such a din that the prey will hear you coming from halfway across the forest. And balance properly for Starclan's sake. You look like a lopsided badger," snapped Sunfur grumpily.
"He has put his back legs in a rather good position for when he springs," Hazelclaw pointed out mildly.
Nettlekit tried his hardest to comply and his face turned purple as he crouched even closer to the ground and felt as though his paws were about to give way.
Sunfur moved on to Silverkit and gave a pleased purr. "Good job, Silverkit. Although your crouch will be better if you tuck your back legs in a little more," mewed Sunfur almost warmly for the half-tailed elder.
Silverkit complied almost effortlessly and both elders nodded approvingly. "You'll be an excellent hunter no doubt, Silverkit," purred Hazelclaw.
Silverkit glowed with pride at the elderly she-cat's praise.
Sunfur examined Pinekit and was moderately pleased.
"Your crouch is not bad, Pinekit but there is quite a lot of room for improvement," he explained as he went on to list her mistakes.
When Sunfur finally thought that the kits had had enough practice with the hunter's crouch he had let them leave the den. Silverkit had done it well enough that Sunfur had let her stop while he made Nettlekit and Pinekit continue and even when they were done, Sunfur insisted that Silverkit's was still far better and they really had to buck up if they ever wanted to become warriors. Hazelclaw had tried to point out to Sunfur that the kits had a long time in the nursery before they would start training and become warriors but Sunfur had insisted that the sooner the kits learnt the better.
The kits thanked the elders and left the pair to bicker amongst themselves in the den. Nettlekit was somewhat subdued as he shuffled behind Silverkit and Pinekit.
"Hello. You must be Mistheart's kits," came a silvery voice from behind.
The kits turned around to see a pretty dappled tortoiseshell she-cat, looking at them with bright amber eyes.
"I'm Flowertail," she introduced cheerily.
The kits introduced themselves and Flowertail started chatting with them merrily.
"You are so much like Mistheart you know, Silverkit. You look just like her and no doubt you'll be just as good a warrior as she is or maybe even better," mewed Flowertail fondly.
Silverkit was about to reply when a voice across the clearing called for Flowertail.
"Hey, Flowertail, can you stop gossiping and come on my hunting patrol. The fresh-kill pile's almost empty," called the deputy, Leaftail, loudly.
Flowertail pouted playfully and told the brown and white-furred she-cat that she would be there in a few heartbeats.
"Sorry kits, I have to go," sighed Flowertail apologetically as she bounded to the other side of the clearing to join Leaftail.
"Why does everyone always notice you and practically ignore me and Pinekit?" grumbled Nettlekit irritably. "What are we, invisible?"
"I don't think Flowertail meant to do that, Nettlekit. She would have talked to us too if Leaftail had not called her to go on patrol," mewed Pinekit, thoughtfully.
"Let's head back to the nursery," suggested Silverkit, noticing the growing silence.
Pinekit and Nettlekit didn't object so the three kits trooped back to the nursery where Mistheart would be waiting.
Suddenly, two young toms barrelled into Pinekit and Silverkit. Pinekit fell splat on her face and sat up, shaking the dust out of her fur and instantly begin licking her fur clean, barely bothered by the fact that she had just been knocked over. Silverkit, however, broke into a neat roll and sat up, hissing in annoyance at the two careless toms.
"Watch it," spat Silverkit furiously, her fur fluffed up in fury.
The golden tom looked at the two she-kits apologetically.
"We're sorry. We didn't mean it," he mewed sincerely.
He turned to the other tom who was observing the raging kit and nudged him gently.
"Oh right, sorry. Um… What should I call you?" Rockpaw mewed.
"I'm Silverkit and this is Pinekit," replied Silverkit icily. "And our brother, Nettlekit, is over there."
"I'm Lionpaw and this is Rockpaw. We were just having a race to see who's faster because this mouse-brain was boasting about how fast he was. We didn't mean to knock you over." explained Lionpaw.
'Who did you just call a mouse-brain?" hissed Rockpaw playfully as he swiped a paw at Lionpaw who simply ducked.
"Anyway, we have to go now, bye," mewed Lionpaw before racing away with his brother.
"That was certainly interesting," murmured Pinekit. "Let's go back now. Mistheart will be waiting."
The kits headed back to the nursery where Mistheart was talking to Sweetrose, her back turned to the entrance. Before the kits had even entered the nursery, Mistheart, sensing them, turned around and purred at the sight of them.
"How was camp?" asked Mistheart warmly.
"It was amazing, Mistheart! We met the elders and Flowertail and Lionpaw and Rockpaw and the elders taught us how to do the hunting crouch and they said mine was really good and then we met Lionpaw and Rockpaw and then we came back," jabbered Silverkit rapidly, barely containing her excitement.
"That's wonderful. What about you, Pinekit and Nettlekit?" she asked kindly.
"Well Silverkit and I got knocked down by Lionpaw and Rockpaw which was how we met them," she mewed.
Mistheart turned to Nettlekit who was strangely silent for the usually talkative tom whom she never had to ask about anything because he was normally already rattling on about everything that she might have wanted to ask him.
"I'm tired," he mewed as he stifled a yawn.
"All right, go to sleep kits, its already sundown. Then you can explore camp tomorrow as well." mewed Mistheart as she licked them lovingly.
The kits complied and curled up in their nest. Within moments they were fast asleep and they looked like little angels with their tails over their noses. They're perfect, thought Mistheart. Mistheart went to sleep too and drew them closer to herself.
Moonlight filtered through the brambles at the entrance of the nursery, falling on Silverkit's fur and giving it a beautiful shine as though it was Starclan's way of saying that this kit had been singled out for a great fate.
So that's Chapter 1 of SilverLight. I hope you enjoyed reading it. Constructive criticism is very welcome. Silverkit will be a prodigy but she will definitely have her flaws so she won't purrfect. Sorry couldn't resist the pun. Now that I've polished the old chapters, I can't wait to start on the fresh ones. Anyway, I would really appreciate any reviews and thank you so much for reading!
~Rain
