Of Darkness and Light
Chapter 1
Hawkkit
The morning sun finally peeked into the nursery as Hawkkit felt a paw hit him in the face.
"Eaglekit, get your paw out of my face," Hawkkit groaned as he rolled over to his sister who was snoring light; curled up in a ball.
Eventually Hawkkit couldn't get to sleep again and sat up as Seasong lifted her head to look down at him.
"Good morning Hawkkit," Seasong said softly which woke Eaglekit and Lavenderkit
"Morning mother!" Eaglekit shouted as a silver grey tom padded in the nursery.
"Hello Blizzardfur, here to see Icekit I'm guessing," Seasong said softly.
Blizzardfur looked over to Seasong, a squirrel in his jaw as he placed it on the ground to speak.
"Yes, I can't thank Embernight enough for taking in my kit, I know Sunflower will be happy to see her kit growing," he said as he picked it back up and padded over to Embernight's nest.
Hawkkit didn't know much about Icekit, only that her mother died giving birth to her which left her without a mother and since Embernight almost lost all her kits excepted for Whisperkit, she was happy to take in Icekit.
"Can we go outside?" Lavenderkit asked their mother as they all stared up at her.
"Of course," Seasong replied as she got up and lead her kits out of the camp.
"Come on Fernpaw, we must gather some herbs, Sandpelt is almost ready to kit any day now and we must be ready for the worse," Shiningwing said as Fernpaw nodded.
"Right, this will be my first kitting, I can't wait!" Fernpaw said happily as she followed after her mentor.
Hawkkit watched Echofur watched her kit, he noticed how happy Echofur looked, remembering overhearing two warriors talk about Fernpaw's incident with a badger; which left the apprentice, scarred and missing an eye, Echofur asked Shininingwing if she could continue her warrior training but the medicine cat said that it was impossible for Fernpaw to continue but it turns out, Fernpaw was destined to be a medicine cat which made Echofur happy that her kit was still able to help her clan.
Couldn't StarClan tell Fernpaw that she was supposed to be a medicine cat and not let her be attacked by a badger? Hawkkit thought as a dark brown tabby padded over to Hawkkit and his siblings.
"You're awake Hawkkit, good," Foreststar said.
"Good morning father," Lavenderkit said as Eaglekit padded up to their father.
"Father! Can you teach us a battle move?" Eaglekit asked as Foreststar looked down at him.
"No," he simply said as he padded over to Seasong. "Our Kits will be apprentices today, I've already picked Hawkkit's mentor, he will have the deputy as he's mentor; the strongest kit should have the strongest warrior training him."
Seasong nodded, "Midnightfury will be a good mentor to Hawkkit but have you choose mentors for your other kits? Eaglekit and Lavenderkit are your kits too," she asked.
Foreststar turned to his kits and frowned, "No, I thought you would like to," he said as Seasong frowned.
"As the leader and father of them, you can also choose their mentors, someone worthy as well, Blizzardfur might be a good mentor for Eaglekit, give him a distraction from Icekit and Silverstorm is ready for another apprentice," Seasong said as Foreststar nodded.
"Very well, I shall make the announcements after the patrols are done," he said as he stood up and padded up to his kits.
"You're apprentice ceremony will be today, I know you'll make me proud Hawkkit," he said as he padded off.
Eaglekit frowned and turned to Hawkkit, "why does father like you more than us!" he demanded.
Hawkkit lowered his head, "I don't know," he said as Lavenderkit padded closer to him.
"It's not he's fault Eaglekit," Lavenderkit said as Eaglekit growled.
"Why are you defending him?" he shouted as Seasong overheard and padded over to her kits.
"Now, now, don't worry about your father; he's just stressed cause of NightClan's new aggressive behaviour," Seasong said.
"Bloodstar still thinks our father killed Bramblestar," Hawkkit said as Seasong nodded.
"Yes, I don't know how he managed to convince his clan that Foreststar did, Foreststar would never kill another leader for any reason excepted for hurting his clan," she said.
Eaglekit nodded, "yeah! Our father is a true warrior!" he shouted.
Hawkkit and Lavenderkit nodded in agreement but Hawkkit wondered what happened to the leader of NightClan, if he's father didn't kill him, who did, Bloodstar maybe? It would make sense.
"Foreststar!" Talonclaw shouted as he and his apprentice padded in the camp.
Foreststar turned to the light gray warrior, "Yes Talonclaw, what is it?" he asked.
"We found two NightClan cats near our borders," Talonclaw said as Foreststar growled and Midnightfury padded over.
"Where are they?" Midnightfury asked.
"The rest of the border patrol is escorting them to the camp and they're not warriors but elders," Talonclaw mewed as Foreststar's fur lie flat again.
"Elders?" he echoed as the rest of the patrol padded in with two cats in the middle of them, one had no tail and messy brown fur while the other only had three legs but she was much younger than the other.
"Notail! Halfleap! What are you doing here? Did Bloodstar sent you?" Foreststar demanded.
"Why would that fox-heart sent elders to your camp? We were exiled from our clan!" Notail growled.
"Exiled? But you're elders, what did you do?" Midnightfury asked.
"Nothing! Bloodstar said that they need to avenge Bramblestar and to do that we must feed the young and not the old so he exiled us and no one stood up for us!" Notail answered.
"That's not true Notail, Winddew stood up for us," Halfleap said.
"Still! Everyone allowed him to exile us and now we're clanless!" Notail growled.
"Foreststar! We must tell them stay, we can't let them to fend for themselves," Rosetail said, obviously hearing everything Notail said.
Foreststar nodded, "don't worry Rosetail, I'm not like Bloodstar, I won't exile a cat for no good reason, you may stay in ForestClan Notail, Halfleap til this Bramblestar thing is sorted," he said as the elders nodded.
"Thank you, Foreststar," Halfleap said, dipping her head as Rosetail padded over to them.
"Come, we'll get the apprentices to find nests for you both," Rosetail said as Midnight nodded.
"Bloodpaw! Flamepaw! Get Notail and Halfleap some moss for their nests!" he said as the two brothers nodded and padded out of the camp.
Hawkkit stared at Notail and Halfleap, it was obvious that something about NightClan was wrong and it definitely had something to do with Bramblestar's death.
I will find out what happened to the death of Bramblestar and solve this mystery once and for all, he thought.
Shadowkit
"All those cats old enough to avenge our noble leader, gather around the Highledge for a clan meeting!" Bloodstar's call echoed around the camp as the cats started to gather.
Shadowkit poked his head out and was about to run out but Lizardclaw stopped him with her tail.
"No Shadowkit! Wait til your father calls your names out," she said sternly.
Shadowkit frowned, "as the leader's son, no one can tell me what to do!" he growled as Lizardclaw hissed.
"I'm the queen looking after you! So you do as I say!" Lizardclaw swiped him on the ear, her claws unsheathed as blood trickled down from the small cut he got.
Spottedtail looked up from where she was, her two kits, cuddling up near her belly.
"Lizardclaw! There's no need to treat a kit like that! What will Bloodstar think if he caught you clawing his kit!" she growled.
Lizardclaw growled, "I'm glad they're going to be apprentices today! They're not my kits to begin with!"
Spottedtail sighed and didn't say anything more about it as Tornkit padded over to his brother.
"Come on, let's just watch outside the nursery," Tornkit said as Shadowkit nodded
"Alright, Tornkit," Shadowkit said as he and Tornkit padded out of the nursery and saw their father sitting on the Highledge with Otterfur below him, sitting proudly as deputy of the clan.
I hope he's my mentor? Shadowkit prayed as he listened to his father.
"Cats of NightClan, today marks a new day, with our clan growing, we come closer to avenging our fallen leader and to do that we have to focus on those who can fight and hunt for the clan, the elders were just a waste of space and had to be exiled," he said as Winddew growled.
"No elder is a waste of space! They fought long before you were even born Bloodstar! How can you all just sit here and believe this nonsense!"
Shadowkit watched everyone mutter among themselves, looking to Winddew and Bloodstar.
Stupid medicine cat! Just keep your mouth shut! Shadowkit thought angrily.
"They're no longer able to fight for us, ForestClan will not simply sit and wait for us to attack, we must be prepare, it's a tough decision but I'm fully committed to avenging our noble leader, like all of you," Bloodstar said as everyone nodded, Winddew hissed and padded back into his den.
"Anyways, we have more important matters to attend to, Shadowkit and Tornkit are now six moons old and are now ready to become apprentices, Tornkit, Shadowkit, come here please," Bloodstar said as Shadowkit and Tornkit bounded over to their father and sat down in front of Highledge.
Bloodstar jumped down and stood in front of his sons; "Shadowkit, Tornkit, you're now six moons old and ready to defend and fight for the clan with your life, from this day forward, you're new names are Shadowpaw and Tornpaw, Otterfur, you're a powerful and strong warrior, I'm sure you'll train Shadowpaw into the best warrior and Lionspirit, I trust that you will train Tornpaw to be the best warrior NightClan has ever seen," he said as Otterfur and Lionspirit padded over to Shadowpaw and Tornpaw.
"Get ready to train hard Shadowpaw, the clan needs every members to fight against ForestClan," Otterfur said as Shadowpaw nodded and touched noses as did Lionspirit and Tornpaw.
"Good, that's all for now, Otterfur, make sure you organize the patrols before you do anything with Shadowpaw," Bloodstar said as Otterfur nodded and turned to the clan.
"Border patrol is Sootheart, Whitepaw, Vemonclaw, Splashpaw and Seagreen, hunting patrol is Wildheart, Hazeltruth, Skypaw, brambledust and Rabbithop!" he shouted as the clan started to split and the two patrols formed.
"Otterfur," Lionspirit said, "how about we take our apprentices around our territory; they need to know since being in the camp up til now."
Shadowpaw bounced happily at the thought of finally seeing his territory, no ForestClan cat will ever cross our border while I'm around! He thought as Otterfur nodded.
"Yes that's a good idea, let's go," he said as he led the way out of the camp.
Shadowpaw, Tornpaw and Lionspirit followed after as Shadowpaw stopped once they're were outside the camp and took the time to look around.
"NightClan's known for our abilities to hunt at night, we're are the true night hunters of the forest, no animal can hunt as well as we can in the dark," Otterfur said.
Shadowpaw and Tornpaw nodded at Otterfur as Lionspirit spoke.
"Like Otterfur said, we're are the best clan at hunting at night, the pine trees that you see overhead block out the sun making it harder for prey and ForestClan cats to move around without feeling someone's watching," Lionspirit said.
"Indeed, come on, let's keep moving," Otterfur said as he took the lead and headed east of the camp.
Shadowpaw looked around as he followed his new mentor, he felt the mud started to stick to his paws as he could smell something strange up ahead.
"Smell that? That's ForestClan's border, we're coming up on it," Otterfur said as he stopped right in front of the border as did everyone else.
"It's still faint, obviously they too lazy to remark their borders," Otterfur said.
"Who said we're lazy!" a voice growled as a ForestClan patrol padded up to the NightClan, it had three warriors and two apprentices and judging from the size of the apprentices, they're we just named apprentices like Shadowpaw and Tornpaw.
Don't show them weakness, let them think you're been an apprentice longer then they have, he thought as he unsheathed his claws.
"Shadowpaw no," Lionsprit said as one of the warriors noticed Shadowpaw's unsheathed claws.
"Have you come for a fight? After all you heartless cats will do anything, even exile your own elders!" one warrior growled.
"How do you know that? You've been spying on us! Haven't you Midnightfury!" Otterfur growled.
"You're elders arrived at our clan, unlike yous we welcomed them, we're not lying murderers!" another ForestClan warrior hissed.
"Murderers! We're no murderers! Your leader is! He killed Bramblestar!" Otterfur yowled.
"How do you know that?" one of the apprentices asked.
Otterfur hissed at the apprentice as he didn't flinch.
"Bloodstar saw him! Bloodstar saw Foreststar kill Bramblestar!"
"Our father is no murderer!" the other apprentice yelled.
"Eaglepaw! Enough!" a silver grey warrior hissed.
"Sorry Bilzzardfur but I'm not going to stand here and let some old warrior insult my father!" Eaglepaw hissed as Otterfur growled.
"You'll pay for that!"
"Don't even think about it!" Midnightfury warned standing in front of Blizzardfur and Eaglepaw. "One move from you and you won't come back from this unscarred."
Shadowpaw stared at the dark brown tabby named Hawkpaw, his eyes narrowed at him, so he's Foreststar's son, every cat in ForestClan talks about him from what I heard from the warriors, he's someone to keep an eye on, he thought.
Shadowpaw watched Hawkpaw meet his gaze, he noticed his eyes didn't hostile but curious.
"What are you looking at?" Shadowpaw shouted.
Hawkpaw shook his head, "you're Bloodstar's sons right, I have a feeling we'll meet each other again real soon," he said.
"Come on ForestClan! Let's go!" Midnightfury growled as he led his patrol away.
But Shadowpaw was puzzled, what did Hawkpaw meant, doesn't matter, he crosses me, I'll flatten him! He thought.