A/N: This is not chapter 3. This is a readable version of chapter 2.
Chapter 2
Maplekit opened her eyes. Where was the nursery? Where were Stormkit, Cloudleaf, and Streamfoot?
"Welcome," came a deep voice.
"Where am I?" Maplekit asked.
"Don't be frightened, young one. I'm here to help you."
Maplekit was about to say more, but before she could speak, a huge brown tom stepped out from the shadows. Maplekit was hypnotized by him. His brown tabby pelt was laced with old scars. And his eyes were yellow, and an intense fire seemed to burn in each one.
"You have a great destiny ahead of you, and with my help you will fulfill it," meowed the tom.
"Who are you?" Maplekit asked.
"My name is Troutfang," he said.
"What do I have to do?" Maplekit asked.
"The most important thing is trust. You need to trust that everything I do is for your best interest. Even if what I do seems harsh, it is for the greater good of your destiny. I can make you leader if you just trust me."
Maplekit looked at him.
"But Stormkit says that he'd be a better leader than me, and he's probably right," Maplekit said sadly, looking down at her paws.
"Ambition clouds the heart, and tells the mind to do the wrong thing," Troutfang said gently.
"But Cloudleaf likes Stormkit more than me, so that would also make him a better leader, right?"
"A mother's love has nothing to do with leadership. You must learn to overcome Stormkit."
"But he's my brother, I can't just fling him off like a speck of dust. All I do is try to be his friend, and he thanks me by practically clawing my ears off."
"You have a hard life ahead of you. I will always be here for you if you promise to trust me."
Maplekit blinked up at him. If she ever wanted to be as good as Stormkit, she would need all the help she could get. "I trust you," she whispered.
"Good." Troutfang said.
"What should I do now?" Maplekit asked.
"Tomorrow night, we will start battle practice," Troutfang meowed.
"Battle practice?" Maplekit's eyes shown.
"Of course," Troutfang purred.
"I'll be the best leader RiverClan has ever seen!" Maplekit said, purring so hard she could hardly get the words out.
"You must promise me one more thing. You must not tell any cat about me," Troutfang looked into Maplekit's shining eyes as he spoke.
"I won't tell anyone! If I told my clan might think I cheated!" Maplekit cried still purring.
"You don't think your cheating, do you?" Troutfang asked.
"Of course not! If it was cheating, you wouldn't have come to me!"
"You must go now. I'll see you tomorrow."
Maplekit woke up in Cloudleaf's nest. Stormkit was sleeping soundly next to her. Maplekit reached out a paw, and jabbed it into Stormkit's side. Her brother blinked up at her.
"You woke up first! How could you be so stupid? I'm still a better choice for leader than you, even if you woke up before me one day! You disgust me! I'm
ashamed to call you my sister! If it wasn't against the warrior code, I'd have killed you before you opened your eyes!" he snarled.
"What did I ever do to you? I try to be a loyal friend and sister, and you want me dead?" Maplekit asked grief and anger in her voice.
"If you want to wine,, go and wine to Streamfoot! Leave me alone!" STORMKIT hissed, his eyes glittering coldly.
It seemed that every day Stormkit got meaner. What had Maplekit ever done to her brother. Cloudleaf and Streamfoot were both still asleep. Maplekit sat down and started to groom her orange and white fur. As Maplekit let her thoughts wonder, she thought of Streamfoot's kits. They would be born soon, and Maplekit was looking forward to meeting them. It would be nice to have more kits, and she would try to make friends with them. She would be the
kits idol and Stormkit would wish he was as close to the kits as his sister. A picture formed in Maplekit's mind. In it she was showing the kits around camp for the first time. STORMKIT sat there, watching sadly, because the kits thought he was mean. That had at first felt great, but Maplekit wished that she and her brother could show the little ones around together. MAPLEKIT looked at Streamfoot. The queen was awake now, lapping at her gray pelt. Cloudleaf was washing Stormkit.
"Your turn, Maplekit," her mother meowed.
She pushed Stormkit out of the way and tucked Maplekit between her front paws.
"What's wrong Maplekit? You look like you lost a trout and found a minnow," CLOUDLEAF asked gently.
"Stormkit doesn't like me, and you always seem to like him better than me," Maplekit meowed sadly.
Maplekit saw shock and hurt in her mother's gaze.
"I love you equally," Cloudleaf said, sounding a bit choked up.
Maplekit nodded.
"Why don't you go play outside for a bit," Cloudleaf said to the kits.
Maplekit and Stormkit ran out into the camp. Stormkit went off to watch Silverfur. Maplekit, however, stayed outside the nursery, listening to the angry growls from outside.
"Just look what you made my kits think! Maplekit doesn't even know that I love her because your always treading on my tail! And you act like Stormkit's Green-cough! Maplekit is closer to you than me, and I'm her mother! You've probably told her that I'm planning to kill her! And Stormkit teases her about all this, and you act like she should just shake it off!" that was Cloudleaf sounding very upset.
"You are always going off with Stormkit, and leaving Maplekit with me, so I'm not the one to blame. As for Stormkit, I don't think he's Green-cough, but I don't like the way he treats Maplekit either. I do care about him," Streamfoot spoke with a forced calm in her meow.
"I don't like how Stormkit treats Maplekit either, but at least I'm nice about it! You on the other paw, think that you can just ignore him! I pity your kits. No cat should have to grow up with a mother that shows so much favoritism!"
"You let me watch Maplekit yesterday instead of asking me to go outside with Stormkit," Streamfoot said.
"That's because your to fat to get out of your dumb nest!"
"I can get out of my nest any time!" Streamfoot had lost all calm.
Maplekit couldn't stand it anymore. She ran into the nursery, and stood between the two queens.
"Don't fight because of me," she whimpered.
Cloudleaf and Streamfoot sat there, speechless with their mouths hanging open.
After what might have been a hundred seasons or a single heartbeat, Cloudleaf spoke, "It's not because of you, Maplekit."
"What is it about then? You both want to be my mother, and want nothing to do with each other. Why do you hate each other?" Maplekit's voice shook.
"I don't want to take Cloudleaf's place. I love you as if you were my own kit, but I'm not your mother. I'm about to have my first kits, so I want to get used to them, but I think I stepped in more than I should have," Streamfoot meowed.
"But if I hadn't said what I did this morning, you wouldn't have had to fight," Maplekit meowed, wishing she'd held her tongue.
"I should be giving you more attention then I have. I just thought you'd rather be with Streamfoot than me. After all, she's more of a mother to you than I have been," Maplekit hated to see the anguish in her mother's eyes as she spoke.
"Why do you hate each other so much?" Maplekit asked, trying to ask something that wouldn't force her to take a side.
"Long story short, Streamfoot and I have never gotten along very well," Cloudleaf meowed.
Maplekit knew that she wouldn't get a better answer out of Cloudleaf. If Maplekit knew one thing about her mother, it was if she didn't want to tell something she wouldn't tell it. She would just tell you something you already knew in a slightly different way.
"I just want to say that I'm sorry for ignoring you. I was wrong to do so," There was deep regret in Cloudleaf's meow, and for some reason Maplekit couldn't understand, the gray queen's glance flicked briefly over to Streamfoot.
Maplekit felt a stab of pity for her mother, "I understand."
"Can I do anything to make it up to you?" Cloudleaf asked.
"No. Let's just move on," Maplekit said.
It was in that moment that Maplekit realized how much she loved Cloudleaf.
A/N: I finally got the next chapter up.
Subwayguy: Thank you so much for the OC!
Sivillian: I'm glad you liked it, but it won't be cute for long.
In chapter 4 Streamfoot will have her kits. I have had one person send me an OC so far. I will take three more for Streamfoot's litter. If I get more they will be in different she-cats litters. I hope you all like this.