Chapter 1
The next time I woke up, I was covered from head to toe in something that looked like moss, and bracken covered the borders. I groaned. "What the…"
That was the moment when I finally realized that this was the first time my eyes were open.
"Where am I?" Sitting up, I could tell that I was in a den of some sort, with sharp-looking brambles covering the entrance. "Hello? Anyone?" A shiver ran down my spine. Why don't I remember anything? And why wasn't my mom there?
"Hello…" I pushed down on my forepaws, and my body shot up and I was on all fours. "Anyone there?" Looking around, I could tell that I had previously been in a nest of some kind, with grass and dried moss lining the edges. The den itself… I frowned. It seemed to be in the middle of something hollowed out, and it was very large. A tree. What the heck was I doing in a tree?
"Who are you?"
I spun around. Another kit. No, I take that back. Three more, in fact, two toms and a she-cat. How did I not notice them before? "Oh! Hello. Nice to meet you." I smiled. "What's your name? Or, I mean, what are your names?"
"Um…" the middle one stuttered. It was the she-cat, with a mix of both black and white fur. "I'm Splashkit. My brother over here is Nettlekit…" she gestured towards a tiny tortoiseshell tom, "and Jumpingkit." A bracken-brown cat peeked out at me with bright blue eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know? How am I supposed to know?" I moaned. "I just woke up here in the middle of the day with you guys crowding over me. How am I supposed to know? How am I-"
My sentence was interrupted as a tall she-cat with a crisscrossing black, white, and tortoiseshell she-cat burst into the den. "Splashkit! Nettlekit! Jumpingkit!" Her eyes traveled over me. "And what's your name?"
"Oh, um…" I tried to remember. Was I even named? Are you listening, Crimson? I name you after all the honorable blood that has been spilled tonight… "I think my name is Crimson."
The she-cat flicked her tail. "Hello, Crimsonkit. I'm Ivytail."
And that's how I was named.