This wasn't my favorite chapter ever because Duskkit is such a strange character. I wanted something big to happen to him, and this is it. It is nearly two days after (well, one and a half) after Breezepaw's chapter and a lot has happened. I think you will understand as you read it. I would like to thank all my reviews, love you guys. (Marshmellowtime, LarkspiritofForestClan, nightfangfox, Mintfrost29, Broken Wolf Soul Spirit, Mossshine, Tangleflame, flyingshuriken, SilverWolf1499, Stormyfang502, Moonblaze 13, pablo04, Phantomflower, KTDLover, Stormdrop)

Time: Day 5

Character: Duskkit of BloomClan

Ch. 15 Stolen

My body was asleep, but my mind was still drifting. My fur and scrawny muscles were tensed to move. I hadn't seen Brightkit for a whole sunrise, but she might be out there, waiting for me to step out of my place.

My ears perked up as a gust of wind rustled the leaves lining the edge of the nursery. A strange scent, almost like dead fish, wafted into my nose. It smelled salty and tickled the cavity of my sensitive noise.

A buried my head into my brother's soft black fur, hoping the unpleasantness would vanish. Instead, the wind seemed to pick up and leaves and even some branches from the overhanging trees began to move.

My fur rose as I heard shuffling beside me. It was the sound of paws on solid rock, not the eerie fluttering of leaves. No one beside me seemed to hear it, the creature must be coming especially for me.

My heart beat faster as I prepared to see Brightkit's vicious green eyes peak into the nursery. But the relentless pounding seemed too heavy for her steps. Despite her intimidating demeanor, she couldn't possibly make steps that loud.

I tried to breath in my mother's sweet scent to calm my racing nerves, but all I smelled was the odor of damp moss. It stifled everything around me, making the noises seem like they were never there.

But my mother wasn't by my side; I couldn't ignore that. She was my protector, always saving me some piece of prey. If she wasn't beside me when I woke up, my stomach would growl in hunger.

I started to nudge my brother awake when my eyes saw the nursery in a new light. The half where Pantherkit, Fernkit, and I nested was empty. The moss was piled up next to me by some secretive visitor.

A tiny whimper escaped my mouth because nothing was making sense. Why was the world so confusing? It hurt my head to think about.

My pain eased the tiniest bit when I didn't scent Brightkit among every nestled together. But when I could smell Fernkit, I buried my head under my paws to hide from the world. If only my mother was here, sitting beside me.

I stood up, more frazzled then before, when I realized Larkspirit was the only queen still in the nursery. Sleeping kits had already curled up to her, not caring that their own mother's had disappeared.

When I saw a golden brown tail flash at the edge of my view, I shouted out, for once second, not caring what happened to me. Things would be worse if my mother abandoned me.

"Lightcloud, Mother," I called out, my voice hoarse. "Please come back." My pleas seem to fade away as I believed in them less and less. My heart sunk into my chest and I buried my face in my paws once again.

I ran to where I had seen her tail disappear, but all that was there was a pile of leaves. I threw myself in them, hoping she was just hiding. She couldn't abandon me, she couldn't have. Maybe this was all a terrible nightmare.

Even when a golden leaf-fall leaf tumbled onto the crown of my head, I refused to believe she had gone. Maybe if I sat by the entrance, she would return for me. Maybe.

The cold wind stung my back, but I didn't care to move. It felt wrong to sleep against another queen. It would be a bittersweet taste of betrayal. My mother would reject me when she came back.

As my tail and paws lost feeling, I tried to move my frozen muscles. My resolve to hold a vigil for my mother was gone. If I could rise of the ground and onto my tingling legs, I would snuggle against Larkspirit and my siblings.

They looked so nice and warm, cuddled together like they were. I could see my mother in the morning when the sun rose. She wouldn't mind if I had forgotten her just so I could be warm. No, I wouldn't forget her.

My thoughts destroyed themselves as I remembered the gap in my heart my Mother filled. I could never seem to stay on a positive train of mind. Something dark would always sweep in and demolish them.

This time, something dark really did sweep in from above. "How many moons are you?" it demanded, its voice too rough for a tom and too deep for a she-cat. "Can you fight?"

I was frozen with fear, unable to move. The essence of my nightmares had come to fight and kill me. Me, who had never done anything bad; I was also too terrified.

"F-f-f-fi-fiv-fiv-five moons," I told the dark shape, unable to keep the stutter out of my voice. It must have been the soul of a murdered cat, reeking their horrible vengeance. "I don't know how to fight. Please don't eat me."

He seemed angry at my answer, but his fury seemed to directed somewhere else. A burning flame erupted in his eyes, illuminating his vicious attitude. A brief idea flashed; call to the one remaining queen and kits for help.

I was determined to be brave. If it ended in my death, then I would no longer have to deal with the pain and troubles of this world. Maybe it would be better if the shadow demon killed me now. "Take my-my life," I told him. "I'll be in a better place."

I could picture a beautiful field, covered with flowers and my mother grinning in the middle. When my eyes opened to the reality, I saw a smile full of grinning white teeth. My screams only pierced my head, they refused to spill out of my mouth.

"I can see why Blossomfrost had me fooled," said the horrendous smile. "You are a bunch of weak sissies. You'd rather die then fight. Well, OakClan will be a rude awakening for you babies."

I wanted to say something, but I knew he was right. I just lay down an whimpered, my eyes started to tear up. "Just stay away, just stay away. Please!" My voice pitched up in a wail, shattering the air.

I heard some rustling behind me along with the slightly exhausted mews of kits. "Who is up and about?" asked Larkspirit, her sweet voice reminding me of my mother's. "It is a cold night, and the wind is biting."

I was happy to leave my haunting vision and nestle against a warm mass of fur, even if it wasn't my mother. The cold sweat of fear was leaving my body as the ice cold teeth of the wind was grasping my thin fur.

When I tried to pick up my tiny, ice-cold paws, I found myself stuck in one place. The ominous sharp was holding onto my tail, grinning it's evil grin, making me feel as tiny and unimportant as I truly was.

Then a claw ruffled the fur on my back, sending a shake of terror through my bones. Before I could push my icicles of legs forward, another claw closed over my mouth. I convulsed as only fur was entering my lungs, no oxygen.

"What is it Lightcloud?" asked a small voice belonging to my brother. It sounded worried and unsure of what was happening; exactly how I felt. "Is it a fox?"

"Of course not, Pantherkit," she cooed, making my fear my situation even more. "It is just the wind in the leaves. Please go back to sleep. I don't want you to wake Amberkit or Aspenkit." I wanted to be next to my brother.

I tried to kick out, but the pain in my back was to great and my vision was beginning to spin. When the darkness clouding my mind seemed complete, it suddenly got very light and very warm.

The last thing I wondered before fantasy trumped reality was why Larkspirit would lie to Pantherkit. Only Moonstripe would lie to anyone; the other queens were kind and sweet.

But that thought didn't last long as my brain was no longer functioning properly. Flashes of sunlight and shadows consumed my world making it hard to tell reality from my imagination.

I could see flowers in the distance, blowing in a warm green-leaf wind. My feet wanted to run towards it, but something tugged me from behind. Paws made out of solid air pulled me back into the darkness, away from the heat and love.

"If you stay quiet, I won't have to do that to you," said the voice. For the first time, I could see a dark black pelt connected to the strangling paw. "I'm not fond of beating toms. I prefer she-cats beneath my claws."

"I don't like getting beaten," I cried softly as soon as my world returned to normal. "I'll do anything, just don't beat me." I knelt down before the tom like I used to before Brightkit, begging not to receive another scar.

"Just don't struggle," he told me, speaking softly as if he was sensing my unease. It was odd talking to a tom like this, like he could really hurt me. But he has some unknown strength; maybe I had it too.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked after a blanketing silence had descended upon us. For some strange reason, I was comfortable in his grasp. It was like my mother would carry be after Brightkit would "play" with me.

"Where you belong," he mumbled, my scruff blocking his words. "Now be quiet, this is the tricky part." I couldn't fully understand what he was saying, but the point was clear, there would be no talking.

The small part of my body that clung to life remained quiet. The rest heaved up in revolt; they didn't want to be taken away from the one thing they love. The one thing it knew.

My captor stopped in the shadow of a huge stone as gray she-cat slowly paced in front of the exit. "Of course, Petalstar doesn't take me on the most spectacular raid in all of BloomClan's history. She trusts me to trade with Danger, but not fight our ancient enemy."

"Stay here," said my deep brown tom after he placed me in a darkest of the shadow. He slowly crept forward like he was hunting a field mouse. Claws slowly came unsheathed and the marked the soft ground.

The she-cat never saw it coming. The tom flew in a blur of black and brown; his eyes were blazing with barely contained rage.

I backed up against the rock, not believing what I was seeing with my eyes. Lilystrike had no time to defend herself, she was slain like a fish. My tom delivered a quick bite to the back of her neck, and she slumped forward.

He raced over to me, blood spilling out of his mouth. He teeth were stained pink with a dead cat's blood. I scrambled back, afraid I would be his next victim.

The vision of my mutilated body being found in the morning was terrible. My body would be buried with no ceremony, a tom with no kits. I couldn't even defend myself, if I was dead or alive.

"Well," he snapped at me, blood spitting out of his mouth and splattering it on the ground between us. "We have to go before the camp is alerted. The rest of the toms are already quite a distance out."

"The rest of the toms," I muttered, my voice muted by fear and confused. "But, don't the toms rarely leave the camp. Certainly not all at once."

"We aren't playing by the rules, kit," laughed the tom. "If we were, life wouldn't be worth living anymore. What is the point of having claws if you never use them."

As if proving a point, he eased beside me and stroked my tiny paws, causing milky white claws to fall out. "I have them to fight," I said looking into his green eyes, "but I have never fought."

He smiled at me like I was just waking up. Then, I could see Lilystrike laying dead behind him. "I don't think I want to fight. It seems wrong killing someone, even if they do something wrong."

He grinned, flashing pink fangs at me. "I bet you want to kill Brightkit if you had the chance. The toms gossip more then OakClan she-cats."

"I don't...don't know," I stuttered out. It was such a strange question to even consider. If I had the skills, the ability, would I kill her. "I don't think I could; she is way too scary. Her eyes look like yours just now."

"We can talk more about this later. Now come here." When I stayed rooted in my position, he growled at me, showing his anger for the first time. "You don't have a choice. Come here!"

His voice was soft to not wake any of the nearby cats, but it was forceful. I scampered over, my legs cramping up. "Where are we going."

I could feel a smile light up his mouth as he picked me up by my scruff. "Somewhere quite a distance away. The place where I come from."

"Are there more scary cats?" I asked, my teeth not chattered from the night breeze. "Are there more toms like you."

"Of course," he enjoyed a soft chuckle at my ignorance. "We are an entire Clan of tom warriors. You will train to be one of us. No more Brightkit for you."

As he picked up his pace in a race to put the BloomClan camp out of sight, I realized what I was leaving behind. "I want my mother. You are taking me away from her; you are a monster."

Whatever effect I wanted, I didn't get it. I was completely unnerved when he started laughing, the rumbling shaking my frail body. "I'm surprised you haven't realized that already. But, we are going to where your mother is heading. Eventually, we will catch up to her."

"Really," I said, my spirit soaring. It was hard to believe him: he had killed a cat in cold blood and just admitted to being a monster. It was hard not to believe because my heart wanted it to be true.

"Yes, really," he sighed, possibly annoyed by my endless pestering. "Now be quiet, I have to call for Fox. He said he was going to hide near the edge of the marshland."

I smiled until an ear pierce yowl filled the air and I tumbled onto the damp ground. My eyes darted around, looking for a mother fox until I realized it was my tom who had made that noise.

A ginger shape darted out of the bushes quickly and quietly. I let out my own yowl as a fox sat beside me and gave me a deep growl. "Run, run!"

The fox bit into my tail and pinned me to the ground. "You said you were taking care of the guards, Breeze. You never mentioned anything about bringing a kits."

"I have my reasons, Fox," growled Breeze, for that must be my tom's name. "He would be the perfect messenger or spy. Just think of the opportunities." Now that moonlight shown clearly upon the ginger, I could see that it was a cat.

Even though talking to a cat made more sense, I didn't understand why they were talking about me like that. Didn't Breeze just want to take me to my mother. He was a tom like me, someone on my side.

Whatever Breeze's logic was, Fox didn't understand it either. "Why did you drag along that weakling? The two of us will have enough trouble catching enough food for everyone without another mouth to feed."

"Foxthorn," sneered my tom, "you easily have forgotten how a Clan works and thinks. He will learn quicker then everyone else. He has a young mind that can be twisted."

Fox scowled at that name, looked at Breeze like he was a mouse he was too lazy to catch at the moment. "You were the one who was thinking of working with a she-cat. You were the one who had forgotten his entire life just a day ago. Did you forget that Breezeblaze?"

"Just shut up, I remember everything now. That is all that matters. We must put the past behind us if we want to collect the revenge StarClan owes us." He turned to pick me up, but stopped short. "Led the two of us to the camp. I think Kit here needs some rest."

"We all need rest genius," said Fox, galloping into the marsh. "We have a long way to go tomorrow, and you were unconscious and don't remember any of it."

"Just be quiet, Fox," mumbled Breeze, trying to sound tough through my fur. "I'm leading this band of toms, not you."

"That all depends on the moment, doesn't it." With that Fox disappeared into the darkness and we were forced to follow his scent.

As the frogs croaked in the distance, I wished even more that my mother was beside me. I wished that Pantherkit was curled up next to me, and he could make me feel safe.

This might be my last update until after Thanksgiving (end of November) because I have recently become obsessed with Hetalia. I have watched all the episodes on Youtube, and I want to try my hand at a fanfiction. If you are interested in that, please kee watch for a story involving Germany and Rhineland (the first piece of land captured in WW2).

I posted this chapter rather quickly, so I hope you are forgiving of any errors. Please review despite that, because this took quite some time to write.

I hope you liked Duskkit because he could possibly me the next chapter. I might even throw in Stormclaw just for the fun of it. Blossomfrost is the most likely choice because I bet everyone wants to know what is happening with the she-cats.

~Scar