A/N: OMG! What's the meaning of this, a double update? Well let me tell you what happened. I wrote this chapter as Chapter 14, then realized I forgot the Gathering chapter. Gahhh! By the time I realized, I'd already written up to the battle scene. So I quickly wrote Chapter 14 and finished up this chapter, and there you have it! Chapter 15, in all its glory! And I'm sorry if you guys waited for a long time to read Chapter 14. I was busy with school stuff… well ON WITH THE CHAPTER!
Chapter XV
Smokekit blinked, adjusting to the colorful but still-dark world around him for the first time. Wow, this is amazing! He thought. He turned in his small corner of the nest to look at his siblings. They were all fast asleep, eyes closed peacefully.
Smokekit turned over, closing his eyes too, and waited for dawn to arrive.
#-#-#
Smokekit opened his eyes and yawned, stretching. "Smokekit!" purred a pleasant voice. It was his mother, Snowhaze. "We're your siblings Breezekit, Falconkit, Mintkit and Leafkit." The five kits behind her meowed. The smaller kit took some time to adjust to his surroundings, then nodded.
"Mama, what's wrong with Smokekit?" Mintkit pawed at their mother. Smokekit felt a pang of anger strike him. There was nothing wrong with him! "There's nothing wrong with me." He meowed. His meow sounded three times softer than his siblings.
"But there is something wrong!" Mintkit complained, now facing Smokekit with a frown. "You're too small and your voice is too weak and your-"
"Well, everyone is different." Snowhaze's voice sounded calm and normal, but a touch of something like anger clouded her eyes. "Now, do you want to hear a story?"
For now, everything was all right for the young kits. But that would all change as they grew up; kin would turn on kin and invisible boundaries would separate them.
#-#-#
Cinderpaw was helping out in the medicine den with Shadowpaw. Their mentors had let them off training for the morning, as leaf-bare was coming and they needed as many herbs as possible.
"I'll be getting my medicine cat name at the next half-moon!" Blazepaw meowed excitedly. "Really?" Shadowpaw asked, interested. Cinderpaw kept on working. She wasn't interested in this kind of talk.
As the toms were talking, she scooped her paw into the hollow that held catmint. A few crooked strands of the herb were crushed under her paw. "Dear me, we need more catmint!" Goldenfern exclaimed, hurrying across the den. "Cinderpaw, why don't you go out and collect some?"
Cinderpaw accepted, and bringing some large leaves with her the apprentice trudged into the forest to serve her Clan. Catmint, catmint. She thought, scanning the patch where they got their catmint from. Luckily, many leaves of catmint still hung from their stems in the wisps of cold leaf-fall air.
As she was bundling up the catmint into the larger dock leaves, fat drops of rain plopped onto her gray head, making her sopping wet as quickly as you could say "catmint". That's odd. Rain in near-leafbare? I don't think that happens.
Not too soon, storms crackled above Cinderpaw's head. The gray apprentice fled to the camp, reminiscing her warm, cozy den shared with her brothers and sisters. "StarClan, that is a great storm out there." Rosestar marveled just as Cinderpaw rushed into camp.
"Oh, Cinderpaw! Thank StarClan you've come back. I thought you would be stuck out there in the rain." gushed Goldenfern as the apprentice headed towards her. "Hey, Cinderpaw! Come on, we're going to have a rain-training session." Brindlepaw poked her fluffy cream head out of the burrow they shared.
The mentioned apprentice nodded, trotting over to meet her sister. Just then, Rosestar called out, "Apprentices, follow me!" Duly following, four apprentices trailed after her, with their own mentors. When they got to the open grassland of their territory, the mentors sat, looking quite proud.
"Today's training will be quite exciting." Whitewhisker began, twitching his tail in thought. "The objective is for you to learn to fight in the rain. Not every battle will be in the sunshine." That's actually right. Cinderpaw realized, nodding.
Aspenleaf continued, "These are your territories." She laid down two boundary lines on the wet grass. "Shadowpaw and Brindlepaw are the invaders and Bramblepaw and Cinderpaw will be the DuskClan warriors."
"Invaders, that side." Stagpelt meowed gruffly, pointing to the far territory. Cinderpaw's two siblings took their places nervously. "Now when I say go… fight!" Rosestar called, crouching down.
Cinderpaw waited for her mentor to say go. While waiting, her mind sifted through the various methods of fighting she'd been taught. No sooner, Rosestar's familiar voice yowled, "Go!" and the "invaders" were off in a heartbeat.
The gray-striped apprentice hissed, her sheathed claws meeting her sisters'. Cinderpaw swiped over Brindlepaw's head, only managing to hit a small area on her back. Brindlepaw, unaffected by the small blow, brought both her paws down on Cinderpaw. The smaller apprentice nimbly ducked to one side and fake-scratched her sister's belly.
Brindlepaw bared her teeth in defeat and loped back to her "territory". Now the two only had to face Shadowpaw. She faced her brother's back, looking Bramblepaw straight in the eye as he fought with Shadowpaw.
Huh, Shadowpaw doesn't know what's coming. Cinderpaw thought in satisfaction as Bramblepaw aimed a hard blow at his brother, which threw Shadowpaw straight into Cinderpaw's paws. She clawed at his belly, making him yowl and shoot back to his make-believe territory.
All the time that the mock battle had been going on, the four mentors had been watching them through narrowed, criticizing eyes. "This should get them perfectly ready for tonight's battle." Aspenleaf murmured.
"Did we do okay?" Bramblepaw panted. "We must say that all of you fought well." Stagpelt meowed smoothly. "That's great!" Shadowpaw purred.
#-#-#
Later that night, a troupe of DuskClan warriors slunk through the forest towards enemy territory. The moon was far from full; no light shone through the thick layers of clouds. Rosestar was at the front of the line, and as they crossed the border, the leader started to count down.
"Five." The warriors slunk into three battle lines. "Four." A dozen claws unsheathed, burrowing into the soft, damp soil.
"Three. Two. One." Rosestar's voice was full of meaning, and all the cats crouched down, ready to attack. "Attack!" She yowled. Warriors sprung everywhere; right and left and front and back, and Cinderpaw was one of the ones who slid forwards.
This is my chance, to show everyone how I can fight. My chance to slash through fur, rip and kill, for the first time. Cinderpaw hissed and ran full out towards the camp just as they'd planned.
Rosestar's paws hit the grass of DawnClan's camp. Raising her head towards the sky, she yowled, "DawnClan has stolen our prey!" Then to her own cats, "ATTACK!" The DawnClan warriors rose from their nests, baring their teeth and unsheathing their claws.
But the DuskClan warriors were also prepared. Leafstripe made the first move, jumping straight into battle. All at once, fights erupted everywhere. Cinderpaw leaped at a warrior, causing him to stumble over.
The warrior cursed, aiming a blow at Cinderpaw. Like that afternoon, Cinderpaw merely ducked and hit him over the head. He rolled over in agony, exposing his soft stomach. The gray apprentice hissed in pleasure and tore at his stomach. The older cat fled into the medicine cat's den, badly wounded.
Clan was fighting against Clan. It was normal, but something else was coming, something big, and it would make all the cats turn to each other in fear.