Applekit tried to sleep, closing her eyes and trying to empty her mind. but thoughts kept racing through her head without her permission. Is Swfitkit alright? Why do I care so much? Is the baby vole alright? Will I end up killing it someday? Will a Clanmate? Why is Falconkit's snoring so loud? Do I snore that loud? Do I snore at all? Finally, the kit gave up. She stood silently, letting her eyes adjust to the dark of night.
Stepping carefully out of the den, she looked up at the starry sky. Could all those stars really be warriors? She gazed up at them in wonder. would she someday be a star up there, looking down at another kit, moons and moons and moons from now? Would she wander StarClan territory with her family and Swiftkit, hunting and scuffling and happy forever? It seemed unbelievable, and for that simple fact, she was afraid. What if it wasn't all true, and you simply were dead after you died? Eternal blackness, or worse, simply winking out of existence? She shook off the thoughts. StarClan was real; how else did prophecies and medicine cats and leader happen?
As often happens, the moment Applekit thought about her leader, the tom came through the camp entrance. Earlier, upon hearing that Ravenstar had gotten her name and lives, Eagleheart had traveled to the Whispering Cave. Feeling daring, Applekit bounded over to him silently. "Did you get your name?" she chirped. The large tom dipped his head. "Then hello, Eaglestar." she grinned, knowing she was the first to call him by his new name.
"Hello, Applekit. Why are you still awake at this time? It's past moonhigh!" the leader of IceClan scolded lightly.
The blue-furred she-kit shrugged. "I couldn't sleep." The grin faded from her face when she asked seriously, "Did you see StarClan, Eaglestar?"
"I am forbidden to speak of the ceremony, I'm afraid." he replied.
His vague answer only worrying her more, Applekit pleaded, "I don't need to know anything about the ceremony. I just want to know if StarClan is r- if they were there," she amended. "Surely you can say that?"
Frowning, he answered slowly, "I suppose it couldn't hurt. StarClan was there."
"Good." Applekit purred, relieved. "Who are you going to make deputy?" she asked curiously.
Eaglestar chuckled. "Well, I haven't decided yet." His eyes were warm as he talked to the inquisitive, bold she-kit.
"I think you should pick my dad." Applekit said earnestly. "He's a good warrior, and doesn't smell weird, like Sedgeleap." She wrinkled her nose. Snakepaw's mentor always smelled faintly of garlic, and he scared the kit slightly.
This only made him laugh harder. "Well, we wouldn't want our deputy smelling funny, eh Applekit? No, all the warriors have a shot, but I'll keep your dad in mind, I promise." Eaglestar vowed, and the amber-eyed kit smiled in response before yawning widely. Not missing the action, the leader nudged her back in the direction of the den. "Go on and sleep now. The world can wait until tomorrow." She stumbled back to the den, glancing back once to see Eaglestar, sitting with his paws tucked neatly under his chest, deep in thought.
A paw jabbed into Applekit's side. "What?" she asked grouchily, not wanting to open her eyes.
"Eaglestar just called for the Clan to gather. I think its the deputy ceremony!" Flowerbreeze said, trying to wake Falconkit with little success.
Finally, the queen managed to get Falconkit to pad out of the den and sit in the clearing with her sister and mother, at which point she soon nodded off again as Eaglestar began to speak. "IceClan. Last night I traveled to the Whispering Cave and I received my nine lives, and my name. I am Eaglestar, now."
The cats gathered below cheered, "Eaglestar! Eaglestar!" and the golden tabby nodded, smiling, before waving his tail for silence.
"Thank you," he acknowledged their support. "The fact that StarClan has indeed given me my leadership proves that they support the decision to divide SkyClan into four. I know many of you, maybe even all of you, have been separated from loved ones, be they friends or family, and that is the hardest thing in the world to live with. But generations from now, there will likely be little more than rivalry between the new Clans unless we teach our kits and teach them to teach their kits how connected we are. That these four Clans do not become as the Forest Clans have become, ruthless and feeling hatred for any cat outside your Clan, is nothing less than ideal. I cannot promise you this will happen, but I wish it so, and I feel that most of you wish it so as well.
"And perhaps StarClan knows something we don't, seeing ahead of these possible conflicts and witnessing a bright future. We will not know until we have passed on. But I hope that from your pain, good will come for the future of IceClan, and of the other Clans as well. And now, I believe it is time for me to appoint IceClan's first deputy." Eaglestar paused, letting anticipation set in with a hint of a smile. He could be very dramatic sometimes.
"I say these words before StarClan, that the spirits of our warrior ancestors may hear and approve my choice. The deputy of IceClan will be Mothstripe." All eyes turned to the white-furred tom with black stripes. The expression on his face was priceless - shock, mostly, but mingled with joy, determination, and what appeared to be fear at the daunting task.
While Applekit was disappointed that her father was not appointed, she cheered for the new deputy. "Mothstripe!" she greeted him. He was a very sensible warrior for the job- he was slightly on the cautious side, but if he knew it was right, he was a fierce fighter. He was not the largest or strongest warrior of the Clan, but he was very intelligent and a senior warrior. He was also the father of Tigerkit and Shadowpetal's loyal mate. He and Shadowpetal sometimes bickered over trivial things, but they loved each other passionately, and had since they were apprentices. They had had a first litter of three kits, but one died as a very young apprentice and the other two, Jaysong and Blackpath, had been sorted into different Clans.
Applekit noticed that Hazelfur, her father, looked almost angry and didn't cheer for his Clanmate, but she was sure he was just disappointed and would get over it. Mothstripe padded up to sit below where Eaglestar was perched on a broken stump of a tree. He stared up at the sky and smiled, and Applekit wondered if he was thinking of his daughter, Leopardpaw, the one who had died.
Sorrelpaw, Mothstripe's apprentice gave the final cheer before Eaglestar waved his tail for quiet once more. The red-furred apprentice was a bit of a snot, and Applekit overheard her saying nastily to Acornpaw, "Looks like I'm the deputy's apprentice now. I bet he'll make Eaglestar make me a warrior before you." And the kit rolled her eyes.
Acornpaw merely shrugged. "Good luck." he meowed. He was the only apprentice who really put up with Sorrelpaw, even though the others were all younger than them both. Ashpaw and Snakepaw in particular disliked the she-cat while Pepperpaw just ignored her for the most part. The latter was sitting quite close to Applekit and her family.
As Flowerbreeze carried Falconkit back to the nursery, he said quietly, "Hi."
"Hi Pepperpaw." Applekit said a little shyly.
The gray-speckled tom checked to see that her mother was out of earshot before asking excitedly, "Ashpaw and I are going to sneak out of camp and see the new territory. Do you want to come with us? Our mentors won't show us around because they think that the whole forest is infested with foxes and badgers or something." he rolled his eyes. "You'd think the Clan leader and his sister wouldn't be so uptight..." He paused, then smiled. "I take that back. You kind of would expect it." He chuckled.
"Eaglestar already caught me out in the forest once..." Applekit said hesitantly, but she was no cat to back down from an adventure of any sort. "Whatever. When do we go?" the blue-furred she-kit asked, with fiery determination alight in her amber eyes.
Ashpaw, who had come up behind the kit, meowed, "Now?" She was a beautiful she-cat her pale gray tabby fur long and soft, contrasting with her sparkling green eyes.
Jumping and looking up at the pretty apprentice, Applekit nodded. "Kay. Let's go." she got to her paws silently, adrenaline making her heart flutter and her legs tremble slightly.
"Sure, we'll show you the new dirtplace, Applekit." Ashpaw said in a louder tone, but not so loud to be obvious. The two apprentices led her out of camp, no other cats paying them much notice. Once they were beyond the hearing distance of camp, Ashpaw asked the other two, "Where should we go first?" They had simply been following the edge of the river so far, heading in the direction of SkyClan.
Not altogether sure Ashpaw was talking to her, Applekit responded tentatively, "Towards FlareClan?"
"No, Pepperpaw and I have already seen a lot of that when we explored the old SkyClan territory. We should circle around the camp and see the unexplored parts of IceClan." she said, dismissing Applekit's plan immediately.
The blue kit refrained from rolling her eyes and snapping, "Then why did you ask?" and simply nodded. Pepperpaw swung around and started making a very wide circle that would lead them a good distance away from the camp as they passed it the second time. It was edging into late greenleaf, and fruit from the trees was starting to really attract birds and other animals when it dropped to the ground. There were birds everywhere, and Applekit's stomach growled. She hadn't eaten anything that day, and she knew they would be walking a long ways that day.
Pepperpaw apparently heard the noise because he fell into a hunting crouch and started stalking toward a bird that Applekit recognized as a thrush, which was pecking at something on the ground with its back to the three cats. Just as he got close, a booming voice came from a little ways away, making the thrush take off. "What do you three think you're doing?"
They whipped around to see Sedgeleap standing there, glaring at them. "Why are you out of camp?"
"W-We're apprentices!" Ashpaw stammered, gesturing to herself and Pepperpaw.
Sedgeleap gave her a look. "Your mentors aren't with you, and you're leading a kit away from the camp. You know we haven't explored this territory for danger yet. You could be about to stumble onto a badger sett and then the lot of you would be dead. Honestly. Follow me back to camp. Eaglestar will be ashamed of you, Ashpaw." She looked down, all three young cats dragging their paws as they padded slowly back to camp.
"And don't think you'll be running happy, either, you two. You know how Goldwhisper is, Pepperpaw. She's not going to forget this in a hurry. And Flowerbreeze was worried about you, Applekit! She couldn't find you, she thought maybe a hawk had taken you. You could've been dead, for all she knew. What were you all thinking?" Sedgeleap reprimanded.
Pepperpaw simply mouthed, "Sorry" to Applekit as the older tom looked away. The blue-furred she-kit shrugged. It wasn't his fault. She knew better. And what Sedgeleap said made her stomach twist into knots. How worried would she have been if Falconkit suddenly disappeared? Just thinking about how her mother must have felt right then made her heart clench with regret.
A/N: WOW that chapter SUCKED. It was sad-ish and lame as all get out. That was terrible. And yet I'm going to publish it anyway, because I want to publish a chapter already. It's been a while. Anyway, I sincerely hope the next chapter will be fantastic just so it can break even with how crappy this one was. Sorry again. I will hopefully have time to update by this time next week. Hopefully.