Unbeknownst to the small group of cats, another pair of eyes had watched the exchange from the shadows of his den. His dull green eyes watched as Darkpelt stalked away from the group and the cats began to disperse.

He watched as Browneyes followed after his brother and inside felt a familiar sense of tiredness. Shadestar had been a good mentor to him, it only seemed right that he would mentor the leader's son as well. The two brothers reminded him of himself and Willowstar.

The memories haunted him even now, although it seemed like it had been forever ago.

"Today's the day, Willowkit! We're going to be apprentices!" A small golden kit bowled into his brother, laughing happily. The other kit laughed and pushed his brother off of him, rising to his paws.

His fur stuck up in odd, wispy angles making the oak-colored tom appear very fluffy. "Yeah! This is what we've been practicing for." he meowed excitedly. As he spoke, Willowkit stood up proudly making his wild fur stick out in several places.

"Maybe even Shadestar will take on an apprentice." the tom meowed with an excited gleam in his yellow eyes.

Sunkit rolled his eyes, "That's all you think about." he teased.

"If I'm going to be a leader, I have to be trained by the best! Then no one will ever be able to beat us, together we'll be the strongest leaders in the forest!" Willowkit exclaimed.

Sunkit smiled and opened his mouth to reply, but the two kits were cut off by a loud call from outside causing both kits to turn their heads towards the entrance of the nursery.

In seconds, their mother had appeared by their side, herding them out of the nursery and into the clearing. Sunkit shuffled over his paws as his mother pushed them forward through the crowd of cats.

"Honestly Willowkit," the she-cat growled giving the tom a quick lick to the head, "I can never get your fur to behave."

A flash of white in the crowd caught his eye and Sunkit felt a twinge of butterflies in his stomach when he caught sight of Silentkit watching him in the crowd with her sister. As their eyes locked, Silentkit closed her eyes and gave Sunkit a supportive smile.

The golden tom blushed lightly and averted his gaze back to the path in front of them. He stepped forward as he felt his mother's presence slowly fade away and instead walked to the clearing in the front of the crowd with Willowkit by his side.

Sunkit stopped a few tail-lengths in front of the leaders den, and he and Willowkit looked up in awe at the figure silhouetted by the sunlight. The cats of DarkClan bowed their heads respectively as their leader took a step forward, revealing his form.

Sunkit's eyes widened and his face broken into an awe-filled smile at the leader staring down at him. It was Shadestar!

The sooty tom stared down at the two kits with deep, midnight blue eyes. His mouth was set in a stern line and his pelt rippled in the sunlight, revealing the firm muscles beneath his pelt.

Sunkit briefly glanced to his side and could see his brother with the same expression on his face. Shadestar was known widely throughout all the clans, he was a warrior strong and loyal. In a time of great hardship for DarkClan, Shadestar's leadership had been able to rebuild the clan and bring them to the height of their power. He was a legend and idol for all the young kits.

Sunkit eyes widened slightly when Shadestar's eyes connected with his own before looking out into the crowd of cats beneath him.

"Today is surely another productive day for DarkClan." his voice echoed across the clan, deep and full of meaning.

"StarClan has blessed us with the birth of these two young toms." His steely blue eyes turned down to look at the pair. "I can see that they will hold a great future for our clan."

"Sunkit and Willowkit have reached the age of six moons, and it is now time to begin their journey as apprentices. From this day on, until they have received their warrior name, these young toms will be known as Willowpaw and Sunpaw."

From the crowd, several cats cheered and called out the new names. The voices reached Sunpaw's ears and filled him with a sense of pride.

"I have also decided to mentor one of these young toms, and pass on my skills so that one day, when the clan needs a hero, one of these toms will be there when I cannot."

Sunpaw could feel Willowpaw light up beside him with a large grin breaking out on his face. Sunpaw almost couldn't believe it, StarClan must be watching over them. The thought made him smile, now Willowpaw could be happy.

"Sunpaw."

Sunpaw smiled and turned to congratulate his brother, but paused when he realized the name Shadestar had spoken. Willowpaw appeared to be stunned and looked up at the leader in surprise. Sunpaw watched as his brother's bright grin slowly faded away.

Sunpaw gasped as he felt himself being pushed forward by a cat from behind and was even more surprised to see Shadestar standing right in front of him. Wordlessly, the leader bent down and touched their two noses together.

Sunpaw stepped back, still feeling dumbfounded while the leader smiled approvingly at him. From the side, a pair of yellow eyes watched the exchange with a broken smile as they felt their dreams slowly crumbling away.

"Come on Willowpaw, you can train with me today. I'm sure Shadestar won't mind."

Willowpaw looked up at his brother with a doubtful expression. "Not likely. You two are always going off and doing special one on one training. What is he even teaching you?"

Sunpaw shrugged, his golden pelt shining lightly in the sunlight. "Just warrior stuff. Look, here he comes now, we can ask him."

Willowpaw looked up and followed his brother's gaze to see the leader in question striding toward them purposefully.

"Shadestar." Sunpaw meowed respectively while dipping his head towards his mentor. "I was wondering if you could allow my brother to train with us today. He's-"

"I'm sorry Sunpaw, but we can only train alone." Shadestar meowed fairly, "It is for the best."

Sunpaw nodded, accepting his mentor's answer and turning to his brother with an apologetic smile. "We're still on for hunting though, right?"

Willowpaw blinked and stood up, shaking off his wild fur, which had now grown a few more inches. "Sure."

Willowpaw's ears twitched at the sound of returning pawsteps and he stood up when he recognzed the scent of his brother. It was dark out now and the crickets had already begun to chirp loudly.

Sunpaw paused when he noticed his brother suddenly standing in front of him. "I thought we were going to go hunting?" he meowed questioningly.

Sunpaw shrugged, "Shadestar had to prolong our training, leader's apprentice type stuff, you wouldn't get it. We'll do it some other time. Come on, it's late. Let's get some rest, I'm beat."

Willowpaw said nothing more and sighed in exasperation before following his brother into the apprentice's den. Cherrypaw, Silentpaw, Longpaw, Ivypaw, Windpaw, and Neopaw were all already inside.

Sunpaw grinned as he caught sight of Ivypaw and Neopaw laughing and talking in the back of the den and quickly hurried over to join them. Willowpaw watched as his brother settled down among his friends and began to talk amiably with them.

His yellow eyes flickered over to the she-cats when he caught sight of them watching him from the corner of his eye. They looked away in embarrassment and began to whisper amongst each other once more.

Willowpaw stalked past the group to where his nest was located and lay down with an audible thump, letting his wild fur spread out beneath him.

Silently he licked his white chest fur and listened quietly, hoping to catch bits of their conversation. He listened as Sunpaw laughed with Ivypaw and shoved him roughly in the shoulder while Neopaw watched the pair laughing good-naturedly.

Ivypaw and Sunpaw always seemed to be joined at the hip, even when they were kits, the two were the best of friends. The clan doted upon the two toms and marveled at their talent, the she-cats also seemed to have an apparent fondness for them.

Willowpaw snorted and turned himself over so that his back was towards the group, closing his eyes in an attempt to get some rest and block out the noise.

He worked harder than any of them, yet no one ever paid attention to him. Sunpaw had always gotten everything...

AUTHOR'S NOTE

TO BE CONTINUED. Yes, it is finally here, the past snidbits. Any questions? Feel free to leave them in reviews. Or just opiniong/thoughts I love reading those. I was actually really inspired for Sun and Willow's relationship with this song: Funeral for a Tree from the Lorax. I had just seen it with my mom and the moment i heard the piano during the movie i was instantly inspired.

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