Starkit ran ahead. "Come on! Come on come on come on!" she squeaked, jumping up and down.
"Calm down, pet. We still have to pick up the others." her mother, Silverpelt, shushed.
Starkit was a pitch-black kitten from ThunderClan. She had indigo eyes and silver spots on her pelt that looked like stars. Her mother, Silverpelt, had long silver fur with black streaks, bi-colored eyes, and loved all of her kits. Starkit had her brothers Cometkit and Velvetkit, and her sister Hollykit. Hollykit was a dark-colored kit, like her, but she had a red berry-like patch on one of her legs and pale red-violet eyes. Velvetkit was pale colored, had one black paw, and brown eyes. Cometkit was a bronze kit with black and white tiger-stripes. He had blue eyes and a huge fluffy tail that was fun to play with.
"Yeah, hush! We need to pick up Jasmine-claw, Blazekit, Oakheart, and a bunch of others!" Velvetkit said snottily. He considered himself her superior, even though she was the first one born.
"Hush, all of you." Silverpelt murmured, nosing sleepy little Hollykit along.
"Momma, why're we running away?" her little sister yawned.
"Because we don't like the violence brewing every other day, and we're running away along with several other Clan-cats." Cometkit said softly, trying to drag Hollykit along.
At the Four Trees, they met Jasmine-claw and her kit, Blazekit, from ShadowClan. Oakheart from WindClan was there too. There were no RiverClan cats. "Good, you came. Now, let's go. I can make an excuse if we can keep in the heather and other plants that'll disguise our scent." he rumbled, standing up.
They were going to work their way through WindClan territory until they were beyond Mothermouth. Then they were going to go with the wind.
About half-way through WindClan territory, there was a rustle ahead of them. They were down-wind, but they all still crouched down. Oakheart took a lungful of the air to catch their scent. He growled. "BloodClan? I thought we'd gotten rid of them!" he snarled.
"Yes, after Firestar killed Scourge!" Silverpelt mewed softly.
"I got this..." Jasmine-claw pushed Blazekit into the bunch of kits and wound her way through the heather.
"Hi!" Starkit mewed, licking his cheek.
"Uh... Hi... Where are you?" Blazekit wondered, turning his head this way and that.
"Oh, are you blind? Sorry, I'm to your left!" she meowed.
Blazekit turned his head towards her. His nose touched her cheek, and then started to travel over her face. "I like your scent. And your fur is so soft." he purred.
She giggled, licking his nose. At that moment, Jasmine-claw came back. "It looks like two BloodClan kits facing off with two other kits!" she growled.
"Kits? You mean like us?" Velvetkit said excitedly, standing up.
"Nuh-uh. Bigger than you, hon." Jasmine-claw told them, picking Blazekit back up.
"Well, I say we approach them." Oakheart was already walking noisily through the heather towards the now obvious scent of four cats.
All four jumped at their little group. Two dark-gray kits with rainbow eyes, and two large, muscular kits with badger-teeth reinforcing their claws. "Who are you kits? I know you two are BloodClan, but you two don't smell like any Clan I know." Silverpelt said gently, walking forward.
Before anyone could protest, she ran up to them. Tipping her head back, Starkit saw just how big they were. "Wow, you guys are big! You must be nearly six moons already!" she mewed cheerfully.
Now Velvetkit, not to be outdone, had joined her. "You are big! I like your claws! Are those badger-teeth real?" he asked the BloodClan kits.
"Of course they are!" snorted the tom. He was black with blue eyes and red paws.
"What did you think they were, mice-teeth?" the female rolled her brandy-colored eyes.
"Velvetkit, Starkit, get back here!" Cometkit mewed nervously. But his order was ignored, and Hollykit was already next to them.
"Mommy, where are they? I can smell them, but they're being too quiet." Blazekit mewed fretfully.
"You don't want to go near them." Jasmine-claw told her son.
"You mean them! Ryver and I are harmless!" mewed the gray female cat. "We were just walking, and out of nowhere, these two bumpkins came and attacked us!"
"Hah! You're mixed up! That's what we were doing when you attacked us!" snarled the male BloodClan kit.
Eventually, the warriors broke the fight up and invited the new kits to come with them. Chain and Rose were ex-BloodClan, and Wynter and Ryver were loners.
The group managed to get past Mothermouth and advance a little more before settling down in a long-abandoned fox-den. Jasmine-claw was to take the first watch.
Starkit woke up to snarling and yowling. She realized the den was much emptier...
The warriors were missing! Where were Silverpelt, Jasmine-claw and Oakheart?
The other kits were waking up now. Chain stuck his head out of the den and gasped. "A huge badger! Rose, we gotta help!" he yowled, writhing out of the den and bounding into battle.
The warriors were engaged in a brutal battle with a badger. Oakheart was on it's back, screaming and yowling. Silverpelt was nipping it's withers, and Jasmine-claw was raking claws down it's huge side. Rose and Chain leapt, yowling, into battle, their reinforced claws dealing extra damage.
"Should we help?" Velvetkit asked boldly, pulling himself out of the hole.
"No! We'd just be in the way, because we don't know how to fight yet!" Cometkit mewed, grabbing their brother's tail in his teeth and pulling him back in.