"I'm sure she'll be alright," Skykit meowed softly. If anything, she didn't want her mother to be upset. "She always is."
                          
"If only that were true," Her mother sighed. "Sandstar's lives don't last her forever, and she seems to be blowing through them awfully fast."
                          
Russetsky changed the subject. "How about we go to the fresh kill pile and get something to eat?" She meowed in a brighter tone.
                          
Skykit and her sisters were out of the nursery within seconds. Skykit loved to sit and stare at the busy camp. Apprentices playing, warriors talking, the medicine cat sunbathing.
                          
"Hey, Skykit!" Skykit turned around to a familiar silver pelt.
                          
"Hi, Featherpaw!" She purred. If there was any cat in the Clan that paid any attention to Skykit other than Russetsky and her littermates, it was Featherpaw.
                          
"What have you been up to?" Featherpaw mewed and dropped a fresh vole down in front of her. "Care to share?"
                          
"Yes, please!" Skykit didn't hesitate to take a nice bite out of the vole. Her mouth watered at the delicious sensation in her mouth.
                          
"I caught it out hunting with Bumblepaw," Featherpaw boasted.
                          
"When is your final assessment?" Skykit took another bite. She purred as her appetite was sated.
                          
"Sometime next moon," she replies. "they don't tell you exactly when." Skykit nodded in reply.
                          
"Are you going to share?" Bumblepaw meowed as he walked up to them and sat down next to Featherpaw. Skykit could swear she saw a connection.
                          
"Never," Skykit meowed playfully before pushing the vole over to him. He took a giant bite.
                          
"And there goes the vole," Skykit muttered to herself.
                          
"What?" Bumblepaw meowed. Featherpaw had a humorous glimmer in her eye so Skykit knew she had heard.
                          
"Nothing," Skykit meowed quickly and looked away. Featherpaw and Bumblepaw whispered to each other breifly, their eyes sparkling with some emotion Skykit couldn't quite place.
                          
"Thank you for the vole," Skykit gave her thanks before getting up and padding away. Searching the camp for her mother and littermates, she stepped on something squishy. Lifting her paw up to look, she scrunched her nose up in digust.
                          
"Watch where you step," Willowleaf appeared at her side. "I had my juniper berries laying out here."
                          
"Sorry!" Skykit squeaked in horror. Russetsky said to never mess with a medicine cat's herbs.
                          
"It's fine, don't worry," Willowleaf meowed, ducking back into her den. Unsure of where to go or what to do, Skykit stayed where she was.
                          
A few moments later, Willowleaf appeared again with some green moss soaked in water. "Here, you can wash your paw off with that." She meowed. Skykit placed her paw on the refreshing moss, moving it around to make sure all of the berry was completely off.
                          
"That feels nice," Skykit remarked to the young medicine cat. Willowleaf's amber eyes shone like a brown sun.
                          
"Wait until you feel the forest under your paws as an apprentice," Willowleaf replied. "I'll never forget it."
                          
"Do medicine cats leave camp too?" Skykit wondered. She respected StarClan's chosen cats for the duty to save the lives of cats in the Clan with herbs instead of their claws, but Skykit would surely feel she was missing out. She wanted to feel the pelts of enemy cats beneath her claws and teeth, to feel the feeling of victory every time a battle was won for ThunderClan. Surely Willowleaf couldn't feel the same?
                          
"Of course we do," Willowleaf meowed, snapping Skykit out of her thoughts. "We gather herbs for our storages and take trips to the Moonpool with the other Clans' medicine cats."
                          
"Wouldn't you rather fight than heal?" Not until the words were out of her mouth did Skykit realize the disgust in her tone.
                          
"Skykit!" Skykit jumped in surprise as she heard Russetsky's voice coming up behind her. "Willowleaf serves the Clan in her own special way. Don't be rude."
                          
"She's fine, Russetsky." Willowleaf meowed. "Do you think I haven't had to answer these questions to other kits billions of times before? Not to mention some warriors still ask them."
                          
"I know," Russetsky's tone was accusing. "but I want my kits to learn what every cat does to bless the Clan and to never question it." Willowleaf's eyes shone with disapproval, but she didn't say anything more about the topic. 
                          
"She just stepped on a juniper berry, so I washed her paw off. She's not hurt."
                          
"Thank you," Russetsky meowed, taking Skykit's scruff in between her teeth.
                          
"I can walk myself!" Skykit whined. "Let me down! What if Shadekit and Rainkit see me?"
                          
"They are your littermates, you should never be afraid of their opinions." Russetsky scolded as she carried Skykit to the nursery.
                          
*
                          
*
                          
*
                          
Skykit hid under the moss in shame for quite awhile after her mother reached the nursery. Too embarrassed to face her siblings as a five moon old kit being carried by her mother. The dawn patrol had returned, and the sunhigh patrol had left awhile ago.
                          
"Who's on the sunhigh patrol?" Skykit heard Rainkit ask her mother.
                          
"I believe Sunblaze took another patrol with Moonfur and Mousepaw," Russetsky mewed. The queen was tired after chasing Shadekit and Rainkit around camp all morning.
                          
"He sure likes to work his tail off," Bramblefrost meowed as he ducked his head into the nursery. "I heard he's planning to go out at dusk as well,"
                          
"He needs to get his rest," Russetsky complained. "we don't need a weak leader and a weak deputy."
                          
"ThunderClan is just fine," Hazelflower meowed, ducking her head in the nursery as well. "we always recover. Sunblaze will surely cut down on patrols if Sandstar does pass. But somebody has to take Sandstar's patrol times, don't they?"
                          
"He shouldn't be taking all of them," Bramblefrost countered. "we are a Clan, we can all pitch in to help."
                          
"Agreed," Russetsky quickly meowed agreement to her mate's argument. "There's plenty of warriors that sit around camp for longer than they should."
                          
Suddenly, an ear splitting yowl was brought to the ears of the cats in ThunderClan. "That sounds like Moonfur!" Hazelflower meowed, alarmed.
                          
"We have no deputy!" Bramblefrost complained, concerned. "Sandstar!"
                          
Russetsky leaped over to where Skykit was hiding with Shadekit and Rainkit at her paws. Quickly, she wrapped her tail around them, ready to leap at any intruder who dared to mess with a nursing queen.
                          
Skykit couldn't see outside of the nursery, or beyond her mother's tail, but she could tell the weak ThunderClan leader had emerged from her den and was sitting on top of the Highrock. "Let all cats gather!" Sandstar's raspy mew ripped across camp.
                          
"We need warriors to go help Sunblaze! WindClan could be attacking!" Featherpaw hissed.
                          
"Or ShadowClan! Those furballs!" Bumblepaw spat out. Russetsky's pelt bristled at the name of her birth Clan.
                          
"Hush!" Sandstar meowed. "Let's have Bram-" Sandstar's meows were quickly cut off as more shrieks and cries were heard.
                          
"Fox! Help!" Mousepaw's voice was quickly regonized by the Clan. They all stared at the gorse tunnel, ready to leap if a fox came bursting through.
                          
Instead, the small, terrified shape of Mousepaw came crashing in. His eyes were wide, and for once he resembled a mouse before it was caught. His fur was ruffled and sticking out on end with his back arched and his tail bushed up.
                          
"There was a fox! Moonfur is dead!"