Hey guys, to avoid confusion, I'm just letting you know this is the morning of the prologue. Therefor, Moonfur is alive still and Sunblaze is still an innocent deputy in all cats' eyes. XD Anyways, thanks for reading and enjoy chapter one!)
Skykit opened her eyes as her sleep was disrupted. Growling in annoyance, she looked in the direction of the sound.
"I bet you you can't even make it half way to the top of the den!" Rainkit squealed.
"Can too!" Shadekit spat.
"Prove it!" Rainkit growled playfully. Shadekit gave her a final glare before leaping on the side of the den, her tiny claws gripping on the twigs that built it. Quickly, she climbed the wooden net like structure.
"Get down!" Russetsky scolded. "Bramblefrost and Flarecloud worked hard to build this den and we are not going to destroy it by playing."
"Rainkit told me to!" Shadekit whined as she leaped down, leaves following her as the den rattled.
"I bet you, I didn't say you had to!" Rainkit spat. Her gray tabby fur was ruffled.
"Enough," Russetsky meowed. Her similar shadowy gray tabby fur was neatly groomed.
"Be quiet," Skykit moaned. All she wanted to do is sleep the day away.
"Skykit," Russetsky's attention seemed to be focused on Skykit instead of her siblings. "Get up. The dawn patrol is just leaving."
"Who's on it?" Skykit questioned. She couldn't wait for the day she would be assigned to her first patrol.
"Sunblaze, Firesoul and Flarecloud," Her mother replied.
"Why were all three siblings put together on a patrol?" Skykit questioned.
"Sometimes, siblings like to be with each other. Once you become a warrior, it's not just all fun and play." Russetsky was up now, her tongue rasping over Rainkit's ear.
"I'd sure hope so." Skykit sneered, glaring at her siblings. "I want to work for my Clan!"
"And I'm sure you will." The former ShadowClan queen meowed. Shadekit was like a copy of Russetsky, and it made Skykit just a tiny bit jealous.
"No one be a better warrior than me," Shadekit boasted. "Did you not just see me climb? I'm going to be the ambush queen!"
"Russetsky?" Bramblefrost poked his head in the nursery. Bramblefrost was Skykit's and her littermates' father and Russetsky's mate.
"Yes?" Russetsky's eyes always lit up around him. It made Skykit sick, so she turned away.
"Sandstar is ill again," Bramblefrost meowed. "Willowleaf isn't sure if she's going to recover again,"
Russetsky's eyes clouded. "Sandstar has already lost two lives from fighting greencough. In greenleaf, too! How many more can she afford to loose?"
"By the despair Willowleaf is in, I'm guessing not many, if none at all." Bramblefrost looked at his paws in sorrow.
"At least we know Sunblaze can lead us with pride and security," Russetsky whispered. Something about her tone made Bramblefrost nod briefly and retrieve his head from the nursery entrance, walking away.
"What's going on with Sandstar, Russetsky?" Rainkit meowed, curiosity thick in her mew.
"Sandstar is ill," Russetsky meowed to her daughters carefully.
"Will she be alright?" Shadekit chimed in.
"Willowleaf doesn't know," Russetsky admitted. Skykit felt sorrow for her mother. She knew of a tale that stated Sandstar cared for Russetsky when ThunderClan wouldn't as if she were her own kit.
"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!"