Post by Ki on Oct 6, 2010 17:52:10 GMT -6
***Chapter One***
"Keep running!" Rabbitpaw cried. He glanced back over his shoulder. He could see no ShadowClan warriors behind him, but he knew they were there.
No one needed anymore motivation. Leopardfang was sprinting ahead, holding Smallkit by the scruff of her neck. She was verging on five moons, but was still small enough to be carried. Determination blazed in his amber eyes. Determination to survive. To let his kits survive. Just behind him ran Cindertail. Heronkit and Specklekit sprinted beside their mother. Icekit and Lark-kit brought up the rear with Rabbitpaw. Paws beat against the moist ground, kicking up the occasional bit of mud. It had rained earlier in the day and had left the whole ground slippery and muddy. Reeds swayed gently in the nightly breeze, whispering urgently among themselves as they watched the cats sprint along the banks.
Leopardfang stopped, sliding and kicking up a bit of mud. He set Smallkit down in the reeds. He looked at the rest of the kits and they hid with their sister. The kits needed a break. They'd never had to run so fast for so long before. Cindertail also look winded. And even the young Rabbitpaw was having a bit of trouble. Leopardfang sat up straight, his ears erect. His own chest was rising and falling in rapid breaths, but he wasn't focused on that. He was focused on spotting any oncoming ShadowClan warriors.
"Do you...see anything?" Cindertail half wheezed, half whispered.
"No..." Leopardfang squinted a bit. Darn his age! His eyes were beginning to fail him. "Nothing..." Everything was quiet.
Too quiet.
Cindertail realized it at the same time as Leopardfang did. Quickly, she turned to her kits. She licked them all on the tops of their heads. Then she scooped up pawfuls of mud on to her children. They mewed in protest until she told them to shush. The mud was effectively covering their scents. Almost as soon as she turned away from them, a large shape leapt from the shadows and tackled Leopardfang. They yowled, hissed, and clawed at each other. But Leopardfang had more experience. He managed to throw his attacker off with a mighty kick to the stomach. However, he miscalculated the kick. The cat landed in the reeds, dangerously close to the children.
The RiverClan survivors held their breath.
Runningfrost rose from the reeds, shaking off the mud as his other warriors approached. Twistedclaw, Lizardeye, Snaketail, Bluethorn, Darkflower, Hawktalon, Eclipsepaw, and Shrewfang emerged from the shadows. Each one of them had blood coating their maws and their claws. Leopardfang hissed and stood beside his mate and Rabbitpaw. It looked as if Runningfront hadn't noticed the kits, even though he was a mere rabbitlength away from them when he'd landed in the reeds. They were cowering quietly in the reeds.
"StarClan will curse you for this!" Cindertail snarled. "All of you! Even your medicine cat will be doomed to the Dark Forest!"
Twistedclaw hissed and lurched forwards. Rabbitpaw hissed and clawed him across the face, and the three cats took off. As expected, the ShadowClan cats followed suit. Their attackers were wondering where the kits had gone, but they could always search for them later. The kits were no threat. Who knows. If Specklestar was feeling gracious, they might even live.
...but probably not.
***
The kits lay there for who knows how long. None of them dared to move or speak. They didn't even want to breathe too loudly. Even Specklekit could sense the grave danger they were in and somehow managed to stay still. At one point they heard the ShadowClan cats milling around, half-heartedly searching for them. Eventually they heard Runningfrost say that they couldn't hunt anyway and would end up starving. The ShadowClan cats left. But still, the kits didn't move.
It started to rain again. Lightning flashed overhead and thunder boomed. Lark-kit couldn't help but scream at the thunder. When it stormed like this, Cindertail would usher them into the nursery and keep them warm. Then thunder wasn't as scary. But now, covered in mud and hiding in reeds, it was just as terrifying as ShadowClan cats. All of the young ones wished their parents would hurry up and come back for them. But they didn't.
They waited out the storm, trying to ignore the howling winds and the rain that pounded on their backs. Little bits of hail even fell. But eventually the storm quieted and, in the morning, the clouds parted a bit.
But where were their parents?
"We have to go look for them!" Specklekit was the first to speak. He untangled himself from his siblings, looking embarrassed to have curled up with them. His legs were asleep from laying in that bundle all night, and he stumbled a bit and wobbled around. The mud had been washed off by the rain, but he slipped and fell right back into it.
Lark-kit mewed, "No. We have to wait!"
"I hate to say it," Heronkit said quietly, "but he's right."
The kits were only a moon or two from apprenticeship now. They had long since developed personalities and were becoming less and less reliant on their parents. But in this situation, they wouldn't feel safe without their parents. After a little bit of discussion, the five of them decided to search for their parents. A fog had settled after the storm calmed. They couldn't smell a thing or see anything more than a foxlength ahead of them. Specklekit eventually started yelling for their parents and Rabbitpaw, but was silenced by Heronkit's harsh scoldings.
"Do you want to have those toad-eaters find us?" he hissed.
Specklekit glared resentfully at his brother and would have kept arguing if Smallkit hadn't gotten in between them.
"No arguing," she whispered, "not now."
They kept moving. Smallkit was having to urge Lark-kit on. She was tearful and wanted to go back to the camp. Smallkit had to continually explain to her that there was no camp anymore. The nursery, the place they'd grown up in...it was gone. Obliterated by ShadowClan's filthy claws. But she couldn't really blame her sister. It all seemed like one long bad dream. Maybe if they thought hard enough, they would all just wake up. Safe and sound in the nursery with their mother cooing over them and their father bringing them nice big fish to eat. But sadly, this wasn't the case. They kept trudging on beside the river in the direction their parents and Rabbitpaw had vanished too. Their eyes began to sag. None of them had slept at all the night before. And with the ground so moist and muddy, none of them noticed when the mud had a reddish tinge to it.
Heronkit glanced down at his paws, his head seeming to become heavier by the moment. His silver spotted paws were covered in brown and black mud. But the mud underneath them was watery and red. He blinked and lifted one of his paws. No cuts. No nothing. Perhaps it wasn't blood. Perhaps-
His eyes went back up. Laying there, his throat cut open and his eyes glassy and wide, was Rabbitpaw.
Forgetting all about not wanting to be caught, Lark-kit screamed.
Specklekit, ever the fearless one, padded over to Rabbitpaw. He set a paw on the apprentice's cool fur, unbelieving of what he was seeing. None of them were. Suddenly Icekit darted past. Up ahead, they heard him scream. Quickly the other kits went to their brother's aid. They froze beside him, their mouths falling open and their eyes becoming wide with disbelief. Tears gathered in this eyes.
Their parents lay before them. Both warriors had multiple cuts and scrapes, most of which had bled profusely. Each of their throats were slashed and their amber eyes were glassy and unseeing. Leopardfang's maw was still wrinkled in one final, defiant growl. Cindertail's face was still an expression of determination. It looked as if they'd died fighting. Together till the very last, it seemed. The kits were appalled and shocked. The enormity of their situation came crashing down on them. They had no Clan that would take care of them. Nowhere to go. No parents to protect them. They were truly and completely alone in the world, aside from each other. The little kits huddled together as they stared and cried. How could their parents be dead? In the eyes of the kits, they were the strongest, wisest, and bravest cats in all of RiverClan! They...they couldn't be DEAD.
Specklekit moved forward and curled up next to his mother, sliding his lanky body up next to hers. The others kits followed suit. Lark-kit was sobbing as she lay next to the father who, not long before, had carried her in his jaws. The kits slept their with their dead parents and were lucky that ShadowClan did not come back.
***
"Lark-kit..."
Lark-kit raised her head. Panic immediately seized her. She wasn't anywhere near the river. Instead she was near a strange pond surrounded by reeds. Her brothers and sister were nowhere to be seen.
"Lark-kit..."
Suddenly, she recognized the voice. She whirled and turned, searching for it. There they were! Standing just on the other end of the pond! Lark-kit dove bravely into the waters, swam across the pond, and into her parent's embrace. Tears rolled down her face as they licked her, nuzzled her. She collapsed against her father. Her protection.
"I th-thought you were dead!" she sobbed.
"Lark-kit," Cindertail mewed gently, "we are dead."
"W-WHAT?!" Lark-kit looked at her parents, unwilling to believe this. "But...you're..." Then she noticed: her parents had specks of silver light clinging to their fur. Like the stars themselves were trapped in their pelts. "N-No.."
"I'm sorry, Lark-kit..." Leopardfang mewed. He nuzzled her. "We fought...we fought so hard to return to you."
More cats walked up. Most were cats Lark-kit knew. RiverClan cats that wore stars in their fur. Willowstar approached her. Dignified and lovely even in death.
"Lark-kit," she said seriously, "you and your littermates are all that's left of RiverClan. You must run far, far away. You must keep the RiverClan blood alive!"
"Run to where?" Lark-kit was trembling.
"Follow the river into the sky." Cindertail and Leopardfang mewed in unison. "Follow the river into the sky."
***
Lark-kit awoke with a start. She was still laying beside her deceased father, and she almost screamed all over when she saw him. Tears rolled down her face. Smallkit moved over to her sister and nuzzled her, tears streaming down her face as well.
"What do we do now?" Icekit asked quietly.
"Follow the river into the sky!" Lark-kit said automatically. Her siblings stared at her.
"What?" Smallkit blinked at her sister. Had she gone mad?
Quickly, Lark-kit relayed her dream to her siblings. As all were young and believed their parents stories of StarClan, this only seemed to confirm their beliefs.
"We should do what they said." Heronkit mewed. "It's obviously a message from StarClan." Smallkit nodded in agreement with her brother.
"So, are you a medicine cat or something?" Specklekit asked.
Heronkit mewed, "We are the last of RiverClan. We need a leader, a deputy, and a medicine cat. So maybe-"
"I CALL LEADER!" Specklekit announced. "Icekit is deputy." Icekit grinned and stuck out his chest proudly. "From now on I'm Specklestar!"
"Like the ShadowClan leader?" Heronkit hissed.
Specklekit lowered his head. She'd been the one to cause all this, and he shared the same name as her!
"Let's go." Heronkit said.
Lark-kit looked at her parents, tears still in her eyes. "Shouldn't we...bury them?"
The kits realized it would be impossible to dig a proper grave in the muddy earth. Finally, after much debate, they decided on another form of burial. They teamed up and dragged their parents to the edge of the river. Then they pushed them both into the waters. Instantly the murky water was tinged with red. Both cats sank into the river that had supplied them with so much during life. They gave the same burial to Rabbitpaw. For a while, the kits simply stood on the river's edge and cried.
But they couldn't stand there forever.
They began to follow the river away from the forest. Thus began their long, dangerous journey.
***Chapter Two***
A moon later, in a place far from the forest, the sun was just rising over the horizon. Sleepy light streaked across the sky, but the gorge would remain hidden in shadow until later in the morning. As per usual, one particular cat got a rude awakening..
"Up, up!" a black and white she-cat said briskly as she strode into the den. "We have a big day ahead of us!"
"Every day is a big day to you, Spottedsky." Adderstar moaned. He opened one eye to see his friend standing over him expectantly. "Fine, I'm up. I'm up! Happy?"
"Bouncing for joy." she mewed sarcastically. Just as quickly as she'd come in, she exited. Adderstar stretched out each of his limbs, yawned widely, and exited his den. It looked as if they were the only cats awake at the moment. All of the warriors, apprentices, queens, and kits were still asleep in their respective dens. Adderstar envied them. With Spottedsky as his deputy, he never got a chance to sleep in.
"Now," Spottedsky mewed. "what is the plan for chasing out that badger?"
Adderstar sat down and scratched behind his ear with one of his hind legs. "I was hoping you had an idea."
His deputy sighed. "I do."
"Let's go with that then."
She rolled her eyes and boxed his ears. "You're such a useless leader, do you realize that?"
Adderstar grinned back at her. "That's why I have you, my friend! Besides, you're better at plans like this. You just tell me which cats you'll need to get rid of it, and I'll plan the patrols around-" Then a small, miniscule sound caught his attention. A tiny mew. He looked around for the kit that had wandered out of the nursery, but he saw none. Then he noticed something: a large buddle of multi-colored fur curled up right next to the river. Spottedsky noticed it at the same time he did and sprinted over.
It was kits! A whole litter!
Well, maybe not kits per say. They were probably around six moons. About apprentice aged. But these kits were battered and beaten, as well as starving. All of them looked related, mostly in subtle features. Two toms had the same lanky, long build and spotted fur. A tiny she-kit and a tom shared the same pelt and stocky build. Another she-kit looked like a mix of the two sets of kits. It looked as if they'd collapsed on the spot, falling on to one another.
"Great StarClan!" Spottedsky murmured.
One of the kits, a tiny gray and white one, opened her eyes. They were watering and amber-colored. Just by the look of those eyes you could tell she was ill. "Star....Clan...."
Adderstar rushed to the medicine cat den. Sandcloud and her apprentice, Frostwing, were quickly woken and brought to the kits. By the time they'd returned all of the kits were awake and mewing pitifully. Spottedsky's maternal instincts seemed to have taken over. She was licking their heads, murmuring to them. They were mewing strange, weak things. Like 'shadows' and 'murder' and, oddest of all, 'StarClan.' These kits weren't from SkyClan, that was certain. But then how did they know of SkyClan?
Spottedsky moved aside for the medicine cats. Sandcloud was a she-cat that was well-practiced in the ways of healing and good at what she did. Her apprentice, Frostwing, had once been a warrior. But he chose to pursue a life as a medicine cat and planned to take over for Sandcloud when she either retired or passed on to StarClan. But that wouldn't be for a while, it seemed. Sandcloud looked the kits over and then listed off herbs for Frostwing to gather and organize.
"These kits are starving." she told her leader and deputy. "Get some fresh-kill for them. Not too big, though. They might eat themselves sick. Frostwing, before you go, help me take them to medicine cat den."
It became a team effort, moving the kits into the medicine cat den. Their efforts awoke the other patients in the medicine cat den, and they watched on with curiousity. Once the kits were in the den, Spottedsky dismissed herself to organize the badger patrol. Adderstar stayed to see what exactly could be done for the kits and if Sandcloud and Frostwing might have an idea where they'd come from or how they'd ended up in this shape.
"They've been traveling for a long time." Frostwing moved one of the kit's paws, the tiny she-kit, to show the worn, cracked, and bloodied pads. "And they probably can't hunt for themselves. That's why the poor things are starving." He ran his tail over the tiny she-kit, shaking his head in pity.
"All of them are sick. Probably due to exhaustion, lack of food, and possibly infection. They're all a little beaten up." Sandcloud mewed. "It's nothing that can't be treated. As for where they come from, I have no idea." She sighed, then looked at Adderstar. "I'll update you on them when I can. But have the Clan be on the look-out for a mother, just in case."
Adderstar nodded and slipped out.
***
Lark-kit opened her eyes and saw one blue eye and one green eye staring right back at her. She let out a small squeal of fright and rolled over in her nest. Wait...nest? She looked down. Yes, she was in a nest. A nice one padded with moss. Her paws had some sort of salve drying on them and the scent of herbs was in the air. For a moment, one beautiful moment, she thought she was going to look around and see Shadestripe, RiverClan's medicine cat, lurking somewhere. But no. Instead she saw a young black and white tom with two different colored eyes. There were a few other cats laying in nests. One with a gash on their flank, another was an elder that appeared to be sleeping.
"W-Where..." Lark-kit squeaked.
"You're safe, don't worry!" the black and white tom chirped. Quickly he turned his head away and coughed harshly. It didn't really sound healthy. But that was the last of the little she-kit's concerns.
"Where is..." Lark-kit found her siblings. Sleeping in nests, just like hers. "Where are we?!"
"SkyClan. Medicine cat den to be exact." the tom mewed. "I'm Smallpaw." Another cough. Well, it was plain to see why he was in this...apparent medicine cat den.
That caught Lark-kit's attention. That was a Clan name! And he said...he said she was in SkyClan! But she'd never heard of any Clan called SkyClan...there had always been four Clans in the forest. How could there be another, so far away from them?
"I'm...I'm Lark-kit." she mewed quietly.
Smallpaw's ears went up. "Lark-kit? That's a Clan name!"
"Smallpaw, you're awake. Excellent."
The tom quickly hopped back into his nest as a pure white tom walked in. Lark-kit shrank back into her nest. Smallpaw didn't shrink, but he did look like he'd been doing something he shouldn't have.
"Hi Frostwing. One of the kits woke up." Smallpaw mewed.
Frostwing smiled. "I see. I'll take over from here, my friend. In the mean time, have some fresh-kill." He batted a mouse towards the apprentice with one of his paws. To Lark-kit's shock, he looked at it in disgust. Instead he shook his head. "Still no appetite?"
"Give the mouse to her. She's practically drooling." Smallpaw smiled a little. It was true. Lark-kit's mouth was watering. It was just a mouse. Something she didn't reall eat often at home. But at this point she wasn't being picky. Frostwing nudged the mouse to her, and Lark-kit pounced upon it. Only when she was done did she manage to thank the two cats.
"No problem, little one. Here, eat these herbs." He brought her a few leaves that smelled very strongly. "They'll help with your fever. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go finish helping Sandcloud." With that he padded back out of the den.
"Is he..is he a medicine cat?" Lark-kit asked quietly.
"Hm? Frostw-" Cough cough cough. Lark-kit's eyes widened in alarm. Smallpaw smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Frostwing? No, he's a medicine cat apprentice."
Lark-kit glanced at the den entrance. "But he's..."
"Hehe...old? Yeah, I guess to a kit he is. Frostwing was a warriro before he was a medicine cat. After his warrior ceremony he realized StarClan had something a bit different in mind for him." Smallpaw mewed.
The elder that had been sleeping in another raised her head. Her eyes were narrowed in annoyance. "Quit that chatter, and quit that insistent hacking! It's keeping me awake!"
Once again, Lark-kit shrank into her nest. To her surprise, Smallpaw laughed. He hopped out of his nest again and crouched in front of it, a playful glint in his eyes. "I'll stop hacking when you stop complaining about your joints, you ancient old thing!"
At first Lark-kit was sure the she-cat would swat at him. She didn't blame her. How dare he talk to an elder like that? Then suddenly the elder laughed and shook her head. "Ah, you crazy little thing. You're just like your father, you know that?"
Smallpaw grinned, straightened up, and turned back to Lark-kit. "This here is Creamfoot. She's probably the oldest cat I've ever seen. Ever."
"And your probably the smallest cat I've ever seen. Ever."
Smallpaw swatted playfully at her ears. "Really, now, was that called for?" He grinned.
"You two chatter like a couple of little apprentices." The third cat in the medicine cat den said. It was a large tom. In fact very large. The gash on his leg seemed to be the larger out of a whole slew of smaller injuries. He was glaring at them. "So shut up!"
Creamfoot sighed, but Smallpaw smiled kindly. "Sorry we disturbed you, Bigclaw."
"Get back in your nest." Creamfoot told Smallpaw. "Sandcloud said you shouldn't be up and about."
With a small groan, Smallpaw retreated back to his nest. He looked over at Lark-kit. She was staring at Bigclaw fearfully. The tiny apprentice whispered, "Don't worry. He's just a little upset. He lost his brother recently."
"How?" Lark-kit whispered, casting a sympathetic glance at Bigclaw.
I LIIIIIIKE IT. Keep up the good work Wikit 
Please? More?