In The Dark - Warriors.

Chapter One

Lostkit trotted around camp with her tail held rather high in the air. The warriors glared at her in disgust, and so did a few of the apprentice, but most of them ignored her and carried on with their duties. As of now, Lostkit was five moons old. "I can't wait to become an apprentice!" She mewed. One of the warriors snorted, but Lostkit stopped him. He sat down, watching the she-kit with a cross look in his face.

"What's it like being a warrior?" She mewed.

"Well, you get to hunt, fight, and patrol. Very fun. Too bad you'll never get to do any of them." The warrior smirked.

"But Whiteclaw! Why not? I'm close to six moons now!" She pointed out.

"She-cats like yourself are worthless 'cept for makin' kitties. Keep that in mind - you're going to become a she-cat apprentice and will stay with that rank until you have produced your own litter of kits. Then you will move onto the she-cat rank - which is actually the highest rank a she-cat can climb to unless she is infertile, which rarely
happens, and in that strange coincidence, she will be forced to become a medicine cat." He said.

"Oh, well ... do they get to hunt, fight, or patrol like you all do?" Lostkit meowed.

"Not even close. They get to watch their kittens but that is the only 'patrolling' they do. Watching over them. They do not even get to learn how to hunt or fight so that they won't be able to escape the camp. That's right - they cannot even leave camp. Most she-cats have never seen the outside of the camp. But I have - and trust me, it's amazing. But you'll never get to see it." Whiteclaw grinned before turning and sashaying off. Lostkit sighed, standing there for a minute, before her mother appeared and grabbed her kit by the scruff so that she won't be given anymore lectures.

"Is is true?" Lostkit asked as her mother groomed her pelt to make her look pretty.

"Is what true?" Her mother sighed, knowing what was coming. She had given birth to two other litters in her life - one of them was to Whiteclaw, as a matter of fact. At least one she-cat from each litter had ended up asking her the same question - why did they treat the she-cats this way? And she responded with the same thing everytime.

"Why do the toms act like they're all superior?" She asked.

"Because that is the way their minds work." Cherryflower answered simply.

"And why do they treat us like we are inferior?"

"Because that is the way their minds work." Cherryflower repeated.

"Why do they disrespect she-cats?" Lostkit mewed, not noticing that her mother was repeating the same answer over and over for all of her questions. She supposed that it did make a bit of sense ...

"Because that is the way their minds work." Cherryflower echoed yet again.

"But we make kits. Why do they treat us like we are worthless? Without us they would not even be alive." Lostkit pointed out, flicking her ears in contempt as she pawed the ground with her tiny paws.

"Because without a tom we would not be able to give birth in the first place." Cherryflower responded simply, finally breaking the chain of all of her repeats. She could tell that Lostkit had finally started to notice it and was getting rather annoyed by it.

"Why do the other Clans not treat us this way, then?" Lostkit sighed, shuffling her paws as she looked at the ground.

"Because those Clans are right. Those Clans are noble. MapleClan is not." Cherryflower said. Lostkit could hear murmurs of agreement rise up from the other queens in the nursery, but ignored them.

"Why are we even given these positions in MapleClan?" Lostkit mewed.

"Because the toms do not think that we are of any special value in MapleClan." Her mother replied.

"Why does StarClan even allow this?" Lostkit said, looking up at her mother. An unfamiliar question to Cherryflower indeed. Most cats did not even mention StarClan until they became either she-cat apprentices or apprentice, whilst Lostkit was still yet a young kit.

"And that is a question I do not know the answer to."