The Lost One

Chapter One

Stream yawned. It felt like sunrises and sunrises waiting for Pebble, her mate. Finally, Pebble's pawsteps could be heard. She sighed. Why is Pebble always a slow hunter? Stream thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by a gray blue tail, swishing past her.

"Hi Stream! I caught a mouse for you and your kits! Pebble meowed excitedly. "Although it's just a scrawny one." He meowed less enthusiastically.

"How will this scrawny mouse feed me and Blaze, Starlight, and Leaf?" Stream replied, irritated.

"It was all I could find in this state of weather!"

Pebble shivered, and Stream realized that he was freezing cold and hungry.

"Rest, eat the mouse, you look like you've fought a whole forest of those two pawed things." Stream meowed, dismissed by a swish of her snow white tail in Pebble's face.

"But what will you eat?" Pebble said, holding back a yawn.

"I will hunt for myself, Pebbletail." Stream replied firmly, leaving the den and her mewling kittens behind.

A frosty leaf fell on her tail and left ice crystals on her back. She tasted the wind and scented prey. The wind was blowing towards the prey, so she had to move uphill. She stalked the bird, and estimated it was about three tail lengths away from her and moved closer. Now about one tail length ahead of her, she pounced, and she estimated there was a fifty-fifty chance that it would escape. The bird scrambled to escape, leaving feathers flying everywhere. But Stream gave the killing bite just in time.

"That was so fast! How did you catch a blackbird?" Pebble meowed, circling around Stream.

"Because you're the worst hunter of all time." Stream teased.

"Hey!"

"Want a bite? It's big enough for all of us to share."

"Leave it for the kits."

"You can have the extra, Pebble."

"Fine with me."

She ate hungrily, and it was one of the plumpest, but still too small for everyone to be full.

"Blaze! Leaf! Starlight! It's time to eat!" expecting them to jump out of the bushes, she turned around.

"I win!" mewed Leaf, emerging from the bushes.

"Can we finish prey and mouse? I almost caught Leaf!" Blaze mewed.

"No, you didn't!" protested Leaf, "Also, you can't restart the game so you can get me!"

"I definitely can!"

"Nope!"

Stream noticed Starlight was not with them. As usual, she thought. She trotted towards the big brown bush. A gray blue tail with speckled spots poked out.

"Starlight! What..?"

"I'm sorting the herbs!"

"Trying out something new?"

"I got bored so I started sorting the herbs. Only if someone else was here to sort with me."

Stream felt a tide of sadness and guilt wash over her. She winced, remembering Heather, the fourth kit that was born. It was early Winter then, and a snowstorm had ripped them apart. She had searched frantically, but couldn't find her. She still blamed herself.

"What's wrong?"

Stream didn't want Starlight to carry a secret so hidden that even Pebble didn't know about. But she had to reveal it to everybody someday. She had to trust Starlight. After all, she is a trustworthy and honest kit. But was she the one? "Do you want to hear a secret, so hidden that Pebble even doesn't know?"

"Okay?" Starlight cocked her head.

"There once was a kit in a snowstorm. She was very, very, young. She was blown away-"

"Isn't this like a legend or something?" Starlight glanced questionably up at Stream.

"It's a secret. She was blown away by a blizzard wind, and that young kit..."

"What is it?"

Stream took a deep breath. All her pressure and guilt was flowing away. "That kit was my lost kit."

"Why did you tell me first?"

"That, is a secret I keep to myself." Stream smiled.