Warriors: Salmonstar's Fate

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

                Salmonkit was asleep until Icekit and Hailkit entered the nursery around moonhigh. Her eyes opened instantly as a sharp pain shot up her tail and through her spine. “Ow!” she complained, pulling her tail out from underneath Icekit’s paw.

                “Oh, quit whining,” Hailkit snorted, marching over to his mother, Bluesplash.

                “Sorry, Salmonkit,” Icekit apologized, and Salmonkit was thinking that he was so being much nicer than Hailkit.

                “It’s fine,” she responded.

                There was an awkward silence momentarily. “So today was your first time exploring camp?” Icekit asked finally.

                Salmonkit nodded. “Yeah,” she replied.

                “What did you do?” he continued the conversation.

                “Sandfur showed us the Beginner’s Pool,” Salmonkit answered.

                “Well, ask her to take you to the elders den tomorrow,” Icekit meowed. “They tell the best stories!”

                “Okay,” Salmonkit responded.

                “And after that, I’ll teach you to play moss-ball, if you want to,” he offered.

                “Sure!” she shouted eagerly.

                “Oh c’mon, Icekit, she’ll be terrible at it!” Hailkit protested from across the nursery.

                “Well, I can’t be worse than you!” Salmonkit countered.

                Hailkit had no response. “Whatever,” he meowed finally. “I don’t need to have a comeback. All I need is the proof I’m going to get tomorrow of who’s actually better than who.”

***

                “Sandfur, can you take us to the elders den?” Salmonkit begged her mother.

                “It’s right over there,” Sandfur pointed with her tail to the bramble thicket to the right of the nursery. “But you don’t need to go in. You see those four cats lying on that sunny patch of grass right in front of it? Those are the elders. Go over there, be polite, introduce yourselves, and then ask for a story.”

                Salmonkit and Foxkit bounced over to the elders eagerly. “Hi, I’m Foxkit, and that’s Salmonkit!” her sister spoke before she could.

                The elders purred with amusement. “I’m Dustcloud,” a brown-and-white tom introduced himself.

                “I’m Grasswhisker, and I’m his sister,” a silver she-cat meowed.

                “My name is Cinnamon, and that’s Sparkle,” a reddish-brown tom meowed and then pointed to a dark gray she-cat with patches of white fur.

                “Why do you and Sparkle have such weird names?” Foxkit asked, and Salmonkit was thinking the same thing.

                Sandfur rushed over. “Foxkit, stop being rude!” Salmonkit’s mother scolded her sister.

                “No, it’s fine,” Cinnamon purred. “Do you want us to tell you a story about that?”

                “Yes!” Salmonkit and Foxkit screeched in unison.

                “Well, Sparkle and I lived with the same housefolk, what you call Twolegs,” Cinnamon started.

                “You were a kittypet? Why would you want to live with Twolegs?” Salmonkit wondered.

                “We didn’t,” Sparkle answered for Cinnamon. “Our housefolk always left a window in the kitchen, which is what they call the place where they eat, open.”

                “What’s a window?” Foxkit asked.

                “It’s an opening in the wall of their den that’s sealed with glass, which is some type of transparent stone, but the glass can be lifted if they want it open,” Cinnamon explained. “Life was boring. Eat dry, tasteless food, take a nap on the couch…”

                “What’s a couch?” Salmonkit was confused by all of the Twoleg words.

                “It’s a soft thing that Twolegs sit on,” Cinnamon sighed. “But we weren’t enjoying our lives and our housefolk were hardly ever around except at night. So we formed a plan and escaped out of that kitchen window and ran to a nearby barn at the edge of horse-place that sheltered many rogues and runaway kittypets.”

                “How did you get here?” Foxkit whispered.

                “We heard cats talking about being angry because the lake was owned by four Clans and they couldn’t live there because of that. And they were even more furious because a Clan called RiverClan thought that horse-place was part of their territory. But we asked some questions and decided to go ask if we could join RiverClan,” Cinnamon told the two young kits. “And to our surprise, Smallstar accepted us into the Clan despite everyone else’s protests and we’ve been grateful to him ever since.”

                “We had three beautiful kits named Flash, Lightning, and Blizzard. Even Smallstar wasn’t very happy when we refused to give them warrior names but he respected out wishes,” Sparkle finished the story. “And now they’re strong, young warriors. Names do not change that fact.”

                “Do you believe in StarClan?” Salmonkit blurted out.

                “We didn’t until we saw Smallstar lose a life. We thought he was dead and everyone was just acting normal, almost if nothing had happened,” Cinnamon replied. “We were so freaked out when all of a sudden, he started breathing. And his words were, ‘See? StarClan is real?’”

                “When did you become elders?” Foxkit asked.

                “About three moons ago,” Cinnamon answered.

                Hailkit appeared marching towards them with Icekit following behind and carrying a wad of moss. “Moss-ball time!” Icekit declared.

                Hailkit narrowed his eyes. “Unless you’re too scared,” he sneered.

                “Never!” Salmonkit shouted. “Just show me how to play and then let’s get started!”

A/N: I'm excited for posting Chapter 4, where the moss-ball game happens! Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, and may StarClan light your path! :D