Song Setting: Lilith | Varien (More accurate near end of chapter)
Character of the Week: Raggedkit
The two moons that followed proved to be extremely uneventful.
It was well into leafbare, and everyone was busy completing the agonizingly tedious tasks that made up the day. The weather was frigid, and it rained often, but it wasn't the coldest it had ever been and it had yet to snow or even hail.
Warriors spent most of that time fortifying the camp, while Hunters struggled to bring in enough food to feed the Clan. The Scouts left every morning and evening to patrol the AmberClan border, with instructions not to advance without means. But it seemed that AmberClan cats had some sense after all - after the DriftClan cat was found dead on their borders, they found it in their best interest to keep to themselves until the fiasco was resolved.
Oh, and Raggedkit and her siblings were becoming apprentices, of course.
"So, d'you think I'll be a Hunter or a Warrior?"
"Hunter," Frostkit concluded easily.
Raggedkit cast her a smile. "You better believe it," she purred, holding her head a bit higher as she sauntered forth to keep up with the long-legged bengal. During the last couple moons Frostkit had grown tremendously - already taller than her companion, who she could now easily keep stride with. "And I'm betting Jaykit's got his mind set on becoming a Hunter, if he manages to best Windkit. You know how Larkstar likes to evenly divide litters. Also, Jaypaw's practically the only sibling I can stand."
"You should be worrying about your own competition, not his. Everyone knows he's Larkstar's favorite. They're practically father and son," Frostkit stated, nearly missing the slight falter in Raggedkit's pace. "I mean, given the circumstances. Y'know."
Raggedkit sighed uneasily. "It's fine. Not like I ever knew my him anyway. But you can't really blame Larkstar for acting fatherly, he was my - Jayshadow's - brother." She explained, trying to sound confident though it was a touchy subject. In all the time that Frostkit had know her, she'd never heard her friend say the words "father" and "dead" in the same sentence. Come to think of it, Frostkit didn't think she'd ever even heard Raggedkit say "father".
"Sorry. That was insensitive," Frostkit apologized. Raggedkit nodded in a sort of acceptance, then the brief sadness vanished from her features, and Frostkit looked over to see her brother approaching them.
"What're you two gossiping about?" Snowkit asked jovially, his little nub of a tail twitching, an ever-joyful grin plastered onto his face.
Frostkit had opened her mouth to scold him, but Raggedkit was already forming a sentence. "Nothing interesting,"
Snowkit tilted his head, and Frostkit nearly rolled her eyes on how embarrassingly adorable he looked while doing it. "Well, that's good, because I was hoping to borrow my sister for a moment,"
"I don't know if-" Frostkit tried to object, but was quickly cut off again.
"Yeah, sure thing. I need to go and get ready for the ceremony," Raggedkit said, turning as a slightly breathless Jaykit ran up to greet her. "Speaking of which."
"I've done it," Jaykit said, exhaling in relief.
Raggedkit blinked, then in a slightly mocking tone, "What have you done, Jaykit?"
Jaykit gave her a friend cuff over the ear, and Frostkit could see that it took all of Raggedkit's will not retaliate, verbally or otherwise. "Convinced Windkit not to be a Hunter, of course." He said proudly.
Snowkit's eyes widened. "The impossible task!" He teased.
"How'd you manage that?" Frostkit asked, slowly inching away from Snowkit, who seemed to have forgotten about her.
Jaykit grinned proudly. "I bet her she 'couldn't even become a Warrior if she tried'."
"That did not work," Snowkit blinked in suspicion, raising a brow when he saw that the other tom was completely serious.
"It totally did. Try not to say anything, she probably won't realize until after the ceremony," Jaykit winked, the gesture seemingly aimed in Frostkit's direction. She flicked an ear, gaze remaining level with his, and the tom pretended to not take notice of the smaller cat's suddenly icy demeanor. "Anyway, mom wants to help us get ready for the ceremony, if that's alright." He finished, gesturing for Raggedkit to follow him.
"It's mom, you don't argue," Raggedkit reasoned, trotting over to him.
"Good luck to both of you!" Snowkit shouted as the two kits left towards the nursery, where Frostkit now realized they weren't going to be for much longer. After the two kits were out of view, Snowkit started forward wit Frostkit in tow. "That was out of character." He commented.
Frostkit ignored him, instead posing her own question. "So where are we going?"
"Dad's with Hollyheart and Hailstorm out by the creek, he says they want to 'evaluate' us. After all, there's only one moon left until our apprenticeship," Snowkit replied, trying to search the silver she-cat's expression. He suddenly appeared to come to a realization, and Frostkit's ears pulled back as she silently willed him to keep quiet. "You like him!"
"I don't!" Frostkit retorted, swishing her tail masked disdain.
Snowkit snorted. "You totally do."
Frostkit groaned, picking up pace as they neared the rock outcropping that led out of camp. "Snowkit, drop it. I don't like him. Now would you hurry up? We have an evaluation to get to."
"I don't think you sound as happy about that as you think you do. What, do you not like being around your own brother and sister?"
"Nobody likes being around Icekit," Frostkit reasoned.
Snowkit shrugged, padding a couple of steps behind her. "Well, true."
"Are you two leaving camp?" Nightwish asked, watching their progress as two kits approached her. "Do you have an escort?"
"Hollyheart and Hailstorm are waiting by the creek with our father," Snowkit informed her.
Nightwish looked as if she was going to decline their notion to leave camp without an escort, but Russetflame, who was on watch at the other end of the cleft, nodded for them to pass. "He just came in, and the creek's supposed to be close enough for a kit to get there safely. I'll take them if you're that worried." She offered.
Nightwish blinked and smiled, though Frostkit could detect a hint of tension. "Actually, I am. You'll be taking them, then?"
Russetflame nodded, not backing down from her obviously rhetorical offer. "Fine. Come along, you two," The hurried the cats along the narrow pass, casting a less that friendly galore back at Nightwish once her back was turned. "She's so sickeningly sweet around everyone." Russetflame muttered, trudging forward once they had reached the soft meadow grass.
"So, what's it like being a warrior?" Snowkit queried, trying to keep up with the deep red she-cat.
Russetflame smiled fondly- something that Frostkit guessed the she-cat didn't do very often. "If you ask me, that's where all the fun's at. Patrolling your territory, fighting off enemy cats- it's so much better than over-working yourself to do nothing but catch prey," She mused, then added, "No offense, Frostkit."
"Why would I be offended?" Frostkit wondered aloud, unfamiliar with the concept of 'offended' and wondering if she was supposed to be.
Russetflame looked back at her. "Oh, I just thought-" She trailed off, a faint trace of amusement glancing her features. "You're the one who wants to become a Scout, aren't you?
Frostkit flicked back her ears in embarrassment, though she felt an angry fuzziness in her head. She guessed that she was a bit 'offended', as Russetflame had said. "Yeah, so what?" She demand.
"Don't be so bitter," Russetflame tried, "I just think it's cute."
Make that very offended.
"There you are! We've been here for quite a while, you'd think you'd take your future more seriously," Hailstorm growled, being his usual irritable self.
"Hailstorm, please. She just likes spending time with her friends," Smokecloud murmured calmly, approaching his two kits to give them a friendly lick.
"Sorry!" Frostkit chirped.
Hailstorm huffed, muttering something to himself. "She's five moons old already. She should be more sensible."
Stormcloud rolled his eyes, leading the two kits to where Icekit was sitting in a shallow pool of water, already appearing to be annoyed by her siblings' presence.
"Hi Icekit! Didn't mean to take so long," Snowkit said cheerily, splashing through the cold water to sit beside her. "This water's freezing!"
"It's not that bad," Icekit replied, sounding faintly less disagreeable than usual. Snowkit could make anyone smile, if he tried - something Frostkit supposed he had managed to inherit from his father. They were both equally good-natured and compassionate, and it was hard not to love the clumsy tom. Frostkit padded to Icekit's other side in a much more graceful manner than her brother had, exhaling in relief when her sibling didn't make a sharp comment as she sat down on the warm pebbles by the water's edge.
Hollyheart cleared her throat to address the gathered kits, and all snapped to attention. "In less than one moon, you will take on a new task - the task of becoming an apprentice, and fulfilling your apprentice duties. There are many strong and capable cats who are willing to take you into their paws, but before this happens, you must be evaluated to see which rank you fit into. Hailstorm will be assigning you some tasks to see how you perform."
Hailstorm nodded, not looking at the kits directly as he spoke to them, and Frostkit frowned at the belittlement. "Alright. We are hoping to get back to camp before the end of your friends' apprentice ceremonies, so I need the following tasks done in a neat and timely manner. Your first mission is to build a nest be the riverbank, using whatever materials you can find. You can go as far as you'd like, as long as you can still see the three of us," He finished, finally addressing the kits directly. "This will show off your improvisational skills. You may begin."
"What's 'improvisational' mean?" Snowkit whispered.
Frostkit shrugged.
"Good luck to all of you." Smokecloud purred, and the three cats dashed off to begin building.
Frostkit quickly veered away from the others, deciding to look for a place to build before she went to find materials. She found a sunny spot by the river, sheltered by a cluster of shrubs and overlooked by one of the impossibly tall acacia tree that dotted the SwiftClan territory. Satisfied, Frostkit then trotted off towards the nearest Glade; a dense forested area that looked almost like a slash in the earth. Despite the sun-kissed bareness of the meadow in which SwiftClan resided, deep cuts and gouges in the ground were hidden at nearly every turn. An entire forest grove could fit into some of them, and an onlooker wouldn't be able to see much more than the tops of the trees.
Eagerly, Frostkit made her way towards the shallow Glade by the stream, where she didn't doubt the others had gone as well. But the glade was dark and shadowy, and she didn't think she'd be able to see them if she looked. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder, where she could just make out the far-off dim grey of Smokecloud's pelt, quickly realizing that she wouldn't be able to see them for much longer. But, determined as she was, Frostkit reasoned that she wouldn't be gone long, and silently continued deeper into the Glade.
A few moments later, she could no longer see any other cats.
A flurry of movement caught her eye.
"Icekit?" She wondered aloud, knowing that her sister would be the only of her siblings to ignore her presence. A flicker of shadows, the resounding echo of a twig's crunch filled the Glade. She walked uneasily forward, ducking beneath a fern, but the moment her eyes left the ground she tripped over a gnarled root. With a muffled thump, she collided with the ground, stumbling to right herself as she began to role further down a steep slope. Rather dizzy, Frostkit lay for a moment, the dappled light from the trees above speckling her fur with glowing colors. Then her bright blue eyes flicked downwards, and were met with a less than pleasing sight. Her jaw dropped as it to make a noise, but she was too shocked to scream. An icy shudder turned her blood cold.
She found herself staring directly into the lifeless amber-red eyes of another cat, its jaw hanging open in a dying scream, fur stained with blood and gruesomely knotted cuts. Frostkit's eyes flicked downwards, and she immediately wished she'd closed them. The cat's throat was sliced clean open, it's chest mangled, and there was something more than blood spilling out of the deep set wounds. She shrieked.
"Frostkit, you shouldn't be here," The sharp hiss jolted her out of her numb confusion, and Frostkit leapt away from the corpse, whirling to face Hailstorm's piercing yellow gaze. "You need to get back to camp. Now." He demanded.
"What are you doing here? What's happening?" She stuttered, gaze drawn back to the battered form of the cat before her. Her eyes widened. "That's Rowanwave. Rowanwave's dead."
Hailstorm's eyes narrowed. "Frostkit, I told you to stay with the others. Get back to camp, now." Frostkit flinched at the biting tone of the warrior, but had no intent of staying.
"What's going on down here?!" Smokecloud exclaimed, crashing through the undergrowth to reach the source of the cry. He stopped at what he saw, and then in a very low tone, "Hollyheart, take my kits back to camp."
Hollyheart seemed frozen in place. "What-"
"Get them back to camp!" He snapped.
Hollyheart screwed her eyes shut, dashing forward to pick Frostkit up by the scruff. The kit had gone completely silent again, and she stared at her limp paws as they sang back and forth.
"What's going on?" Snowkit asked, shaking in fear. Icekit was beside him, and she suddenly looked terribly, terribly small. Hollyheart set Frostkit down.
"We're going back."
"But what about our evaluations?" Icekit murmured.
Hollyheart lifted each one out of the glade and onto the edge of the meadow, hopping up behind them before breaking into a dash towards camp. Icekit and Snowkit struggled to keep up, and Frostkit's legs managed to rush her forward without the aid of her brain. She couldn't think, she could barely remember to breathe. Every time she blinked she could see nothing but Rowanwave's far away gaze, flashing across her vision.
"Welcome back," Maplesplash purred, indicating the the guard had switched since Frostkit had left camp before.
"You three go find your mother," Hollyheart told them, and none of the kits were compelled to argue. Redspring cast the medicine cat a questioning glance as the three kits dashed towards her, Frostkit burying herself in her mother's warm fur. Without another word, Hollyheart disappeared through the camp entrance again, and confused murmurs spread throughout the cats who had bore witness to the event.
"What's going on? Our apprentice ceremony's about to begin," Raggedkit said uneasily, bristling with worry.
More cats were being drawn out of their dens by the commotion, and Frostkit saw Flamepaw's sympathetic gaze from across camp.
"What's happening?
"Is something wrong?"
"Where's Hollyheart?"
A hushed silence suddenly filled the camp as Larkstar emerged from his den, surveying the commotion.
"Are you alright?" Redspring murmured, listening to the frenzied beating of Frostkit's heart.
ember
Frostkit's mouth had gone dry. "Rowanwave's dead," She whispered, but those quiet little words spread like wildfire over the silent crowd. Everyone glanced at Larkstar to witness his reaction, but the stoic leader only narrowed his eyes in seriousness, turning towards the entrance Hollyheart's procession returned. Hollyheart and Smokecloud were carrying what remained of Rowanwave, and every cat in sight gasped and hid their faces in horror. The tom's body ripped apart every time it was moved, and what Smokecloud and Hollyheart set down in the center of the clearing was hardly a cat.
"What happened," Larkstar murmured evenly, and even he trembled as he sat down.
Smokecloud looked at Redspring from across the clearing, and the she-cat shot him a look that clearly meant 'I don't want them to be any part of this'. Smokecloud looked at his mate and then back at Larkstar, and a silent agreement was made. "Smokecloud, Hollyheart, Hailstorm, I'd like to talk to you in in private. Silverpool, gather Rowanwave's family members and bury him in the meadow."
"What about mourning?" One cat asked from the crowd.
Larkstar didn't turn around. "There's nothing left to mourn."
Redspring led her kits back into the nursery just as Silverpool began naming cats to bury Rowanwave's remains, and just as she disappeared into the dark, Frostkit caught a glimpse of Flamepaw's expression of fear and bewilderment. She'd never realized how close an apprentice could be with their mentor, and it made her feel truly afraid for the first time.
"No kit should ever see what you three saw today," Redspring murmured, pulling them closer in a comforting gesture. Frostkit sniffed, the weight of what had happened setting in only now. Redspring pushed them in the direction of her nest, and Icekit and Snowkit fell into a shaky sleep in moments. But Frostkit couldn't sleep, let alone close her eyes. The sun was bright and had just reached its zenith in the sky, but it wasn't until much later that any sound could be heard. Frostkit hadn't said a word since she'd returned to camp, and it was deadly silent in the nursery save for the breathing of her mother and siblings. It was then that a sudden hostility broke out among the cats in camp, and Frostkit could only catch snatches of the argument. Then jeering ensued, and Frostkit covered her ears with her paws to try and drown out the angry yowling. The arguments had hardly died down by the time the sun begun to set, and it was around then that Smokecloud entered the nursery to say goodnight to Redspring like he always did at dusk.
"What's happening out there?" Redspring murmured, trying not to wake the kits. Frostkit clenched her eyes shut and turned in the other direction, pretending to be asleep.
Smokecloud shook his head. "Hollyheart said that the kill was very fresh, and there were no scents of other cats. Larkstar refuses to exile one of his best warriors, especially without proof that he killed Rowanwave. Hailstorm claims it wasn't him, but he can't tell Larkstar how it happened. He held the apprentice ceremony anyway to try and raise morale, but SwiftClan's in disarray. No one's sure what to do."
"What do you think?"
There was a long silence, accompanied by the distant chirping of crickets. "I don't know." Smokecloud whispered, touching Redspring's muzzle lightly. Frostkit shivered, and Redspring hugged the kit closer to her form. Too weary to protest, Frostkit dozed off into an uneasily slumber.
Frostkit sat in the star-speckled meadow, as she had every night since she could remember. The breeze was warm, yet refreshingly cool, and the white hare still stood in the meadow, alert for danger. She waited for the blackness that followed, or perhaps for the jagged streaks of lightning that had patterned the night sky before the blackness came. Instead, she felt herself moving forward, towards where the hare stood guard.
There was a sudden flash of color, and Frostkit leapt back in surprise. A startling yellow appeared against the white and grey, and the hare's head snapped up, shrieking just as shadowy talons snatched it from the ground. Frostkit began running forward, but is was like moving though mud. The hare fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a dull thud. She pushed through the grass, panting with the effort, but it was not the hare lying before her. Again, she was met with Rowanwave's pale reddish eyes, and the horror that made her fur stand on end. A looming shape rose above her, Hailstorm's yellow eyes staring down at her in the belittling way she'd always despised. A wave of blood washed up against the back of her legs, and she was frozen in burning ice. She couldn't look away from Rowanwave's corpse, couldn't turn to the the shadows that swarmed like six-legged creatures in the night.
The lightning struck.
Once, twice, three times. Thunder crackled across the sky.
A bolt of electricity spiked down from the clouds, illuminated the meadow with blinding light. Then the darkness flooded in and the meadow was gone, though Rowanwave's stare still lingered.
"Until I can no longer keep the shadows at bay."
A/N: I made this one extra long for everybody! This is an apology in advance if I don't update for a while, I'm going places for the holidays and may be too busy to update often. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
~Frost