Swiftpaw's tale

Prologue

"... and off ran those flea bitten ShadowClan warrior, with their tails between their legs. It was moons before any of them dared to set foot in our territory; we made sure of that!", the elder ended his tail spectacularly. This enraptured audience consisting of three kits, stared at him, admiration showing from their eyes.

"Wow!", the tiniest of them meowed. "I can't wait for my first battle. I will teach the other clans to respect our boundaries." She stood up, and tried to mimic one of the battle moves the elder had described in graphic detail in her story. She overbalanced and fell headlong onto one of her brothers.

The black and white tom, biggest and healthiest looking of the three kits pushed his sister onto his brother, a tabby and in a few minutes, all three of them were wrestling on the grass.

The elder who had been telling the story stretched back and watch them scuffle. "Ah, kits.", he sighed, remembering his own time in the nursery and his now deceased sister Leopardfoot .

His denmate, who was sitting a foxlenght away, took a different view of things. "Patchpelt, you irresponsible excuse for a warrior, don't just lounge around watching them. Do something! What if they get hurt?"

'She cats! This one here's always after my blood', Patchpelt thought. But out aloud he merely said,"They're too young to do any real damage, Rosetail. Their..."

"This isn't the first time we're watching kits fight, is it?", an aged she-cat with a beautiful dappled coat pointed out gently. "I know today's your first day as an elder, but calm down."

Another elder, a big brown tom with a stump for a tail agreed,"Let kits be kits."

An old queen, one of whose eyes were cloudy and white asked,"What did you say? Something about bits? We can't let kits tear each other to bits!"

The tom next to her flicked his extremely tiny ears in annoyance. "Go back to sleep Oneeye. Honestly, your hearing is getting worse by the day!"

At the moment, the kits ceased fighting and flopped down on the grass in exhaustion. A black and white tom who had impressed the elsers with his precocious talent at fighting excitedly meowed to the Patchpelt an the others,"Did you see me fight?"

"Yes dear.", he replied. "You were brilliant."

"One day, you will be one of the most feared fighters in the Clan, Swiftkit.". Oneeye raised her head and smiled toothily at him. "And those watching will say that you fought like all of LionClan."