Distant Sun - Clouds

Chapter 3

"Good morning, sweetie," Coralsong, Fallenpaw's mother, pads up to the young she-cat as she was eating her mouse.

"Morning, Mom," Fallenpaw meows.

"Morning, Coralsong," Greypaw smiles at the older she-cat.

"If you're not busy, could you watch your siblings for a while? I need a break and they can be a pawful sometimes," the amber she-cat purrs.

Fallenpaw brightens. "Yeah! I love hanging out with them!"

"Great, thank you, Fallenpaw."

With that, Coralsong pads over to Blueheart, who was giving out patrols.

"I'll tell Silverstripe you're taking care of the kits for her," Greypaw offers as she finishes off her mouse.

"That would be great, thanks," the pink-ish-red she-cat curls her tail happily.

Greypaw heads off to her own mentor, Darkfur, who was sitting with the other mentors of the apprentices. Fallenpaw watches Greypaw explain the situation to Silverstripe before heading off to the nursery. The den had been carved out long ago by the WillowClan that came before Flamestar's WillowClan. The rock walls had the claw marks of kits of the past. Fallenpaw smiles to herself when she spots the ones she, Greypaw, Amberpaw and Featherpaw had made in their kithood. At the thought of Featherpaw, Fallenpaw frowns.

Featherpaw had been missing for three moons now. She left after being fed up with her Clanmates treating her like she was useless and only able to heal because of her missing paw. It didn't help that Fallenpaw had slashed her sister's face before Featherpaw had disappeared into the night.

Fallenpaw shakes away thoughts of her sister and looks around the den. Her siblings were all sitting with Violetstorm, who was obviously telling them a story, and the rest of the kits. Fallenpaw creeps closer to hear what her mother's friend was saying.

"...then she tripped over her own paws, landing right on her face!" Violetstorm purrs. "Our mother, Velvetstripe, had to take her to the medicine den to get her to stop crying about her nose being hurt."

Fallenpaw purrs. She'd heard this story before, when she was a kit. Violetstorm would often visit the nursery before she became pregnant with Vinetail's kits. Mostly to see Coralsong and Mossflight.

"That didn't happen!" Icekit meows indignantly. "Blueheart is too strong to cry like that!"

"Believe it, kits," Violetstorm meows. "Blueheart wasn't always the strong deputy she is today."

"She's right," Fallenpaw chimes in. "Just like how Patchheart isn't an apprentice anymore. We're all different when we're kits."

"Ah, there you are, Fallenpaw," Violetstorm curls her tail over her paws.

"Fallenpaw!" Amberkit squeals. The amber she-kit leaps on Fallenpaw's back. "Give me a badger ride!"

Quickly, Fallenpaw's siblings start leaping around and on her. Fallenpaw giggles as she falls over under the weight of all five of them.

"I can't carry all of you at once!" Fallenpaw cries.

Larkkit giggles and bats at Fallenpaw's ears. "Fallenpaw, are you gonna be a warrior soon, like Patchheart?"

"I don't think so. Not yet, at least," Fallenpaw replies, getting back on her paws. "I'm not nearly as skilled as he is. Plus, I still need to do my assessment and I don't think Silverstripe will let me do that yet."

"When do we get to be apprentices?" Snakekit asks.

"Well, you're only four moons old. So, by my calculations, you'll be made apprentices in two moons."

"I wanna be an apprentice now, though!" the amber tom-kit whines.

"I can teach you some battle moves if you want?" Fallenpaw offers. "Then you can get a head start on your training."

"Yeah!" Snakekit and Fluffykit both exclaim at the same time.

"But I wanted to go see Gemkit!" Spotkit mewls. "Whitestar said we could today!"

"Oh yeah! I want to go see Gemkit too!" Amberkit chimes in.

"Please can you take us?" Larkkit asks sweetly.

"I could take all of you, if it's ok with your mothers," Fallenpaw looks across the den to where Whitestar, Mossflight and Slatepelt were sitting and watching the kits swarm Fallenpaw.

"You can take Icekit and Bluekit," Slatepelt meows tiredly. "They need to get some energy out."

"Lilykit can go too," Mossflight's voice was muffled by her paws.

"Ok, let's go then."

Fallenpaw leads the kits out of the nursery. The eight kits all scramble about as they follow her. The mentors and other apprentices had long since left camp, leaving it nearly empty. The elders were lying outside their den, basking in the sunlight before it would hide again behind the hills.

Rocktooth was outside her den drying herbs as Fallenpaw and the herd of kits approach the den.

"Oh dear," Rocktooth sighs. "They came to see Gemkit, didn't they?"

Fallenpaw nods.

"Let them in, but make sure they don't get into the herb store."

Fallenpaw ushers the kits inside. Gemkit was in a nest near the front with several other nests behind her. An opening in the back wall of the den revealed the alcove where Rocktooth kept her herbs.

"Hi guys!" Gemkit greets them cheerfully, sitting up in her nest. Herbs were clumped on her fur over what Fallenpaw assumed was her injuries. A particularly startling one was the herbs over Gemkit's throat, showing that the cat who did this was willing to kill kits. Fallenpaw swallows nervously but smiles at the kit.

"How are you feeling, Gemkit?" Fallenpaw asks.

"A lot better. My leg doesn't hurt any more!" Gemkit grins and motions to her front paw with her tail. That leg was covered in herbs and cobwebs, so much so that none of her fur was showing through. "Rocktooth says I may even be able to walk on it soon!"

"That's great!" Fallenpaw grins.