Rising Shadow: A Spottedleaf's Heart AU

Chapter One

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"At my signal, unleash the full force of ThunderClan upon these rogues!"

Sinking her small claws into the tree stump, Spottedkit looked down on her most loyal warriors and smiled. They stood before her, eyes gleaming with anticipation, pelts bristled, and ready to heed their leader's command!
Beyond them crouched their rivals- the rogues; their tails were flicking hungrily for the battle yet to come.

"ThunderClan forever!" Spottedkit yowled ceremoniously, raising her muzzle skyward. At this, a red tortoiseshell tom-kit whirled around and charged for his closest rival, pouncing with all his might.

"No! Redkit!" Spottedkit exclaimed. "That wasn't the signal!"
Quickly jumping from the stump, she marched toward her littermate, who was now tangled up with a pale-tabby she-cat, trying to bite her scruff. "Get off of Brindlekit!"

Brindlekit, in turn, wriggled from Redkit's feeble grasp, knocking him to the ground with a sound, "oof!" Scrambling to his paws, the little tom met his sister's heated glare. "Well, it sounded like a signal!"

"And you didn't say what the signal would be," countered a white she-kit, her sky-blue eyes giving an unamused roll as she approached the pair.
Redkit nodded in agreement. "Yeah, what Frostkit said!"

Spottedkit lashed her tail indignantly and huffed. "Ugh, you've spoiled the game, Redkit! So you can't be my deputy anymore."
Before a taken-aback Redkit would react to his sister's harsh rebuff, a soft-grey kit bounced forward from where she'd been standing beside the stump.

"Can I be deputy," she asked excitedly, earning another stunned stare from Redkit.
"No, Willowkit!" Spottedkit flashed her sister a sharp glare of her amber eyes. "You're supposed to be my medicine cat. Not my deputy."
"But I want to fight in the battle," Willowkit protested with a dramatic roll of her head, and she slouched dejectedly to the den floor.

Spottedkit groaned irritably. Why does she have to whine so much? She knows I wanted to be the leader today!

A thick-furred white tomcat crouched beside Spottedkit's gangle of bickering troops arose to his paws and gingerly stepped forward. He stood noticeably taller than the others, lacking their delicate kitten fluff and squeaky underdeveloped mews.
"I'll be the medicine cat, if you'd like, Spottedkit." He meowed, a tender smile lifting his whiskers.

"It's not up to you, Whitepaw," Spottedkit retorted, the edge in her voice growing sharper. "I'm the leader, and I decide who does what."

"Well, I, for one, don't want to be a rogue," Intercepted Brindlekit, tossing her head up in dramatized refusal. "And you're too bossy to be our leader, Spottedkit!"

Spottedkit was baffled for a heartbeat, staring wide-eyed before stomping her paw down indignantly. She was the leader this time in their game, and it was a leader's duty to command her warriors! Why couldn't any of them see that?
"But now we only have one rogue!" The little tortoiseshell wailed, her fluffy white cheeks bristling in frustration. "That's not a proper battle!"

"I don't want to be a rogue or a warrior anymore!" Frostkit's voice rang out, aggravated to the tipping point. "I'm done with this game!" The snow-white kit spun on her paws and bounded out of the nursery with a whip of her tail.

"Me too!" Declared Brindlekit, turning and scampering away with Willowkit not far behind.

Spottedkit jolted upright, mouth agape as her friends and sister padded away into the daylight beyond the nursery. When her brother began to tread after them, she couldn't hold back the wail in her chest. "Wait- not you too!"