Warriors: Fair Skies

Chapter 2

The sun barely peaked out from beyond the walls of camp when Hailkit stumbled out of the nursery. The grassy clearing had turned light white with frost, and Hailkit's breath puffed out in small clouds as Moonfeather followed her out into the open.

Hailkit shivered as her mother began to groom her ruffled kit-fur with rapid licks. Sunlight offered little warmth against early leaf-fall mornings, but even through the cold Hailkit couldn't keep still. She was about to go onto the moor for the first time! She had hardly slept thinking about all the amazing things she would be able to see and do. And with my own father no less!

"How about we eat something before you leave," Moonfeather suggested after she had finished grooming her kit. She looked down at her fondly and purred. "You'll need to keep your strength up if want to keep up with Stormstar out there."

"I can fetch something for us!" Hailkit offered, excited to do something to warm herself up. She scampered off to where the fresh-kill pile was, near a particularly tall patch of grass in the center of the clearing.

Two older warriors were already there, picking through the large pile. One was a large yellow tom and the other a light brown tom with a single white hind paw.

"I can't believe there's so much here this late in the season," the yellow tom spoke half to himself.

"Like you're one to complain, Lionclaw," the brown warrior joked as he picked a mouse from the pile. "I've seen you eat three of these mice in one sitting."

Lionclaw let out a mrrow of laughter as he bent to grab a robin. "Yeah, but I spent the rest of the day in Sedgepelt's den with the worst bellyache ever."

The two toms carried their prey away, still joking with one another while Hailkit scanned the pile for something to take back. In the middle, she spotted a particularly plump rabbit, and her mouth began to water. She reached in and grabbed its paw in between her teeth and tried to pull the prey free. Hailkit growled with effort, pulling harder and harder until it suddenly loosened and both she and the rabbit flew back, landing with a thud.

Her pelt hot with embarrassment, she got up and shook the dust out of her pelt. Looking at the size of the prey, Hailkit realized the rabbit was almost bigger than she was. She glanced behind her to see if her mother had witnessed her stumble, but Moonfeather was busy grooming herself and didn't seem to have seen what happened.

Hailkit looked back at her prey, grabbed it by the paw, and began to drag it across the clearing. The weight of the rabbit strained Hailkit's neck, but she wouldn't give up. Her mother's words from yesterday still lingered faintly in her mind.

Hailkit is much too small to defend herself!

She focused even harder on dragging her prey back. I'll show that I'm strong enough to defend myself! If I can just make it there...

Out of the corner of her eye, Hailkit saw the flame-colored pelt of Firefield appear. As soon as he saw the kit, he quickly padded over.

"Hey, kit," he greeted in his normal teasing tone. "Decided to go for the biggest piece of prey we had, huh?"

Hailkit didn't answer. Her mouth was full with the rabbit's front leg and she didn't want to slow her momentum down. Instead, she gave a slight nod and kept going.

Firefield kept his curious eyes on her and walked beside Hailkit as she made slow progress back toward the nursery. "I can carry that for you if you'd like. It's just about the size of you."