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"I still can't believe that we're about to be made apprentices!" Larkkit squeaked, jumping around Amberkit with excitement. "No more kits at last!"
Panting with excitement, she dropped to the ground. Larkkit, she thought, soon I'll never hear that name again. The idea of finally having an apprentice name warmed her heart.
Out of the corner of her eye, Larkkit saw her three younger denmates come scampering towards them. Mistkit was the first to arrive. The dark grey tabby tom stood up on his hind legs and rested his front paws on Larkkit's chest. Surprised by the force, she staggered backwards but managed to remain steady. "Now you're going to leave us," Mistkit meowed.
He stared at Larkkit with his large, dark, greenish-amber eyes, so sad and desperate that she couldn't help but purr. "But Mistkit!" she exclaimed. "We're not going anywhere. Besides, in two moons you'll be apprenticed too."
Mistkit stepped back. "Two moons is an eternity," he complained. "And we'll be all alone."
"Now listen, you have two littermates. Isn't that enough for you to play with?" Larkkit enquired.
Shadowkit and Bramblekit jumped up and down in support.
Larkkit looked at the three kits, shaking her head. She would be glad to be able to sleep peacefully every night for a while at least, but at the same time she already missed them.
"You really must tell us what it's like to be an apprentice," Shadowkit demanded. The grey-brown tom stared intently at Larkkit and Amberkit from his blue eyes. "We need to know everything."
"Everything!" his sister Bramblekit, a light brown ticked she-cat with leaf-green eyes, added shyly.
Larkkit gave an exaggerated sigh. "If that's what you want."
"Yes!" The three kits mewed in delight and leapt away again.
Peace at last, Larkkit wanted to think, but then Dawnbreeze came trotting up. "Good morning, my dears," the tortoiseshell she-cat meowed. "Are you ready for your big day?" She didn't wait for an answer, but kept on talking. "Hopefully you still know what you have to do?"
Larkkit nodded eagerly. In the last few moons, Dawnbreeze had explained the ceremony to them so often that she had even had a very real dream about it once. Sometimes she had found it annoying, but now she was glad that Dawnbreeze looked after her so conscientiously.
Unlike Sunbrook. Only the thought of how he had behaved when they met again made Larkkit feel sick. They were family, but Sunbrook treated them as if they were enemies.
Larkkit involuntarily looked around for the golden tom and finally found him near Pinefur. Growling softly, Larkkit turned round. For her taste, Sunbrook had been spending far too much time with the long-haired, dark reddish-brown warrior lately, who had been introduced to her as Fruittail's sister.
