𝙉𝙊𝙏 𝙎𝙊 𝙎𝙐𝙉𝙉𝙔, warriors

| chapter two

a little note: yeah! lakepaw is getting reincarnated! i just want to say that this isn't the same storyline and the books are from a completely different universe!! ......... back to marigoldkit...

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marigoldkit woke up beside her mother like yesterday. it was freezing and her siblings were asleep.
she wriggled out of her soft nest and poked her head outside.
small white things were falling from the sky.
the weirdly nervous dawn patrol gathered beside the calico deputy and trotted out. she looked worried too.

why is everyone always so distressed? marigoldkit thought

marigoldkit bounced back to the den.

"otterwhisker! otterwhisker what is that?!" she squeaked.

"w—what do you mean?" her mother yawned.

marigoldkit lashed her tail in the direction of the rocky entrance.
"oh, that's just snow," otterwhisker mewed.

"snow? snow!" marigoldkit squealed amd dashed out of the nursery.

"remember, do not go outside the camp!" her mother called at her.

marigoldkit pounced on the snowflakes and tried to catch them in her mouth.

"someone seems to have fun."

marigoldkit turned after the voice and froze when she saw the cat.
a black and white tom with sleek coat and piercing blue eyes lashed his tail, looking at her.

"oh, you don't know my name? i'm magpiestrike," he mewed contemptuously.

"my name's marigoldkit," she mewed steadily.
the warrior scanned her with his cold gaze and turned away.

what was that about? she wondered

she shook her head, and returned quickly to the nursery.
foxkit and palekit were awake now.

"guys! come and see the snow!" marigoldkit giggled with her enthusiasm returning.

"what's snow?" palekit squeaked but didn't wait for answer and pelted outside. her stunned mew was hearable even in the isolated cave. foxkit turned to otterwhisker.

"what is . .  the snow?"

"you'll see," she meowed. "but don't get too far from the nursery!" she added in a worried tone.

"race you to the tall—stump!" marigoldkit squealed and shot into the clearing. foxkit was breathing on her tail, she was faster. the ginger molly stopped quickly when she almost crashed into the broken tree.
foxkit let out a high pitched hiss. "it's cold!"

"ha—ha! i won," she teased.
falconstar was wandering in the clearing, immediately spotting the two kits.

"hey little ones," he greeted warmly as he crouched into their height.

"hello . . " marigoldkit mewed shyly, she didn't ever talk to the noble leader. foxkit dipped his head.
"have you seen the snow?" the ginger tomkit bounced.

"of course," falconstar purred. "it comes in leaf-bare. if it goes on like
this, the flakes will cover all the ground and the hills."

"really? but they're so tiny!"

"there will be lots of them."

marigoldkit lifted one paw and excitedly dabbed on the flake. in a heartbeat later she was leaping and pouncing on the already snow-covered ground along with foxkit. palekit joined them and they played together, pretending the now thicker and bigger flakes are birds.

on sunhigh marigoldkit lay exhausted in her nest. they played with the snow for so long that she now had energy only to eat.

they napped a bit and then trotted outside, more slowly than last time. mistlekit and doekit joined them and the two siblings were playing in the snow they haven't seen before, unlike marigoldkit, foxkit and palekit.

suddenly a patrol burst through the stony entrance. marigoldkit and the kits quickly stepped back.

her belly twisted.

one reddish brown tom dragged a light brown apprentice, covered in blood. the cats in the clearing were backing and yowling with fear. all the cats were injured, and one was kimping badly.

"finchfrost!" a call broke out from the mixture of scared and fearful meows.

the gray and cream medicine cat leaped out of the burrow that formed the medicine den and hurried over to the small tom, carrying clumsily a bundle of herbs and cobwebs. he began pressing leaves on a huge scratch on the apprentice's hind leg.

"will he survive?" a gray apprentice whispered.

"don't worry, lakepaw," finchfrost grunted warmly, "this will stop the bleeding. robinchase or anyone, please help me carry this poor thing inside."

lakepaw with robinchase immediately helped to drag the limp body down to the underground medicine den.

"palekit! foxkit! come here!"

marigoldkit heard otterwhisker calling on her siblings. she noticed her mother wasn't calling her, so she poked her head into the medicine den. the little she-kit carefully laid one paw in front of another to stay completely quiet. she heard faint meows of distress coming from a few fox-lenghts so and she slowly glanced in the direction of the sounds.

"...we have to do something! haven't you've seen what happened to snailpaw?" lakepaw was mewing. "it can't go on like this!"

"and what do you think we can do?" robinchase snapped.

"chase it off!"

robinchase laughed: "and let half of our clan be killed! I didn't think you're so mouse-brained, lakepaw."
lakepaw sniffed and stalked outside. marigoldkit pushed herself more into shadows, luckily the gray tom was so furious he didn't notice anything around him.

what was that all about? she wondered.
she walked into the small round cave. finchfrost was there, pressing cobwebs on snailpaw's wound.

"oh, hi, marigoldkit," he meowed, not lifting his gaze off the limp light-brown body.

"hello. how's it going? i mean with Snailpaw," she asked compassionately.

"i'm afraid even my skills aren't good enough to heal him completely," the old medicine cat sighed.

"it isn't your fault. you're the best medicine cat i know!"

finchfrost purred with amusement. "thanks."
marigoldkit looked over his shoulder at the nasty-looking scratch. it wasn't bleeding now, but it still seemed bad.

"what happened? who did it to him?" she asked robinchase, her voice shaking.
he opened his mouth to speak but before he could make a sound a loud call interrupted him: "marigoldkit!"

she swung around to face her mother, a worried, relieved and at the same time angry looking face.

"where were you?"

"er— i came to look what happened to snailpaw and-" her voice was immediately cut off by her mother's strict meow; "enough. do you know how worried I was?"

"it was because you didn't call me and—" marigoldkit trailed off. she lowered her head and slowly walked out of the den, her tail trailing in the cold earth.

otterwhisker was hard on her paws, keeping an eye on her.

marigoldkit curled up next go her siblings, she wasn't cuddling to her mother like she usually did.

"what happened?" foxkit hissed. marigoldkit shook her head and put her long bushy tail on her muzzle.
she finally drifted to uneasy sleep full of slashing claws and wounded apprentices.

***