Chapter 1
“There is a kit!” Maplefern screeched. The snow was heavy on the ground, nearly covering the scrap of fur that was collapsed by the front of the Leafclan camp.
Dawn had barely struck, but by the screeches of the she-cat, cats began to dart out their dens and into the clearing.
“Back away!” Pebbleclaw, the Leafclan deputy, said to the crowding cats. Sapstar and Pebbleclaw pushed to the front of the group.
The clan watched in curiosity and worry as Sapstar pulled the kit from the snow. The leader licked the kit dry, the air around her silent.
“She is still alive! Take her to the nursery!” Sapstar yowled, and noise and movement erupted in the clearing.
Cats carried the kit into the nursery while others yowled with confusion.
“Lightflower, tend to the kit! The rest of the clan: gather beneath the Highbranch for a Leafclan meeting!” Sapstar screeched above the noise.
Immediately, the cats clustered underneath the leader. “Which clan is it from?” A cat shouted.
“How old is it?” Another yelled.
“I will explain everything; well, as much as I know.” Sapstar began. “Please remain calm and silent,”
The cats shuffled but became silent. “The cat did not hold the scent of any cat or clan.” Sapstar began.
“A loner must have abandoned it!” A cat growled. “We can’t take in loner kit!”
“Silence!” Pebbleclaw glared.
“It is most likely not a loner kit. I know this because the kit was born only moments ago,” Sapstar whispered, and the clan gasped. “Its eyes haven’t even opened yet.”
“Maplefern was keeping watch, and she would’ve seen if a loner approached the camp so closely.” Petalwing pointed out from the medicine cat den. “And kits are rarely born in leaf-bare,”
Pebbleclaw stepped to the front of the group. “I will order patrols to check for a loner’s scent or any other scent we can find!”
Sapstar ended the meeting and patrols were sent to search the Leafclan borders for signs of who the mother or father of the kit was.
8 8 8
“Will she survive?” Lightflower asked Petalwing. Leaf-bare had passed, and it had been a half-moon since the kit appeared into the clan mysteriously.
The kit hadn’t moved or opened its eyes since that day, but its chest heaved up and down to tell that she was alive.
Lightflower had her kits the day before, and their eyes were still closed as well. But that was normal. What wasn’t normal was for a kit to not move for a half-moon.
“I’m hoping,” Petalwing began. “Her breathing is powerful and she is suckling, so there is no reason why she should die. I just don’t know why she isn’t growing, moving, or opening her eyelids. She might have some disability or something,”
Lightflower sighed. “Well, what do we call her?” She cocked her head to the side and thought. The kit looked like she would be a tortoiseshell, but it was a bit too soon to tell.
Suddenly the non-moving kit coughed and opened her eyelids. Lightflower and Petalwing both gasped and tensed.
The she-kit’s eyes were bright blue, which was normal for all newborn kits. Suddenly, she staggered to her feet and looked up at Lightflower, who was in shock at this random power and movement.
“Sorrelkit,” she coughed. “My name is Sorrelkit,”
