Warriors: A Dark Sun

Chapter 8

"Lilypaw! Come play with us!" Adderkit squeaked as Lilypaw stepped out of the apprentice den. Lionpaw and Olivepaw were sitting at the fresh kill pile sharing a fish. She heard her belly rumbling and padded to the two toms and sat down.
"I'd love to after I'm done eating." Lilypaw called over her shoulder to the kits. Skykit looked disappointed, but Adderkit just shrugged and called to Olivepaw. "Hey Olivepaw! Can you teach us how to hunt?' Adderkit asked the large apprentice. Olivepaw rolled his eyes.
"I don't play with kits." He snapped at the young tom. Lilypaw looked at him in shock. Everyone was kind and played with the kits. Olivepaw was acting so arrogant lately, he was acting like he was the leader and when Sunpaw joked around and called him Olivestar he snapped. Sunpaw was given a powerful slap to the nose.
"I'll teach you how to hunt." Sunpaw mewed to Adderkit. The golden tom looked at his brother with worry in his eyes. Lilypaw was also worried about Olivepaw. She remembered when they were kits Olivepaw would always beg Jasperheart, to teach him battle moves. He was always so disappointed when Jasperheart said no. Lilypaw expected that he would want to make the kits happy.
"Lilypaw, Appleglow wants us on his patrol." Grayheart's voice rumbled in her ear. She stood up and padded to the camp entrance, where Appleglow, Brightcloud, Jasperheart and Grayheart waited.
"Where are we going?" She asked Brightcloud. "ThunderClan border." Brightcloud replied. Lilypaw nodded then continued walking. Brightcloud sped up to walk with Jasperheart. Lilypaw was left walking alone at the back of the patrol. She looked up and saw clouds covering the sun. She had always loved leaf-fall weather. It was a lot easier for her to hunt land prey. As they were passing the river she heard squealing and her eyes darted to the fast moving water. Appleglow stopped the patrol.
"I heard a kit." He explained. Jasperheart immediately looked behind the patrol, searching the leaves for his kits. "Spread out and look for it." Appleglow ordered. Lilypaw searched the riverbank for the kit. She heard another squeal and desperate call for help. "I found it!" She yowled before sliding down the steep riverbank. She looked around and saw a muddy kit struggling to drag a thin queen, most likely the kit's mother, up the slope. She approached the kit and saw that it was a she cat. The first thing she noticed was how thin she was. She felt a stab of pity for the poor thing. She looked at the queen and saw that her eyes were glazed over and showed fear. Lilypaw felt bad that the last thing the queen saw was fear. She noticed a hole in the queen's belly, probably stabbed by a rock.
"Help me! Mama's hurt!" The little kit yowled. "I'm slipping!" She darted forward and grabbed the kit by the scruff of her neck. Jasperheart scrambled down the slope and grabbed the dead queen before she was lost in the river. They dragged the kit and queen up to the forest above where everyone was waiting. "Brightcloud! Run back and get Echomist!" Grayheart yelled at the she cat. Brightcloud nodded then raced into the forest.
Lilypaw set the kit down on a patch of moss. She started to clean her while Appleglow and Grayheart tried to wake the queen up. "What's your name?" Lilypaw asked the frightened kit.
"Pixie. My mama's name is Rosie." Pixie wailed. Lilypaw could see why the queen was called Rosie, she must have been beautiful. She had pale ginger fur and brown eyes. Pixie had her eyes, but that's it. Pixie had white fur with very pale gray stripes. The kit was very beautiful, but looked unnaturally small even for a kit. Echomist and Brightcloud raced into the clearing. Echomist practically pushed Appleglow over to inspect Rosie. Echomist looked at the kit with sadness in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. Your mother is dead, little one. The clan will now take care of you." Echomist told the kit. The medicine cat nodded to Appleglow and Lilypaw. Appleglow started dragging the queen, while Lilypaw picked the grieving kit up and started the walk home.