Two Paths

Chapter One

       Darkkit tumbled through the snow, fending off blows from her attacker.  She went limp and the she-cat's grip loosened.  She jumped up and and pinned her attacker down onto the ground.

     "I'll always win!" She squeaked triumphantly.

       "No you won't!  I'll get you next time!" Dripkit screeched happily, struggling out of Darkkit's grip.  

      Darkkit released her sister and Dripkit sat up abruptly, shaking snow from her fur.  She sneezed, shooting snow from her nose.  

"Race you to that rock!" Dripkit meowed excitedly.

   As  Dripkit dashed off, Darkkit saw the golden flicker of her mother's pelt out of the corner of her eye.

   "Dripkit!  Wait!"

"What?"

   "Flickerpelt is back!"

    Dripkit bounded towards Flickerpelt, receiving a few swift licks on the ear.  Darkkit followed, earning a similar greeting.

  "Dripkit, Darkkit, I have a surprise for you," Their mother purred.

      Dripkit's fur quivered and Darkkit's ears pricked with interest.  Off to the side, their older brother, Mudpool, the StoneClan Medicine cat, smiled knowingly.  Darkkit gave him a questioning look, but Mudpool just turned and padded towards the Medicine Cat Den with his shrew.  Darkkit realized that she was being left behind, and bounded after her mother and sister.   Just as they exited the camp, Dripkit tripped on a root.  Darkkit struggled to contain her laughter as her sister screwed up her face to snort out the snow.  She wasn't very successful, as amused squeaks flew from her mouth.  Dripkit shot her a glare.  Suddenly, Flickerpelt broke into a run.  Dripkit scrambled to her paws, and Darkkit sped towards their mother. 

    They soon arrived in a clearing.  There was no grass to be seen, but the snow-covered ground sparkled like stars.  The trees were stripped of leaves, and the flakes spiraled downwards, the air still.  Dripkit gasped, and Darkkit struggled to contain her awe.  

   "This isn't the surprise, kits.  It's just how clearings look in the wintertime," Flickerpelt purred in amusement.  Darkkit and Dripkit exchanged a glance.  What is she going to show us?  Darkkit thought,  Where is she taking us?

     They reached the other side of the clearing, and Flickerpelt beckoned towards a lumpy spot in the snow.  

   "Dig," She encouraged, nosing the kits towards the bump.  Darkkit bounded forward, only to have the snow collapse beneath her.

     "MMRRRRFF!" She squealed as she was covered with the freezing snow.  She could here the scrabbling of something nearby, but she was a mere kit, and therefore couldn't hunt.  She caught a glimpse of her sister's tortoiseshell pelt, and the small opening Darkkit had begun to dig widened.  

    "Darkkit!"  Dripkit teased, " When you become an apprentice, you'll need your mentor to give you a lesson on how not to fall in snowdrifts!"

    Darkkit gave her sister a playful glare, and scrambled out.  

    "Look,"  Their mother urged, pointing her tail at the hole that Darkkit had made.  The kits gasped, almost simultaneously, in awe of what they saw before them.  Under the snow was a sight only beheld in winter.  It was a cave, almost completely lit up by the reflection of light on long, slender fingers of ice reaching down to the ground.  Just underneath of them wound a thin creek that had bored a path through the stone floor, overfilling slightly from the water that dripped from melting icicles on warmer winter days.  The squeaks of a despairing bat echoed through the stone walls, sending shivers down Darkkit's spine.  

    "Woah," she breathed, awestruck.  Their mother beckoned with her tail for them to follow as she slipped into the shadows.  

     Darkkit and Dripkit followed Flickerpelt through the seemingly endless maze of gleaming icicles, threatening stalactites, and sharpened stalagmites.  The bat squeaked again, this time much louder.  The kits jumped, and their mother purred in amusement. They eventually reached a dead end that resembled a den.

   "Flickerpelt, what is this place?" Dripkit asked, voicing Darkkit's curiosities.

    "This is where I go out to sometimes when I want to be alone," She replied," I know that I won't be around forever, and I want to share this place with my kits."

    Darkkit hated the thought that someday, her mother would, in fact, die.  She shook it off.  It won't happen soon,  She reassured herself, but a voice in the back of her mind that made her shudder whispered,  Anything can happen, Darkkit...

 She focused on her surroundings instead.  A bundle of old moss was laid out on the floor with some soft downy feathers and wool from the moor.  Some tough straw gave a rough outline of the nest.  A couple of wood and stone trinkets were displayed on a natural stone shelf, accompanied by a couple of vibrantly colored snail shells and interesting leaves.  Her mother loved odd shades and colors of stone, wood, and earth, which was why she collected them.

    "You have quite the collection here, mother,"  Darkkit meowed.  

      "I do indeed, Darkkit," Flickerpelt purred.

    While Dripkit was contented herself by watching water splash onto a rose-colored leaf, Flickerpelt busied herself sorting out her newest collections.  Darkkit watched over her shoulder.  One of the items was a rather pale green rock, another a chunk of strangely colored wood, and last of all a strange looking berry that she believed was a strawberry.  According to the elders, they were frequently found in Twoleg gardens, and occasionally in the wild.  Flickerpelt was aware that Darkkit was watching her, and began explaining each one.  She started with the strawberry.

"This is, as you probably already know, a strawberry," She elucidated, " I found it in a Twoleg garden."

Darkkit nodded.

"The rock," Flickerpelt nodded towards it, "is a very special rock.  It has been passed down for generations, and always to the eldest child."

Darkkit felt slightly disappointed, as she would have liked to keep the rock, but her sister was older, even if only by a few minutes.

"This wood is something you may have seen before, when we were making our way here," She placed a paw on the white wood with black stripes, "It is birch.  Not much of it grows around camp, though.  I keep a chunk here because I like the way it looks, and during fires..."  She shuddered.

Remotely confused, Darkkit watched her mother awkwardly.  What she did know was that her mother had horrible memory linked to fire.

Flickerpelt shook her head as if to shake off the memories.  Darkkit chose to ignore her mother's strange behavior.  

    "Kits!  It's time to go now!"  She meowed somewhat urgently.  Dripkit wore a bemused expression as she padded after her mother.  Darkkit wondered what had happened to her mother's usually exuberant mood.  They made their way back to the camp in silence.