Shaken Sky

Chapter 1

Amberkit opened her eyes to find herself in an open meadow with a hill on one side. Where am I? She wondered. A bright orange butterfly flickered past her nose. Oh, a butterfly! She chased the butterfly around the meadow and right before she was about to catch it, voices drifted down from the top of the hill. She turned to look, but saw no one. She turned back to the butterfly but found it gone. That's weird. She thought. It was right there. Again, she heard voices but she was too far away to understand what they were saying. I'm gonna find out! She thought boldly.

She bounded up the hill until she came to a bush that offered enough shelter for her to stay hidden in case the cats didn't want her to hear what they were saying. She peered out of the bush to see two cats. One was gray and white and the other was pale gray, almost white. Both were toms and as she peered closer, she could see Starlight dancing in their fur. She pricked her orange-and-black ears to listen to what they were saying.

"-What is that message, Skystar?" the gray and white cat said.

Message? What message. Amberkit thought.

The pale gray tom, Skystar, leaned in closer to the gray and white cat. He started whispering so Amberkit strained her ears as hard as she could to listen.

"You need to deliver this to Blazestar as soon as possible-"

Blazestar? This has to do with my clan leader! Amberkit thought excitedly.

"-Great change are coming; Seek the other side of the flames, for it is the only way. Say those words exactly, Cloudstar. Blazestar needs to know this." He raised his voice, "Now go, Hurry! We haven't got much time."

"And what about the kit?" Cloudstar said, pointing his gray ears toward the bush that Amberkit was hiding in.

Mouse dung! They know I'm here! Amberkit thought with a quiet whimper. It's just a dream, it's just a dream. She told herself. But if it's a dream, then why is it so real? Yep, I'm crowfood...

"I'll deal with her. Now go!"

Amberkit watched Cloudstar race off through the meadow before turning to Skystar.

"Come on out, I know you're there, little one." He said gently.

"Am I in trouble?" Amberkit squeaked.

"No, don't worry. You won't get punished. How did you get here?"

"I don't really know. I just woke up in the meadow and then I heard voices, so I followed them."

"Ah, curious, I see. And did you hear anything of what I said? Tell me the truth."

"I heard you talk about a message you were delivering to my clan leader," She whispered, "What you were saying sounded like a prophecy. Was it a prophecy, um, Skystar?"

"Indeed it was, Amberkit. But you know very well you weren't supposed to hear it yet."

"I figured." Amberkit said with a sigh.

"It's okay, you were going to hear about it eventually anyway."

"What do y-." She broke off as the sound of coughing rang in her ears. She looked up at Skystar to see if he was the one coughing but nothing was coming out of his mouth. Instead, he was suddenly becoming transparent. See could see right through him to the grass he was sitting on.

"What's happening?" She cried, trying to run toward Skystar but finding her paws weren't carrying her anywhere.

"Ow! Stop kicking me." A voice said before breaking off in a bout of coughing.

Amberkit opened her eyes to find herself back in her mother's nest in the nursery and a gray-white kit standing in front of her. "Oh, sorry Frostkit." So that was the coughing she had heard in her dream.

"Get up," Frostkit squeaked, "Blazestar's in the middle of a clan meeting!"

"Okay, okay, keep your fur on. I'm coming." Amberkit scrambled out of the nest and bounded out of the Nursery and sat next to her sister, Fernkit,. "What's this about?" Amberkit asked her wondering, Is this about the prophecy Skystar told Cloudstar to tell Blazestar?

"Parsleykit, Reedkit, and Finkit are having their apprentice ceremony." Fernkit whispered back.

"Oh, right." Duh, mouse brain, how could I forget? Amberkit turned her attention to Blazestar and the three freshly groomed kits.

"-Parsleykit, from this moment on, until you earn your warrior name, you shall be known as Parsleypaw." Blazestar was saying. He turned to a sand-colored tom, "Winwhisp, you will mentor Parsleypaw. I trust you to pass on your knowledge and skills in battle to this young tom."

"Parsleypaw! Reedpaw! Finpaw!" The whole clan chanted their names and the three newly named apprentices were glowing with pride and pleasure.

When the meeting broke up, Amberkit and her littermates went up to congratulate them. But as they were heading towards the three apprentices, Amberkit heard a soft thud and looked back to see Frostkit lying in the sand, coughing. She bounded back over to Frostkit, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," He rasped. "I'm going to go back to the nursery with Cloudmist." He got up and turned around, coughing, and stumbled toward the Nursery.

He sure doesn't sound or look okay. Amberkit thought. She shrugged and bounded back to her littermates.

"Oh, look, there's a third one." Reedpaw meowed.

"Yeah, coming to tell us how awesome we are and how you four are just puny little kits?" Finpaw sneered.

"I'm sure they were just coming to congratulate us, Finpaw. No need to brag." Parsleypaw said, quietly, but everyone ignored him.

"We're not puny! We're just as strong and great as you are!" Prinklekit yowled, his brown tail tip twitching.

"Kits, time to come inside!" Amberkit heard Cloudmist, her mother, calling them.

"Yes, that's right, kits, time to go back to the Nursery, while we go out and hunt!" Reedpaw sneered.

"Reedpaw, Parsleypaw, and Finpaw! Come here. We're going to show you how to get rid of ticks from Cherrytail's pelt." Tigerlily, Reedpaw's mentor, called.

"Fox Dung!" Reedpaw whispered.

Amberkit walked next to Fernkit on the way back to the Nursery.

"They think they're so great!" Fernkit fumed.

"Don't let it get to you. They're only three moons older than us." Amberpaw rested her tail on her sister's shoulder.

Fernkit sighed and ducked through the brambles sheltering the Nursery. Amberkit followed her through. A couple of heartbeats later, Dewfrost, her father, padded into the den and dropped a fat vole onto the sandy floor of the den. Prinklekit, Fernkit, and Amberkit bounced over to the fresh-kill and dug in hungrily. Frostkit staying in the nest and started coughing again.

"Cloudmist," Prinklekit said, looking up from the vole, "is Frostkit going to stop coughing ever again?"

"I sure hope so, Prinklekit, but he just seems to be getting worse by the heartbeat."

"No," Frostkit paused to cough, "I'm really okay."

"No you're not and in the morning, I'm going to have Fidgetfoot see what's wrong." Cloudmist said, sounding worried.

After Amberkit was done eating, she and Fernkit climbed sleepily into Cloudmist's nest and curled up together.