Island Territory: Lost Stars (Warrior Cats)

Chapter 11

Photo up there is Treestar

Sweetkit refused any prey, any attention, and any visitors for five days. Icekit desperately tried to motivate her, and give her at least a bite of prey, but nothing worked.
Icekit was devastated to hear about her sister, the energetic bloom of sunshine, the courageous kit, to be a lazy, fat kittypet.
News soon spread fast, since Dapplefang told nearly everyone. Crystalpelt wasn't faring any better, and Icekit's great destiny seemed to collapse in front of her.
Snowkit stopped going to the medicine den, instead trying her best to keep Sweetkit company.
Nearly all her clanmates started to gossip about the news, warriors and elders casting unfriendly looks to Sweetkit.
Some had even said, "We're turning into a kittypet clan," or, "is Crystalpelt really that loyal?"
Icekit couldn't bear it. She had kittypet blood herself, but she couldn't imagine what it would feel like, if she knew both her parents were kittypets.
In her opinion, Sweetkit was nothing like that kittypet they saw, when they went through the forest.
Icekit did everything she could. She bit back protests, stood up against anyone who trash talked about Sweetkit, and, had lost all her respect towards Dapplefang.
Riverkit and Longkit now had something else to taunt Icekit and her littermates with. It was absolutely terrible.
Everywhere she went, it seemed as though taunts and rude words followed closely behind. Spottedheart was torn apart. He had never known his kit was a kittypet, but loved her no matter what.
Sometimes he was caught bringing special prey to Sweetkit, staying with her all night long and much, much more.
Although it was terribly difficult to believe that Sweetkit wasn't really her sister anymore.
No, Sweetkit is my sister. She always will be, even if not by blood. Icekit thought desperately. She self-consciously slammed her paw on the dusty ground where she was sitting at.
Longkit drowsily raised his head from the piece of prey he had at his paws. "Stop acting like a kittypet." he grunted, and turned back to munching on his prey.
Icekit couldn't stop her loud hiss from escaping her mouth. Kittypet... Icekit hated that word.
"Say that again." Icekit dared, her hiss sounding through the small clearing. Longkit stopped staring at his prey, and slowly turned his head towards her.
"Maybe I will." he spat, and stood up, his back arching dangerously. Icekit almost instantly regretted it, for Longkit was nearly twice her size, and had twice the amount of strength she could muster.
But Icekit didn't hesitate. Although she was vaguely aware of the many warriors nearby, ready to catch a fight in action.
Icekit leaped out at Longkit, who darted away easily. Icekit took a feeble step forwards, ready to turn and face Longkit, but he had already whipped around, and soon Icekit felt herself falling to the ground, heavy paws striking from behind.
A small bolt of fear ran through her pelt, Icekit picturing her falling on all four paws, but was soon covered up with anger, and Swiftwind's teachings came back to her.
"Don't focus on the battle in your head, focus on the one you are currently in." Icekit sharpened her gaze that swept the ground. Before she could hit the ground, she whisked her tail to balance, and stretched out her paws to combat the force.
Her legs splayed out in the air, and she focused right until she could feel Longkit's presence close by, and her legs kicked out, feeling fur meet fur.
Icekit whipped around, ready to go offensive, before noticing there was no need. Longkit skidded across the ground, and wobbled unsteadily, before spitting and stalking away.
What a wonderful way to start the morning. Icekit thought glumly. She could still feel Longkit's powerful paws that had her spine, which ached painfully with every pawstep.
Icekit staggered away, although not knowing where she was going to go to anyways. Sweetkit was still buried somewhere hidden around the camp, and Snowkit was still busy in the medicine den.
The clan seemed to shrink, many of them who were left, chattered on and on about some sort of battle. Everything else seemed so foggy, and far away...
"Icekit!" her eyes dared to open, noticing she was lying in front of the prey pile. Silverpaw stood in front of her, smiling encouragingly.
"If you'd stop pretending to be a piece of prey, I could tell you about that gathering?" Silverpaw joked, nudging Icekit with a paw.
Icekit grunted and rolled over, her head lolling to one side. Silverpaw narrowed her eyes, worry flashing briefly at her glance.
"Oh, come on." She said, her voice dampening. "Tell you what, I'm telling you either way. Whether you like it or not."
Icekit snorted, and shoved her face into the dirt. She grudgingly slapped her ears shut, but Silverpaw's rambling voice was still faintly heard.
"Well," Silverpaw started, as if she was going to be talking for a long time. "We were just walking along, passing the training grounds, before an owl swooped by, and made this ridiculous loud noise..."
"Seedpaw immediately jumped up, and I swear, it looked as if he thought the owl was going to eat him!" Silverpaw giggled at her own joke.
"And when we went to the gathering, we saw this huge mound of cats! And it wasn't even all the cats in each clan, because surely some of them must be left behind, right?"
Icekit was close to answering, before Sweetkit's small lesson on rhetorical questions flashed through her head.
"And, I saw Applepaw! Oh, I didn't tell you about her, right? Well, she had this cool tortoiseshell pattern, because she was in Moonclan, y'know? That was a thing, but she showed me the coolest move! You do this flip, and..."
Icekit felt heavy paws tread painfully on her tail, which caused her to leap back up in alarm. Silverpaw, surprise, took a step back and had the funniest look on her face. Icekit had to clamp down on her tongue not to laugh.
"Oh! Sorry, did I do that?" Silverpaw fretted, her own tail wagging in frustrated, anxious loops.'
Icekit purred acceptingly, and laid back down. But in her mind, she never thought anyone could use that many rhetorical questions in a conversation.
"Ah, well, continuing on..." Silverpaw trailed on, fur bristling. "My old friend, Frondpaw, from Fireclan, became a warrior just recently! Her name's Frondwhisker now, and she's been bragging about all her adventures to everyone."
Icekit couldn't help but hearing about Silverpaw's stories. Sometimes they would be quite interesting, even if they were interesting at the wrong times.
Silverpaw stood up, as if ready to say something important, and rambled on. "And, then we saw this huge black tom, strut onto the leader's rock. His fur was so messy though, we thought he was a rouge!"
"And then Treestar was all like," Silverpaw's voice went up high and mockingly. " 'Northfur? What are you doing up there?', ' It's Northstar now.' "
Icekit stomped on her tail to stifle giggles daring to leave her mouth. Silverpaw's imitations were nearly spot on, or so she thought. She had never seen Northstar himself, but she was pretty sure Silverpaw was accurate enough.
"Alright, alright. I get it, Silverpaw." Icekit complained sarcastically. Silverpaw shot her an offended look, but a teasing light shone through her eyes.
"I'm going to go check on Sweetkit to see if she's wandered off again, so if you'll excuse me..." Icekit siad daintily, slowly getting up and on her toes.
Silverpaw nodded and scurried away, tail raised high as if she had won a very tiring battle.
Which reminded Icekit; she hadn't seen Sweetkit all day. She had only been joking at first...
Icekit sniffed the air, nose raised high in the sky, trying to scent for Sweetkit like she had seen many warriors do.
Small pawstep thumps echoed from behind her. She whipped around, expecting Sweetkit there, but instead, came face to face with Swiftwind.
"What are you doing here?" Icekit asked, trying to hide the surprise in her voice. Swiftwind looked rather messy, clumps of fur stuck together here and there along his pelt.
Swiftwind smiled kindly, and his tail flicked cooly behind him. "To help you out. If your really trying to scent the air, that is."
Icekit hoped he wasn't too focused on her, for she was a bit flustered by then. "Am I... doing it right?" she managed to choke out, trying to right her voice to be as cool as Swiftwind's was.
Swiftwind purred. "Can you scent anything?" he asked. Icekit stuck her head back up, trying to stretch as high as she could to reach the scents in the air.
"No..." Icekit murmured, once she had set her head back down. Swiftwind's low purr rumbled calmly. "That's because you're energy is just focused on trying to raise your head high enough. Not all scents are all up there. Try some more sniffing rather then stretching."
Icekit let out a small mew of embarrassment. She must have looked rather silly back there, sticking her nose in the air.
"Ok, uh..." Icekit lifted her head high again, but focused intently on sniffing. Her nose whisked up lots of scents, and she dug through them, trying to find Sweetkit's.
There! Just the slightest whiff showed Icekit where she was before. All she had to do was follow it. Seemed easy enough.
"Thanks!" Icekit chirped, and dashed away, poking her nose in most anything she could find.
Little by little, she started to find a path, and get used to the strangeness of how to scent for things.
Sweetkit's scent was sharp and tangy, so it wasn't that hard to find her trail. Icekit dashed around, slowly watching her pawsteps as she had bumped into Foxfoot a little earlier.
Sweetkit's scent suddenly grew stronger and stronger, and Icekit's confidence stayed strong, as she marched on.
Icekit gave a little skip of excitement when an image of her daring adventures as a warrior crossed her mind.
Soon, her little jog came to a run, and found herself quickly, in front of the nursery. Icekit tilted her head in confusion. Sweetkit wasn't there; she was there just recently, and no sign of her.
Icekit's heart jumped in excitement and worry. She quickly trotted inside. No sign of Sweetkit, and luckily, neither Longkit or Riverkit.
Icekit quickly passed around Holloweyes, sleeping, and her chest thumped painfully as the scent grew strong, and stronger.
She leaped around their den, nose raised high, and padded further, and further into the nursery.
Leaves shuddered at her paws, as she reached the end of the nursery. Icekit mewed in confusion, for the scent seemed to keep going on.
But then, a slight difference in the den wall, that was what got her attention. Icekit padded closer...
She soon realized, that at the very end of the wall, the small little bottom part; it wasn't actually the fronds that made up the den walls.
It was instead, a small pile of twigs and leaves, messily covering up... Icekit slowly moved the vegetation aside, revealing a small unpatched hole, just big enough for a kit to fit through...
Icekit cautiously sniffed the messy leaf covering. She hoped it was just the wind, blowing that aside in the way of the hole, exiting right out of the camp...
But to her dismay, Sweetkit's scent stood strong. This wasn't moved here by accident, it was removed quite recently...
Icekit's heart seemed to drop down. This had confirmed her worst fears.
Sweetkit was out there, in unknown territory.
And she had no idea where she was.