Tomorrow's Smile

Chapter Two

Robinkit yowled in horror, and woke with a start.
Her dream had shocked her into opening her eyes for the first time. For a second, her fear was replaced with a burning desire to explore, but she barely had time to process her surroundings before a small, silver she-cat desperately licked her.
"Robinkit? Are you okay?" She mewed, inbetween licks.
Robinkit knew that voice. It sounded so familiar. It was the soothing voice of her mother that she heard everyday.

Her dream now a distant memory, Robinkit purred in delight at seeing her mother. She looked around her, staring out of the sheltered rocks of the nursery. Dozens of cats lay in the camp, sharing tongues. A few cats stood on patrol, and a late night hunting party had just returned with more fresh-kill. Her eyes shone as she realised she too, would be part of this.

Night Passed

Robinkit was up early, begging Songkit and Littlekit to show her some fighting moves. She listened, concentrating on Nightfeather's swishing tail. She knew that Nightfeather, being a stubborn and grumpy senior warrior, would not approve of her stalking his tail.
So why did she want to do it anyway?
Creeping forward, Robinkit put one paw slowly infront of the other, until she was a fox tail away from Nightfeather. She then took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pounced.

"Oof—"
Nightfeather turned around in surprise to see Robinkit lying face first in the grass, millimetres away from where he had just been sitting.
Robinkit sat up and rubbed the dirt off her face. It was just her luck that Nightfeather had moved just as she pounced. She backed away into the nursery, too embarrassed to admit what she had tried to do.
Silverkit walked in, snickering. He had seen Robinkit miss at Nightfeather's tail.
"Robinkit, honoured for her... clumsiness" he taunted, pretending it was her warrior ceremony.
Clearly, the topic of ceremony's excited him. His tail shot up, and Robinkit grunted and she realised what he was going to say.
"Only a quarter moon until I turn 6 moons!" he exclaimed. "I wonder who my mentor will be... there's only three warriors available to have an apprentice, but Streamtail is too young to be a mentor." Silverkit walked away, forgetting about Robinkit.

The clan was low on warriors. A battle against a group of badgers nesting near camp had taken too many lives. Streamtail was made a warrior at only nine moons to keep the clan going. Luckily, there are many apprentices and kits in the clan, but not enough warriors to mentor them all.