Shadows in the Night

Chapter One

"LightningClan warriors, attack!"      

Duskkit shot out of the nursery and hurtled across the clearing. His littermates, Pinekit and Silverkit scurried after him. Pinekit pounced on a red leaf, batting it with his tiny, brown paws. 

"Invaders!" Silverkit yowled. 

"Those cats are going to become crowfood!" Pinekit growled as he flexed his claws.

Duskkit leaped at a root, piercing it with his claws. Unfortunately for him, being a clumsy kit, he tripped in his landing and crashed into Webfoot, a brown and white warrior.

"Playing fight the root? When are you little kittens ever going to be able to fight real cats, instead of leaves and roots? It looks like the plant beat you on this one!" The warrior sneered. Stupid Webfoot. Duskkit ignored the insult and shook his fur out, then watched as Silverkit scanned the camp. 

"See any more StreamClan intruders?" His littermate growled, lashing her silver tail. Duskkit spotted Nightclaw padding across the camp. 

"Look, there's a StreamClan warrior trying to steal from our fresh kill pile!" Duskkit meowed, scrambling to his paws and rocketing after young warrior as she padded towards the fresh kill pile. Webfoot watched with a curt expression on his face. 

"Nightclaw, is that kit bothering you?" He growled as he stalked towards Duskkit.

"Thanks Webfoot, but he's not bothering me at all. By the way, I heard that elders need their ticks removed. Maybe you could do that?" The black she-cat replied sarcastically. Webfoot let out a low growl, whirled around and padded away, holding his head high. As Webfoot disappeared from earshot, Nightclaw turned towards Duskkit and meowed,"Kits puts him in a bad mood. He used to have some of his own, but one day, they disappeared. No one knows what happened to them."

"But what about his mate? He must have had one." Duskkit meowed, stretching his green eyes wide in fascination .

Nightclaw shrugged. "One day he just returned from hunting with a few kits in his jaws. He said that he found them buried under a pile of fox dung, but no one really knows what happened."

"Aww!" Duskkit complained. Nightclaw purred in amusement.

"If you want to know more, maybe you can go and ask the elders. I'm sure that Whitefur wouldn't mind telling you a story!"

Duskkit twitched his ears. He really didn't want to bump into grumpy Webfoot, who was supposed to be removing ticks from Whitefur's coat.

The little kit sprinted over to the other side of the clearing, before skidding to a halt. "Thanks Nightclaw!"

"Anytime, little kit." The black she-cat meowed, before turning away to finish her meal. 

"Whitefur? Are you there?" Duskkit meowed, tentatively poking his head in the elder's den before he stepped inside. Whitefur was sprawled lazily on his bed of moss in a patch of filtered sunlight. The old white tom lifted his head up, and blinked sleepily before responding.

"Oh, are you here to nip the ticks out of my fur? I think someone was supposed to do it today."

"Webfoot was supposed to do it, not me!" Duskkit retorted, sitting down next to the elder.

Whitefur's eyes lit up in amusement. "Oh, and you thought that that stubborn cat would actually do as he was told? He has quite a reputation for being sharp tongued. But he wasn't always like that." Whitefur was staring into space, as if he was trying to remember. 

"Go on, Whitefur." Duskkit meowed, and wrapped his tail over his front paws.

"Only if you check my fur for ticks," the elder meowed. "Someone has to do it."