Warriors: The Golden Age

Chapter Four

Later, all the young cats had been invited... even Kestrelkit, who was off grounding after much begging from the apprentices and kits. Goldenpaw and Silverpaw, as well as the tom apprentices, were good at convincing the queens in a diplomatic way. After, the twelve cats assembled in the training clearing.

"All right!" Pinepaw meowed. "So here's how the game goes. We fight, with sheathed claws, of course. Like training! If we do something that would have killed an opponent in real life, then the other cat has to die, like this. Talonkit, Antkit?"

She grinned. "This is a demonstration!" The brown-and-white kit mewled before slamming Antkit to the ground and pretending to snap his neck. "If we were playing, Antsize here would be out of the game. Squished like a bug under a paw." Other cats began laughing as Antkit got up.

"We'll pretend this is StarClan." Antkit pointed with his tail, flicking it towards a rock.

"Now," Pinepaw continued, "the kits and I have played this for a long time. We know the boundaries, the edges of the clearing. Got problems? Ask me, anything since I'm sure you don't want to listen to the little kits." More laughter, although Antkit and some other kits were indignant..

"What are the teams this round, Pinepaw?" Owlkit called out. "I mean Idiot?"

Pinepaw ignored the insult on her intelligence. It was beginning to catch on that Owlkit was developing an obsession over insulting other cats' mental capacities and minds in not-so-tact ways. "Free-for-all!"

Copperpaw was about to lunge at Goldenpaw, but Falconkit held up a paw. "We have to scatter first, until we count to five. Who wants to be the counter?"

"Me!" Almost everybody was volunteering now.

"Let's just all count at the exact same pace." Suggested Antkit. "Be precise."

So the kits and apprentices sprinted away from each other, synchronizing their counts to five. When the verbal timer was up, Antkit saw that Talonkit was going for him... again. So was Pinepaw, but from a different angle. He sprinted away, but at the last moment, dropped to the ground like a stone. Talonkit tripped over him and went flying. It worked! Antkit felt triumphant for a split heartbeat, but then Pinepaw was upon him. He had no time to fight before the new apprentice dealt a pretend killing blow to the back of his neck. Antkit collapsed to the ground as if he was dead.

"Wow, first to die, how prestigious!" Antkit yelled after Pinepaw had left, and the small black kit started parading himself around the training hollow. "I'm so good at this game!" He loved to play this interesting game, even if he lost almost every time. Hey, at least I didn't get killed by the first cat who reached me this time! I managed to evade just one cat. I suppose it's a start... I'll get better soon enough.

Antkit wandered, almost coming in between Pinepaw and Cloudpaw's fight. "Go to StarClan already and stop interrupting battles, Idiot!" Owlkit yelled behind him, before pelting around him and slamming right into Cloudpaw's side.

Antkit removed himself from the scene, and mounted the rock to sit there. He kept his eyes glued on Talonkit, Owlkit, Cloudpaw, and now Copperpaw. The small brown she-cat was darting towards the white tom, who was calling for her after being pinned down by the kits. When she reached him, she was too late, since while Owlkit and Pinepaw held him down, Talonkit had come along and done the little throat-slashing move she loved to do. Copperpaw wailed in mock anguish and lunged at the kits as well as Pinepaw. Antkit gave a purr of amusement as Cloudpaw joined him on the 'StarClan' rock.

"Hey, Antsize." The white tom was huge and muscular compared to tiny Antkit. He had every right to call him Antsize, no matter how stupid the name was. "This game is great, just wanted to say. Like, look at her, she's so..." He trained his gaze on Copperpaw, trailing off as he stared.