The Outcasts

02

      Tallkit leaped up, hitting the moss hanging from the roof. "Tallkit! Stop it! We're trying to fix the nursery, we don't need you messing up our work." Snakepaw growled. But Tallkit ignored him. "You're only eight moons, two moons older than me. Don't act all superior because you're an apprentice, either, because I'm becoming one today!" Tallkit growled. "Oh yeah? Show me a hunter's crouch then!" Snakepaw challenged.

      Tallkit dropped low, keeping his hindquarters still as he flattened his head by his paws. He crept forward slowly, his green gaze fixed on a scrap of moss. He took a quiet deep breath, completely still as he focused and quickly planned out how he could jump and land perfectly. He then hopped up, pinning the scrap with his paws and scooping it up with a claw. "This represents a mouse," He mewed matter-of-factly.

      Snakepaw looked surprised. "That... That was a perfect crouch." He blinked. "Of course it was! It's Tallkit you're talking about." Smokekit padded up and puffed out her chest. Tallkit purred and mouthed a quick thanks to her as Snakepaw looked at them in astonishment. "Well... I welcome you to the den, Tallpaw..." Snakepaw murmured, returning to his work. "Yes! Now that Snakepaw wants me to be an apprentice, I just have to convince the others!" Tallkit purred.

      "You can do that pretty easily," Smokekit pointed out, "You're easy to like. You're just likable." The gray kit licked his ear. "Thanks, but that's just your opinion." Tallkit stated. "I still don't understand why you want to impress the older apprentices so much," Smokekit blinked. "Well, Soulheart says Mousekit might stay here for a while, so I've got to make friends in the new den so I won't be alone, right?" Tallkit mewed. "Well, yeah, but-" Smokekit was cut off by the tom, "And the best way to make friends is by impressing them!" Tallkit finished.

      "I don't think so." Smokekit shifted her paws. "I mean, of course it can work, but it just makes your denmates jealous of you if you're better than them." She mewed quickly. "Hah!" Tallkit began, "Who dares to be jealous of me? I'll rip their fur off!" He laughed mischievously. "I sure hope not..." Smokekit muttered, "That could get you exiled for attacking your own Clanmate..." Luckily, Tallkit didn't seem to hear her.

      Flowerfoot padded into the nursery. "What are you two mewling about, so early?" She asked, settling into her nest. "We were just talking about how I'm being apprenticed soon," Tallkit answered. "What about you, why were you out?" He asked the queen. "I went hunting for the first time since I joined you here in the nursery," She purred, and Poppypetal gasped beside her, her kits squealing with surprise at the sudden movement. Darkkit charged away from Poppypetal's nest and crashed into Flowerfoot.

      "What did the hunt feel like?" Poppypetal giggled. "Amazing!" Flowerfoot began telling her denmate about her catch, which was just a scrawny mouse, but Tallkit supposed it was still exciting for a queen who hadn't hunted in moons. "When I'm a warrior," Tallkit leaned in beside Smokekit to whisper in her ear, "I'll be catching hawks." He boasted quietly, enjoying Smokekit's gasp of surprise.

      "Tallkit!" Swiftclaw bounded into the nursery, dipping his head in greeting to the queens. "Come on, we're going to go do some battle practice." Swiftclaw purred. Flowerfoot and Poppypetal stopped talking, glancing at each other with clouded expressions. They didn't seem to think battle training before becoming a 'paw was a very good idea, but Tallkit enjoyed it, so he followed his father happily without a goodbye to Smokekit.

      "Okay," Swiftclaw meowed once they entered the nursery's training den filled with moss obstacles that Tallkit had already mastered (though still did and tried not to show off when Mousekit failed at each one). "Try attacking me." Swiftclaw ordered. Tallkit instantly dropped into a hunter's crouch, backing up then slowly padding forward as if he were hunting a mouse. He then, when he thought he was close enough, leaped for Swiftclaw's chest.

      Swiftclaw shifted to the side, making Tallkit fall on his face. Tallkit instantly got up, rubbing his nose with a paw. "Try aiming for somewhere, but going somewhere else. It confuses your opponent, and your moves aren't predictable enough to dodge." Swiftclaw advised. Tallkit backed up again, dropping into the hunters crouch. He lunged for his father's face, then twisted in the air and fell down, but instantly swerved for Swiftclaw's belly and hit it with his paw.

      "Better!" Swiftclaw grinned, "But you should really try attacking without the hunter's crouch." He mewed. "I think it looks cool!" Tallkit objected, but Swiftclaw put his paw on his son's mouth. "Maybe you can try it when you're a warrior." Swiftclaw mewed simply. Tallkit narrowed his eyes, dipping his head to his father as anger bloomed in his belly like a flower in new-leaf.

      Just you wait, Tallkit held back a growl, I'll be leader in no time. Then everyone will be doing the hunter's crouch before attacking! That'll show you, He thought angrily.

      Tallkit's battle training went on for hours until nightfall appeared in the camp, and Tallkit realized with a sigh that he wasn't being apprenticed.

      Soulheart returned from a border patrol, curling back into her nest in the nursery with Mousekit rested on her belly already. Tallkit padded into the moss and nudged himself between his mother's front paws, resting his head against her neck and rythmically slowed his breath to fit hers.

      "Mom?" Tallkit whispered. "What, Tallkit?" Soulheart yawned. "Will Mousekit be apprenticed soon?" Tallkit asked quietly. "I don't know, Tallkit..." Soulheart murmured softly.

      Tallkit frowned and closed his eyes, falling into the darkness of sleep with nothing unusual appearing to him. He simply dreamed that he was hunting a mouse. No prophecy came to him that night, for Tallkit's destiny was much different than Mousekit's.