Sandclan's Destiny Book 3: Blackout

Chapter 1: New Family

At Bigstar's white belly lay three kits, fast asleep against her warmth. The three bundles were soft, small, and they purred gently. One was a dusty brown, another ginger, and the last a brilliant white.

The camp itself was just as calm as Bigstar. As the SandClan tradition has it, the afternoon was filled with tranquility. Cats sat sharing prey, chatting with one another about patrols they attended earlier, while others napped in the grass or played moss-ball. As the sun cast a pink light on the horizon, the world slowly fell asleep.

As the night coated the camp in blackness, a calm wind stirred the leaves of the trees surrounding the territory. For once, the Land almost seemed cradled in peace.

*~*~*

Firesong opened her eyes to the morning light filtering its way into the warrior's den. She gave a mighty yawn, and saw she was one of the only few still in the den. She sighed and padded into the clearing, making her way to the fresh-kill pile and choosing a plump robin from among the rest. She found a place to sit, and bit into it, the juices running through her mouth. A tom approached from the edge of her vision and sat down besides her. "I cannot believe Bigstar has more kits.." Firesong swallowed then spoke to the visitor.

"I know." He blinked his amber optics over at the three kits, playing quietly in the morning sunlight. "We should meet them. They are our kin, after all." He stood up, his white and black pelt layered neatly as if recently groomed.

"Come on, then, Rockshade!" She bounded over, dodging sunning cats, and ducked into the nursery. She meowed a greeting to the kits and Bigstar, and as Rockshade entered, introduced him to them.

"You're.. You're like older littermates!?" The ginger tabby she-cat breathed in astonishment. "Whoa. You look like me!" She gestured to Firesong. They did look similar, only Autumnkit had the body shape of Rockshade and Firesong combined, sinew yet shorter and longer, and her pelt wasn't nearly as dark a red.

"No." Firesong purred, "you look like me."

"No." Autumnkit snorted, "That's impossible!" She threw her head upwards in disgust.

Bigstar purred from her laying position. She slowly got up to her long legs, shaking leaves from her fur. She yawned and stretched and twirled her tail, "I am going for a walk. Watch the kits for me?" As Rockshade and Firesong nodded, she exited the den.

"Anyway.. can you teach us the hunting crouch?" The brown she-cat asked. She had the body build of Firesong and the pelt of their father.

Rockshade got into the hunting crouch, his tail waving a little, "Like this, see?"

Autumnkit got into some sort of battle stance while Dustkit did her best to manipulate her older kin's position, doing so nearly perfectly. "Good!" Rockshade praised the both. "Now, see if you can leap..."

Firesong looked over to the white tom, sitting there hunched. His glazed eyes were fixated ahead of him, on nothing. "Why aren't you practicing?" She asked him.

"I'm blind." The despondent tom answered, "I can't see!"

He's like Rockshade! Same appearance, only without the eyes and the black patches. He's even grumpy like him.. or grumpy like how he used to be. "Oh.." She responded, not knowing what to do.

She turned around just in time to see Autumnkit leap. She soared in the air, looking much like a BirdClanner, in fact. Firesong was impressed, but as the kit turned downwards she tumbled in the air. She scraped her face against the grass as she landed. She lifted herself up, her muzzle newly patterned with cuts. "I did it!"

"You sure did..." Dustkit smirked.

"And I caught a leaf." A voice sounded behind them. They turned to see Icekit clutching a leaf that he had plucked off a bush.

"You did not!" Dustkit rushed forward, the wind causing the leaf to escape Icekit's paw.

"Did too."

"Not!"

"My kits, rest. The warriors will be out soon to go on patrols, you might get stampeded." Bigstar returned to the den, a squirrel dangling from her jaws. She sat down to face the group, sitting against a tree's trunk. Her tail flicked.

"This clan sure is growing.." Rockshade murmured.

"Yeah.I think everything's going to be fine..." She breathed as she watched her kits tumble away to play with one another, piling on top of Icekit who growled playfully.

Rockshade leaned in to whisper, "I heard Blackeye might be expecting kits soon. Or planning to." His gaze flickered from Firesong to Bigstar, "I really hope so. The more kits the better, right?"

Bigstar nodded and Firesong mentally agreed. The two continued discussing things until a padding of paws sounded near them and a voice pleaded, "Can we train?" Rockshade looked back to see his dark coloured apprentice. Her wide molten amber optics were even wider as she stared up into her mentor's own amber eyes. "Please? Yesterday you made me collect moss! Collect moss. That's not proper training, even Cloudpaw is already into battling, he even had a spar wi-"

"Fine, fine. You want to fight, I can give you a fight." Rockshade purred. "See you later, Firesong." He then departed, his apprentice running after him close to his heels, almost taller than him, and jumping excitedly around him as they left.

Firesong sighed. She left the nursery, giving a single glance back at Bigstar who was dozing off with her kits jumping around her paws. She stood in the middle of the SandClan camp's clearing, beginning to stretch.

"How's your own apprentice?" Stormtail trotted up besides her. His stormy optics looked out into the distance at a small white tom. "Mine is doing fine. I told him to fetch me some prey. W-What?" He asked as he saw her look, "He likes doing it. He's full of energy. I swear, he'd go a straight moon of training if he wanted to."

"Juniperpaw is doing well." She answered, tail lashing. Where is she? Firesong looked around for her and beckoned Stormtail to follow as she began to wander from him. "Speaking of...?" She searched until she saw her pelt, so similar to Berryclaw's near the apprentice den. She was sunning. Firesong approached her and lay a tail on her shoulder. The young apprentice bounced up, squeaking in delight.

"Here's your prey, Stormtail my mentor!" Cloudpaw dropped a mighty large mouse in front of him.

"Thanks! Want to train? We can train with Juniperpaw and Firesong, how do you like that? We can all hunt. Want to, Firesong?" He glanced over at his companion.

"Sure." She responded happily, "Let's go!"