Dark Skies- Book #2 in Sunrise

                                                                                               Chapter 3
Today was the day Jadekit could leave the nursery, and now she followed Drizzlekit and Cloudkit, who was trotting around like he was the Clan leader. A jet black tom padded up to them, a smile on his face. Jadekit stopped sniffing the fresh-kill pile and looked at him. "Hello, I'm Ravenstar." He said, dipping his head. Drizzlekit tensed. "You must be Cloudkit." He said happily as he looked at Cloudkit's fluffy white pelt. "And you-" Jadekit didn't like being stared at, and she squirmed under his gaze. "Jadekit," his gaze traveled to Drizzlekit. "And I've already met Deathkit."

He seemed reluctant to call him Deathkit. But here he is, calling my brother Deathkit. Drizzlekit tensed, but he held his gaze with Ravenstar. "You'll get used to it." He called over his shoulder, and at that moment Jadekit decided that she wouldn't like him. Drizzlekit puffed out his fur the moment Ravenstar turned his back, glaring at the back of his head. "Ravenstar will like me once I chew WindClan's ears off, and pummel those shady ShadowClan cats until their heads fall off, and chase those RiverClan cats until their legs fall off!" Drizzlekit began laughing mechanically, and several cats turned to see if he was okay.

Jadekit couldn't help but laughing, too, imagining Drizzlekit trying to gnaw the WindClan leaders' ears off , the leader trying to shake him off as he hung on by their ear. Soon Cloudkit was rolling over laughing. Hawkkit scowled at them from the warriors den. "Hunting patrols will include Starlight, Yellowstone, Bristlefur, and myself." Flipnose announced, and Jadekit wished she could go with them, too. Sparkkit padded over to them as fast as she could, her tail sticking up. "What's so funny?" She asked. Cloudkit gasped for breath. "Deathkit.... wants.... to WindClans.....ears off!" He fell back over laughing. Jadekit sat up, she needed to stay cool.

"Deathkit?" Sparkkit asked, her eyebrows knit together. Drizzlekit sat up now, his expression serious. "Yeah, Ravenstar named me that, but you can call me Drizzlekit. That's what my mom wanted to name me." As Drizzlekit explained, Sparkkit's expression turned to concerned. "That's horrible! I will call you Drizzlekit. But," She hunched down. "Around Ravenstar, I'll have to call you Deathkit." Then Sparkkit left, returning to her littermates.

Frostfang stood outside the nursery. "Feeding time!" She yowled, and her kits came scrambling back. "That means us, too, I guess." Cloudkit mumbled, but Jadekit stayed where she was. "I know. But I think it's about time to try fresh kill." It was a bizarre sight to see Jadekit drag a squirrel from the fresh-kill pile almost as big as she was, and she hauled it into the nursery. "Let's share." Jadekit said, dropping the squirrel inside the den. Drizzlekit hesitantly bit into it and chewed, his eyes lighting up. "Mmmmm..." He closed his eyes, savoring his tiny mouthful.

Cloudkit and Jadekit had both had their own mouthful, too, before Frostfang lifted her head and realized what they were doing. "What are you doing? Eating prey?" Goldenkit, Clearkit, Hawkkit, and Sparkkit all scrambled away from their mother, eager to try the squirrel. Frostfang sat up, clearly puzzled of where Jadekit had gotten the idea of eating fresh-kill before she suggested it. Clearkit was snagging mouthful after mouthful from the squirrel, chewing slowly but steadily. "At this age, you don't need prey, you need milk. If you want to grow up to be strong." She was clearly tired and her face relaxed with relief as Hawkkit came scrambling back. "I only wanted a bite because Sparkkit tried it." He whined, and Sparkkit stopped chewing.

Eventually, they were forced into having milk instead of prey, and Frostfang went on about how great it was that they enjoyed prey, because they'll be hunting and living off of it for the rest of their lives, but right now, they needed milk for nutrition. Jadekit had tuned her out after a while, apparently it was one of her habits. Jadekit padded out of the den, looking to meet another warrior. One of them will be my mentor one day. She thought, and she wanted to know how to please them.