Riverstone's Betrayal

One

Riverkit yawned as she awoke to sunlight filtering through the trees. She could feel the warmth of her mother beside her, her long fur a great comfort to the tiny ginger she-kit. Riverkit stretched almost imperceptibly, her tiny back muscles tensing and releasing, and she pushed to a sitting position, yawning. At the shift of her small form, a pair of calm emerald eyes opened wearily.
"Good morning, love," Pigeonwhisper purred as her only kit woke.
"Good morning, mom." Riverkit yawned. She switched her gaze to her mother, a pretty cream-colored she-cat whose grey-tipped tail was wrapped protectively around her kit.
"You should get up," Pigeonwhisper told Riverkit. "Viperkit's been looking for you."
"He has?"
"Of course he has," Pigeonwhisper meowed. "Viperkit's always looking for you."
Riverkit stood up, stepping over Pigeonwhisper's tail, and burst out of the den. She quickly spotted the tabby tom, sulfur-colored eyes searching for her, and she ran towards him.
"Oof!"
Riverkit slammed into a blue-grey leg. As she looked up, she saw a she-cat's amused jasper eyes glimmering down at her.
"Whoops," Riverkit mewed quickly. "Sorry, Lakegleam!"
"It's fine, Riverkit," Lakegleam purred. "I didn't see you coming."
"I didn't either," Riverkit muttered, nerves getting the best of her.
Lakegleam quickly picked up on the kit's nervous expression. "Look on the bright side," she meowed jokingly. "At least you didn't run into Mambafang."
"I heard that!" Mambafang, a cream-colored tom, called from his tree-branch perch.
Riverkit laughed; every cat in every Clan knew Mambafang. The tomcat was so grouchy that sometimes he'd shout in volumes that Riverkit was almost certain that every Clan cat could hear.
"HA! We know, Mambafang." Lakegleam called, giggling. "Can you blame me, though?"
Mambafang's only response was a murderous glare.
"Great StarClan, if looks could kill," Riverkit whispered.
"If looks could kill, Mambafang would be the only cat left alive, and then the only cat he could be grumpy to would be himself," Lakegleam muttered to the kit, eyes sparkling with amusement. "Now go on, Riverkit."
Riverkit laughed and scampered off, heading for Viperkit once more. Viperkit was facing away from her, his yellow gaze darting around the medicine den where Riverkit sometimes hung around. Riverkit lowered herself to where her belly brushed the ground, positioning herself in the best hunting crouch she could, and crept toward her target. Her tail barely twitched behind her.
"HAH!" Riverkit cried, leaping towards Viperkit. The tomkit she was after whipped around, wide-eyed, just seconds before the ginger and white she-kit slammed into him.
They rolled on the ground, batting at each other with tiny paws, until finally Viperkit realized who'd attacked him.
"Riverkit!" Viperpaw gasped. "You scared me!"
"Finally, thank StarClan!" Riverkit laughed, guffawing at Viperkit's wide-eyed expression.
"Don't do that," Viperkit whined, shoving off the heavier she-kit. "You're gonna give me a heart attack someday."
"I know," Riverkit purred. "That's the idea. Were you looking for me?"
"Yeah," Viperkit meowed, standing and beginning to groom his dusty brown pelt. "I was, actually. I've been soooo bored all day, and there's a lot of hiding places around here..."
"You don't need to tell me twice," Riverkit meowed, grinning. "Who's gonna seek first?"

-

Nightpaw grinned like a maniac as he trailed behind his mentor, exploring the territory for the first time. He had just become an apprentice yesterday, and he was giddy to finally be out and about with full permission, if with an older cat.
Ahead of him, Bayfoot was turning, heading for a small area bordering the edge of the wood. "When we get to the Twoleg nests, you'll want to watch out. Their nests are bordered by an invisible wall. You'll want to make sure not to pass it, because an alarm will sound, and we don't need our medicine cat dealing with an oblivious apprentice that ended up with a sharp Twoleg thing in their back because they passed the border."
As Bayfoot turned east, Nightpaw caught up. "How close to the nests are the borders?"
"About five fox-lengths out," Bayfoot answered. "Careful you don't step over."
"I will be!" Nightpaw insisted. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Nightpaw," Bayfoot meowed, a glint in his eye. "knowing you, you'd cross the border so you could see what you could dodge getting thrown at you, like a show-off."
"I'm not a show-off!"
"Try me," Bayfoot joked. "I've seen you showing off to Pythonpaw constantly."
"Pythonpaw told me I needed to practice my skills," Nightpaw retorted, whiskers twitching as he played along.
"Right. Nevermind that you're only a moon behind- watch out, Nightpaw." Bayfoot threw his tail in front of the apprentice, stopping him short. "This is the border."
Nightpaw looked up as Bayfoot spoke, gazing at the nests ahead. They looked like long nests, all white-walled and intimidating, but as he looked closer he noticed the nests weren't long, but they were actually multiple nests merged together. Looking around, Nightpaw could see about twenty-five in front of him, though he could see more in the distance.
"This is amazing," Nightpaw breathed. "They're huge!"
"They're that great, are they?" Bayfoot asked, raising a brow. "Maybe you want to be a kittypet instead of a warrior?"
"No!" Nightpaw whirled to face him. "Nothing could make me give up the life of a warrior."
"Good, because all I see is a blockage where there could be more BoaClan territory." Bayfoot wrinkled his snout. "Twolegs are always taking up useful space."
"There could be more space for CobraClan, too," Nightpaw observed. With CobraClan just over the western border, they could also expand, with such a large space left behind from the removed nests. If only they were removed, Nightpaw thought.
Bayfoot wrinkled his snout again thoughtfully. "I suppose so," he mused. Nightpaw knew that the older tom was extremely loyal to his Clan - if he thought something would grow BoaClan, he'd propose it to Beechstar without a second thought. Still, he could consider the other Clans for once. Does he even care about the Cobra-Boa Alliance?
"Ready to go, Nightpaw?" Bayfoot meowed.
"Yeah," The tomcat replied.