Echo: The Kits Take A Stand

Chapter 4

When the sun had lowered itself below the sea, the kits, along with Sunpaw and Leafpaw, were at the edge of camp. Because of so many warriors being sick, there wasn't any cat guarding camp.

"Are you ready to step over the camp borderline?" Sunpaw looked back at the kits.

"Yes!" cried the kits.
"Shh!" Leafpaw hissed sharply. The kits silenced themselves. Sunpaw stepped one paw over the camp border. Then another. Leafpaw followed. The apprentices slowly stepped a few mouse-lengths into PondClan's hunting grounds. Once both apprentices had crossed, Sunpaw turned back to the kits and whispered, "Go!" the kits leaped over the border without making a sound. They followed Sunpaw and Leafpaw a bit farther into the marshy forest.

"We should start with defense moves," Leafpaw meowed. Sunpaw nodded in agreement.

"Here's a good one. Roll under your opponents belly," Sunpaw told them. In response, Rockkit leaped at Falconkit, who rolled under his brother's belly. Or, at least he tried to.Falconkit wasn't tall enough for Rockkit to roll under.

"They're too small for that move," Leafpaw looked at Sunpaw. "What defense moves can we teach them that they can do despite their size?"

"Hmmmm..." Sunpaw wondered for several minutes straight. At last, she let out a sigh and said, "I think we can't teach them fighting when they're this small. We should start out with hunting and next moon we'll teach them how to fight. It will definitely help the Clan if we have extra prey!"

The kits groaned. "I want to learn how to fight! Hunting is boring!" complained Nightkit.

"Hunting is much more important than fighting. Plus, the Clan really needs extra prey right now. The needs of the Clan come first," Leafpaw meowed sternly.

"We'll start with fishing," Sunpaw mewed. She led the kits to a deep pond.

"This is what PondClan is known for. We have these deep ponds all over the territory that are great for fishing, swimming, and cleaning! Fish isn't our main source of prey though. We also hunt in the trees. We can't survive on just fish. Our Clan is too big. Anyways, fishing is a lot easier than having to chase and stalk prey. The fish can't hear you-but they can see your paws in the water, so you have to catch them by surprise. Ready?" Sunpaw leaped into the pond and dove under the water. She came out holding a fish.

"Fun! I want to try!" shouted Swiftkit. He leaped into the water like Sunpaw. He splashed and made little kit-like waves, trying to keep himself afloat.

"Help! I'm drowning!" he cried. Leafpaw jumped in and saved the black and white kit without any trouble.

"Sunpaw, they're kits! They can't swim!" Leafpaw hissed. "We need to teach them side-fishing!"

"Oh, all right," Sunpaw groaned. "Side-fishing is more complicated, you have to stick your paws in at just the right time to-" Sunpaw started, but she was cut off by Blossomkit, who stuck her paw into the water and fell in with it. Sunpaw grabbed Blossomkit by the scruff and hauled her out of the water. "Leafpaw, this is hopeless!" she meowed. "These kits need trained warriors to mentor them, not two apprentices who only trained for a moon!"

"Then we'll just train them a lot! There are 9 of them, plus us, I'm sure no enemy can defeat 11 decently-trained cats coming at them!" Leafpaw argued.

"Decently trained? We're not even decently trained, Leafpaw, how can we train some kits? We're terrible at keeping control over them! What if one of them gets hurt during training? We can't do this, Leafpaw!" Sunpaw stressed.

No! This can't happen! They can't give up on training us, or we won't become apprentices until we're 10 moons! I can't sit in the nursery for that long!