Warriors: Your Destiny

Chapter 5

-Few moons before present time-

Dapplestone inspected her kill, a vole, and the picked it up in her teeth. It was a large vole, which was a bit more showy, considering her audience.

Two tiny kits hid in the brush behind their mother. They watched in wide eyed amazement at the large rodent Dapplestone had caught.

"Do you see, little ones? It's all about the element of surprise," Dapplestone spoke in a muffled voice and dropped the vole down in front of her tiny kits.

"Wow!" Her male kit, Vainkit, poked the vole with his tiny paw. Vainkit had light grey fur, and faint, darker gray markings on his forehead and back.

"Come here, Tulipkit," Dapplestone purred to her other kit, who was a pretty white color.

The female kit, Tulipkit, crept meekly over, rubbed against her mother's front legs, and examined the dead animal with distaste.

"We eat this?" Tulipkit whined, and Dapplestone sighed.

"No, not yet, my kits. But you will have to when you get bigger. I will not be able to feed you forever," Dapplestone said gently. Vainkit bent down on his front paws and wiggled his tail.

"I can't wait to hunt!" Vainkit cheered.
Dapplestone was about to say something about getting back to their camp in the clearing, where their Clan was gathered, when a loud voice sounded to the east. It was laughter. Twoleg laughter was coming from the clearing. Dapplestone froze in shock and began to remember the horrible injuries they afflicted on her in the past.

"Momma, what was that?" Tulipkit squeaked and hid under her mother.
Dapplestone picked Vainkit and Tulipkit up by their scruff and ran toward the clearing as quickly as she could. The voices were becoming clearer, and the words the humans said chilled her blood.

"Stupid, mangy cats," a young, male, human voice spoke cruelly. Strange bangs where coming from the forest as well, and as she came closer, fellow cats ran past her, away from the camp, carrying kits and food.

Dapplestone found a secluded patch of wild flowers near the edge of the camp and put them down.

"Listen to me," she said sternly, "you are not to move from this spot until I return with your father. That's an order."

Vainkit and Tulipkit nodded, looking very scared. With strength Vainkit sat up and wrapped his tail around his sister protectively.

"We promise we won't get hurt," Vainkit replied before his mother bounded toward camp.

Neither of the kits had ever seen a human being before, and didn't know what to make of the strange scents and sounds. Dapplestone crept toward the camp and observed the situation from behind a log, looking for her mate anxiously.

Her mate, Thunderstar, was the leader of their clan, Skyclan. Dapplestone had never seen a more handsome tom before for his gray fur and black stripes were like no others. He was also very large for a tomcat and many moons older than she.

Twoleg boys were standing in the camp, kicking at cats and putting the nursery kits in a pillowcase.

One of the boys, a blonde with freckles and a ferret face, had a small stick that made a boom. It was a kind of Twoleg object that Dapplestone did not recognize. The stick plummeted small pebbles at the cats that sent them to the ground in pools of blood. That must have been the bangs I heard before, she thought.

And then, she saw a sight that chilled her blood. A monstrous, gray tomcat lay in the middle of the camp, unmoving. He had black markings on his back.

"Thunderstar!" Dapplestone cried out. She jumped over the log and into the clearing.

She dodged a human's hand and ran at breakneck speed to her mate.

Thunderstar had round, red wounds all over his side, and a hole where his left eye should have been. The other stared into the distance, seeing nothing. Dapplestone felt numb, and her heart kept in her chest. He should've woken with eight lives. It's been too long. He was dead.

"Momma!" A little cry made her turn.
Tulipkit had followed her, and was now in the hands of the blonde boy. He had her by the scruff of the neck, and the human was shaking her around roughly.

"No!" Dapplestone hissed and dove at the boy's legs, but the cruel human just kicked her away. Hard. She flew through the air and hit the ground, where she could do nothing but blink the red spots out of her eyes. And watch as the brute of a Twoleg manhandled her daughter.

Meanwhile, Vainkit watched the scene from the edge of the camp opposite to his mother with shocked eyes.
What are they doing to Tulipkit? He wanted to help, to stop them. But he was just a tiny kit, and his father, the biggest cat he'd ever seen, wasn't moving.

Then the boy dropped his sister on the ground. Tulipkit fell slowly, like a feather, and bounced off of the ground when she made impact. Vainkit's ears were filled with a static, and he watched in shock as the creatures ran from the clearing. He watched his mother leave his father and run to Tulipkit, who wasn't moving.

Dapplestone ran to Tulipkit, and sniffed her delicately. Her little kit's back was caved in slightly, and she was breathing very quickly. Tulipkit's heartbeat was fast as well. Too fast. Dapplestone knew what was happening, knew that Tulipkit was too far gone to save. Too broken to heal. Dapplestone watched as her daughter's breathing stopped, and her little heart quit beating.

"Momma," Vainkit whimpered, and crept over to where his mother was standing.

"Don't look, Vainkit," she growled urgently, and Vainkit froze. He saw his sister, unmoving, on the ground.

"Momma, what's wrong with Tulipkit?" Vainkit felt a lump in his throat, and an itch in his eyes. His stomach dropped.
Dapplestone looked at Vainkit and padded over to him.

"Your sister is dead, Vainkit," Dapplestone said as calmly as she could. She had to be steadfast and strong for them both. Grief would not help either of them.

"D-Dead?" Vainkit shivered, and looked at the ground. He didn't know what to do.

"Yes, Vainkit. The Two Legs killed her," Dapplestone wished she could lie, tell him everything was alright.

"W-Why were they here, Momma?" Vainkit closed his eyes and didn't move.

"They were looking for their Kittypets."

Vainkit looked up at his mother. She looked down at him. There was an unsaid agreement between them. An agreement of silence. Vainkit was too young to fully understand what was happening, but knew that they both had to be strong. For each other.

"We have to leave, Vainkit," Dapplestone picked Vainkit up by his scruff and carried him out of the camp and into the forest.

------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading, voting and commenting.

This chapter was written by my good friend CeRosette whose cats are Vain and Dapplestone in this story.