Warrior cats: Rainstar's Choice

Chapter Three

As soon as Sunstar's long tail finished through the brush, the three kits ducked back into the nursery.

"Did you hear that!" Snakekit meowed, his paws quivering in excitement. "Sunstar's trying to steal our territory!"

Rainkit glanced away, an odd feeling in his chest. It kinda sounded like we're trying to steal their territory...

"Yeah!" Flickerkit piped up loudly, "and Ratstar told him a thing or two about messing with us!"

"I hope they wait to fight until after our apprentice ceremony!" Snakekit squeaked, "I want to send some of those rat breathes running too!"

Rainkit shuddered, If they have to fight, I sure hope they do it before are apprentice ceremony!

It wasn't that Rainkit didn't want to fight, it was just... well he didn't want to smell the acidic scent of fresh blood, hear cats screams as they ripped and tore and one another with teeth and claws. He got enough of that from his nightmare's.

"Kits?" All three young cats glanced up at the gentle voice and spun around just as a golden she-cat with mismatched eyes entered the nursery, dropping a fresh sparrow on the ground as she did so. "Ratstar told me what happened, I hope he didn't frighten you too much with such an abrupt exit?"

Snakekit giggled as their adoptive mother stooped down and licked his head gently.

"Oh don't worry Spiderwing!" He mewed, pulling away and using a forepaw to fix his messed up pelt. "We're going to be warriors soon, and warriors aren't afraid of anything! Right, Flickerkit!"

Snakekit's friend nodded in agreement, coming over to sit by the brown cat.

"Yeah, do you think Grassclan is really going to fight us?"

Snakekit cuffed him hard over an ear, but it was too late Spiderwing frowned sternly down at the kits.

"You three should be ashamed of yourselves!" She scolded, "when someone tells you to stay put, that does not mean go peek your heads outside and eavesdrop! What if there really had been something dangerous out there?"

Rainkit lowered his head, feeling his chest clench in guilt. I knew it was a bad idea, why do I always let Snakekit talk me into doing stupid things?

"Sorry," the three kits mewed abruptly in union. Spiderwing rolled her eyes, but her expression had already softened.

"Well, alright." She purred, walking over to their moss bed and pulling all the kits close to her side. "Just please try to be more careful, I don't think I could bear it if something happened to any of you!"

Rainkit smiled, snuggling deep into Spiderwing's soft flank. Letting out a soft purr as she used one paw to pull the sparrow over to them, feeling a deep burst of affection in him as he watched Flickerkit and Snakekit began ripping into it.

However he himself wasn't very hungry, he was... tired. Yes, he knew it was stupid to be tired, after all, he had just woke up! And It was dawn for crying out loud! It just felt like... like he never got any sleep anymore.

It wouldn't hurt to... Rest my eyes for a second, would it? the next thing Rainkit knew a thick blackness had covered his world.

"Snakekit!" The black and white cat yelled, trying to no avail to see through the thick fog around him. his heart was thumping wildly in his chest and he could feel the moist dirt under his paws.

"Flickerkit? Spiderwing?" He howled again, trying to walk under a dangling tree branch, flinching as a spider web caught him right across the face. He wasn't sure where he was, after all the mist made it impossible to see anything. But one thing he did know was that it was the same place he went every time he had the nerve to close his eyes.

"Anyone!" He tried, the only thing that answered him was his own soft echo. Than Rainkit felt a strange rumbling underfoot, like a pack of something huge running right toward him. With a howl of panic, he spun on his paws, desperately trying to pinpoint the noise, but it was impossible to pinpoint something that seemed to be everywhere all at once.

That was when Rainkit heard it, a low scream of pure agony. And from out of the fog stepped a familiar cat.

"Ratstar!" He cried joyfully starting to run toward his father. Pausing only when he noticed the glazed look in the leader's eyes and the way he was swaying back and forth on his paws. Rainkit swallowed, taking a step back.

"Dad?" He whispered, shivering as the huge black tom took a shaky step toward him. He smells worse than rotten crow food! Rainkit realized, his nose wrinkling as the scent engulfed him. "Dad it's me! Rainkit? Your son?" The kit cried as he watched his father continue to march woozily toward him. It's like he's not even seeing me!

That was when he saw it, standing right behind Ratstar, it's expressionless face pointed right toward him.

The terror of his dreams.

The shadow cat.

"Please!" Rainkit whimpered as his father got close enough for him to see the shadow cats tail wrapped around his throat, "let him go!"

The shadow cat didn't answer, bringing up his paw to stroke Ratstar's head, the way a twoleg strokes a Kittypet.

Rainkit shuddered the fur shooting up on his shoulders.

"Let him go! He's not yours!" He hissed, the shadow cat just let out a strange gurgling purr in the back of his throat. Ratstar jerked his head up, his foggy eyes meeting his sons. Rainkit shrank back on himself, it was like looking into the eyes of a dead cat!

"Dad, Fight him! Don't let him control you!" The young cat pleaded. But instead of heeding his desperate meows, his father dropped down into an unstable crouch, his long gray claws sinking into the sludge beneath his feet.

Rainkit's heart leaped into his throat, oh, Starclan! He's going to kill me!

The shadow cat let out another mew, his tail tightening around Ratstar's neck. Then before Rainkit could even think of running, with a loud caterwaul, Ratstar lunged.