The Five Giants - Book 1

Chapter 1 - Maple

I heard voices around me, although I couldn't distinguish if they were from different people, or all from the same person. I wanted to open my eyes as well, but the darkness was... comforting. Like it was holding me in an embrace.

I was wrapped up in something soft. Well, somethings. There was definitely two things surrounding me.

I clenched my eyes shut, trying to build up the strength to open them.

I stretched my eyelids, and finally was able to open my eyes. Now, I couldn't tell what colors my eyes were, but I had a weird feeling that they were amber. I had a vague memory of someone once telling me that...

I looked around me. I was indeed surrounded by two things. Somebody's tail and a ball of silver fur.

I followed the tail up to a Black body, and saw what I assumed to be my mother for the first time. But she wasn't paying attention to me. She was looking at the little ball of silver fur.

I wanted to speak out, to let her know that I had opened my eyes, but I couldn't make my mouth form words. I looked around to see even more cats crowding around us, but they were all focused on the silver ball.

Except for one of them. A tall, black tom with crystal green eyes.

He was looking straight at me. I don't think he was my father, maybe my mother's brother? I mean, they looked very similar.

Once he noticed I was looking back at him, he nodded to me and padded out of the den.

The little ball of fur beside me suddenly lifted his head, and all the cats around me gasped. He peeled open his eyes to reveal lime green eyes.

My mother removed her tail from me and curled the silver kit closer to her body. 

I became cold and mewed in protest, but my mother didn't seem to care. She just looked down at the silver kit with clear adoration in her eyes.

Seeing this, I closed my eyes and curled up back into a ball. I knew that she wasn't going to look at me and see my eyes, and I couldn't tell her that I had opened my eyes, because my mouth couldn't form words yet.

But I wonder why that one cat was just staring at me. I mean, literally everyone else was looking at the other kit with adoration and awe clearly in their eyes. But he had decided to look at me, and as far as I could tell, he looked only at me.

With this, I feel into a comforting sleep.

_______________________________________

I opened my eyes to a wonderful landscape. I felt a presence beside me, but when I turned to look, I saw nothing there.

I looked back out to see five things in front of me. There was a winding river, a tall Maple tree, a grand, white bird, a stone, and a blazing fire.

I turned to look around me again, and this time saw four other kits. Each one was looking around, confused just like me. When they saw me, they smiled, but then turned back to look at what was in front of them.

Then was random, insanely strong gust of wind blew us all off of our feet, and we started spinning. We were transferred to a dark place, where there was nothing but tall trees surrounding us. This place smelled of rot.

In front of us were five kits. When I looked at them more closely, I realized that the silver kit was among them. A much smaller gust of wind blew around us, and I think I heard something whisper.

Remember...

Something in my mind must've clicked, because I was taken back to see everything that had happened to me. Who the cats standing beside me were. Who the other cats were. Who I am.

This all came to me in an instant, like the flavor of a kill flooding your mouth.

I remembered how to speak, how to listen, how to understand words. How to think, how to hunt, how to fight. How to signal things, like if I was hurt, or just a friendly greeting.

I turned to look at the kits beside me. Heron, Flame, Swift, Stone.

Then I looked over to where the other kits were. Moon, Lion, Dahlia, Dusk, Sparrow. I curled my lips up just thinking about them.

They've come back, but so have you. Don't let us down.

The voice whispered in the wind yet again, and the other cats seemed to have heard it. The Dark Forest cats were still asleep, giddy smiles on their face.

I wonder if they even know who they are, or if Starclan forbade it. They seemed to have still been sleeping, so maybe they just feel like they had a weird dream?

When I turned back around, I saw the other four standing in a circle, their noses pressed together. I joined them.

When my nose touched the others, my entire world began spinning.

When everything stopped moving, I opened my eyes to see I was back in the den.

I saw light filtering through the brambles surrounding the den, telling me it was morning.

My mother's tail was still curled around my brother, leaving me a few mouse-lengths away from her. Everyone else was still sleeping, so I decided I'd take a quick look around camp.

I barely made it out of the Den before I heard my mother's voice.

"Maplekit, get back in here this instant!" I sighed and turned around, padding back to where my mother was laying.

I went by her face, and she reached her paw up and smacked me in the head.

"Ow! Why'd you hit me?"

My mother looked momentarily surprised at my ability to talk, but quickly went back to normal. "You are not to leave this den without my permission! If you do, you will be punished!"

I gave her a feeble nod and tried to snuggle into her belly, but she moved her paw ever so slightly as to block me. So instead, I just lay on the outskirts of the nest, waiting for everyone to wake up.

After only a few moments, a kit I didn't recognize padded over to me and nudged me with a paw.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I looked up to see a beige tom with pretty grey eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine." I stood up and groomed my fur, then asked him, "What's your name?"

He smiled, "My name is Thrushkit. My mom Sandtail is over there." He pointed to a sand-colored cat.

"My name is Maplekit. This is my mother, and this is my brother Moonkit."

He tilted his head over. "What's your mother's name?"

I panicked a bit, realizing that my mother had never told me her name. But then I thought back to when I had my eyes closed. I remember someone calling mom something... Ah hah! 

"My mother's name is Nightwing."

He looked to where I was laying down, and then to where my mother was curled up around Moonkit. "You're mother doesn't seem to like you as much as she likes Moonkit."

I nodded in response, but tried to change the subject. "You wanna grab some moss and play Mossball?"

"Sure!" He smiled and grabbed a clump of moss and threw it at me.

And from that moment on, Thrushkit was my best friend.

Alright, First Chapter done!

I'm really excited to start this, even if I know it's gonna take a long time.

I'm trying to always raise the word count to 1100, so hopefully that works.

I don't think I'm going to do any quizzes for this book, but let me know if you want them!

Also, comment if you need any clarification on the reasoning behind some of the cat's name, I know a few of them are confusing, like Stygiastar or Springkit.

Alright, that's all for now! See ya next week!

-Maple