Post by Wingflight on Jul 5, 2012 3:18:20 GMT -5
I found the Yellowfang’s secret excerpt from Enter the Clans!
Prologue:
Stars shone down into a large cavern through a ragged hole in the roof. The faint light was just enough to show a tall rock jutting out of the floor in the center of the cave, the soaring rock walls, and at one side the dark, gaping hole of a tunnel entrance.
Movement flickered in the tunnel mouth, and six cats emerged into the cavern. The cat in front, a speckled gray tom with clumped, untidy fur, padded up to the rock and turned to face the others.
"Sagewhisker, Hawkheart, Troutfin," he began, nodding to each cat as he named them, "we, the medicine cats of the four Clans, are here to carry out one of the most important ceremonies of our calling: the naming of a new medicine cat apprentice."
"For StarClan's sake, get on with it, Goosefeather," Hawkheart muttered with an impatient twitch of her tail-tip.
Goosefeather shot a glare at her, then turned to the two young cats standing side by side near the entrance to the tunnel. "Featherpaw of ThunderClan, are you ready?" he asked.
The sturdier cat, a silver-pelted tom, gave a nervous nod. "I guess so," he mewed.
"Come here and stand before the Moonstone," Goosefeather directed. "Soon it will be time to share tongues with StarClan."
Featherpaw hesitated. "But I... I don't know what to say when I meet our ancestors."
"You'll know," the other young cat told him. Her white pelt glimmered in the starlight as she touched his shoulder reassuringly with her muzzle. "It'll be awesome; you'll see. I'll never forget when I became Troutfin's apprentice!"
"Thanks, Bramblepaw," Featherpaw murmured.
He padded up to Goosefeather while Sagewhisker, Troutfin, and Hawkheart sat down a couple of tail-lengths away. Bramblepaw, the RiverClan medicine apprentice, took her place at her mentor's side.
Suddenly the moon slid across the hole in the roof sending a dazzling white light into the cave. Featherpaw halted and blinked in astonishment as the Moonstone woke into glittering life, blazing with silver light. His eyes stretched wide with wonder, and he stood frozen; his fur shone as if stars were tangled in his pelt.
Goosefeather walked forward to stand over him. "Featherpaw," he meowed, "is it your wish to walk the path of a medicine cat?"
Featherpaw nodded. "Yes," he replied, his voice coming out as a breathless croak. He cleared his throat and tried again. "It is."
"Then come." Goosefeather turned, beckoning with his tail, and took the few paces that brought him close to the Moonstone. His pale blue eyes shone like twin moons; there was power in his voice as he spoke.
"Warriors of StarClan, I present to you this apprentice. He has chosen the path of a medicine cat. Grant him your wisdom and insight so that he may understand your ways and heal his Clan in accordance with your will." Flicking his tail once more at Featherpaw, he continued, "Lie down here, and press your nose against the stone."
Quickly Featherpaw obeyed, settling himself close to the stone and reaching out to touch its glimmering surface with his muzzle. The other medicine cats moved up beside him, taking similar positions all around the stone. In the silence and the brilliant light, the new medicine cat apprentice closed his eyes.
Featherpaw's eyes blinked open and he sprang to his paws. He stood chest-deep in lush grass, in a clearing of a sunlit forest, the branches of the trees rustling in a warm breeze. The air was laden with the scent of prey and green, growing plants.
"Hi, Featherpaw!"
The young tom jumped, his fur bristling at the sound of a cat calling him by name. He spun around. Approaching him through the grass was a tabby-and-white she-cat with blue eyes; she gave him a friendly flick with her tail as she drew closer.
Featherpaw gaped at her. "M-Mallowfur!" he choked out. "But- but you died, last leaf-bare."
"And now I'm a warrior of StarClan," Mallowfur purred. "It's good to see you here, Featherpaw. I hope it's the first time of many."
"I hope so, too," Featherpaw responded.
Mallowfur went on, brushing through the grass, and joined a ginger tom at the edge of the trees; together the two StarClan cats vanished into the undergrowth. Close to the spot where they had disappeared, another StarClan warrior was crouching beside a small pool, lapping at the water. Heartbeats later, a squirrel dashed across the clearing and swarmed up the trunk of an oak tree, with two more of Featherpaw's starry ancestors hard on his paws.
Featherpaw heard his name being called again. "Hey, you- Featherpaw! Over here!"
A black tom was almost hidden in the shadows under a holly bush. He was small and skinny, his muzzle gray with age. He beckoned with his tail. "Over here!" he repeated, his voice low and urgent. "Are your paws stuck to the ground?"
Featherpaw shouldered his way through the long grasses until he stood in front of the cat. "Who are you?" he meowed. "What do you want?"
"My name is Molepelt," the black tom replied, retreating into a shadowy dip in the ground behind the holly bush and twitching his ears to indicate that Featherpaw should follow. "I have a message for you."
Featherpaw's eyes stretched wide. "A message from StarClan, my first time here?" he breathed. "Wow, that's so great."
Molepelt let out an irritable grunt. "You might not think so, when you've heard what it is."
"Go on." Now Featherpaw sounded apprehensive.
Molepelt fixed him with an icy green gaze. "A terrible force is on its way," he rasped, "with the power to pierce deep into the heart of ThunderClan. And it will be brought by a ShadowClan medicine cat."
"What?" Featherpaw's voice rose to a high-pitched squeak. "That can't be right. Medicine cats have no enemies, and they don't cause trouble for other Clans."
Molepelt ignored his protest. "I was once the ShadowClan medicine cat," he growled. "My Clanmates and I did something dreadful to another Clan- one that belonged in the forest just as much as any of us, but was driven out through our selfishness and hard-heartedness. I knew that what we did was wrong, and I have waited for season upon season, my heart filled with dread, for the Clans to be punished."
"Punished? How?" Featherpaw asked hoarsely.
"The time has come!" Now Molepelt's green eyes were wide, and he seemed to be gazing into the far distance. "A poison will spring from the heart of ShadowClan, and spread to all the other Clans." His voice rose to a soft, eerie wail. "A storm of blood and fire will sweep the forest!"
Featherpaw gazed at the old tom in horror, but before he could speak, another cat, a broad-shouldered black-and-white tom, pushed his way through a nearby clump of ferns.
"Molepelt, what are you doing?" he demanded. "Why are you spilling all this out to a ThunderClan apprentice? You don't know that this is the time!"
Molepelt snorted. "You were my apprentice, Hollowbelly, and don't you forget it! I know I'm right."
Hollowbelly glanced at Featherpaw, then back at Molepelt, exasperation in his eyes. "Things are different now," he meowed. "The medicine cat code might be strong enough to stop this from happening."
"What do you mean? What's going to happen?" Featherpaw asked, his voice shaking.
Hollowbelly did not look at him. "There's no reason to punish ShadowClan now," he insisted to Molepelt. "It's all too long ago."
"You're a fool, Hollowbelly," Molepelt rasped. "The medicine cat code can do nothing to save the Clans."
"But it's our only chance!" When Molepelt did not respond, Hollowbelly turned to Featherpaw for the first time. "Please say nothing about this," he begged. "Promise that you won't tell any of your Clanmates. Promise on the lives of your ancestors!"
Featherpaw took a deep breath. "I promise," he whispered.
Hollowbelly nodded. Nudging Molepelt to his paws, he led the old medicine cat away into the forest.
Featherpaw gazed after them. After a few heartbeats he scrambled out of the hollow and staggered out into the sunlit clearing once again.
"What in the name of StarClan were those cats talking about?" he meowed out loud. "I'll say nothing to Goosefeather- not yet, anyway. But I'll keep a very close eye on ShadowClan." With a troubled sigh, he added, "Whatever happens, I hope ThunderClan keeps safe.”
Chapter One:
"ShadowClan warriors, attack!"
Yellowkit burst out of the nursery and hurtled across the ShadowClan camp. Her brother and sister, Nutkit and Rowankit, scurried after her.
Nutkit pounced on a pinecone. "It's a WindClan warrior!" he squealed, battering at it with tiny brown paws. "Get out of our territory!"
"Rabbit-chasers!" Rowankit flexed her claws. "Prey-stealers!"
Yellowkit leaped at a straying tendril from the barrier that encircled the camp; her paws got tangled in it and she lost her balance, rolling over in a flurry of legs and tail. Scrambling up, she crouched in front of the bramble, her teeth bared in a growl. "Trip me up, would you?" she squeaked, raking her claws across its leaves. "Take that!" No cat messes with ShadowClan!
Nutkit straightened up and began to scan the camp, peering around with narrowed amber eyes. "Can you see any more WindClan warriors on our territory?"
Yellowkit spotted a group of ShadowClan elders sharing tongues in a shaft of sunlight that broke through heavy pine branches. "Yes! Over there!" she yowled.
Nutkit and Rowankit followed her as she raced across the camp and skidded to a halt in front of the old cats.
"WindClan warriors!" Yellowkit began, trying to sound as dignified as Cedarstar. "Do you give in? Or do you want to feel the claws of ShadowClan?"
Littlebird, her ginger pelt glowing in the warm light, sat up, giving the other elders an amused glance.
"No, you're far too fierce for us," she meowed. "We don't want to fight anymore."
"And you promise to let our medicine cat cross your territory?" Rowankit asked fiercely.
"We promise." Silverflame, the mother of Yellowkit's mother, Brightflower, flattened herself to the ground and blinked fearfully up at the kits. "We'll never challenge ShadowClan again."
"This means we win, right?" Nutkit demanded.
"Yes, you win." Lizardfang cirnged away from the three kits, shuffling his skinny brown limbs. "ShadowClan is the best Clan of all."
"Yes!" Yellowkit bounced up in the air. "ShadowClan is the best!"
In her excitement she let out a shrill screech and leaped on top of Nutkit, rolling over and over with him in a knot of gray and brown fur.
This is what I'm going to be! she thought happily. The best warrior in the best Clan in the forest!
She broke away from Nutkit and scrambled to her paws. "You be a WindClan warrior now," she urged. "I know some awesome battle moves!"
"Battle moves?" a scornful voice broke in. "You? You're only a kit!"
Yellowkit spun around to see Raggedkit and his littermate Scorchkit standing a couple of tail-lengths away. "And what are you?" she demanded, glaring up at the dark tabby tom. "You and Scorchkit were still kits too, last time I looked."
"But we'll be apprentices soon," Raggedkit retorted. "It'll be moons and moons before you start training."
"Yeah." Scorchkit licked one ginger paw and drew it over his ear. "We'll be warriors by then."
"In your dreams!" Rowankit bounded up to stand next to Yellowkit, while Nutkit flanked her on her other side. "There are rabbits who'd make better warriors than you two."
Scorchkit crouched down, his muscles tensed to leap at her, but Raggedkit blocked him with his tail. "They're not worth it," he mewed loftily. "Come on, mouse-brains, watch us and we'll show you some real battle moves."
"You're not our mentors!" Nutkit snapped. "All you do is mess up our games."
"Your games!" Raggedkit rolled his eyes. "Fighting WindClan warriors! You'd run squealing into the nursery if WindClan really attacked our camp."
"Would not!" Rowankit exclaimed.
Raggedkit and Scorchkit ignored her, turning their backs on the younger kits. Yellowkit watched as Raggedkit dashed past his littermate, aiming a blow at Scorchkit's ear as he passed. Scorchkit swung away, avoiding the outstretched claws, and pounced on Raggedkit's tail. Raggedkit rolled over onto his back, all four paws ready to defend himself.
Annoyed as she was, Yellowkit couldn't help admiring the older toms. Her paws itched to practice their battle moves but she knew that she and her littermates would only get sneered at if they tried.
"Come on!" Nutkit nudged her. "Let's see if there are any mice in the brambles."
"You won't catch any, even if there are," Raggedkit meowed contemptuously, rising to his paws and shaking scraps of leaf from his fur.
"I wasn't talking to you." Nutkit's fur bristled and he bared tiny, needle-sharp teeth. "Kittypet!"
For a moment all five kits froze. Yellowkit could feel her heart pounding. Like her littermates, she had heard the elders gossiping, wondering who had fathered Raggedkit and Scorchkit, asking one another if it could be true that it had been a kittypet. But Yellowkit knew that it was something you should never, ever say out loud.
Raggedkit took a pace closer to Nutkit, stiff-legged with fury. "What did you call me?" he asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
Nutkit's eyes were wide and scared, but he didn't back down. "Kittypet!" he repeated.
A low growl came from Raggedkit's throat. Scorchkit's eyes narrowed and he flexed his claws. Neither of them looked one bit like a soft, fluffy kittypet. Yellowkit braced herself to defend her littermate.
"Nutkit!"
Yellowkit turned at the sound of her mother's voice. Brightflower was standing beside the thornbush that shielded the nursery hollow. Her orange tabby tail was twitching in annoyance.
"Nutkit, if you can't play sensibly, then you'd better come back here. You too, Yellowkit and Rowankit. I won't have you fighting. Come on."
"Not fair," Nutkit muttered as all three littermates began trailing back toward the nursery. He scuffed his paws through the pine needles on the floor of the camp. "They started it."
"They're just stupid kittypets," Rowankit agreed.
Yellowkit couldn't resist glancing over her shoulder as she reached the thornbush. Raggedkit and Scorchkit stood in the middle of the clearing, glaring after them. The force of Raggedkit's anger scared her, but behind it she could sense something else: a dark hollow that echoed with fearful questioning.
She thought of her own father, Brackenfoot, who told stories of patrols and hunting and Gatherings at Fourtrees, who let his kits scramble all over him and pretended to be a fox so they could attack him. Yellowkit loved him and wanted to be like him.
What must it be like, not to know who your father is? she wondered. Especially if every cat thinks he was a kittypet?
Yellowkit realized that Raggedkit's gaze had locked with hers. With a squeak of alarm she ducked underneath the thorn branches and tumbled down into the nursery after her litter mates.
IREALLYWANTTOREADTHISBOOK! Why did Survivors have to push it back to October. Very few people in care about survivors. ugh.
Anyway. So it seems SkyClan finally has some relevance to the modern-day clans. Molepelt was the medicine cat of ShadowCLan at the time (I looked him up), and he says punishment is coming to the clans. THen his apprentice comes up and says that the medicine cat code might be strong enough, which Molepelt denies. I don’t think it’s too hard to understand. Yellowfang broke the code by having kits with Raggedstar (who might have kitty pet blood!?!?!?), the only surviving kit brings death and blood to the forest, and actually drives one clan out, similar to what happened to SkyClan. I suppose we finally have an explanation to why Brokenstar was accepted as leader by StarClan and given nine lives.
Also, something that I find funny and sad, if the rumours about Raggedkit and Scorchkit are true, Brokenstar is part kitty pet.
Something that intrigues me: it’s mentioned that Brightflower is Yellowfang’s mother. Thing is, she was also the mother of the kits that Brokenstar killed in training, and Brokenstar told her that Yellowfang killed them. So, in essence, Brokenstar killed his own uncles/aunts, and told his grandmother that his mother had killed them. Also, considering that Yellowfang was already considered an old cat (as least as old as Bluestar), her mother would have been close to elder age when she had the litter Brokenstar killed. Also, Brackenfoot, Yellowkit Nutkit and Rowankit’s father, was one of the cats in Code of the Clans that saved Tigerkit from a fox - though he didn’t want to save the kit without the help of another patrol. That is a very messed up family.
Prologue:
Stars shone down into a large cavern through a ragged hole in the roof. The faint light was just enough to show a tall rock jutting out of the floor in the center of the cave, the soaring rock walls, and at one side the dark, gaping hole of a tunnel entrance.
Movement flickered in the tunnel mouth, and six cats emerged into the cavern. The cat in front, a speckled gray tom with clumped, untidy fur, padded up to the rock and turned to face the others.
"Sagewhisker, Hawkheart, Troutfin," he began, nodding to each cat as he named them, "we, the medicine cats of the four Clans, are here to carry out one of the most important ceremonies of our calling: the naming of a new medicine cat apprentice."
"For StarClan's sake, get on with it, Goosefeather," Hawkheart muttered with an impatient twitch of her tail-tip.
Goosefeather shot a glare at her, then turned to the two young cats standing side by side near the entrance to the tunnel. "Featherpaw of ThunderClan, are you ready?" he asked.
The sturdier cat, a silver-pelted tom, gave a nervous nod. "I guess so," he mewed.
"Come here and stand before the Moonstone," Goosefeather directed. "Soon it will be time to share tongues with StarClan."
Featherpaw hesitated. "But I... I don't know what to say when I meet our ancestors."
"You'll know," the other young cat told him. Her white pelt glimmered in the starlight as she touched his shoulder reassuringly with her muzzle. "It'll be awesome; you'll see. I'll never forget when I became Troutfin's apprentice!"
"Thanks, Bramblepaw," Featherpaw murmured.
He padded up to Goosefeather while Sagewhisker, Troutfin, and Hawkheart sat down a couple of tail-lengths away. Bramblepaw, the RiverClan medicine apprentice, took her place at her mentor's side.
Suddenly the moon slid across the hole in the roof sending a dazzling white light into the cave. Featherpaw halted and blinked in astonishment as the Moonstone woke into glittering life, blazing with silver light. His eyes stretched wide with wonder, and he stood frozen; his fur shone as if stars were tangled in his pelt.
Goosefeather walked forward to stand over him. "Featherpaw," he meowed, "is it your wish to walk the path of a medicine cat?"
Featherpaw nodded. "Yes," he replied, his voice coming out as a breathless croak. He cleared his throat and tried again. "It is."
"Then come." Goosefeather turned, beckoning with his tail, and took the few paces that brought him close to the Moonstone. His pale blue eyes shone like twin moons; there was power in his voice as he spoke.
"Warriors of StarClan, I present to you this apprentice. He has chosen the path of a medicine cat. Grant him your wisdom and insight so that he may understand your ways and heal his Clan in accordance with your will." Flicking his tail once more at Featherpaw, he continued, "Lie down here, and press your nose against the stone."
Quickly Featherpaw obeyed, settling himself close to the stone and reaching out to touch its glimmering surface with his muzzle. The other medicine cats moved up beside him, taking similar positions all around the stone. In the silence and the brilliant light, the new medicine cat apprentice closed his eyes.
Featherpaw's eyes blinked open and he sprang to his paws. He stood chest-deep in lush grass, in a clearing of a sunlit forest, the branches of the trees rustling in a warm breeze. The air was laden with the scent of prey and green, growing plants.
"Hi, Featherpaw!"
The young tom jumped, his fur bristling at the sound of a cat calling him by name. He spun around. Approaching him through the grass was a tabby-and-white she-cat with blue eyes; she gave him a friendly flick with her tail as she drew closer.
Featherpaw gaped at her. "M-Mallowfur!" he choked out. "But- but you died, last leaf-bare."
"And now I'm a warrior of StarClan," Mallowfur purred. "It's good to see you here, Featherpaw. I hope it's the first time of many."
"I hope so, too," Featherpaw responded.
Mallowfur went on, brushing through the grass, and joined a ginger tom at the edge of the trees; together the two StarClan cats vanished into the undergrowth. Close to the spot where they had disappeared, another StarClan warrior was crouching beside a small pool, lapping at the water. Heartbeats later, a squirrel dashed across the clearing and swarmed up the trunk of an oak tree, with two more of Featherpaw's starry ancestors hard on his paws.
Featherpaw heard his name being called again. "Hey, you- Featherpaw! Over here!"
A black tom was almost hidden in the shadows under a holly bush. He was small and skinny, his muzzle gray with age. He beckoned with his tail. "Over here!" he repeated, his voice low and urgent. "Are your paws stuck to the ground?"
Featherpaw shouldered his way through the long grasses until he stood in front of the cat. "Who are you?" he meowed. "What do you want?"
"My name is Molepelt," the black tom replied, retreating into a shadowy dip in the ground behind the holly bush and twitching his ears to indicate that Featherpaw should follow. "I have a message for you."
Featherpaw's eyes stretched wide. "A message from StarClan, my first time here?" he breathed. "Wow, that's so great."
Molepelt let out an irritable grunt. "You might not think so, when you've heard what it is."
"Go on." Now Featherpaw sounded apprehensive.
Molepelt fixed him with an icy green gaze. "A terrible force is on its way," he rasped, "with the power to pierce deep into the heart of ThunderClan. And it will be brought by a ShadowClan medicine cat."
"What?" Featherpaw's voice rose to a high-pitched squeak. "That can't be right. Medicine cats have no enemies, and they don't cause trouble for other Clans."
Molepelt ignored his protest. "I was once the ShadowClan medicine cat," he growled. "My Clanmates and I did something dreadful to another Clan- one that belonged in the forest just as much as any of us, but was driven out through our selfishness and hard-heartedness. I knew that what we did was wrong, and I have waited for season upon season, my heart filled with dread, for the Clans to be punished."
"Punished? How?" Featherpaw asked hoarsely.
"The time has come!" Now Molepelt's green eyes were wide, and he seemed to be gazing into the far distance. "A poison will spring from the heart of ShadowClan, and spread to all the other Clans." His voice rose to a soft, eerie wail. "A storm of blood and fire will sweep the forest!"
Featherpaw gazed at the old tom in horror, but before he could speak, another cat, a broad-shouldered black-and-white tom, pushed his way through a nearby clump of ferns.
"Molepelt, what are you doing?" he demanded. "Why are you spilling all this out to a ThunderClan apprentice? You don't know that this is the time!"
Molepelt snorted. "You were my apprentice, Hollowbelly, and don't you forget it! I know I'm right."
Hollowbelly glanced at Featherpaw, then back at Molepelt, exasperation in his eyes. "Things are different now," he meowed. "The medicine cat code might be strong enough to stop this from happening."
"What do you mean? What's going to happen?" Featherpaw asked, his voice shaking.
Hollowbelly did not look at him. "There's no reason to punish ShadowClan now," he insisted to Molepelt. "It's all too long ago."
"You're a fool, Hollowbelly," Molepelt rasped. "The medicine cat code can do nothing to save the Clans."
"But it's our only chance!" When Molepelt did not respond, Hollowbelly turned to Featherpaw for the first time. "Please say nothing about this," he begged. "Promise that you won't tell any of your Clanmates. Promise on the lives of your ancestors!"
Featherpaw took a deep breath. "I promise," he whispered.
Hollowbelly nodded. Nudging Molepelt to his paws, he led the old medicine cat away into the forest.
Featherpaw gazed after them. After a few heartbeats he scrambled out of the hollow and staggered out into the sunlit clearing once again.
"What in the name of StarClan were those cats talking about?" he meowed out loud. "I'll say nothing to Goosefeather- not yet, anyway. But I'll keep a very close eye on ShadowClan." With a troubled sigh, he added, "Whatever happens, I hope ThunderClan keeps safe.”
Chapter One:
"ShadowClan warriors, attack!"
Yellowkit burst out of the nursery and hurtled across the ShadowClan camp. Her brother and sister, Nutkit and Rowankit, scurried after her.
Nutkit pounced on a pinecone. "It's a WindClan warrior!" he squealed, battering at it with tiny brown paws. "Get out of our territory!"
"Rabbit-chasers!" Rowankit flexed her claws. "Prey-stealers!"
Yellowkit leaped at a straying tendril from the barrier that encircled the camp; her paws got tangled in it and she lost her balance, rolling over in a flurry of legs and tail. Scrambling up, she crouched in front of the bramble, her teeth bared in a growl. "Trip me up, would you?" she squeaked, raking her claws across its leaves. "Take that!" No cat messes with ShadowClan!
Nutkit straightened up and began to scan the camp, peering around with narrowed amber eyes. "Can you see any more WindClan warriors on our territory?"
Yellowkit spotted a group of ShadowClan elders sharing tongues in a shaft of sunlight that broke through heavy pine branches. "Yes! Over there!" she yowled.
Nutkit and Rowankit followed her as she raced across the camp and skidded to a halt in front of the old cats.
"WindClan warriors!" Yellowkit began, trying to sound as dignified as Cedarstar. "Do you give in? Or do you want to feel the claws of ShadowClan?"
Littlebird, her ginger pelt glowing in the warm light, sat up, giving the other elders an amused glance.
"No, you're far too fierce for us," she meowed. "We don't want to fight anymore."
"And you promise to let our medicine cat cross your territory?" Rowankit asked fiercely.
"We promise." Silverflame, the mother of Yellowkit's mother, Brightflower, flattened herself to the ground and blinked fearfully up at the kits. "We'll never challenge ShadowClan again."
"This means we win, right?" Nutkit demanded.
"Yes, you win." Lizardfang cirnged away from the three kits, shuffling his skinny brown limbs. "ShadowClan is the best Clan of all."
"Yes!" Yellowkit bounced up in the air. "ShadowClan is the best!"
In her excitement she let out a shrill screech and leaped on top of Nutkit, rolling over and over with him in a knot of gray and brown fur.
This is what I'm going to be! she thought happily. The best warrior in the best Clan in the forest!
She broke away from Nutkit and scrambled to her paws. "You be a WindClan warrior now," she urged. "I know some awesome battle moves!"
"Battle moves?" a scornful voice broke in. "You? You're only a kit!"
Yellowkit spun around to see Raggedkit and his littermate Scorchkit standing a couple of tail-lengths away. "And what are you?" she demanded, glaring up at the dark tabby tom. "You and Scorchkit were still kits too, last time I looked."
"But we'll be apprentices soon," Raggedkit retorted. "It'll be moons and moons before you start training."
"Yeah." Scorchkit licked one ginger paw and drew it over his ear. "We'll be warriors by then."
"In your dreams!" Rowankit bounded up to stand next to Yellowkit, while Nutkit flanked her on her other side. "There are rabbits who'd make better warriors than you two."
Scorchkit crouched down, his muscles tensed to leap at her, but Raggedkit blocked him with his tail. "They're not worth it," he mewed loftily. "Come on, mouse-brains, watch us and we'll show you some real battle moves."
"You're not our mentors!" Nutkit snapped. "All you do is mess up our games."
"Your games!" Raggedkit rolled his eyes. "Fighting WindClan warriors! You'd run squealing into the nursery if WindClan really attacked our camp."
"Would not!" Rowankit exclaimed.
Raggedkit and Scorchkit ignored her, turning their backs on the younger kits. Yellowkit watched as Raggedkit dashed past his littermate, aiming a blow at Scorchkit's ear as he passed. Scorchkit swung away, avoiding the outstretched claws, and pounced on Raggedkit's tail. Raggedkit rolled over onto his back, all four paws ready to defend himself.
Annoyed as she was, Yellowkit couldn't help admiring the older toms. Her paws itched to practice their battle moves but she knew that she and her littermates would only get sneered at if they tried.
"Come on!" Nutkit nudged her. "Let's see if there are any mice in the brambles."
"You won't catch any, even if there are," Raggedkit meowed contemptuously, rising to his paws and shaking scraps of leaf from his fur.
"I wasn't talking to you." Nutkit's fur bristled and he bared tiny, needle-sharp teeth. "Kittypet!"
For a moment all five kits froze. Yellowkit could feel her heart pounding. Like her littermates, she had heard the elders gossiping, wondering who had fathered Raggedkit and Scorchkit, asking one another if it could be true that it had been a kittypet. But Yellowkit knew that it was something you should never, ever say out loud.
Raggedkit took a pace closer to Nutkit, stiff-legged with fury. "What did you call me?" he asked, his voice dangerously quiet.
Nutkit's eyes were wide and scared, but he didn't back down. "Kittypet!" he repeated.
A low growl came from Raggedkit's throat. Scorchkit's eyes narrowed and he flexed his claws. Neither of them looked one bit like a soft, fluffy kittypet. Yellowkit braced herself to defend her littermate.
"Nutkit!"
Yellowkit turned at the sound of her mother's voice. Brightflower was standing beside the thornbush that shielded the nursery hollow. Her orange tabby tail was twitching in annoyance.
"Nutkit, if you can't play sensibly, then you'd better come back here. You too, Yellowkit and Rowankit. I won't have you fighting. Come on."
"Not fair," Nutkit muttered as all three littermates began trailing back toward the nursery. He scuffed his paws through the pine needles on the floor of the camp. "They started it."
"They're just stupid kittypets," Rowankit agreed.
Yellowkit couldn't resist glancing over her shoulder as she reached the thornbush. Raggedkit and Scorchkit stood in the middle of the clearing, glaring after them. The force of Raggedkit's anger scared her, but behind it she could sense something else: a dark hollow that echoed with fearful questioning.
She thought of her own father, Brackenfoot, who told stories of patrols and hunting and Gatherings at Fourtrees, who let his kits scramble all over him and pretended to be a fox so they could attack him. Yellowkit loved him and wanted to be like him.
What must it be like, not to know who your father is? she wondered. Especially if every cat thinks he was a kittypet?
Yellowkit realized that Raggedkit's gaze had locked with hers. With a squeak of alarm she ducked underneath the thorn branches and tumbled down into the nursery after her litter mates.
IREALLYWANTTOREADTHISBOOK! Why did Survivors have to push it back to October. Very few people in care about survivors. ugh.
Anyway. So it seems SkyClan finally has some relevance to the modern-day clans. Molepelt was the medicine cat of ShadowCLan at the time (I looked him up), and he says punishment is coming to the clans. THen his apprentice comes up and says that the medicine cat code might be strong enough, which Molepelt denies. I don’t think it’s too hard to understand. Yellowfang broke the code by having kits with Raggedstar (who might have kitty pet blood!?!?!?), the only surviving kit brings death and blood to the forest, and actually drives one clan out, similar to what happened to SkyClan. I suppose we finally have an explanation to why Brokenstar was accepted as leader by StarClan and given nine lives.
Also, something that I find funny and sad, if the rumours about Raggedkit and Scorchkit are true, Brokenstar is part kitty pet.
Something that intrigues me: it’s mentioned that Brightflower is Yellowfang’s mother. Thing is, she was also the mother of the kits that Brokenstar killed in training, and Brokenstar told her that Yellowfang killed them. So, in essence, Brokenstar killed his own uncles/aunts, and told his grandmother that his mother had killed them. Also, considering that Yellowfang was already considered an old cat (as least as old as Bluestar), her mother would have been close to elder age when she had the litter Brokenstar killed. Also, Brackenfoot, Yellowkit Nutkit and Rowankit’s father, was one of the cats in Code of the Clans that saved Tigerkit from a fox - though he didn’t want to save the kit without the help of another patrol. That is a very messed up family.
