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| - Puffing my chest out very importantly, I banged my paw on the ground - which actually hurt a lot, but I tried not to show it. "I hereby call the first ever official meeting of the Vale Squad to order! First item of business, attendance!" To my chagrin, Daisypaw, my best friend, burst out laughing at this. "There's four of us total, Breezepaw," she scoffed affectionately, fluffing her light tan fur with a paw. "And plus, none of us would miss the first meeting of the Vale Squad. So taking attendance is completely unnecessary." Her eyes sparkled. "If I had to guess, I'd say you feel very important and official, which is the reason you're taking attendance?" Flustered, but determined not to show it, I said in a most dignified tone, "Shut up mouse-brain." "Never," she said, reaching out a paw and mussing up my fur. Specklepaw and Minkpaw watched amusedly, and Minkpaw mewed, "So, what exactly is the Vale Squad for again?" Striking a dramatic pose with one paw flailing in the air, Specklepaw yelled, "To fight evil and support good!" Laughing, I shoved him out of the way. "I'm not sure exactly. It's kind of a way for us apprentices of SpringClan to be more of a team, you know? So if anything bad comes up again - and I'm not saying it will, but you know - we can be slightly more prepared. We can help each other with training, keep each other posted on news, stuff like that." "Oh! Speaking of news! Our assessments are tomorrow!" gasped Minkpaw. I nodded excitedly. "I'm really nervous! Plus, I'm so sore from aerial training that I don't know if I'll even be able to move, let alone hunt successfully." Nudging me, Specklepaw said, "We'll be fine." With a little squeal, Daisypaw yelped, "I almost forgot! Ivyrose told me to tell all of you! Cloverflower's kits were born this morning!" All of us blinked at her. "For real?" I squealed in a girlish tone that I had never used before. "Let's go see them right now!" The three of us she-cats raced into the camp, Specklepaw trailing behind with a nervous look on his face. As we paused outside the nursery, he mewed, "Guys, I'm not really that great with kits." "I'm not either," I reassured him. "In fact, I think I scare them..." Awkwardly, he shuffled his paws. "Well, anyway, I think I'll just stay out here." He gave Daisypaw a quick lick and waved his paw at me and Minkpaw. "See you!" Flicking our tails in farewell, we took a tentative step into the nursery. "Eveningfall? Cloverflower? May we come in?" Daisypaw called quietly, so as not to potentially disturb the kits. Eveningfall, a dark ginger queen with yellow eyes, glanced up from where she was suckling her own three kits, Flowerkit, Sleepykit, and Brightkit. "Come on in, dears. I assume you're here to see Cloverflower's new litter?" "Yes," I breathed. I felt like speaking too loudly would ruin the fragile innocence of the precious lives inside the den. "Over here," Cloverflower said. The pale creamy gray she-cat moved aside slightly, exposing two tiny bundles of fluff and whiskers at her belly. "Oh!" Daisypaw gasped softly. "They're beautiful," Minkpaw gushed, looking more feminine and affectionate than I had ever seen her. Tenderly, I stooped down and touched my nose to each kit; their fur was as soft as downy feathers. "What are their names?" She nudged one of them, a little tortoiseshell with her eyes tightly closed. "This one is Petalkit. And the other cream-smoke one, the one that looks like me, is Poolkit, for her big blue eyes." Their names were perfect. Everything about them was perfect, from their itty bitty paws to their tiny twitching noses. "So adorable," I said. Brightkit padded over, looking very superior and condescending. "They're little-er than us," she informed me. "So we have to watch over them and show them how to be good kittens once they're old enough to walk 'n stuff. Isn't that right, Momma?" "Right, sweetheart," Eveningfall called from where she was trying to get Sleepykit to stop biting the wailing Flowerkit. I laughed and grinned at Brightkit. "Well, I'm sure Petalkit and Poolkit will appreciate the help very much." She smiled. "Yep." Sleepily, Cloverflower gave Poolkit and Petalkit each a loving lick before laying her head back in her nest. "Cranelegs said he'd drop by again in an hour- he's been visiting so much you'd think he was a queen himself," she chuckled warmly. "They're lucky to have such a great father," I said, nodding towards the kits. Briefly, I wondered if Ravenwing had done the same for me. Or was he already too sick with the disease that killed him to even visit me? I wished I knew, wished I could travel back and see what exactly had happened. It wasn't enough to hear that my parents had loved me. I wanted to see that they had. Feel it for myself. Shaking those thoughts off, I came back to reality in time to hear Cloverflower say, "Yes, he's an amazing mate too. I'm glad to be in the Clan, with so much support." Daisypaw elbowed me lightly. "We should probably get going, actually. We have assessments tomorrow, and we have a lot of practicing to do." Though she was right, I lingered an extra moment in the nursery, glancing around. It was all so peaceful - apart from Brightkit and Sleepykit raging at each other, that is - and quiet. So cozy. No one would ever dream there had been a murder in SpringClan by looking at the nursery. Quietly, to myself, I uttered a silent prayer for all the kits, especially our new additions. I prayed that they would never ever lose their parents, that they'd be healthy and strong and- "You ready to go practice those hunting moves, Breezepaw?" Minkpaw called from outside. With a little jump, I called back, "Yeah, coming. Bye Eveningfall, Cloverflower, kittens!" "Bye, Breezepaw," Cloverflower said with a warm smile. "And you know, you're welcome to drop by any time you want. The kits will love you once they open their eyes, I'm sure." Glad I wouldn't have to invite myself(I was planning to return to this newly-discovered kit fairyland anyway) I grinned back. "Thanks, and I will!" "Nailed it!" Specklepaw crowed, shredding the leaf we were practicing with(because we'd already scared off all the actual prey with our shouting and arguing). Minkpaw crossed her eyes at him goofily. "Nope. Your hind paw brushed the ground when you pounced. That would've alerted a real prey animal easily." "I noticed that too," Daisypaw proclaimed. "Plus, you touched down too early. You have to go further and land on top of the prey, so it can't escape." Crossly, Specklepaw sniffed. "Well, I thought it was fine. And let's see you guys do better." "My turn," I mewed, laying another leaf down. "And challenge accepted, Specklepaw." Gathering my haunches beneath me, I sprang upwards and executed a near-perfect leap, flying through the air like a deer. The leaf came under my paws at the perfect time, and I tore it to pieces. Oh, and I also smashed my nose into a tree trunk, but that was a trivial, unimportant detail. I really didn't know why the others had to make such a big deal about it, laughing and hooting like a bunch of kits. I mean seriously. Did the rest of my perfect pounce not count just because of one silly mistake? Once they were done with their infantile behavior, I rubbed my sore nose and grumbled, "Very funny. Immature mouse-brains." Minkpaw snorted. "Sorry Breezepaw, but that was hilarious." Muttering to myself, I picked myself up and shook out my fur. "Hey, you okay?" Specklepaw asked. "At least some cats are nice," I said meaningfully, glaring at the still-smirking Minkpaw and Daisypaw. "And yeah, I'm fine, no thanks to them." He laughed. "So, what did Dewfrost say to work on? I think we should all focus on our weaknesses in order to prepare for the assessment." I considered this a moment. "You mean besides my atrocious skills at aerial attacks? Hm... I'd say tracking is my weakness." "Me too," Specklepaw said hastily. "We'll work on that. Daisypaw, Minkpaw, what about you guys?" The two she-cats exchanged glances. "I think we'll work on stalking," Daisypaw decided. "Is that cool, Minkpaw?" Minkpaw nodded, and the two of them trotted away. Daisypaw called over her shoulder, "We'll meet up in about an hour!" "Okay!" I yelled back. Turning to Specklepaw, I was about to ask what we should do to get started when I saw he wasn't looking at me. He was glancing behind me. When he caught my gaze, he jerked his head towards the bushes behind me meaningfully. When my eyes focused, I was surprised to see another pair of eyes staring back at me. "Brightkit?" The little white kit toddled out of the bushes cheerfully. "Ello," she said. "What are you doing out of the camp?" I asked. She shrugged nonchalantly, not seeming to be aware that her mother would be frantic with worry by now. "Explorin'," she said. "I'm an apprentice now." Raising my eyebrows, I said, "Yeah? Did Oakstar make you one?" After a brief pause to consider this, she shook her head. "Made myself one." Specklepaw and I exchanged looks. "Um, hate to tell you this Brightkit, but you can't do that," the tom mewed gently, whiskers twitching. "We'll have to take you back to camp now, and you have to wait to be an apprentice." A pout crossed her face. "Why?" she whined. "It won't be long though," I comforted. "Don't wanna wait." Looks like we have to do this the hard way, I thought to myself. Nodding to Specklepaw, I watched as he scooped Brightkit up in his jaws. The racket she made was instant. "Put me down! Put me down right now! Help, I'm being kitnapped! Help!" she screeched. I clamped my tail in her tiny jaws, wincing when she bit down on it. "Calm down Brightkit." She had a lot of fire, I'd give her that. "We're just taking you back to camp. We'll have you safe with your mother in no time." After accepting Eveningfall's many thank-yous and ignoring Brightkit's little rages, Specklepaw and I decided to just hang out at camp while we waited for Daisypaw and Minkpaw to return. Of course, we hadn't gotten any real training in, but you know. I'd wing it and hope things turned out okay. Giving a low whistle, Specklepaw said, "Boy, kits sure are a pawful. Makes me doubtful over ever having my own." I grinned and flicked my tail lazily. "You handled Brightkit fine today, especially for a tom who claims he's bad with kittens. You'll be a great father." "Thanks. What about you? Do you think you'll ever want kits?" With a shrug, I yawned. "Maybe. They're so adorable... but they're also a lot of responsibility, you know? It might be because of the way my parents died, but I guess I'm kind of scared to raise a family. Like, what if something happens to them? Plus, I don't think there are really any toms I'd be interested in." A small lie, of course. I could already imagine little black kittens with Bluebird's cobalt eyes, and blue-gray kittens with my green eyes. But Specklepaw didn't need to know that. "Oh, well, there's plenty of time to consider that later," he speculated. "We're only apprentices. Sometimes your impressions of people change as you grow up." "True that- Oh look, Daisypaw and Minkpaw are back!" We got to our paws and padded over, explaining what had happened with Brightkit. Daisypaw looked worried. "So you didn't get any training in at all? Are you sure about this, you guys?" "Yeah, I think so," I said hopefully. "I mean, it can't be that hard, can it?" "If you say so," she said with a shrug. "Hey Specklepaw, want to go on a walk in the berry fields?" Blinking, he said, "Huh? Oh, um, sure." Once they had padded off, I gushed, "Aren't they adorable together? What lovebirds." Minkpaw frowned. "I don't know, Breezepaw. There's something weird-" "Minkpaw," I interrupted. "I have sort of a personal question to ask you." She settled down and patted the ground next to her. "Ask away, unless it's something stupid about toms or the like. You know I don't like that stuff." "It's not, not really anyway. It's about parents." Tensing, she kept her eyes on the ground. "What about them?" "This might sound selfish, spoiled, and childish, but... I feel like I can't know for sure that mine ever loved me. I mean, obviously you can know yours loved you, after what they did for you. But mine got sick so suddenly after I was born. Did they ever really know me? How can you love a kit you barely got to meet?" For a moment Minkpaw was silent. Then she snapped, half-angrily, "Breezepaw, you think I'm happy my parents loved me enough to die for me? I feel guilty almost every day because of that. It's not something that makes me happy, believe me." "But-" "And as for your question," she said more gently. "I'm no mother myself, but the thing I've heard all my life is that there's no love like a mother's love. That a mother would die to protect her kits before they're even born." I rested my head on my paws. "You really think so?" She nodded and licked me on the cheek. "Of course. So stop being a big baby and accept it." Chuckling, I mewed, "Can't argue with that." Despite the fact that I had had a tiring day, with a hunting patrol and aerial training, night found me restless and unable to sleep. I tossed and turned in my nest, trying not to wake any of the others up. Finally, I gave up and padded outside. Maybe some fresh air would do me good. The camp was quiet and bare-looking in the darkness. Now devoid of the chatter and cats that usually made it seem like home, it reminded me of a tree in winter, stripped of its foliage and beauty. Still, the shiver it sent through me was almost pleasant; just like winter, there was a sort of majesty in its stark coldness. That was when I felt it. A rush of cold wind that made my teeth and ears ache, besides burning like iced fire. A glow of white appeared in the middle of the camp. As the stardust cleared, it revealed the form of a cat, a beautiful she-cat. "Cloudberry," I said in disbelief. Had she really come, just for me? Just because of how lonely I'd been feeling today? "Yes," she said, as if reading my thoughts. Stepping forward, she touched her nose to my forehead briefly. Though her touch was as icy as her aura, a spark of warmth lit in my heart. "Ravenwing and I loved you, and we still do. It may seem unfair that we're not with you as you grow up, but know that we'll always be watching." "Will I see you again?" I asked, a sudden ache inside my chest. She bowed her head. "I cannot promise you that, Breezepaw. But I'm so proud of you. Just know that." Mutely, I nodded my head. A soft smile played across her lips. Then she stepped back, her ghostly form dissolving into nothingness. "Good bye," I whispered, watching the last particles of stardust vanish. It was just a little thing. A little token to show she loved me. At least, that was what any other cat would think. But to me it meant so much more. Because the little things, they mattered so much. To love was a great gift and a great sacrifice. Someday, I hoped to be someone who could always love, no matter what the cost. Then, just before I was about to head back inside the den, I heard it. The snap of a twig, no less, but there was something sinister about it. And, sniffing the night breeze, I caught the faintest scent of a cat. Outside our camp in the night. Right at the entrance. Rogues.
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