Feathers and moss tickled at her nose as she readied to pounce on her would-be prey. The creamy flank of her mother rose and fell steadily without ever noticing how her daughter had managed to get out of the nest and was ready to pounce. A small smile played on her muzzle as she crept forward slowly and bunched her legs under her, gathering every tiny ounce of her energy into her legs before she pounced. With a strong breath in, she launched herself into the air and landed squarely on top of the moss ball she had tossed behind her mother's sleeping form.

"Gotcha!" Moonkit squeaked as she tossed the moss back into the air and readied to pounce once again on her pretend piece of prey. She happily readied herself to pounce again, not knowing that her mother had woken up and was watching her kit as she launched herself towards the moss again. A smile played on her muzzle as she watched before she looked around the den and noticed how the only other queen in the nursery, Milkdawn, was watching Moonkit practice her hunting.

"She will make the clan proud one day, Rosecrystal," Milkdawn purred soothingly to the queen, noticing how sadness seemed to weigh heavily on the cream she-cat's shoulders. She nodded her head happily before standing to her paws and stretching out her legs from a long night's sleep. "Moonkit." Hearing her mother's voice, Moonkit turned her head to look at the queen and smiled happily.

"Good morning, Mama! I was wondering if I could go look at the camp today," Moonkit said, bounding over to her mother and looking up at her pleadingly. She watched she her mother hesitated, she knew that it was for a good reason. She glanced quietly over at their empty nest, where her littermates had lived for only two moons before joining the ranks of StarClan. The sobs of her mother over the loss still rang in Moonkit's ears whenever she thought about her siblings. Rosecrystal gazed at her before nodding. "Alright, go ahead and see the camp."

Moonkit bounced happily to her paws and sprang away from the queens and towards the brambles and what lay beyond them. Caution suddenly made her pause in her tread only a mouse-length from the veil shrouding her from the outside world. She was unsure of what she was supposed to do when she got out there. Something inside her made her look over her shoulder at her mother who watched over her from where she sat. Moonkit took a single deep breath and puffed up her chest as she pushed her way out of the brambles.

Bright light made her eyes wince as she exited the nursery and tried desperately to adjust her eyes to the abnormal amount of sunlight. Her eyes watered, but her eyes cleared and widened as she saw the place where her clan lived and thrived. So many lean and beautiful cats moved around the camp and spoke with one another in patches of sunlight while other ate at prey they had caught on earlier patrols. Moonkit stared, awestruck, at the sights around her before looking behind her to see where the nursery she had grown in was set up. The sight made her eyes grow even bigger. Tall sandy walls towered high into the sky with caves and paths weaving to and fro where a few more cats moved about to reach their dens and meet with the rest of their clanmates.

Realizing where she was standing, she looked down and began climbing down the rocky path that led her to the ground below her, feeling the pawsteps of past clanmates under her own paws as she padded carefully down the path. Her paws felt unsteady against the path, but she tried to keep her balance the best she could as she descended to the ground below. A few larger cats noticed her the moment she had exited the nursery and watched her fondly as she looked around at the camp. One, a rather small ginger she-cat, took the initiative and approached Moonkit.

"Hello," she meowed kindly, kinking her tail in greeting. Moonkit looked up at the she-cat before smiling. "Hi! I'm Moonkit!" she explained happily. The she-cat let out a purr of amusement and nodded. "I'm Vixenpaw; I'm the apprentice who usually brought prey to your mother and Milkdawn." Moonkit blinked and looked up at the apprentice curiously. She had to admit, she hadn't expected an apprentice to be so much taller than she was. Then again, her inner voice mused, Mama and Milkdawn are much bigger than Vixenpaw.

As she mused to herself, Vixenpaw glanced over her shoulder and prodded Moonkit in the side with a paw in order to get her attention. "If you want to be shown around camp, I would suggest asking Barkkit and Silverkit to show you around. You know them right?" Moonkit looked in the direction that Vixenpaw turned her ears towards and noticed a familiar pair of kits playing side by side in a patch of the camp covered in golden sand. She could immediately see how much closer in size the two were to Vixenpaw than she was, showing that they were a quarter-moon older than her (she hated to admit it, but she was rather small for how old she was). A smile suddenly spread across her face at the thought of actually meeting the two instead of watching them from afar with her sickly littermates. Without a second thought, Moonkit charged over to where the two were playing and called out, "Hey, Silverkit, Barkkit!"

The two halted in their game of moss ball and turned to greet their denmate. Silverkit was the first to speak when Moonkit joined them. "Rosecrystal finally let you out of the nursery?" Moonkit raised her head proudly and nodded. "She said I could look around the camp. I never knew it was so big!" The two nodded in agreement and began to tell her about when they had first left the nursery when the snow of leaf-bare had just begun to melt. Their stories fascinated her and she listened intently as the two began to stray from their original story and began telling her stories they had heard from the warriors and their own mother. Vixenpaw, who had followed the creamy kit to greet her denmates, sighed as her unspoken dismissal rang in her ears and padded away to join her fellow apprentice in a patch of sun alongside their mentors.

"-and then Lionstar leapt on the back of the fox and yowled 'Get out of my Clan, you mangy fox'. The fox was so surprised that he went running with his tail between his legs and never set paw on our territory again," Barkkit explained, finishing his story by puffing up his chest as though he had been the cat to drive out the fox. Moonkit stared at Barkkit, transfixed by his story, and wished she could have actually been there to see the story play out as it had really happened. With all of their stories told, Silverkit and Barkkit happily showed Moonkit around the camp.

They began at a pile of large rocks that stood almost at the central of the camp, which Silverkit had called the Rockpile. "This is where Lionstar does all the ceremonies and announces battles to the clan," Silverkit explained. "Over there, that one cave a little farther apart from the others is Lionstar's den." Moonkit strained her neck to look up at the cave when she noticed a large golden tabby stepping out of the cave and down the path towards where they stood. For some odd reason Moonkit felt as though she had met him somewhere before, but she couldn't quite place where. She continued to watch him as he descended down the path and landed lithely only a few tail-lengths from them. His brilliant eyes glanced at them and widened slightly as he truly looked them over. Without warning, he began towards them and Moonkit suddenly felt every hair on her pelt stand on end.

The tom halted as he stood before them and smiled down at the tree with kind eyes. "Hello, little ones, out exploring the camp are we?" His voice was deep and reverberated almost like a purr in his throat when he spoke. When Moonkit heard him speak, she knew instantly where she knew him from: when she was much younger, back when Leafkit and Nightkit had not yet fallen ill, she had heard this voice speaking kindly to her mother in comfort over the loss of Mallowkit. If she remembered right, this tom had visited them quite often to comfort Rosecrystal. His eyes were kind as he gazed down at her, and she knew exactly why. "Excuse me," she mewed, getting the tom's attention, "you're Lionstar, right?" The tom chuckled and nodded. "Yes, I am Lionstar, leader of SkyClan."

A small thrill played inside of Moonkit as she remembered more and more about what he had talked to Rosecrystal about. If she remembered correctly, Lionstar was not only the leader of SkyClan but also the older brother to her mother. Feeling some sort of pride in knowing that this tom was her kin made her hold her head a little higher.

He turned to look over Silverkit and Barkkit and nodded approvingly. "Soon, you three will be made apprentices and will be able to help your clan with hunting and fighting, what do you think?" The siblings howled in agreement while Moonkit nodded enthusiastically. "So you all think you're ready to learn battle moves and hunting techniques? Well, how about I show you a battle move or two right now?" All three kits mewled happily as their leader began to show them standard battle moves that all the warriors had learned as apprentices.

Lionstar demonstrated for them the front paw strike and forepaw slash moves to start. Silverkit got the move down rather clumsily, falling over many times as she tried it. Barkkit fared a bit better, keeping his balance and bringing his forepaw down as if he was striking another cat. Moonkit watched them as they did it before trying it herself, mimicking Lionstar's stance, Barkkit's balance and Silverkit's unhesitating downward strike on her invisible foe. Although it took practice, all three of them soon found themselves able to do it almost as well as their leader. Lionstar acknowledged this by praising them and suggesting tips on how to make their fighting even better. Of the three, only Moonkit seemed truly devoted to mastering the move. Around Sunhigh, Lionstar excused himself and went to speak with a patrol of cats that had just entered the camp.

Barkkit was hyped from practicing that he wanted to try their moves for real. "Alright, I'll fight Moonkit and Silverkit will watch and give us some tips." Silverkit let out a groan about having to sit on the sidelines but moved out of the way nonetheless. Moonkit faced her denmate and crouched, ready to fight even if it was a simple tussle. Without warning, she shot forwards and brought on paw down against Barkkit's muzzle. He squeaked in surprise and leaped back to try and escape the blow only to wind up falling over onto his back. Barkkit bounced back onto his paws quickly and charged at her, bringing a paw of his own up and brought it down towards her muzzle. In a heartbeat, Moonkit turned her head to the side so that his paw would bounce off her cheek. Instead of feeling a paw pad brush against her cheek, she felt a stringing pain behind her ear. With a yelp, she leaped away from Barkkit and brought a paw up to feel the spot. She felt Silverkit watching in shock as she pulled her paw away to reveal red blood on her paw.

Barkkit sucked in a sharp breath of shock before realizing that the paw he had hit her with had had his claws unsheathed. Silverkit began to whimper and wail as more blood pooled from behind Moonkit's ear and cascaded thickly down her cheek and plopped onto the ground. As the speck of red hit the ground, Silverkit screamed and raced for the nursery while Barkkit remained frozen. "Mommy! Moonkit is gonna bleed to death!"

Within moments of Silverkit's wail hitting the air, Rosecrystal shot out of the nursery and knelt beside her daughter, surveying the damage done. Milkdawn, only a breath behind her, glanced at the injury before looking to her son and noting the blood on his small claws. She glared at her son but held off on scolding her and told Rosecrystal that she would get Swallowfur. Despite everything going on around her, Moonkit didn't feel the slightest bit scared. In fact, she wasn't even angry at Barkkit for fighting with his claws unsheathed. "Mama, I'm fine!" she protested as her mother tried to get her to lie down. "It doesn't even hurt that much anymore. Besides, I'm not going to die from it like Silverkit said." Suddenly, her mother wasn't her mother any longer.

"No, Moonkit, it could have killed you! Anything can kill you, just like how sickness took Leafkit and Nightkit and starvation took Mallowkit, an injury could take you away from me!" Her eyes were wild and unfocused as she scolded her kit. "You are not allowed to do anymore fighting until you are an apprentice, do you understand me!"

The world around her suddenly fell silent as her mother's words sank into her pelt. Then warmth stung her eyes and large tears began to trail down her cheeks accompanied by small sobs that shook her body. "I'm sorry, Mama," she sobbed quietly. Rosecrystal blinked in surprise and took a shocked step away from her daughter. "I'm sorry, I promise I won't fight another clanmate again but if I don't learn how to fight, how am I supposed to protect SkyClan?" The queen merely watched her kit as she sobbed, never noticing the arrival of Swallowfur nor Gorsefoot as they stood quietly at her sides. Her mate gently prodded her flank and she shot forward to pull her kit close to her side and tried to quiet her small sobs. Gorsefoot and Swallowfur let out a unified sigh as they watched mother and kit comfort each other.

"I would say that you are very lucky, Moonkit," Swallowfur announced as she placed the last bit of cobwebs over the kit's wound. "It is a pretty deep scratch wound, but it should heal up very nicely in a sunrise or two at least." The creamy kit blinked and looked to the she-cat with a grateful smile plain on her face. After Rosecrystal had managed to soothe Moonkit, they had gone with Swallowfur to get the cut examined in the privacy of the medicine cat's den, the one cave closest to the river that flowed through the edge of the camp. "Thank you, Swallowfur," Moonkit mewed, bowing her head gratefully to the tiny she-cat.

From behind Swallowfur, Rosecrystal let out a sigh of relief while Gorsefoot intertwined his tail with his mate's in an attempt to calm her nerves. With the medicine cat's approval, Moonkit bounded over to her parents and nuzzled her mother comfortingly. "You heard her, Mama, I'll be fine," she mewed, brushing her nose against the she-cat's chin. When her nose brushed against her mother's pelt, she noticed how badly her mother was shaking and worried that she didn't believe her. She stepped back and looked into her mother's eyes to see relief glowing like the sun as she looked over her daughter. She lowered her muzzle to press it lovingly onto her kit's cheek, relief flowing in waves off her pelt. Gorsefoot smiled at the sight before clearing his throat and leading his family out of the den.

The sun had begun its descent through the sky and prepared for a well earned days rest while the small flowing lights of Silverpelt began to appear in the darkening sky. Many of the cats had retired to their dens, only three or four staying at the entrance in order to guard the camp during the night and a familiar queen and her two kits who waited outside the den. Milkdawn looked to Rosecrystal and bowed her head in apology. The queen just shook her head and pressed her flank against her friend's and leading her and their kits to their den. Moonkit slowed her pace to walk beside her father. He smiled down at her. "I'm glad it's just a little scratch, your first real battle scar."

Moonkit lifted her head proudly as if to show off the mesh of cobwebs behind her ear. He snickered at the gesture before looking forwards at his mate with a sad grin. "I hope you know she didn't really mean what she said," he murmured loud enough for only his daughter to hear. She paused in her step and nodded sadly, letting her chin rest against her chest as she thought back to her mother's words. Even now, they stung her pelt like thorns that refused to be groomed out. She raised her eyes to watch as her mother began to climb up the path to the nursery. "Do you think she will ever get over their deaths?" she asked quietly. Gorsefoot did not reply immediately and paused just outside the nursery before responding. "No, I don't think she will ever forget how much it hurt to lose them." Moonkit felt her spirits fall gravely as the words reached her ears and she lowered her head again. Believing that their talk was finished, she began to move through the brambles and into the cave.

"But, I think she will be able to become happier overtime even if it still hurts."

She blinked in surprise and turned around to ask if he really meant that only to find that Gorsefoot was already finding his way higher up the pathway towards the warriors' den. A small grin played on her muzzle as she turned away and joined her denmates in the milky scented den.

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