“Where’ve they gone?” she called to Snowkit.
Snowkit was staring around the camp. “I don’t know,” she meowed absently. “Look at that prey!” She was staring at a heap of birds and mice at the side of the clearing. It was topped by a fat, fluffy squirrel.
“The fresh-kill pile!” Bluekit bounced toward it, her nose twitching. She’d heard the queens in the nursery talking about prey, and she’d smelled squirrel on her mother’s fur. What would it taste like? Thrusting her nose into the pile, she tried to sink her claws into a small creature with short brown fur and a long, thin tail.
“Watch out!”
Snowkit’s warning came too late. Bluekit’s paws buckled as the plump squirrel rolled off the top of the pile and flattened her. Ooof!
Purrs of amusement erupted from the two warriors beside the nettle patch. “I’ve never seen fresh-kill attack a cat before!” meowed one of them.
“Careful!” warned the other warrior. “All that fluff might choke you!”
Hot with embarrassment, Bluekit wriggled out from under the squirrel and stared fiercely at the warriors. “It just fell on me!” She didn’t want to be remembered as the kit who was jumped on by a dead squirrel.
“Hey, you two!” Bluekit recognized Patchkit from his nursery-scent as he padded out from behind the nursery. “Does your mother know you’re outside?”
“Of course!” Bluekit spun around to see her denmate for the first time.
Oh.
She hadn’t expected Patchkit to be so big. His black-and-white fur was smooth like a warrior’s, and she had to tip her head back to look up at him. She stretched her legs, trying to appear taller.
Leopardkit scampered after her brother, swiping playfully at his tail. Her black coat shone in the sunshine. She stopped and stared in delight when she saw Bluekit and Snowkit. “You’ve opened your eyes!”
Bluekit licked her chest, trying to smooth down her fluffy fur and wishing her pelt were as sleek as theirs.
“We can show you around,” Leopardkit mewed excitedly.
Snowkit bounced around the older kit. “Yes, please!”
Bluekit flicked her tail crossly. She didn’t want to be shown her territory. She wanted to explore it for herself! But Leopardkit was already trotting toward the wide patch of ferns near the gorse barrier. “This is the apprentices’ den,” she called over her shoulder. “We’ll be sleeping there in a moon.”
Snowkit raced after her.
“Are you coming?” Patchkit nudged Bluekit.
Bluekit was gazing back at the nursery. “Won’t you miss your old nest?” She felt a sudden flicker of anxiety. She liked sleeping next to Moonflower.
“I can’t wait to move into my new den!” Patchkit yowled as he darted toward the apprentices’ den. “It’ll be great to be able to talk without Swiftbreeze telling us to be quiet and go to sleep.”
As Bluekit hurried after him, the ferns trembled and a tortoiseshell face poked out between the green fronds.
“Once you start your training,” yawned the sleepy-looking apprentice, “you’ll be glad to get some sleep.”
“Hello, Dapplepaw!” Patchkit skittered to a halt outside the den as the tortoiseshell she-cat stretched, half in and half out of the bush.
Bluekit stared at Dapplepaw’s pelt, thick and shiny; the muscles on the she-cat’s shoulders rippled as she sprang from the ferns and landed beside Patchkit. Suddenly Bluekit’s denmate didn’t seem so big after all.
“We’re showing Bluekit and Snowkit around the camp,” Leopardkit announced. “It’s their first time out.”
“Don’t forget to show them the dirtplace,” Dapplepaw joked. “Whitepaw was complaining only this morning about cleaning out the nursery. The place has been filled with kits for moons, and there’s more on the way.”
Bluekit lifted her chin. “Snowkit and I can keep our nest clean now,” she declared.
Dapplepaw’s whiskers quivered. “I’ll tell Whitepaw when she gets back from hunting. I’m sure she’ll be delighted to hear it.”
Is she teasing? Bluekit narrowed her eyes.
“I can’t wait to go hunting!” Patchkit dropped into a crouch, his tail weaving like a snake.
Quick as the wind, Dapplepaw pinned it down with her paw. “Don’t forget to keep your tail still or the prey will hear you swishing up the leaves.”
Patchkit pulled his tail free and straightened it out, flattening it to the ground.
Snowkit stifled a purr. “It sticks out like a twig,” she whispered in Bluekit’s ear.
Bluekit was watching too intently to reply. She studied how Patchkit had pressed his chest to the ground, how he’d unsheathed his claws and tucked his hind paws right under his body. I’m going to be the best hunter ThunderClan has ever seen, she vowed.
“Not bad,” Dapplepaw congratulated Patchkit, then glanced at Leopardkit. “Let’s see your hunting crouch.”
Leopardkit instantly dropped and pressed her belly to the ground.
Bluekit longed to try it, but not until she’d practiced by herself. “Come on, let’s leave them to it,” she whispered to Snowkit.
Snowkit stared at her in surprise. “Leave them?”
“Let’s explore by ourselves.” Bluekit saw a chance to slip away unnoticed.
“But it’s fun hanging out with…”
Bluekit didn’t hear any more; she was already backing away. Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted a low, spreading bush beside the nursery. Patchkit and Leopardkit wouldn’t find them there. She spun around and dashed for the bush, diving under a branch. As she caught her breath, she tasted lots and lots of different scents clinging to the leaves. How many cats were there in ThunderClan? Did they really all fit in the camp?
The branches shook, and Snowkit crashed in after her.
“I thought you weren’t coming!” Bluekit squeaked in surprise.
“Moonflower told us to stay together,” Snowkit reminded her.
Together they peeped out to see if Leopardkit, Patchkit, and Dapplepaw had noticed their escape. The three cats were staring at the nursery, looking puzzled.
Dapplepaw shrugged. “They must have gone back to their nest.”
“Never mind.” Patchkit paced around Dapplepaw. “Now you can take us to the sandy hollow like you promised.”
Sandy hollow? What’s that? Bluekit suddenly wished she’d stayed with the others.
“I never promised!” Dapplepaw protested.
“We’ll be in trouble if we get caught,” Leopardkit warned. “We’re not supposed to leave the camp until we’re apprentices, remember?”
“Then we won’t get caught,” Patchkit mewed.
Dapplepaw glanced uncertainly around the clearing. “I’ll take you to the edge of the ravine,” she offered. “But that’s all.”
Jealousy burned Bluekit’s pelt as she watched Dapplepaw lead Leopardkit and Patchkit toward the gorse barrier and disappear through a gap at the base.
Maybe we can follow them and see where they go…
Suddenly a muzzle nudged her hindquarters and sent her skidding out from her hiding place. Her sister tumbled after her, and a gray tabby face peered out at them from under the leaves.
“What are you doing here? This is the warriors’ den!”
“S-sorry!” Snowkit backed away.
Bluekit faced the warrior. “How were we supposed to know?” she protested. Do warriors have a special scent or something?
The tabby tom narrowed his eyes. “Are you Moonflower’s kits?”
Snowkit’s pelt ruffled and she looked down at her paws.
Bluekit lifted her chin. She wasn’t scared of the grouchy warrior. “Yes. I’m Bluekit. And this is my sister, Snowkit.”