Nightclan: the Beginning, Megan Thurston [best book club books .TXT] 📗

"Two will rise, together to defeat the evil that will come unto the Clans."  three voices chanted into the crisp night air.

"What does it mean?"

"I don't know."

"The two have come."

"Mom! Shadekit pounced on my tail!"

"Shadekit!"

"Sorry!"

It was a bright morning in Nightclans camp. Two kits were wrestling in the clearing while another looked on, cleaning its tail. Suddenly the two kits sat up. One was black with bright blue eyes while the other was a fiery orange and red with a white stomach, tip of the tail, and paws.

"Blackit! Come play with us!" bright one said.

"I don't want to. Shadekit hurts me!" Blackit replied.

He got up and shook out his fur. He was black with dark gray stripes going down his back. A dark gray queen emerged from a hole under a tree trunk. She bounded over to a black tom with green eyes and rubbed her muzzle against his. They entwined their tails and padded over to the kits.

"Dad!" Shadekit cried as he leaped onto the black toms back. The black tom rolled over and started wrestling with his eldest son.

"Smokepelt!" the queen scolded. "You could hurt him!"

"Mom! I will be fine!" Shadekit replied with a huff of breath. Smokepelt rolled over, threatening to squish Shadekit but Shadekit was too fast and rolled out of the way and jumped onto his fathers stomach and started attacking him with his paws.

"I give up!" Smokepelt breathed. Shadekit jumped off of his belly. "Another victory for me!" He ran up to a nearby tree and scored a line in it with his claw. There were tons of lines on two sides of the tree. The other side had the most. The queen looked on proudly as Shadekit bragged about his victory to his smaller and more fragile brother. She had watched them wrestle on the floor of the nursery for 3 moons and Shadekit had always made sure his brother won some of the matches and made sure he never hurt him. Smokepelt padded over to her. "He will be a fine warrior."

"Yes he will." she replied. Her eyes grew a little bit misty as she looked at him fondly. "I cannot believe that this will be my last litter. What will I do without my kits?"

"Shadefern, he is named after you. He will be a great warrior." Smokepelt purred. "I remember the time he wanted to go to that Gathering and followed me without us noticing. We were so surprised when the Gathering was over and I had a little black kit following me home!" His eyes grew misty too. "The question is, what will I do without you?" he whispered under his breath as his mate padded across the clearing to the fresh kill pile.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"She is doing well. Just keep her away from lots of running and exercise and she should be all right."

"Thank you so much Pebblemoon. You know how much she means to me."

"Your welcome Smokepelt."

Smokepelt padded out of the medicine den to see total chaos. There was a bunny in the clearing running around and the kits were chasing it. Shadekit was in the lead. He leaped but missed. Firekit swiped but stumbled and fell flat on her face. Blackit was avoiding the rabbit alltogether. Shadekit leaped up and carried on with the chase but Firekit sat up and started grooming. Shadekit drove the rabbit towards Blackit and pounced. He landed on the tail and a split second later Blackit pounced, killing the rabbit with a swift bite to the neck. "Good catch Blackit! That thing was huge! How did you do it?" Shadekit exclaimed.

"I just pounced at it and caught it in the throat. Luck, I guess." Blackit said while scuffing the ground with his front paw. "Lucky?! You had aim! You will be a great hunter!" Shadekit said proudly. Blackit then started coughing. He got over a bout but then another one came over and over again. Smokepelt bounded over to his son. "Are you all right? I have to get you to the medicine den! Shadekit, help me pick him up! Firekit go get Pebblemoon!" He lifted his son and, with Shadekits' extra support, ran into the medicine den. He place him on the dusty, herb scattered floor. "Will he be all right!?" Smokepelt exclaimed as Pebblemoon started examining the exhausted and still coughing kit. "Yes, I'm pretty sure but I need everybody to be out while I run some tests. He might have what Shadefern has." Smokepelt gasped. Shadefern, his mate, had a serious disease that made her cough a lot and only have two litters of kits. She did not know this but Pebblemoon thought that she might not live much longer because of the serious fits she was having. She would go into convulsions and lumps had started to grow on her legs and back. "That cannot be! This is the first time he has done this. Maybe he only has a cough." Smokepelt pleaded, trying to make Pebblemoon say that he was right and his youngest kit wasn't going to stunted. "Maybe." Pebblemoon said, avoiding his eyes. "I will talk to you later. Remember to tell your mate." Smokepelt tried to say yes but couldn't, it felt like a piece of fresh kill was lodged in his throat. He merely nodded his head and ushered Shadekit and Firekit out of the den.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"All cats old enough to stalk in the shadows gather beneath the Dark Rock for a Clan meeting!" Jaggedstars deep voice rang into the clearing. Shadekit, Blackit, and Firekit all padded into the clearing. trying not to show their excitement. It was 3 moons later and they were about to get their apprentice names! They all sat down calmly. Shadekit looked around. Just in a few moments they would be called up to become apprentices! He felt a nudge on his flank and saw everybody looking at him. He leaped up, embarassed, and padded up to the Dark Rock. "Shadekit from this moment on you will be Shadepaw. I will be your mentor." Jaggedstar leaped down and touched noses with Shadepaw. Then he leaped back onto the Dark Rock. "Blackit, come forward." Blackit nervously padded up to the Dark Rock. As he passed Shadepaw, Shadepaw nudged his shoulder affectionatly. Blackit looked at him gratefully and padded more strongly to the Dark Rock. "Blackit, from this moment on you will be known as Blackpaw. Your mentor will be Dawnpool." Blackpaw padded up to the white and pale pink warrior and touched noses with her cautiously. She looked at him with eyes full of warmness. "You will be the best apprentice there ever is!" she ushered him. He sat down next to her, relieved of all the attention as Jaggedstar called Firekit forward. "Firekit, from this moment on you will be known as Firepaw. Your mentor will be Foxtail." The red tom padded over eagerly. This would be his first apprentice. He touched noses with Firepaw and sat down to listen to Jaggedstar speak. "I have some very grave news. There have been recent signs of Windclan hunting on our side of the border. They will not stop, even after talking to them myself. I now have to get extreme. There will always be a patrol along the Windclan border, morning and night. We will be cautious and tired but at least we will be protected. Dismissed." He nodded his head and the whole clan dispersed into whispering clusters.

Firepaw bounded over to Shadepaw and Blackpaw. "I can't believe it! Those dirty mangepelts! Stealing our prey!" Firepaw kept on streaming out profanities as Shadepaw watched his mother get up. She wearily padded over to a bramble bush and disappeared. Shadepaw bounded over to the bramble bush. It was shaking. He could hear his mom coughing and gasping for breath. He heard a thud and the bush stopped shaking. He ran straight into the bush with the thorns tearing at his fur and emerged in a little clearing. His mom was in the middle of it, slumped over and hardly breathing. There was blood on her fur and on the ground. Shadepaw gasped. There were long, deep claw marks in her stomach. He yowled for his father. A few seconds later Smokepelt burst into the clearing with Jaggedstar and Blackthunder. He stared for a few seconds and then leaped into action. He ran over to his mate and started cleaning the scratches. He ordered Jaggedstar to go get Pebblemoon and Blackthunder to go gather cobwebs. Shadepaw ran out of the bush and fetched his brother. They layed down next to their mother and kept her warm as Pebblemoon started to work on the scratches. After what seemed like moons she sat up and looked at Jaggedstar. She walked out of the bush and beckoned Jaggedstar to follow her with her tail. A few moments later they walk back in with somber looks on their faces. Shadepaw feels a rush of panic and jumps up. "She will live, right? Right?!" Pebblemoon just looked at him and scuffed her paws. A rush of anger almost knocks him off of his paws. "So that's it." he says quietly, his anger radiating from in waves. "That's it. You gave up on my mother. You dont care." His claws sank into the ground. "Tell me why."

"She did it to herself. The lumps growing in her gave her a lot of pain so she tried to claw them out."

"But you can fix scratches."

"Not these ones. Some blood got into her lungs. She tried vomiting it all up but her body was too weak. She just collapsed. It is up to Starclan now"

There was a silence. Shadepaw could hear the blood thundering in his ears. Stupid medicine cats! Always leaving it up to Starclan like they cant do anything. Starclan can