Sneaky Kitten

Leopardkit held her breath as she looked at her mother. Her mother was breathing deeply, in and out, in and out. Leopardkit was pretty sure she was asleep. It was the perfect time to make her escape! She climbed out of the nest, being careful not to wake her mother, and snuck out of the Nursery.

She peeked her head around the edge of the Nursery, eyeing the rest of the Clan. Nobody seemed to be paying attention to the Nursery or its inhabitants. Leopardkit's plan was working, so far. She snuck along the edge of the den, and slipped through the reeds, landing in some mud

Leopardkit wrinkled her nose. Great, she'd smell like dirt and frogs. At least no one had seen her. Or so she thought.

Streamtail was known to be a light sleeper, so she wasn't surprised when something woke the blue-grey she-cat up. Frowning in confusion, she slipped out of the warriors den, trying to try be as quiet as possible. Her eyes scanned around camp for any signs of a predator, squinting the emerald-green orbs to see better. When she saw that no one was inside of camp, Streamtail proceeded to take a peek at the camp entrance. There, she saw the familiar pelt of a kit, Leopardkit. A soft purr rose from her throat and Streamtail picked Leopardkit up by the scruff. Ignoring the mud on her muzzle, she set Leopardkit down and settled down beside the kit. "What were you doing outside camp, little one?"

Leopardkit startled when jaws came down around her scruff, picking her up and pulling her away from her adventure. Once she had been set back down, she looked up at the warrior who'd caught her sullenly. "I was gonna have a great adventure!" she declared, a bit too loud for the early morning. "I was gonna catch a fish for mother!" She lashed her tail back and forth. "But now I can't..." she sniffed a little, but then looked up at Streamtail eagerly. "H-hey! You can show me how to catch a fish, right?!"

Streamtail shook her head gently and laughed. When Leopardkit asked about the river, Streamtail's expression grew sad. "I wish I could...but the river is all dried up. I could show you but it would only be on dry land." She sighed wistfully and flicked her long tail. "When you become an apprentice, hopefully, the river will be back to normal soon..."

Leopardkit's tail drooped when Streamtail told her that the river was dried up. How could that happen? It was a river for Starclan's sake! Unless it was a sign from Starclan that something was wrong. "The river is gone?! How are we gonna eat?!" Leopardkit whined. "Worse, how will we protect ourselves. The other clans can just walk to our camp now!"

Streamtail placed her tail around Leopardkit, having been a former queen herself. "SkyClan has suffered worse than us. We can always catch land prey too, I've caught a couple mice and voles a few sunrises ago. We don't always have to take food from the river. If any of the Clans walk into our camp, us warriors will defend it, don't worry." SkyClan had suffered worse. Much worse. Their whole camp was burned down and only StarClan knew how many cats had died.

Leopardkit wrinkled her nose at the mention of Skyclan. "Those tree-climbers?" she said disdainfully. "Maybe if they stopped trying to pretend to be squirrels, they'd have managed to protect their Clan!" It was clear that Leopardkit was repeating rhetoric someone had told her. "So could you teach me to hunt land animals?!?!" Leopardkit jumped to her feet, circling in place in excitement.

Streamtail's face turned stern as Leopardkit spoke about SkyClan. "I don't think that any Clan cat could have protected anyone against a fire. Sure, they could have prepared earlier, but that doesn't make them bad or anything." Sighing as the kit continued to leap about happily, asking Streamtail to teach her how to hunt land prey, Streamtail thought about it. "You're going to be an apprentice soon, right? You'll have to learn then, I don't want to risk a predator coming to attack you. Your mom would kill me if I let you outside of camp."

Leopardkit blinked at Streamtail's sudden sternness. "Oh... I suppose not. Fires are scary..." She said, shuddering. She was disappointed when Streamtail told her that she would have to wait until she was an apprentice to learn how to hunt. "Awww man!"