Chapt 29

Dovepelt began to hiss at the cats. She didn’t know them, so she assumed they were Dark Forest warriors. She was about to launch herself at them when Bramblestar let out a mew of excitement and rushed over to a black cat with a white tipped tail.

“Ravenpaw! It’s so good to see you again! And Barley, you too,” He chattered like a kit to the older toms,” Who is this you’ve got with you?”

“This is Jinx, we found him while we were on our way here, he was bleeding heavily. Can your medicine cat help him? Then we’d like to speak to Firestar,” The black tom cat looked around for the ginger leader.

“I’m sorry Ravenpaw, Firestar is dead. He died killing Tigerstar.” Bramblestar rested his head on Ravenpaw’s shoulder. Ravenpaw howled in grief, and then regained himself.

“Please, Jinx won’t live much longer,” He looked down at the heap of fur and blood on the ground. Jayfeather immediately rushed over, and checked the tom.

“What is his name?” Barley pointed his nose Jayfeather.

“This is Jayfeather; he was Leafpool’s apprentice, before she retired. I am Bramblestar, and Cinderheart is my deputy. Come, we have much to explain.” Bramblestar beckoned the two toms to his den. The other leaders followed suit. Dovepelt didn’t know who these cats were so she went up to a cat who might.

“Thornclaw, who are Ravenpaw and Barley?” Dovepelt sat in front of the warrior, who was cleaning himself.

“Well, Ravenpaw was an apprentice who left the clans. He knew too much about Tigerstar and his plans, so Firestar, Firepaw then, helped him run away to Barley. He’s been a good friend to the clans, they helped us fight against Bloodclan and helped rescue Featherpaw, Stonepaw, and Mistyfoot when they were hostages in Tigerclan. They are friends to us, but I have no idea how they got all the way here. It must have taken them ages.” Thornclaw explained, eyes shining in memories. Dovepelt nodded then went back to check on her kits.

“Mama, Mama! Who were those cats? They smelled funny!” Duskkit ran up to her mother.

“That was Ravenpaw, Barley, and Jinx, and of course they smelled funny, they’re not from the clans.” Dovepelt sat down to explain the story to her kits.

“Wow! Firestar did all that, when he was an apprentice?” Stonekit sat wide eyed.

“I’m going to do that too! I’m going to help the clan in every way possible!” Hedgekit proclaimed.

“No, I will!” Foxkit jumped on his brother. Then all the kits joined in and it became a ball of fur and squeals.

“Why don’t we practice defending the nursery, we haven’t done that in a few days,” Dovepelt suggested.

“We need Mountainkit and Rainkit,” Honeykit danced around her brothers. Dovepelt walked over to where Ashfoot and Cinderheart were laying with their kits, she asked them if they wanted to do some battle training.

“Of course,” Ashfoot purred. She was watching Squirrelflight’s kits, so four kits got up and padded towards Dovepelt’s.

“How about you, Cinderheart?” She turned to the gray queen.

“I don’t know, Leopardkit has a fever and I don’t want her to feel left out,” The small spotted kits was wriggling uncomfortably.

“Please mama! I wanna’ go play!” Mountainkit sprang up.

“Fine, be back before dinner time. I want you to be checked by Jayfeather, I don’t want you catching whatever Leopardkit has,” She added licking her kit, “Be careful, don’t hurt the other kits.” Mountainkit ran off towards the other kits. Dovepelt padded after the cluster of kits, which were slowly moving outside the nursery.

“Okay, I want you guys to attack me, but I don’t want you to say what you’re going to do, I want to you signal it. A tail twitch to the right means, attack on the right. A tail twitch to the left means attack to the left. First we need a leader to tell us where we’re going to attack,” Her eyes swept over the kits and landed on Mountainkit,” Mountainkit, you can be leader first. What do you do if I’m attacking another warrior on the left and my right is facing towards you?”

“I would twitch my tail to the right to attack. What about defensive moves? Or if I want to send two patrols at once? What do I do then?” Mountainkit was serious.

Dovepelt was surprised by his question, ”Well, for a defensive attack, put your tail straight up so everyone can see. We only do that if someone needs to be protected. We won’t be sending out two different patrols as kits, you don’t have as much strength as a full grown cat, so we need all of you together. Now, attack!”

To her surprise the kits didn’t launch themselves at her right away. Instead they started circling her. She kept her eyes on Mountainkit, who seemed to notice she left her other side vulnerable. He flicked his tail and the kits instantly raced to her side. She flicked them off, but two more would take their place. Then Mountainkit twitched his tail again and they were on the other side. They bit and scratched and Mountainkit flicked his tail up. The kits scattered, leaving time for Dovepelt to stagger to her paws. The kits ran under her, biting her legs and pulling her belly fur. She jumped to the left but Mountainkit was already there with a group of 3 kits. They jumped on top of her as she landed making her fall clumsily, then the other kits joined in. Dovepelt could tell they were tired.

“All right! You guys did great! Especially you Mountainkit, that was great planning,” She saw his eyes glow with pride.

“Actually some of it was Rainkit, he was the one who said I should circle you,” He replied modestly. Dovepelt told them to go back to the nursery and maybe they could go to the elders den to tell them about their training. She padded to the Medicine den, hoping to run into Jayfeather. She called into the den and heard him excuse himself from Willowshine. The black tabby appeared in front of her.

“What do you need?” He hissed.

“I was wondering if you had talked to Honeykit yet.” Her daughter was destined to become a medicine cat, but she didn’t know it yet.

“No, I’ve had no time today to do anything except care for Jinx. He’s badly wounded. He has a sprained paw, and cuts all over his body. The worst are on his stomach. I don’t know who did this to him but it was something evil; I’ve never seen another cat do this to someone,” He murmured.

“Will he live?”

“I don’t know, he’s in the paws of Starclan now,” Jayfeather blinked, “Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Well, Leopardkit has a fever,” She mentioned. Jayfeather nodded and padded toward the nursery.