KESTRELKIT

Kestrelkit woke the next morning to cold and wet air, but refused to let it dampen her spirit on this particular day. Even if the late greenleaf storm of the previous night were still raging, she would be just as bright-eyed and excited, eagerly awaiting her apprentice ceremony.

She had overheard Beetlestar speaking with Dapplefur last night, when the black tom and calico queen thought she was fast asleep. Instead, the little ginger kit brought into the camp a few days earlier had been on her mind. Her dreams were dotted with splotches of ginger and tortoiseshell fur, and she always woke wondering if the kit would make it out alive, even though she knew it wouldn't.

Yawning wide, Kestrelkit lifted herself to her paws and made her way to the entrance of the den. The bustling of the camp told her the dawn patrols had returned, and they milled about the centre of camp. Ripplestream and Dapplefur still dozed in their nests and Brightkit and Skykit rolled about in the mud outside of the nursery.

"Kestrelkit!" both of the smaller kits squealed when the tortoiseshell came into view. She flicked her ear to acknowledge she heard them, but turned her head in the direction of a cool breeze that floated through the canyon. It tugged at her whiskers with its breath, pulling her fur back and whistling past her ears. She loved this feeling and found herself enjoying it immensely - until a splash of mud came up, accompanied by two small bodies.

Groaning, Kestrelkit rolled out from underneath the other kits, shaking out her dirty fur. The mud weighed down her body and she suddenly felt self-conscious and small. She wanted to look her best for her apprentice ceremony, even if she couldn't check her reflection in the stream.

Twisting around in an effort to lick the gunk off, she found herself struggling to reach most of it. Off to her left she could hear the giggles of the other two kits as they watched their denmate's antics, apparently finding her discomfort amusing. Kestrelkit ignored them, going about her cleaning as best as she could and refusing to let her special day be ruined.

"Kestrelkit, what have I told you about playing in the mud?" Her mother's exasperated voice drifted from the nursery. Kestrelkit protested, her explanations cut off by her mother's rough tongue.

When the kit's fur was clean enough for Dapplefur's standards, she stepped back, observing her only kit.

"Your father would have been so proud," Dapplefur said. Kestrelkit purred softly, though her pelt still burned with embarrassment. She licked her chest fur to hide it, muttering a thank you.

"Now, are you ready for your ceremony?" There was hesitation in her mother's voice and, somewhere deep down, Kestrelkit knew that the queen half wanted her daughter to say no, to stay in the safety of the nursery for a moon or two more.

But Kestrelkit knew that today was the day. The idea of sitting in the nursery with Brightkit and Skykit for so much as another day made her want to run as fast as her legs would carry her. A whole other world lay there, waiting to be explored.

"Yes," Kestrelkit replied, holding her head high.

"Good," came a deep purr from her right and she swivelled her ears towards Beetlestar. She heard a thump as he leaped onto the Fallen Tree and spoke the usual words that called the rest of the Clan to the centre of the camp.

The tortoiseshell kit stepped forward shakily and, though she had walked this very path from the nursery to the Fallen Tree many times before, she suddenly felt uncertain. What if today, of all days, she did something wrong? She was enough of a laughing stock for some in the Clan as it was.

Her mother nudged her forward gently and Kestrelkit began to move, keeping her paw steps even and purposeful as she approached the centre of the camp. It took all of her effort to make her fur lie flat as she felt the eyes of RockClan turn to her. She worried that her divided attention would cause her to bump into something - or someone.

Instead, she heard the soft shifting of paws and fur as they moved out of her way, watching her pass through before closing their ranks behind her. Kestrelkit stopped when she felt the ground change from hard rock to that of a sandy nature, knowing she was close to the Fallen Tree. She felt the sand shift as Dapplefur settled down behind her, giving her kit one last swift lick before turning her attention to Beetlestar.

"Kestrelkit, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed." The small tortoiseshell turned her head in the direction of her leader, heart pounding an anxious rhythm in her chest.

"From this day on, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Kestrelpaw. Your mentor will be Gentlefern and it is my hope that she will pass down all she knows to you."

As Beetlestar went to address the warrior she-cat, Kestrelpaw let out the breath she had not realized she was holding in. The possibilities of having Palethorn as her mentor, who terrified her, or someone like Silverhawk, who called her names, no longer ran through her head. Gentlefern was a good match, if there ever was one.

"Gentlefern, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You have shown yourself to be kind and patient and you will be mentor to Kestrelpaw. I expect you to pass on all you know to her."

The newly named apprentice felt a nose touch her forehead and she lifted her own up to meet it, a small purr escaping her as the anxiety faded away.

"We'll take a tour of the territory tomorrow," her new mentor said kindly. "Hopefully the sky clears by then." Kestrelpaw nodded eagerly, excited to get to know her Clan's borders.

"Why would a blind apprentice need a tour?" The snarky comment came from somewhere behind her and the she-cat recognized it to be the voice of Silverhawk, one of the younger warriors. Kestrelpaw felt her excitement begin to fade, the good mood she woke up in completely dissipated.

"It's not like she'll see anything anyway," added Badgerclaw, the silver warrior she-cat's brother.

"It's no wonder you two are terrible at hunting," butted in another voice. "Seems your noses and ears don't even work half as well as they should." Kestrelpaw, shocked, realized it was Emberpaw, one of the more gruff she-cats in the Clan.

The two warriors were silent, a strange thing for them; had they been admonished by any other apprentice, they would have fought back. Kestrelpaw turned in Emberpaw's direction, about to thank her, but the loud growl of Palethorn cut her off.

"My question is if there's even a point to showing her the territory." A thud sounded as the tom jumped up onto the Fallen Tree next to Beetlestar. "The prey is slowly disappearing, it's been raining for days, and the leader who brought us here is dead." The rest of the Clan fell silent and Kestrelpaw pricked her ears.

"I propose that we leave this place while we still can," the tom continued. "There must be plenty of places where we could settle without having to worry about the heat killing us or our supposed 'prey' striking back."

Before he could continue, Beetlestar cut in. "Yes, there are many places. In the past two season cycles, we've been through four of them."

"Palethorn has a point," Frostfur called. "Those last four territories cost us many good cats. Maybe, if we leave now, we could prevent more from being taken from us."

"Who is to say that this time we'll be forced to leave?" said Morningbreeze. "We could very well be leaving the one place that is safe."

"But do we really want to endanger the lives of our kits?" Ripplestream's voice was high-pitched and nervous.

"StarClan would send us a sign if we were not safe here," Beartooth assured the queen.

The comments continued and, to Kestrelpaw, the argument seemed pointless. She remembered the stories Thistleclaw and Goldfur told of the forest where RockClan - then OakClan - used to live and of all of the battles they fought. There had been foxes and badgers, dogs and Twolegs, and many brave cats died for their Clan. Death was inevitable, no matter where the Clan went.

If someone were able to tell just how many cats would die here, however...

The tortoiseshell pushed the thought aside, remembering Silverhawk's snide comment. Kestrelpaw refused to expose a part of herself that would make her even more of an outsider than she already was.

"You would lead this Clan to believe that it is safe here, when it clearly isn't?" Palethorn said loudly, cutting into the apprentice's thoughts. She felt her fur bristle and, from the sudden sense of discomfort in the air, knew she was not the only one.

"The Clan is safe here," Beetlestar replied, a note of tension in his usually calm voice.

This seemed to anger Palethorn further, a growl escaping from his throat. Before he could retort, another voice joined in.

"Forgive me if I'm wrong, but are you suggesting that our leader is incapable of leading?" Martenfur's voice rang out loud and clear over the assembled cats. A murmur went up among them and, even to Kestrelpaw's young ears, the challenge in Martenfur's voice was evident. The tom received no answer from the older warrior.

"Please return to your Clan duties," Beetlestar said in a clipped tone, landing lightly on the floor of the canyon. Paws shuffled as the Clan rose, some of its members brushing past Kestrelpaw and congratulating her. All walked away with that same feeling of anxiety clinging to their fur.

She nodded respectfully in thanks but, though her Clanmates surrounded her, the apprentice felt strangely isolated. A mixture of disappointment and hurt filled her, the one day she thought would make her feel special spoiled by an argument.

She could tell it had caused a rift within the Clan. Even now, she could hear Beetlestar pacing about his den and the soft voice of Morningbreeze as she tried to speak with him, while Palethorn and Frostfur whispered angrily to each other not too far off.

A crack of thunder sounded overhead, crashing through her thoughts, and Kestrelpaw felt a single drop of water fall onto her nose. Sighing, she rose to return to her den before realizing that she didn't know where it was anymore. The nursery no longer offered her shelter and, though she knew that staying a kit forever was impossible, she missed her warm nest there already.

Feeling somewhat lost, she began to make her way in the direction she thought led to the apprentice den. A soft growl stopped her and Kestrelpaw felt her fur bristle, the feeling of someone's eyes on her making her uncomfortable.

"Come on, I'll show you to our den," said her observer. The new apprentice, for the second time that day, did not get the chance to thank Emberpaw as the older she-cat moved quickly away, leading her to her new nest.

A/N: After a brief hiatus, I'm finally back with a new chapter! Do you think RockClan will choose to stay or leave? Let me know in the comments!