Honeykit was small. Unbelievably small.

But it still hurt that her own litter mates and her mother would forget to wake her up. Kneading her paws on the coarse moss, she daintily noted that it hadn't been changed in several moons. The clan was missing apprentices, severely. The arrival of Beestripe and Stormcloud's kits had been something to rejoice for. 

However, Honeykit couldn't see herself fitting into an apprentice role anytime soon. She was the runt of her litter and a weakling compared to her siblings. 

Stonekit looked like the physical copy of Stormcloud, broad-shouldered and shining gray fur. The only difference was his dark, amber eyes that many warriors said shone with beauty and wisdom. If it wasn't obvious, he was the favourite.

Cloudykit was only slightly more humbled, her golden pelt was covered with splotches of gray that resembled the clouds she was named after. 'A glowing beauty', she was called. 'A gift from Starclan', Beestripe claimed proudly. 

Of course, no cat recorded any comment for Honeykit, who watched from afar.

As the runt and weakling, Honeykit was also cursed with a rather weird pattern of brown-black stripes on her golden-ginger pelt. What was even more strange was the way her long, thin tail exploded into spiky fur at the very end. This caused a whole lot of mocking that she definitely did not want to face today.

Outside of the nursery, Honeykit could hear the playful squeals that she immediately recognised to come from Dapplekit and Fogkit, Mistysky and Fallenleaf's daughters. 

Well, it definitely couldn't be any of her siblings. 

Brother and sister would never let themselves be heard in such an immature manner. And Honeykit so desperately wanted Stonekit's approval that she also rarely played.

Finally forcing herself to step out of the nursery, she was surprised to see her brother pinning down a moss-ball with his single paw.

Drowsily and immediately regretting it, Honeykit queried, "I thought moss-ball was for little kits."

Stonekit swiftly rolled his eyes, speaking out over the excited chirping of Fogkit and Dapplekit, "This is different."

Honeykit could almost feel her face making a doubtful expression before she dutifully nodded, "Yeah of course, but how?"

Her brother exchanged a glance with Cloudykit who snickered, 'It's a competition, you mouse-brain!"

At this, Beestripe glanced over lazily and extended a single claw to scoop the moss-ball away,

"Oops."

A range of caterwauls followed.

Fogkit and Dapplekit tripped over themselves as they raced for their fluffy, green prize. Stonekit let out a snort of embarrassment and anger before leaping after them, his much bigger muscles and much bigger body putting him in the lead. Cloudykit crouched, raising her haunches and started slowly circling around to where she seemed to predict the moss-ball would land.

The raucous of the kits alerted the entire camp.

Hawkstar, who was growing weaker by the hour, poked his head out of the leader's den, eyes wild and fur unbrushed. Barkpelt, the deputy and even older than Hawkstar, rushed to his assistance though you could almost see his bones creaking.

Tigerpearl and Sunmist looked up from sharing prey by the fresh-kill pile, their pelts suspiciously close together and tails entwined. Amberstorm first inspected the kits, then glanced knowingly at her son and Sunmist's behaviour, a purr rumbling within her throat.

Redbee disengaged himself from a conversation with Mistysky, his niece. The recently retired elder silently moved towards the stampede of kits, mischievous purpose glinting in his eyes.

Speeding up his pace, Redbee crouched and blew the moss-ball right back the way the kits had come.

Skidding to a stop, Stonekit leaped into the air but failed drastically as he came down with a 'thump'. Honeykit twitched her nose and changed directions, clearly annoyed. Dapplekit and Fogkit crashed into Stonekit as he came down, landing in a pile of messy kit fur.

Honeykit, who had started to follow her sister, quickly turned and used her back legs to thrust herself forward in a burst of speed.

Perhaps if I catch it then Stonekit will like me.

At this thought, Honeykit put her head down and used her light-weight body as an advantage to race up to the moss-ball just as it landed.

It felt good.

So good.

To be able to sink her paws into the soft, light material. She could almost imagine that this was a mouse. No, better yet, a fallen enemy warrior. Staring triumphantly down at the moss, Honeykit let a purr rumble from tail to nose-tip.

"Hey!"

The strangely patterned golden tabby whipped around to face her brother, "See, Stonekit? I got it!"

Cloudykit let out a sigh and glanced to her brother expectantly. Something about the way Stonekit's 'deep amber eyes' glinted wasn't so beautiful and wise.

Honeykit tried to keep her composure as her brother opened his mouth.

But the words that came out were only sweet and soothing, "That's great, Hon. I'm veryproud of you."

The use of her nickname unnerved Honeykit more than if her brother would've snapped.

Stonekit angled his ears, "See, I found a perfect way to celebrate."

Suspicion tinged her paws, but Honeykit couldn't help being intrigued, following her brother over.

It was a puddle.

A crystal clear puddle that looked like every crystal clear puddle there was in camp. Especially because of the leaf-fall rain last night, these puddles seemed to be all around Skyclan camp. In some floated leaves. Others were home to small insects. A few were being trampled by Fogkit and Dapplekit.

Honeykit spoke up, "Hey, Stone, what's so great about this?"

The golden tabby had a second to relish the fact that she'd called her brother a nickname before her head was submerged in the puddle.

It took everything to stop all her reflexes in coming in.

It'snotdeepit'snotdeepit'snotdeepit'snotdeep

CALM DOWN, you're not going to die.

Surely her own brother wouldn't drown her.

Right?

Finally, Honeykit couldn't take it anymore, kicking out with her hind legs. Pure satisfaction rolled through her body as her flailing paws met fur and muscle. A second later she jerked her head back up and turned around to see Stonekit a tail-length away, panting for breath.

He growled, "You idiot! You puny good-for-nothing!"

Staggering around, the handsome kit marched away, his tail flicking irritably. Taking a moment to calm her heart, Honeykit looked up to her sister who bore a horrified expression. Hatred pulsed in the golden tabby's mind, but she pressed it down.

Cloudykit approached her gently, "Are you alright Hon?"

Honeykit scoffed, "Like you would care."

Cloudykit shook her head, "I do care, Honeykit, I do! What Stonekit did was wrong. It was .. grotesque."

It took a moment for the abnormally small kit to realise, "Then.. will you be my friend?"

Hope throbbed so powerfully in Honeykit that it almost hurt. Her very first friend! But maybe she was being pathetic. Maybe her sister was only being nice. Maybe she would never be able to have a friend.

"Of course." Cloudykit interrupted her thoughts, resting her tail on Honeykit's back, "I'll be there for you from now on. I'm sorry I wasn't before."

Honeykit brightened, "We'll become mighty warriors together!"

"Yes, Hon, yes we will."

***

Hi there! 

There wasn't too much action in this chapter but I have great plans for the next chapter. Stay tuned! There may even be a new character introduced! 

Now, we can already see which character could be the villain. If you are reading this, you definitely have theories about the main antagonist. However, it might not be as simple as you think!

~ SilverxQuill