Moon 2

When Larkkit opened her eyes, blinking, her still blurry field of vision was filled with something dark grey. Strange. Am I not in the nursery?

She rubbed her eyes, yawning. She seemed to have slept badly last night.

Clearing her pelt of moss, Larkkit stood up on shaky paws and looked around. At that moment, the memories came flooding back like twigs in a current.

Until recently, Larkkit had lived in MoonClan, together with her three siblings Amberkit, Dashkit and Leafkit and their mother Swallowfern. But then it had turned out that Larkkit and Amberkit were actually RoseClan kits and had been brought to MoonClan because their biological mother had died.

Larkkit had to suppress a whimper at the thought. She was proud to have been a MoonClan cat. But it was all a lie.

Larkkit's gaze fell on Amberkit, her only real sister. The reddish golden tabby she-cat was curled up in a hollow. Except for the constant lifting and lowering of her flank, she was motionless.

Great. I'm related to her of all cats. Larkkit began to lick her fur.

Even though she and Amberkit were littermates, they had never really got used to each other. Of the four kits, Amberkit had always been the outsider.

Something moved in another nest. Shadowkit woke up. The tiny, grey tabby tom could barely crawl from one end of the nest to the other, let alone see or hear. But he had a very loud voice, because he opened his mouth and mewed in long, drawn-out tones that made Larkkit's ears hurt. Great StarClan, did Stormpaw and Firpaw have to put up with that too?

His wake-up call also called his two littermates to the scene. Next, Mistkit, who was like a darker copy of his brother, joined in with squeaking noises. Then followed Bramblekit, who looked strange among her grey siblings with her light brown ticked fur. However, she only let out a soft mew and was immediately quiet again.

Just as Larkkit thought her ears were going to fall off, Lightshine opened her eyes. Quick as a flash, she was on her paws and soothed her kits with a purr. "I'm sorry," she meowed to Larkkit and Amberkit, who came staggering over. "I should have warned you."

"Oh, no big deal," Larkkit replied hastily, while she was panicking inside. Does that mean I have to put up with this every morning?

Slowly, the kits fell silent and searched for Lightshine's teats. The cream-coloured she-cat sighed. "However cute they may be, I hope they'll grow out of it eventually."

"Why are you being so nice?" Larkkit blurted out.

"Is that bad?" Lightshine purred in amusement.

Larkkit scratched her paws nervously. "You're a RoseClan cat," she stammered. "I... I thought you were evil... or something." Guiltily, she shut her mouth. Was that the right thing for her to say?

"I guess we'll never get rid of that reputation," Lightshine muttered. "But no, we're definitely not bad cats."

"Oh," Larkkit meowed, embarrassed. To distract herself, she looked around. Now that daylight was filtering through the gaps in the bushes, the cave looked completely different from last night. It was rather narrow, but reached quite deep into the rock, and further back the ceiling dropped away. Tiny scratch marks adorned the lower part of the wall. The floor was padded with several layers of leaves and Lightshine's moss nest lay in a deep hollow that was supposed to provide additional protection from the wind.

However, there was no other nest for a nursery helper, which surprised Larkkit greatly. She let her gaze wander through the den a second time, but she didn't find what she was looking for.

Lightshine must have a keen eye, because she asked, "Are you looking for something?"

Larkkit sniffed through the leaves. "Don't you have any nursery helpers?" She made sure to keep her voice timid. She never knew when she might say something wrong.

"It's been a long time since we last had a nursery helper," Lightshine sighed, resting her head on the edge of her nest. "When I was still an apprentice, our last nursery helper retired. She still helped with the next litter occasionally, but then came leaf-bare, one that was harder than the previous one, and she... froze to death."

Larkkit listened with wide eyes. Even Amberkit seemed interested in the story, for her fur was slightly ruffled and her body tense.

"It was a real challenge to raise my first litter," Lightshine just explained. She gave a short purr. "But I'm sure I'll manage without any problems this time."

Larkkit's ears twitched in surprise. "You've had kits before? What happened to them?"

Lightshine didn't answer at first, so Larkkit thought she had said something wrong. Her fur prickled unpleasantly. I'm not allowed to ask something like that! Now she'll think I'm rude.

"They've grown up," Lightshine sighed. Larkkit fell onto her side in relief. Lightshine added in an energetic voice, "Of course they're fine! What did you think?"

Larkkit licked her white chest fur ashamedly. How thoughtlessly she had acted! She no longer knew what had made her assume that something had happened to Lightshine's older kits.

"Their names are Reddapple and Silversky," Lightshine meowed. "I'm sure you'll get to know them soon."

Right! Larkkit realised boiling hot that she would have to make the effort and learn the names of all her Clanmates in the next few moons until the apprentice ceremony. All she knew was that RoseClan consisted of at least twice as many cats as MoonClan.

Larkkit shuddered. She was already glad that she could remember the names of a few cats.

Concentrating, she tried to recite all the names she could think of. Lightshine, Mistkit, Shadowkit and Bramblekit. Uhm... Mottlepaw and Lakepaw. Palestar, Honeyclaw, Dawnbreeze, Gooseleap and Patternleaf. Oh, and then there were those other two cats who looked for us.

Lightshine's meowing finally tore her from her thoughts. "How about you two go out into the camp and get to know the others a little?"

Amberkit was already standing at the exit, stepping expectantly from one paw to the other.

Sighing, Larkkit gave in to the suggestion.