#grousekit

hill, buzzard, cress and grouse!

And now his name has been revealed, Hillkestrel!

“Harestaaarrrr!”

“Finish your shrew first, Grousekit. If you’re going to be big and strong you have to eat lots.”

The brown and white little tom polished the rest of his meat from the bones, then turned to smile at his foster father.

“Very good. Now, where was I?”

The two apprentices agreed that Dogpaw would run and go fetch the medicine cat, Woolycloud, and his apprentice Nightpaw, while Skipperpaw would stay with the queen to comfort her and her kits. She told him that her name was Breamfur, that she was from RiverClan, and she’d come to give birth here because the kits’ father was WindClan. You know that cats can have mates across the Clans now, because the Warrior Code has to be adapted so that cats don’t mate with their own kin, but it wasn’t always so. Having mates from across the Clans was very, very forbidden back then.

But by the time Skipperpaw came back with the two medicine cats, there was nothing either Woolycloud or Nightpaw could have done for Breamfur. She and the kits were gone, and Woolycloud said from looking at her and her wet body and broken leg, “she must have fallen off the gorge into the river, and given birth down here. Dogpaw, you have very swift instincts to come fetch me when you did, and Skipperpaw, you’re very compassionate for staying with her. both of you will make fine warriors with good heads on your shoulders.”

Then one of the kits took a big gasp and mewed! The party took her and started back to camp.. and you see, during the walk back, Dogpaw had realized something very important. There was no reason at all to dislike and be mean to Skipperpaw, because he was compassionate and brave enough to stay with a dying cat, and maybe it’s two of those things that make a warrior noble. He’s no less of a tom or a warrior cat than Dogpaw himself! He’s his brother, too, and they should stop fighting.

When the party brought the little black kit back to camp, one of the queens, Horsestep, who had lost her kits, offered to take care of her. She was named Flykit-

“Like how you adopted me, Harestar?”

“Exactly.”

The Clan was a little wary of foundlings back then, because each Clan kept to themselves and especially because this kit’s mother was RiverClan, so they curled their lips at Flykit, but one tom called Shrikerush purred and smiled kindly at the strange kit and praised Skipperpaw and Dogpaw for bringing Flykit back to the Clan.

Now, Shrikerush was WindClan’s deputy back then, and he was it’s pride and joy. The almost all white tom was WindClan’s finest Tunneler, and when he fought no cat but Buckstar himself could rival him.. not to mention he was very stern and usually only praised his own apprentice Loppaw, who was a great hunter and already following in his pawsteps as a dedicated Tunneler.. so them getting praised by him was a high honour.

The two toms went to sleep that night, exhausted, but happy at having been praised by Shrikerush and having agreed that they were brothers, and they would never fight again.

“Is that the end of the story?” Grousekit looks at him with sleepy drooped eyes. The leader gives his little head a brief lick to smooth out the kit’s tangled fur, before laying his own head down on his nest of feathers. He only decided to end it here for the night because, as he recalled it, the tale isn’t going to get much better from then on and out of him and Grousekit, he wanted at least one of them to have a nice dream.

“Papa, story?” Grousekit sleepily mewed, nestling into Harestar’s warm side. Toms did not usually care for kits, especially leaders, but that idea was of the long past and the defeat of the dark shadow that walked the land of the living as the impostor of Bramblestar is definitely proof that things have changed. Besides, who else would Harestar allow to raise the little loner tom he found in the snow?

He hardly called him Papa any more now that he’s learned his name, so Harestar definitely would treasure this.

“This is a story about the unlikely hero of WindClan, long before you or even I were born. Long ago...”

WindClan’s warriors were divided into two kinds. The moor runners and the tunnelers, and a brave tom called Rattledance was one such tunneler... one day he went down into the tunnels to hunt weasels, and he was lost forever.

His mate Pigeontail was distraught, because now he’d never see their little kit. The kit, Skipperkit, was something special altogether ; he was a male tortoiseshell... but Pigeontail didn’t know that. She thought Skipperkit was a molly because tortoiseshell were almost always mollies!

But Pigeontail had been heartbroken since her beloved mate died, and a few moons after that she herself passed away in her sleep. Skipperkit got very little milk, so he was tiny - yeah, that’s right, just like you, Grousekit, but you grew big, didn’t you?

“And one day I’ll be big as you, only I’ll be a medicine cat so I can help others!”

“That is very good, Grousekit.”

I had you memorize the leaders’ names, right? Heatherstar, Tallstar, Onestar, and then me.. but two leaders before Heatherstar was Buckstar, a very wise tom. He decided that it would not do for Skipperkit to be an orphan, so he asked his mate Hailfleck to take him in. Skipperkit and Buckstar’s kit ; Dogkit, who was named that because he was very large, became like siblings. “

This happiness did not last so long. When it was time for the two young toms to be apprentices, Dogpaw stopped caring so much for Skipperpaw because he didn’t understand the fact that Skipperpaw knew he was actually a tom. A Changeheart may be accepted now ; you know, like my brother Kestrelflight, or you’ve met Fernsong of ThunderClan, but it was not always so back then. Dogpaw started being mean to Skipperpaw, like tripping him during battle practice and eating his prey and embarassing him in front of Duskpaw, who Skipperpaw really liked.

Skipperpaw decided that this disrespect wasn’t going to stand, so he challenged his brother to a battle and if Skipperpaw won, Dogpaw would have to apologize to him. “Claws sheathed, so there’s no wounds and Buckstar won’t know we fought,” they agreed at the gorge (that was the outskirts of WindClan’s territory back then) , and they were just about to pounce on eachother when Dogpaw spotted the scent of another cat - no, two cats - at the gorge with them. It was two lost kits, so young they couldn’t even mew, and their mother looked badly hurt!

“Why’d you stop there, Harestar?”

“Because that is all I’m telling you tonight. Get some sleep, small one.”