Chapter One
Leaves brushed Jaykit's pelt like falling snow. More crackled underpaw, stiff with frost and so deep that he struggled with every step. An icy wind pierced his fur—still nursery soft—and made him shiver.
"Wait for me!" he wailed. He could hear his mother's voice ahead, her warm body always a few steps out of reach.
"You'll never catch it!"
A high-pitched mew sliced into his dream, and Jaykit woke with a start. He pricked his ears, listening to the familiar sounds of the bramble nursery. His sister and brother scrabbling in play. Ferncloud lapping her dozing kits. There was no snow now; he was in the camp, safe and warm. He could smell his mother's nest, empty but still fresh with her scent.
"Oof!" He let out a gasp of surprise as his sister, Hollykit, landed heavily on top of him. "Watch out!"
"You're awake at last!" She rolled off him and pushed her hind paws into his flank. With a leap, she twisted away and grasped for something just out of reach.
Mouse! Jaykit could smell it. His brother and sister must be playing catch with fresh-kill newly brought into camp. He sprang to his paws and gave a quick stretch that sent a shiver through his small body.
"Catch this, Jaykit!" Hollykit mewed. The mouse whistled past his ear.
"Slow slug!" she teased as he turned too late to grab it.
"I've got it!" Lionkit called. He pounced on the fresh-kill, his paws thudding on the nursery's packed earth floor.
Jaykit wasn't going to let his brother steal the prize from him so easily. He might be the smallest in the litter, but he was fast. He leaped toward Lionkit, knocking him out of the way and stretching his forepaw to reach for the mouse.
He landed in a clumsy skid and rolled over, feeling a jolt of alarm as he realized it wasn't moss underneath him, but the squirming warmth of Ferncloud's two tiny kits. Ferncloud gave him a shove, pushing him away with her hind paws.
Jaykit gasped. "Have I hurt them?"
"Of course not," Ferncloud snapped. "You're too small to squash a flea!" Foxkit and Icekit mewled as she tucked them closer into her belly. "But you three are getting too rough for the nursery!"
"Sorry, Ferncloud," Hollykit mewed.
"Sorry," Jaykit echoed, apologetic even though Ferncloud's comment on his size had stung him. At least the queen's anger would not last. She would easily forgive kits she had suckled—when Squirrelflight's milk had not come, it was Ferncloud who had fed Jaykit, Hollykit, and Lionkit in the moons before Foxkit and Icekit were born.
"It's about time Firestar made you apprentices and moved you to the apprentice den," Ferncloud meowed.
"If only." Lionkit sighed.
"It won't be long," Hollykit pointed out. "We're almost six moons old."
Jaykit felt the familiar surge of excitement as he imagined becoming an apprentice warrior. He couldn't wait to begin his training. But without even seeing Ferncloud's face, he could sense the flicker of doubt that prickled through the queen's pelt and knew that she was looking at him with pity in her eyes. His fur bristled with frustration—he was just as ready to become an apprentice as Hollykit and Lionkit!
Ferncloud answered Hollykit, unaware that Jaykit had sensed her moment of unease. "Well, you're not six moons yet! And until you are, you can do your playing outside!" she ordered.
"Yes, Ferncloud," Lionkit replied meekly.
"Come on, Jaykit," Hollykit called. "Bring the mouse with you." The branches of the bramble bush rustled as she slid out through the nursery entrance.
Jaykit picked up the mouse delicately in his teeth. It was newly killed and soft, and he didn't want to make it bleed—they could have a good, clean game with it yet. With Lionkit close behind him, he scrabbled out after...
