Revelations

This is the third episode of Barbarian Clans by Gingerear.

''This episode is dedicated to Fiery, one of the people closest to me on the wiki. Thanks for your support!

The entire show is rated Worse and for good reasons. You have been warned.''

Darkkit ran as fast as her legs could carry her. “Darkkit!” she heard Bluescar screech behind her. The black she-kit kept running. Air rushing past her plastered her dark fur to her skin. Darkkit did not bother with these things. Every part of her mind, body, and soul was telling her to flee from her wretched life in the barbaric Clans. She kept running until she reached an open space by a crystal-clear stream. Then, too tired to think, her mind collapsed into unconsciousness. Her body fell onto short, pale green grass, her head narrowly missing a smooth gray rock.

Then Darkkit felt someone’s tongue lick her behind the ear. She staggered to her feet. When her senses cleared, she found herself face-to-face with a pure white she-cat. Light glimmered on the she-cat’s perfectly sleek fur. Her light green eyes were deep and thoughtful with wisdom, but they had a youthful, friendly gleam to them as well. The stranger was the most beautiful cat Darkkit had ever seen, and everything about her appearance made her seem ethereal. “Hello,” the white she-cat meowed. The white cat’s voice was as ghost-like and beautiful as her appearance. It sounded like a bird’s song blended with the rushing of the stream and the rustling of the breeze. Darkkit was completely dazed.

“My name is Starlight,” the she-cat went on, seemingly unaware the effect her presence had on Darkkit. “I have something important to tell you.”

The jet-black she-kit nodded, completely absorbed into that moment.

“But first, I want you to get a drink of water,” the ethereal cat meowed, flicking her shimmering white tail in the direction of the stream. “You need it.”

Darkkit went over to the stream and followed the cat’s orders without protest – something the black kit rarely ever did. The pale blue stream water felt comfortably cold on her pink tongue, and it tasted sweet. Plus, it was easier to drink than Tawnystar’s milk.

Tawnystar. The word echoed through Darkkit’s mind, reminding her of all the things that had happened before. She lifted her head up with a jolt, and her fur fluffed up. She forced her fur flat, turned around, and started walking back towards the white cat.

“Who are you?” Darkkit demanded.

“My name is Starlight,” the white cat answered with her melodic voice.

“Starlight,” Darkkit repeated, as though the name was a piece of fresh-kill she tentatively tasted for the first time. “What is it that you wanted to tell me?”

“You must return to OakClan,” Starlight snapped. The jet-black kit opened her mouth to protest, her amber eyes wide with terror, but Starlight would not let her speak. “You must,” the white cat insisted. “It is your destiny.”

“How can I return to those heartless monsters of cats?” Darkkit spat as her fur bristled. She began to pace back and forth in agitation, though her fiery gaze never left Starlight. “Do you have any idea what they are like?”

“I have watched them for hundreds of moons,” the white cat informed Darkkit. The jet-black she-kit froze in midstep. Cats did not live for hundreds of moons – it simply was not possible. Darkkit opened her mouth to ask how Starlight could have lived for hundreds of moons.

Starlight answered her before she asked. “I am one of the Guardians of Memory,” the white cat informed her. “I have seen what has been, what is, and what is to be,” she announced. “It is my duty to ensure that the path of destiny does not go astray. You are destined to return, Darkkit.”

“How can I?” Darkkit squealed. “They murder their own kin, and care for no one but themselves and their own survival. There has to be more to life than that!”

“There is,” Starlight confirmed, “and you are the one destined to teach these Clans that lesson.”

Darkkit froze in shock. For a moment, she could not speak. When she could, she shrieked, “How can I? I’m only a moon old! I don’t know how to hunt, and I’m not halfway decent at fighting yet! For StarClan’s sake, I still drink milk!”

“Which is why you must go back to OakClan,” Starlight countered. “You must learn to survive – to hunt and fight. You must be weaned. You need to grow bigger, stronger, wiser, before you can begin. If you do not, you will die out here, alone in these hostile lands.”

The black kit realized that Starlight had a point. Then she realized she had no idea where OakClan was. “I will take you back to OakClan,” the white cat reassured her, as though she could read Darkkit’s mind. Then the faintly glowing cat went over to Darkkit and grabbed her scruff. Then there was a blinding flash of light.

When Darkkit’s senses cleared, Starlight had disappeared. The black kit stood in a clump of ferns. She looked beyond the dark green fronds and saw OakClan resting in the shade of a maple tree. It was still early in the afternoon.

“I’m back,” Darkkit mewed. The cats looked up at her.

“I was wondering if you would turn up again,” Tawnystar meowed without emotion. “You’re hungry, I presume?”

Darkkit nodded and pushed past the other cats to nurse at Tawnystar’s belly. The milk was good – and, in Darkkit’s opinion, it was the only good thing about Tawnystar. When she finished, she licked the creamy white stains from her muzzle and squeezed through the crowd of cats, sitting down beside Ivykit.

The silver tabby hissed into the black kit’s ear, “You are ruining my life.”

“How am I doing that?” Darkkit asked in a whisper, sensing that Ivykit wanted a private conversation.

Ivykit’s dark green eyes stretched wide in surprise. “You – you mean you don’t know?” she whispered.

“Know what?” Darkkit snapped quietly.

“You haven’t heard what our Clanmates try to say behind our backs?” the dark-striped tabby hissed, not daring to believe what her sister had just told her.

Darkkit sat silently for a moment, trying to figure out what in StarClan’s name Ivykit was referring too. “Are you talking about how all of OakClan thinks I’m crazy?” Darkkti mewed.

“No!” Ivykit snapped in a loud whisper. Then, more quietly, she said, “Well, they do say that behind your back, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” “Then what are you talking about?” Darkkit demanded quietly.

“You seriously have no idea?” Ivykit queried in a whisper.

“No, I don’t,” Darkkit hissed. “That’s why I’m asking you.”

Ivykit took a deep breath and closed her dark green eyes. When she opened the again, she meowed quietly and solemnly, “Darkkit, your father doesn’t come from the Clans.”

Darkkit’s amber eyes stared at her sister’s green ones. “But I thought Stormfrost came from DustClan,” she mewed quietly, confused.

The silver tabby she-kit stared at her sister as though she was insane. Then she closed her eyes, slowly lowered her head until her face was pressed against the ground, and moaned, “No, your father doesn’t come from the Clans.”

Then Darkkit realized what Ivykit. The black kit swooned.

What Ivykit meant was that Darkkit’s father was not Stormfrost – two different toms sired Tawnystar’s most recent litter, making them a mixed litter. Having a mixed litter is the greatest shame for a she-cat and the kits of said litter, and is considered completely immoral. And among the Clans, having a kit with someone who did not originate from the Clan was also completely immoral. And Stormfrost was still deputy, and Ivykit had been born too, which meant the tom had not bothered to challenge him, which also broke the unofficial code, because if a leader was dissatisfied with her deputy, her new mate was supposed to attempt to take over. So Tawnystar had broken the unofficial code of the Clans three times, Darkkit had broken two by existing, and Ivykit had broken one by existing. Naturally, that meant all of OakClan was against them.

When Darkkit recovered, she whispered, “Who is my father?”

“No one knows except Tawnystar,” Ivykit whispered back. “What we do know is that he doesn’t smell like a Clan cat.”

Darkkit nodded. Then, still in complete shock, her fiery amber eyes rolled back into her head, and she fainted again.