Heavy Stormclouds

Red Apples Series AppleClan Book 1
Preceded by: None	Heavy Stormclouds	Succeded by: Coming soon

Heavystorm, drawn by Nightshimmer

Blurb

Heavystorm is a clanborn AppleClan cat, but he is constantly teased and shunned for being "as fat as a kittypet." He tries not to let the teasing get to him, but that is difficult when even his mother and littermates have shunned him since kithood. Will he be able to overcome his reputation and prove himself as a true warrior? Or will he snap before he can do so?

Written by Cinderstar.

Characters

AppleClan

Heavystorm: plump dark gray tom with white patches and blue eyes. 

Rosethorn: Ginger she-cat with amber eyes. 

Spiderfang: Skinny black tom with ice-blue eyes

Snowwhisper: Beautiful, graceful white she-cat with a shiny pelt and warm, soft blue eyes.

Frostgaze: White she-cat with ice-blue eyes.

Sunblaze: Ginger tom with amber eyes and golden patches.

Nutfall: Golden brown tabby tom wth amber eyes and a white splash on his chest.

Seedstar: Tortiseshell she-cat with green eyes.

Pearleaf: Gray she-cat with green eyes.

(More (probably) coming soon)

RedClan

coming soon (maybe)

Prologue

Sunblaze appeared at the entrance of he nursery, looking out into the camp. The sky was darkening, and stars where appearing. "Nutpaw!" He called to his apprentice. "Could you get Pearleaf?" He struggled to keep his voice calm. "Frostgaze's kits are coming."

Nutpaw nodded and raced towards the medicine cat den, which was in a hollowed out boulder. Sunblaze shifted his paws as time dragged out with no one exiting the medicine cat den. A moon seemed to pass before Pearleaf emerged, and Frostgaze's yowls echoed in his ears.

The whole clan seemed to stop what they were doing and gazed at the nursery. Sunblaze could sense excitement filling the air. The clan only had one kit at the moment, after the clan had suffered from a particularly bad bought of kittencough. Snowkit was so sweet, and every cat spoiled her. They could tell she'd grow up to be a great warrior, and a beautiful one at that. The clan was excited for new lives entering the world, especially because they'd grow up to be AppleClan warriors.

Sunblaze himself was espceially excited, because these would be his kits, he would be a father. He turned around to enter the den when he saw Pearleaf blocking the way. "Sorry, you can't watch. Toms are too stressed and become a nuscience when their kits are being born. Nutpaw, you have to leave too." Nutpaw dipped his head and exited the nursery. 

Reluctantly, Sunblaze left the den, but he didn't go far. He settled himself down near the entrance to the nursery, and waited. As he kept his vigil, the moon rose higher in the sky. Cats grew bored of waiting for the new kits and soon the camp was empty except for Sunblaze and a few other warriors. He began to feel his eyelids droop when he was nudged awake.

"Sunblaze, it's finished. You have three healthy, beautiful kits, and Frostgaze is fine." Pearleaf announced, her eyes shining with happiness. "She wants to name them."

Sunblaze sprang to his paws and dashed into the nursery. The white fur of his mate seemed to glow in the darkness. Her ice-blue eyes looked up at him.

"There's two toms and a she-cat." Frostgaze purred. "I want to name the she-cat Rosekit, because of her ginger pelt, that and the fact she looks kind of like my mother, Rosestar."

"The skinny black tom can be Spiderkit." Sunblaze suggested. He glanced at the last kit. It was a gray tabby tom with white patches and blue eyes. "The gray tom looks like a kittypet. His belly's so big! He must of taken Spiderkit's weight!" His voice was teasing, but he felt concern.

Frostgaze's eyes mirrored how he felt. "Pearleaf said once he gets active enough, he'll burn it off. Kits do have a lot of energy. But if it doesn't, I'm not sure how good a warrior he'll make. That belly will slow him down, and he'll only hunt as well as a kittypet."

"Let's name his Heavykit, after the Heavystep of our legends, the cat who died three times. Let's hope Heavykit has a long life too." Sunblaze meowed. Though what he had said was only part of the reason for Heavykit's name. It would become the sole reason if he burned off that weight, but if he didn't... If he didn't, the name would suit him.

"Heavykit it is." Frostgaze agreed.

Chapter 1

Heavystorm raced through the apple orchard that made up AppleClan territory. Long ago twolegs had come and farmed the apples, before AppleClan existed, but suddenly, they had stopped coming. A group of cats had decided it would be the perfect place to start a clan. And that, according to the elders was the start of AppleClan. There was one neighbouring clan, RedClan. The founders of the clans, Apple and Red, had sworn it'd be a place where all cats would be known for their strenths, not their weaknesses, as the founders had been driven from their former homes because of their weaknesses. Red and Apple had been best friends, littermates even, and they wanted peace between their clans. Neither promise that hadn't been kept recently. RedClan and AppleClan were rivals.

Now, how ironic it was that Heavystorm was fleeing the camp because of his weaknesses. He needed some time alone, some time to think. Fact is, Heavystorm was a little on the chubby side. No matter how much he ran and excersized, the extra weight would burn off. Every cat said he looked more like a kittypet than a warrior.

Heavystorm cringed as he remembered his apprentice ceremony. His mentor, Nutfall, had openly complained about getting him as an apprentice, saying that with his weight, he'd never make a warrior. Nutfall had never believed in him, and had resented the thought that his first apprentice had the least potential to make a great warrior. Heavystorm always insisted he could do it, but even when he did, Nutfall had never had any more belief in him.

To make matters worse, he was shunned by his family. As soon as it became apparent that he wouldn't loose any weight from the hyper antics of kithood, they started excluding him. He always got the least amount of milk, and got played with the least. Rosekit and Spiderkit, who were now known as Rosethorn and Spiderfang, had excluded his from their games and constantly teased him. Even his father, though he seemed to love him more than any other cat had, made mean remarks about his weight and showed more favouriteism to Spiderfang and Rosethorn. As he matured, he noticed almost every cat in the clan had teased hhim, or at least hadn't treated him the same as other cats.

He fought to fight down his anger. He was a peaceful cat, and he hated anger, hate and fighting. He even felt bad about fighting RedClan cats. He believed they should be allies, like Red and Apple had planned the clans to be, countless seasons ago.

To calm his mind, he thought of Snowwhisper. Snowwhisper was a beautiful white she-cat, and she was pretty much the only cat in all of AppleClan who not only didn't make fun of his weight, but she was really nice to him. She was his only friend in the whole clan, and she was nicer to him then she was to any other cat in the clan. Spiderfang was jelous about this, and Heavystorm knew he was in love with the pretty she-cat, but He didn't care. Snowwhisper was his best and only friend, and no cat, not even Spiderfang, could take that away from him.

Thinking of Spiderfang brought him back to the reason he left the camp in the place. He'd been sharing toungues with Snowwhisper, when Spiderfang had padded up to them. He asked Snowwhisper if she'd wanted to go hunting with him. She agreed to, as long as Heavystorm could come along. Spiderfang had agreed, although Heavystorm could tell his brother had been reluctant. 

more coming soon