Prologue
"Twelve moons ago a giant fox appeared, its tail lashed out smashing rocks and sending massive waves of water crashing to the shores. A warrior rose up to defend its Clan.
Hold the attack and wait for the forth leader! I remember one yowling.
It's getting closer! Don't let it near the Camp! Another bellowed.
One leader faced the fox in mortal combat, he sacrificed his life to capture the beast. And seal it's spirit in a human body, such a creature could not be destroyed as, some say, it was sent by the Dark Forest.
This warrior was known as...the forth leader!
Chapter 1
A kit's happy muffled screach echoed of tree bark and stone boulders. A bundle of purple berry's in his mouth rapped in dock, golden-and-ginger fur blown by the breaze and tail whistling behind him. His paws sent leaves and twigs fluttering in his wake as he raced through the forest.
"Foxkit! Get back hear! Wait till I get my claws on you!" Steamfur yowled in persuite of the eager young kit,"You've crossed the line this time Foxkit!" Foxkit let one more purr escape his throat and rumble in his chest before dashing off faster, dodging bracken and twisting between large clumps of bramble. He screached again as he leaped over a large flower patch and ran beside a large mountainside, once scrached onto it every face of the leaders before him, now smeared in purple berry juice.
"Give it up!" His muffled yowl beraly escaping his bundle of herbs, "youre just mad because you dont have the guts to do what I do! Do you? Furballs! Mousebrains! You'll never catch me!" He sqweaked again before yowling in plesure again.
Meanwhile, in the leaders den, Shadestar lay in his moss-nest, cave walls curve either side of him, meating at the top in straggly roots and hanging twigs from above round. He sat scraping the floor with one claw, making odd-shaped patterns ingraved in the stone base. He lifted his head as a black tabby warrior sprung into his cave, claws unsheathed and amber eyes blazing, closely followed by Steamfur, his pale grey fur stood on end and his tail stretched in dismay.
"Leader Shadestar! It's an emergency!"
"I hope you're not bothering me with some trivia, and don't tell me it's Foxkit again," the old tom rasped.
"It is Foxkit again!" The tom yowled, "He climbed onto the ingraved stone faces!"
"He put graffity all over the Leader!" Steamfur added. The leader let out a long sigh, shook himself, and heaved his white body to his paws. Back in the forest Foxkit still squeled in excitement as he darted through the trees and clawed through the undergroath, leaves caught between his claws as he bounced of one birch from another, two warriors close behind him, leaping after the bright ginger tom-kit. He quickly leaped into a honeysuckle bush, leaves tickled his nose and his whiskers twitched with laughter, his eyes gleamed and his claws itched to run again. He loved this fealing!
"Foxkit! Come on!" A brown warrior yowled as he raced passed the honeysuckle bush, leaving the breeze whistling through the branches next to him. Foxkit let the dappled sunlight soak into his pelt and he closed his eyes before poking his nose through the green leaves.
The ginger kit gave a short mrrow of laughter.
"That was to easy!" He squeaked and struted out into the open, chin and tail high.
"Oh yeah Foxkit!" The kit leaped with shock as he spun to face the warrior, hackles risen, he was caught!
"Where d'ue come from Scrapeface? What are you doing here?"
"No, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in the nursery." The big brown tabby tom spoke calmly, and he pointed his tail toword the small tom, Foxkit could scent his anger like a bulged river. When he would get back to camp, he'd be in more trouble then he could imagine!
Chapter 2
"I'm at the end of my tail Foxkit!" Srapeface yowled close to the entrence, hackles risen and ears pressed to the top of his head. Foxkit lay in the middle of the clearing, vines held his foure paws together as he lay, not caring what the warrior said, his tail stirred dust from behind him that stained the hindquaters of the kits ginger fur, turning it a murky brown colour. The scent of milk filled the nursery, it was bigger than most, with bramble and ivy twined between the branches of the bush walls, it was stuffy and warm, with nests close to the wall, most pressed together to save space.
"You failed the Apprentice test last time and the time before that!" The other kits pressed together to one side of the nursery, the younger wide-eyed and the elder kits half-asleep, they've seen it all before, it seemed as if he'd been pulling tricks ever since he'd left the belly of his mother.
"Tomorrow you'v got another chance and you're messing up again!" Foxkit turned his head with a short puff. Scrapeface's eyes glistened with rage and he whipped around to face the kits toword the wall of the nursery.
"Fine! Because you missed it Foxkit, everyone will review the Transformation Jutsu!" The rest of the kits sighed and turned to face the ginger kit. Foxkit could feel the gaze of his clanmates burning into his pelt, and groaned. He didn't want them hating him!
* * *
Later that day the class of kits stormed through the forest, heads low in refusal. Scarface whiped his head toward the class from the front of the jutsu class.
"Stop!" He hissed. Foxkit weaved his way to the front of the bundle of fur and peered through a hawthorn thicket, a mouse sat near the foot of a snaking oak root, knoring its way through a small acorn. A pretty creamy-pink she-kit crouched to the front of the croude of the young cats.
"Alright Cherrykit here let's do it!" She whispered to herself as she stalked toward Scrapeface,
"Transform!"
With a puff of smoke and a gust of wind, Cherrykit had done it, she'd transformed! Eyes gleaming and tale high she strutted toward the front of the party again, transformed to her normal self.
"Tranceformed into me, good." Scarface meowed approvingly.
"Yes! I did it! Yeah! Yeah! Nightwing did you see that!" The black-blue and white tom stayed silent, leaning againtst one branch that jutted out of the ground, Cherrykit, half-harted, tale dragging, padded to the back of the bundle.
"Next, Nightkit," Scrapeface continued. The small tom turned to stand only a tale length away from the big tabby tom. Again with a huff of smoke, he'd transformed into Scrapeface!
"Ah, good," The warrior approved again, "Next, Foxkit."
"This is a total waste of time Foxkit," Shadowkit whispered from beside him, "And we allways pay for you're screwups!" Mountainkit hissed from his other sides, he felt her golden fur begin to prick beside his own.
"Like I care," Foxkit, green eyes blazing, head low stalked forward with hackles risen and claws sheathed. With wind ribbling through the long grass, that whipped his sides, he trancformed, but, not into Scrapeface...into a she-cat! A buitefull, tool she-cat with long ginger fur.
"What!" Scrapeface jolted backward taken by surprise and fell to the ground with a sickening thump.
The air crackled in anger and Scarface's rumpled expression and quick fall made Foxkit bound up-and-down with laughter.
"That's my sexy jutsu!"
"Cut the stupid tricks! This is you're last warning!" Scareface was angry again, and the day was wasted.
Chapter 3
Songbird chirped in trees early next morning, and whisps of cloud were cut with icy winds, though the sky shone pale blue. Hawks screached from the clouds and sparrows pecked at the grass.
"This sucks, loser," Foxkit meowed, muffled by the wad of damp moss he clamped in his jaws, as he began scrubbing the claw-mark of the secend leader, splattered in the purple berry juice he had graffiti onto it the day earlier, carved onto a mountainside. Foxkit balenced carefully on a thin strip of rock, clinging to the side of the mountain.
"You're not going to camp till you've cleaned of every single drop of juice," Scrapeface huffed from above the cliff, claws sheathed to grip the flat land before the shear drop down to camp.
Foxkit got back to scrubbing, pelt hot with anger and tail fluffed out to half his size, he glanced up at the warrior, eyes narrowed to tiny slits as he yowled,
"So what, It's not like there's anybody at the nursery waiting for me!" Ears flat, he started scrubbing again.
"Foxkit?"
"What do you want now, mentor?"
"Well, I was just thinking...after you clean this up we can go get some fresh-kill, the good stuff. What do you think?"
The ginger kit gasped in excitement, "Now that's some serious motivation! I'll have this clean in notime!"
* * *
Later that night silverpelt shone againts a black sky while the two cats shared fresh-kill under an oak tree, the camp was busy under the stars, each warrior and apprentice having there own duties. Foxkit devoured his squirrel in a few rainouse gulps.
"Foxkit?"
The ginger tom murmured in acknowledgement.
"Why would you do that to the Leader's faces?" Scrapeface's tail lashed and eyes blazed with curyosity."I mean you know who the Leaders are don't you?"
"'Course I do." He mumbled while taking a small thrush from beside him, and finishing it as quickly as he started. "Everybody knows, they were the greatest warriors of there time right? The best of the best? Undefeated warrior champs," He glanced up at the silver swath of stars that blazed across the night sky, "and the forth leader was the one who saved the camp from the nine-tailed fox - he was the most amazing." The ginger kit finished.
"Then why did you-"
"Because I'm going to be grater than any of them - me Foxkit - the next leader," he raised one paw in an over-exaggerated flail in air, claws sheathed, "The next warrior legend!" Scrapeface stared in disbelief, mouth still full with the raven he'd been eating.
"Then everyone will have to stop disrespecting me, and look up to me! Believe it!" Scareface finished his mouth full of raven and gazed at him with brown eyes. What will this kit become?
Chapter 4
Light slithered from the trees above the nursery and dappled the pelt of Foxkit, setting his pelt aflame and morphing his eyes to a frosty blue.
"We will now start, the final exam," Scrapeface was saying, only tom's could vidulate the test, as queens may be to soft on the likely kin.
"When you're name is called proseid to the clearing. The finel test will be on...the clone jutsu!"
Ah! Thats my worst technique! Foxkit was thinking, Great! I'm never 'gonna pass!"
The ginger-and-golden tom-kit stepped in a smalll clearing toword the back of the nursery. Alright, get it together Foxkit! You can do this. Believe it! The kit could practickly feel the power running through his blood, and with a gust of smoke and a flurry of heavy wind, the tom yowled, "Clone jutsu!" And another, pale - almost white - Foxkit lay beside him, tongue hanging and sightless eyes bollged. The two cats twitched with nervousness and fustration, Scrapeface's eye twitching and Foxkit's hackles risen.
"You fail!" Scrapeface yelled. Caught of-guard, Foxkit was thrown back by his punishment and landed hevelly to his side, sending a dust cloud in his wake.
"Scrapeface," Steamfur was saying, next to him, "He's off but his moves wern't bad and he did hang in there and replicate. This is his third try so you know he really wants to become a warrior, we could cut him a break, and pass him," Foxkit puffed in shok and happiness.
"Steamfur, the other student created at least three affective replications, but Foxkit could only create one." Foxkit noticed Scrapeface give a side-long glance at the pethatick bundle of replicated fur lying to its side, "and look at it, it's pitifull. I can't pass him." Foxkit gave a low hiss and felt his ears hot with anger again.
Not long after Foxkit sat on a low hanging branch of the forest, shade made his pet dull as he watched the other, younger kits become warriors at there ceremony.
"I wish you're grandmother could be hear rite now," One warrior was purring.
"I'm so proud of you son," Foxkit heard another tom meow.
"Congratulation,"
"Well done!"
"Hay, you see him?" A queen hissed. Foxkit strained his ears to listen form his strip of wood. "It's that boy, I remember him! He's the only one who failed."
Another black she-cat puffed, "Well it serves him rite!"
"Just imagine what would happen if he bacame a warrior..." The ginger kit berryed his flame-stained muzzle into his paws, thurelly ashamed of himself.
"...I mean, he's the boy who-"
Another hissed, "Shhh, we'r not allowed to talk about that." A crack of a twig startled the kit, he turned his head to see Steamfur balencing on a branch a little higher than himself. A smug expression tainted his face. What did he want with Foxkit?
Chapter 5
"Scrapeface?" Shadestar's wheezy mew came in a whisper as he stood on a high lump of dirt that overlooked the entire camp. The kits have just been made apprentices and he hadn't moved since then. He was worried.
"There's somthing we need to talk about," The old tom finished. Scrapeface flickered his gaze over the clearing, it was busy with praise from the apprentice ceremony just a few moments ago, his glance rested on were Foxkit was sitting. Where is he now?
* * *
"Scrapeface's tough," Steamfur was saying, they both sat high on a beach tree, branches jabbed Foxkit's ginger-and-gold pelt and leaves rougheled it. For a moment he thought he would be carried away by the breeze, but he kept his claws sheathed and held on without flinching. Steamfur and Scrapeface had grown up together, so he new what he was like,"but he's not againts you."
"Then why? Why only me?"
"He wants you to be strong with all his heart," Steamfur didn't answer,"but that will never happen if he goes easy on you," Foxkit was shoked at what the pale grey tom said next."He's like you, you know. No parents. No family."
"But, this time I really wanted to graduate." Steamfur let out a short whimper of laughter. What was so funny?
"Then . . . I suppose I have to tell you ," Foxkit gasped.
"It's a secret, but I'm going to let you in on it." There was a secret?
A secret.
* * *
Scrapeface curled up in his nest a little way from the others, warmed by his own brown pelt as he recalled the coverstation between him and the leader.
Scrapeface?
What is it, my leader?
I know how you feel, he remembered his white pelt blown by the breeze and his raspy voice whispering, you grew up just like Foxkit. Without knowing the love of a mother, and father. The warmth of a family. The brown tom remembered the nine-tailed demon fox, scent from the Dark Forest, as a punishment, it would rip apart everything they knew.
It's getting closer! Don't let it near the Camp! A warrior yowled. He remembered as a twelve moon old apprentice as a frightened warrior ran from the fox with him clenched in his teeth, head high so the cat didn't trip over him.
Let me go! My mum and dad are still fighting back there! He would yowl, not to be answered.
"Scrapeface! Wake up!" He was dreaming! Steamfur was prodding him with one claw.
"What is it?"
"You need to come to leader Shadestar's den right away! It's Foxkit. He stole the sacred leaf." Scrapeface leaped to his paws.
"You mean the leaf of sieling? No!"
Chapter 6
Foxkit sat in a grassy clearing, holding a leaf bigger than himself by his to forepaws, trying to read the light scratches intented in it that took the form of different cats doing different Jutsu.
"Lets see . . . the first one is . . . Multy Shadow Clone Jutsu. Nah! Not this again it's my worst Jutsu!"
* * *
"Leader Shadestar! This is not just a prank this is a seriouse crime!" A warrior was yowling. Nearly the whole clan crowded the leader in a semi-circle.
"That leaf contains secrets that were sealed by the first leader, secrets known only to our Clan!"
"If it falls into the wrong hands it can destroy are entire way of life!" "Alright," Shadestar groaned, "bring Foxkit hear at once!" And with a flick of his frost-coloured tail, the warriors leaped away into the undergroeth. Scrapeface leaped from tree to tree, panting hard, it felt as if his lung were litarelly screaming for air. Where would he go?
Scrapeface found Foxkit wheezing for breath in a grass clearing.
"It's all over." He meowed, leaning in toward him before giving a short purr of laughter. And Foxkit mimicked. Scrapeface leaned back in surprise.
"Caught me already not bad" Foxkit squecked, getting to his paws, "you're quick Scrapeface, I only had time to learn one technique." He's been out here practicing, I can tell how hard he's been working.
"Listen Scrapeface! I'm 'gonna show you this amazing Jutsu and you're 'gonna let me graduate!" He purred, "then everything will be okay!"
"What gave you that idea?"
"That's the way it works rite? Anyone who learns a Jutsu from this leaf passes!"
"Where do you get that idea?"
"Steamfur told me about it!" He jumped up and down, unable to hold in his excitement any longer. "Believe it! He told me where to find the leaf . . . and this place,"
Huh, Steamfur?
"Huh? Look out!" Scrapeface leaped to Foxkit's side pushing him out of the way with one hefty shoulder as a few long-thorned twigs pelted toward the ginger kit. Pain struck Scrapeface from nose to tail tip as thorns cut through his pelt and pierced flesh.
He tried to stable himself as he let out a wail of pain.
"I see you found are little hideaway." Steamfur meowed from a tall pine tree above the grassy clearing.
"So that's the way it is? Huh? I should of known!"
"Foxkit!" Steamfur yowled, "Give me the leaf! Now!"
"Wait a minute!" Foxkit squeacked, glancing from warrior to warrior."What's going on hear?" Scareface panted as he lent againts a cherry bush and feebily clawed a thorn branch in the direction of the light grey warrior.
"Foxkit! Don't let Steamfur get the leaf! It contains forbidden Jutsu, that can put this Clan in grave danger! Steamfur used you to get the leaf! For his own power!"
Foxkit groaned in confusion
"Foxkit, Scrapeface it just trying to scare you because he dosnt want you to have the leaf,"Foxkit flickered his gaze between Steamfur and Scrapeface and back again.
"Stop lying Streamfur," Scrapeface wheezed, "don't let him trick you Foxkit!"
Steamfur let out an evil purr as he whitenissed the feeble attempt to stop the ginger kit.
"Oh, I'll tell you who's really lying," he meowed.
"No Steamfur!" Scrapeface wailed.
"They've been lying to you youre whole life Foxkit," Foxkit's eyes flickered in disbelief, "since the decree twelve years ago.
"What, decree?" The tom squeaked.
"Everyone knows exept you, Scrapeface is trying to hide it from you even now. He'll do anything to shut me up!" Scrapeface stared in hard amazement as a stale breeze tugged him toward the white warrior, balancing among furled leaves and sharp thorns.
"What is this decree? Why does everyone else know about it?" He demanded as his eyes grew large and his blue pupils shrunk into tiny dots.
"Don't tell him its forbidden!" The brown warrior yowled to the treetops. But, ignoring him, Steamfur carried on. Leaves wrustled in the breeze to cover Steamfur in dark shadow. He was going to tell Foxkit! The biggest secret in the Clan! It was about to be betrayed - now!
Chapter 7
A cold wind pulled the grass toward Steamfur, who balanced lightly on a thick branch. He was about to betrey a secret that been kept for twelve years! A decree that should never be spoken of! But he carried in with a unwavering, frosty tone that made Foxkit shiver.
"The decree is know one can tell you that the nine tailed fox is inside - you!" Foxkit gasped, and his eyes gave way his ferocious anxiety.
"The fox spirit that killed Scrapeface's parents and destroyed our Clan has taken over you're body!" Even though it caused him agony, Scrapeface tour at the grass below his claws. "You are the nine-taled fox!" Steamfur caterwauled.
"Stop it!" Scrapeface screeched. But Foxkit didn't focas on the tabby warrior, he was the nine-taled demon fox! And his whole life had been a lie! How could he ever live now!
"They've all been sneaking around hiding things from you you're whole life! Didn't you think it was strange how they treated you?" Like dirt! Like they hated you for just being alive!"
"No!" The kit wailed. He could feel power surging through his vains! So much! He had never felt this way before! "No! No! No! No! No!"
"Foxkit!" The tabby tom yowled, claws sheathed.
"That's why you will never be exepted in this Clan! Even you're beloved teacher hates you're guts!"
***
Scrapeface groaned in agony. It wasn't true! Shadestar's voice echoed in his mind.
Foxkit never had a mother or father to care for him. He's shut out from everything and dosn't know why. Even look at him! How would you feel if everywhere you went people turned there backs on you! That's why he gets in trouble, so people will notice him! Flashes of images raced through his mind, the berry juice over the carved leaders! That's why he did it! It may not show, but he's always thinking of the family he dosn't have. He's hurting inside! Steamfur's yowl cut through Scrapeface's thoughts.
"Die! Foxkit! The pale tom raised a sheathed claw from the tree he stood on, ready to break of two jutting thorn branches that grew out of the thick branch, and, with a deadly accurate aim swiped is mallow paw across the branches, positioning them carefully so the thorns didn't pierce his venerable pads.
Foxkit crawled feebly away from the spinning branches, with those thorns and that aim, Foxkit would die from loss of blood for sure! This was it! He's going to die!
More coming soon