Spiderwebs

Spiderkit and Webkit were born on the same night, but Webkit is weak and Spiderkit is a bully. Watch as the two grow up and try to work out their differences... or in some cases, refuse to.

Prologue

Weedclaw felt very overwhelmed.

Here he was, outside the ThunderClan medicine den, listening to not one, but two she-cats, writhe in the pain of kitting. To make it worse, Jaytail's first kit, a little black she-kit, had been born dead. Weedclaw, despite all his moons of being the only medicine cat in ThunderClan, couldn't help but feel like he was doing something wrong.

He heaved a sigh and went back into the fray, only having left it for a brief breath of fresh air. He forced positivity into his voice as he went to Jaytail, saying, "You have one more kit left, I'm sure it's alive." She only looked up at him, her eyes wide with fear and pain. Her black pelt glinted in the moonlight shining through the nursery ceiling.

The other she-cat, Featherfur, was having an easier time of things. In fact, she was rather quiet all of a sudden. Weedclaw mewed nervously, "Featherfur, what's going on?"

The gray queen didn't answer. Weedclaw prodded her with a forepaw. "Featherfur, what's going on?" he asked again.

Her head fell forward at the same time that a kit rolled out of her. Weedclaw lunged for the kit, nipped the sac, and began to lick its fur back faster than he could ever think he could. He prayed to StarClan for it to live, somehow.

He felt a tiny, shuddering breath go through the kit's tiny body and Weedclaw couldn't stop his cry of relief, "Thank StarClan!"

The tiny kit's father, Eaglewing, stepped into the nursery. "How's it going?"

Weedclaw quickly picked up the frail kit and put it in front of its father. "You know what to do. Keep at it until I tell you to stop." Eaglewing looked surprised, but obeyed the order, glancing over at Featherfur, who still hadn't moved.

The medicine cat moved back toward the black queen, who seemed prepared to give her final push. "Go," Weedclaw told Jaytail.

With a groan, she pushed, and out came a much stronger-looking kit. "Thank StarClan," Weedclaw heard Jaytail whisper as he nipped the sac and began to lick the fur backward. The kit drew a breath and struggled to move closer to its mother to drink her milk.

"It's a tom," Weedclaw declared to Jaytail. "Congratulations," he added as he moved back toward the tiny kit that Eaglewing was still licking.

"Eaglewing, she's weak," Weedclaw told the tom, referring to the tiny she-kit between them.

Eaglewing looked up briefly. "What about Featherfur?" he asked, before licking his daughter again.

Weedclaw carefully moved past Jaytail and the tom-kit toward Featherfur. With one look, he knew, but he checked anyway. "Dead."

Eaglewing yowled with grief as Weedclaw picked up the tiny she-kit and placed her in front of Jaytail. "Can you give her milk?" the medicine cat asked the queen.

She nodded and the she-kit squirmed next to the tom-kit. Jaytail looked worried. "She's not very strong. She's barely getting any milk, compared to my son."

Weedclaw felt crushed. "Oh, no."

Eaglewing pushed past Weedclaw to get to his dead mate. He buried his head in her fur.

Weedclaw leaned toward Jaytail. "Help me keep their she-kit living. Please."

Jaytail nodded at the medicine cat and went back to cooing at her son and making sure that Eaglewing's daughter was getting enough to drink.

Weedclaw sighed to himself and left to tell Gorsestar the so-called good news.

Chapter 1

Webkit stared longingly after the older cats' tails, swishing as they disappeared through the gorse tunnel separating the camp from the outside world. She couldn't even imagine what was out there, but judging from her time spent watching returning warriors and apprentices, it could be very amazing at times.

She still had no idea what a fox was, or how to fathom another Clan. There were more cats out there, and they weren't ThunderClan? And then there were cats who didn't want to live in a Clan? How did they survive?

All questions she would answer when she finally became an apprentice. She was just one moon away.

Glancing down at her shrew, she realized now that she had thought about the outside world, again, she wouldn't be able to finish it. She struggled to her feet and began to painfully dig a hole to bury the remains in.

"Webkit," she heard behind her, "you know you shouldn't try and do that just yet." Above her appeared the fussy Jaytail, who had nursed her as a tiny kit. The black queen added, "You know you're too weak!"

The tiny she-kit wanted to hiss at the queen, but she knew it was true. Her muscles just weren't there yet.

Suddenly a black kit appeared in front of her. "Yeah, Webkit, you're too weak," he repeated. "Jaytail, let me help Webkit, please?"

Jaytail purred. "Of course, Spiderkit," she told the black kit. "You're such a great help." She retreated back toward the nursery.

Spiderkit's kind demeanor disappeared as his mother left earshot. "You'll never be an apprentice," he hissed in her ear as he dug the hole with quick, practiced paw strokes. He scooped in the bird remains and added, "You're too weak and too stupid. All you do is sit around and stare into space. You don't even try to get stronger." He shoved her over, as if to prove his point, and then walked away without covering the shrew with dirt.

Webkit lay on the dusty stone, dismayed. She always secretly hoped that Spiderkit would be nicer to her, seeing as they were born on the same night and Jaytail had nursed them both. But he had always been mean and disdainful toward his so-called "littermate."

Webkit's father, Eaglewing, always told her to stay strong, that Spiderkit was only mean because he was jealous of her other kinds of strength. But it was was times like these that Webkit wished that she had physical strength.

Again, she struggled to her feet, with more difficulty than before because she was tired, and began the walk toward the nursery.

Thankfully, Eaglewing spotted her from across the camp and called, "Webkit!" He bounded over in a few strong strides and picked her up by the scruff of the neck, purring just like his daughter. From around her fur, he asked, "What is your destination?"

Webkit purred and answered, "The nursery!"

In answer, Eaglewing carried her toward the nursery with more enthusiasm in his step than Webkit thought was possible. She could hear her father's purring with every step. She felt safe when she was near Eaglewing, like nobody could judge her for her strength.

As the moon slowly went by it became more and more obvious that Webkit would become an apprentice when Gorsestar said she could be one, not at the typical six moons. She began to look forward to the day that Spiderkit would leave the nursery for good. She secretly hoped that Jaytail would hang around. She seemed to like being a queen.

One day Spiderkit approached Webkit and mewed, "I'm sorry."

Webkit was taken aback. Finally, after the moons of constant teasing and physical bullying, Spiderkit was apologizing? She remembered all the things he had said and done and remembered to be angry. "For what?" she growled back.

Spiderkit mewed back, "I'm sorry that you're a curse to ThunderClan and that Gorsestar doesn't like you. I'm sorry that the only reason you're still around is because Eaglewing would protect you no matter what."

She stared at the tom-kit in utter shock. Spiderkit's whiskers twitched in amusement. His smirk widened and his eyes glowed. "I hate you," he added.

Webkit burst out, "Well, I hate you too, Spiderkit!" She ran away with all her strength toward the nursery, barely managing to make it to her nest before she had to collapse.

No place in the entire world would be far enough away from Spiderkit.