Warriors: Mosspath's Choice (REWRITTEN)

Chapter 3

"Mosskit! Wake up!"

A voice cut into her dreamless slumber, arousing Mosskit to wakefulness. She lifted her head up groggily, wondering what happened to her head that made it feel so fuzzy. Why was she in the medicine cat den? Was she sick before?

Mosskit jolted out of her nest. Memories came flooding in, from when they explored the camp for the first time to the moment when her tongue lapped up the little black seeds. She still couldn't remember the name.

Mosskit shook her head, trying to clear her mind from all her jumbled thoughts that did not make any sense. She couldn't figure out where all these thoughts had come from, and why they were in her brain.

"Mosskit! You're awake!"

The anxious voice of Skykit rung in Mosskit's ear as the blurry tabby striped, gray head of Skykit faded into view. Another gray pelt was next to her; Moonkit. Both were staring at her with wide eyes, one aqua blue and the other pale yellow.

The moss and bracken around Mosskit shifted, and she could see the silvery pelt of her mother, Silverheart. "Oh! You're awake!"

She covered the dusty kit with fierce licks, while her littermates looked on with amusement. "We were so worried about you!" Then the scolding began. "What were you thinking? Do you know how much trouble you three have been in?"

Mosskit's littermates hung their heads, ashamed at their mother's words. Confused at what the two kits had done, she looked around the medicine cat den.

Leaves, berries, and roots were all scattered across the floor of the den. This was probably all of Moonkit's and Skykit's fault, since they were too busy scuffling to notice the mess.

"You're lucky that Shadestripe isn't here to see this!"

Mosskit cringed inwardly at her mother's angry words. She was right; they were lucky. They should probably start cleaning up the floor before Shadestripe came back from collecting her herbs and saw this mess.

"What's going on here?" A voice came from the den's entrance, soft yet stern.

Uh oh.

"So, is anyone of you going to explain?" Shadestripe had appeared in the den, her dark tabby fur almost invisible in the dim lighting.

Silverheart had left in a huff, mentioning something about naughty kits and their disobedience under her breath.

Mosskit gulped. She knew that it was entirely her fault for eating those black seeds, but it wasn't really up to her to explain the scattered herbs and berries on the floor of the den.

"It was our fault," Moonkit finally found the courage to speak up, her small voice vulnerable in front of the medicine cat. She whisked her tail towards Skykit, who hung her head with shame. "We were play fighting and we didn't notice that we knocked down the herbs while we were playing." Moonkit also lowered her head, staring at the floor and her paws. "We're really sorry."

"And what was your littermate doing while you were fighting?" Shadestripe's voice didn't change tone, though Mosskit thought she could detect a knowingness in her voice. "Not eating one of the herbs, I suppose?"

Mosskit could see that Moonkit was taken aback at the words, since she had a pretty good idea that she wasn't aware of what she was doing while they were playing. Before her littermate could protest, Mosskit swiftly cut into the conversation.

"I did," Mosskit put in hastily, not wanting her littermates get all the blame when some of it was her own fault. Her green eyes staring at the ground in embarrassment as she scuffed the den flood with her paws. Both Skykit and Moonkit were startled, as was Moonkit. "But it was only a few poppy seeds." The words flew out of her mouth before she even knew what she was meowing about. Instinctively, she whipped her tail towards her mouth, stuffing it in so that she wouldn't spew out any more nonsense. She regretted what she mewed the moment Shadestripe lifted her head in surprise.