Flames At Night: Book 1: A Shattered Path

Chapter Twenty-Three

Applepaw

Applepaw felt amazing.

This was the second meeting with Fire Lily she had been to. She loved the sense of freedom it gave her.

There were cats from all seven clans now. Fire Lily had been busy travelling all over the territories. She was successful in convincing other cats to join. Now the Gathering Beach was almost as full as at a real Gathering.

Even kits were allowed to come. Applepaw turned her attention back to the small group she was sitting with. A queen named Lightglow had brought her three kits with her.

"Are we going to live with Fire Lily?" a pale gray she-kit asked. Her mother purred in amusement.

"Maybe we will, Hollowkit. After you're apprentices." She glanced at Applepaw. "You're an apprentice, aren't you? Do you think we should join?"

The black she-cat was taken aback. "Well, if you want. You could even do it before your kits are apprentices."

"Yes! Please, Mama?" begged Hollowkit. Next to her, Marshkit and Peachkit nodded their little heads vigorously.

"We will," Lightglow promised. "Next meeting, after we convince Breezetail to come with us."

"Hooray!" The kits began to leap around in excitement. Applepaw stifled a purr.

"Are these all your kits?" she asked Lightglow.

The queen shook her head. "My daughter Troutkit stayed home. She's actually adopted, but I still wish she would come."

A tail tapped Applepaw on the shoulder. She turned to see Fire Lily, a few kits trailing behind the loner. "Hi," she mewed.

"Hi!" chirped a yellow she-kit. "Who are you? I'm Kimmy!"

Fire Lily gently set down another kit she was carrying. "Hey, Applepaw. Would you mind watching these ones for a little while?"

The black apprentice hesitated, and Fire Lily quickly noticed. "Did I say something wrong? I got your name right, didn't I?"

Applepaw nodded. "I'm just not sure I'll be good with kits," she confessed. "I'm barely out of the nursery myself."

"So?" The orange-yellow she-cat shrugged. "Some cats know they want to be healers right away. Why shouldn't some want to be kit-mothers?"

"Do you mean queens?" asked Applepaw. "In DustClan, that's what we call the she-cats with kits."

"Aren't those your leaders?" Fire Lily looked confused. "I thought Rubystar was a queen."

Applepaw burst out laughing. "Great StarClan, no! Her sister Featherycloud is in the nursery, taking care of Umberkit. Rubystar is too busy."

"Oh." Fire Lily was silent for a moment. The kits she had brought along were playing with Lightglow's litter.

Applepaw saw that one, a brown tabby she-kit, was sticking closer to the outside. Her siblings, or the kits Applepaw assumed were her siblings, stayed next to her. Kimmy leaped up to knock a mossball away from her head.

"She's blind," Fire Lily said, as though reading the apprentice's thoughts. "Ray and Kimmy are really nice to her. They hardly leave her alone."

It was the black she-cat's turn to be silent. Although she could only hear on one side, she couldn't imagine being unable to see. It would be awful.

Bloomingpaw poked her face into Applepaw's field of view. "We have to go," she meowed. "I have to do training tomorrow morning. Leopardnose will be furious if she finds out I stayed up this late."

"All right." Applepaw stood up, shaking her pelt out. "It was nice meeting you and your kits," she said to Lightglow. "I hope I see you again."

The queen purred, smiling. "It was nice to meet you too. See you next time."

Applepaw turned and followed Bloomingpaw into DustClan territory. Even though she didn't want to leave.