(A/N:) Hey! Thanks for choosing Blooming Hearts. I think this book is excellent because you can learn some valuable life lessons from this book. Credit to the editing go to EidolaBanks, and everything else, including the characters go to me, Hazelshade99. Hope you enjoy!
A silver tom with black stripes chuckled as he tossed a moss ball towards a she-kit with white swirls around her beautiful dark brown pelt. "To me!" a brown tom kit with lighter brown underbelly and darker flecks called, racing for the moss ball as the silver Tom tossed it.
"Skyfeather! Dear, give the little ones a break!". A silver she cat padded up to the playful group, and spoke softly.
"But Moonshade! We don't want to go back to the nursery yet!". The dark brown white swirl speckled she wailed.
"Now now, Hazelkit. It's time for all of you to get some rest," Moonshade soothed her, waving her tail. "Hazelkit, Heatherkit, Rowankit, come. It's time for little warriors to dream!" their mother ordered with a smile on her lovely face.
But Rowankit was nowhere to be found. After a few moments of frantic searching Hazelkit squeaked, "He's over here!". Her brother was watching Briarleaf, the Dawnclan medicine cat heal Spidertooth, a well earned warrior of Dawnclan, who was wincing in discomfort and trying his best to not look like an apprentice again in front of the observant little one watching the operation in the den.
"Rowankit, come on now!" Moonshade called with loving impatience.
"Yes mother!" he called over his shoulder, racing after his siblings. Moonshade counted all three kits as they raced into the safety of the nursery. She settled them in the nest in the curve of her belly and they started to feed on their mother's warm milk as she groomed their pelts, lulling them to sleep.
Just before the first light of dawn, a she cat screamed into the camp, "Rogue attack! Rogue attack!" By the sound of it, it was Lionstar, the current Dawnclan leader. Skyfeather quickly dashed from the nursery to help defend the camp from the attack.
"W-What's going on mum?" Heatherkit asked, fear edged her little meow.
"Nothing, sweets. Go back to sleep," Their mother soothed with a nervous purr.
A silver she cat with white flecks stood guard by the nursery. "Dovefeather! Wanna play?" Hazelkit purred innocently, racing up to her older sibling and pawing her tail playfully. She was from Moonshade and Skyfeather's first litter of kits.
"Hazelkit! Get inside. I can't play now," she ordered in a way that confused young Hazelkit. While her back was turned to return her little sister to the den, two rogues raced for her, claws extended and thirsty for blood. They launched themselves at her, and wrenched their claws into her side, tearing her flesh. Moonshade, horrified, curled her tail around the straying Hazelkit who was trying to peer out of the den to see what was wrong, and pulled her back from the slaughter scene. Skyfeather raced to his daughter's aid and launched himself at the rogues, trying to pry them off. He succeeded, but it was already too late. Dovefeather lay in a heap of blood and fur and, as the battle died down and either the rogues were chased away or their bodies were dragged outside of camp, the three siblings, Hazel, Heather, and Rowan, slowly creeped towards their sister, eyes wide with shock and fear.
Hazelkit prodded Dovefeather with a tiny, hesitant paw. "I just wanted to play!" she wailed. Dovefeather seemed to be made of cold soft stone, neither moving nor replying. "Is she.. Gone to Starclan?" Hazelkit asked, a single tear running down her cheek to splash onto the bloodied earth. She knew the answer.
"Indeed. I'm sorry, little ones" Skyfeather nodded, full of dark and heavy grief.
"It's all my fault.. If I didn't ask to play and distract her, she wouldn't have gotten killed," Hazelkit wailed and raced away from her sister's crimsoned and foul body. Her brother and sister cried out after her as she raced passed six other pairs of wide, glittering kit eyes and curled up in a hole of sodden earth and let salty, clouded tears fall from her turquoise eyes.
