Jaded View: Chapter fifteen

## Chapter fifteen

“Come
on Picklekit, we need to go somewhere important.” Snowflight padded off,
Shieldtuft in front of her, “coming!” She ran after the white she, then Lilykit
ran towards her, “Junglekit and Moldkit are going to the fighting competition”
“We are too Lilykit.” Snowflight meowed, “like it’s going to be interesting
this time.” Shieldtuft muttered, flicking her tail. “I’ve never been, I bet
it’ll be great!” Picklekit stared forwards, in front of them was a large
clearing, a giant sanding bank was there, a few cats waiting for them. Moldkit
and Junglekit were there, and Junglekit came over, “took you long enough!” He
nuzzled Picklekit’s cheek, then Snowflight meowed, “don’t do that, or every
other cat will think you two are love birds.”
“Gross! We’re just friends mum!” Picklekit mewed, she looked at Junglekit, who
seemed to think differently, “yeah!” His mew was trembling, as if he wasn’t
sure about what he was saying, “well why don’t you four get those two out of
the sand, they shouldn’t be there.” Shieldtuft padded forwards, flicking her tail
to two grey toms, “hey! Get out of the sand!” Lilykit ran at him, waving her
front paws at them, her back-fur bristling, “why should we? You’re just a
training.” One of the cats snickered, “shut it Blackpaw, your just as bad, you
fight over someone looking at your meal.”
“Yeah right Greystorm, all you do is tell me what to do!” Blackpaw spat,
Greystorm stared down at him, “if I were you, I wouldn’t argue, come on, let’s
get off the sand.” Greystorm padded back to the grass, Blackpaw following
grouchily. Lilykit ran back over to them, as other cats entered the clearing.
Picklekit noticed Fireclan’s new leader, followed by his deputy, a white and
ginger tom. “Hey look! There’s Fireclan’s leader, why don’t you go have a talk
to him.” Snowflight mewed, “he might want some help.” She nudged the three
away, then went to talk to Shieldtuft. “Come on!” Picklekit bounded towards the
ginger tabby, “hi! My name’s Picklekit! What’s yours?” She mewed, smiling
warmly at the tom, “uh, Embertail.”
“That’s a cool name! What’s your deputy’s name?”
“Moltenfur…” The other cat shook his head, “I’ll go get Snowflight-”
“Picklekit, I can hear you from Echo’s Stone.” Snowflight padded over, “I’m
very sorry about her, I asked her to talk to you, not annoy you.”
“That’s fine, I don’t mind.” Embertail meowed, “now, what would you like?”
“We wish to join the competition.” Moltenfur meowed, “is that okay?”
“That’s okay! Only two cats per clan, and you’re the first ones.” Two other
cats came over, Picklekit couldn’t recognize them, but one was a muscular, dark
ginger tom, while the other was a semi-muscular, kinda scrawny grey tabby. The
smaller cat spoke up, his voice cold, “we’d love to join this contest, for
Oceanclan.”
“Sure! You two are the first of Oceanclan to ask.” Shieldtuft came over, “the
deputy of Lightningclan’s come with her kid, I’ll let her participate. Two
Shadeclan cats as well, which leaves Cloudclan.” As she said that, Stonestripes
ran into the area, “I would like to inform you that Cloudclan won’t be
participating once more, since we haven’t got the fighters yet.”
“Okay, you may go now Stonestripes.” They watched as the tom back into the
forest, “all cats! Today we shall have a battle, first up, Lightningclan and
Oceanclan!” The crowd of cats started to scream and cheer as the four cats
padded into the clearing. Picklekit noticed how the Lightningclan cats looked
weaker than the Oceanclan cats, *this doesn’t seem very fair.* “Go!”
Snowflight called as the cats launched at each other. The grey Oceanclan cat
lunged at one of the Lightningclan cats, the other smaller tom crouching under
him, as the other cat landed on his back, then clutched him with unsheathed
claws and rolled them over, so that he was on top. The Lightningclan cat kicked
his stomach, but the other tom didn’t budge, he raised one of his paws,
“goodbye little kitty, *you’ll be the second one*.” Picklekit could barely
make out what the tom said, the other two cats turned around, while the grey
tom ripped open the Lightningclan cat’s stomach. A screech of pain echoed
through the clearing, every cat in the crowd started to look away or stare in
shock. As the Lightningclan cat tried to get up, the grey tom quickly lowered
her head, biting open the tom’s neck, blood covering his teeth. Another howl of
pain erupted from the dying cat, until his body went limp, blood encircling his
frozen body. “No!” Cried the Lightningclan deputy, as she ran away from her
attacker to the dead tom. She shoved the grey cat off, and picked the smaller
cat up, “I’m so sorry, you weren’t meant to go like this, never.” She muttered,
slowly padding out of the sandy area, the other two cats watching her, before
they ran off. “I’m so sorry for your loss. Those two cats will pay for it
someday, I swear.” Snowflight padded towards her, placing a paw on the she’s
shoulder, “those cats shouldn’t ever come here, they’re murders!” The she
cried, placing the dead cat on the ground. Picklekit stared at the body, then
bounded towards Moltenfur and Embertail, “that was scary, wasn’t it?” She
mewed, looking at the cats, “yeah…”
“We need to leave, goodbye training.” Moltenfur briskly padded off, leaving the
clearing, “well, I need to go.” Embertail meowed, quickly following where
Moltenfur went. “Come on Picklekit, Snowflight wants everyone to leave.” Lilykit
came over, flicking her tail, cats around them were leaving, mainly being
shooed off by Shieldtuft, Snowflight was beside Lightningclan’s deputy, trying
to cheer the she up, “it’ll be okay, he’s in a safer place now.” Picklekit felt
sorry for the she, she had lost her own kit in a battle, and it showed how weak
her clan was. Shieldtuft came up to Picklekit and Lilykit, “you two, get your
friends, I’ll take you to another place.”
“But what if I want to go home? Or practice my skills?” Lilykit looked at the
she with wide eyes, “I want to be the best warrior ever, so I’ve got to stay on
top. And I need more knowledge about everything.” Picklekit saw a gleam in the
white she’s eyes, “sure, I can teach you more, as an extension. Brown tabby
with green eyes, why don’t you grab your friends and come with us.” Shieldtuft
sat down and waited as Picklekit ran around, looking for Junglekit and Moldkit.
In a small crowd that hadn’t been scared away, a bunch of trainings and Moldkit
were admiring and asking questions about Junglekit’s stubbed tail. As Picklekit
glanced around the crowd, she noticed a good distraction, a ginger and white
she with a stub tail sat in the crowd, “hey guys! She has a stub tail too!”
Picklekit called from the group, then dragged Junglekit away as the rest of the
crowd went over to the she and started to admire her. “What are you doing?”
Moldkit padded beside his brother as Junglekit got up, “where are we going
now?”
“Shieldtuft is taking us back to camp to give us extension training.” She mewed,
padding over to her sister. Snowflight looked over at them, then smiled, then
started to comfort the Lightningclan deputy once more. “Now hurry it you lot.”
Shieldtuft muttered as she took of into the forest. Lilykit was at her heel,
Moldkit right behind her, while Picklekit and Junglekit were at the rear,
“Picklekit, when you said we were just friends, were you lying?” Junglekit
mewed, staring into her green eyes, “what do you? We are friends, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, we’re friends.” She saw his whiskers lower and the shine from his
eyes disappear, “I’ll go catch up with the others,” he ran past her, not
looking at her face, *did I hurt his feelings?* She sped up, trying to
keep up with the rest of the cats.

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