MoonClan's ambitious story/(1): The First Four Leaders/1/3

### Chapter 3: AdderClan

A quarter-moon later, Birchkit heard Moonstar announcing something in a raspy voice.

Cats started crowding around Highrock. Birchkit stayed at the mouth of the nursery. Moonstar looked around to see if everyone was paying attention to her. Then she started.

"To begin, I have some bad news. I only have one life left from my illness, and I am so close to losing this one, too. Since I am ready to join the ranks of StarClan, Lilypool, I request that you don't give me any more treatment. I am ready to die peacefully. I am glad to give leadership to Falconblue once I die, and I hope he will be a great leader."

The cats didn't really look surprised since they knew about it already, but Lilypool just nodded. Birchkit wasn't really surprised, either, but very confused instead. *Why does she want to die?* She stopped to take a break then continued. "We have some new apprentices, too."

Moonstar then gestured towards Quailkit. She said the ritual, and Quailkit's mentor was Blazesky. Birchkit got confused for a moment. He thought Blazesky already had an apprentice, his sister, Sealpaw.

She also made Shadowkit & Icekit apprentices, since they were the same age, of course. Shadowkit was apprenticed to Birchkit's father, Snowpool, and Icekit to Forestcreek, Snowpool's brother. He thought it was interesting because Shadowpaw and Icepaw were littermates, and so were Snowpool and Forestcreek.

Then Moonstar did her smile and said, "We also need to welcome five new warriors."

His three sisters, Sealpaw, Hailpaw and Sandpaw were included in this list. They became Sealbranch, Hailstream & Sandleap. Two brothers (who Birchkit had never met before), Nightpaw & Nutpaw became warriors. They were Nightnose & Nutclaw.

All eight cats were congratulated for becoming apprentices and warriors.

Birchkit then knew why Blazesky was given Quailpaw. Because Sealpaw became a warrior, now Sealbranch.

Birchkit wondered when he would become an apprentice. He was a teeny bit more than halfway there, three and a quarter moons old, but seeing his siblings being promoted made him want to grow up faster.

#### Later -----

A few days later, Birchkit was minding his own business while carrying his mouse to a small dirt patch, until he was pulled back into the nursery by his mother. So was his sister, Rainkit.

All the kits were pulled back in by their mothers. Birchkit had no idea what was going on at all. Then he got told by his mother firmly, "Stay here. I promise I will come back," and she went out.

Goldenlily & Flipsnow told Swankit & Mountainkit to stay in the nursery, too, and left them very puzzled.

Birchkit gestured towards them to come to him & Rainkit, and they relaxed a bit.

But Birchkit still felt awfully confused like the others until Swankit gestured Birchkit to come to the mouth of the nursery. Rainkit & Mountainkit also went to the opening. They saw tons of cats fighting. Swankit turned her head towards Birchkit, and she had a very scared expression.

*What?!* thought Birchkit quickly. *They're fighting? Against whom?* It was the first time he witnessed an actual fight happening. Otherwise he only heard of these fights happening. He didn't know that he would witness a fight so young, only a kit.

Then Sealbranch ran to the nursery, and seemed to look perplexed at four kits staring out the nursery watching their Clan fight unknown cats, two of them her younger siblings.

She said, "Hey, um, I thought I would check up on all of you kits..."

"Will you tell us what's going on, sister? it's scary!" said Rainkit. Swankit and Mountainkit nodded, although fearfully of the fight.

*If Swankit could speak, she'd probably* still *stay silent like Mountainkit,* thought Birchkit seriously.

Sealbranch filled them in. Apparently, Adderstar had died, but his great-nephew, Fangclaw, became the leader of *AdderClan,* and he had his great-uncle's bloody ways. He had sent a group of highly-trained warriors to try and murder MoonClan. The newly-made apprentices, Shadowpaw, Icepaw & Quailpaw, weren't going to fight, since they had almost no experience compared to the older apprentices, so they stayed in the apprentices' den with Blazesky and Maplestripe guarding them. The older apprentices had to help the warriors in battle though.

The queens in the nursery who weren't expecting or nursing any kits were going to fight, too. But they wouldn't fight on the front lines, Sealbranch had said, only help the regular warriors fight.

Sealbranch then had to run off to fight, too, and Birchkit felt lonely again. He knew MoonClan was the biggest Clan of all three Clans (as per the tales of the elders, anyway), but there weren't a lot of queens in the nursery left. There were only two, and both were still pregnant with kits.

The other three kits had fallen asleep, who were Birchkit and Mountainkit's shared cousins, Zebrakit and Stonekit, and a kit who usually only hung out with Mountainkit, Berrykit, due to either boredom, or sensitivity to their mothers not being there.

The four kits were still awake, but scared. They kept watching out the nursery to see what was going on. They saw a few warriors defending the nursery, including Sandleap, which made sense to Birchkit. He shuddered at the thought of fierce and dangerous AdderClan warriors entering the nursery. Birchkit or the other kits barely knew how to fight.

But then, to their horror, they saw Goldenlily pinned, and about to be bitten in the neck. Swankit looked like she gasped, even though she made no noise. But then, Snowpool leaped onto the AdderClan cat, and they rolled over in a tumble.

Swankit was very shocked, but then she relaxed when Goldenlily got saved by Birchkit's father.

Birchkit bit his lip hard when he saw his father fight ferociously and intensely against the AdderClan warrior.

Then Birchkit saw Falconblue fighting. But then his senses almost seemed to corrupt when he saw who he was fighting against. Petuniaheart. His mother. And Peonyclaw, too. His vision became blurry as he could not comprehend what was going on. *The deputy?! Fighting against Petuniaheart and Peonyclaw?!* his mind screamed. He remembered Wisdomheart's stories and his worries about Falconblue, if he was fit to be a leader of MoonClan. *Were those worries... right?* he wondered as he was still trying to make sense of it.

"What? What's going on?" asked Rainkit confusingly, looking at Falconblue fighting against Petuniaheart & Peonyclaw. She had seen it, too.

"One of them must be a traitor," suggested Mountainkit thoughtfully. Swankit nodded. Birchkit and Rainkit didn't respond, because they were still confused. Birchkit saw Falconblue, Petuniaheart and Peonyclaw disappear from sight and his heart started pounding even more, as it already was. *What is going on?! What happened to them?!*

They kept watching, but Birchkit still could not forget Falconblue fighting against *another* MoonClan Clanmate. Two of which were his mother and aunt. He couldn't find either of them on the battlefield and his mind worried the worst could have happened.

In an hour or so, the fighting ceased, but Sealbranch came back with sad news.

"Our deputy, Falconblue, has been siding with AdderClan all along. He murdered poor, frail Moonstar, hoping to become leader. We decided we wanted to send him off to AdderClan, but he refused, saying he'd stay and become leader for the Clan. But then, a ton of warriors got angry and killed him. He's gone now, but we're afraid he had told AdderClan about our secrets before that, and we're without a leader or deputy!"

Birchkit blinked. The news was shocking for him. *Moonstar's dead? Because of Falconblue?* His head started to spin, and Rainkit, Mountainkit & Swankit looked just as shocked, surprised & very confused as he did. Birchkit had no idea what to say, or think, except that... maybe... he was *indeed* right about his worries all along.

"I'm sorry if this is too much for you, since you're only kits, but... this is the truth," continued Sealbranch gloomily. She looked at the floor in sadness.

Snowpool, their father, came in and nodded. "Your grandmother died, and without a doubt, Falconblue killed her, and started attacking your mother & aunt."

*"Is Petuniaheart okay?"* Birchkit couldn't help asking.

Sealbranch looked nervously at Snowpool, and he drew in a sharp breath. The four kits felt really scared. *I swear to StarClan, if she isn't okay...* Birchkit thought anxiously, fear gripping his heart. *I might die!*

"Well... she's in the medicine cat den," Snowpool said carefully.

"She's hurt?!" yowled Rainkit in shock. Birchkit had the same expression.

Snowpool shook his head. "Not much. But Peonyclaw is fine."

Swankit pointed to herself and looked confused. It took a moment for Birchkit & Snowpool to understand.

"Oh... your mother? She's okay, too. Goldenlily & I fought off an AdderClan warrior that was about to kill her, but I saved her. She's fine, too," said Snowpool, and turning his attention to Mountainkit, he replied, "Flipsnow is okay, too. She has a scratch on her chest, but that's pretty much it."

All the kits were relieved. Their mothers weren't dead.

"Alright, do you want to come with me to the meeting? We need a new leader," he said slowly. Birchkit thought about it. He didn't know Moonstar very much, anyway, but since she was very important to MoonClan's history, he wondered how it was so easy for Falconblue to kill her, a legend of the Mountain Clans. After all, she brought the change to the Mountain Tribe. He wasn't at all sad about Falconblue dying, though. But he knew that since both deputy and leader were now dead, they needed a knew leader.

"Yes!" yowled Rainkit & Birchkit. Mountainkit & Swankit simply nodded.

"Okay, then," Snowpool said, leading them out. Birchkit noticed Shadowpaw, Icepaw and Quailpaw outside, too, and they said nothing, just looking confused instead.

The cats were negotiating a lot about the new leader and deputy. There were even some arguments going on.

"I think that Blazesky should be the leader," Peonyclaw commanded. "He *is* a pretty good candidate, not to mention being Moonstar's son."

"Well, it doesn't matter if he is the son or not," Maplestripe started, looking at Peonyclaw, "but I guess he is good enough?"

Blazesky shook his head. "I am pretty sure Moonstar would have chosen someone else other than me."

Flipsnow tried to defend her sister, and even stated that Peonyclaw could be leader, but then Orchidmoon spoke up and said, "She doesn't have MoonClan blood, though."

"Does that matter?" Peonyclaw hissed. Another argument ensued about cats wanting Blazesky or Peonyclaw to be leader.

Then Snowpool yowled, "*Be quiet! Moonstar was know for always staying calm even when things get tough! You can't argue all the time! It isn't MoonClan to do this nonsense!"*

Everybody stopped talking and stared at him. Then a lot of MoonClan exchanged looks and started talking about something different. Birchkit blinked when he realized what they were talking about, and Rainkit looked surprised. Then Petuniaheart went up to Snowpool and said, "My dear, you should be the new leader of MoonClan! It's clear you have the leadership to do it."

"What? But... I'm not very..." started Snowpool, but he trailed off.

Then other cats started approving of him being leader, and finally, Snowpool gave in. Birchkit noticed Shadowpaw looking shocked for a moment, but then he started smiling along with the other MoonClan warriors. Birchkit thought it was because he was Snowpool's apprentice, soon to be Snowstar.

Birchkit was confused. His father would be leader? He was again a leader's descendant? He thought he should be proud of his father, but he only felt pure confusion at *EVERYTHING* that happened that day.

He went to the nursery again, and fell asleep, feeling awfully tired all of a sudden, and too confused, ignoring the celebration. His head was hurting too much from the worries he had previously, and how it *all* came true.

**This is a chapter subpage of MoonClan's ambitious story (1): The First Four Leaders.**

*← Previous Chapter: Chapter 2: MoonstarNext Chapter: Chapter 4: Zebrapaw & Stonepaw →*

*← Previous Part: Prologue: Beginning of the Mountain ClansNext Part: Part 2: Birchpaw's Training →*