MoonClan's ambitious story/(1): The First Four Leaders/1/6

### Chapter 6: Swankit & Stonepaw

The next day, Birchkit couldn't help watching his mother frantically keep looking at Primrosekit sleeping and Quailpaw training outside the nursery. He felt terrible that this had to happen to a very young kit, Primrosekit, such an horrific experience. Nothing like that ever befallen *him* before, and he hoped nothing would.

Quailpaw had told Birchkit what had happened to him before Birchkit was born, so he knew what Petuniaheart was scared of.

He wanted to invite Primrosekit to his games, but she seemed too young and shy to do so, and it reminded him of Zebrapaw and Stonepaw when *they* were kits. At least Dandelionkit still talked to other kits, but Primrosekit seemed to be too bashful, probably because of her condition. But Swankit was *mute,* and she wasn't this hesitant. He wasn't sure what else to do since everyone else was occupied, so he decided to take a nap.

When he woke up, Primrosekit was gone.

Birchkit was baffled. Her mother and sister, Rosepetal and Dandelionkit, were still there but they were awake.

He searched everywhere for Primrosekit in the nursery, but she wasn't there.

*Oh no, did she wander off again?* Birchkit wondered frantically. He went outside of the nursery, but simply saw her playing along a small place in the clearing with...

"Quailpaw?!" Birchkit cried out. "What are you doing?"

"Playing tag with Primrosekit. She's not very fast because of something with her nerves, so I'm going slow," mewed Quailpaw.

"Don't you have to train?" asked Birchkit interrogatively.

Quailpaw answered, "Well, not all the time obviously. I'm taking some of my time to play!"

Birchkit looked at Primrosekit and wondered why she wasn't in the nursery. "Isn't she not supposed to exit the nursery by herself?" he inquired curiously.

Primrosekit stopped, and seemed to hang her head sadly. Quailpaw narrowed his eyes and replied, "But she isn't by herself. She's with me. I even told her mother, Rosepetal, and she said it was fine."

Birchkit blinked, but murmured, "Oh, ok..."

Then Quailpaw narrowed his eyes even further to look a little menacing, "And besides, staring at her yesterday wasn't helping her. Stop bothering us."

Birchkit was surprised, and got a little sad when Primrosekit looked away from him and continued playing with Quailpaw. He didn't want to be rude or anything. When the incident happened with Zebrapaw, he tried to be more considerate of others from then on. He didn't want to misunderstand anyone or to be misunderstood himself.

He looked around for Shadowpaw, who was sitting in a grass clearing with a mouse, and told him everything what happened with Quailpaw.

"What? Why would my best friend do that? That's *ridiculous!*" cried Shadowpaw in disbelief.

"I don't know. Maybe they found a similarity between each other. Quailpaw told his story to me & Primrosekit. You apparently saved him," replied Birchkit thoughtfully.

"Well, that part is true. I did alert the cats to help rescue him. I was part of the rescue team, too," agreed Shadowpaw.

Birchkit was puzzled. "How would they let a one-moon old kit help?"

Shadowpaw narrowed his eyes and replied firmly with a glint of humor, "Don't question it, because it's true."

Birchkit shrugged at his reply since he didn't really care. But then he remembered his kit friends, so he asked, "Well, where's Swankit & Mountainkit & Rainkit?"

Shadowpaw tilted his head as if he was thinking. "Rainkit is watching Lilypool heal injured & sick cats, well... Mountainkit is watching a training going on with Stonepaw & Nightnose, and Swankit... hmm..."

Birchkit was waiting for the answer, and became distraught when he replied, "I don't know where my sister is."

"Well, okay, I'll look for her myself. But thanks, Shadowpaw!" mewed Birchkit, walking off.

"You're welcome," Shadowpaw replied warmly.

He looked all over the camp for her, but to no avail. Birchkit sat down on the border of camp & sulked. *Where could she be?* Birchpaw wondered frantically, similar to what he thought when he found out Primrosekit was gone from the nursery. *She usually doesn't leave camp like Primrosekit does...*

Then unexpectedly, he heard scratching & blowing somewhere.

*That must be Swankit... in trouble!* thought Birchkit immediately. Since there was a lot of chatter going on in the clearing, he kept his ears sharp on the sound. Since Swankit was mute and had no voice, she'd have to do everything she could to make a ton of noise. It never occurred to Birchkit she could still make breathing sounds, however.

It seemed like it was coming from outside of camp. He remembered what happened to Quailpaw and Primrosekit, but he thought Swankit must be in dire trouble, so he left camp anyway. Birchkit heard the scratching & blowing very clearly in some huge hole. He peered down.

He saw Swankit scratching harshly on some wood and taking deep breaths to make big blows. She looked up and she looked relieved when she saw him.

The only emotion that Birchkit could feel at that time, however... was sheer horror.

"*Swankit?! What happened to you?!*" Birchkit yowled in terror. He knew she couldn't say anything about her story, but he wanted to know if she was okay.

Swankit pointed to herself, and did a thumbs-up and a nod. *That probably means she's fine,* thought Birchkit in great relief.

"Well, how did you get down there?" asked Birchkit calmly, knowing she was perfectly okay. But then, Swankit made a sad face, then demonstrated. She imitated pushing someone, and then she pretended to fall down backwards.

"Someone pushed you into there?" Birchkit screeched in sheer horror again. Swankit nodded sadly. "Can you get out?" he asked. She shook her head, then she demonstrated her trying to climb out, but it was too steep for her and she slipped and fell down again.

"Um... stay there, and don't panic. I'm going to get help," Birchkit replied anxiously. He waited half a second for her reply (which was a nod), and dashed back towards camp, and looked for his father.

Snowstar was simply just looking at his claws, and not doing much else. He was about to groom himself until Birchkit told him the news of Swankit.

"What... is-is this true?!" meowed Snowstar indignantly, getting up.

"Well, I just talked to her, and she was actually stuck in there, so..." said Birchkit quietly, trailing off, knowing his dad should know what to do.

"Well, I know what to do. This is Moonstar's cousin's granddaughter, and every kit is important. Show me the hole first, so I know what to do for it," replied Snowstar, rather valiantly.

Birchkit started to leave camp, and he saw Snowstar even more stupefied as he followed his son. Birchkit showed him the hole and Swankit, and Snowstar's eyes became even wider. The hole was probably way too steep for even an experienced adult mountain cat to climb, especially with a kit hanging on. "What the-" he exclaimed, but he was interrupted by a hawk noise.

"Oh no!" said Birchkit, but Snowstar was ready for something. The hawk pressed its talons into Swankit's pelt and flew with her out of the hole. Then Snowstar pounced on the hawk, and scratched it, making it let go of Swankit.

Swankit dropped onto Snowstar's back and seemed to hang on for her life. Then he put Swankit down and asked worriedly, "Are you okay, Swankit?" She just nodded.

"Birchkit told me someone pushed you down here," he continued. She nodded again, and looked sad.

They all promptly walked back to camp, but they heard Shadowpaw, Icepaw, Quailpaw, Mountainkit, Rainkit, Goldenlily, even Primrosekit calling out Swankit's name.

"Someone pushed Swankit into a hole! A hawk got her out!" blurted out Birchkit, thinking they should know. Everyone looked confused for a second, but then Goldenlily ran to her daughter, and so did Shadowpaw & Icepaw (they're all siblings, Birchkit remembered), and asked if she was okay. So did Mountainkit & Rainkit.

Snowstar told everyone what happened and that Birchkit was the one who saved her. Primrosekit stared at Swankit strangely. She must have been remembering what happened to *herself.*

Goldenlily thanked Birchkit graciously for finding her, but Birchkit just did nothing in reply, not sure how to react for finding her. Then she turned to Swankit and asked, "Who-who pushed you in? Point-point to whoever did, my kit!"

Birchkit spotted Stonepaw sulking, and glaring at Swankit. Then she looked hopelessly at Zebrapaw, who didn't even look at anyone. Birchkit narrowed his eyes at Stonepaw, and she did an almost silent hiss back.

Swankit took a big breath in, and looked around. Then she pointed at Stonepaw. Everybody looked at Stonepaw. Blazesky & Peonyclaw looked very surprised, seeing their own daughter had done it.

"Really? Stonepaw?" mewed Goldenlily. Swankit did an angry face and nodded.

Then Zebrapaw exploded all of a sudden at Stonepaw.

*"YOU CROWFOOD, STONEPAW! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD THE TRUTH! DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO EVERYTHING FOR YOU?! DISGUSTING!"* he yowled at the top of his voice.

Birchkit was nonplussed by the apprentice's volume, and he remembered the last time Zebrapaw lost control. A moon ago.

"Wait, what? You knew about this?" asked Peonyclaw almost woefully.

*"Well, she told me about it just now! I didn't think she would do that to a mute kit who can't cry for help!"* Zebrapaw whined agonizingly.

"*Well, she's a dumb kit! She can't speak, so who cares?!"* countered Stonepaw.

*"THAT'S IT! SNOWSTAR, GIVE HER THE WORST PUNISHMENT BEFORE EXILE!"* screeched Peonyclaw wrathfully at the very top of her voice. She glared at Stonepaw in almost the worst fury.

Snowstar nodded and told Stonepaw very sharply, "Stonepaw, you cannot eat, drink, or do anything like training or playing for two whole days. You also can't talk with anyone but the elders. If you have to sleep, you shall sleep outside on bare floor. Instead of activities, you will only care for the elders. There's one elder in there which can stomp on you for doing things wrong, you know!"

An elder named Redear who looked very ragged glowered at Stonepaw.

Birchkit spotted Stonepaw's mentor, Nightnose, getting relieved and Birchkit wondered what *that* was about. Stonepaw looked like she was about to vomit.

"This is your fault, you know," mentioned Zebrapaw. "You do not have any liberty whatsoever to harm a poor kit who cannot talk at all."

Everybody glared at Stonepaw as she stomped off to the elders' den.

"Everybody resume your normal duties!" announced Snowstar.

Birchkit went up to Swankit and asked, "Um, do you want to play?" She nodded, and touched Birchkit and started running. "Ok, let's play chase!" mewed Birchkit running after her. He thought he heard Swankit kind of laughing, but it must have been breathing sounds.

They had tons of fun, but something about Birchkit couldn't make him forget about what happened to Primrosekit or Swankit.
**This is a chapter subpage of MoonClan's ambitious story (1): The First Four Leaders.**

*← Previous Chapter: Chapter 5: Primrosekit & DandelionkitNext Chapter: Chapter 7: The Fox →*

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