Song Setting: Comeback | Fox Stevenson

Character of the Week: Frostkit

Three kits, born of fire, were carried away from the broken home, leaving the terror of death and desolation in their wake. They followed the winding river towards the distant lights, where the warm comfort of safety beckoned them, and the determination of their hearts drove them forward.

But the shadows watched, and awaited the arrival of their prophesied demise. The moon glowed crimson, and the creatures of the dark followed, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike. In a last effort, the kits were cast into the river on a wooden raft, while the water carried them away from the trodden path.

When the first ray of dawn struck the clouds, chasing away the looming darkness, the water ran with blood and decay. The smoldering forest lay in pitiful remains, its ashes scattered to the relentless wind.

A grieving queen mourned by the river, her unborn kit buried beneath her paws with the promise of being forever in her heart. Another cat sat beside her, gaze set upon the hazy sky, when a sudden noise broke the silence of agony. Wading towards the reeds, they discovered three kits caught in the current, clinging to the little life they had left.

A spirit appeared before them, a gaping hole in her chest where a heart should have been. She spoke of a prophecy as her eyes began to fade, her last sorrowful words warped as she melted into the shadows. The queen took the kits as her own, and brought them to safety, with a new promise to uphold.

One of the kits was destined to save the Clans.

And no one else could know.

★★★ Three Moons Later ★★★

"Windkit, Jaykit, get off of your brother! Snowkit, don't chew on your tail; Raggedkit, stop making fun of Icekit's fur! And Frostkit, for the last time, you can't eat my herbs," Hollyheart exclaimed, trying to herd the group of kits back towards the nursery and away from the group of warriors leaving for the dawn patrol. The seven kits continued to chase after each other, giggling as they encircled Hollyheart and tried to trip her. "This is why I became a medicine cat!" The she-cat meowed, a moment before a small white tom attempted to tackle her.

"Begone, evil WitherClan cat!" Snowkit shrieked, leaping onto the medicine cat's back. His sister, Icekit, grabbed a hold of one of the medicine cat's front legs, and the other five got the idea.

"Snowkit, WitherClan's not evil! Don't make me have a talk with your mother!" Snowkit dug his tiny claws into her scruff, while the bewildered medicine cat gently tried to shake him off. Hollyheart began to turn to the right to grab the kit, who always managed to stay out of her reach. The kits squeaked in delight, trotting behind in a ragtag procession.

"It's a traitorous AmberClan cat!" Icekit jeered, egging the tom on.

Hollyheart groaned, "Alright, that's fair," She decided, softly pushing each of the kits away as they attacked her one by one. Frostkit had been strenuously climbing a small rock beside Hollyheart, and once she reached the top, she sunk into a crouch and then launched herself from it, toppling the medicine cat. "Hey-!" Hollyheart tried, finding herself covered in small wriggling kits a moment later.

"Consider yourself defeated!" Frostkit declared, seemingly very proud of her expansive vocabulary. A looming figure suddenly blocked the sun, and all of the kits turned to look at it, gasping. Snowkit finally let go of Hollyheart's tail.

"Smokecloud, thank StarClan you're here!" Hollyheart exclaimed in exasperation, shoving Snowkit away.

The smoky grey tom laughed, picking Frostkit up by the scruff when she made a dash for his tail. "Hi dad!" She murmured, flicking her icy blue eyes to look up at him. He set her back down, then sank into a crouch so that he was level with the the other kits, who were sitting in a neat row, tails curled politely around their paws. Frostkit scrambled to join them. "Are you all giving Hollyheart a hard time?"

"Of course not!" Snowkit chirped. Icekit clubbed him over the head with her paw.

"You were too!" Windkit retaliated, turning her nose up at him. Frostkit gave Raggedkit a playful shove to the shoulder, which received a glare and a slightly harder push in return.

"Well, she need to get back to her important medicine cat duties, and I've asked Breezepaw to keep an eye on you while Cherryblossom and Redspring are resting. I'd be very appreciative of you if you'd all try to stay out of trouble." Smokecloud purred, looking directly at Snowkit as he said the last few words.

Snowkit nodded cheerfully, "Don't worry, you'll app-ruh-she-at us very much, and we won't get into any trouble." He promised.

"It's 'appreciate'," Windkit sniffed, suddenly yelping as she was knocked off balance by her brother Sandkit.

"We'll be really really careful," Frostkit grimaced, as Raggedkit had begun repeatedly yanking on her tail. Smokecloud gave a nod to dismiss them, and the kits scattered; Snowkit, Jaykit, and Sandkit towards the fresh-kill pile, and Icekit and Windkit to talk with some older warriors. Smokecloud smiled as they went off, then stood up and padded away, leaving Raggedkit and Frostkit tussling in the center of the grassy clearing.

"What do we do now?" Raggedkit asked, flopping onto her back to stare at the sky.

"Dunno," Frostkit shrugged, sitting back on her haunches to observe the goings on of the camp. There went Silverpool, the elegant tabby she-cat heading out of camp with a determined stride, leading a patrol of six warriors out into the Twisted Plains. Breezepaw was below the highledge, apologizing to Larkstar for letting the other kits run rampant through his den. Starpaw and Oakpaw were leaving with their mentors to train by the Great Acacia - SwiftClan cats prided themselves on their battling skill and their ability to adapt to other territories, mentors regularly brought their apprentices to practice climbing and swimming.

"Maybe we could go to the brook?" Raggedkit suggested, referring to the shallow stream that ran past the camp. Contrary to the rules put forth by other Clans, SwiftClan taught most of its kits to swim by the age of four moons, and even leave the camp under supervision after three.

"That's a great idea!" Frostkit agreed, "But who would we get to come with us?"

Raggedkit groaned, twitching her small stub of a tail. "Why can't we just go alone?"

Frostkit raised a brow and grinned. "Larkstar might have different rules than the other Clans, but I don't think that'd be the best idea."

"Am I interrupting?" Asked an orange and white tabby tom, who had padded up behind them during the conversation. Despite the age difference, Flamepaw was only about a head taller than the two she-kits, though Frostkit tried to adjust her posture to look bigger.

"A little," Raggedkit responded flatly, "We're going to the brook." She informed him, as if she'd already figured everything out.

Flamepaw grinned. "Mind if I join you? Rowanwave just went out on patrol."

Frostkit flicked her tail, casting Raggedkit a glance. "Well, we need to find a Warrior or a Hunter to come with us, otherwise we can't go at all."

"No problem," Flamepaw meowed, "I bet I could get Moonflight to join us; she's been bored out of her mind since Falconpaw started to take more of an interest in Hunter training. I can't say I'm surprised - he might look like a Warrior, but he hits like a squirrel."

Even Raggedkit found the statement amusing, and Frostkit took that as a good sign. "Okay, we'll meet you by the entrance," She decided, then her eyes suddenly glimmered, and she held her head a bit higher in a noble manner, "You must bring your most powerful warrior."

Flamepaw offered a mock bow, before drawing himself back up and casting the two kits a sideways grin. "I shall do as you ask, but do not fool yourself; there is no more powerful warrior than I." He turned away with that, padding across the clearing towards the warriors' den.

"I bet I could take him," Raggedkit reasoned, rolling her eyes and scrunching up her nose.

Frostkit blinked. "I wouldn't doubt you for a moment," a short silence passed, and the swirled she-cat turned to look at her companion. "Wanna go play with our food until he finds her?"

"Sounds like a plan," Raggedkit nodded jovially, springing to her paws. "Hey, I'll race you!"

Frostkit snickered. "Sure."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raggedkit snapped, as which seemed to make the other she-kit laugh even harder. She narrowed her eyes. "Then how about we play 'run from the angry best friend'?"

Frostkit put a paw over her mouth, trying to hold back her giggling and she saw how serious Raggedkit was. "I'll be fleeing now." She declared, racing away towards a crowd of Hunters, the small grey she-cat hot on her tail.

"You better run!" Raggedkit yowled.

"Running!"

"Run faster!"

"Copy that!"

Everything's perfect. Frostkit purred to herself.

What could possibly go wrong?

A/N: First chapter! A little bit short, I'll probably come back and edit this later. Some of the characters are loosely based off of friends of mine (All two-ish of them).

Hope everyone enjoyed, I'll hopefully be updating this on fridays around this time.

~Frost