❂►  T H E   B E G I N N I N G  ◄❂

B E F O R E   T H E   F I R E

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O N E

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THE FIRST noises I ever heard were lots of concerned mews, as well as a lot of scuttling around. I was still too young to understand what every one was saying, as my brain hadn't developed enough to process information, much less open my eyes to see what was going on. The abundance of noises, as well as the cold, annoyed me as a kit, so like all kits, I started to cry.

I remember the feel of my mother's thin tail wrapping around me, and being softly dragged across the moss of her nest towards her stomach. Thankfully it was warmer there, and I was able to feed myself as well. A voice that I could only assume to be my mother spoke, and uttered some noises that seemed to stop everyone else and force them to focus on her. My cries died out, and the rest my surroundings also quieted down, the frantic voices I heard faintly growing further distant.

Now, instead of the rapid mews, I heard only the soft spoken words of my mother, again incoherent as I couldn't understand anything. I would assume she had been saying things to comfort me into a sleep, which worked very quickly after I was done feeding.

I didn't open my eyes until a few sunrises later, which was just a little after I had begun to understand the sounds coming from different cat's mouths. I hadn't been able to repeat much of anything back to them other than noises, but I did know "hungry" and "thirsty". They were basic necessities so it made sense that I knew them first.

"Redtail, come quick! She's opened her eyes!" A small, bushy tortoiseshell tom burst in through the entrance to the den.

Redtail. My father.

Redtail bent his head closer to mine. I stared up into his deep amber eyes, his nose so close to mine that his whiskers were tickling my face. In response to the tickling, I sneezed. Redtail let out a hearty chuckle. "Her eyes are just like yours, Brindleface. Absolutely beautiful."

Brindleface. My mother.

"Our little Sandkit," Brindleface cooed.

Sandkit. Me.

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A moon or so after I opened my eyes, and was able to hold conversation, I was approached by Spottedleaf. Well, "I" being Brindleface and I.

Brindleface smiled as she saw the medicine cat approach us. Spottedleaf bent down, placed a paw on my hind leg, and asked me quietly, "Sandkit, can you push your leg against my paw, as hard you can?" I mustered up all of my strength and pushed against her paw, but didn't move my body. Spottedleaf encouraged me when I finally said, "I can't anymore."

Spottedleaf nodded, but then acted as if I hadn't complained and spoke directly to my mother. "I'm unfortunately the bearer of bad news, Brindleface."

My mother, who had not been paying attention to what Spottedleaf or I were doing, and had maintained casual conversation, contorted her face in fear. "Why? What happened? Did something happen to Redtail? Is he okay?"

"No," Spottedleaf said, shaking her head slightly. "Nothing of the sort. It's actually bad news about Sandkit."

Brindleface's tail curled protectively around me after hearing those words. "Are they really that weak?"

I had no idea what either of them were talking about. As far as I was concerned, I was completely fine and was going to be a strong, healthy kit. Spottedleaf was just playing a game with me. That proved to not be the case, however.

Apparently my legs were so underdeveloped that it was almost impossible for me to just stand up, much less walk around camp or play with the other kits.

Spottedleaf solemnly nodded in response to Brindleface's question. "Yes, her legs are that weak. She won't be able to stand properly without assistance if she doesn't do physical therapy. And that could take moons."

Brindleface was shocked, to say the least. "Moons?! How is she supposed to grow up like a normal kit if she's stuck doing physical therapy?"

"That we'll have to find out," Spottedleaf replied. "I also have no knowledge in the field of physical therapy. Mudfur of Riverclan does, though, and he's willing to come to Thunderclan to help out Sandkit, on the premise that I go to Riverclan to be their medicine cat in his absence. I've already spoken with Bluestar, and she's agreed to the plan."

Brindleface nodded in response and looked down at me. She asked me reluctantly, "What do you think, Sandkit?" I wasn't completely sure what physical therapy meant, so I just nodded my head along to what they were saying. "Well, seems as though she's on board."

"Alright. I'll talk more with Bluestar and then come back here to set everything up with you," Spottedleaf finished as she exited the nursery.

The next four moons consisted of waking up every morning to be greeted by Mudfur. Every day we'd start with trying to stand up and balance myself. Even just that took an agonizing four sunrises. Once I was able to stand, we tried slowly walking around the den, either Mudfur or Brindleface on one of my shoulders to catch me in case I fell. Which shockingly happened a lot.

"Oomph."

"That's alright Sandkit, just get up and try again. No shame in falling," Mudfur said.

Yeah, except for the whole falling in front of everybody part, I had thought.

This daily process continued until I was finally able to graduate into walking around the camp with little support. Finally being able to explore the camp at the ripe age of three moons was bitter-sweet. On one hand, exploring all the various dens and meeting warriors for the first time was fascinating, but Dustkit and Ravenkit, who I shared the nursery with, had met all of these cats and explored all of these dens nearly three moons ago.

The worst part of all of these physical therapy sessions came at the end of each session, when Mudfur would have me get into various positions and have me stretch as far as I could. If he didn't think I was stretching far enough, he would grab my hind-legs or front paws or whatever I was stretching and pull on them himself. This always hurt a lot, and he wouldn't stop even asked him to multiple times.

"Can you stretch any further, Sandkit?" Mudfur asked. This day he had me on my back with my front paws on one side of me and my hind paws on the other, so that my back was twisted.

"No," I said, "This is as far as I can go." Mudfur let out a noise that sounded like a sigh mixed with a scoff, and walked over to me. My eyes widened as I realized what he was going to do, and I pleaded with him. "Mudfur, no! It always hurts when you stretch me!"

"If it doesn't hurt, you aren't doing it right," he grumbled. Mudfur put one forepaw on my left shoulder, and the other on my right hind leg, and pushed them in opposite directions. In response, I yowled in pain. My spine felt as though it would snap without Mudfur stretching me, but with the extra torque it felt even tighter. "Just a little more," he said, "And then we're done for the day."

Mudfur pushed even harder against my body until suddenly there was a loud pop. "Ahhhh," I sighed. That was the first time my back had ever popped, and it relieved a lot of the pain. "What was that?" I asked Mudfur.

"That was what we were aiming for all this time with stretching," he explained, "Popping the bubbles in your back relieves a lot of pain, and should allow you to move more freely. How does it feel?"

"Awesome!" I said, standing up quickly, "I feel like I could jog around the camp all by myself!"

"Want to try?" Mudfur asked.

I was able to run around that day, which ended up being one of the last times I did physical therapy with Mudfur. He eventually just gave me a few things to do every day, some of which I still do to this day in Starclan. I even do some of the stretching with Firestar's assistance. He's a lot gentler than Mudfur.

On the last day of physical therapy with Mudfur, I was formally introduced to the other kits in the den, Greykit, Dustkit, and Ravenkit. Dustkit and Ravenkit's mother was Robinwing, who also happened to be Brindleface's mother.

I don't know how I never put two and two together, but I am just now realizing that Dustpelt was my kin all along. And I was going to be mates with him. Yuck.

Greykit was a moon or so younger than me, so he wasn't really close with us until right before we became apprentices. Dustkit and I hit it off right away, but it took a few playtimes for Ravenkit to be completely comfortable around me. I still remember the first time he willingly joined us in a game.

Dustkit and I were playing mossball together, and may or may not have gotten into a few warrior's way and were scolded. But we were kits, so at the end of the day, it was expected.

"Sandkit, watch this!" Dustkit exclaimed. I turned away from looking at the medicine cat den, where I could see Spottedleaf's outline sorting herbs, although at the time I didn't know what she was doing.

Dustkit had the mossball in his mouth, and his tail swishing back and forth. When he saw me look at him, he smiled through the ball in his mouth and said again, "Watch!" Dustkit threw the ball up in the air with his paw, landed, spun around twice, and then jumped and caught it.

"Wow!" I exclaimed,"That was awesome! Can I try?"

"Sure! You throw, spin twice, and then jump and catch, okay?"

"Okay," I said. I attempted the trick that Dustkit had performed, but after I spun around twice, I saw the mossball land on the ground next to me. "Aw, Fox-dung."

"It's alright, it was a good try," he reassured. "You just have to throw the ball a little higher, like this." Dustkit then proceeded to throw the ball at least a fox length higher than I did. "See?"

"I don't think I'm strong enough to throw it that high, Dustkit. But I'll try!" Again I was unsuccessful, albeit by less of a margin. This time, when I finished spinning, I felt the mossball whiz right by my head. "Dang it!"

"Maybe you'll get it when you're a little bit older. Plus, you had to do that therapy thingy with the Riverclan cat for awhile, and didn't get as used to throwing the mossball as I did." I nodded in agreement with the dusty kit. He had a good point, I was just naturally weaker because of my birth defect.

"Could I try?" I heard a voice beside me ask. Dustkit and I both whipped our heads towards the sound, to see Ravenkit timidly standing a few taillengths away from us, closer to the edge of the clearing.

Dustpelt and I gave each other a quick, surprised look, and shrugged simultaneously. "Sure, give it a shot," Dustpelt finally said, passing the mossball to Ravenkit.

Ravenkit was able to get a lot closer to what Dustkit did than what I did. When he finished spinning around twice, the ball was still an okay distance up in the air. But when he leaped for the mossball, he undershot it and ended up snapping his jaws shut just a little bit short of the ball. It plopped down sadly behind him.

"That was really close, Ravenkit!" I praised. The tom still looked down though.

"Yeah, but I still didn't catch it."

"So?" Dustkit reasoned, "That doesn't mean anything. If you were this close this time, imagine what the result will be next time now that you know how high you have to jump! And even if you don't get it then, maybe the next time! It won't be long for you now, just think about Sandkit! She'll still have to wait awhile before she can throw it up high enough to catch it after she spins."

While I was glad that Ravenkit seemed a lot happier after Dustkit's explanation, I did still give Dustkit a death glare after what he said about me. Sure, what he said was true, but he didn't have to rub it in.

Unfortunately, that was the first and last time I ever saw Dustkit do that trick. After he had performed it a few more times with Ravenkit—who got it on his third try—a tall figure loomed over us, causing Dustkit to drop the ball.

"Kits should stay by the nursery," he said, tossing the dropped mossball closer to the nursery.

Tigerclaw. Never liked the guy.

We dragged ourselves over there, quietly grumbling to each other about Tigerclaw and how he was being unfair. "Warriors," Dustkit scoffed, "They always think that they know everything."

"To be fair, they know a lot more than us," Ravenkit added. That earned an eye-roll from Dustkit.

I miss those days, where it was just the three of us against the world. Before Ravenpaw went off to live with Barley and when Dustpelt hadn't been mentored by Tigerclaw. Would it have been better if Greystripe were our age, or if Firestar were clanborn? Maybe, but I wouldn't give up that time for anything. Even the stretching with Mudfur.

I should go find Ravenpaw and Dustpelt and ask them to do the trick again. They could show Firestar, and maybe even my kits. I think that might be fun.

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Word count - 2262

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Author's Note

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I am so unbelievably excited to write this book.

I'm having more fun choosing the designs for the titles and spacers and everything than I had creating all of the cats for The Five Giants. Giving every symbol meaning, especially the suns as endpoints, meant to represent the desert sun, is so much fun. And the star spacers in the title are meant to represent Sandstorm finding her way to Firestar, while the star spacers in the book represent the three closest cats to Sandstorm: Firestar, Leafpool, and Squirrelflight. So much fun.

I want to play a little game. You all have seen the names of all of the sections in the foreword. The first person to correctly guess what all four of them mean will earn the opportunity to choose one for the story lines for this book. I will DM you details.

If this box is filled, the meanings have been guessed correctly ▣

I hope I can get another chapter out soon, and it'd be awesome if it's as quickly as I got this one out.

Thank you again for your support on this story.

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- Maple -

- 3 ▫ 9 ▫ 2024 -