Foxkit shoved her siblings aside and nestled herself in Whitefeather's warm belly fur, sucking delicious milk. Brackenkit was pushing her to the side next to her while Blizzardkit was helplessly searching for a place to suckle. Push and shove, Foxkit thought, push and shove!
Blizzardkit finally gave up and yelled, "Mother, Foxkit and Brackenkit are taking up all the room!"
Whitefeather shushed him and pushed Foxkit away from her belly. "Hey!" Foxkit protested.
Whitefeather answered her calmly, "You've had enough, you little milk hog!"
Foxkit sat and waited impatiently for the last one, Blizzardkit, to be done. Then, they heard a loud noise coming from the camp entrance. The cats from the Gathering had returned. Everyone in the Clan slowly emerged from their dens and watched the coming warriors return.
"Hey, guys, come look!" He whispered.
Most of the cats wore worried expressions on their faces, the others wore pure anger. As soon as Flamingstar stepped into the camp, he jumped onto the Tallstone. "Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather below the Tallstone," his voice rang. Whitefeather began her way to the Tallstone, but Brackenkit whispered something in her ear.
"All right, fine," Whitefeather muttered.
Brackenkit bounced back to the nursery excitedly. "Hey, Mother said we can go this time!"
Foxkit and Blizzardkit exchanged ecstatic glances and followed their mother and brother to the Tallstone.
"Tonight at the Gathering, I challenged Crowstar. He denied that his Clan had hunted on our land," Flamingstar added angrily.
Angry murmurs came out of every cat, including Foxkit.
Flaming star went on. "That's not the only border we need to worry about. Rushingstar wants more land for his warriors, even though MistClan grows fat on the fish in the river. They want some of our land. He says we owe him because of the territory they let us borrow after the fire consumed most of our territory."
"But we only borrowed their territory!" An elder's husky voice yowled.
"How much do they ask?" A younger cat shouted.
Flamingstar answered, "The strip of land on our side of the river until the land starts rising. BrightClan was on a plateau. The camp was on the high ground, where the fire had raged.
"We can't give them the Mossrocks!" Yelled Silverface, a pretty silver tabby.
The Mossrocks is the big pile of rocks that line the river. That's where the clan went to get moss for bedding and to soak in the river for water. MistClan did not have a place to gather moss, so they must find a river or stream to drink from and they have to sleep on something else. I don't know what they use for bedding...
Cheers of agreement followed Silverface's comment.
"All I can say," Flamingstar said, "is that I don't see them giving up that easily."