Shadowkit had curled up in the nursery when he had finally returned. His paws hurt and he still couldn't stop trembling. Sleep came slowly for him. Sonic's voice finally put a sock in it. When he finally did fall asleep, he'd only see Shadowstrike's face. his eyes were glazed with terror and his jaws gaped open in his final scream. He woke up from it again and again. Vanillaflower would comfort him and tell him it was only a dream. He wanted to scream whenever she said that. It did happen!

His life moved really slowly from that point on. He was confined to the camp until he was apprenticed. He still envied the apprentices. Especially Lightkit and Swiftkit. They became apprentices. Now they were Lightpaw and Swiftpaw. Lightpaw's mentor was Roseheart. Swiftpaw's mentor was Jetstorm.

He envied them all.

Beepaw and Goldenpaw finally became warriors. Shadowkit couldn't have been prouder of them. Beepaw became Beeflight and Goldenpaw became Goldenheart. Emeraldkit and him still had a moon of waiting before they could be apprenticed. Blazepelt was Silverflight's mate and surprised us all when she said she was probably going to have kits at some point. At least, the nursery would never be empty. She wasn't moved into the nursery yet. Vanillaflower still stayed to guard the two young prisoners.

Sonicwind, one day, went to visit Shadowkit out of boredom and decided to make a request. He padded up to the den and poked his head inside. Shadowkit was sitting upside down against a wall. He was using his tail to balance and Emeraldkit was swatting her tail because nobody would let her go outside to kill a leaf. Sonicwind felt a little guilty for a moment before shaping up.

"What's up...?" asked Shadowkit with a monotone voice.

"I was just going to ask you if we could possibly have a race. I'm bored and I haven't had any chance to not be proper for once!" Sonicwind exclaimed.

Shadowkit did a somersault to get back to his feet and Emeraldkit looked up with interest. Shadowkit nodded and they stalked out of the nursery quietly. Sonicwind glanced around and right when he thought he was in the clear, he got jumped!

"Oof!" Sonicwind exclaimed.

Shadowkit looked over. He wasn't allowed to leave the nursery. He still had to meet the rest of the cats in the clan. However, he could guess who this was.

"Hi, sweety!" Roseheart purred.

Sonicwind groaned. "Hi Roseheart..."

Emeraldkit had to giggle and Shadowkit only watched them with a smirk on his face. Sonicwind felt a little terrified.

"L-Let me go! I've got other things to deal with! Don't you have an apprentice now?!" demanded Sonicwind.

Roseheart flicked her tail towards Lightpaw who was dragging a rabbit as big as her into the camp with pride. Roseheart looked back to Sonicwind. "She's got more on the way too."

Suddenly, Acorntail came into the clearing with her apprentice Dawnpaw. They had just finished some battle training by the looks of it.

"Not her too...," Sonicwind whimpered.

"Hi, Sonicwind. How's the deputy?" Acorntail asked.

"He's hanging out with me! Go away!" Roseheart yelled flattening her ears and baring her teeth at the warrior.

"I see you two want some alone time...," Acorntail said with a sly look on her face. Roseheart hissed.

"We're just hanging out! Go away!"

"We're not doing anything... I just wanted to have a race with Shadowkit...," Sonicwind complained.

Roseheart and Acorntail both looked at Shadowkit. They raced over to him and started asking him a bunch of questions at once.

"I know that you're a great fighter, but how do you beat Sonicwind in a race?! He's the fastest!" Acorntail exclaimed.

"He's a great fighter? How can that be?! He's only a kit!" Roseheart said.

"He faced Metalclaw. Almost beat him! Emeraldkit here saved his life!" Acorntail explained.

The two she-cats then looked at Emeraldkit. Shadowkit flicked his tail at them and shook his head as if to say, 'don't interrogate her.' She sighed with relief when they went to Sonicwind. Shadowkit pulled her away when he saw someone he had been meaning to talk to for about a moon. Silverflight.

"Why do you want to talk to Silverflight? He doesn't contribute to anything," Emeraldkit explained to him.

'Or so you think,' Shadowkit thought. He still remembered the dream he had with StarClan. Silverflight was his "son". He felt that it should be Silverflight who he had to talk to.

"Silverflight!" Shadowkit called.

The white warrior swung his head around to look at the small kit. He could see a small chill run down the warrior's spine. Silverflight either knew or was just reminded of who he was.

"Shadowkit," Silverflight commented.

"Nice meeting you," Shadowkit started.

Again.

Silverflight looked around. He felt awkward Shadowkit could tell.

"Listen, I've gotta go," Silverflight said beginning to race off towards the warriors den. Shadowkit used his speed to stand in front of him to block his path.

"Nope. You're coming with me."

The two of them -with Emeraldkit close behind- scurried out of the camp. Silverflight looked down at the kit with eyes that almost showed terror.

"Silverflight, I've gotta talk to you. Who was your father?" Shadowkit asked.

Silverflight's eyes became distant. Shadowstrike's sharp demands and bitter statements towards him as an apprentice returned to him. "Shadowstrike... He was the deputy of SunClan for a while..."

"Hm... How would you describe the relationship between the two of you?" he asked.

"I know what's going on... StarClan told you didn't they! What I tell you doesn't matter because you already know how tough my life was!" Silverflight snapped.

"I do know that you two weren't exactly the closest-"

"There wasn't anything would even say we were close! I ruined everything! You got that?!" Silverflight's words stung the two young kits. The words of a warrior who's seen things that they haven't. The pain of being an apprentice without anyone to truly be there other than Blazepelt.

Shadowkit couldn't stop now. He had to keep probing. "Well, I don't know why Shadowstrike hated you so much. Can you tell me that much?" he asked.

Silverflight's tail wouldn't stop swishing back and forth. His eyes were distant as if he were lost in a flashback. There was one thing he could see clearly. The rejection, anger, disappointment, hatred in his eyes. Heart engulfed by flames. Shadowstrike really wasn't a cat Silverflight wanted to remember. "Shadowstrike's... mate was Brightleaf... and I... was just made an apprentice... He was proud of me for one shining moment... Th-Then... My mentor with Brightleaf... Went out on a border patrol... and..."

Silverflight didn't finish the story. He continued to tremble. Shadowkit and Emeraldkit didn't move. They only waited. Silverflight swiped at the ground and flattened his ears. "It was an accident and he wanted to send me to exile. However, Earthstar allowed me to stay in the clan! I don't know why she would help me after what I did!"

"After you did what? What was an accident?" asked Emeraldkit using one of her higher voices to try to make him want to tell her because she was so adorable.

"I killed her. I tripped onto the Thunderpath right as one of those monsters were coming. Right as I was about to get squashed by the monster... Brightleaf jumped up to save me... She threw me off of the Thunderpath and... sh-she got injured... It was really bad... I came sulking back to the camp to see Shadowstrike. He was glaring at me... I knew those eyes too well... The ones telling me that he would never forgive for my little mess-up. You get it now don't you? Don't you pity me?! If I didn't step on that Thunderpath, she would still be alive in the elder's den!" Silverflight yelled. He scraped at the ground.

"You mean...? You did kill Brightleaf?" asked Emeraldkit.

"It wasn't on purpose..."

"Silverflight! Silverflight!" yelled Blazepelt. She was looking around to try and find him. Silverflight gave one look back at the kits and dashed away to meet his mate.

"Shadowkit... I had no idea... Wait. You knew," Emeraldkit said with a shake of her head at the kit. Shadowkit nodded.

"Come on. Let's go do something! After that, I wanna do something to bring my spirits up for once," Shadowkit told her.

Emeraldkit looked through the clearing and saw Goldenheart joining a patrol of warriors. She usually would have suggested that they would do something fun with the apprentices. Without Goldenheart there to bring life to what they were doing, there wasn't much point. She turned back to Shadowkit.

"What can we do? There's nothing here to do...," she complained.

"If only if we were apprentices...," Shadowkit said wishfully. Confined to the camp until he became an apprentice due to a traumatizing experience at the MoonCliff. Did Knucklestar have to give him a punishment like that? He knew what he was. They were just being overprotective of "The Chosen One".

"Shadowkit!" cried the deputy. He ran over and hid behind the tiny black kit. Shadowkit looked over to see Roseheart dashing towards them. She stopped and glared at Shadowkit.

"Step aside kit! This is my fight!" she announced.

Shadowkit planted his claws into the ground. He wasn't going to move. He looked to Emeraldkit and grinned. "Sit back and watch." He sheathed his claws.

"Is that a challenge?!" demanded Roseheart with surprise. A kit against a warrior... Would that be a fair fight? She raised her fur. "if it is, I accept!"

Sonicwind looked at the kit's determined eyes and knew there was something different about him. He wasn't going to give Roseheart a lousy battle. He was going to fight her with the blazing fire of a warrior. Sonicwind's blood ran cold when he realized who Shadowkit looked like. Shadowstrike.

"Shadowstrike?" asked Sonicwind with amazement.

Shadowkit wasn't listening to Sonicwind. He crouched down with his claws sheathed ready for his fight. Roseheart also sheathed her claws. No blood would be shed in this battle.

Shadowkit took the first move. He thought fast. If he were to outwit her with his speed, things would be a look easier on him. She looked at his every move trying to calculate what he was doing. Shadowkit ran over to her side as fast as Sonicwind would. She turned to face him but he was already jumping onto her back and kicked her trying to off-balance her. In that one moment when she wavered, he jumped in front of her and swatted her whiskers. Her senses were a little boggled after that. He was in one spot and then the next. She couldn't keep up! He nipped her back and she hissed. Cats began to gather into the clearing to watch their battle. Roseheart was confused and dizzy. Shadowkit was almost teleporting around her with his paws as fast as lightning. Roseheart couldn't take much more. She closed her eyes and dug her claws into the ground to keep herself balanced. She focussed on Shadowkit's movements. She flicked her tail up in front of him. He was moving too fast to stop and tripped over her tail! He landed on the ground and now Roseheart was in control.

"Surely you'd know better than to make a little slip-up like that!" she taunted.

Her teeth snatched his scruff and he was tossed into the air. He focussed on what was happening and twisted his whole body in mid-air. He landed neatly on all four paws. He sighed. So it was true that all cats land on their feet...

The two cats looked at each other for a long moment with now every cat's eyes on them. Even Knucklestar was watching from on the Skyrock. His eyes were glued to Shadowkit and he wore an unreadable expression. Shadowkit was unaware of the other cats. He saw only Roseheart and thought about his next move. Roseheart looked back into his red eyes. She felt an intense feeling of déjà vu. She was only a kit when she met up with Shadowstrike. She didn't remember him. Even so, the familiar feeling of Shadowkit's eyes was disturbing. She stood without moving.

"Well, I'm not letting you win this...," Shadowkit huffed.

"Really? You're not? We'll see about that!" she replies.

The two jump at each other. Shadowkit dashes off to the side at the last minute and bites down on her tail. He pulls on her tail and she tries to yank it out of his mouth. When he doesn't let go, she yelps in pain. He was stronger than his tiny body gave away. He hauled her by the tail to the other end of the clearing and then jumped onto her back. His claws showed themselves and were tempted to rake her flank but were restrained. Roseheart shook him off. Her tail had a deep bite mark from Shadowkit. Her mind was overwhelmed. How was he so good at fighting?! How was he so strong?! How was he so fast?!

"Go Shadowkit! Keep at him Roseheart!" Sonicwind chanted.

Emeraldkit gave him an odd look. Sonicwind looked back at her. "I'm not siding with anyone. I don't want to get killed by Roseheart and I actually like Shadowkit. In fact..." Sonicwind dashed off towards Knucklestar who was still gazing at the two clan cats in battle. He began to mumble some words in his ear and Knucklestar looked at him surprised. Sonicwind said something else to the leader and Knucklestar finally nods. Sonicwind grins.

Shadowkit still wasn't paying attention to the cats on the sideline. He was thinking about how he should make his final move. The warrior was three times the size he was. There was one way...

"Roseheart, come on!" Shadowkit taunted. He faked a slash at her flank. He ducked away before he could hurt himself or her. She growled and dashed after him. This time she wasn't holding back and was actually staying on his tail. Just what he wanted. He made sure to stay just in front of her as they ran. She'd occasionally try to bite his tail but would fail. He ran around the tree slowly gaining on her. Roseheart didn't back down. She didn't notice that each time they looped around, he grew closer to the tree. He suddenly ran away from the tree causing Roseheart to stumble, but she was soon on his tail again. He made a U-turn at the bramble tunnel and ran straight for the tree. Roseheart followed. Shadowkit jumped up the tree and pushed off of the bark doing a backflip and landing on all four paws. Roseheart wasn't so stylish.

Crash!!

"Ow...," Roseheart mumbled. She had accidentally run into the tree because she was so focussed on Shadowkit, she didn't really know where she was going. Shadowkit grinned as he pinned her down.

Knucklestar finally stood from where he was watching. "That's enough! Shadowkit has won! No more fighting," he commanded.

A few cats in the audience groaned. Shadowkit slowly helped Roseheart back to her paws. She stood exhausted. Cosmicleaf and Creampaw ushered her off to the medicine cat den. The pink feline made no objections. She only looked back at Shadowkit with eyes that asked one word. How?

I don't know. It's the power from beyond StarClan.

Emeraldkit sat next to him and gave him her most amazed expression. It was actually the first time Shadowkit ever saw her that wonderstruck. She looked at him as if he were a StarClan warrior. It felt good. Well, until Goldenheart joined them. She missed the whole thing on her patrol.

"Hey Shadowkit! Sorry I missed all the excitement! Doubletail told me what happened! That was awesome!" she exclaimed.

"It was nothing," Shadowkit answered. He looked over to see Emeraldkit had left again.

"I'm so sorry about not being here to cheer you on. You should've told me about how much power you have! I've never even dreamed of such powers from a kit!" she said excitedly.

"Like I said, it was nothing."

As Shadowkit compared himself to her, he felt really small. Too small. She liked him and was a warrior. Major age differences made him feel a little intimidated.

"Well, I've got to talk to the deputy about the MoonClan borders," she said padding off.

"What's wrong with them?"

"The MoonClan cats have moved their border within our territory again. I don't want another fight with them. Not after what happened two moons ago.

Shadowkit agreed. He didn't want to fight with the rival clan either. However, he knew he was sent to this world to fight. He just didn't know what he was supposed to fight yet. The Valley of Lost Echoes? MoonClan themselves? For all he knew, he'd have to face StarClan themselves! The responsibilities all put on the tiny shoulders of a tiny kit.

He looked up at the sky again. It was about noon. The clan cats called it sun-high. Cats would begin sharing tongues soon. He didn't feel like talking anymore. Maybe Vanillaflower would let him take a nap in the nursery. No. He had to go check on Roseheart.

"Mer-ow-ow-ow-ow!!" Roseheart cried as Cosmicleaf put some sort of remedy on her cuts, bruises, and splinters. She was pulling a small piece of wood from her paw. It had gotten jammed into the pad and Cosmicleaf had to pull it out. Roseheart wasn't liking it one bit. Creampaw ran up to Shadowkit.

"You are an amazing fighter. Whoever's gonna be your mentor is going to have it easy! You'll learn fast! What can I do for you?" she asked.

"I just want to make sure that I'm not actually hurt myself. I also wanted to come in and apologize to Roseheart."

Roseheart looked up at the tiny kit. Cosmicleaf had left the splinter for a second and went to find some herbs. Roseheart didn't say anything.

"Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get that worked up. I was bored and what are kits supposed to do when they're bored?" asked Shadowkit trying to brighten the mood a little.

The she-cat thought for a moment. After a long pause, she finally smiled back at him. "Yeah... I'm sorry also for getting so worked up about Sonicwind that I'd just agree to attack a kit... Forgive me?"

"Only if you forgive me!" Shadowkit answered.

"Deal. MEROW!! That hurt!" Roseheart cried. Cosmicleaf got the tiny piece of wood out at last. She put it on the ground and grinned.

"I think that should do it!" the medicine cat purred.

"Thank you...," Roseheart answered licking her paw.

Creampaw confirmed that Shadowkit was fine and she recommended that he rest up to recover some strength. Shadowkit headed back to the nursery and sat down in the corner. Emeraldkit was just on the other side of the den. She looked over. "Medicine cat say you're fine?"

"Yep."

"That's good..."

Shadowkit did have a question. Why did she always leave whenever he talked to Goldenheart? They used to be friends when they were apprentices! Now, not as much. He decided to ask. "So, why have you been avoiding Goldenheart?"

Emeraldkit didn't answer at first. It was almost as if the reply hurt too much to talk about. She sighed. "Ever since she became a warrior, it's been awkward between us. She doesn't have time anymore to hang out with us. She's got so many new responsibilities while we sit around being bored. That's why I leave whenever she comes around to talk. She's not the same Goldenheart I was friends with. Goldenpaw had time for us. Goldenheart doesn't."

That much, Shadowkit could understand. It was hard to see Goldenheart move up to being a warrior and leaving them behind. It wasn't something he could fix though. Everyone was having their own set of problems. Emeraldkit wasn't friends with Goldenheart anymore, Sonicwind was being tortured by she-cats, Roseheart got beaten up by a kit, Silverflight had family issues, and Blazepelt was going to have kits at some point. Then there was him. The tiny black bundle of fur with the power from beyond StarClan destined to save the forest...