I wake up the next morning tired. I roll over onto Cinderkit, who lets out a peep in surprise. I roll over further and she makes the sound again. Enjoying myself, I flatten her and she unsheathes her claws, digging the tiny but sharp points into my back.

I curl up in pain and slowly get up to my paws, yawning and showing my pink maw.

My mom sits curled around my little siblings, Flintkit and Littlekit. As usual, they are doing absolutely nothing, so I ignore them. Pinekit, Cinderkit and Shadowkit are all Mothflight's kits, even though she only checks in every other day. Most of the time, she's too busy to even stop in- the clan has to utilize every single warrior. That includes their mom. Marble, the father, is a gray cat- a bit darker than Cinderkit, a bit brighter than Shadowkit. Pinekit takes after their mother more.

My eyes are only set on one cat today- Lionpaw. I see him first thing in the morning, and skitter over to him, smiling as usual.

"Hey, Icicle." I don't know what that means, but I smile at my pet name anyways.

"Can we play today?" I ask him, tail waving.

He shakes his head sadly, "I'm busy."

"Doing what?" I insist.

"Hunting, of course!" He scoffs, a little bit too harshly, "It's really important!"

I nod. "Yussiree. Gotta hunt for all the kits."

He licks my head gently. "See, you get it. I can play with you tomorrow."

I pad away, hanging my head but undeterred. I have plenty of other friends to play with.

Pinekit and Cinderkit are playing mossball on the other side of camp, so I walk over to them next. "Hey guys, can we play together?"

"'Course we can." Shadowkit says, with a swift kick to the mossball, which crumbles a bit as it rolls away. Shadowkit ignores it and Pinekit tosses it back again. I catch it and pounce on it like a mouse.

Shadowkit tackles me, and the two of us wrestle. Pinekit watches in the background, detached. As we roll towards him, Shadowkit's foot springs out and hits him in the face. He purrs happily and jumps into our massive pile of writhing kits.

Cinderkit comes from nowhere, a distant smile on her face. She looks bored when we run up to her, begging her to join in the kit pile. "I was doing more important things today." she says disdainfully.

"Like what? We're just kits. There's nothing else to do." Pinekit protests with a laugh.

"Like hunting. Out of camp. All by myself." Cinderkit replies haughtily.

"Did you catch anything?" asks Pinekit.

"Well, I will next time." she snaps.

Shadowkit and I snicker at her. She gives us both an intimidating glare and we fall silent suddenly.

She stomps past us towards the den. "Why is she so grumpy?" I whisper to Shadowpaw.

"I don't know." she replies.

I feel the marks from this morning burn. Is there something wrong with my friend?

That night, I toss and turn in my bed as Foxsong,her stomach swelled with kits, groans in the nursery, a trickle of spit down the side of her mouth as birth pangs overtake her.

Cinderkit sits away from all of us, sharpening her paws on a nearby rock. Her face is hung down and her eyes have deep black bags.

She's mumbling to herself.

"Are you okay?" I ask her, but she says nothing.

"Gotta work harder." She repeats to herself.

A dark cat lurks in my dreams that night, but no matter how much I cry out, I can't seem to find him...