This is Riverseed

"Is that all we know?" Amberkit questioned loudly, ginger tail flicking excitedly behind her.

Sharplight nodded softly beside her denmate, washing the blinded tom. "Now the three lead the clans, and we wait for the answer from our ancestors."

"Amazing!" Amberkit's eyes glistened. But her siblings looked quite bored.

"You always want to hear this story." Yellowkit groaned at her side, rolling his green eyes.

"It's my favorite," Amberkit shrugged.

"You only like the fact you're named after Amberwish," Specklekit groaned. Turning her yellow eyes towards the elders, she perked up. "Do you have any stories from when you were younger?"

It was Amberkit's turn to groan. She wasn't as self-centered as her siblings made her out to be, she just enjoyed the history of the clans more than stories of close encounters with other clans, or foxes.

Taking her leave, the small kit's gaze darted across the camp, looking for something interesting.

Maplepaw and Dawnpaw were emptying out the old moss from the nursery, laughing about some joke she couldn't hear.

Riverseed was drying out herbs from the most recent rainfall yesterday. He looked stressed.

Amberkit understood, as he had just lost his apprentice, Blazepaw, to a untreated and undefined illness quite early into his apprenticeship.

Though he was their brother, Dawnpaw and Maplepaw seemed unfazed, acting as though they never had a brother.

It made Amberkit sick.

Crossing the camp, she pricked her ears. "Riverseed?"

She must have startled him, as he flinched. "Yes, Amberkit?"

"Do you need any help?" Amberkit tilted her head, wrapping her tail around her paws.

Riverseed looked taken aback by the question, but mutely nodded 'yes'.

He pushed a pile of vibrant blue berries towards the kit. "These are juniper berries." His voice was quiet and sad, as he gestured with his white paw.

"What do they do?"

He seemed to perk up somewhat, a small smile forming on his sad face. "They can be used ease bellyaches and breathing, and are used to calm someone down."

It continued like that for most of the day, Amberkit pestering him with questions, and Riverseed opening up more and more, happy to teach her all he knew.

They finished sorting through the herbs in no time, and when they were done, Riverseed looked relieved.

"It was so much easier with Blazepaw here," he sighed under his breath.

"Did you know what his name was going to be?" Amberkit looked up at the tom.

He nodded sadly. "I was going to grant it to him when he got better," he meowed, running a paw over his whiskers. "He earned it faster than I did."

A brief chuckle escaped his mouth, but his eyes betrayed the sadness behind his words.

"It was going to be Blazewhisper," he continued. "He was soft-spoken and sweet, so very different from his sisters."

Amberkit scoffed in agreement, those apprentices were quite rude, but her siblings idolized them.

"Thank you for your help." Riverseed smiled at the kit.

"Any time," Amberkit meowed, getting up to leave.

"AMBERKIT!" A familiar voice called.

Amberkit flinched, turning her attention to the nursery. Her mother sat there, ginger tabby pelt gleaming in the late afternoon light.

"Are you bothering Riverseed?" She questioned, making her way to the sandy hollow that made the medicine cat den.

"Not at all," Riverseed smiled. "She was very helpful."

Twilightfire nodded in relief. Turning to her kit, she crouched down to her size. "Weren't you spending the day with the elders?"

"I was bored!" Amberkit shrugged.

A soft chuckle escaped both older cats, and their whiskers twitched.

"Well, little one," her mother purred. "It's about time you come in to eat."

Amberkit sighed loudly, wanting to stay out and talk with the warriors.

But, as she looked to the sky, she realized it was now late, and all of the night patrols had left already.

Reluctantly, the small kit followed her mother towards the nursery where her siblings, Bramblemist, and her kits, were waiting inside.

A large rabbit was laid out in front of her siblings, and Bramblemist's kits were sharing a blackbird.

"Finally!" Dappledkit sighed. "We've been waiting for moons!"

Amberkit rolled her eyes, and dug in with her siblings.

After the meal, their mother curled around them protectively, tail draped around their small forms.

A yawn escaped Amberkit as sleep drove her eyes close, waiting for StarClan's dreams to take her.

▪︎¤▪︎

Amberkit's eyes opened quickly, finding herself held under the grip of some unidentified figure.

"Amberwish!" A voice the kit had never heard cried out, but something in the back of her mind identified it as someone she should know.

Wait...

Amberwish?

Confusion ebbed away into fear as the figure above her snapped at her neck, catching her throat.

A gurgling sound escaped her mouth, and a bitter-tasting liquid coughed up from within.

What's going on? Amberkit wanted to shout, but could not find her voice.

The figure was pulled off of her with great force, and another came into view.

A small gray-and-black flecked tom came into view, fear blazing behind yellow eyes. He was the size of a young apprentice.

"Stay with me!" He cried out, placing paws over the bloody wound.

A voice in the back of Amberkit's mind told her it okay to let go, but Amberkit wanted to fight.

Whoever this apprentice was, he cared for her. He wasn't ready to watch her die.

Struggling, the kit forced this form upwards, confusion returning as she was much larger than the apprentice now.

She had long legs, as long as Kestrelstar's, for that matter, but they looked like hers.

A voice that was not hers escaped her mouth. "I'm fine, let's find the others." Her meow was hoarse from the attack, but strong and edged with determination.

As the tom moved to her side to help her walk, something shined out of the corner of her eye. Standing there was a firy-ginger tom, pelt gleaming with stars.

Piercing green eyes bore into her very soul, and he spoke something that sent shivers down her spine.

"See you soon."