"Your brother told me that you stole food from him."

Zinniakit and Sagekit exchanged a look. Singekit was back at it again. Instead of dealing with his problems himself, he'd run to his mother Runningbreeze with a lie to get Sagekit in trouble.

"Mama, I did NOT steal anything from Singekit." Sagekit complained. "He wanted something from the prey pile but I got to it first so he got mad at me."

"Liar!" A small figure popped into the nursery, his tail lashing. Zinniakit rolled her eyes. Singekit, his tri-colored pelt puffed up in indignation, padded over to his mom with a huff. He stood a head taller than both Zinniakit and Sagekit, making him more intimidating.

"I grabbed a sparrow from the prey pile to try since I've never had one before. Then SAGEKIT came and snatched it from me." Singekit said matter-of-factly. His tone was annoyingly accusatory and made Zinniakit's spine prickle in irritation.

"Singekit's lying, Runningbreeze." Zinniakit spoke up. The queen's eyes flicked to her skeptically. She ignored the look and went on. "Just ask one of the warriors who's been in camp! They'll tell ya."

Singekit growled. "You stay out of it, Zinniakit."

"That's a good idea Zinniakit." Runningbreeze interjected, stopping her son from saying anything else. "Wait here, all three of you."

The sleek silver she-cat stepped over the kits and walked out, stopping just outside the nursery exit. Zinnikit heard her beckon someone over.

"I'm gonna bury your tail in the dirt." Singekit spat at her, his scruff bristling. Zinnia's attention snapped back to him, and she met his eyes with a glare.

"If you hadn't lied and tried to get Sagekit in trouble, I wouldn't have had to try and prove you wrong." She retorted.

"This is none of your business!"

"Yes it is! If it involves my best friend being FRAMED, it totally IS my business."

Singekit glowered at her. "This is why you're Speckleshadow's LEAST favorite kit."

"This is why.. your nose is huge and your face is ugly." Zinniakit snapped. "And you stink like dung too."

"I do not stink!" Singekit said, a look of shocked offense on his face.

"Yeah you do!" Sagekit piped up. "You smell like a stinky ShadowClan cat."

"I'm telling Father about what you just said."

"For the love of StarClan, would all of you stop bickering?"

The three kits' heads snapped towards the nursery entrance where Runningbreeze suddenly appeared. She gave them all the look as she walked back in.

Zinniakit glanced between Sagekit and Singekit, wondering what the verdict would be. She was positive that Sagekit had told the truth, the question is, did the warriors see what really happened?

Runningbreeze paused, her eyes scanning all of them before she spoke. Zinniakit pricked her ears and waited to hear what the queen was going to say.

"I've just spoken with Butterflywillow and what he saw aligns with what Sagekit said." Runningbreeze meowed. Her stern eyes locked on Singekit, who was looking rather glum. "You're confined to the nursery for the rest of the day for lying about your brother."

"Ughhh, that's not fair." Singekit whined. Another sharp look from his mother shut him up, and he walked away to sulk in one of the mossy beds.

"You two can go play again. But Zinniakit, don't go off hiding anywhere, please. I've gotta keep an eye on you while your parents are out of camp." Runningbreeze dismissed them with a flick of her tail and turned away to lie down.

"Thanks Runningbreeze!" Zinniakit mewed with relief. Flashing a triumphant smirk at Singekit, she bounded out of the nursery with Sagekit right behind her.

They walked out into the sunlight, which was unnecessarily bright and made her persistent headache feel worse. Zinniakit squinted up at the sky and tried to ignore how lightheaded it made her feel. The sun was directly above her, blazing down like fire on her pelt despite the chilly air. How was it only sunhigh? Had all that really happened before sunhigh?

"Well now that that whole mess is fixed, what do you wanna do?" Sagekit asked.

"Before we do anything else, I need to go see the medicine cats for some herbs. My head's hurting." Zinniakit sighed.

She'd had a headache since she woke up this morning. There was some sort of seed or leaf that one of the medicine cats usually gave her for her pains. Hopefully they'd give her some, although she knew that they were running low on some herbs. They were in the end of leaf-bare, when not many herbs grew. But Fangwhisker told her that pretty soon newleaf would arrive, bringing with it new plants and plenty of herbs.

"Come on then. I think I saw Fangwhisker come back into camp earlier with a bundle of something." Sagekit said. He shook his fur out briefly before bounding away, his glossy yellow pelt shining like the sun itself.

Zinniakit streaked after him, weaving around the paws of passing clanmates. Most moved out of her way, while others seemed not to even notice the two kits scurrying by. She spotted her father's littermate Dustybrook lounging near the Tallrock with his mate Orchidbelly, seemingly sharing prey. A bit farther away, a couple of apprentices were carrying supplies to the elder's den. Everyone seemed to be in their own little world, just existing as part of the clan.

"Woah, watch out. Kits are underfoot!" An observing warrior, Venomwing, called out. He was one her mother's brothers, and was pretty close to all her kits. Zinniakit blinked at her uncle to say hi, then continued on.

They reached the medicine den, which was like a little cave in the side of the camp hollow. A sheet of gorse hung over the entrance and provided shelter from the weather. Zinniakit ducked past the gorse and entered the den behind Sagekit, who'd gotten there first. Sand from the floor immediately covered her paws the further she went. Zinniakit grimaced as the grainy little particles of sand wedged themselves between her toes.

"Which kits are you?" A gruff voice asked. Zinniakit looked up to see Fangwhisker standing near the herb shelves, squinting towards the medicine den entrance. Her eyes didn't seem to focus entirely on them and her nose was wrinkled uncertainly.

She'd once heard Dawnberry talking about her, about how her sister's senses were dulling the older she got. It was harder for her to see clearly these days and her ears were beginning to fail her.

"Zinniakit and Sagekit." Zinniakit responded politely. She walked closer to the medicine cat in hopes that it would help her see her better. "Do you have something that can help with my headache? It's been bothering me all day."

"All day? The day's hardly begun." Fangwhisker grumbled, but she inclined her head and turned around to the piles of herbs. Zinniakit waited there patiently while the older she-cat nosed through the plants.

After a moment, she snapped back around and squinted, before she beckoned to Sagekit. Though he looked puzzled, he obeyed and stepped over towards her.

"I've noticed you have a knack for remembering things, especially details. And you've hung around the medicine den many times while Zinniakit was stuck in here." Fangwhisker began. Her strained eyes flicked to Zinniakit for a second and then back to Sagekit. "My vision's giving me an especially hard time today and I can't tell some of the leaves apart. Tell me, can you tell which pile is feverfew leaves?"

"Uh, sure. I'll try." Sagekit mewed. Zinniakit could tell by the way his voice quaked that he was nervous about possibly choosing the wrong one by accident. He looked over at her and she gave him a brief nod of reassurance, then jerked her head towards the piles of herbs.

Zinniakit watched as her best friend carefully sniffed through the herbs. There were little piles of dark green leaves, bright green leaves, seeds, strips of bark, and more stuff that she couldn't remember. Though it took him a considerable amount of time, Sagekit finally stepped back from the herbs with a stem full of tiny little pointy leaves.

"This is feverfew. There's still some more in the pile, but some towards the bottom are getting wilt-y." Sagekit said after dropped the herb at Fangwhisker's paws. The old medicine cat leaned down to sniff it, then looked back up at Sagekit approvingly.

"Well done. Thanks for the help." Fangwhisker said appreciatively. "I'll make sure to sort out the bad feverfew later. I didn't even notice that some of it was getting old."

Sagekit looked rather proud of himself after being praised. Zinniakit would have been more proud of him too if her head wasn't pounding out of her skull. She looked at Fangwhisker expectantly. When the medicine cat finally realized that Zinniakit was still waiting, she nudged the feverfew leaves over to here.

"Here, this should help. After you eat it it'll take a couple minutes to take effect."

Zinniakit needn't have been told twice.

Right after she finished eating the plant, there was movement outside of the medicine den. A tall, graceful she-cat limped into the den. She was being careful not to put one of her front paws down on the ground.

"Fangwhisker, I need some help please." She called, her voice tight with pain.

Zinniakit's eyes lit up with happiness and worry combined upon seeing who it was. One of her favorite cats in the whole world. The pain of her headache forgotten, she rushed over to the apprentice. "Breezepaw! What happened?"

Besides her dad and Sagekit, Breezepaw was the best cat to ever exist. Zinniakit had heard the story many times about how when Breezepaw was close to three moons old, her mother passed away from an infected wound. If Speckleshadow, with newly born kits, hadn't stepped up and taken the orphaned kit in with her litter, who knows what would have happened to her? Breezepaw became kind of like her big sister, and bonded with her especially. She'd always been there for her, looking out for her and keeping her spirits up. Every day Zinniakit waited for Breezepaw to get back from training to tell her all about it and what it was like to be an apprentice.

Breezepaw's eyes fell on Zinniakit and her gaze softened into a gentle smile. "Hey flowerbud! Glad to see you up and about again. Uh, I stumbled into some brambles and got a pretty thick thorn stuck in my paw pad. I was hoping Fangwhisker or Dawnberry could get the thorn out and treat it."

"Zinniakit, stop crowding the poor cat and let her come into the den and sit down! Kits these days.." Fangwhisker ordered, trailing off muttering under her breath. Zinniakit did as she was told and backed away, anxiously watched from the side of the den.

She and Sagekit sat silently and watched while Fangwhisker tried to inspect the wound. Breezepaw looked like she was trying to stay as still as possible, but her tail flicked back and forth nervously.

With a frustrated grunt, Fangwhisker stood back up and shook her head. "I'm gonna go fetch Dawnberry. She'll be able to remove the thorn more.. cleanly.. than I can. Just stay there and keep your paw still."

Zinniakit waited until Fangwhisker had left the den, then she inched over to Breezepaw. "Can I come sit in the nest with you?"

Breezepaw heaved a fake sigh, and nodded. "Come on, cuddle in. There's plenty of room here."

"I'm gonna go watch for Fangwhisker and Dawnberry." Sagekit called, then slipped out of the den after the medicine cat. Zinniakit nodded to him, then happily clambered over to Breezepaw and curled up against her side. The older she-cat was only about twice her size, but Zinnia still fit perfectly next to her.

Once she was comfortable, she stretched her neck to look up at the apprentice. Zinniakit smiled convincingly, then said, "So, you wanna tell me the story about your wound?"

Breezepaw purred in amusement, flicking an ear. "Fine. Listen closely because I'm only telling this once and I'm NOT going back to say parts you missed."

Zinniakit nodded attentively and went quiet, ready to hear the latest adventure Breezepaw had brought home. As Breezepaw began to tell her story, Zinniakit thought about how lucky she was to have someone like her who really cared about her. In the comfort of her friend's companionship, all her other stresses faded to the back of her mind.