Just because I carry it so well doesn't mean it's not heavy...

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Tomorrow, she would become an apprentice. Maplekit could only hope that Cinderstar had some pity on her and wouldn't give her a horrible mentor. But knowing her father, Waspsting would deliberately sabotage her plans of becoming a warrior, and give her a horrible mentor. Shadekit, though, would most likely be mentored by either his father or the leader herself.

"How are you Maplekit? I'm scared for tomorrow. What if..." her sister trailed off.

"We'll be fine," she bitterly spat before correcting herself, "You'll be fine. You're not disfigured, you'll get someone decent. And I hope that you don't ever desire happiness in your life...it'll only bring you unhappiness. Nothing else."

Her sister gasped,

"Don't say that, Maplekit! You have to learn to let go. That is the key to happiness. And once you're in the sunshine, you'll never see a shadow. How can you say happiness is bad?"

Maplekit quietly snarled back, tilting her face so that the setting sun could obscure her emotions,

"I'd rather walk alone in the darkness than to walk in anyone else's shadow."

Maplekit hear a sniffle from her sister, a scrabble and then Silentkit was gone. It was something that happened often. She would hurt her sister's feelings and then in less than an hour, Silentkit would be back, forgiving her and bouncing around, looking after Maplekit to make sure that she wouldn't get herself into more scrapes.

Suddenly a white fluffy bundle came barreling into Maplekit and sent her crashing onto the prickly wall of the Nursery.

"I won Sharpkit! I told you I could win-" Blizzardkit rejoiced before his sight landed on Maplekit and curled up his lip in digust,

"Honestly, Maplekit?! Did you have to get in my way? Ugh, I hope you get mentored by Tinycloud!"

A harsh, splintery voice laughed,

"Tinycloud?! She doesn't even deserve to be mentored! Imagine though, she can't even hiss! Find me a cat that can't hiss and I'd be amazed! Oh, wait. We have one right here. How useless can one get?"

"I've told you, she's deformed. Come on now, Shadekit, you need your rest if you are going to be the best you can tomorrow," her father coldly interjected Sharpkit before giving his son a lick on the head and curling around him. She could feel blood roaring through her veins and bunched up her muscles, ready to attack her brother.

"Maplekit?" a voice asked, snapping her out of her fury.

"What?" Maplekit snapped back, irritated that her mother had prevented her from attacking her brother.

"Come here, I'd like to tell you something," Heatherstalk meowed, sweeping her tail around Maplekit and drew her closer. 

"But I'm nearly an apprentice! I know enough to carry me throughout my entire life and StarClan beyond!" Maplekit protested, trying to wriggle away from her foster mother.

"No, if you don't keep on learning, other people will pass you by. Temperament alone won't do it—you'll need curiousity for a long, long time," Heatherstalk lightly reprimanded her, giving Maplekit a slight whack on the head with her paw and held Maplekit in a tighter grip.

"Work for a cause. Not for applause. Live life to express. Not to impress," Heatherstalk meowed, ignorant of Maplekit's complaints.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today and dream for tomorrow. The most important thing is to not stop questioning," her foster mother continued.

"Are you listening, my dear?" Heatherstalk asked, looking at Maplekit in the eye.

"Yes, mother," Maplekit meowed, her exasperation barely hidden behind a mask of excitement. Maplekit knew where that came from. Her father, without a doubt. Waspsting's apathy and his darker emotions were usually hidden behind a thin, translucent mask of sorrow, sympathy, etc.

"You have a special talent Maplekit. It's just hidden so perfectly that you haven't discovered it yet," Heatherstalk softly purred, nuzzling the top of Maplekit's head.

"I don't have any special talents, Heatherstalk. I'm just a passionately curious cat," Maplekit mumbled, her eyes struggling to stay open, and she gave a tired yawn before softly drifting down into the dark depths of sleep.

Maplekit stumbled, her paws reaching the side of the cliff where the the flood had not yet reached. She began to haul herself up, claws digging deep into the hard soil.

Once she had reached the top of the camp, she took a deep breath and shuddered from the exertion. At least she was safe from the flood. It couldn't reach her from this height.

Maplekit lay on the ground, stretching her paws and looking up at the crescent moon, silently spectating the events, the stars were tears that had been thrust around carelessly.

A crash and scream of rage made her whip her head around. She saw the dark, murky water had taken the form of a creature, a terrifying creature with twigs, leaves and dirt swirling inside its translucent exterior.

Maplekit wanted to scramble up a tree, to escape the terrifying creature that confronted her. But no matter what, her paws refused to budge, and the beast lunged forwards, submerging her in a cage of water.

Maplekit opened her mouth, however, no sound emerged, just bubbles, floating upwards.

Maplekit could feel panic rising and frantically swam around, trying to find a way to escape...

"My dear kit. It is not yet time to sleep. The sun has not even set yet. Why don't you go and play with your fellow denmates? It will be much better than being cooped up in here until the sun sets. Off you go, courage isn't about the absence of fear, rather the triumph over it. A brave cat is not one who does not feel afraid, but one who conquers fear," her mother meowed into her ear.

Maplekit blinked and took a deep breath, the nightmares were nothing to be afraid of, right? They could never touch her in real life and brushed away the thought of them before scampering outside to join her denmates.

"You will all address me as Shadestar, the leader of ShadeClan and I will be assigning each of you your partner to spar with. Blizzardkit can be Blizzardstone and Sharpkit can be Sharpstorm," Maplekit's former elder brother called, perchind himself on a medium-sized rock.

"What about Silentkit and her?" Sharpkit asked, Maplekit's lip slightly curling with anger when Sharpkit had substituted her name with the word 'her'.

"They can be apprentices. After all, what is a clan without apprentices, am I right?" the so-called Shadestar asked, tilting his head towards Sharpstorm.

"Oh o-of course you're right Shadestar! I had completely forgotten about that!" Sharpstorm dipped his head respectfully towards the grey tom.

"Ha, yes of course. . .you're admiration is just inevitable, dear Sharpstorm," Shadestar smirked at the grey tom.

"Blizzardkit, you can spar against your brother, Sharpkit. I, Shadestar will spar against my former sister Maplekit. Silentkit, you may be excused and can sit and watch us. I and Maplekit will spar first," Shadestar declared, wobbling slightly on his stone perch and gracefully stepped down.

Maplekit hated her brother's inflated sense of his armour propre. He even went so far as to place himself before her name.

"I hope you don't feel scared that your little Silentkit isn't here to protect you anymore," Shadekit smirked and Maplekit could feel a twang of annoyance inside her.

Maplekit backed up slightly when Shade advanced, but felt slightly confused on why her former brother wasn't directly attacking her, scratching and biting the hell out of her.

She didn't notice until it was too late, felt a slick leaf under her hind paw and when she was just about to lift her paw up, Shade darted behind her and quickly took the leaf out from under her and Maplekit felt her jaw hit the gound.

Maplekit then felt her former brother's paw placed firmly on her back and he declared,

"I, Shadestar of ShadeClan has defeated our nemesis, Maplepaw. Blizzardstone and Sharpstorm, your battle will now begin."

Maplekit fought back the urge to yowl that he had cheated, but she knew better than to voice her concerns and slunk back beside her sister.

Meanwhile, as her denmates sparred, she looked at the horizon. The setting sun gave a pink tinge, like watery blood, to the ribbon-like clouds that sat along the distant shadowy mountains, creating an ominous volcanic effect.

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The pain never really goes away; you just elevate and get used to it by growing stronger.