Chapter Text
Out of the corner of his eye Roosterkit saw a shining hummingbird hovering over some honeysuckle bushes. Looking around to see if any of the warriors were watching, knowing full well the rules about kittens leaving Camp, he swiftly leaves and bounds over to the small bird. As soon as he got close to the bird it zoomed off, Roosterkit giggled and chased after it.
Running through the thicket to keep up with the pretty bird, it comes to a holt over a bush floating quietly over the pinkish flowers. Roosterkit drops down to a crouched position like he saw the Apprentices do, it was clumsy and bad form unlike the Warriors, he shifts and wiggles his haunches before jumping at the hummingbird.The Hummingbird disappeared in front of Roosterkit’s eyes. Confused and wide eyed he scrambles and twists in the air and falls into the blackberry bush. Thrashing around the thorns scratch at his fur, not yet dense enough for protection, and snagging his ear painfully.
Yowling loudly in the pain, and tumbling out of the thorny bush and shaking his fur out in shock. His body hurts, his ear is gushing fresh blood from where a thorn tore into the skin, and one of his front paws aches from pushing against the branches.
A big shadow passes over Roosterkit, who freezes as his fur stands on end, looking up into the trees with fear, was it an owl or a raven? He’s heard nursery stories about birds snatching naughty kits away. He trembles as he searches, he was an awful kit he broke the rules to chase some bird. He wished his Dad was here, but he’s not, he’s in Starclan with his Mama. Is he the reason they’re gone? Roosterkit’s breath quickens and his body shakes. He sees a big bird in the tree watching him, it had a silvery glow like the hummingbird did, but a sharp beak and big talons. Whimpering as he scrambles to get away from it his back hits a rock and he feels trapped, he squeezes his eyes tight.
“It’s alright little one,” A calm gentle voice called out to him.
Opening his eyes, he blinks to adjust to the brightness of the stranger’s starry pelt. Once Roosterkit’s eyes adjusted, he looked up to see the big bird gone and a gray tom standing in front of him. The tom looks like Falconflight, except he’s not as lanky and his shoulders are wider from training, if the scars were to go on anything this tom was definitely a warrior. “No need to be frightened.” Roosterkit's throat is dry and he feels like he can’t speak, his ear is now throbbing from the blood and his paw is beginning to bruise around the thorn. “W-who are you?” He squeaks quietly.
“Roosterkit!” A familiar voice hollers throughout the forest, startling Roosterkit as he looks in the direction of the voice before back to the tom, only the warrior was gone, not even paw prints remained. “Roosterkit!” the voice rings closer, Roosterkit is still dazed by the mysterious tom finally lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding on, “Oh my Starclan!” The voice was louder and Roosterkit finally looked over at who was calling him. Falconflight, his uncle that his parents entrusted to raise him. Falconflight immediately jumps into action and starts licking at Roosterkit’s wounded ear, who mews in discomfort.
“What are you doing outside of Camp? You know that’s against the rules! What happened to your ear, are you alright?”
Roosterkit looked up at Falconflight with wide eyes that shined, “I saw a cat just like you,” he said mystified. “Another cat?” Falconflight looks around and sniffs the area, “There’s no one else here baby bird.” He shakes his head, “Let’s get you back to camp, and get you to the Medicine Den.” Roosterkit limped a little before frowning, “Can you carry me, Falconflight?” Falconflight looks at Roosterkit holding up his paw in pain, and nods, “I got you Baby bird,” He gives the kitten a quick comforting lick across his forehead, disheveling the lengthy fur, and picks him up by the scruff, gently holding him in his jaw.
Roosterkit looks behind them as they leave, his eyes catching a glimmer of the silvery big bird before it flies off from where it perched. It hits Roosterkit all at once that he was the only one to see the older Tom cat, and the birds. His ears flatten, Falconflight doesn’t believe him, but the glowing warrior was there, Roosterkit was sure of it.