Warriors: Power Of Three 1 - Sight Read Free

apprentices,” Leafpool reminded them.
    “But you’ll need help if there are sick cats . . . ,” Jaykit insisted.
    Leafpool silenced him by flicking the tip of her tail over his mouth. “I’m sorry, Jaykit,” she meowed. “It won’t be long until Firestar gives you your apprentice names. But until then, you’ll have to wait like any other kits.”
    Jaykit understood her meaning. Their father was the Clan deputy, and their mother was Firestar’s daughter; Leafpool was reminding them yet again that it did not entitle them to special treatment. His tail twitched crossly. Sometimes it felt like the rest of the Clan went out of their way to make sure he and his littermates never got special treatment. It wasn’t fair!
    “I’m sorry,” Leafpool meowed. “But that’s just the way it is.” She picked up the foul-smelling moss and padded back to the medicine den.
    “Nice try,” Lionkit whispered in Jaykit’s ear. “But it looks like we’re stuck in the camp for a while longer.”
    “Leafpool always thinks she can win us over just because she brings wool for our nests from the moorland,” Jaykit hissed. “Or pieces of honeycomb to lick. Why can’t she just give us what we really want—a chance to explore outside the camp?”
    Hollykit swished her tail over the frozen ground. Jaykit knew she wanted to explore beyond the camp walls as much as he and Lionkit did. “But she’s right,” she mewed grudg-ingly. “We must stick to the warrior code.”
    They ate, sharing the mouse and a vole between them. As Jaykit washed his face afterward, drawing his paws over his ears to give them a thorough cleaning, he noticed Brook emerging from the warriors’ den to join Cloudtail and Brightheart in the sun. She carried a different scent from the other warriors, the scent of mountains and tumbling water. It seemed to make her the strangest of all the cats who were not Clanborn. Was it just her scent, Jaykit wondered, or was it something more he sensed in the mountain she-cat—some wariness that had never left her? He could not quite put his whisker on it, but he was sure that Brook felt out of place here in the forest.
    A rustle in the thorn barrier that protected the entrance to the camp signaled Berrypaw’s return. Daisy’s third kit charged over to the fresh-kill pile and threw down his catch—a plump wood pigeon.
    “Where’s Brambleclaw?” Berrypaw called out to the kits.
    Brambleclaw was Berrypaw’s mentor, and Jaykit could not help but feel a small pang of jealousy that Berrypaw spent so much time training with Brambleclaw when his own paws ached to hunt in the forest with his father.
    “He’s with Squirrelflight,” Jaykit replied. “They’re checking for loose stones.” He pricked his ears, listening for the sound of his mother’s and father’s voices. He could not hear them, but the breeze blowing down from the cliff behind the medicine den carried their scent.
    “Up there,” he told Berrypaw, lifting his nose toward them.
    “You’re sharp today, Jaykit!” Berrypaw meowed. “I wanted to show him my pigeon and ask him if we were doing battle training after sunhigh.”
    Jealousy gnawed harder in Jaykit’s belly. Why can’t I be an apprentice now?
    “You must be really good at hunting.” Lionkit sighed, clearly thinking the same thing.
    “It’s just practice,” Berrypaw told them. “Look.” He crouched down. “This is how you begin.”
    Lionkit’s belly swished against the ground as he tried to copy Berrypaw.
    “Get your tail down!” Berrypaw ordered. “It’s sticking up like a bluebell!”
    Lionkit’s tail slapped against the frozen earth.
    “Now pull yourself forward, smooth as a snake,” Berrypaw commanded.
    “You look like you’ve got wind!” Hollykit crowed.
    Lionkit gave a playful hiss and leaped at her, rolling her onto the ground. She fought back, purring with amusement while Lionkit pummeled her belly with his hind paws.
    They were so busy in their play fight that