Memories
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Noises in the Night - Clearlight's Story
"Cleary!"
...
"Cleary, wake up!"
...
"Come on, Cleary, we have to go!"
...
"Cleary!"
"What!" Cleary groaned, yawning. It was the middle of the night, she wasn't really in the mood for late-night adventures. She got to her feet, tilting her neck from side to side to get rid of the cramps she had gotten from sleeping against the side of a tree. She'd been traveling with this cat, a solid white tom, Henry, for a few days. But he had a thing for traveling or wandering late a night. It wasn't the best.
"C'mon! We're going to the Twolegplace!" Henry said, literally bouncing on his paws in delight.
Cleary sighed, but didn't complain. Henry was kind enough to let her tag along with him so that she could survive. She couldn't let him down. Cleary gave one last longing look at her spot by the tree, and then hurried after Henry.
They came across a long, black stretch of cold rocks. Cleary sniffed at it, wrinkling her nose at the foul stench. "What's this?" She questioned.
"That's the Thunderpath." Henry said. His voice was quiet.
"Thunderpath?"
"Thunderpath." Henry shifted his weight from paw to paw, looking uncomfortable. "C'mon. We should hurry before a monster comes." Henry bounded onto the Thunderpath, hurrying across it. He reached the other side within a matter of seconds.
Cleary poked at the black rocks with a paw. She was hesitant to cross it, but what other choice did she have? Cleary began to pad across the Thunderpath, slowly. Close to the other side, she called to Henry. "Hey, Henry. What did you mean by a monster?"
"Hurry!" Was Henry's response.
Cleary walked faster, and she was almost to the other side when the black rocks began to rumble underneath her feet. "Henry?" Cleary questioned, nervous.
"Cleary, cross right now!" Henry yowled, terror filling his voice.
Cleary turned her head, eyes wide to see a bright, blinding light fill her vision. A loud noise filled the air, like the sound of Thunder. Cleary closed her eyes, her legs gave out underneath her, and she trembled in fright.
Then the rumbling stopped.
Cleary didn't open her eyes, now collapsed on the cold, black rocks. A loud sound broke the silence, and Cleary squeezed her eyes shut. She thought she heard Twoleg voices, but another loud noise sounded, causing several crows nearby to fly away, cawing. The monster, or at least, what she thought was a monster, came to life again, and Cleary could see the light even through her shut eyes.
Cleary waited until the noise was no more before she opened her eyes. Cleary froze. Henry was a stark white, there was no way he would be blending into the shadows right now.
"Henry?" Cleary whispered. "Henry!" Cleary meowed, louder now. "Henry!!!" Cleary yowled, panic rising in her. Oh no, where did Henry go? This was her fault. "Henry!!!!!!" Cleary shrieked, turning this way and that, searching for the white cat.
"Hey."
Cleary gasped, stumbling backwards. A cat was standing to her right, barely visible. He was a solid black color, and the only thing Cleary could see were his eyes, a glowing yellow that made it seem as though there were only eyes hanging in the night.
But Cleary's worry soon overcame her fear. "Have you seen Henry? He's white, and I should be able to see him right now since white shows up well against black, but I can't find him, and only if I had crossed the Thunderpath faster then something wouldn't have happened to him..." Cleary's voice choked up with emotion.
But the black tom listened. "I'm sorry." He said. "Your friend, Henry, right? The Twolegs took him in their Monster." His voice was apologetic.
Cleary sat down on her haunches. Henry was gone. She hung her head in sorrow. He was gone, and it was all her fault. If she had only crossed the Thunderpath faster, Henry would still be here.
"Hey." The black tom was closer to her. 'It's not your fault." He said quietly, as if he had almost read her mind. The tom sat down beside her. "You're only, like, apprentice-aged."
They sat in silence for a while, until the tom broke it.
"What's your name?" He asked, like he was attempting to change the subject.
Cleary swallowed down her emotion, and spoke, her voice shaky. "Cleary." She said.
"That's a nice name..." He said. "Maybe, though, you could add another word to the end of it?"
Cleary glanced at the black tom, confused. Another word? Like what? And why? How?
"In remembrance of Henry, you know? Maybe.....Clearpath. Or Clearynight."
Cleary thought back to the event, and at the blinding light, the rumbling earth. "Clearlight." She said, her voice soft. She cleared her throat, and started again, louder, this time. "I chose Clearlight."
The black tom nodded, the action barely visible.
Clearlight shook thoughts of Henry out of her mind before she could melt into a puddle of regret and agony, and turned to the tom. "What's your name, anyways?"
The black tom got to his feet, his yellow eyes vanishing for a few seconds until he looked over his shoulder. "Darkmoon." He said. "I'm Darkmoon."
Hiding in the Shadows - Rainburst's Story
Rainpaw stared out at the rainy day, lost in thought. The droplets looked like crystals as they fell, shimmering, bright, pretty things. Sometimes she wondered why her mother had named her after them. She wasn’t really a shimmering, bright, pretty thing.
Rainpaw had a sudden urge to walk out into the rain. Even though she knew that it was going to happen.
She still wanted to go to her favorite place in Shadowclan territory. She still did.
Rainpaw darted forwards suddenly, weaving around the poor cats that were still stuck in the rain, and racing as fast as she go to the Pinewatch Patch. Rainpaw nearly slipped onto a puddle, but she ignored the mud splattered on her fur and ran even faster.
It only took her a little bit to make it underneath a large tree in the Patch, but it had already happened. Rainpaw didn’t even have to look at her own fur to see that it was as puffy as a cloud. Every strand seemed like it wanted to go in any direction but the direction it was supposed to go in.
Rainpaw sighed. It really did seem like she exploded whenever it rained. She sat, content to just watch as the rain fell.
Chirp, chirp.
What- Rainpaw blinked. Maybe she was just hearing things.
Chirp, chirp.
Rainpaw turned, eyes wide. A small, tiny bird was seated on the ground. It chirped again, flapping its pale blue-colored wings.
Rainpaw stared.
The bird stared back.
“Are- are you hurt?” Rainpaw stumbled over her words.
The bird chirped again.
“Oh. I see.” Rainpaw looked outside. “Are you trying to get away from the rain too?”
Maybe it was just a figment of Rainpaw’s imagination, but she was almost certain that the bird had nodded its head.
Rainpaw nodded back, just in case. “It is quite rainy today, isn’t it?”
The bird fluttered its wings.
Rainpaw wondered what her sister would think about her talking to a bird. Then again, this bird was a songbird. It wasn’t the type of bird that she’d eat, so it wasn’t that weird she was talking to it. Silentpaw was so tolerant of her.
Rainpaw watched outside as the rain slowly trickled down. The downpour turned to a shower, which turned to a sprinkle, which then stopped entirely.
“Look.” Rainpaw meowed. “The rain stopped.”
The bird gave one last chirp, one last wing beat, before flying off.
“Bye, birdie.” Rainpaw said, to no one in particular.
Climbing High - Brittleshore's Story
Brittlekit stumbled over his own feet, chasing after his older sister. “Splinterpaw, c’mon, I wanna play!”
Brittlekit’s sister turned around harshly, leveling Brittlekit with her eyes, the exact color as their mother’s, a dark, serious brown. Splinterpaw’s greatest weapon was the fact that her eyes could almost burn people when she was annoyed. It was something about the way she looked at other cats that made them turn away, made them nervous. Brittlekit had practiced for hours by the river, trying to get his own eyes to do that. But no, his own watery eyes could only stare sadly.
“Brittlekit, go find some other cat to annoy.” She said, rolling her eyes. “Find Specklekit, or something.”
“But Specklekit can’t play, you know that!” Specklekit, their sister, was born with abnormal limbs, and the medicine cat told them she wouldn’t survive the next 2 moons, while their unnamed brother was stillborn. Splinterkit herself had a brother in her litter, but he had been run over by a Twoleg’s monster. Sometimes Brittlekit wondered if the death of Cracklepaw had been the reason why his older sister was so cold.
Splinterpaw rolled her eyes. “I have to train soon, Brittlekit.” She said, holding her older experience over his head. “Go, I don’t know, somewhere else.”
With that, she turned on her paws and walked away.
Brittlekit held back from throwing a fit. Now what? Now what was he going to do? The other kits had never liked him becuase his parents were known to be brutal warriors, and the apprentices were too old for him to play with. The warriors, and elders, too.
Brittlekit stomped into the forest, his claws unsheathed in anger. Brittlekit shrieked, clawing a tree to his right suddenly. A rabbit burst out from a bush nearby, startled. The bark slid off the tree neatly, as it was young. Brittlekit continued clawing, yowling as he did. He hated his family. He. Hated. Them! Brittlekit emphasized each thought with another swipe of his claws, not stopping until the tree had several deep indentations on its trunk. Brittlekit stepped back, already tired from the exertion.
He froze, suddenly, feeling something different in the air. Heart pounding, Brittlekit turned slowly, looking over his shoulder. He whimpered, cowering on the ground.
A large dog, with a shiny metal thing attached to a piece of fabric around his neck, stood in front of Brittlekit. A bit of slobber from his mouth fell onto the ground. The dog licked his chops, sniffing the air.
Brittlekit inhaled and exhaled once, before turning and running as fast as he could. He didn’t care where he was going, far from camp or away from it, as long as he was going away from the dog.
“Help!” He screamed. “Some cat help me!” There was no response.
Brittlekit could hear the dog behind him, growling, as he ran under logs and over weeds. Brittlekit ducked under a thorny bush, hoping it would stop the dog, but he could still feel it literally breathing down his neck. Brittlekit turned a corner around a tree sharply, and before he could decide that it might not be a good idea, began to climb an old tree as fast as his tiny paws could carry him. Brittlekit, even when he was several feet off the ground, continued climbing until he was almost to the top of a tree. He looked down. The dog was slobbering again, circling the tree and howling pitifully.
Brittlekit shivered, and closed his eyes, waiting.
He didn’t go down, even when the dog had left. He didn’t go down, even when it was close to sun high. He didn’t go down.
“Brittlekit! Where are you, you bee-brain?”
Brittlekit opened his eyes, hearing his sister call for him. It was time to go down now. Sighing, Brittlekit began to climb down, placing his paw after the other. What he didn’t know was that in the future, he would constantly think over this moment. What if he had looked, and seen the moss? What if he had been more careful?
Brittlekit’s paw slipping on the branch, and for a moment Brittlekit hung int he air, his claws scrambling against the wet moss before he fell. As he fell, Brittlekit had just enough time to regret his decision to climb the tree in order to escape the dog before he hit the ground with a crack the world went black.
Running for Forever - Slatefrost's Story
Slatepaw peered around the edge of the den, watching with wide eyes as Sootpaw crouched, barely visible in the shadows of the apprentices' den. Slatepaw widened his eyes in an attempt to communicate with his brother that this was a very, very bad idea. But Sootpaw just grinned and hooked his tail in a silent communication technique that they had came up with when they were kits.
It's fine.
Slatepaw hooked his tail over his back and then lashed it against the dirt of the den, shaking his head.
It's not fine!
Sootpaw rolled his eyes, waving his tail in the air.
Don't worry.
Slatepaw couldn't believe that he had actually agreed to this terrible plot that Sootpaw came up with, but fine. He'd go along with it. Even if he got punished. Sighing, Slatepaw padded out of the den, step one in Sootpaw’s horrible plan, searching for Sootpaw's intended victim.
There he was. Slatepaw walked with his head hung in regret over to another apprentice and began to drag him over to the apprentices' den. "Sootpaw wants to talk to you," Slatepaw said in a monotone, ignoring the cat’s protests. He then dragged the poor apprentice over to the apprentices' den and hurried away so that he didn’t have to hear the apprentice screaming when Sootpaw jumped out of the shadows and scared him.
Slatepaw had only gotten a fox-length when his brother burst out of den.
“Run, Slatepaw, run!” Sootpaw began to yowl, leaping out of the apprentices’ den and racing forwards with a look of glee.
Slatepaw groaned. They were going to be in so much trouble. He began to run, racing past several confused warriors and past the elder’s den. He ran past the fresh-kill pile and past the Breezerock. He ran over a tiny stream and beyond the Training Moor. And finally, he ended up by the Swooping Cliffs.
Slatepaw skidded to a stop before he ran over the edge. He wouldn’t want to fall now, although it would probably be better than whatever punishment would be cooked up for them this time. Sootpaw was only a few steps behind him, but raced past Slatepaw to dance gleefully at the cliff edge, dangerously close to falling over.
“Did you hear him? He was so scared!” Sootpaw collapsed on the ground, mrowing in laughter.
Slatepaw sighed, thinking about what they were going to face when they had to head back to camp. They did, eventually have to. They were going to get in so much trouble. “Sootpaw, c’mon, let’s head back. We shouldn’t be this close to the cliffs, anyways.”
Sootpaw got back to his feet, shaking with amusement. “Ok, ok. You know, Slatepaw, sometimes you sound just like a warrior.” He said, teasingly.
“I do hope so.” Slatepaw began padding back in the direction of the camp. He wasn't sure he was going to be a warrior anytime soon if Sootpaw continued dragging him into things like this, so the least he could do was sound like a warrior.
“Slatepaw!” He heard Sootpaw call after him. “We’re going to stay together forever, right?”
“Right!” Slatepaw yowled over his shoulder. He loved his brother, even though Sootpaw was a bit strange, sometimes.
“We’re going to be together forever!” Sootpaw screamed at the sky. “Together! Forever!
The Dusk and Undergrowth - Molly's Story
Spotkit sat, trying to keep still as much as possible. Her mother Billowbreeze was seated by her, as unmoveable as a stone in a rushing river. At least, that was how she appeared. In reality, Billowbreeze was on high alert, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting lizard in front of her, which was resting on a rock.
Almost unnoticeably, Billowbreeze shifted forwards, and began to creep towards the mouse, using the slight darkness of sundown and the undergrowth they were surrounded by to her advantage. Spotkit resisted the temptation of wigging, not wanting to ruin her mother’s kill. Billowbreeze suddenly stopped moving, with the lizard only a paw-step away.
Then, in a sudden burst of movement and speed, raced forwards. The lizard opened its eyes in panic and had just barely started to run away when Billowbreeze had it pinned down and finished in one quick, efficient bite to the neck.
Spotkit trilled in delight, bouncing on her paws. “You did it, you did it!” She shrieked.
Billowbreeze smiled. “You mean,” she corrected, “we did it.”
Spotkit nodded her head frantically. “I wanna learn, I wanna learn!”
Billowbreeze’s whiskers twitched in amusement, and she placed the fresh-kill back on the rock again. “Alright, Spotkit, here, let’s go back to the spots we were in before.” Billowbreeze took a couple of steps back, and resumed her crouched position. “Copy me.” She instructed.
Spotkit hurridly crouched down as well, trying to mimic her mother’s pose.
Billowbreeze got up, and with a gentle paw, adjusted Spotkit’s position to be more comfortable, and effective. “The key to a good catch,” she said, “is using your surroundings to your advantage. What do you see around you?”
Spotkit looked around at the forest. “Um, it’s getting dark?”
“Right!” Billowbreeze encouraged. “It’s sundown, which means…?”
“Prey can’t see us?”
“Exactly.” Billowbreeze gestured at the sky. “The darker it gets, the easier it is to blend in with our surroundings. Oftentimes, too, animals are resting, so it’s easier to catch them off guard. What else?”
Spotkit wrinkled her nose, looking at the plants around her. “There’s a lot of bushes and stuff.”
“Very good.” Billowbreeze said. “That’s called the undergrowth, right? And the undergrowth is good for hunting in.” Billowbreeze licked Spotkit’s ear affectionately. “You have brighter colors for a pelt, so you’ll have to wait until it’s much darker.”
Spotkit grumbled at her mother’s show of affection, and Billowbreeze just mrowed in laughter. “Alright, now, try stalking forwards. Slowly, like this.” Billowbreeze began to creep forwards, and staring at her mother, Spotkit copied her.
“Just like that!” Billowbreeze exclaimed. She looked up worriedly at the sky. “Now, it’s getting late, and your father is waiting, so let’s get back home, alright?”
“Ok!” Spotkit, exclaiming, already looking forwards to their next lesson.
“But, mom?”
“Yes?”
“Where did you learn this, anyways?”
Billowbreeze paused, about to pick up the lizard she’d caught. She sighed. “I used to be part of……a group.”
“A group?” Spotkit frowned. “What group?”
Billowbreeze smiled, and licked Spotkit’s ear again. “It’s not important right now, Spotkit. C’mon, let’s go back.”
Spotkit trilled in delight. “We’re gonna see Samuel, we’re gonna see Samuel!”
Her mother’s laughter echoed through the forest, and Spotkit felt like she was the luckiest cat in the world to have a mother like Billowbreeze who could teach her how to hunt.