Lavender's Battle

LAVENDER: Small gray she-cat with green eyes

OWL: Black and white tom with blue eyes; former kittypet

FERN: Gray she-cat with green eyes

BUZZ: Ginger tom with amber eyes

FOX: Ginger she-cat with amber eyes

STREAK: Tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

COOKIE: Brown she-cat with blue eyes; kittypet

BROWNIE: Brown tom with amber eyes; kittypet

MOTH: Pale ginger tabby tom with green eyes

SLEET: White tom with blue eyes

PIGEON: gray tom with blue eyes; dead

HAILEY: white she-cat with green eyes; kittypet

LOUISE: silver tabby she-cat with white chest and underbelly and amber eyes; kittypet

SKYFOOT: white and black tabby she-cat with blue eyes; ShadowClan

A small child huddled beneath a staircase in the city past midnight. The child was whimpering softly as she slept. A small gray cat with sparkling green eyes crawled to the child poking it with a paw. The cat meowed to herself "The twoleg kit is asleep I can take shelter here." Softly the cat distanced herself from the child curling up with her tail over her nose and fell asleep.

Sunlight streamed into the small area are putting a soft glow on the child. The small child yawned and peered around at her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the cat. The twoleg yowled with delight and scooped up the cat.

"Put me down!" Lavender screamed.

The twoleg only squeezed her tighter. Lavender lashed out her claws and scored then across the child's face, just missing her eyes. The twoleg dropped her down and started crying. The cat ungracefully landed and blundered away. Lavender glanced behind her at the hurt twoleg. A full-grown twoleg was with her and reassuring her with calm meows.

"She'll be fine." the gray she-cat thought to herself.

Lavender had been walking across the city for days staying here and there, eating when she could. She had grown up in the city leaving her mother Fern, at 3 months old. Her littermates Fox and Streak were captured by twolegs when they were 2 and a half months old making her mother devastated and then one day when she was out hunting for Lavender she never came back. Compared to her father her mother was a fox-heart. He had left her mother when he had found out she had wanted nothing to do with him but her kits. The only reason he left was that of her and her littermates. Lavender always felt that it was her fault that her father left.

Lavender found a cardboard box on the side of the road with leftover turkey legs some cat had left behind. She bit into it. It was stale and hard.

"Well I can't be picky about what I can't eat with so little food in this part of the city." she thought to herself. So she finished it in famished bites and pushed it away and fell asleep.

Lavender had a strange dream. She saw starry cats descending from the sky their scent smelled like ice and fire. One of the cats was staring straight at her, this starry cat had matted gray fur and wisdom shining in her eyes. Then Lavender woke up to find that she had been clawing at the cardboard box as she had slept. She thought to herself "I probably ate a bad turkey leg." So she woke up and started walking towards a battered scrap can and reached inside for her breakfast. She found some fish bones with some meat still on it. "Filthy twolegs waste perfectly good meat." she thought as she ate.

The rest of the day she kept thinking of her dream. Lavender had been so distracted that she walked onto the street and almost got run over by a car. Then when she had been looking through a can to find food, she fell off and blacked out.

When she woke up she saw a black and white cat with blue eyes in her face. She jumped up with surprise and bumped her head on the wall she was lying against.

"Owww" moaned Lavender. "Sorry to scare you" he apologized. "My name's Owl, What's yours ?" "Why should I tell you?!" she snarled. Lavender had always been untrustworthy of new cats. Lavender started walking away and then her leg buckled. She slowly sank to the ground and then Owl padded right up to her." I should have told you that I examined you while you were out and that you have a fractured leg." he said politely. "I think I can walk just fine" meowed Lavender coldly. Owl picked her up half dragging half carrying her to the wall. When Lavender was comfortable she noticed a shiny thing glimmering on Owl's neck. "You're a kittypet!" growled Lavender. "Was a kittypet" corrected Owl. "Why did you leave your soft perfect life?" mocked Lavender in a squeaky voice as if trying to imitate Owl's voice. "Well it's boring inside and they twolegs barely pay me any attention since they got the new cat Cookie. She's so big headed and keeps calling me old trash. So, I got fed up with it and left." Owl continued "I want to get this stupid collar off but I can't so I have been wandering around eat from the garbage." Finally finished Owl his voice shaking a little bit as if the memories were sour in his throat. Lavender felt the tiniest bit of pity for this cheery sorry excuse for a cat and said one sentence. "I can help you get your collar off," said Lavender quietly. "You would?!" asked Owl in disbelief. "Just this once fleabag" growled Lavender in his ear. Lavender used her teeth to tug at the grasp at the back of the collar and heard a click. The collar fell off and landed on the ground with a soft thud.

"Thank you so much" whispered Owl "I feel like a weight had been lifted," he said gratefully. "In return, I will care for you until your leg has healed," Owl said nicely. Lavender grudgingly said "Yes" and then laid back down and fell asleep.

Owl laid down next to her but reconsidered and scooted a few whiskers away. When he was almost asleep Lavender leaned in a bit closer but still was sound asleep. Owl felt it as quite warm and pleasant to not be sleeping alone for once.

The next morning Lavender woke up to see Owl was gone. She felt a strange empty feeling of disappointment. She thought "What am I doing? I have lived alone almost for many seasons. I don't need anyone now. He even promised to stay with me and didn't even bother to stay a night!" She dragged herself to a nearby scrap can to find Owl inside it. "Oh you're awake!" he meowed cheerily. "I found breakfast!" he mumbled around some chicken nuggets.

As they ate the whole road was silent except for the few cars that sped by. As they ate Lavender noticed a shadow in the alleyway as she ate. As she inched a little closer she saw that it was two brown cats one with gleaming ice blue eyes and the other with dark amber eyes staring at a shape on the floor.

"Owl?" she asked quietly "We should go." "Why?" "I can see some alley cats and I've dealt with them before and they aren't the friendly type." the gray she-cat responded "Okay and I understand." he said, "When I left my twolegs a gang of them chased me." Lavender gave a nod of comfort and started limping away.

Owl walked beside her holding her up when she slipped.

They stopped when they were about ten blocks away and found a spot sheltered by clumps of grass near a deli building. When they arrived Owl promised to keep watch for alley cats while she rested. She flopped down into the grass and her eyes slowly started to droop and she fell asleep looking at the stars among the buildings and thinking how pretty they were.

Lavender woke up and saw 4 trees around her. She was standing on a giant rock with other cats with her. She noticed that on the ground below the rock were more cats than she had ever seen in her life. They were all staring up at her their eyes wide. She glanced behind her and saw that the other 5 cats collapsed and were bleeding with puncture marks on all of their necks. She tasted blood in her mouth and her paws were dark and red spreading stains on the rock and it was dripping onto a group of cats sitting below her. She stared in shock at her paws and soon the whole clearing was overflowing with tides of blood and the cats were all drowning in it. She jumped back to bump into a cat with glowing eyes and a pelt so drenched in shadow it was impossible to tell their pelt color. The cat jumped into the blood lake and swam around it purring with wild, evil glee. Lavender crouched so she looked like a tiny ball of fur and when she looked up a starry she-cat with a gray matted pelt and amber eyes were peering over her. Lavender stood up to see that the clearing was clear again and the rock was dry and glowed in the moonlight, more starry cats were perched below looking at her with fear. The cat standing next to her whispered in her ear "StarClan fears you, Lavender, you have great skills and a dark future. Except for the cats around you and you may stand a chance." "What?" asked Lavender with fear. The gray she-cat started to fade away and so did the clearing.