It was winter. A large white tom sat before the thick glass of a window, grooming his long white fur, so white he could have easily disappeared in all the piled up snow outside. Fire crackled in the house's fireplace, heating up the human home and its inhabitants, the warmth giving the tom a feeling of security and starkly contrasting the coldness of the howling wind hitting the face of the house, sometimes rattling the window blinds. The rather large snowflakes followed the wind's path, too light to fight its force, some leaving their traces on the windows as they hit them. Little to nothing could be seen in the weather, the darkness of night not aiding anyone's vision.
The tom was incredibly happy to be inside. Even though he shared his home with a dog.
He slowly moved away from the window and walked along the small but long wooden shelf, soft green eyes scanning the surroundings, ears pricked. It was dark inside the house, nothing but the fire serving as a source of light. The humans sat opposite the window, all three curled together on the grey-green couch underneath a thick brown blanket, watching a thin black machine of theirs; they called it the TV. A fascinating item with moving images of smaller humans, or at least they appeared to be smaller on the machine.
The tom could not find the dog, not even with his nose, finally hopping down on the bare laminated floor. The dog then came running from the other end of the house.
The humans all flinched when the tom arched his back, fluffed up his long fur and bared his fangs, hissing while moving out of the dog's way. The small, but to the tom rather large German shepherd pup ran clumsily across the floor, chasing the cat.
"Fleck! Leave Wanderer alone!" The pup stopped, tail energetically swishing, oversized head turned towards his owners. His large paws padded softly on the floor as he went towards his owners, picked up by the father, who scratched his head as he scolded him softly. The tom's fur flattened and he gave one nervous lick to his shoulder. He ended up on the other side of the large room, sitting before the edge leading into the cooking and eating area where cold stone tiles covered the floor. The familt continued to watch the TV in comfortable silence, laughing here and there at something happening there.
The tom stalked out of the room and climbed the stairway on one side of the hallway. The pup did not follow, loving the warmth of the blanket and human hands more than chasing the cat around all day.
The darkness of the room he entered enveloped itself around the tom, but he could see clearly around himself. One big paw forward, other big paw forward. He hopped onto the nightstand just below the window and made himself comfortable in the kitty bed the humans had bought for him long ago. He was almost theirs, but he still often changed his home, going from one house to the other, as long as they accepted him. During winter, however, he always stayed with them, even though they now had a dog. It did not seem hostile, being a playful pup.
His gaze lingered on the snow storm outside, ears picking up the faint howling of the wind. He did not want to even dream of being out there in such weather. However, he knew there were plenty of cats out there, struggling to survive in the harsh conditions of the wilderness. He wondered on some occasions what it was like, but never was the slightest bit drawn to the feral cat's life. Not even to the raw meat.
He would rather stay a soft kittypet who ate tasteless food, as one feral cat had dubbed him the one time he had wandered off into the forest.
The leaf crunched in defeat underneath his young paws. He puffed his chest out proudly, though there was no one to see it. Then he crouched again and was victorious once more.
Soon enough, he was the defeated one.
Inhaling deeply and with great effort, he squirmed and yelped as best he could under the weight of an adult tomcat. "Who are you?" came a sharp hiss from the black cat, his paw pressing down heavily on his chest, his face too close for comfort, yellow eyes bright and wild. The young cat struggled to breathe, unable to talk. It took time for the older one to realise this. He lowered the pressure.
The young tom gulped down as much as air he possibly could, not relaxing much with his heart pounding with fear in the face of the large, though slim feral cat.
"Who are you?" the black tom repeated just as sharply.
"Wanderer," the small tom blurted his name, trying to flinch backwards but only managing to hit his head on the hard soil.
"A longer? A rogue?" The tom eyed him, snorting. "You are young. And you are trespassing." Wanderer squirmed. The tom lifted his paw off his chest. "How old are you? Must be barely six moons."
Wanderer remained lying on his back. "I am four moons, nearing five." He rolled over and hopped to his paws, turning around. He flinched. There were three more cats behind the black one, only one she-cat, the only really small one out of them.
"Can you guess what will happen if you dare enter our forest again?" the black tom snarled.
The she-cat jumped in. "Blackfire, calm down," she chided, approaching the tom's flank. Her equally yellow eyes rested on Wanderer. "This must be a kittypet, but he is but a kit. Kits are not treated like you have treated him just now." Blackfire took a step back. The black-and-white she-cat's eyes now held the black tom's gaze. She turned to look at Wanderer again. "Wanderer, was it?" He nodded when he noticed her pause. "You are just a kit, but I am certain you will understand the weight of my words." He nodded again, keeping his ears pricked and fur as flat as was possible. "You are a soft kittypet who eats tasteless food every day. We are warriors, feral cats who live in the forest and hunt our own food and make our own shelter and collect our own medicine in the form of herbs. You do not belong with us, we do not belong with you. Do not come into our territory ever again, especially if you plan on hunting prey instead of leaves." She paused. He nodded yet again. "Stay away from us and you will be safe. You have no need for anything in the forest. Keep your nose out for our scent border. You must have ignored it now. Do not stray this far ever again." She stared at him in silence. He nodded again, more fiercely than before. He was not eager to see those kind of cats ever again.
Without a word, just a flick of the tail, the four cats trodded off along the border of the forest, disappearing behind the trees. Wanderer stumbled a few steps before speeding into a run, almost leaping across the tall grass meadow to the road, swiftly crossing it and climbing over the fence of the first house there, the house he had been in since he was born.
Feral cats? Never again.
His eyes began closing as he recalled the encounter, his spite waking up at that moment. It told him to do exactly what he did not want to do: go out there and show the feral cats that he could do it, even now that he had been a kittypet for all three years of his life.
AN
Hello! This is the first Warriors fanfic I have decided to publish, and well only the second I have attempted to write.
It would mean the world to me if any of you decided to review and maybe even follow this story! I will attempt to update it properly once a week, Saturdays.
Anyway, reviews can be anything, as long as it is not mean and all that. So, constructive criticism, questions if anything is unclear and maybe should be, what you like, what you don't like, what seems wrong and so on.
Just a note: since Wanderer is a kittypet, I made it so he understands a lot of what the humans say (mostly if they say it a lot to him or they speak of it often and he is bored enough to listen and attempt to decipher, plus there are things that are passed on between the village cats) and calls them humans instead of Twolegs (though maybe I will change it to Twolegs, not sure yet, this is just the first draft). Still, if you maybe believe they would not so easily pick up on some things I will use, feel free to point it out. xD
So, yeah, the next part will be up on Saturday, 22.10.2016 XD