I awoke to the sound of… what was that… claws? Looking out my window, I saw what appeared to be a dramatically white cat against the blackness of midnight. However, he was giving off his own mellow light, like he had a star inside of him.
Creeping closer, my window being at the foot of my bed on the right side, I saw he had intelligent green eyes. Looking back, it was probably those eyes that made me lift the window in the first place. StarClan works in mysterious ways…
None the less, he crawled right in and sat perched on the bedpost on the left side, adjacent to me. I stared at him like I was crazy. I probably was. Then, he did the craziest thing of all: he spoke. No mistaking it, it was as clear-cut as diamond in a strange accent I couldn't quite place. He said, "StarClan hears all prayers and yours has been answered."
Now, I had pretty recently been reading this series called Warriors and I, no mistaking it, wanted to be a cat and to live in the Clans and have kits and a mate and maybe even be leader someday. However, I assumed I must have been dreaming. This was impossible, and as much as I wanted it to be true, I knew it wasn't. It couldn't be. Then he did something I expected even less: he padded forward to me and touched noses with me. At first I was confused. Then, I was in pain. It wasn't so much excruciating as numbing, and felt like I was being heated, on fire, and shrunken while millions of needles pricked me all over my body. I tossed and turned on my bed, when it stopped, as suddenly as it had started.
Looking around, I realized I was smaller, much smaller, and had larger ears, and could see quite well despite the seemingly pressing darkness before, and… I was… furry?! Looking at my back, I saw pale white fur, not as dramatic as the other cat's though, and a fluffier silver tail. I looked at my hands next, well, paws, and was startled to see one white and the other silver. I turned, trying to see my tail again, and I lost my balance, falling over onto my back.
The white cat had watched in silence up till now, but now he started purring laughingly and his tail tip twitched when I looked up at him from my back. "Come. No one here will miss you, and I can take you to the Clans," he said finally. "What about Tori?" I asked slowly, getting used to the awkward feeling of my mouth. "Tori will come," he acknowledged, "if she wishes to. For now you still speak your old language, but not for long. Go now, and she may come with us."
Not needing another word to encourage me, I pelted down the row of 12 bunk beds and to the last one. Leaping gracefully onto Tori's bed, I quietly murmured in her ear, "Tori? Toriiiiiiiii… Wake up, it's very important," I whispered urgently. The four-year-old mumbled something incoherently in her sleep, and blinked slowly. "Mantha? Is that you?" she asked sleepily. "Kind of," I said. "Quietly, now, get up. We're leaving this place, for good," I said determinedly. "How?" she asked, getting slightly more awake. "Tori, do you know how I read you the books about the kitties?" I asked. "Oh, I luff the kitties…" she murmured. "Do you want to be a kitty?" I said. "Oh, yes. Very muth," she said. "Then come on. Look at me! I'm already a kitty," I said confidently. "Oh. Can I be a kitty too, Mantha?" she asked. "If you get up right now, very quietly, you can be a kitty too," I promised."Hurry, the magic cat is leaving," I said.
Rubbing her green eyes awake sleepily, she looked at me for the first time that night. She was stunned into silence. "It's still me, and you can be a kitty too," I pleaded. Tori finally nodded and tentatively reached out to pet my fur. Feeling the silky softness, she giggled and petted me again. "Ok, ok, I'm adorable," I whispered, "but let's go before the magic kitty leaves. He's from StarClan," I added. Tori nodded and tip-toed her way to my bed, understanding to be quiet or Ms. Delilah would come and put her away, into the Box if she was heard.
When we reached my bed, the white cat sat still, listening, as we came back. He said "We must go, now. The one you call Delilah is coming. We have only a few minutes more," he said urgently.
Padding up to Tori, he touched his nose to her forehead and she began to look around with wide, unseeing eyes, clouded as if she were elsewhere, with a huge smile on her face. "And for you the life of speed and justice," he murmured quietly. I wondered what my life had been of. And just like my life, it left Tori's eyes as quickly as it had come. "Oh, Mantha, I saw such a pretty river, and a tree, and a kitten, and she was so pretty, and-" She stopped when my tail brushed her now-kitten mouth. "We must go now, immediately. The Master is coming," said the white tom. Both nodded in understanding.
Leaping onto the bed that was once mine, I looked to the tom for answers. "Come," he directed and jumped nimbly out the window. Admiring his skill, I picked up the seemingly 2-moon-old size kit and leaped after him into the night.
However, when I went to follow him, he took Tori from me and carried her himself, making it look like nothing. I shook my head and followed.
It was so different, running on four legs instead of two. However, I felt like I could run for seasons and never tire out, or as if I could leap it new, shining crescent moon high above our heads and step right into the StarClan hunting grounds.
As we trotted out of the city we had been in and down the cobblestone streets leading towards the forest, the cat I had come to know as CloudFur stopped when we had reached a slight dip in the ground, a rainwater gutter.
"What is that smell?" I asked curiously. Speaking around the fur of the kitten he held, he said, "The light, airy scent is WindClan; the heavy, bitter scent ShadowClan and the warm, tasty scent is a barn built by the twolegs filled to the brim with tasty mice."
Looking in awe in the directions he pointed in, a thought occurred to me. "Which Clan would take me- us?" I asked. "I have spoken to the leader, and said the kit is yours. He… will be difficult to convince, but I believe you have the true heart of a Warrior. We will meet him at Fourtrees tonight," he said confidently.
We approached the T-shaped fork in the road, or Thunderpath as I could now call it, and I was nervous. I knew what lay ahead. It was the corner of WindClan and ThunderClan territory, at Fourtrees. The place I would meet my destiny, or be destroyed by it.
Then another set of thoughts came to me: what if they didn't like me? We couldn't go back, and we couldn't just live as loners! Or what if they didn't like Tori?! I couldn't stay without her!
Suddenly, it seemed, he had stopped again. We were at a steady incline at the edge of what I knew to be Fourtrees. I panicked.
"Relax," CloudFur commanded, and I couldn't resist; I did. Knowing I was about to meet my future leader (or not), I licked myself clean, my now-catlike instincts kicking in.
CloudFur gave me the now sleeping Tori and said, "Hold on tight." Needless to say, I did. "Why-"
My question was cut off as I felt myself swirling up, up into the sky in the form of thousands of tiny stars, then back down into the hollow. I felt myself taking form, and guessing we wouldn't want to look stupid, so I started looking like I was walking on air, gracefully descending from the sky, CloudFur beside me.
I saw a lot of things. The great rock, Fourtrees, the ghosts of cats long forgotten, but what stood out at me the most was a dark gray tom-cat. His yellow eyes were widening in surprise, but he was quickly composing himself.
"Greetings," he said, dipping his head towards us as we landed in front of him. "Greetings," I replied in an awed tone, realizing for the first time that this wasn't just a severely happy dream.
Looking puzzled, the gray cat asked "And who are they?" to CloudFur. "This is Samantha, and her kitten, Tori," said CloudFur.
"Strange names…" he murmured to himself. Turning and dipping his head to her, he added, "Welcome. Might you be the one he has told me of?" he queried kindly. I merely nodded, my paws aching from walking so far and carrying Tori into the hollow. She was heavy!
Looking very worried, I asked "Will you take us? We have nowhere else to go, no one to turn to. It is still your decision."
He turned to me, and this was it: was he going to accept me?