This is my story for Moonblaze13's "The Cat is Out of the Bag" challenge. Enjoy~!
"Owlfire!"
Owlfire jerked awake. She blinked her tired eyes, adjusting to the dim light of the warriors den. She pushed herself up onto her paws and padded out of the den. She squinted her eyes against the bright sunlight and found the source that had called her.
Pinefall, Owlfire's foster brother, was standing in the clearing, his black pelt sleek and his amber eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Owlfire," Pinefall called again. "Dawnstar said that we can go on a hunting patrol with Rainpetal and Goldenheart."
Excitement sparked in Owlfire. She would get to go hunting with her family! That usually never happened in the Clan.
Rainpetal was a light gray she-cat with darker flecks and green eyes. She was also Owlfire's foster sister. Her foster mother was Goldenheart, a dappled golden she-cat with amber eyes. Owlfire's real parents had left her when she was just 4 moons old. The reason that they had left had just been released a few moons ago.
Sparrowwing, a brown-and-white she-cat, had been the cat to kit Owlfire. But she and Owlfire's father, Stripefur, a light gray tom with dark tabby stripes, had left her and their Clan, Riverclan, to become kittypets. The two cats had been believed to have been killed in battle.
Riverclan had all but shunned Owlfire out of their lives. This was the first time since the secret had been released that she was allowed on a patrol. Dawnstar, who was a sweet and caring orange-and-cream she-cat, had even turned her back on Owlfire. Dawnstar had even been Owlfire's mentor when she was an apprentice.
Owlfire was in a hunter's crouch, her belly pressed onto the dirt below her. She kept her ears flat against her head. While her pelt was a light brown that blended in well with the dirt, her white tipped ears would give her away.
A few tail-lengths away sat a plump shrew. It would be an easy catch, even if she alerted the shrew now. Owlfire slowly lifted her belly and tail off the ground and pounced. The shrew let out a shrill cry, but it was cut off as Owlfire snapped its neck with a swift bite.
Owlfire lifted up her catch in her mouth proudly and trotted back to where she had stored the other pieces of prey she had caught. Aside from the shrew, she had caught a squirrel and a mouse. She grabbed all her prey and bounded proudly back to camp. Riverclan usually just caught fish, but she had found a nice clearing with trees and plenty of prey. Owlfire had learned how to hunt in the wood rather fast, and began showing her Clan-mates how to hunt there. They had had plenty of prey since.
Inside the camp walls, Owlfire found the rest of her patrol. Redberry, Starkbeak, and Jaggedrock were reporting to the Clan deputy, Weaselpelt. Owlfire dropped her prey in the fresh kill pile and padded to the edge of the camp to groom herself.
As she settled down, Goldenheart padded up and sat down next to her. Goldenheart purred as she bent her neck to clean her foster daughter's pelt. Owlfire relaxed under her mother's rasping tongue. It was nice to be taken care of by her mother, even if she was a warrior.
As Owlfire was drifting off into sleep, a surprised screech sounded from in front of her. Her eyes snapped open and she looked at Frostears, who was staring wide eyed at the camp entrance. Standing there was Stripefur and Sparrowwing.
Owlfire lurched to her paws, fur fluffed up to twice its sized. Her eyes widened as she saw her maternal parents standing in the camp entrance. Their fur was well groomed and they looked well fed. Obviously enjoying the easy life of a kittypet, she thought bitterly.
At first Owlfire was surprised as to why her clan-mates looked like they were staring at a ghost, but it dawned on her that they all thought that Stripefur and Sparrowwing were dead.
Dawnstar slowly padded up to the two cats. "You're alive!" she mewed.
Stipefur dipped his head to his former leader. "Yes, but we only here to check up on our daughter. She hasn't visited us in a while and we were worried."
Dawnstar's eyes widened, but before she could speak, Weaselpelt mewed angrily, "What do you mean she hasn't visited you lately?"
Owlfire wished she could curl up in a hole and die. Next to her, Goldenheart had stood up and was looking at her with disbelief in her wide amber eyes. She had been visiting her parent for many moons, hoping that the secret wouldn't come true at any time. Apparently, it did.
Dawnstar turned on Owlfire, her yellow eyes filled with rage. "Not only does becoming a kittypet go against the warrior code, but you went behind your Clan to visit traitors!"
Owlfire stood up, trying to keep calm. "Yes, I have been visiting my parents," she started. "I was only an apprentice when I found where they were living. For a cat who thought it was her fault that her parents had left, it was nice to discover that it wasn't."
Yowls of disbelief and outrage sounded throughout the Clan. Even the kits stood wide eyed and scared. Above the noise, Dawnstar snarled to Stripefur and Sparrowwing.
"Get out of my camp! Now!"
Stripefur padded towards Owlfire and brushed muzzles with her before he left the camp with Sparrowwing.
Since then, Riverclan had denied her of everything. Only her foster family seemed to still care about her. Truthfully, her visits to her maternal parents were only because they had insisted on her visiting them. She had been angry with them since she was a kit, and still was. No true warrior left their kit to become kittypets.
Her foster family would never do that to her. And to be able to hunt with them made everything seem right again.
"Are you coming, or what?"
Owlfire snapped back to reality and saw Rainpetal, Pinefall, and Goldenheart all standing at the camp entrance, eager to begin their hunting patrol.
Happiness pulsed through Owlfire as she replied, "I'm coming!", and bounded off to join them.