Warriors
Jaypaw awoke to dawn light flickering through the medicine cat den. Leafpool, Jaypaw's mentor, was not sorting through herbs like usual. Jaypaw padded over to her.
"Leafpool, why aren't you looking through herbs?" he asked.
The light brown tabby turned to face her apprentice. "Hello Jaypaw. I don't sort through herbs tonight. I never do that tonight. Great StarClan Jaypaw, did you run into a tree?"
No, but clearly you did, thought Jaypaw. Then he remembered. Tonight was half moon! Half moon was when all the medicine cats from each Clan, gathered at Moonpool to have dreams from StarClan. Leafpool never sorted through herbs on that day because they'd need to clean their fur, eat, then head to WindClan where they'd meet. It was a long way too. Jaypaw looked at his messy, silver fur. He began cleaning it until it looked shiny. He went outside and trotted over to the fresh kill pile. Brook was there getting a mouse. Lionpaw, Jaypaw's brother, was playing with Foxkit and Icekit outside the nursery. Jaypaw and Lionpaw's sister, Hollypaw, was heading out on a patrol with Dustpelt, Brackenfur, and Stormfur. Jaypaw picked a mouse but ended up thinking to himself instead of eating.
"Are you alright, Jaypaw?" a voice asked behind him.
Jaypaw turned to see Cloudtail. His blue gaze had been watching him. He brushed his snowy white fur against Jaypaw's comfortingly.
Jaypaw shrugged. "Ya I guess. I just still don't really like my destiny. Plus, half moon isn't something I like."
"Ah, that's right. It's half moon, isn't it? Well I mean," the tom looked at his paws then back at Jaypaw, "Jaypaw, listen. You were born way after I became a warrior. But you know that Firestar's sister, Princess, was a kittypet and had me. I was her firstborn and so she gave me to Firestar. He doesn't meet with her now that we live here. But I was taken care of by Brindleface-"
"Will this take a while? Because I really need to hurry." interuppted Jaypaw.
Cloudtail shook his head. "I will hurry, don't worry. So I was a normal kit but once I became an apprentice I began understanding. I believed it was easier to eat twoleg food than hunt and sometimes go starved. That led me to sneaking out to my kittypet home to eat twoleg food. I have stopped, but I was punished. I didn't like fighting over some stupid slice of land. Especially borders. I HATED border fights. Now, I would die to protect every inch of land I have here. And then there's StarClan."
Jaypaw remembered being told how Cloudtail didn't understand StarClan.
The snowy warrior continued. "When I was a kit, I didn't think about it. But once I became an apprentice, I was told about them. I had been a kittypet so I didn't believe it. I figured it was just a trick to get young cats to behave. You know Mothwing, the RiverClan medicine cat. I'm like her. She was a roughe and we just didn't see how there were dead cats still living in the sky. Now, Brightheart and our daughter Whitewing believe entirely. But they understand me. Mothwing has admitted she doesn't believe."
Jaypaw felt bad for Cloudtail. He had been through more than Jaypaw thought. They were actually very similar.
"Once I became an older apprentice, when Bluestar had gone crazy and reacted towards Brightheart and I, I began praying for StarClan to forgive me and help ThunderClan. I-I guess being in fear and terror, living in a threating environment, made me believe and beg for mercy. I did however get to here and have dreams from them sometimes I-"
"Jaypaw, quit talking to Cloudtail. He tells long stories. Let's go!" Leafpool yowled.
Cloudtail rolled his eyes at Leafpool, his cousin. Squirrelflight, a flame colored shecat with green eyes just like Firestar, padded over to Jaypaw. Squirrelflight was Firestar's daughter and Jaypaw's mother. She touched her nose to his then padded over to where Firestar, Graystripe, Sandstorm, and Brambleclaw were. Cloudtail touched his nose to Jaypaw's as well then begin eating a vole from the pile. Jaypaw finished his mouse then headed off.
"Bye Cloudtail!" he mewed over his shoulder.