New story, yay! So, I know I do a lot with Into the Wild, but this should be thw last story I have that messes with Into the Wild. I think I'll have fun with this story. If you see any errors or mistakes, I'm sorry.
It was dark and Rusty wasn't sure where he was. He looked around with wide eyes, scanning the thick forest around him. This place was unfamiliar to him, but something drew him father in, deeper into the shadows. It was like a longing, like when you are homesick. It seemed to pull him deeper into the forest, and he didn't fight the feeling.
He walked on and on, unsure of where he was going, but it felt right somehow. He followed a path that looked well used. His fingers brushed ferns and leaves of plants as he walked on in the dark.
Soon, he saw a tunnel. He would have missed it, but something told him it was there. He didn't question it. He walked down a dried ravine and pushed some brambles aside as he entered. He paused as the tunnel opened up on the other side.
He found himself in a large clearing. There where many huts and shelters around the edge and he could hear the gentle snores and movement of people sleeping inside. A cry from a young child sounded from one of the huts, but was quickly shushed by its mother. He looked across the clearing to see a large group of boulders and rocks leaning on each other, much taller than him.
He padded to the middle of the open space and slowly turned in a circle. He heard a quite voice, "Fire alone can save our Clan." It was so soft, he wasn't sure if it was even real. Was it just his imagination?
But then it came again, louder. "Fire alone can save our Clan."
"Hello?" Rusty called loudly, but his voice just echoed back to him. "Is someone there?"
It sounded again. "Fire alone will save our Clan." It came from nowhere but everywhere at once.
Rusty looked around, searching for someone. Then the voices came again, louder. It wasn't just one like before. It was many, countless voices of all ages all yelling at him. They all told him the same thing: "Fire alone will save our Clan! Fire alone will save our Clan! Fire alone will save our Clan!"
The voices became louder and faster until- Rusty gasped and sat up in his bed, hitting his head on the bed above him. His alarm clock beeped annoyingly at him from across the room.
He sat there, breathing hard as he remembered the dream. One hand rubbed his head while the other instinctively found its way to his necklace. It was a square with two cat like ears on the top. Inside was the symbol of a star.
"Rusty!" A voice snapped from the bed above him. "Are you going to turn off that thing or just sit there?"
Rusty flinched and threw the blankets off of him. The person who slept next to him quickly grabbed the blankets and kicked Rusty away.
Falling on the floor, he stood and looked angrily at his two half brothers. He walked over to the alarm clock and slammed his hand on the button that turned it off.
This happened every morning. The alarm would go off. Tiny would yell at him, and Socks would push him off the bed. Usually, they would be getting up too, but today it was a weekend.
Tiny glared at him from the top bunk before rolling back over and covering his head with his pillow.
Tiny was mean and a bully, often pushing around Rusty and his brothers and sisters because he is the oldest. He wore a collar with fake teeth on it and always had a knife with him. Every one called him Tiny -even though he would like to be called Scourge- because he was so small for his age. He might be seventeen, but he was just taller as Rusty, who was only thirteen. Rusty tried to avoid him, but when you share a room it's hard to.
Then there was Socks. He was lazy and he was always playing video games online with friends. He didn't talk to Rusty and Rusty didn't talk to him. Again, Socks wasn't his real name. He wasn't sure why people called him Socks, but when he moved in with his half family and his dad, they called him that so he did too.
Rusty went to the closet and pulled out a new change of clothes. He walked out of his room and to the bathroom down the hall. He closed the door behind him, locking it so that has brothers or sisters couldn't get in. When you had one bathroom, four siblings, and two adults, the bathroom is busy.
He quickly undressed and pulled on clean clothes. As he was putting on his last sock, he heard someone pounding on the door. "Hurry up!" It was his younger sister, Princess. She sounded panicked.
Princess had to be his favorite of all his siblings, and not because she was the only one that wasn't a half brother or sister. She was the nicest and the sweetest. She was the youngest of them all and she was definitely the best. Her real name wasn't Princess, like Tiny wasn't Tiny and Socks wasn't Socks, everyone just called her Princess because she was the youngest of the house.
Then another female voice yelled, "Get out! I need to fix my hair and take a shower!" And that was his older sister, Ruby. She was loud and bossy, always on her phone and worrying about how she looked. She was the only one of the kids other than Rusty that was actually called by their real name.
He quickly pulled on his sock and unlocked the door. Holding up his arms, he blocked the way for Ruby. Princess ducked underneath him to run in. She slammed the door behind her and he heard it click as she locked it.
Ruby gasped. "Rusty! You little bi-" She cut off as her mom called from downstairs, "Ruby! You better watch your mouth unless you want extra chores and your phone taken away!"
Ruby, anger blazing in her eyes, glared at Rusty. "What was that for?" She demanded.
"You wanted me to let you in to do your hair and take one of your hour long showers when Princess was standing there, about to pee herself?" Rusty questioned, just as angry.
"Yes!" Ruby yelled, throwing her hands up.
Rusty rolled his eyes and walked away. He ran downstairs and went into the kitchen. He walked past his step mom, who was cooking breakfast. He reached over and grabbed a piece of toast that was just sitting on the counter. "Thank you." He said as he walked past.
"Where are you going?" Quince asked, not bothered at all by him just taking the food and walking away.
Rusty stopped at the table and grabbed his pocket knife. He flicked it open and ran his hand along it, holding the green handle tightly. He swallowed a bite of the toast before answering, "Outside. I'll be back later."
"Don't go into the forest." Quince told him, "You know what your father and brother says about what is in there."
"Yes," Rusty rolled his eyes, still turned away from her. He snapped his knife shut and stuffed it into his pocket. "wild cat people and dangerous animals."
His father, Jake, often told stories of his adventures with one of the cat people and how he had gotten a necklace from one. He gave Rusty the necklace, and now Rusty wore it everyday. He told Rusty that he was supposed to give this necklace to someone very special, and not just someone who he is close to, when he was older and to wear it proudly until then.
And then there was Tiny, who told him of being attacked by those same cat people and almost dyeing when he was younger. He has a scar from their claws.
He hurried out the back door and headed for the fence. Today was a nice day, he noticed. The sun was out and his surroundings seemed happier after the rain yesterday. He gripped the top of the fence and pulled himself onto the top. He swung his legs over and just as he was about to jump down onto the ground on the other side, a voice asked, "Where are you going, Rusty?"
He looked over to see his friend, Smudge. Smudge was a heavier boy with black hair that had patches he had dyed white. He was a year younger than Rusty. His amber eyes watched Rusty curiously. "You're not going into the forest are you?" Everyone called him Smudge, and again Rusty wasn't sure why. But Smudge had insisted he called him that.
"Just for a look." Rusty promised him. "I should be back in an hour or so."
"You wouldn't get me in there." Smudge told him. "It's dangerous. Henry said that he had gone in there once. And you know what Jake and Tiny say about it."
"Henry never went into the forest." Rusty told him. "And you can't believe a thing Tiny says."
"But what about Jake?" Smudge asked. "That necklace he gave you is from a wild cat person, right?"
"This?" Rusty felt the necklace with his hand. "I don't know." He meowed, unsure about that one. "I don't believe that cat people are out there, but Jake would never lie to me. He never has and never will."
"See?" Smudge said. "Cat people are real."
"A necklace with a star on it proves nothing." Rusty told him. "I'm still going into the forest."
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you!" Smudge said, waving as he turned around and left back into his house.
Rusty turned back to the forest and swallowed nervously, wondering if what they say is true. Was there really cat people out there in the forest? He often sat here, on the fence, looking out into the forest and its shadows wondering what was in there. Quince always told him not to go in, so he never did. But today he would. He was tired of wondering and having that same weird dream over and over again.
He dropped down onto the other side. He looked down at his red watch on his wrist. It was 8:30, it told him. He straitened and walked across the stretch of grass between the fence and the forest, and then he was in. He walked through, but soon stopped. He had heard a noise.
Instinctively, he reached for the knife in his pocket. He looked around to find a deer not far away. It hadn't noticed Rusty and saw eating something that Rusty couldn't see from where he stood.
He got down low and padded forward, flicking the knife open. If he did this right, he would be able to bring it home to his family and prove them wrong about the cat people.
But then he heard another sound. Footsteps? He wondered, but didn't bother to turn around. But as they got louder and faster, the deer looked at something behind Rusty and ran off.
Rusty, angry that he lost the deer, turned to look at what had scared it off. But as he turned, something hard knocked into him and forced him against a tree. Rusty gasped, his face pressed against a tree and his knife stolen from his hand. The thing that he attacked him now held his knife up to his neck and Rusty tried not to flinch.
Rusty struggled to turn around so his back was to the tree instead. Knowing how dangerous it was to have his stomach to his attacker, quickly brought his knee into his attacker's stomach and pushed him away.
The person dropped the knife on the ground with a gasp. They both dove for it, wrestling for the weapon so they could win the fight. Finally, Rusty tore the knife from their hands and ran, sprinting back towards his home. His attacker gave chase.
Rusty knew that he had to turn around and fight again, if he didn't then he would be jumped on again. He stopped and turned around, waving the knife in front of him. His attacker, surprised, tripped and fell onto the ground. He scrambled to stand, but when he did, he just stepped back and held up his hands in surrender. "You fight well for a human." He said, all signs of the fight gone.
Rusty felt strangely disappointed. But then he saw who this person really was.
He was boy about his age with long, shaggy gray hair that went down to his shoulders. In front, his gray hair had one thick, darker streak. His eyes where big and yellow. He wore no clothing, other than a breechcloth, but he didn't look awkward or uncomfortable in it at all.
But that wasn't what surprised him. What did was that he had a tail, and cat ears, and claws. His tail was long-furred and bushy. It was gray with a thick darker gray stripe going down the middle. His cat ears where the same gray, but they looked odd on the top of his head. His claws where thorn sharp, and he quickly sheathed them when Rusty looked at them.
"What are you?" Rusty couldn't help but ask. He closed his pocket knife and put it away.
"You would call me a cat person." The boy answered. "My name is Graypaw, by the way. What's yours?" He looked Rusty up and down curiously.
"Rusty." He answered, feeling uncomfortable by the way Graypaw looked surprised at the sight of his necklace.
"Where did you get that?" Graypaw asked, coming closer and grabbing it in his hand.
"Uh," Rusty leaned back at Graypaw looked at it closely. "My dad."
Graypaw didn't seem to hear him. "Bluestar!" He turned and called. "Lionheart! Come look at this!"
Just a moment later, two more cat people walked into the open. One was a tall woman with blue-gray hair that had thin gray hairs, showing her age. Her eyes where icy-blue. Her tail was long and sleek, the color the same blue-gray as her hair. One of her cat ears where torn. She had on a dress made of deer skins and she had on two necklaces. One was the same shape as Rusty's but this one had a lightning bolt in it. The other was exactly like Rusty's, the same shape with the same star.
The other cat person was a strong man with long, pale golden-brown hair that was thick like a lion's mane. His eyes where green. His tail was long and was missing patches of it's pale golden-brown fur in some places. He wore a breechcloth like Graypaw.
"What did you find, Graypaw?" The man, Lionheart Rusty guessed, asked.
"Look at his necklace." Graypaw pointed to it with the hand that wasn't holding the necklace.
Bluestar stepped closer and looked down at it. "Starclan?" She wondered aloud. "How did you get this necklace, human?" She asked him.
"My dad gave it to me." Rusty pulled it back from Graypaw, wondering what the big deal was about this necklace. "Why? What's so special?"
Bluestar and Lionheart shared a look before Bluestar answered, "That necklace you have is very special to the Clans. There are only four in all the Clans and we have been missing one. It seems you have had it. I have one myself." She reached up to feel it with her hand.
"Well," Rusty told her. "My dad did always talk about you cat people in the wild. I didn't think it was true when he gave it to me. I guess I was wrong."
"Who was this cat person he talked about?" Bluestar asked, watching him closely.
Rusty thought for a moment. "Um... Tall... Tallstar, I think." He answered, narrowing his eyes.
"Tallstar?" Lionheart sounded surprised. "I didn't know he had one."
"He did." Bluestar told him. "But I thought he gave it to some cat in his Clan."
"Why would he give it to a human?" Graypaw asked, looking at the necklace again. "They are only for cat people!"
Rusty glared at him. What was wrong with being human? It was just a necklace!
Lionheart, noticing his anger, told him, "Be careful, young one. Don't do anything you would regret."
"We have been watching you, Rusty." Bluestar told him. "You know, you could have caught that deer if you hadn't hesitated."
"I could have?" Rusty looked up at her, surprised.
"Yes." Bluestar nodded. "And you fought well too. Both of you." She looked at Graypaw, who grinned and straitened up at the praise. "I'm sorry, I have not introduced myself yet. I am Bluestar, leader of Thunderclan. And this," She flicked her tail at Lionheart, "is Lionheart, Graypaw's mentor and a great warrior in my Clan."
"What is a Clan?" Rusty asked, curious to know more.
"You are a very unusual human, Rusty. Perhaps you would like to join our Clan and learn about our ways of life?" Bluestar suggested. "We patrol this border often, and see you staring out into the forest. You could join our Clan, and train to be a warrior like Graypaw is. We cannot promise you to become a full warrior, but are offering you training."
"Bluestar, this is a human." Lionheart meowed. "He was hunting in our territory when we already have little food."
"Is survival here really that hard?" Rusty asked.
"Yes." Bluestar answered. "It has been a long leaf-bare, and we need more warriors if we want to survive. Would you like to join?"
"Keep in mind that Bluestar does not make this offer lightly." Lionheart told him. "If you with to train in the Clan, you would have to leave your human life behind and fully enter the Clan. You can't have a foot in both worlds."
Rusty shivered as a breeze blew through the forest. He didn't shiver because he was cold, but from the choice he had to make. Leave his home, or forget about the Clans?
"You will pay a price for your shelter and food, and the nights in leaf-bare are very cold." Bluestar told him, "The Clan will demand great loyalty and hard work. But the rewards are great, you will be trained in the ways of the wild and you will get to know what it is like to be truly free. The strength and fellowship of your Clanmates will be with you, even in the hardest of times or when you hunt alone. You may even become a cat person, if Starclan allows it."
Rusty's thoughts where mixxed and confused. Was this real? Was Bluestar really offering him the life he had always dreamed of?
Lionheart interrupted his thoughts, "Come on, Bluestar. We need to be getting back to camp. Tigerclaw will be wondering what has come of us." His tail flicked as he turned away.
"Wait." Rusty said. "Can I think about it?"
Bluestar stared at him for a long moment. Finally she nodded. "Lionheart will be here at sun high tomorrow for your answer." Bluestar flicked her ear, and then all three cat people headed back into the forest, leaving Rusty to stare after them.
He turned and headed back home. As he walked, he looked up through the branches of the trees and saw that he had been out a lot longer than he had expected to be. He broke into a sprint as he headed back home, his thoughts only on the strange cat people he had just met.
So what do you think? Please review. :) I'm already working on the next chapter.