Hello everyone. This is my first real attempt at a fan-fiction, so don't laugh xP In the end, I'm guessing the plot will be way better than the story, lol. I don't own the 'Warriors' series by Erin Hunter, or any of the characters in it. All that I DO own is the characters I create, settings I describe, and plot I devise.
This will probably start off very slow, as I am a bad writer. So please bear with me, and review so that I can get better. :D
In a brief summary, Saga of Steam is a tale of a family of traveling cats who are devastated by the death of their mother and father. Steam and Surf, their two offspring, are forced to live life by themselves. Steam being the older and more adventurous, he gets caught up in many different ordeals, and something bad happens to his sister. That's really all I'm going to say, because I don't really want to reveal the WHOLE plot away, because that would be bad, right? :X
And no, I am not going to bother making a huge gigantic list of all the cats I include in my story, because frankly, that would be a lot. o.o
Prologue
Part One~
Steam, Surf, come over here, I want you to meet someone, called their mother, Drift. Wondering who she wanted them to talk to, they excitedly bounded over.
"Hello there, little ones. I have come to train you." spoke the currently anonymous guest.
"Hey mister! What'cha going to teach us?" piped up Surf. Little did she know, that he was extremely strong, strict, and not in the mood to fool around.
"I, am going to teach you how to fight." calmly spoke the stranger.
"Mommy, I don't want to know how to fight! Isn't fighting bad?" Surf said, letting out a small whimper.
"No, child, don't worry. We are going to settle down. That is why we need to learn some fighting skills from this cat." patiently replied Surf's mother.
"If we are just going to settle down, why would we need to learned how to fight?" persisted Surf.
"There are two reasons: Daddy is no longer here to protect us anymore, and we are going to be settling down near a. . .rather picky group of cats." she replied, choosing her words carefully. If her kits knew that where they were going to live was rather close to a group of bloodthirsty cats, then all hope would be lost, and her kits would go in to 'run-away-and-hide' mode.
"We will begin tomorrow. I will be waiting for you at Isle of the Lake." said the stranger, speaking up. Once that was said, he then began to lumber off toward the south, which Steam assumed to be where is den was.
Steam, deciding he should at least know his name, called out after him, "Umm, sir, what is your name?"
"Clawsta-I mean Clawheart. Yes, Clawheart is what you should call me." Clawheart told, and then he vanished into the undergrowth.
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
Part Two~
Excited, Steam woke up with a start. He was going to find out more about Clawheart today. He had lots of questions to ask him and comments to tell him. He wondered why Clawheart couldn't remember his own name correctly, or why that he was going to train them. He also wondered why his mother hated him enough to give him such a weird name. Because, seriously, Clawheart? No normal cat would be named something stupid like that, unless their mother had a horrible relationship with them.
He quickly stopped this train of thoughts, because he wanted to get started. It was about a quarter-day's walk to the Isle of the Lake, and Steam didn't want to miss out on anything. He found that his mom wasn't even in their makeshift den of randomly assorted mosses and grasses, but his sister was still asleep.
"Come on, get up!" Steam forcefully whisper, prodding his sister in the side.
She looked at him groggily, and then seemed to realize that today they were doing something besides sitting around watching their mother try to hunt. So she sat bolt-upright, and asked Steam, "Where is momma?"
"'Dunno. I bet she's outside waiting for us. Let's go!" replied Steam, racing out of their lame den, and into the clearing. Around him was a nice clear, grassy area, with very big trees. Steam's mother told him that they were called sycamore trees, Steam thought that was funny and fun to say, but that didn't matter right now. He wanted to find his mom.
Surf found her first. She had always been better at scenting things than Steam had been. Surf and her brother trotted up to their mom.
"Hello, kits. I knew you'd be up earlier than usually," she said, flashing a smirk, "are you ready to go?"
They both responded in unison, "Yeah!"
So off they went.
It was a kind of far journey, but it seemed like it took forever, in the eyes of Steam and Surf. They had to go through some weird loops around bogs, thickly wooded areas, and Twoleg nests. Steam didn't mind Twolegs. Sometimes, even, they fed him really yummy food. But his mother absolutely detested them, so they generally 'steered clear'. On their journey to Isle of the Lake, they also had to go through a couple MonsterPaths and even walk through a field of weird, fuzzy, grazing creatures. Steam had been to Isle of the Lakes before, but he was very young, so young even that Surf wasn't born yet. It was no wonder that Steam couldn't remember any of this. His mother told him that the weird fuzzy creatures were called sheep, and Steam was already used to the MonsterPaths. For some reason though, he did remember something about the last time he came here. He remember that he wasn't alone. Of course, there was his mother, his father, and himself, but it seemed like there was someone else, around his young age, that was accompanying them.
"Mom, when we came here before, was there anyone else with us?" Steam questioningly asked.
"Well of course silly, there was yourself, me, and your father. Surf wasn't born yet." she responded.
"Yeah. . .I know. . .but I remember someone else too. . .around my age. I am pretty sure he was a dark-gray cat, right?"
"Oh. . ." responded their mother with a distant look in her eye, "So you do remember him."
"Remember who?" further questioned Steam.
"Well Steam. . .kits are usually born in litters. The same went for you. That dark-gray cat your remembering. His name was Tide. He was your older brother." she longingly spoke.
Surf was the first to react, "You mean I have two older brothers!?"
With a very sad sigh, their mom responded, "You had two older brothers, if you want to say. You weren't even born when he died. . ."
"How did he die?" Steam's voice cracked when he asked, because for some reason he was becoming swallowed up in an overwhelming feeling of grief for his dead kin.
"He was killed by a raid from a rogue cluster." she said with a dull, stiff voice. She was definitely still very sad.
"What's a rogue cluster?" asked Surf, with a confused voice.
"Honey, a rogue cluster is a dangerous group of rogue cats who join together to form a group. Almost like a vicious, bloodthirsty family. I have never heard of a rogue cluster that was peaceful, and didn't lead a life of war," she solemnly stated, and deciding while they were all depressed she mine as well break the news, "and we are going to learn how to fight, because we will be settling rather close to one."
"W-wh-what?!" Surf burst out, as she started shivering as if imagining what damage a rogue cluster would do to her if they could kill Tide.
"Mom. . .you can't be serious?" nervously asked Steam.
"I am all serious. That is the only spot in this area where we could possibly settle. Anywhere else would be too hard of a journey, or too hard to live on," she replied, "oh my, it looks like we're here.
Steam couldn't believe his eyes. He had never seen anything like it before, well, that he could remember. There was a huge and beautiful lake, with a strip of land stretching from the shore to an island in the middle of the lake. The island had many tall trees, with a huge barren area in the middle. Well, if the 'training' didn't go well, Steam thought, he would at least be able to look at the nice scenery.
TO BE CONTINUED
. . .
