Survivor

by Steeltalon

Twistedkit was born last, an unexpected fifth kit and the runt of his litter. Born sickly and with a badly deformed leg, he was given barely moons to live - and yet live he does. A victim of circumstance, the tiny kit struggles to earn the respect of his Clan...and prays that he won't kill himself trying. (Written for Clan of Clouds' "Freedom" challenge)

Title: Survivor

Full summary: Twistedkit was born last, an unexpected fifth kit and the runt of his litter. With a badly deformed leg and health issues contantly plaguing him as a kit, he was given barely moons to live. A victim of circumstance, the tiny kit must either fight to earn the respect of his Clan...or die trying. (Written for Clan of Clouds' "Freedom" challenge)

Warnings: Deals with the struggles of being handicapped and constantly put down. Could be a sad one, depending on your view on disabilities. Being disabled myself, I plan to write this character as convincingly as I can, so bring your tissues.

-0-0-0-

The litter was born to ThunderClan in leaf-bare, almost a moon earlier than expected. Their medicine cat raced to the mother's side, raspberry leaves at the ready. Even with her skill, it was a long and difficult birth; the mother's agonized groans echoed into the night, putting the Clan on edge. When dawn came, the silence from the nursery was decidedly ominous.

The medicine cat slipped into the open much later in the day, her tortoiseshell head held low. A ginger tabby tom darted to her side and worked his paws in the snow agitatedly.

"Dappleshade, how's she doing?" he asked, desperate for news of his mate.

"She's alive," Dappleshade rasped, sitting down with a soft crunch. "StarClan knows it was touch and go for a while, but Leaftail made it through. She's resting now, so don't bother her."

The tom's tail shot up delightedly at the news. "And our kits?" he pressed.

Dappleshade hesitated. "You have four healthy kits," she said slowly. "The fifth..." She shook her head, lost for words. "Flamepelt, I'm sorry." It was all she could say.

Flamepelt stared, not understanding. "What's wrong with it?" he asked, very softly.

"It took me a while to get him breathing. He's very weak."

"But if he's breathing, then surely he'll be alright," Flamepelt meowed, forcing a cheery note into his voice. "Surely."

Dappleshade was shaking her head. "He's weak," she repeated quietly, "and there's something wrong with one of his legs. Even if he survives, I fear he will never be a warrior."

"You don't know that!" Flamepelt snapped, drawing more than a few concerned looks. "You don't know that," he repeated in a hiss. "Any son of mine will be a fine warrior, just you wait and see." He stalked off with his tail high, not looking back.

Dappleshade's sad gaze followed him, but she didn't make any effort to stop him.

-0-0-0-

Leaftail and Flamepelt lived in fear of losing their tiny son from that day forward. For a moon after their litter was born, they only referred to him only as "our son", scared to even give the squirming bundle a proper name. His four sisters (yes, somehow he was the only tom of the litter) began to question why their little brother hadn't been named.

"Can we name him, mama?" Lilykit, the ginger and white kit squeaked.

"No, dear. Your father and I are simply having trouble deciding on a name," Leaftail lied.

Their dark gray daughter, Shadekit, asked, "Do you not want him?"

"Of course we do!" Flamepelt replied, shocked.

"Why is his leg so funny?" Sunkit, who was bright ginger like her father, questioned.

In between washing her ears, Leaftail replied, "Because he was born that way, little one."

"I think Uglykit is a good name," Frostkit declared, waving her fluffy white tail excitedly. Her sisters giggled and began chanting "Uglykit, Uglykit".

The nameless tom flinched but said nothing. He'd been unusually quiet since he'd been born, something that worried his parents even further.

Flamepelt drew himself up and frowned at his daughters. "That's quite enough of that!" he mewed sternly. Glancing at his mate, he added, "Your mother and I will name him when we think of a fitting one."

Lilykit snorted back a giggle and whispered, "Uglykit," sending her sisters into fits of their own.

"Enough," Leaftail meowed, drawing the kits to her belly with a sweep of her tail.

Meeting his mate's beautiful blue eyes, Flamepelt sighed and wondered how best to teach their son's littermates to treat him well.

"Mama," the little tom whispered, so quietly that she nearly missed it.

Leaftail leaned closer to hear him better. "Yes, dear?"

"You can name me Uglykit. I don't mind," he told her quietly.

She stared, appalled. "No! No, I would never," she meowed. Realizing she had to name him now, before the cruel nickname stuck with him for life, she glanced at Flamepelt. "We'll think of a name today," she reassured her son.

And so, after running it by the tiny kit to be sure he was okay with the name, he was named Twistedkit. "Not to remind you of your leg," Leaftail told him gently, "but to remind you that no matter what challenges you face in life, you will always be able to overcome them, my little warrior."

-0-0-0-

Four moons later saw Leaftail bristling in Aspenstar's den. "What do you mean you won't make Twistedkit an apprentice?" she hissed.

Part of Flamepelt wondered if he should hold his mate back in case she leaped for their leader's throat, but it was a very small part; he was just as furious. "He's as strong as his sisters," he meowed more calmly. "Dappleshade swore up and down that he wouldn't last more than a few days, but here he is. He's a little fighter already."

Aspenstar shifted uncomfortably and raised one paw to try and placate the angry parents. "I understand your point," she meowed quietly. "Were he my son, I'd want him to be the best warrior he could be, too. The fact is, however, he is badly crippled. He will never be able to run or fight like his Clanmates."

"Then teach him to work around his leg!" Leaftail snapped. "It's been done before. Warriors have lost eyes and gone on to fight again."

"This isn't the same as losing an eye," Aspenstar began, but Flametail burst into the conversation again, exasperatedly this time.

"He can run, he can jump, he can do everything the rest of the Clan can do minus one leg. Surely - "

The Clan leader was already shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I know this is upsetting, but there's just no way he'll ever be a warrior. Maybe he'd be interested in helping Dappleshade out until she gets an apprentice?" She flicked her tail, dismissing them. Defeated, they left her.

"That fox-hearted piece of mouse dung!" Leaftail exploded, lashing her striped tail. "How dare she!"

Flamepelt sighed, sitting down heavily. "The word of the Clan leader is law," he meowed, bitterness coating his words. "What more can we do? We tried, love. I'm sorry."

"Fox dung to that," Leaftail snarled. "We'll train him ourselves."

Her mate stared at her, wide-eyed. "How? We have our own duties, not to mention," he winced and hesitated, but forced himself to finish, "four legs."

Leaftail knew he had a point. Still, she insisted, "We have to try. He's our son, Flamepelt. We can't give up on him."

Looking at her, so determined to give Twistedkit the best life they could, Flamepelt couldn't help but be drawn in by her energy. "Alright," he meowed. "Let's try."

-0-0-0-

Twistedkit sat in the nursery entrance, watching Aspenstar call a Clan meeting. This was his sixth moon, the day every kit looked forward from the moment they learned what it meant to be a warrior. His sisters were sitting beside Leaftail, all four of them shaking with excitement. They were to be named apprentices and start their warrior training today.

Except for Twistedkit.

The gray tabby tom sat with his bad forelimb tucked against his chest because it hurt to try and straighten it out. He sat next to his father and watched his littermates dart forward when Aspenstar called.

She didn't even glance at him. It was as if he were a ghost, invisible to all but his parents. Well, almost invisible. There were looks from his Clanmates, as always. Some were full of pity, some scorn. The whispers, of course, accompanied them.

" - won't let him train - "

" - poor kit, he won't ever have a normal life - "

"Dappleshade said there's nothing she can do - "

" - just another mouth to feed - "

Twistedkit wanted to crouch down and cover his ears. He sat taller instead, lifting his chin. Let them talk, but never let them break you, his father had always said.

Outwardly, he showed no pain. Inwardly, he was screaming. I'm no different from the rest of you! Just give me a chance!

-0-0-0-

Twistedkit tasted dirt as his face was pushed into the earth. Around him, his sisters were snickering. Lilypaw was the one with her paws on his head, grinding his cheek into the forest floor. Uglykit, they hissed. Uglykit, Uglykit, uglyuglyugly.

"He can't even fight back," Sunpaw taunted, kicking more dirt into his eyes.

"He's already useless," Lilypaw added, unsheathing her claws. "Maybe I should make one of his eyes match his leg."

Shadepaw's blue eyes widened. "H-hey, isn't that going a little far?" she asked nervously, glancing around for any signs of approaching warriors.

"Yeah, come on, Lilypaw, he's had enough for one day," Frostpaw added.

Lilypaw rounded on them, enjoying the way their eyes widened. "Are you mice or cats?" she snapped.

"And just what is going on here?"

The ginger and white apprentice froze at the ThunderClan deputy's cold voice. "Uh, nothing, Lightningtail," she meowed nervously, trying to meet her mentor's icy glare. Lilypaw released her brother. "We were just playing with Twistedkit."

"As I recall," Lightningtail growled, "I told you to help gather bedding for the elders. They're complaining that you still haven't brought it to them. As for you three," he added, yellow gaze sweeping over Frostpaw, Sunpaw, and Shadepaw, "I seem to remember your mentors saying something similar."

"S-sorry - "

"We'll get right on it!"

"Yes, Lightningtail."

The sisters scurried off in a flurry of apologies. Lightningtail watched them go with narrowed eyes before he turned back to Twistedkit. "Are you alright, Twistedkit?"

The tiny tabby spat out a mouthful of grit and struggled to his paws. "As well as ever," he muttered, shaking out his pelt and doing his best to blink the dirt out of his eyes.

Lightningtail's face softened. "You should see Dappleshade to make sure you get all of that out," he meowed.

"Yeah. Thanks, Lightningtail." Hopping with his one good foreleg, Twistedkit quickly made his way around the cream-colored tom, who fell into step beside him.

"You move just as well as any other cat," the deputy commented, watching Twistedkit keep pace with him.

The kit purred, taking it as a compliment. "I've had a lot of practice," he mewed. They walked in companionable silence for a while. When they were nearly at the camp entrance, Lightningtail spoke again.

"I know your parents have been trying to teach you to hunt. If you're ever having trouble with anything, you can come to me to ask questions."

Twistedkit looked up, eyes round with excitement. "You mean it?" he asked. The quivering note of hope in his voice, so very fragile, was heartbreaking to hear.

How Aspenstar could deny this kit the chance to try his very best was beyond Lightningtail's understanding. "I promise," the young warrior meowed, briefly touching his nose to Twistedkit's ear.

-0-0-0-

"Lift your belly a little more, son - that's it," Flamepelt encouraged, guiding Twistedkit into a hunting crouch once more. It had been three moons since his sisters were named apprentices. Although he still had yet to try hunting a real mouse, the young tom had become quite good at moving in snow with barely a sound. Moving through mud as quietly was taking more practice, he was finding.

"I don't know why you bother," a drawling voice meowed. "The cripple will never be allowed to leave camp." The warrior who had spoken stalked past with his nose high, as though he'd smelled something foul.

Flamepelt's spine stiffened, but he gave no other sign that he'd heard. "Now show me a big leap, straight up," he instructed. "As though you're taking a bird right out of the air."

Twistedkit bunched his muscles and launched himself, body twisting gracefully, reaching his good leg as far as it would go. As though StarClan themselves directed it, a gust of wind brought a dead leaf dancing by. Twistedkit reached - and missed, his claws grazing the leaf before the wind snatched it away. He stumbled when he landed, only barely avoiding landing on his bad leg.

Flamepelt rested his tail on his son's shoulder. "That was a good jump," he meowed. "It would be easier to practice if we had more leaves around. I suppose that's a move for leaf-fall."

"I guess." Twistedkit sat down next to his father. "What's it like out in the forest, Flamepelt?" he asked suddenly.

"I'll show you one day," the ginger tom promised. "We'll go on hunting and border patrols with your mother, just the three of us."

Twistedkit was surprised. "Not my sisters?"

Flamepelt rolled a pebble beneath his paw, trying to think of how best to answer. "They'll be busy with their training, I'm sure," he meowed. "And - oh, I suppose you will be too."

"Never too busy for you," Twistedkit purred affectionately. Sometimes it really felt like his parents and Lightningtail were his only friends in the Clan.

Flamepelt purred back, touching noses with his son. Aspenstar's approach interrupted the quiet moment.

"A word, if you have the time, Flamepelt," she meowed. She barely glanced at Twistedkit.

His father frowned slightly. "Uh, sure, Aspenstar." He got to his paws, promising to be back soon.

Twistedkit watched Flamepelt go sadly. As much as he and Leaftail insisted Twistedkit would be a warrior one day, what chance was there of that when his leader was convinced he was useless?

-0-0-0-

"This 'training' will stop," Aspenstar began coldly as soon as they were in her den. She turned to face Flamepelt and sat, wrapping her tail over her paws. He did the same, warily. Her expression was stony. "At first I thought you and Leaftail would see sense on your own, but now I see that I should have stepped in sooner."

Flamepelt gaped at her. "What is the matter with you?" he demanded. "Can't you see that he's progressing just like any other apprentice? What's so wrong about training him?"

"Your son is a cripple, Flamepelt," Aspenstar meowed, raising her voice slightly. "He will never be like any other apprentice. All you're doing is giving him false hope, and it will kill him one day."

Flamepelt leaped to his paws, bristling. "What I'm doing is giving him the chance you never did!" he shouted. "He would have withered away before now if it weren't for Leaftail and I! Can't you see how poorly most of the Clan treats him? None of you look at Twistedkit and see past his leg! His own sisters treat him like dirt because they're following the example you are setting!"

"Sit down," Aspenstar rasped, only speaking again when he did. She spoke very quietly, her eyes furious slits. "You will not speak to your leader like that."

"I'll speak to you with all of the respect you deserve, which is currently none," Flamepelt snarled, standing once more. "And furthermore, I will not stop training my son. He's worth far more than you think."

Before she could say anything more, he turned and stalked out of her den, fuming. As luck would have it, Leaftail was just slipping back into the camp, carrying a few mice by their tails. Flamepelt veered to meet her.

She dropped her fresh-kill on the pile and turned to him, concerned. "What's the matter?"

"Aspenstar," he growled. "She wants us to stop training Twistedkit because she still thinks he isn't worth anything."

Leaftail's blue eyes blazed. "I hope you told her where she can shove it," she hissed.

"I did," he assured his mate. All of a sudden the fight drained out of him and he dropped his head with a sigh. "Leaftail, do you ever think - " He cut himself off, sure that he'd be called a traitor if he uttered his thoughts out loud, even to his beloved.

"What?"

There was a long pause before he decided to just spit it out. "Do you ever think we'd be better off trying to raise Twistedkit in another Clan?" he asked softly. "Or leaving the Clans altogether?"

Leaftail's sharp intake of breath made Flamepelt flinch. She didn't answer him right away, giving him hope that maybe he wasn't the only one to have considered it. "Sometimes I wonder," she finally admitted, just as quietly as he'd spoken. "But I don't know, Flamepelt. We were all born in ThunderClan. Could we get used to living in another Clan? Would any other Clan even take us in? Would they treat Twistedkit any differently? Would we survive as rogues?"

Flamepelt shook his head. They were all good questions, and he couldn't answer any of them. Leaftail leaned against him after a moment, seeking comfort. He touched his muzzle to her head, closing his eyes as he breathed in her familiar scent. For just a few seconds, he could pretend he was a young warrior again, enjoying the company of his best friend and mate without a care in the world.

They couldn't go back, though. The only direction to go was forward, no matter the trouble that was to come.

-0-0-0-

Moons passed, and Twistedkit's sisters passed their final assessments. Aspenstar was seated on the Highledge, her pale tabby pelt tugged by the warm late greenleaf wind.

"I, Aspenstar, leader of ThunderClan," she was saying, "call upon my warrior ancestors to look down on these four apprentices. They have trained hard to learn the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in their turn."

Lilypaw straightened, flexing her claws excitedly. To her right, Sunpaw held her head high. On her other side, Shadepaw was shaking with emotion, and beside Shadepaw, Frostpaw sat with her head bowed. It was impossible to read her expression.

Aspenstar continued the ceremony, giving Lilypaw the name Lilystem. Sunpaw became Sunstorm, Shadepaw was named Shadefeather, and Frostpaw given the name Frostwing. The new names were chanted by the Clan, echoing into the trees.

Twistedkit was among them, swallowing his jealousy. He would have been standing with them if it weren't for his deformed leg. As it was, he was still regarded as a kit, even though he'd long since outgrown the nursery and had to move in with the apprentices.

Seeming to sense his frustration and loneliness, Leaftail pressed her muzzle to his shoulder. "Aspenstar will see sense one day," his mother whispered.

Will she? Twistedkit stared at her, feeling utterly defeated. For moons, he'd fought to prove himself. Lightningtail had agreed to let him join hunting patrols when he reached his fourth season, saying that it was unfair to make him stay in camp all the time. Though the deputy had won that argument with Aspenstar and Twistedkit had proven himself an alright hunter - not the best, but nowhere near the worst, thanks to his parents' efforts - she'd still refused to see Twistedkit as anything but a cripple.

As the cats around him began to move off, Twistedkit realized Lilystem had stopped beside him and was regarding him with an unreadable expression. He braced himself for a rude remark, but what she said was, "I'm sorry." It came out so quietly that he wondered if he'd heard it right at all.

He twitched his whiskers, cleared his throat, and meowed, "It's not your fault. Congratulations, Lilystem."

"Still, I - we treated you so badly," she mewed awkwardly. "Mostly I did. And...well, I'm sorry, Twistedkit. You...you didn't deserve any of it."

"That's...very kind of you," he replied, surprised. "I forgive you." And he did. He knew now that his sisters had only treated him so badly because the majority of the Clan did. If things had been different...

Lilystem touched her nose to his ear. "When it's your turn to be named," she murmured, "we'll be cheering for you." She moved away to sit at the camp entrance with their sisters.

When it's my turn to be named...Twistedkit sighed. So long as Aspenstar was leader, he would never be named. Slowly, he hobbled to the apprentices' den and squeezed inside. He really was too big for this den, too.

Not a kit, not an apprentice, and certainly not a warrior.

He had no place in ThunderClan.

-0-0-0-

Twistedkit didn't end up sleeping at all that night. He slipped out of camp, trying to ignore the sympathetic glances from his silent littermates, and walked the familiar path down to the lake. It really was beautiful in the moonlight, and the greenleaf atmosphere was perfect for thinking. The gentle chirping of insects, the occasional hoot of an owl or croak of a frog...truly, the lakeside was his favorite place in the territory.

He wandered until his nose told him he was dangerously close to crossing a border - WindClan or ShadowClan, he couldn't quite tell, not having the experience of repeated border patrols to help him tell which was which. There the gray tabby sat, staring up at the moon with his bad leg tucked to his chest just like always.

Was there any point in staying here? He could cross that border, whichever it was, and keep walking. He didn't have to say goodbye to anyone, there was no need for messy explanations. He could just...go. There were very few who would miss him in ThunderClan and he doubted the other Clans knew he existed. It would break his parents' hearts, though, and that was what held him back. He loved them too much to do that to them.

Almost without realizing it, he began to speak. He nearly didn't recognize the broken sound as his own voice. "StarClan, if you're listening...if you really exist...please tell me why nothing I do matters," he whispered. "I've tried so hard to be a good cat, good enough to be a warrior. I've followed the warrior code my whole life, never gone out of my way to be mean even when the whole Clan was against me. If you could just tell me why it's not good enough, what I still have to do, that would be - " His voice wavered and broke. That would be great, he finished silently, bowing his head.

The waves lapped gently against the shore, the insects and the frogs went on singing, and somewhere in the distance a dog barked. But the stars remained as silent and unmoved as ever.

Something in Twistedkit clenched painfully and threatened to break. He sank onto his side and stared at the moon's quivering reflection until he finally fell into a fitful sleep. Just before he finally dozed off, he thought he heard a voice faint whispering back to him.

Have hope, young one. Your time is near.

-0-0-0-

The next morning, Twistedkit was woken by a frantic Leaftail calling for him. He opened his eyes, blinking in confusion. Where was he? This wasn't his nest...

Oh, mouse dung! He'd been out of camp all night!

The young tom scrambled to his paws, looking around for his mother. "I'm here!" he called back.

"Oh, thank StarClan!" A tabby and white bundle crashed into him and started licking his face. "I was so worried."

Twistedkit chuckled and gently pushed her off of him. "I'm fine, Leaftail," he assured her.

"When your sisters told me you left last night, I thought - I thought - " Leaftail choked on the words. "I thought you might have left for good."

Well...he'd never made a habit of lying to her, and he wasn't about to start now. "I thought about it," he admitted quietly. "To be honest, I'm still...thinking about it." He couldn't meet her eyes.

"Oh, Twistedkit," she whispered, her eyes brimming with pain. "I'm so sorry. Your father and Lightningtail and I...we all tried to do our best by you. You know that, right?"

"I know." Twistedkit nuzzled her, trying to take the sting out of his words. "I love you all for it, I really do. It's just...I'm frustrated."

Leaftail bowed her head. She didn't say a word, but he knew she was frustrated, too. She and Flametail had fought and clawed to teach him well, even defying Aspenstar to do so. They had done their very best, and it wasn't their fault that nothing had changed.

Twistedkit gave her a gentle nudge. "Let's go back to camp," he mewed.

They didn't talk much on the way, and when they arrived, they parted with an affectionate nuzzle.

"Your father and I love you, Twistedkit," Leaftail meowed. "Never forget that, whatever you decide."

"I love you too," he replied, watching her approach Lightningtail, probably to report that Twistedkit was safe.

As he stood in ThunderClan's camp, surrounded by faces he'd known all his life, he'd never felt more drained. He shouldn't have come back. None of these cats apart from the few that were close to him looked happy to see him here.

With that realization, he knew what he had to do. Chin held high, he approached Aspenstar. She watched his hobbling gait with narrowed eyes. Raising his voice so he could be clearly heard by every cat in the immediate vicinity, he spoke to her for maybe the second time in his life.

"I don't know what I did to make you hate me so much," Twistedkit meowed, meeting her flinty stare without fear, "but I do know that you've done everything in your power to make me feel unwelcome here. So I'm leaving ThunderClan, and I'm not coming back."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lightningtail blink and then bow his head, as though in mourning. I'm sorry, old friend. You did your best. I don't blame you, I blame this sorry excuse for a leader.

"You won't survive out there," Aspenstar mewed coldly, interrupting his thoughts. "It would really be best if you stayed here."

"Best for who?" Twistedkit asked. "Best for me? I'm miserable here. It's killing me slowly. You've never given me a chance to prove myself, not once. It's certainly not best for you or for any of the other warriors who dislike me. Who exactly is benefiting here?"

His former leader's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You ungrateful little wretch," she hissed. "You've lived this long only because you've had a sheltered life. You want to throw that away?"

"I want to live," he breathed, passion seeping into his words. "Most of the Clan resents the fact that I'm not a 'real' Clan cat because of this sheltered existence. I want to be allowed to earn my place in the world, in a Clan or otherwise. I want to hunt and fight just the same as any of you. Staying here means living some sort of half life, and that...that's not good enough."

Around him, shocked murmurs were rippling through the Clan. Many of them had probably assumed, despite his attempts to prove otherwise, that he was happy living a cozy life. The realization stung, but he carried on.

"If my wanting to be a real warrior is so distasteful to you, but you all also hate that I'm not a real warrior, then clearly I have no place here. Nothing I do will make any of you happy. And you know what?" Twistedkit paused and look around. "I'm fed up with trying to prove myself to all of you miserable lumps of fur."

The young gray tabby turned toward Lightningtail, hopped forward, and gave the deputy a heartfelt nuzzle. "You'll be a great leader one day, Lightningtail," he mewed. "Thank you for everything."

"Go carefully, young warrior," Lightningtail murmured, dipping his head. "I hope to see you at Gatherings one day."

"Maybe you will," Twistedkit replied. He moved on to his parents, touching noses with them. "I love you both," he told them. "I couldn't have asked for better parents."

His four sisters stepped forward to join in, and he welcomed them with licks and nuzzles.

"We should have treated you like a brother," Shadefeather murmured, bowing her head.

"I don't blame any of you," he assured them.

"I'll miss you," Frostwing mewed, pressing against him. "Please don't go far."

He touched his muzzle to her head. "I don't know how far I'll go, but I might see you all again one day." Gently pulling himself away from his family, Twistedkit padded toward the camp entrance.

Aspenstar's voice rang out behind him. "If you leave, you can never come back," she meowed. "You'll be treated as an enemy if you set foot on our territory again."

Angry responses from Flamepelt and Lightningtail overlapped with Leaftail's hissing. Twistedkit paused and looked back at his former leader.

"It's a good thing I don't plan to set foot on ThunderClan land ever again, then, isn't it?" he responded calmly. With that, he left, and didn't look back.

-0-0-0-

Later the same day, Twistedkit met a patrol of three cats. He was well aware of the stares and the dropped jaws as they approached; clearly, they were unsure of what to make of him.

"You're on WindClan territory, stranger," a tortoiseshell she-cat meowed. "What are you doing here?"

"And why do you smell like ThunderClan?" hissed a small, skinny tom - probably an apprentice.

Just because he hadn't liked to lie to his mother didn't mean he wouldn't lie to strangers. "Just passing through," he mewed, and that at least was the truth. "I came around the lake, you see. I'm exploring. I won't trouble you for long. If you could just point me the way off of your territory..."

"Just a moment," the tortoiseshell mewed. She was probably the patrol leader. "What's your name?"

Twistedkit hesitated. He couldn't exactly introduce himself as "Twistedkit", but he felt that to do otherwise would mean throwing away the name that his mother had meant to strengthen him. "Twist," he finally replied.

"I can see why," the apprentice muttered, staring at his deformed leg.

"Don't be rude," snapped the third cat, a golden tabby tom. "I apologize for young Gorsepaw, here," he went on more smoothly. "He doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut."

Twist chuckled. "Oh, I don't mind," he meowed. This was more refreshing already.

"I hope you also don't mind coming back to our camp to meet our leader," the she-cat mewed. "I think he might want to talk to you."

The gray tabby tipped his head, considering. Well, he did want to learn a bit about the other Clans before he decided whether or not to leave the lake... "I think that would be fine," he meowed. "But only for a short while. I have a long way to go."

"Of course," the golden tom meowed. Twist hobbled beside them, keeping pace as well as he ever had.

It looked like this was the start of a grand adventure.