RiverClan's Welcome
Shadowpaw's POV
My life began as a kittypet. It started out with mated housefolk and their kit, whose various attempts to smother me in love I found rather irritating. The life of a kittypet was so easy, never having to hunt for prey and always having a soft spot to lay and sun whenever I desired. In fact it was too easy. The food was bland and the sun was always through a barrier. I became restless with the soft life and began to desire more.
At my sixth moon, my housefolk brought me to this strange place. It was a housefolk nest, but not our nest. Not far from that place were horses, they didn't much care for me when the housefolk's kit carried me inside. It was at this moment I knew I couldn't keep going like this. I couldn't be carried around as if I were nothing more than a mouse to be toyed with. So when the door opened to let the housefolk in, I darted out and across the fence. This action did not agree with those horses and I had to dodge them and made it to an open field that was thick with water. I was amazed at the view, it was like nothing I had seen when I was with my twolegs and it was easy to go explore. I ducked under the fence only for my collar to get stuck on one of the boards in the fence.
I fought hard against it for several minutes until it suddenly it let me go. I turned back to look only to see it hanging there on the fence. A feeling filled me as I looked at that collar and I have to admit I liked it. So with the giddy feeling, I made my way over to the river. I looked into the water to see shimmering fish and my stomach growled in hunger, the housefolk had been too busy moving their strange furs in bags out of the monster they had forgotten to feed me. I made my way to the edge of the water, watching and waiting. A fish swam close enough and I pounced on it.
It fought a lot, but I eventually got it and dragged it back to the shore, where four cats sat looking at me. There was one there that was probably around her sixth moon. She was a cream and brown tabby she-cat with a dirty white under belly, muzzle, and toes, her bluish-green eyes held curiosity. She stood slightly behind a light brown tom whose underbelly, legs, and face were darker brown like he had been playing in the mud, his brown eyes held kindness. Off to the side was a tom cat with dark gray fur and spots, his ears stunted as was his short tail, his ivy green eyes, made all the more glaring by the markings on the side of them, were suspicious and the uninviting air around him made it feel like he was the cat you didn't want to make angry. To the front of the group, there was a gray she-cat, her blue eyes were piercing and her stance made it clear she was in charge.
"You're scaring all the fish away." The green eyed tom said rudely. The tone made me all the more stiff.
"I thought that was your ugly muzzle." I growled, crouching over my fish. My comment seemed to amuse the blue-eyed she-cat.
"You caught that fish all by yourself." She said, but less towards me and more towards herself. She nodded once to herself and turned towards the two toms. "She's coming with us."
The green eyed tom looked at her, like she had lost her mind. "Mistyfoot, you can't be serious. Look at her she's a kittypet. Not only that, but her fur will hold her back. Look at how long it is." I looked down at myself, and indeed it was longer than theirs by a lot, but if he thought I couldn't do something because of it he was wrong. But if that she-cat thought I would just travel with some strange cat then she, too, was sadly mistaken. "Who are you cats? What makes you think I will go anywhere with you?" I bristled angrily.
Mistyfoot, the grey she-cat, looked at me menacingly before she smirked. "You'll come with us if you really want to live away from your twolegs." She said as if she knew I would accept.
"Twolegs? Do you mean housefolk?" I asked. She didn't answer me, as if the answer was obvious.
"So what will it be?" she asked. "Will you go home to your twolegs or will you come with us? There is no middle ground."
I looked at her than the other three cats. Would it be so bad? To have companions and to not be alone. To help and be helped. To live a life away from my twolegs as this cat had called them. The ivy eyed cat glared down at me. I wanted to prove him wrong. "I will go with you," I nodded. "I don't want the life of a house cat."
Mistyfoot smiled and turned walking towards the river before wading through it. I was eager to follow her. I plunged into the river and followed her quickly, not even paying attention to the other cats. I was excited and I couldn't help it. I heard the other cats behind me, but I didn't care. I was going to live a life of adventure where I could sun under the actual sun.
We traveled through the few trees this field had and to a rocky pass where there was a place surrounded almost entirely by water. Mistyfoot nodded towards the water-surrounded land. "This is RiverClan. This will be your new home if Leopardstar feels you will make a good addition."
"Who's Leopardstar?" I asked her. Mistyfoot looked at me as if she was forgetting that I was just a regular house cat.
"Leopardstar is our clan leader, I am the deputy." She said simply as we walked over a patch of earth where you could feel the water rushing underneath it. "The clan life isn't an easy one. As no doubt Leopardstar will tell you. Be quiet and stay with Ivyclaw and Mudfoot." She nodded first to the green-eyed tom then to the brown-eyed one. "Breezepaw leave that there and go to the apprentice den, we shall pick up hunting patrol later." She said walked towards a rock that had entrance at the bottom and entered it.
I looked to Ivyclaw, the surly spotted tom, and opened my muzzle. "Ivyclaw sounds like a she-cat's name." His paw flashed out before I could comprehend what he did and then slammed down on top of my head.
"Listen here kittypet don't think just because Mistyfoot was soft on you doesn't mean I will be." He growled.
I sniffed and turned to look around the camp. Near the rock Mistyfoot had entered was a hollowed out log. I could see older cats peering out of it and at me. I quickly looked away to see a bush beside that and cats also peering out of there all either kits or queens. I turned my body to see a woven sanctuary of sticks and reeds a few cat poking their heads out there. Spinning to the opposite side I saw a pile of food just waiting to be eaten and next to that was a rock that jutted out to the ground and this is where that cream tabby had gone. She was looking out at me with a few others and I finally finished the circle to see a thorn bush there its roots exposed forming an area underneath which held a golden dappled she-cat. I heard their whispers.
Kittypet. Doesn't belong. What's she doing here? They throw around the word kittypet as if I should be ashamed and that made me ashamed, but still I held my head higher as I turned myself to face back towards the two toms I had been left with. This act of defiance on my part seemed to impress the short tailed tom, Ivyclaw. However the whispers got louder and more hate filled. It almost seemed too much. None, however came over, perhaps in part to the green-eyed tom's looks.
"Be silent RiverClan" A stern voice said, causing all noise to halt and my body to turn to the sound. This cat commanded as if the very earth would stand still if she told it to she was golden with darker spots and a stripped tail, I had never seen a pattern like it before. She was sleek and well-muscled like all the cats I had meet so far. "You." She did not raise her voice, but the accusation was there. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen many kittypets here? And hunting our food?" she cast her eyes to the fish behind me. "You did well. How did a kittypet such as yourself manage that?"
I looked at her and knew I couldn't just smart off to her like I had done with Ivyclaw. "I got away from my… twolegs, I was unhappy with them. I ran here because it was the most wondrous thing I had seen. I did not know this was yours. I didn't know that there were any cats here, and I didn't mean to steal your food from you."
The golden cat stared long and hard at me. "Tell me." She spoke. "Why get away from your twolegs?" She was frozen waiting for my answer.
"I didn't wish to just do nothing." I told her honestly. "I am not happy to just lay and watch the outside through a nest."
She narrowed her eyes. "So do you wish to join RiverClan? Knowing we cannot promise you warmth in the cold. Or food when your belly cries. That the Clan comes before yourself." She stood taller. "Are you prepared to learn our ways? To learn how to hunt. Do you want to live the way our ancestors have for many generations? Or is this some rebellious streak of a kittypet who will leave when the clan falls on hard times and you are needed most?"
It was my turn to puff up. "I will not leave because something gets hard. You doubt me, but I won't be looked down upon. I will be as good as anyone else. I'll be one of the best. Just you watch. It'll be easy." I snapped at this cat, before realizing that I had just snapped off to the leader. Aw well too late now. I can't back down without proving they were right.
The clan roared in outrage, only to be silenced by the clan leader's glare. She turned her eyes to me once again. "Easy? No I think you will not find it so easy. However with determination like yours I have no doubts you will fall into life of the clan simply enough. What's your name young one?"
"It's Jewel." I told her.
She walked to the stone she had come out of. Only this time she sat before it. In a loud and clear voice she yowled for all of RiverClan to hear. "Let every cat old enough to hunt prey gather under Highcliff for a clan meeting." She gave every cat enough time gather at the base of the stone. "Step forward Jewel." I did so. "Jewel, you have reached the age of six moons, and it is time for you to be apprenticed. From this day on, until the day you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Shadowpaw. Your mentor will be Ivyclaw. I hope he will pass down all he knows onto you. Ivyclaw step forward." He did. "Ivyclaw, you are ready to take on an apprentice. You had received excellent training from Moonstep and you have shown yourself to be brave and loyal. You will be the mentor of Shadowpaw and I expect you to pass on all you know to Shadowpaw." Leopardstar touched noses with me and a chorus of Shadowpaw rang out through the cats.
A disgruntled sound came from the male tom as he softly spoke to the leader as to not sound like he was questioning his leader in front of the clan. "Leopardstar reconsider, please. What can I teach this kittypet? She knows nothing."
"Then teach her everything Ivyclaw." Leopardstar said as she turned and walked away.
I looked around as all the cats looked unhappy, but went back to their own business. I looked to the hollowed log as Ivyclaw continued to bemoan his unfortunate circumstance. Poking her head out of the hollowed log, a darkly colored tabby cat was looking towards me, not at me but at the ground behind me. I looked and saw the fish I caught. She caught me looking at her and ducked back into the log. I looked back at the she-cat before going and picking up the fish, making sure no one was looking, I swiftly and silently as possible made my way over to the log. I peeked inside to see two more cats, both toms. One was gray with flecks of silver here and there from age. The other was a well-muscled more than most I had seen in the clan today. All three looked at me, then the fish, then at me. I dropped the fish and pushed it to them.
"This is what you wanted, right?" I asked them, nudging the fish closer. "You can have it. It is only fair since I kind of stole it in the first place." They all looked at me before the she-cat smiled and walked up to the fish ripping into it and placing the chunk at my feet.
"Eat young apprentice you'll need your strength for the hunt later." She said kindly. I nodded thanks, but did not eat until all the older cats had finished. "You didn't eat. Why?"
"In case you were still hungry." I told her. "That's what my mother told me to do before my house… twolegs got me. Those both very young and old must be fed first, because the young can't get it themselves and the old have waited and shared theirs for far too long." I told her eating the chuck of fish that had been left for me, altogether missing the look the older cats throw to each other.
"Shadowpaw! This is where you've been chowing down on the fish meant for the clan." A grow came from the end of the log.
I bristled instantly. Maybe I could be nice here in the log with these older cats, but out there I had to prove I was just as good as they were. "What do you want? Thought you didn't want to see me."
"It's time for a hunting patrol you're with Mudfoot, his apprentice, and me. So if you're done eating Clan fish it's time to go." He hissed, stunted ears pinned back in anger. "I'm going to teach you to be a RiverClan cat if it kills me."
"I get the feeling you're hoping it kills me first." I growled shoving past him. "Well the jokes on you. I am going to be the best apprentice you've ever had."
"We shall see. But I doubt it." He huffed.
A/N
"Hey it's Breezepaw again just reminding you to Read and Review so MelodyStarrWH and UltimateKuranQueen know they are doing a good job."
*Shadowpaw scowling* "And (even though we shouldn't have to remind you) check out the drabbles on UltimateKuranQueen's page."
*Breezepaw gives Shadowpaw a stern glare* "Be nice to these cat's they're only trying to enjoy a story."
"Whatever" *Shadowpaw hisses and walks away*
"Don't worry about her she'll be fine. See you next Saturday for the update of Looming Shadows."
*Shadowpaw from the elder's den* "Unless they decide to post early like they did this week."
*Ears laid back in annoyance* "Quite you don't make me get Ivyclaw."
*Shadowpaw hisses from the elders den* "Don't you dare get that mangy she-cat."
