I woke up to a ray of sunshine in my eyes. I stretched and awakened my senses a little bit. "Well I better get going." I said to myself.
I looked out to see the view. There was a huge field with a couple barns here and there. Then far out in the horizon was a forest that stretched wide. All of it was covered in the morning mist.
I looked around for a way down. I saw that if I headed the same way I came in it would be a steep way down but if I took the other way it was more of a slope downwards. I decided to go the other way, it seemed easier and after yesterday I wanted a little easier way out of the mountains. There was another tight ledge that I had to pass before I could get to the rock ledges that I would be able to jump down from.
I took a deep breath, checked over head for hawks, just in case, and then inched my way onto the ledge. This ledge was exactly like the other ledge but a little shorter, so I didn't have to hold my breath that long this time.
Once I was off the ledge all I had to do was jump my way down and that's exactly what I did. First there was a pretty big ledge that I jumped onto. After that ledge the only ones I could see were pretty small. I jumped onto a small one, then quickly jumped onto another small one until I made it to a medium sized one, I don't trust small ledges, they might crumble at any moment if you stay on it for too long. There weren't any more ledges just a bumpy slope down to the grass below.
This is going to leave a bruise. I thought as I jumped over the ledge trying to land lightly but I didn't. I actually landed heavily, I think I might have twisted my paw as I rolled and tumbled down the mountain into soft grass. I laid there for a couple minutes making sure I didn't break anything; I was positive then that I twisted my paw. I got up and shook myself making sure I didn't put that much weight on my paw.
I couldn't really stay out in the open, I had to move somewhere. I realized that there was a corn field in front of me and a barn a little way ahead. I moved into the corn field, I was thinking that it would be safe but half way through something rammed into me.
"Ow! Get off me!" I hissed.
"What do you think you're doing on our territory." A male voice said.
He was lying on top off me and I couldn't move.
"I'm just passing by." I said honestly "Listen can you get off me? I twisted my paw a couple minutes ago and it sort of hurts. Especially with you laying on top of it." I sneered
"All right." He said as he got off me.
I got up without hurting myself too badly "Good." I said standing on all fours. "My name is Shadowstalker."
"Um, Hello, I'm Johnny," Johnny is an orange tabby with white paws.
"Do you always pounce on people in your territory?" I washed my twisted paw gently.
"Well they're on our territory?" He said a little confused.
"You said 'our' does that mean there are more of you?" I glanced at him.
"Um, yes my mate and kits are in the barn."
"Ahh, well it is almost night time, do you think I could stay the night?" I wrapped my tail around my paws.
"Yes of course." We made or way towards the barn, which actually wasn't that far away.
When we got there three kits came out of the barn and tackled their father.
"Daddy!" They said at the same time.
Once he was able to stand he said, "kids this is Shadowstalker, he is going to stay the night. Shadow this is Bobby, Alex and River" He said pointing with his tail to each kit.
Bobby is an orange tabby like his father, Alex is a gray tabby and River is a bluish gray she-cat.
"Johnny?" A gray tabby she-cat walked out of the barn.
"Ahh, Trish, come meet our guest for the night. His name is Shadowstalker." Johnny turned to the she-cat.
"That sounds like one of those names from the forest over there. Warrior names they call it?" She looked me over.
"Yes, that's right, that's where I'm headed." I said to her.
"Wow! A warrior!" Alex said running a full circle around me.
"Um, no, I'm not a warrior, but my ancestors are!" I said
"What? You're not a warrior? But you have a warrior name" River said sitting down and staring at me.
"I know, my grandma wanted her kits and their kits to have warrior names, she comes from the forest over there, but she left a long time ago."
"Why did she leave?" Bobby said shyly.
"Because she did something wrong." I said to Bobby.
"Can you tell us what she did?" Johnny asked.
"No, I can't, not with these three here." I said pointing with my tail toward the three who were lined up in front of us.
"Aww!" They said in union again.
It was starting to get real dark now so we all went inside and slept the night away.
I woke up at the crack of dawn. I went outside to watch the sun rise from the horizon.
"Going to be leaving soon?" Johnny said walking out of the barn and joining me in the field.
"Yeah, I was going to wait for somebody to wake, and then I was going to leave." I said, the sun had fully risen into the sky now.
"Well it was nice meeting you Shadowstalker and I guess we will probably meet again."
"Yeah, I think so? If everything goes right you will." I nodded to him.
"Farwell, Shadowstalker, talk to you soon." He said as I got up and started walking past the barn.
"Good-Bye Johnny!" I shouted back.
This day was spent walking through cornfields and regular fields, looking at barns and houses. As I was walking I never noticed the big clouds rolling in until a heard a soft rumble of thunder behind me. When I looked behind me it almost seemed that the clouds were chasing me. They covered the whole entire sky and they were an ugly black. I could see huge lightning bolts in the cloud and hear massive thunder.
"Oh boy!" I said I decided to run to the nearest barn.
It was a little way ahead, so I sprinted for it. I got there and then five minutes later it was pouring buckets. Lightning lit up the sky and loud thunder vibrated the ground. The warrior forest was just a little way ahead; I could see it clearly now. There were huge maple trees and they were the color of autumn.
"It's just rain; it's not going to kill me." I whispered to myself.
I had to keep on telling myself that until I had the guts to finally walk outside into the heavy rain.
I was soaked instantly, it felt funny. I have never been soaked like this before. I didn't want to think about it, so I kept on walking, I knew if I ran it would hurt even more. It hurt already, the sharp rain pierced my skin, and it felt like if you rolled around on pine cones for a couple minutes. I eventually got to the edge of the forest and that's when I stepped onto their territory the same time a lightning bolt lit up the sky.
Here I am now walking through the forest scared out of my mind hearing twigs snap, birds screech, animals scurry on the ground. But that wasn't the scariest noise I heard, the noise I heard was a mix of twigs snapping. It wasn't a small animal, it was a big one and it was right behind me.
I turned fast but nothing was there, "Who's there?" I shouted into the darkness
"Your worst nightmare." it said behind me once more.
That's when it crashed into me, we ended up rolling around, she was fast, and she scratched me from all angles before I could even move a paw. I started to get frustrated, so I swung my paws all around me trying to make contact but unsuccessful.
"Ha, you fight like a kit!" she hissed from in the shadows.
She pounced on me again and brought me down. That's when I finally got a good look at her she was pure ginger with scruffy, wild fur.
"What are you doing here, rogue?" she whispered into my ear.
"I'm looking for ThunderClan. I mean no harm." I could feel her claws hovering over my skin.
"You could do no harm." She sneered but she let me get up
"My name is Wildfire, who are you?" She looked me over.
"I'm Shadowstalker." I replied
"You have a warrior name?" she noticed.
"Yes, I do, I am a descendent of a ThunderClan cat who was banished a long time ago. " I sighed; I lost count of all the times I've said that the past couple of days.
Her eyes narrowed "Oh, really?"
"Yeah?" It was my turn to look her over.
"Hmm, come with me." She said getting up and walking into the shadows of the forest.
"Where are we going?" I bounded next to her
"To camp." She said bluntly
"ThunderClan camp?"
"Yes, ThunderClan camp." She seemed to mock me.
"Am I going to speak to the leader of the clan?" I ignored
"Yes, you are. Why do you ask so many questions?" She looked over at me with a glare.
"I didn't realize that I was?" I dragged my paws slightly.
"Well you are and it is starting to get on my nerves." That's where we ended our conversation.
We weaved our way through the forest, that's all it was, was forest as far as the eye could see. I was looking at this one tree that looked a lot bigger than the other trees when she disappeared. I was looking around when her head popped out of the ground
"Are you coming or what?" she said then disappeared from view.
Their camp is underground? I thought, I wish Frostheart would have told me that. I dived underground and slide into the eyes of a kit.
