The cats were soon trotting their way to the northwest seeing how the train path was no longer a reliable source of direction. They decided that the thunder path was a better trail to follow. Despite it being in the countryside, monsters could still speed down the road and will hit a cat that wasn't careful. They decided to walk alongside the thunder path to be safe. GG was the newest cat to bring along since she knew where the Thunder-paths lead to. But was heading to the Northwest the best idea that they had?
They missed a city containing many two-leg nests as they continued along It wasn't long until they bumped into another two leg city nest to the west of that after three long days of travel. Rochester. Poppyfrost's legs were aching by the time they reached the next river. The giant group settled down for the night at the Genesee River.
"I'm so glad that fish is plentiful here." Mistystar mewed.
"Yeah but how do we get ourselves out without getting lost again?" Molestar asked.
"I think I might know but I might need to scout out a path first before we can move out." Juniperpaw mewed.
"Just give them a day or two." Molestar mewed. As he soon fell asleep.
"Can I start?" Mewed Juniperpaw.
"No it's best to wait until morning." Molestar mewed. "It's too dangerous to go out there on your own when there could be monsters waiting to run us over."
"Molestar does have a point." Tigerstar mewed. Soon everyone curled up as they soon fell asleep.
Morning soon broke out from east as the cats soon began to wake up as they began to wake up and gather up to gather up the plans. River-clan was busy fishing when they began to decide on what to do.
"Where do we go?" asked Harestar.
"We should follow the river to where is draining." Mistystar mewed.
"There's a thought." Tigerstar said as Mistystar brought up the river.
"What are we waiting for, let's go." GG mewed as she led them north following the river.
"I guess she can be right and this can lead to a new home." Molestar mewed to everyone telling Juniperpaw to be GG's right hand cat.
GG was only partly correct. The river was in fact draining to somewhere but it didn't find them a new home. Instead they found a lake that was much larger than any ocean that they have ever found, they stopped to take a break before deciding where to go next.
"Which way do we go? Cherryfall mewed as she was confused about where they were. Suddenly a Two-leg monster passed as it headed west along the lake's edge.
"I say we follow the monster." Edmontonia said as they began to have a long yet slow march along the lake's edge. Juniperpaw scurried to the front knowing that Star-clan was watching over them. Time passed as the day grew into night as they were still staggering along. It was clear that the journey itself was starting to take its toll on the weaker cats. Hawks overhead looked for dead or dying animals to prey upon. Before this journey began, many cats were fur and bones and they still were despite the good amount of fresh kill and herbs they ate. When the sun sets to a decent angle, it was clear that they needed rest. Luckily they found a place to rest in a wooded area where prey was plentiful.
"This is a slightly better area than the ones we've been too." Poppyfrost mewed exhausted.
"Yes but it's not enough to sustain us all even with the giant lake around. So we're only going to stay for two or three sunrises." Molestar mewed to his deputy. "We'll make the most of this to get some strength back."
It was the first time the cats and dogs can settle down peacefully knowing that they won't be moving out the next morning. Juniperpaw fell asleep with the apprentices knowing that he might spend some time training instead of walking.
"Hey Crowfeather?" Leafpool mewed.
"Yes Leafpool?" Crowfeather yawned.
"I was wondering; should we get together when we die?" Leafpool mewed.
"No, I already got a date for that." Crowfeather told her as Feathertail's ghost floats down to greet Crowfeather.
"No matter how many cats that want Crowfeather, he will always be mine." Feathertail mewed before she vanished without leaving a trace.
Juniperpaw was still asleep as he was visited by Hawkfrost again. Hawkfrost was a bit worried about the cat's condition.
"My god Juniperpaw, you look almost half starved." Hawkfrost mewed worried about the apprentice's very thin frame.
"We've been on the move for a quarter of a moon without stopping to hunt or fight." Juniperpaw mewed as he was making things clear.
"The journey is not over yet and you are still falling behind." Hawkfrost mewed.
"Yeah but how are we going to keep going? Most of us are starved and we barely have any strength left." Juniperpaw mewed.
"Okay rest up before you can begin your hike west, the lake you happen to inhabit is plentiful in fish but travel west and you'll find more surprises along the way." Hawkfrost mewed.
"What surprises?" Juniperpaw mewed.
"You'll find out soon enough." Hawkfrost mewed before he vanished. Spottedleaf was the next to visit.
"Exhausted enough?" Asked Spottedleaf.
"Yeah, when are we going to arrive to this home? We've been traveling for sun highs." Juniperpaw mewed.
"Maybe you're not heading in the right direction." Spottedleaf mewed.
"Of course we are, we've been heading along the lake." Juniperpaw protested.
"The thunder path is not a reliable direction to follow, it runs with monsters and many dangers plus, it heads in any direction but straight." Spottedleaf mewed.
"So get moving when we get our strength back up, we suffering." Juniperpaw mewed.
"Exactly." Spottedleaf mewed as she faded away. Juniperpaw soon woke up.
That day went smoothly as the apprentices were training to be very good warriors except for Bramblepaw and Featherpaw who were beating their brother up despite how fat they have gotten.
"Those two still have meat on them." Juniperpaw mewed as he squirmed from their grasp.
"I find it strange while most of us are still fur and bones." Poppyfrost mewed.
It felt like they were training for the first time in moons ever since they left the territory for a new home but it wasn't to really last. As many cats came with their fresh kill it was clear that the mutts have been scouting and surveying the area looking for an exit so they could continue.
"Found a way out of here?" Asked Poppyfrost.
"We'll continue along the lake to look for this Alleghany Plateau I guess." Edmontonia yapped uncertain.
"Then we'll just keep moving." Poppyfrost mewed.
Soon the sun dipped below the horizon and everyone was gathering around to see how everyone was doing. The three mentors were talking about their apprentices.
"Juniperpaw seems to be very eager to get back into training. And he is proving himself to a very strong and honest warrior." Poppyfrost mewed.
"Featherpaw is happy to start training and she is like one big thick block of meat. And I'm her mentor so she can be doing better," Bumblestripe mewed.
"It's great to see Bramblepaw to start training again but I hope she doesn't constantly go on patrol." Blossomfall mewed.
"Just like Thornclaw." Bumblestripe laughed.
"I'm glad he retired since I can see more of him." Blossomfall admitted. "Plus she is about as fat as Featherpaw."
"I say we should rest up before we move out in the morning." Poppyfrost suggested as they finished their meals before they were curling up to go to sleep.
The night wore on into the daytime as they got ready to move out once more. They followed the shores of the lake until they came across the road that merged into the parkway. All the cats except for Juniperpaw weren't able to read this and he quickly confirmed the location they were at and what lake it was. The next few days weren't that interesting as it was just the cats walking along the Thunder path Parkway. They soon came another stream as they had proven that they were can swim but the crossing was quicker since a lot of the cats had more strength in their legs as they were more adapted to crossing. Plus the cats were growing leaner but stronger as the kits and apprentices legs were in fact getting longer as they were adapted for longer periods of travel. Soon the Parkway came to an end as they looked for another thunder path to follow but Juniperpaw was convinced that they should keep traveling to the west. Two days have flown by as GG was renamed to Patchpaw due to the patch on her muzzle. After crossing many rivers they were soon following the lake down where they found another river feeding itself into the enormous lake.
"Where should we go Patchpaw?" Asked Mistystar.
"Across the river?" Asked Patchpaw.
"But the Alleghany plateau is south of us so I say we head to the south." Juniperpaw mewed.
"He's right so we have to listen to the apprentice." Edmontonia yapped as he told everyone to keep following Juniperpaw.
Their trek continued to the south despite them traveling for the past quarter moon with eating the plentiful prey but they were stuck in a dead zone where prey wasn't present but they knew they had to push onwards. They stopped at a pair of waterfalls that had a pit that went down to infinity from the cats height, they were nervous about settling here so they chose a back alley from the waterfall safe from two-legs to hide from.
"We know eating and drinking from the river is out of the question since the river is too fast for us." Mistystar mewed.
"Yeah looks like we're stranded here until morning plus the two-legs can be anywhere." Molestar mewed.
"We should rest before we can sneak off into the shadows." Edmontonia said as they wanted to move out at night.
The day wore on as everyone rested in the filthy alleyways. Juniperpaw went to meet Lightpaw alone, he found her near the towering waterfalls as he sat down next to her to enjoy the sunset.
"You're full of energy." Juniperpaw mewed.
"Yeah but there is something that we need to speak about." Lightpaw mewed.
"What is that?" Juniperpaw asked curiously about his apprentice.
"Is this journey really worth it? I feel like we've been going in circles." Juniperpaw mewed.
"Well I don't see the lake from here so It's not like we went in a complete circle plus we seem to be getting stronger by the day. The kits can travel for longer amounts of time plus we seem to start having meat on us again." Juniperpaw mewed. "I still question the fact of what is the purpose of this entire trip is other than to find a new home. I mean where are we going and how is this going to develop on who we are? I haven't had any decent training since we left that place near that giant lake. Is this all worth it when we get to the new home?"
"I know for certain is that not everything Star-clan says is true. Look at us, we've been traveling for a moon and it feels like we seem to get weaker by the day from the long journey, why couldn't we have taken the fastest route there? The prophecy makes no sense." Lightpaw mewed as she was beginning to question what's the purpose of this journey.
"As far as I know, we can't have everything set in stone, we just keep moving until we find a suitable home, The Thunder paths are the most reliable when it comes to direction since I can read what those signs say so we know where we are and we don't end up getting ourselves lost in the woods." Juniperpaw mewed to her wanting to make something clear.
"You do have a point." Poppyfrost mewed before she joined their conversation. "Now let's get some rest before we keep moving." She mewed as she led the two cats back to the alley ways to get some rest.
As the night sky bloomed over, it was a signal to the cats to keep moving. Juniperpaw and Lightpaw were on the lead as they began moving southward. They followed the river seeing it was flowing down. They dared not to cross it seeing it might have been too deep for them to swim across even for River-clan cats. They soon came across another lake where the river was pulling strands of water from the lake. Plus, the sun was starting to rise so they had to get through the two-leg nests as fast as possible before the monsters would start crowding the roads.
"I think it's time we say goodbye to the rivers." Juniperpaw mewed before everyone went to the lake to fill up on water for the last time.
"Will there be any rivers on the land we'll find?" Mistystar mewed.
"I'm sure there will be rivers." Juniperpaw reassured the leader. "But we have no time to waste, we must keep moving." Soon they all began their journey south along Standard Highway number 219.
[A/N]: Sorry I've been away, we're getting ready to go on vacation in a couple of days so I wanted to take some time and use some stuff that I wouldn't use for another week that I will be gone, Hopefully I can update this before I go on Vacation. Also, if you want to do fan-art of any of my stories let me know because I'm willing to see what you're capable of. Next chapter will be up hopefully tomorrow.
