Chapter 10! Officially double digits is this story. Hurrah! =hands out chocolate cake and glasses of milk=. And, yes, Harepaw is being a right killjoy.

Coal

It was only on the second day of the journey from the Two-leg place that it suddenly occurred to Kestrelpaw that they didn't know what the tom's name was. It struck her as odd that nobody had bothered to ask. After all, he knew their names, but had somehow forgotten to introduce himself to them when they had been telling him their names. So, as they were walking along, she padded over to where he was, just ahead of her, and decided to ask him.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" she huffed, wishing that the pace Squirrelpaw ( the unofficial leader of the small group ) had set. Kestrelpaw glanced patiently at Coal, waiting for his permission to continue. Usually, she wasn't so cautious about asking things, but it occurred to her that he might not have wanted them to know his name. Why he wouldn't want to, she couldn't say.

"Sure," he looked surprised that she had even bothered to ask. Behind them, Harepaw fumed silently, as was his custom whenever any of the cats talked to the black tom.

"What's your name?" Kestrelpaw asked bluntly, flicking her ears to unsettle a fly that had decided to settle on her ear. The sun was scorching today, much worse than it had been in the earlier days of the journey. It was even hotter than it had been yesterday, and that was saying something.

"I thought I already told you? No? Well it's... Coal," was it just Kestrelpaw, or had he hesitated before saying his name? She dismissed it as her imagination. Why would he not want to tell her his name? There was nothing wrong with telling another cat your name.

"Coal? What does it mean?" she questioned, having never heard of anything called 'coal' before. As far as she could recall, it wasn't an animal or plant or even a colour.

"It's something the Two-legs use to make a fire," he explained, and, seeing Kestrelpaw's startled look, he laughed. "My mother was a kittypet once."

"Makes sense. He's as mad as a Two-leg. Why would Two-legs want to start a fire? Haven't they seen what it can do?" Harepaw said unpleasantly, eyeing the tom with great dislike. Much to her delight, the tom stumbled on an uneven part of the parched soil that they were traveling over, falling down for a second before he pulled himself back to his feet. None of the other cats so much as batted an eyelash, much to Harepaw's displeasure. He mumbled about nobody caring what happened to him, and Kestrelpaw decided to let him feel sorry for himself. She couldn't be bothered to pay much attention to him anyway. Not when she was huffing like she was.

"Harepaw! Behave yourself!" Squirrelpaw scolded, and shot an apologetic look at Coal, who shrugged to show that he didn't care.

"Why do you call kittypets 'kittypets'? Don't kittypets call themselves 'house cats' or something? In the Two-leg place near my Clan's territory the kittypets always refer to themselves as 'house cats'," Kestrelpaw enquired, ignoring Harepaw's remark. She was too used to him being insulting to bother getting annoyed with it much any more. Unless it was directed at her or her family, of course.

"Well... my father called my mother a kittypet, and... well... I picked it up from him. She became a loner when I was about... oh, I don't know... five moons old? She also started calling kittypets 'kittypets' then... so... well... yeah," Coal said reluctantly, looking at Harepaw warily, as if expecting him to say something else nasty. A huge bird of prey silently circled the sky above them, regarding them with interest as if it wondered how they would taste. Squirrelpaw glanced up at the bird nervously, but none of the others noticed it, and the bird evidently found them not to its taste, for it left them in peace.

"Oh," Kestrelpaw nodded, realising that he didn't want to talk about it any more. Her paws screamed at her to stop walking and give them a break, but she ignored them. "Well... both of my parents are Clan cats. They grew up knowing each other. Sparrowpaw's my brother, in case you didn't know."

"I don't have any brothers or sisters. Are Squirrelpaw and Harepaw related to you?" he asked curiously, and Sparrowpaw chuckled at the idea of him being a brother to Harepaw. The kestrel swooped down briefly to tell them that she could see something in the distance that would be a good place for them to rest.

"They wish!" Kestrelpaw exclaimed, and she saw Harepaw roll his eyes and mutter something derogatory under his breath. More seriously, she added. "No. Harepaw's got a brother back in SkyClan. Squirrelpaw's an only kit."

"So... why are we on this journey?" Coal changed the subject, seeing that Harepaw's mouth was open and the tom was sure to say something rude. If there was one thing that she had learned about Coal, it was that he was generally a peace-maker. He himself had said that he didn't like fights, because he saw no real reason for most of them.

Kestrelpaw eagerly began to tell him about how they had ended up heading to the Wide-Waters, Squirrelpaw and Sparrowpaw adding to the story occasionally, when Kestrelpaw had forgotten to mention some detail or other about their journey. The story was long enough that it took nearly an hour for her to finish, counting the rude comments from Harepaw which had all three apprentices glaring at him.

When the story was finished, Coal nodded thoughtfully. "You know, I believe that it has something to do with the WeatherClan."

"The what?" Squirrelpaw, Sparrowpaw, and Kestrelpaw all asked at the same time. Harepaw remained sullenly silent. The sun blazed down on them, and Kestrelpaw swallowed, realising that it had been ages since she had last had a drink of water.

"You haven't heard of them? Every cat from where I come from knows of them. WeatherClan controls the weather. They decide whether it rains or snows or is sunny or is cloudy. They decide how hot or cold a day will be. From what I've been told, they are a very temperamental lot. Very easily angered. They rarely ever show themselves, but all the cats in this part of the land know of them. How could we not? They make sure we don't forget them. If we do for even a day, they will make the most horrible disasters happen. Floods, fires, even make the ground shake and crack," Coal said seriously, and Kestrelpaw inhaled sharply at the very thought of a Clan being powerful enough to change the weather.

"Are they... are they cats like us?" Squirrelpaw asked after a short pause. She started to walk faster, reminding them all that they didn't have an infinite amount of time to complete the journey. A huge tree briefly shielded them from the sun as they passed it, and Kestrelpaw relished the few moments of shade and coolness that the tree provided for the five cats.

"Yes... in a way. They are like... like... well... they are like us and they aren't," Coal said helplessly, unable to describe the Clan well enough. His tail flicked to dislodge a fly that had become rather too friendly for his liking.

"Like StarClan?" Sparrowpaw offered helpfully, and, when Coal shot him a puzzled look, the apprentice's face changed from curiosity to shock. "You haven't heard of StarClan? No... I guess you wouldn't have. StarClan is where all Clan cats go when they die. If they are good enough, that is. Those that aren't... they go to the Dark Forest -" Sparrowpaw's eyes narrowed - "or the Place of No Stars. Only the worst of cats go there."

"I think WeatherClan cats are sort of... alive and not alive at the same time," Coal struggled to describe the Clan, and when his statement was met with shock and gasps from the surrounding cats, he sighed in defeat. "Let's just say that I think WeatherClan has something to do with this."

"Do you think that WeatherClan is... angry with us for not knowing about them?" Kestrelpaw asked after yet another pause, this time a puzzled and slightly uncomfortable one. The kestrel fluttered back to check on them, pausing briefly to hover in the air above them and listen to their conversation, and then fluttering ahead again.

"I don't think they would be. If you don't know about them, then they obviously don't want you to know about them. They make themselves known if they want to be known," Coal explained, and then quickly added. "But it's only my suspicions. There is every chance I could be wrong."

"Now you tell us that," Harepaw said disagreeably, earning himself what must have been the hundredth warning glance from Squirrelpaw. The hare wrinkled its nose at the tortoiseshell she-cat, and sent her a 'how-dare-you-send-a-warning-glance-to-him' look, which the she-cat ignored.

"I can't believe I didn't know about WeatherClan. If they're really that powerful, then surely someone in our Clan must have known about them?" Kestrelpaw queried in amazement, disbelief colouring her voice. Her paws were really aching now, and she bit back a complaint about the pace that Squirrelpaw had set.

"Like I said, if they wanted you to know about them, then you would know," Coal repeated patiently, making Kestrelpaw feel rather foolish, a feeling that she didn't relish experiencing. Coal chuckled at the annoyed look on the brown she-cat's face.

Kestrelpaw sighed, and then purred slightly. She found that staying in a bad mood for very long was not only annoying for other cats concerned, but very likely detrimental to her health. Maybe Harepaw would benefit from this knowledge. Excusing herself politely, and with a touch of regret, she padded over to the grouchy tom and put on her most cheerful face.

"Why are you looking so happy?" Harepaw asked suspiciously, his voice sharp. She noted with pleasure that she wasn't the only one who was finding this journey more than just a little bit exhausting. Harepaw looked as if he might go to sleep whilst still walking.

"I just thought that you might like to hear a theory of mine about how bad mood is somehow connected to your health. You know what Birdheart says about always looking on the bright side. He says that it's much better for you to be happy, because when you're really angry you tend to think about all these self-harming things you could do... and so on and so forth," Kestrelpaw chirruped happily, and Harepaw awarded her an even more annoyed look then he usually gave her. Satisfied, Kestrelpaw padded away from him and went back up to the front. After which she proceeded to sing, much to the horror of those that had ever heard her sing.

Harepaw moaned, and closed his eyes as if in pain. Which he most likely was, considering the cat who had started singing. The problem was that cats weren't natural singers. In fact, they weren't any sort of singer at all. Compared with some of the birds out there, cats were as bad as dogs.

"Kestrelpaw, I'm begging you, stop singing," Squirrelpaw ordered after a few pain-filled minutes, Sparrowpaw and Harepaw nodded vigorously in agreement. Coal did nothing, as he felt he didn't know Kestrelpaw well enough to complain about what she doing. Even if it was rather painful to his ears. Instead, he just looked on politely.

"Sorry, what was that?" Kestrelpaw said in a sing-song voice. Or as close to a sing-song voice as was possible for a cat with a singing voice like hers. An annoying fly tickled the inside of her ear, and her singing faltered for a split second as she shook her head to get it to leave her alone.

"Please," Squirrelpaw sighed, and muttered something about 'immature kits' under her breath, which Kestrelpaw heard but chose to ignore.

"Since you asked nicely, then yes, I will. Now... who has a story to tell? I'm bored out of my mind here," Kestrelpaw demanded immediately, and the group resigned themselves to trying to keep Kestrelpaw occupied. It has to be said that, though they did their best, their brains were nearly squeezed dry by the first three and a half hours, as Kestrelpaw had heard most of their stories before. It wasn't long before Kestrelpaw found herself once again singing, and the others found themselves once again having to endure it. But, despite this, the journey continued on regardless of the pain inflicted on four cats' ears by a certain singing apprentice.

I have to admit that Harepaw is actually one of my favourite characters in this story. Don't ask me why. I just like him. And Kestrelpaw I adore. I've made her personality the sort of personality that a person like myself can't help but like.

Anybody like any particular character in this story? Just a curious question.