Chapter 15
Beetle
Daisy paced along the edge of the river, smooth pebble rolling under her soft paw pads. The water glimmered under the early leaf fall sun. She focused on the calm sounds of the river flowing over rocks and the small splash of fish jumping between themselves, and not on the last gathering. She wandered along the shore, weaving through cattails and tall grasses. A light breeze blew through them and made Daisysights pelt bristle at the tips. She thought hard about the hurtful words Littlestar threw at her. "Why don't you believe that I'm alive?" Daisy whispered to herself. "She doesn't even think I'm alive." She thought, "she thinks she was hallucinating." Daisy sat down and stared across the river. She closed her eyes again, taking a breath that filled her with regret.
"Being a warrior? Really?" The voice in the back of her head questioned. It chuckled, "You've never even had sufficient training, Mosstar just made you one for your powers." She felt the voice smile slyly, "What have you done for anyone? Why would anyone care about you?" It laughed loudly and rang in her ears. It laughed and laughed. Daisysight tried shaking the growing voice out of her head, she was afraid of it, afraid of what it might make her do. "You won't be getting rid of me Daisy, I'll always be here, in the back of your mind. Always getting the better of you." Again daisy tried to shake the voice it of her head. She focused her thoughts on something different, and stared out to the river again. The caps of the small waves carried foam down or floating to the shore. It soaked her paws as Daisysight padded in slowly. She felt weird in the water. It wasn't comforting anymore. It never was comforting anyway.
A silhouette quietly passed to Daisysight's left, shaking the grasses silently. The form slinked away, thinking it went unnoticed. "Hey!" She shouted, trying to get the shadows attention. Its ears perked up, and the head turned to Daisy. "Stop, wait!" She called again. The figure darted away quickly. It slinked into the river toward thunderclan. Ignoring the code, Daisy rushed after it. The cold water splashed onto Daisy's fur as she dived in, trying to keep up with the cat. Leaping out of the water into Thunderclan territory, she only saw the tip of a tortoise-shell tail disappear behind some bushes. She leapt to chase the cat. Paw step after paw step, they bounded across the territory, until reaching the Thunderpath. Large bellowing monsters crawled on it, speeding across. In the ditch of the path, a small dip into the ground held a tortoise-shell she-cat laying in a small bed of leaves and two-leg trash.
"Hi." The tortoise-shell she-cat started. Acting very calm.
"Hi," Daisy answered, and opened her mouth to ask the strange cat a question, but was stopped before any sound left her mouth.
"Yes, I am a loner, yes I like it this way. Yes, it was me in Riverclan, yes, I know your name, and my name is Beetle." The cat spoke quickly and happily.
"Wow, um, okay, well, I'm Daisysight, hi." Daisy managed to get out. Beetle stepped out of her little divot on the ditch and walked to greet her unexpected arrival.
"I didn't know you as Daisy anything before," She said skeptically, walking up in Daisy's face. "Personally, I liked sun better, but you do you I guess." Beetle sat down and motioned with her tail for Daisy to sit. She sat.
"How do you know who I am, but I don't know who you are."
"I saved you when you were a half-moon old, and alerted Thunderclan and Riverclan of your presence." Beetle was the kind of cat who spoke without thinking, and spoke whether or not others wanted to hear her opinion. Most didn't.