I was sick, very sick. I didn't feel very good. I limped across the field. I had dragged myself through WIndClan territory, being unseen and unnoticed. I was lucky. A sick, lucky fool of a cat.
Sun-High went, now it was almost dawn. I saw some big boxes, decorated with plants and there was some sort of dog sitting by it, asleep. I trudged by quietly, but I stepped on a twig that was lying on the pale stone in front of me and the "houses.
The dog's yellow eyes opened. It drooled, standing up. It towered over me.
I didn't move. We glowered at each other for a moment, then I fell. I wasn't strong enough to fight. The dog was huge. I waited to die. Then, a flash of black and white shot past me. It was another cat! Not a Clan cat, it seemed, but not a house cat.
Another black cat attacked the dog. The cats, like brothers, fought side by side. The dog whimpered, scampering back to its tiny wooden den a couple fox-lengths away. I blinked thankfully. The cats were muscular and sleek, but not fat or skinny.
I remember feeling them pick me up, but all other feeling or memory was lost.
I opened my eyes. They were talking, but I didn't know what about.
I started to get up but one of them gently pushed me back down.
They started to talk to me. I just blinked. They both frowned. Then the black one said something, flicking his tail for me to come. I stood up weakly, then sat in front of him.
They both said one word to each other. I know it, the burning anger sensation lit up in my belly again.
"Deaf." That awful word which disabled me to all other things.
The black and white one mouthed, "Barley. Barley. I'm Barley." I heard "Barley" but I didn't think that was his name, so I just call him "Bar" because that's all I could say. He didn't seem to mind much.
The black one's yellow eyes glittered. He flicked his ears to a raven sitting on a hay stack in this barn place.
I nodded.
"Raven." I said. Then he picked up his paw.
"Ravenpaw..." But...he had a Clan name! I frowned.
He sighed, closing his eyes as he curled up in the straw.
I watched Barley eat a mouse he just caught and I knew it was almost dawn, so I fell asleep almost immediately.