Disclaimer: I don't own the world of the warrior cats. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.
Chapter Six: Searching for Something in Plain Sight
"We must leave?" cried a kit-mother, wrapping her pale brown tail protectively around her two black-and-white kits.
"Leave our home, to join with the other tribes?" asked a gray-silver tom loudly, his short fur bristling under the covering of mud.
An elderly red-brown tom retorted staunchly that he had followed Snowwind all his days and would follow her even if she wanted to live in an eagle's nest.
"Quiet, all of you!" screeched the leader of the Tribe of Sunset Fire. She cut through the protests to her decree that they would become as one tribe with the Tribe of Darkened Mountains and the Tribe of Soft Moonlight. Very few of the cats would disobey their leader, but many were not happy about the changes to be made.
When the mass of cats was silent she continued. "Our ancestors have sent us the promised cat, the Golden One," she said with a flick of her tail at Dreamsong, who stood proudly beside Deep on the rock that housed the Dew Gathering Hollow, "and we will not be blind to their summons. We will meet with the other two tribes at the large hollow where the Three met. From what they say, it is ideal for housing us all.
"Two days after tomorrow we leave for our new lives." Snowwind finished, then leapt down, as did the healer and the golden she-cat. Once again the dark gray healer admired her pelt, and wished for a sign that he could find an apprentice and follow his own heart.
000
It was early morning the day before they were to leave. Deep wandered through the place where he had been born. He knew it was right to leave it, knew that it was what the Tribe of Endless Hunting had decreed, but it still hurt.
Here was the nursery where he had been born, so long ago it felt like an eternity. There was the rock where his uncle Reflection had always loved to sit and feel the sun on his fur. The paths worn smooth into the stone by countless generations who ran with the Tribe of Endless Hunting now. Were they as sad as he was to leave? Did they watch with sorrow, hope or anger in their hearts?
And yet again, as he passed through all the memories like cobwebs against his fur, was this the right choice and had they truly found the right home for the three tribes to become one?
Was the Tribe of Endless Hunting watching them?
A pair of old kits, one yellow-orange tom with a white chest, tail tip and right front paw and the other a gray tom with a sprinkling of black flecks, raced out of the nursery. Their mother, a black, white and gray-striped tabby, chased after them and her remaining kit, a she-cat whose fur was splotched black and white, came dashing out of the entrance.
The kit-mother grabbed her two sons, and nosed them back to the nursery while the black-and-white she-cat followed, a smile on her face as she dashed around after mother and brothers. Deep watched them.
Suddenly, a small gray bird darted into the hollow. In a swift movement, the small female kit leapt on it and dispatched it skillfully with a bite, though she was only twice its size. Her mother glanced at her, shepherding her sons down the tunnel and froze.
"Oh, dear! What are you doing?" she asked her kit, and the young, black-and-white she-cat ran up to her, purring, with her prize firmly held in her jaws. "However did you catch that?" asked the kit-mother, surprise and pleasure in her tone and eyes.
"They're easy, mother!" the proud huntress declared, then asked eagerly, "Can I eat it?"
"Well. You caught it…" said her tabby mother. "Oh- come back here, you!" she cried distractedly as her orange-yellow son raced off again- this time straight for Deep.
The healer took a step back as the kit skidded to a halt in front of him, lightly bumping into his front legs. Kit and healer stared at each other. Deep could not take his eyes off the small tom. Why, he was the very image of Reflection, Deeps' uncle and the former healer for the Tribe of Sunset Fire!
He was also not afraid, merely excited and a little breathless from his adventure. Deep hardly heard the kit-mother calling her son, telling him not to bother the healer. Finally, when the kit looked away at his mother, the spell was broken from Deep. "Wait, please," he asked the tabby she-cat, and trotted up to her as she waited patiently next to the nursery. "This may sound odd, and a little abrupt, but I don't know how to put this better. You kit" –he gestured with his tail to the right one– "looks to much like Reflection in Pool of Moon Water for it to be a coincidence. I believe that, if he chooses, he should become the next healer of this tribe."
When he had finished the tabby was staring at him. Her kits, all three nearly too old to still be in the nursery, gazed at him with identical expressions on their faces. According to the laws of the Tribe of Endless Hunting, each Healer had to have a to-be to train, for help with difficult procedures and also to ensure that, if anything incurable happened to the healer, his or her apprentice would be able to take over from him, and it would not be left to chance for the next healer to be chosen who knew how long of a time span later.
"I must take an apprentice, because I believe that we will have need of two medicinally knowledgeable cats. My heart tells me that you son is the right cat," he told the gray tabby, who closed her jaws, swallowed and nodded slowly.
"Never had I dreamed that this honor would be bestowed upon one of my kits," she said quietly, slowly. "What of it?" she asked her kit. "Do you wish to be a healer and learn to speak with the Tribe of Endless Hunting? to see the signs everywhere?"
Slowly the young cat nodded and walked out to Deep, his even eyes fixed on the healers' own, and sat, turning to gaze once more at his brother, sister and mother for both the last time as a kit and the first time as an apprentice healer at the same time.
