A/N: Thank you to Gorseslash for Mintpaw, Munchkin, and Mimic, Guest for Apple and Bucktooth, Meow for Hawk, Mistyflame Of DarkClan for Artemis, ivane for Cricket, ANONYMOUS for Freespirit, Duskflight, Mapleshine, Foxkit, Honeykit, Sparkpaw,
The sharp fishy scent of a RiverClan cat awoke Heathpaw from his sleep. A low growl rumbled in his throat, what was a RiverClan cat doing on WindClan territory?
Jumping to his paws, he ran towards the source of the smell, only to feel pain shoot through him as he thudded face first against a tree. A tree..
He wasn't in WindClan anymore. Everything came flooding back to Heathpaw, and his anger turned to brief shock, and then hope, maybe if there was a RiverClan cat here, there might be another WindClan cat, he just hoped it wasn't Leaftail or Gorsetail.
Before he searched for any WindClan cats though, he would talk to the RiverClan cat, it would be good to be able to talk to someone who wasn't a kittypet, or from a clan he'd never even heard of. He took a deep breath, parting his jaws, as he took in the scent, trying not to retch at the horrible fishy odor. He padded down through the trees, until he came to the edge of the island, where a brown she-cat was sitting there, just staring into the water.
"What are you doing?" Heathpaw asked.
She turned around and hissed, with her green eyes flashing.
"Be quiet! Can't you see I'm trying to hunt?"
"Uhh, no."
"Well, I was, I was-" she suddenly stopped and sniffed, her eyes widening, "You're a WindClan cat!" she exclaimed, jumping to her paws, seemingly forgetting about hunting, "I thought I was the only clan cat here! At least, from a clan that I actually know."
"How long have you been here?" Heathpaw asked, feeling a slight stab of disappointment, if he was the only other clan cat she'd seen, then there might not be more around.
"About a moon now, I'm Mintpaw by the way, have they mentioned my disappearance at the gatherings?"
Heathpaw shook his head.
"I'm not sure, I haven't been to a gathering yet, but no one in WindClan mentioned anything about a Mintpaw."
"Oh," her face fell, "Are you a kit?" she then asked, turning her attention back to the water.
"No!" Heathpaw spat, bristling, as anger coursed through him, just because he was small, didn't mean he was a kit!
She doesn't know me, he realized, feeling the anger ebb away, I just told her I hadn't been to a gathering yet, any cat could have made the same mistake.
"I became an apprentice almost two moons ago, but I haven't been to a gathering yet," he meowed, softer this time.
"Oh, and why is that?" Mintpaw asked, turning her attention back to him.
"Because my mentor is a fox heart."
"Are you sure it wasn't because of your temper?" a voice that Heathpaw didn't recognize asked.
He whipped around to see a small white she-cat with pale blue eyes.
"You don't even know me!" he hissed, feeling angry that she was judging him without even knowing him. What did she know?
"I've been watching the cats who arrived after me since I got here, and I've seen you lose your temper on several different occasions," the she-cat meowed.
Mintpaw turned her attention away from the water, and padded over to the white she-cat.
"She's right you know."
Anger burned in Heathpaw's chest, but he closed his eyes, working hard to snuff it out, he didn't want these cats thinking that they were right.
When the anger subsided slightly, he opened his eyes, to see that Mintpaw and the other she-cat were meowing quietly to each other, like they were best friends.
"What's it like living in The Tribe, Hawk? I've heard so much about it, but I've never been there," Mintpaw meowed.
"The Tribe, eh?" Heathpaw asked, feeling slightly interested. He often heard stories about the tribe of cats who lived in the mountains, his father and grandfather had even met them before, though, he heard they weren't anything that special. Still, he was a bit intrigued by their methods, of how instead of doing everything as a whole, hunting, fighting, etc, they were assigned their roles at birth, to either be a prey hunter, or a cave guard. It seemed a bit stupid to him, just because a cat was small and lean as a kit, didn't mean that they wouldn't grow up to be super big and strong, and a cat that was super big and strong as a kit, could grow up to be a total mouse-heart that hated cave guarding or something.
He also didn't think it was fair that they didn't have a choice in the matter.
"What do you think I'd be Hawk? A prey hunter like you, or a cave guard?" Mintpaw asked.
Heathpaw rolled his eyes, and padded away from the two she-cats, no longer interested in their conversation.
He had only gotten about a few fox lengths away, when Cider and Twix came racing over to him.
"Oh Heathpaw, you're not going to believe this! It's awful!" Cider wailed.
"What is it?" Heathpaw asked, even though he didn't really care, ever since he arrived there, Cider had hardly left his side, and he thought everything was the most awful thing ever. Two cats started fighting? Cider acted like it was the end of the world, anytime he saw Salt and Pepper? He was sure that they were doomed. He didn't understand, why out of all the cats here, Cider had latched onto him, and now, it seemed like Twix was starting to as well.
"Apple and Artemis got into a fight!" Cider exclaimed.
Twix nodded.
"They were using their claws and everything!" his gaze drifted down to his paws, "I wish I still had my claws," he muttered softly.
"You don't have claws, like at all?" Heathpaw asked, his eyes widening in shock, he couldn't imagine not having his claws. How could he hunt, or fight? He'd never be able to be a warrior, and he'd probably have to be a medicine cat, and have to spend time with Jayfeather, who he heard was the meanest cat ever.
Twix nodded.
"This other cat I met here, named Bucktooth, doesn't have claws on his back paws, I asked him what happened, but he won't talk to me about it, the vet took mine away because I was bad."
"What did you do?" Heathpaw gasped, figuring that this cat must have done super awful to have such a harsh punishment as getting his claws taken away. He couldn't help but to bristle, and take a step back from him, he didn't want to be around a cat who might have killed another cat, or worse.
"I scratched up my housefolk's new couch," Twix meowed, if he noticed Heathpaw's reaction to him, he didn't show it.
"Why didn't you scratch the scratching post?" Cider asked, "I had this huge scratching post, that reached all the way to the ceiling!"
Heathpaw stood there, listening to the conversation, feeling frustrated. He hated that he didn't know what they were talking about, it made him feel left out, like there was a whole other world out there, that he knew nothing about, and well, he supposed that were true.
His mind shifted over to the cats who claimed to be from clans that he never even heard of, what if they were telling the truth? What if there were really other clans out there other than WindClan, RiverClan, SkyClan, ThunderClan, and ShadowClan? Did they believe in StarClan? He didn't ask any of them, because when they told him that they were from a clan that wasn't any of the clans he knew, he thought they had bees in their brain, and he made it a point to avoid him.
Now, he found himself padding over to Coralpaw and Reefpaw, two apprentices who claimed to be from one of the unknown clans.
"What is the name of the clan you're from?" he asked.
"LotusClan, we're the best swimmers," Reefpaw bragged.
"Yeah, and the HillClan cats are super strong, the DustClan cats are super fast, and-"
"DustClan cats can't be any faster than WindClan cats!" Heathpaw spat.
"Oh yeah? Wanna bet? There's this cat from DustClan named Fleetwind, who can run faster than a cheetah!" Reefpaw exclaimed.
Coralpaw nodded her head vigorously.
"He can run faster than a peregrine falcon can fly!"
"I don't know how fast that is, but I highly doubt it," Heathpaw meowed, feeling a bit surprised, at how highly these cats praised a cat from another clan.
"So, if you can swim, have you tried getting off this island?" Huckleberryfern asked, emerging from a clump of ferns, with a frog in his jaws. Heathpaw knew he was from one of the other clans, but he didn't know which one, he knew he probably wasn't from the same clan as Reefpaw and Coralpaw, since he just mentioned the fact that they could swim.
"Yes, we've tried, but do you see any land in sight other than the island we're on?" Coralpaw asked.
"I swam as far as I could, and I still saw nothing!" Reefpaw exclaimed.
"So, there's no way to get off this island?" Heathpaw asked, feeling a stab of homesickness. He would give just about anything to go home, if Harestar decided to make Leaftail his mentor instead of Crowfeather, he'd even accept that without complaint.
"So, are you two the only cats that knew each other before coming here?" Heathpaw asked.
"No, Snowdrop and Silverstorm are brothers, from this clan called CloudClan, that we've never heard of," Coralpaw meowed.
"I know CloudClan, it shares a border with my clan; BerryClan," Huckleberryfern meowed, before flicking his tail over to a tortoiseshell tabby she-cat and a red tabby tom, both of whom had folded down ears, making Heathpaw wonder if they might have dog blood in them. He bristled slightly at the thought of it, but he automatically flattened his fur, feeling a bit foolish, how would a cat have dog blood? A cat would be ripped to shreds if they even got within a fox length of a dog.
"That's Mimic and Munchkin, they're really nice, but I've never thought to ask if they're littermates, they do seem to be close though," Coralpaw meowed.
"Yeah, and there's a whole family of cats here, there's Freespirit, he's a medicine cat, his sister Duskflight, and Duskflight is good friends with this she-cat named Mapleshine, who is the mother of Sparkpaw, Foxkit, and Honeykit, they're all from the same clan," Reefpaw meowed.
"There are kits here?" Heathpaw exclaimed, not believing it, why would there be kits there?
"Yeah, honestly, we thought you were a kit," Coralpaw meowed, Reefpaw nodded.
"Well I'm not, and I don't know why everyone thinks that!" Heathpaw spat.
"I had just gotten my warrior name when I found myself here, the night after my silent vigil," Huckleberryfern meowed.
"Coralpaw and I were going to have our warrior assessment on the day we woke up to find ourselves here," Reefpaw sighed.
Coralpaw shook her head, and her green eyes shone with grief.
"We used to be so excited to be warriors, and we would constantly talk about what our warrior names would be, and now, it doesn't seem like that's ever going to happen."
"Yeah, we've tried everything, but it just seems hopeless," Reefpaw sighed.
"Do you think Salt or Pepper knows a way off this island?" Heathpaw asked, thinking that maybe if he befriended them, they might let him go, or something.
"No way, those two are stuck here the same as us," Grayfur, the only elder whom Heathpaw had seen here, meowed.
"What? They are?" Heathpaw asked with disbelief, if they were stuck on the island themselves, then that meant that they couldn't have been the one who take him here.
"Why does everyone take orders from them then if they don't have the answers?" he asked, instead of voicing his other questions, he would come back to them.
"Because, they're the biggest," Reefpaw answered simply.
"That makes sense I guess," Heathpaw meowed, though it didn't really. He didn't see what a cat's size had to do with their ability to be leader, but he had more important things to worry about.
"So, we've learned that we're all from different clans, with a few exceptions, there are some kittypets here, some loners, some rogues, we're all different ages, there are both toms and she-cats here, and in conclusion, we have absolutely nothing that ties us to each other," Huckleberryfern meowed.
"We're all cats," Reefpaw pointed out.
"Well, yeah, but that's too broad of a range, we need to narrow it down a bit." Huckleberryfern sat down, and curled his tail around his paws. Heathpaw did the same, hoping that discussing this with the other cats, would help him find some answers.
"Umm, has anyone ever done anything they regret? Like putting a rotten fish in their littermate's nest?" Coralpaw asked.
"That was you?" Reefpaw spat with his fur bristled.
"So, you think this was a punishment from StarClan?" Huckleberryfern asked, before Coralpaw had a chance to respond to her brother. So, they believe in StarClan like us too, Heathpaw thought, opening up to the idea of the other clans even more.
"If it's a punishment from StarClan, then why are non-clan cats here? They don't even believe in StarClan," Heathpaw meowed.
"Mothwing doesn't believe in StarClan either, but when they decide to punish RiverClan, she gets punished too," Mintpaw meowed, padding over with Hawk, and a few other cats.
"That's different, Mothwing is actually a clan cat, so of course if her clan got punished, she'd go down with them, since she is a part of the clan that got punished," Heathpaw pointed out.
"Who cares? StarClan is just a bunch of dead fox hearts and mouse brains who think they're better than everyone else, and that we should listen to them, and if we don't, they throw a little temper tantrum!" a white tom with green eyes spat.
Heathpaw stared at him in shock, he had never heard anyone talk so openly against StarClan before. He looked up at the sky, to see if they would make the sun disappear from anger again or something, like in the nursery stories he heard about, but nothing happened. He wondered if StarClan could even reach them out here, wherever they were.
"Maybe we can ask the loners, rogues, and kittypets their thoughts on this," Coralpaw suggested, bringing Heathpaw back to the mission on paw, trying to figure out why they were there.
"I wouldn't bother asking Cricket, she always runs away when we try to talk to her," the white tom meowed.
"Yeah, totally stuck up, that one," a pale silver tom agreed.
"I think she's just scared, I mean, us clan cats can be pretty intimating," Huckleberryfern meowed.
"Cricket isn't stuck up, she's just afraid of clan cats, like Huckleberryfern said, she claims they're too violent," Cider piped up from his spot beside Heathpaw, who suppressed an annoyed sigh, why did he have to follow him around everywhere?
"Oh hello Cider, Twix, I didn't see you two pad up," Huckleberryfern meowed.
"We just got here, we saw a group of you all talking, and we figured it might be interesting," Twix meowed.
"We're trying to figure out why we're here," the pale silver tom meowed, "I'm Silverstorm by the way, for those of you who don't know."
"And I'm Snowdrop," the white tom meowed.
One by one, the cats introduced themselves to each other.
"You said Freespirit was a medicine cat right?" Heathpaw asked.
Reefpaw nodded.
"Yeah, but he's already tried contacting StarClan if that's what you were wondering, and he's gotten no response."
Fear struck through Heathpaw at his words, making him feel sick to his stomach, maybe StarClan really couldn't reach them.
Lost Island Cats
Salt - large white tom with yellow eyes
Pepper - large black she-cat with yellow eyes
Grayfur - elderly dark grey tom with a lighter grey, due to age, muzzle, and green eyes
Huckleberryfern - black tom with green eyes
Cider - golden tom with amber eyes
Twix - light brown tom with amber eyes
Silverstorm - skinny light silver tom with pale blue eyes
Snowdrop - white tom with green eyes
Coralpaw - cream colored she-cat with green eyes
Reefpaw - cream colored tom with green eyes
Mintpaw - brown she cat with light brown paws and tail tip and mint green eyes
Munchkin - red tabby Scottish fold with amber eyes
Mimic - tortiseshell tabby Scottish fold with green eyes
Apple - orange tabby tom with right white forepaw, green eyes, and minimum scarring
Bucktooth - black tom with a tuxedo white spot on his chest; no back claws, deaf is left ear
Hawk That Soars at Midnight (Hawk) - small, lean, white she-cat with pale blue eyes, and scarred shoulders
Artemis - pale, silvery she-cat, with moon-shaped amber eyes and webbed paws
Cricket - small she-cat with mostly black, scraggly, tortoiseshell fur
Freespirit - yellow tom with a red stream running from his forehead to his neck, and dark, almost black eyes
Duskflight - orange she-cat with red streaks and blue eyes
Mapleshine - red she-cat with white-tipped tail and ears, and black paws
Sparkpaw - tan she-cat with a red dash on her chest and blue eyes
Foxkit - orange tom with bright green eyes
Honeykit - yellow she-cat with a light red tipped tail and blue eyes
Heathpaw - small dark brown, black, and white, snowshoe looking tom with blue eyes