Echoes of the Past: Chapter One
MISTYPAW
"Look at this mouse I caught!" Mistypaw held up a fairly large wood mouse to show her mentor, Nightstripe.
"Wow," he looked at the rodent, "that'll feed all of Blizzardfur's kits!" Mistypaw purred at Nightstripe's praise. She knew this was a rare thing from her not-so-easily impressed mentor, so when he gave compliments, he really meant it.
"Now sniff the air, and tell me which animals you smell," he told her, and she opened her mouth to take in the air.
She tilted her head and sniffed with her nose this this time. "I smell squirrel, rabbit and a couple of voles.
He nodded and looked up at the sky, where the sun was low towards the earth and was coloring the sky around it pink and orange. "We better get back to camp. It's getting a bit late, and there's a Gathering tonight."
"There is? Do I get to go?" Mistypaw looked up at him with her shining blue eyes.
Nightstripe let out a small meow that sounded like laughter. "Maybe. I'll talk to Fernstar about it."
"Yay!" Mistypaw bounded up the hill to her camp, which was in the middle of a wooded area that overlooked a moor. Feeling the wind ruffle her blue-gray fur, she padded through the fern tunnel that led into Breeze Tribe's camp.
"Hi, Mistypaw!" Lilypaw, Mistypaw's sister, greeted her. She was training to be a scout with her mentor Dawnfur.
"Hi, Lilypaw! How was scout training?" Mistypaw asked her sister, who responded immediately.
"Oh, it was great! We ran around the whole territory. I'm really tired, though. How was your hunter training?"
Mistypaw gave her white chest fur, which was stick up, a lick. "It was good! Look at this mouse!" She gestured with her paw to the large mouse she had set next to her. "I caught this today!"
Lilypaw looked impressed. "Wow. That's the biggest mouse I've ever seen!"
"That's what I told her," Nightstripe walked up behind his apprentice.
"Nightstripe, what took you so long?" Mistypaw teased.
"I was talking to Fernstar about the Gathering tonight," he meowed.
Mistypaw perked up. "Do I get to go?"
Nightstripe purred, "Yes, you get to go."
"Yay!" Mistypaw jumped in the air, her tail flicking from one side to the other. "I'm so excited! I can't wait to meet the other Tribe's cats!"
Lilypaw grinned next to her. "You'll like it." At the last Gathering, Lilypaw had gone, but Mistypaw couldn't because she had caught whitecough.
"Who else is going?" Mistypaw asked her mentor.
Nightstripe flicked his ear. "I'm not sure, you'll have to wait for Fernstar's announcement. In the meantime, why don't you give that mouse to Blizzardfur and her kits and then get something to eat."
Mistypaw nodded and picked up her mouse to give it to the queen and her three kits. She padded through the camp, stopping in front of the nursery. She brushed the moss hanging in front of the entrance aside with her tail and stepped into the den.
"Oh, hello, Mistypaw!" The oldest queen, Maplewhisker, flicked her tail in greeting.
Mistypaw dipped her head and made her way over to where Blizzardfur and her kits were.
"Oh, my! Is that mouse for me? Thank you!" Blizzardfur looked at the mouse as the apprentice set it down softly next to her.
"You're welcome," Mistypaw told the queen. She left the nursery as Blizzardfur started to eat. She ran over to the fresh-kill pile in the middle of camp and grabbed a squirrel (her favorite).
"Hi, guys," Mistypaw mewed as she plopped down next to Lilypaw, who was sharing a large rabbit with her scout apprentice friend Spiritpaw and his sister Creampaw.
"Hi, Mistypaw!" Creampaw her voice sounded muffled with a face full of rabbit.
"Hey," Spiritpaw flicked his ears in acknowledgment.
Lilypaw looked over at her sister. "Ah, squirrel. Your favorite, huh?"
Mistypaw smiled. "You know me so well!" It was true. Even though the sisters were opposites in personality, with Mistypaw being bubbly and outgoing and Lilypaw being serious and practical, and they looked nothing alike, but they were as close as can be.
"Hey, look over there," Creampaw gestured with her paw. Silversky and Mudfoot were sharing tongues with each other next to Mistypaw and Lilypaw's parents, Petalfall and Heronwing.
"Ooh," Mistypaw looked at the two cats and giggled. "The nursery's pretty full, and Jaystripe's going to have her kits soon..."
Icepaw came just then. "Hello, littermates and friends!"
Spiritpaw smiled. "Hi, Icepaw. How was warrior training?"
"It was fun! I fell on my back a few times and my foot hurts a little bit, but that happens. Dapplefur checked my foot out and she said I'm fine." Icepaw told his brother as he picked out a blackbird from the fresh-kill pile, which was growing gradually now that leafbare was over and newleaf was here.
"Tribe members, gather around!" Fernstar's voice could be heard from the Oak Stump. Mistypaw swallowed the last bit of her squirrel and sat down near the base of the Oak Stump, her tail twitching. "I will be taking Grayclaw, Dapplefur, Dawnfur, Duskwing, Ashpelt, Sunpatch, Heronwing, Mudfoot, Darktail, Nightstripe, Ravensong, Wolfstrike, Robinwing, Mistypaw, Spiritpaw and Creampaw to the Gathering with me. We leave soon. Thank you." With that, Fernstar leapt from the huge stump at the front of the camp and every cat went back to doing what they were doing before.
Mistypaw was practically bouncing with excitement. She was going to her first Gathering! She paced around as Lilypaw told her repeatedly to calm down while she waited to go with everyone else to the Gathering.
"So this is your first Gathering?" Spiritpaw started a conversation just as everyone was about to leave.
"Yes, and I'm really excited!" Mistypaw's tail twitched and she accidentally hit her friend in the shoulder. "Oh, sorry."
Spiritpaw smiled. "It's fine."
"Alright, Breeze Tribe members! Let's get going!" Fernstar told them, and they made their way to the Gathering spot in the middle of the Tribe territories.
