CHAPTER ONE
BOOM!
Splash suddenly jerked awake and frantically looked around. The monster den was quiet and nothing was moving; all of the other cats were asleep. She glanced out the window to see a huge flash of light streak across the dark sky followed by another rumble. She shrieked from surprise and leapt to her feet with her fur fluffed up.
"Quiet down!" She turned to see Fluffy peering out of his nest, "Some cats are trying to sleep you know." He seemed unaware of the danger outside.
"Didn't you hear it?" Splash asked, and as if on cue, another boom shook the monster den causing her to flinch.
"What? You mean the storm?"
"Oh," she meowed, feeling embarrassed from being afraid of a storm. She remembered her mother River telling her about storms moons ago.
"Now go back to sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow." Fluffy meowed. Tomorrow the kits would learn to hunt.
Splash curled up in the darkness of her nest and when she was almost asleep, a flash of light jolted the world with brightness and finished with a bang. Splash curled up tighter, her heart beating faster, and tried to fall asleep. Eventually the storm subsided and by that time, Splash was fast asleep.
Pepsi yawned and stretched into a standing position. He looked around at his siblings through the light of dawn. He nudged his brother, "Milkshake, wake up," He didn't wake up, so Pepsi went over to Darth Vader, "Hey are you awake?"
"No," The dark furred tabby rolled over to face the other direction.
"Oh…when will you be awake?" Pepsi asked, not realizing that his brother couldn't be talking and asleep.
"Never,"
"That's too bad," Pepsi meowed disappointedly and padded away. He nudged Splash with no result, "Everyone seems to be tired today," He thought and slipped out the entrance of their nest that was inside a cardboard box and into the monster den.
Pepsi glanced over to Silver who appeared to have just woken up. He was licking his chest fur. Fluffy was drinking some water from the water bowl.
"Have a few bites of cat food before we leave to go hunting," Fluffy meowed and paused to take one last sip, "It will keep your strength up if we don't catch something right away."
Pepsi crunched on a few pieces of "cat food" that the twolegs fed them, but he wasn't hungry and the plain taste of the food wasn't very appetizing with the thought of eating fresh-kill in his mind. As he finished with a drink of water, Splash and Milkshake emerged from the den.
"Is it time to go hunting?" Splash asked impatiently. Milkshake sat down beside Silver.
"As soon as Vader is awake," Silver told her. Splash ran inside the den where the four kits slept and Silver called after her, "If you want some food or water, get it now. I will be waiting outside." Milkshake took a sip of water and followed Silver, Fluffy, and Pepsi out the "cat-door" as Fluffy called it. The morning was still chilly, but the rising sun was quickly warming the world to be the usual heat of a summer day.
The four cats waited only a moment because Splash popped out of the cat-door with Vader close behind. "That was fast," Fluffy commented, receiving a snort from Vader.
"Yeah, it doesn't take long to wake up when a cat jumps on you," Vader muttered, glaring at Splash.
"Well, you were going to be late," Splash meowed matter-of-factly.
Silver began to trot forward into the small woods near their home. When he reached the edge of the woods he paused and meowed, "Today you four are going to learn to hunt. But before we head off into the woods, I am going to give you the basics."
Creeping silently through the brush, Darth Vader spotted a large vole nibbling on something. He moved closer; only a tail's length away, his dark fur blending him in to the shaded pattern of forest floor. Crack! Vader resisted the urge to glance in the direction of the noise.
"Stupid twig," Pepsi breathed, licking his cut paw. The vole looked instantly in the direction of Pepsi and he turned to face a new danger. The last thing he saw was Vader as he pounced and killed the vole in one swift movement.
"You almost chased my prey away!" Vader snapped at Pepsi. He picked his prey up in his jaws and started walking towards where Silver had told them to meet.
"Hey! This is only my first day," Pepsi argued back.
Vader couldn't speak because his mouth was full of the vole he was carrying, but he flashed a look at Pepsi with narrowed eyes and thought, this is my first day too.
Stepping out of sight from Pepsi, who was determined to find prey, Vader scented Fluffy and Silver ahead and hurried toward them, eager to show them his first catch. He glanced to his side and spotted Milkshake through the brush. He dropped his vole and almost called out, but he noticed a plump sparrow hopping curiously only a couple tail-lengths away from Milkshake. He quietly slid closer to get a better view to hopefully watch his brother catch the bird.
He heard it's scream before he saw Milkshake move. Actually, he didn't see Milkshake move. He looked over to the sparrow and saw Splash lift it up in her jaws. He darted forward, "Hey, Milkshake was going to get that!"
Splash and Vader both turned expectantly to Milkshake who seemed somewhat startled, "The sparrow? No I wasn't, I really didn't notice it was there," Milkshake realized how silly that sounded.
Splash gave a proved-you-wrong grin at Vader and then noticed his vole laying on the ground off in the woods, "Is that yours?" He nodded and dashed to retrieve it. She nudged Milkshake out of his thoughts and asked, "Did you really not see the sparrow? Because I didn't mean to take it from you; I thought it was going to take off so I had to catch it."
"No," He replied and after a moment added, "I guess I was just thinking." Vader then passed by, heading in the direction of Silver and Fluffy. The two siblings hurried to follow and spotted Silver and Fluffy just as they stepped out of the woods.
"Silver, Fluffy, it's nice to see you," A pretty orange and gray tortoiseshell she-cat greeted the two cats. Vader, Splash, and Milkshake stepped out of the dense brambles at the edge of the woods and into the Park. The Park was a peaceful area of warm, smooth-rock ground that surrounded a pool of fish, that were known to be off-limits, in a grassy opening. Often cats of the area would gather here to share tongues. "Oh, and you brought kittens too!" She purred with delight.
"Who are you?" Splash asked, dropping her freshly caught sparrow to the ground in front of her and laid down behind it. Darth Vader placed his catch beside hers and laid down as well. Pepsi stumbled out of the woods prey-less and joined the cats.
The friendly she-cat smiled gently, "I am Miss Match. What are your names?" The four young cats recited their names.
"She is an old friend of mine," Silver added to Miss Match's statement. He explained to Miss Match, "These are the kittens the twolegs brought in the spring."
A fluffy, black Persian cat peered up from his nap and Fluffy meowed to him, "Hello, Nightmare, I haven't seen you outside in a long time."
"I thought I would never get him to come out and enjoy the day," Miss Match admitted.
Nightmare flicked his tail lazily, "Where is Sugar?" He scanned the Park, searching for Silver's sister.
Silver glanced down sadly for a moment, "I never told you. She was hit by a monster when she was an apprentice. She died as Goldenpaw of BerryClan." The cats were silent for a moment, mourning for Goldenpaw.
After the cats began to talk again, Milkshake leapt up on the edge of the small pond with fish. He stared into the water and watched the fish in the pool swim, thinking about his dream. A cat jumped up and joined him, he noticed in the pool's reflection it was Splash.
After a moment, Splash meowed, "So what's up? You've been quiet all day."
"I don't know, just thinking I guess." He replied.
"About what?" Splash questioned. He waited to think if he should tell her.
"The clans."
Splash thought about this, "You mean you want to go to them?" Milkshake nodded.
Pepsi and Vader swiftly bounded onto the ledge beside them. Vader pointed his tail past the pool. "Look who's coming," Pepsi meowed. Two cats, not much older than the four cats at the fish pool, padded up to the pool.
"Hey, Turbo and Jack!" Splash called, they had met here once or twice before. The two tom cats quickly joined their friends.
"What's up?" Turbo asked, playfully cuffing Pepsi on the ear. He returned the favor with a friendly shove.
"We learned to hunt today," Splash told him excitedly, stepping back from the two. Turbo tackled Pepsi and was thrown off into the pool, scattering the fish and sending a shower of water on the cats on the ledge followed by many complaints. Vader leapt on Pepsi and they both tumbled in the water. Splash, Milkshake, and Jack hopped off the ledge to avoid any more water and shook their pelts. The cats in the pool wrestled in the shallow water shortly before sloshing and splattering out of the water.
The cats stood shivering in silence for a moment until Pepsi mumbled, "Well, that was fun. Besides the fact that-"
"We're soaked." Vader finished. Though they were wet now, it was not long before the sun dried their fur.
"Anyway, we learned to hunt today," Splash meowed and gestured at their fresh-kill, "I caught the sparrow."
Turbo nodded, "That's cool, I tried to catch a mouse once."
"What happened?" Pepsi wondered eagerly.
"It got away" Turbo replied. Pepsi was disappointed with the story. Turbo glanced to Milkshake, wondering why he had said nothing, and whispered to Splash, "Why is he quiet?"
"He's thinking about the clans; they're wild cats that live in groups in the forest." Splash answered dismissively.
"I met a clan cat once," Turbo began. Milkshake was instantly interested.
After an awkward moment of silence where it seemed Turbo was waiting for someone to ask what happened, Pepsi asked, "And what happened" He was less eager than before because of the turn-out of the story with the mouse.
"I was on a stroll through my yard and I decided to see what was past the monster path that marked the edge of my territory. So I crossed carefully, but there were no monsters in sight and I easily entered the forest there. I was happily wandering through the forest when three big cats came up. They told me they were from So-and-soClan and I had better leave. I told them I would leave when I wanted to. So they told me they were going to have to chase me out, but when they attacked I easily fought them off with one paw behind my back and didn't even get a scratch. They begged for mercy and I was feeling nice that day, so I let them go and I proudly returned to my home."
"But when you came back that day, you had lots of claw marks on you." Jack remarked.
"Why does that matter?" Turbo asked defensively.
Now Pepsi joined in, "You said you didn't even get a scratch."
Turbo frowned. Splash confirmed, "You did."
"And, when I asked what happened that day, you told me you were ambushed." Jack pointed out.
"Well I-" Turbo realized he was defeated, "I guess I exaggerated a little bit."
Vader snorted, "Like you would last a day in the forest."
"You couldn't either!" Turbo retorted.
"Time to go!" Silver called out as he and Fluffy gave their farewell to Miss Match and Nightmare. He padded to the forest and waited for the others.
Splash sighed, "Okay! Bye Turbo and Jack." Vader, Pepsi, and Milkshake joined in too. Turbo said goodbye and padded in the direction of his twoleg den and waited for Jack whose house was adjacent to his. Splash hurried over to Silver and Vader, Pepsi, and Milkshake started to follow, but Milkshake was stopped.
"Hey, Milkshake," Jack meowed softly, "I know a clan cat." Now Milkshake was listening. "Actually, she's my sister. Her name was Freckle. She joined SkyClan as a daylight warrior. Every night, she would come home and tell me about her day. For a long time she was Frecklepaw and was a warrior apprentice. Later she became a medicine cat apprentice."
"What do they do?"
"She told me she learned about herbs of sorts and had a connection with…with StarClan. They were the ancestors of her clan. She became Frecklewish and an official medicine cat. But then her mentor, Echosong, was killed. She started to come back less and less. Now she is a full-time clan member because their leader forced them to choose between being a kittypet or a clan cat."
"Why don't you join her? Where are they?" Milkshake wondered, with so many questions.
"I miss her, but I could never leave my twoleg family and my home." Jack looked off in the distance and point his tail, "See those trees on the horizon, that's where they live. And the two white houses with the red barn; that's mine and Turbo's. We live right on the edge of the forest. If you plan on going to the clans, stop by us. Are you going to the clans?"
"Yes."
