Wow, long time, eh? My computer is broken, sorry... Oh and turns out Ravenpaw is like... 5, so there isn't as big an age gap as I thought. This takes place... about a year after Sunrise.. or something. I haven't decided. Oh and I know I don't need to ask, but would you mind if (if ever I complete this) I did a sequel starring an OC? He'll be a more important character later (he hasn't even shown up yet ;D).
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Hollyleaf pressed her nose into the old tom's side. The former rise and fall of the chest had faded, though a ragged breath would occasionally run through the tom... but it was happening less and less.
"How old is he?" Hollyleaf had asked.
Ravenpaw just shrugged. "Old, really old."
The tom had been quite, and Hollyleaf could tell he was grieving. The poor tom... this was all he'd know for a very long portion of his life. She could relate...
The young she-cat shook her head, "there is nothing I can do..." she mewed pitifully, looking at her paws. Suddenly she noticed the cold winter air and a shiver went through her spine. She had failed... again.
"He's gone. He'll be dead by moonhigh," she muttered dryly.
Hollyleaf know she would have to leave, eventually. It wasn't bad living the the kittypets. Even Ash warmed up to her a little. The dog grew to ignore her. She was allowed in the twoleg nest and sported a new collar around her neck. It was bright green with a shining pink heart tag (with out twoleg symbols on it). She couldn't stand it, but it was worth the food. The place was crawling with mice, apparently no one really liked hunting.
Sometimes it was hard to think how these cats were... well, cats. Ash spent her time on the twolegs lap, Star sleeping... Spider she could relate too, at least a little. He would run around the yard and engage in playfights with the others (though they usually weren't very happy about that). And then there was Patch...
Patch was an extremely large black and white tom. He was friendly, and was fun to talk too, but he didn't do much besides eat and sleep.
Though her life was comfortable... it felt wrong and awkward. One conversation with Spider went like this.
"So... have you and Star had any kits yet?" she asked him.
To her shock Spider laughed.
"What's so funny?" she asked, eyes narrow.
"Of course not, I've been to the vet! Can't you smell it on me?" he asked with a tilt of his head.
Hollyleaf shook her head, "no... I can't..."
"Sure 'ya can Holly, do I smell like forest cats?" he asked, grinning. The tom never ceased to surprise her. He was happy he could never father kits?
Slowly she swung her great head from side to side. "You smell like twolegs, and kittyp- house cat food... and like a kitt- house cat..."
Spider rolled his yellow eyes, "anyway, have you had any kits?"
"No... it didn't seem right to me... and there were no toms in my clan that caught my eye..."
The black she-cat snuggled into Ravenpaw, trying to keep from the bitter cold. The old tom (she had never learned his name, and Ravenpaw wasn't about to tell) had died two nights ago, and she had grown to love the barn. It wasn't her forest, but it was more comfortable then the twoleg-place.
She still didn't know what to think of Ravenpaw, he was very distraught over his friends death, and cold towards her.
The snow was so deep the cats had to jump to get around, and they rarely left the barn. Morning sunlight was barely illuminating the haystacks as the two cats stirred.
Hollyleaf's green eyes fluttered open first and she prodded Ravenpaw awake, mostly to annoy him. She could understand his grieving, but if it wasn't for her it seemed he wouldn't ever do anything, not even eat!
Am I the only thing keeping him alive? the thought pleased her... this tom was something to take care of...
Ravenpaw swore under his breath as he stood up. His dark pelt blending in with the shadowy barn.
"Was that needed?" grumbled the tom.
Hollyleaf smirked. "Mm... yeah, I think it was..."
Ravenpaw sighed, and padded out into the cold snowy dawn, Hollyleaf just pawsteps behind. The scents were all masked, but the she-cat smiled, "want to hunt?"
"The mice are all in the barn... we won't find anything out here," he stated as he sat down, his legs and tail covered in the snow.
Hollyleaf sighed.
"It's so different than in the forest..."
The tom tilted his head, "forest? I thought ShadowClan lived in a marsh?"
Hollyleaf was silent, unsure of what to say, had she just let it slip she was a ThunderClan cat? But then it occurred to her that ShadowClan did live in a forest. A pine forest, but still.
"Maybe, in the old territory, we lived in a marsh. However, when we moved to the lake the closest thing was a pine forest..." she meowed.
"Mm, well alright," Ravenpaw meowed.
Hollyleaf saw him fidgeting, as if he was nervous or cold. Snow was again falling, the white flakes drifting down slowly. She feared that soon they would have to stay in the barn.
Suddenly the tom leapt to his paws, and pounced at the snow. Hollyleaf let out a mrrow of laughter as she joined him. It was fun, playing in the snow, it reminded her of being a kit. Of playing in the den with Jayfeather and Lionblaze the queens watching over them. She felt a pang of grief as she thought of her brothers. If ever there was a reason to go back to the clans... but no. They didn't understand her, they never would.
A heavy weight against her side snapped her back to reality, and she tumbled over with an omph! Ravenpaw had tripped and crashed into the she-cat, sending her back several feet.
Dazed she got to her paws, glaring over at the black tom.
"Sorry!" he purred. He didn't sound the least bit sorry...
She narrowed her eyes and pounced, landing on top of the black tom.
The playfight lasted a few more minutes before Ravenpaw darted into the barn. Hollyleaf followed him taking a look over her shoulder at the snow.
"Your tooth is chipped!" mowed Holly in surprise, looking at the fat tom. This wasn't what she had expected from a kittypet. Though he was the definition of a tame kitty now, he had been quite the fighter, it seemed. Patch's ears were torn, and he had many scars under his thick fur.
He was old, old enough to be an elder.
"Holly," he meowed, "something is bothering you... Spider doesn't seem to notice but... tell me, where did you live before coming here."
Holly gulped.
"Well I... lived on the streets for awhi--" she was cut off.
"The truth, Holly."
She blinked, had her lies been that transparent? "I lived," her eyes misted over and she looked away, "I lived in a l-large group of cats, called a Clan. Th-there are four clans ar-around a big lake... "
She went on explaining about the clans, until she got to the part about her mother.
"The code meant so much to me... and the fact that I was against it... that the fact of being alive was a total break in the code... it was too much. I cracked. After they found out about me killing Ashfur... well I-I..." she had to stop for a moment to regain her composure.
"I ran off and into these tunnels, but they collapsed... a-and I... I was nearly dead but I pushed my self as hard as I could and made it out somewhere in WindClan..." she sighed. "I dragged myself as far as I could away, and used the training I'd had to heal my wounds... But I was shattered, y'know. I couldn't go on like that. I tried to keep myself in check, and I brought myself far away from the clans, my home, my brothers, my friends. If I had gone back...
"Maybe they would have let me stay, and maybe I could still be with my brothers. I fear that I would have caused them more damage, though....
"Patch, I'm ashamed of what I did, but it's too late to do anything about it now, and I'm glad Ashfur can't harm anyone anymore."
She had expected the old tom to be angry at her, but he just nodded.
"You've been through a lot for such a young cat. I had thought Ash had... but it seems her misfortune was not nearly as... depressing, though just as horrible in it's own right. Though it is misfortune of another kind, Ash's," he meowed.
"What happened to her?" asked Holly.
"The twolegs found her and her sister when she was a mere kit, not yet weaned. Their mother, had been taken away and they would have died had it not been for our housefolk.
"Flower was a hyper kit, spending her time playing with me and Shade (we'll get to him in a moment), Ash was sickly and preferred to sleep. Ash and Shade connected right away, and when he was keeping Flower entertained he was with Ash...
"I'm sure you've seen Star and Spider, imagine that, but twice as strong. The two were inseparable.
"But, a little while back Shade got sick, it was sudden and violent, and he died the same night... Ash hasn't been the same since then," he finished.
Hollyleaf dropped a mouse in front of Ravenpaw, "eat it." she meowed.
Sighing, the tom took it in his mouth. Sinking his teeth into the soft flesh. "Who are you to tell me what to do?" he asked, taking another mouthful.
Hollyleaf sighed. "A cat who doesn't want you to starve." She took a bite of her own mouse, a fat gray creature. It wasn't any sort of challenge to catch the barn animals. They would blindly come to eat the hay, and then she would pounce. Forest mice seemed much smarter.
"Why do care if I starve?" he chuckled.
She thought about it a moment, "because if you starve I'll be stuck in this barn with no one to talk to, and I'd go crazy with boredom."
"Fair enough," he meowed.
The two black cats continued talking until the sky grew dark and Hollyleaf started to yawn. She licked the cat's ear and curled into a ball. "'Night Ravenpaw," she yawned, and drifted into sleep.
Suddenly she was in a dark forest, there was a cool mossy ground beneath her paws, and a half-moon glinted above. In the distance there was a shadow of a small cat.
"Where am I exactly?" asked a voice Hollyleaf knew, if only she could place it?
"I have no clue," she meowed teasingly, her voice echoed.
The cat was in sight now, he was a small gray tabby with gleaming blue eyes.
Hollyleaf gasped, "Jayfeather?!"
She darted over to the tom, "oh I'm so glad to see you!"
Jayfeather looked the matted, scarred she-cat over.
"Who are you?" he asked, backing away.
"Jayfeather, don't tell me you don't know!" she cried, looking at him pleadingly (apparently he could see in his dreams).
"I don't." he meowed with a hint of confusion.
Hollyleaf mewed in anguish. "I spend half of my time thinking of how I miss you and Lionblaze and you don't recognize me!?" her green eyes burned into the tom as she let out a hiss.
She turned around and ran into the forest.
"Wait!" cried Jayfeather.
"Hollyleaf, are you OK? You're yowling..."
Her eyes opened to the barn.
Is this the last we'll see of Jayfeather? Probably not.
I hope this chapter is OK, it would have been longer... if I felt like writing....
A super special awesome thanks to Ash, who is laying on my arm and preventing me from typing well. And hissing when I try to get her off.
Oh and to Patch, and Spider, who gave me something to pet while writing this.
Of course Star didn't help at all...