ok: here is chapter 2!
chapter 3 and 4 are already ready... but since I have exams at school... (sigh~ yes school school and school) I won't have anytime to write chapter 5! (only in about 3 or 4 weeks.)
ps: I'll publish 3 and 4 later this week or the next.
oh and: feel free to review! (please?)
Chapter 2
The moonlight was illuminating the moor and reflecting on the lake. The landscape seemed almost to be part of a dream, although he knew it wasn't. He was sitting on the top of a hill, looking down at the night scenery. He closed his eyes trying to enjoy the tranquility, but each time he just couldn't forget it. Everything: especially the suspicious glances from his Clanmates. He looked up at the stars shining in the dark sky. What do I do? he asked himself StarClan help me find the courage to face it all again sunrise after sunrise!
Half-WindClan and Half-ThunderClan. It definitely wasn't easy to be born outside the Warrior Code. No Clan wanted mixed blood, no Clan wanted to be betrayed. Betrayed? He would always be loyal to his Clan, but to which Clan? He never felt welcome in WindClan and he had no chance of going to ThunderClan, not to mention that Acornstar hated everything that wasn't pure ThunderClan.
He sighed. All that thinking made his head hurt. He stayed there, feeling the gentle wind brushing his fur. Trying to make his worries blow away with the breeze.
Breeze again. His father's name was Breezefur. His mother's name was Heatherleaf. She was a very gentle she-cat, always caring for the Clan but since the truth had been found out… she was treated like an outcast in her own Clan, and so were her two kits: his brother and him.
He got to his paw and began walking. He suddenly found himself along the ThunderClan border. He didn't remember how he got there but there he was… looking at the territory his father was living in. He tried to imagine himself constantly with a tree above his head. He quickly chased the idea, he didn't like to think about life in another Clan-especially ThunderClan. Then he decided to follow the border down to the lake. Keeping in the shadows so he wouldn't be seen, he walked silently.
As the lake appeared before his eyes, he heard a noise on the other side of the border. He dived in a bush and stayed still, listening to see if the sound would repeat. After a while of complete silence, except for the gentle ripples of the lake, he scrambled to his paws. But much too his surprise, he saw a small cat sitting by the shore and staring up to the sky, its fur shining with the moonlight.
He approached but unfortunately he kicked in a pebble and it made a terrible noise, rolling down into the water. The she-cat turned around and they stayed, looking at each other. She probably was an apprentice, just a little younger than him. He couldn't help but stare at her beautiful fur, bathed in the moonlight. Then she got up and disappeared where she had come from, the depths of the ThunderClan territory.
"Wetpaw, wake up!"
He heard his mentor, Blossomtail, calling for him. He scrambled to his sleepy paws, then stretched himself with a yawn.
"Coming!" he mumbled. He looked around and realized he had overslept as he saw the sun already up in the sky. Most of the nests where empty. He quickly washed the dirt from his fur and padded to his mentor.
Blossomtail was waiting for him near the camp's entrance. "You are late, come on we have to go hunting." she mewed before calling the other member of the patrol.
"Sorry." he murmured. It's not surprising if I hardly slept he told himself, thinking of the cat he had saw. The moonlight had made her fur shine. He shook his head, trying to put his night adventure at the back of his mind.
"We have to go hunting with him?"
Wetpaw turned around to see the most annoying cat he knew, an older apprentice named Sedgepaw. The apprentice was a pain, hot-headed, and not able to accept Wetpaw and his brother in the Clan. Runningwind, Sedgepaw's mentor as well as WindClan's deputy, sighed and did as if he hadn't heard.
The patrol left the camp and stopped on a hill near the edge of the forest. Sedgepaw, who had stayed as far as possible from Wetpaw, mewed as he passed near him. "Oh, the forest… Are you sure you don't want to hunt over there?"
Wetpaw tried to resist his urge to claw the apprentice's ears off. He followed his mentor and together, they killed a hare, though he hadn't managed to catch a blackbird. He kept doing stupid mistakes as he couldn't concentrate. Moonlight kept filling his mind. Finally, he caught two mice. Mice… he told himself. He tries to put the thought at the very back of his mind, but Sedgepaw never missed an occasion to point out such things. The apprentice narrowed his eyes as he saw Wetpaw. "Mice? I guess these suit you better." Blossomtail and Runningwind exchanged a look but kept silent. Everyone then picked the fresh-kill and carried it back to the camp.
Wetpaw felt his Clanmates gaze as he put the mice at the top of the fresh-kill pile. He did as if he hadn't notice and went to see if his brother was in the camp. He found him alone, eating a sparrow.
"Hi Rainpaw." he mewed, then added purring: "I thought you never ate birds because the feathers always give you hard time."
Rainpaw snorted. "I was starving and Molefur let me took something small from the fresh-kill pile. Though you are right." he said spitting feathers "Birds are too much trouble." Wetpaw purred even louder.
He settled down beside his brother and watched him hassle with the small sparrow. Again he felt himself loosing in his thoughts. Moonlight.. Suddenly he felt Rainpaw poke him with his claws.
"Hey!" he mewed.
"You were daydreaming." replied Rainpaw, washing his gray mottled fur. "I asked you if you were going to the gathering tonight."
"The gathering?"
Rainpaw lashed his tail. "Don't tell me you forgot, today there is a full moon. Remember?"
That's why there was so much moonlightrealized Wetpaw. "Yes I know, I know... You don't need to make a fuss about it."
"So?"
"Blossomtail told me nothing about it. But I'd like to go, after all we weren't allowed last time. I guess we have to feel delighted that we were allowed the first." grinned Wetpaw.
"Well, I have no intention of missing the third!" declared Rainpaw.
They continued chatting until his brother heard Molefur calling him. Wetpaw watched him pad up to his mentor. Rainpaw then came back and said: "We are on cleaning duty."
"Great." murmured Wetpaw. Taking care of the elders was one of the annoying duties that apprentices had to do.
"But Molefur also told me that we are both going to the gathering tonight!" mewed Rainpaw, excited.
"I'm glad you can!" mewed a cat behind them. They turned around to see Daisypaw, Windclan's medicine cat apprentice.
Daisypaw took a step forward. "I wanted to tell you that already did the ticks this morning, you only have to take care of the nests." she told them. "And If you have time… Could you also get some moss for us? We hardly have any left in our stock."
"No problem." mewed Wetpaw.
"And thanks for taking care of the ticks!" added Rainpaw.
"It wasn't really much. It was great being of any help!" answered Daisypaw. "I have to go get some dock leaves now, or Whitwhisker will get mad at me!" Her mentor, Whitwhisker, was known to have no patience at all.
Daisypaw was Sedgepaw sister, but she always kind and cared for everyone. They watched the golden apprentice exit the camp just as Breezstar's patrol, that has left earlier to check the ThunferClan border, came back. Breezestar was a brown tabby she-cat with blue eyes, and was his mentor's sister. She stopped in the middle of the clearing, followed by Poppyflower, who was Whitwhisker's sister, and Strawfur, Sedgepaw's father.
The conversations stopped, everyone was focused on the patrol. The only queen, Squirrelfur -Runningwind's sister- put her tail protectively around her two kits, Flamekit and Amberkit. Molefur, her mate, sat next to her. Breezestar climbed on the Tallrock, where the leaders made their announcement, and mewed: "Let all the cats old enough to catch a hare gather here beneath the Tallrock for a Clan meeting."
Most of the cats where already there, except the elders, Browneye, Fogtail and Dappleflower, who emerged from the badger set which was their den. Runningwind took his usual place, by the base of the rock.
"It seems that ThunderClan is trying to provoke us." began Breezestar. Everyone mewed in agreement. "I have asked Runningwind to increase our patrols on their border, but I do not want any confrontation. No Thunderclan cat has crossed our border and we don't know if they will." Some cats seemed to disagree, but they kept silent.
"We mustn't act concerned, especially tonight at the gathering. That would only give them too much satisfaction. And for the gathering, the cats who are going are: Runningwind; Harefoot; Blossometail; Poppyflower; Molefur; Strawfur; Sunnyberry; Bluecloud; Sedgepaw; Wetpaw and Rainpaw."
Some cats turned to look at Wetpaw and Rainpaw with their suspicious gaze but they didn't contest Breezestar's choice. Wetpaw looked at his mother, a gray she-cat with darker flecks. Since she had had kits, Heatherleaf had never been to a gathering again. She was looking at Rainpaw and him with pride in her green eyes. The meeting broke up once it was finished and some cats returned to their duties while other stayed in small cluster, speaking in low voices.
"We still have to collect moss and begin cleaning." reminded him Rainpaw.
Wetpaw sighed and made his way to the camp entrance, mewing: "We'd better get going, then."
To collect moss, they needed to go near Moonpool stream, in the forest. While rolling the moss in small balls so it would be easier to transport, Wetpaw thought yet again at the apprentice he had seen.
"I wonder if there are new apprentices from last time we went." he mewed.
Rainpaw looked at him. "You mean to the gathering? I guess. This past moon, I've met during border patrols apprentices from both ThunderClan and RiverClan who I hadn't seen before. Yesterday, for example."
"Yesturday? During the border patrol you were in?"
"Yup." answered Rainpaw, his mew muffled because of the mossball he had just picked. "I also saw Breezefur." he added, starting to walk back to the camp. Wetpaw, carrying his own mossball, followed him. He wanted to ask more questions but he knew that Rainpaw hated to talk about their father. Yet again he wondered how long the burden of their birth was going to follow them.