Chapter 3: Over the hills and across the twoleg place to ThunderClan we go!
StormClan had been traveling for a full moon cycle, and just as Wildstar predicted, prey became very plentiful. Orangepaw found it hard to follow Moonshine's orders to not stuff herself with the juicy forest prey. "I miss eating eagle." Falconpaw complained to Orangepaw, chomping down on a water vole. Before Orangepaw could respond, Sandclaw growled, "You should be grateful that there is any prey at all down here!" Falconpaw flinched, the sand-pelted warrior was a cat you didn't want to quarrel with. Sandclaw turned his angered gaze to Orangepaw. Orangepaw took a huge mouthful of vole so he wouldn't question her. Sandclaw stalked off to eat with the other warriors. "Falconpaw should really keep his jaws shut huh?" Sunpaw joked quietly to Orangepaw. "I'm just sorry you have him as your mentor." Orangepaw whispered back to the flame-colored tom. "He's not too bad once you get used to him." Sunpaw purred, taking a bite of a freshly-caught sparrow. "Who do you think will be my new mentor?" Orangepaw asked, thinking of the gray warrior that had once been her mentor, Graythorn, who had chosen to stay in the mountains. "I'd think Riverlight or Shellstream." Sunpaw answered, his mouth full of sparrow. Orangepaw nodded in agreement. The two she-cats were the only cats not related to her that had chosen to come. Falconpaw was lucky. Eaglewing, his mentor had changed his mind and caught up with the traveling cats yesterday. Orangepaw stared into nothing. "I miss Graythorn." Orangepaw admitted, laying her head on her paws. Sunpaw looked sympathetic to his clanmate. "I don't know how I'd manage without Sandclaw, no matter how bad tempered that tom is." Sunpaw admitted. Falconpaw trotted back over to his sister and friend to rejoin the conversation. "Yeah I'm just glad Eaglewing came back." Falconpaw meowed, not sounding the least bit sympathetic towards his sister. Orangepaw flicked her tail in annoyance. "Look, while you two talk about how great it is to have your mentors here I'm going to find someone else to talk to." Orangepaw growled, her eyes glimmering with hurt and jealousy before stalking away. Sunpaw shot an angry look at Falconpaw. "Look what you've done!" Sunpaw snarled. Orangepaw stopped for a moment to see how her brother would react. "Hey you talked about Sandclaw, so why shouldn't I have talked about Eaglewing, who had to track us with no guidance." Falconpaw shot back. Orangepaw rolled her eyes and continued on to find Wildstar.
"Time to go." Wildstar curtly announced before leading his cats away into the depths of the forests. Orangepaw tried to avoid her brother and Sunpaw, she had heard enough of their careless boasting. "Great is this what you wanted StarClan? Is this all part of your plan to make me become Moonshine's apprentice?" Orangepaw muttered under her breath. Orangepaw looked behind her searching for Sunpaw's blinding flame-colored pelt among the crowd. Orangepaw instead found Falconpaw: showing no signs of guilt for making her run off. Orangepaw flicked her tail in annoyance and sped up to walk with Wildstar. Wildstar's eyes glimmered with pride. "You're doing well for your size, keeping up with me." Wildstar complemented. Orangepaw's tail shot up in delight. "Thanks!" Orangepaw purred.
Wildstar stopped in his tracks. Orangepaw was caught up with keeping up with her father, matching him paw step per paw-step until he stopped. "Why'd we stop?" Orangepaw panted. "Look." Wildstar meowed grimly, pointing his muzzle ahead. Orangepaw's tail drooped. A twoleg place stood in StormClan's way. "How are we going to get across that?" Orangepaw asked, hoping Wildstar would have a plan. "We'll have to go around." Wildstar announced to the rest of StormClan. The clan groaned in fatigue and disbelief. Sandclaw passed me and muttered crossly, "Stupid twolegs, always messing us up." Eaglewing nodded in agreement. Orangepaw then rushed to catch up with her father, her eyes brimming with determination.
Days had passed with StormClan carefully dodging thunderpaths, twolegs, and dogs. A forest stood in StormClan's path now. "A forest!" Pearlpelt yowled in delight, "I don't think Scorchkit and Cloudkit can handle much more of this." Pearlpelt meowed in concern, staring contently at the fatigued kits. Orangepaw looked doubtfully at the forest, she had lived in the bare mountains so the idea of trees frightened her. She scented the air, her eyes grew wide with alarm. "Wildstar, this forest is taken! I can smell cats from here!" Orangepaw yowled to her father. Wildstar tasted the air and nodded. "That is the scent of ThunderClan."