"Are you sure this is the place?" Whitepaw asked doubtfully. "It's an alley."
"Come on." Frostfur nudged Whitepaw into moving his paws. "I'm sure Cherrypaw knows what she's doing."
Cherrypaw nodded, her tail held high. She padded down the Twoleg alley and halted at the high wooden fence.
"See?" Whitepaw meowed. "A dead end."
"Whitepaw, would you calm down?" Frostfur hissed. "Cherrypaw, where do we go now?"
Cherrypaw cast an annoyed glance at Whitepaw before leaping on top of the fence and looking down at the others. "Up here," she called before hopping down to the soft grass on the other side.
Soon after, the others followed her. Whitepaw gazed around the clearing, taking in all the sights. Cherrypaw felt like boasting to him about her knowledge, but thought better of it.
"Cherrypaw?" a small voice mewed from inside the Threetrees clearing. "Is that you?"
Cherrypaw nodded. "Yes, it's me," she meowed. "I'm here with my friends, Frostfur, Dustcloud, and Whitepaw."
A small tabby she-cat who Cherrypaw recognized as Harriet crept out of the bushes and padded toward them. "Hi!" she greeted warmly. "Snowstorm has told me of you and your home. I'm so excited to meet you!"
The others nodded and Harriet turned around. The cats padded toward the clearing and followed Harriet through the bushes. They crossed the sandy clearing and padded straight out the other side. Cherrypaw was relieved to see a wide stretch of forest covering the area. She hadn't been in a forest for so long; she thought she'd never see one again.
"Not long now," Harriet mewed. "Our home is just beyond the Sycamore."
Cherrypaw looked up to see a giant, looming sycamore tree hovering above all the others. The air was full of birdsong, and she saw millions of bird nests in the branches of the Sycamore.
"Here we are," Harriet called as the cats passed up the Sycamore and climbed down its roots. The roots twisted and swirled down a big rock face, and the cats began climbing down it.
"You climb up here every Gathering?" Dustcloud questioned, stumbling on the loose pebbles.
Harriet giggled. "That's right. You call them Gatherings. We call them Meetings. But yes, we do climb up here every full moon."
"So basically," Frostfur began, "you and your Packs are almost exactly like the forest Clans, except completely different."
Harriet nodded. "Basically."
When the group reached the bottom of the huge rock, Harriet made a sharp left. Cherrypaw followed her, gazing up at the huge, towering pine trees. She breathed in the familiar forest smells of wood mouse and squirrel, mouth watering with the need for fresh-kill.
Finally, a big barrier of weaved twigs and leaves came into view. Cherrypaw assumed it was the Coal Pack home.
Harriet led the RainClan and LightClan cats up to the barrier and meowed, "It's us, Sugar. Harriet and the others."
A large, golden she-cat who looked like Goldenheart looked down from a tall stump and nodded. "Go on," she meowed.
Harriet ducked under a small opening in the boundary and slipped into the home. Cherrypaw and the others followed her into a dusty clearing dotted with cats. Cherrypaw instantly scented fresh-kill and Snowstorm among the cats.
"Welcome," a voice meowed calmly from across the clearing. Cherrypaw recognized the voice as Speck.
The tortoiseshell padded up to the group of cats. "Thank you, Harriet," she mewed in thanks. "You can help yourself to some kill."
Harriet nodded and dashed over to the pile of fresh-kill. Then, Speck turned to the other cats again. "You must be Frostfur, Dustcloud, and Whitepaw. I've heard a lot about you in the past few hours."
Cherrypaw cocked her head to one side. "Hours?"
Speck chuckled. "Never mind," she purred. "Come on, Snowstorm's in my room."
As the cats followed Speck to the First's…room, Dustcloud whispered to Cherrypaw, "These cats know so many more terms than we Clan cats do."
Cherrypaw nodded and followed Speck around a tree stump and through a tunnel of ferns. The tunnel opened up to a small, fern-covered clearing with a mossy nest in the middle of it. Snowstorm was munching on a thrush near the corner of the den.
Snowstorm looked up from her food. "Oh, you found them," she mewed to Cherrypaw. "These cats are so interesting; I think Skyfeather would love to be here with us."
Cherrypaw nodded, eyeing the fresh-kill enviously. "Speck," she started, "do you mind if I go out and hunt for a bit?"
Speck shook her head. "Of course not," she replied. "Go feed yourself."
Cherrypaw eagerly leaped out of the "room" and trotted to the centre of the clearing. It was alive with the Pack cats, and one group of cats padded up to her.
"Are you hunting?" one cat, a small, golden, green-eyed cat mewed. "Can we go with you?"
Cherrypaw nodded. "Sure."
"I'm Feather," the gold she-cat mewed. "I heard that you're Cherrypaw."
"Yes, I am," Cherrypaw responded. "Who are you?" Cherrypaw gestured with her tail at another white she-cat with light brown ears and flecks.
"This is my teacher, Seaspray," Feather introduced.
"Teacher?" Cherrypaw echoed. "We call teachers mentors in my Clan."
Seaspray nodded. "Snowstorm has told us everything."
The three cats trotted out of the Coal Pack home and padded around through the undergrowth, scenting out prey.
Cherrypaw scented a shrew and caught it swiftly. She dropped it in front of the others and buried it, hoping they were impressed.
But when Cherrypaw looked up, Seaspray was bunching her leg muscles together and took a giant leap up at a tree. A rather shocked starling fluttered its wings, but couldn't escape Seaspray's powerful grip. The small fighter leaped up the branch and flipped around it, landing nimbly on the ground, the starling dead in her jaws.
"That was amazing!" Cherrypaw exclaimed. "Where did you learn to jump like that?"
"Every cat in our Pack has a specialty," Feather replied. "Seaspray's is jumping. That's why her name is Seaspray. Waves of the sea can splash really high on the rocks of Cliff Peakson. My name is Feather, because I'm light and fast, like a feather on the wind."
"Cliff Peakson?" Cherrypaw echoed, puzzled.
"It's just around this ravine," Seaspray meowed, burying her starling in the earth. "I suppose Harriet took you down the ravine?"
Cherrypaw nodded.
"If you made a right instead of a left, you would have seen Cliff Peakson."
The three went on hunting for some time. Seaspray taught Feather how to catch birds from the sky, and Cherrypaw watched intently. Snowstorm hadn't taught her how to catch birds from the sky yet.
The patrol collected their fresh-kill and headed back to the Coal Pack home. When they made it there, Seaspray indicated the pile of fresh-kill and told Cherrypaw to drop off the prey there.
Cherrypaw chose the starling Seaspray had caught from the pile and padded over to where Snowstorm, Speck, and Butterfly were seated below a mass of crumbling rocks.
"How'd the hunt go?" Speck asked.
"Rather well," Cherrypaw replied. "You're territory has lots of prey."
Butterfly nodded. "That's why we chose to stay here."
Cherrypaw thought back to what Feather had told her. Butterfly was probably quick in the air as well, like butterflies. But what would Speck's name mean?
As the sun slowly sank down the sky, turning the clouds a brilliant pink and orange, the Pack cats began to share tongues and pad to their rooms for the night.
"You and your warriors may sleep in the fighters' room," Speck meowed. "It's the clump of nettles over there." The tortoiseshell pointed with her black tail-tip to the nettle clump across the clearing.
Snowstorm thanked Speck formally and the five Clan cats padded over to the fighters' den. Cherrypaw poked her head inside to see Bella and Sugar toward the middle, and Star and Seaspray along the edge.
The Clan cats each chose their own spots to sleep, Cherrypaw settling down next to Seaspray.
What a day, Cherrypaw thought, resting her head on her paws and wrapping her tail across her muzzle. I can't wait to tell Skyfeather everything.
A/N: Gah, I never meant to compare Snowstorm to fresh-kill...O.o
Why do the Pack cats know all these human terms????? Find out in the next chapter! (Coming soon to a theatre near you.)
(Not really.)