Hello my lovely readers and welcome back to All That Glitters, Angel plushie to everyone who reviewed, followed or favorited!
Meowmix1028 - Glad you liked them! Be patient, all will be revealed in good time.
Crazy Fennec Fox - Yes, yes I did!
Swirlspot - You'll get backstory for them at some point, in the prequel/spinoff I'm planning! Also, nice interpretation of the title, I'm going to pretend that was my reasoning all along.
I've talked enough, here's the chapter!
Though her eyes were heavy with exhaustion and her body ached for the gentle embrace of sleep Magpie could not quiet her racing mind. She lay awake in the unfamiliar nest, staring up at the wooden ceiling upon which the rain pounded.
Magpie, why had she called herself that? She was Magpiepaw wasn't she?
Yet somehow the name had come easily to her lips, rolling off her tongue as though she'd been saying it all her life.
I just don't want to explain about the clans, that's all; Magpie is a more 'normal' name, for them at least. She told herself, twisting into a more comfortable position.
Is it really? A small voice in the back of her head asked, a voice she'd silenced hundreds of times before, a voice that was almost always right.
Yes, of course it is! Why else would I use 'Magpie'? She protested, somewhat feebly, squashing the voice into a dusty corner of her mind but it was too late, the sensible, know-it-all voice had succeeded in sowing the seed of doubt.
Thoughts chased in restless circles through her brain, as she blindly groped for an answer to her question. Slowly, almost without her noticing it, that question changed into something much more serious.
Do I really want to go back home?
Of course I do! My family is there, Mama and Dovepaw and Thrushpaw and all my friends, I can't just forget them. She argued, picturing each smiling face and holding the images in her mind.
That's true but what about the family you've found here? The little voice asked from the shadows.
An image of Mittens' stern face replaced her family's and Magpie found herself remembering all the days she'd spent with the loner. The fights they'd had, the jokes they'd shared, the little moments, Mittens' mother-henning when she'd left Magpie alone for a while. Mittens laughing at her awful jokes or the scornful look that she saved for the worst ones. The two of them waiting out rainstorms in the box, telling stories to drown out the thunder.
Mittens was no longer just a grumpy loner, she was family, somewhere between a loving but stern mother and a disapproving older sister.
Can I really leave her? Magpie asked herself, this time without prompting from the voice. Can I really do that to her? She though of how lonely Mittens looked sometimes, when she thought Magpie wasn't watching.
She doesn't want me back.
That single thought made up the little she cat's mind, she wasn't Magpie and this city wasn't her home. Her home was in Shadowclan, in the shade of the pine trees with her family and her clan.
She was Magpiepaw and she was going to go home.
By then the storm had passed and the clear sky was just starting lighten with the first signs of dawn and the new day. Magpiepaw made her way over to where Angel was sleeping, curled into a ball with her white tipped tail neatly over her nose.
The she cat looked so peaceful with her chest rising and falling gently with the rhythmic breath of someone who is deeply asleep. Magpiepaw almost didn't want to wake her up, almost, this was important, reaching out with a paw she gently poked Angel's side.
"Angel, wake up." Magpiepaw said, nudging the cream she cat again.
"What's up?" The loner asked, surprisingly alert for just before dawn.
"I've changed my mind, I'm sorry to wake you up so early but I really need to get home. Do you know the way to the forest?" The Shadowclan apprentice asked, stepping back to giver Angel some room.
"Yeah, of course I do." Angel replied, smoothing her pelt with a couple of quick licks. "You want to go there?" She asked, surprise showing in her blue eyes.
"That's right, I know it's a long way but I have to get there." Magpiepaw told the older she cat, shifting from foot to foot as she waited for the reply.
"Hey calm down, I believe you, you don't need to get your fur in a twist." Angel smiled, standing up and making her way to the edge of the platform. "It is a long way though so don't take forever coming down like you did going up." She teased, reaching the ground in a couple of leaps.
Magpiepaw followed a little more slowly, placing her paws carefully as she descended, unused to the feeling.
"Hurry up slowpoke!" Angel laughed, from where she was waiting.
"I'm trying, this isn't easy you know." Magpiepaw grumbled, jumping to the ground and giving her shoulders a few indignant licks.
Angel's response was an infuriatingly knowing smile, "here have something to eat first." She said, pushing a mouse towards Magpiepaw and leaning down to take a bite of the sparrow sitting at her paws.
"Thank you, I haven't eaten since yesterday." The black and white she cat acknowledged, gulping the small rodent down in a couple bites.
"No problem, this needed eating anyway. Shall we?" Angel asked, licking the traces of her own meal off her paws and padding towards the door.
Magpiepaw squeezed through the hole after the she cat and followed her through the winding corridors of the large building.
"I don't mean to pry," Angel began as they padded along, "but I was wondering; what made you change your mind so suddenly?"
"I don't know really, I guess I was just thinking about what I wanted and I realized that I wanted to go to the forest." Magpiepaw answered, knowing it wasn't a satisfactory explanation but hoping that Angel would press for details.
She didn't, seeming to sense that Magpiepaw didn't want to talk about it anymore and leaving the matter alone.
The rest of the way was filled with idle chatter about this and that, meaningless things like the weather and prey. In Magpiepaw's case anything would have been good, anything to take her mind off the odd feeling of guilt weighing on her heart.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to review, follow and favorite!
QOTD: Would you want a prequel about Angel, Butch and Mittens?
~ Feathers