Chapter 8

Hailpaw followed Quickclaw out of the clearing, the moon was halfway down the sky and this was the second night in a row Hailpaw had been out late. Quickclaw had stopped to pick up some herbs on the way, which had caused even more time to be lost; when they got back it was almost dawn.

Hailpaw shuffled to his nest in the medicine cat's den and lay down, letting himself slip into sleep.

Hailpaw awoke in a clearing not unlike the one he had just visited, the moon and stars lit it up and it seemed to be glowing, Hailpaw saw many cats staring at him, one was his mother, Scarletpelt, who had been killed in battle a few days before his apprentice ceremony.

"Hailpaw, we urge you to stop." Said a cat his voice crackled like dead leaves, "StarClan are here, in the flesh to stop you from joining with Fell."

Hailpaw found he could speak in this place, and stared at the cats. "Why?" He asked. Many of the others turned and whispered to each other, but the cat stayed still.

"Because what Fell's planning is wrong, the other cats in that circle are not right in the head, ever since she became in touch with them, they started losing their minds. But you are sane still, so I urge you, please don't go on with her plans."

Hailpaw found himself shaking his head, and all the cats turned to the speaker.

"Fell has already messed with his mind." They meowed.

Rainfall padded through ShadowClan's territory, it was a day after the meeting with Fell, and since then he had been wondering through other Clans' territory, looking for any cats willing to pick a fight with him. So far there had been none.

Suddenly he heard soft footsteps behind him, he whirled around and saw a young black she-cat padding through the trees, her eyes were a luminous blue and her fur looked soft. Rainfall found himself breaking a stick as loud as he could to get her attention. She turned around quickly, saw him, then charged.

Rainfall could hardly think of what to do before she bashed into him, he pushed her off him quickly.

"Calm down. I am no threat to your Clan." He lied. The she-cat narrowed her eyes, giving him a cute confused look.

"I can't scent any Clan on you, which means you're a loner, right?" She asked. He nodded,

"I travel around a lot and heard about the Clans, I heard ShadowClan was the bravest and fiercest of them all, so I thought maybe I could visit…" He trailed off thoughtfully. The she-cat glared at him,

"I'm not going to fall for that! You could attack our Clan at any given time if I take you there!" She hissed.

"Can you smell any hostility on me? Can you find anything about me at all that seems dangerous?" He meowed, she nodded.

"The way you threw me off you when I attacked you, that was a move taught by the Clans." She meowed, Rainfall swore silently, hastily coming up with another lie.

"My mother's mother was from the Clans and taught my mother about them, that's how I know about them, and she taught me everything I know, but I had no idea that move was a Clan move, intriguing." He explained smoothly, the she-cat still looked suspicious,

"I see." She mewed, "I guess it couldn't hurt to show you the camp, because even if you try something, you'll be ripped apart by the other cats." With a shrug, the she-cat beckoned him forward with her tail and trotted through the woods.

"By the way, what's your name?" She asked, glancing at him sideways.

"Rainfall, sounds a bit like a Clan name I guess, my mother truly believed in the warrior code so I guess she wanted her kits to be like her. What's your name?" Rainfall meowed.

"Dogpaw." The she-cat said, Rainfall couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"Dogpaw!? What a horrible name for such a pretty she-cat!" He chuckled; Dogpaw gave him a look as if trying to decide whether to take his exclamation as a compliment or an insult.

"I like my name actually! I'm called Dogpaw because when I was a kit, a dog invaded our camp, and went into the nursery, and I hissed at it and it ran away! It shows how brave I was, even as a kit!"

"Dogs are very stupid animals and cats are wrongly scared of them." Said Rainfall jokingly.

"Yes well, rain is useless and has no meaning other than to make us wet." Dogpaw countered, making fun of Rainfall's name instead.

"I object! Without rain, the forest would die and all the prey would run out!" Rainfall announced proudly, Dogpaw gave him a bemused glance,

"You're saying the forest would die without you." She muttered, and Rainfall nodded dramatically. They both laughed, and Rainfall felt as if this was the first time a cat had spoken to him and not been scared, angry or hostile, and it felt nice.

The two cats continued like this, joking around until they arrived at the ShadowClan camp entrance, and Dogpaw stopped.

"Wait. I'm not so sure about this anymore. I could get in trouble for bringing you here." She mewed, as if the thought had just occurred to her. "Where do you actually come from, I need to know before we go in."

"I come from over those mountains, the ones full of snow, I travelled through them to get here." Rainfall meowed. "I used to live near a river there, but twolegs came to tear it up, and I had to leave. I remembered my mother's tales of the Clans, and I decided to visit them." He lied, making up his story as he went along.

"I see, sorry about your river, by the way." Dogpaw mewed, not looking him in the eye.

"I can go away if you want; you don't need to take me to your camp if you don't want to." Rainfall meowed. Dogpaw snapped her head back to face him.

"No! I mean, I want you to come with me, you've come very far to seeing the Clans, you must really want to see them." And with that, the she-cat led him into her Clan, not knowing truly who he was, what he was, where he was from or what he actually wanted.