Blossompaw's Escape
Part Three: The Clan
Unusual was the only way to describe what came next. After they woke up from their second night as fugitives from the city they wasted no time in hunting. Whisper had a 'feeling' as he put it, that they were getting close. Unanimously they decided whatever they were looking for was by the ocean. It was the perfect spot for a group of cats to live, that's why Seaclan had claimed their territory on the beaches. Whose to say Ashclan hadn't done the same after the volcano erupted?
But the closer they got to the ocean the more the environment changed into something none of them had any practice with. The trees thinned out, but only because the undergrowth had taken over the whole landscape. The bushes were so thick nothing could be seen a foxlength away but a bramble thicket or high grasses.
"Are we even heading in the right direction?" Shiver demanded as her pelt was torn at mercilessly by a thorn patch.
"I can smell the ocean, we have to be," Blossompaw said firmly. After a few more moments of bref struggling the group broke free of the massive undergrowth and spilled out onto the beach. It was nothing like Seaclan.
"What the..." Sylvester mumbled in confusion. There were trees on the beach, trees growing straight out of the water! Their massive roots jut out of the ground so the whole beach was covered in their tangled confusion.
"Mangrove trees. They thrive in tidal areas like this, oysters like to live in their roots," Whisper remarked like this didn't surprise him in the least.
"Oysters? What's that?" Chance barked, his dappled coat was being weighed down by the heavy mud and he backed up a few paces onto drier sand. The old dog glanced around, trying to keep everyone in sight of his good eye.
"A sea creature, they live in hard shells," Whisper explained. "Lets keep walking down the beach."
Blossompaw and the others wove their way through the mangrove forest. They couldn't get over their awe, it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. After what seemed like hours of walking they came to a rock wall. A slight pathway allowed them to scale the cliff and reach the top. Up above the area was somewhat familiar. Blossompaw recognized maple and pine trees as well as cherry blossoms. She heaved a sigh of relief, feeling more at home already.
The cliffs overlooked the whole ocean, Blossompaw could see the mangroves below and the dense forest behind. She could almost feel the presence of Ashclan. Gentle waves lapped at the base of the cliff, the tide was beginning to come in and the mangroves were overwhelmed with water. The only way to continue was deeper into the forest. She gave one last look at the mangroves below, as stunning as they were it was no home for cats. Especially with the changing tides.
"We are getting close," she said eagerly.
"Tell me more about the clans. I loved hearing your stories at the testing place," Sylvester nudged her playfully. Blossompaw nudged her friend back. She was so glad he and Whisper decided to come with them. They all had a lot to learn about the clans way of life, but subconsciously they already were one. Whisper was their medicine cat, Blossompaw was their leader, Chance was deputy, and Flint Shiver and Sylvester were warriors in their own nature. But Ashstar had not asked her to build her own clan, he had asked her to save his.
"Have I ever told you the story of how the glowing cave was formed? That was our meeting place with Starclan," she laughed, feeling actually happy. She couldn't remember the last time she had that sensation. Blossompaw talked as they walked, but the more involved they became with her stories the less they were noticing their surroundings.
"Flowerfeet, look at this," Flint said suddenly. Blossompaw stopped talking, finding herself not even annoyed with his nickname. She glanced at Flint, trying to see what he was looking at. His orange and gray neck was craned back, his green eyes focused on the canopy of branches and leaves above. Blossompaw copied him, her blue eyes drifting upwards. She let out a little gasp as she saw what he had been looking at.
They were standing beneath a cluster of cherry trees, soft pink petals fluttered downward in the breeze. And the air was filled with musical notes of the hundreds of song birds jumping from branch to branch. She had never before seen so many birds in one area.
"This was an orchard long ago, twolegs grew fruit here," Chance grumbled. But even he looked slightly amazed.
"And now it's growing prey," Shiver said, giddy. She was right, all the birds had gathered in the cherry trees for the fruit. The orchard as Chance had called it was literally growing prey for them.
"There has to be loners or rogues around her somewhere, no one could pass up hunting grounds this good," Blossompaw noted.
"We haven't seen any loners in awhile though. Which means there are cats guarding this territory," Flint added. Everyone reached the conclusion at the same time.
"Which means whatever is left of Ashclan is here, their camp could be just outside of the orchard," Whisper said. The group cautiously continued forward, looking for any sign of a clan. Blossompaw tried to remember Adderfang and Ashstar's words exactly. They had said Ashclan was fading and losing their way of life. But perhaps they still remembered the warrior code. Perhaps this wasn't an impossible task after all.
Blossompaw spotted something in the distance, a few hundred fox lengths away. She squinted her eyes and was surprised to discover it was an old twoleg nest. Even from far away she could tell no twoolegs had lived there for generations. It was light blue in color like a robins egg. Trees had grown right through the structure and she was sure the whole thing was on the brink of collapse. She held up her tail for silence an the others nodded in understanding. They began creeping towards the nest.
"What are we doing?" Sylvester whispered in confusion. A red blur darted in front of the group. Blossompaw reared back, certain a fox was attacking.
"Trespassing in what you are doing," the creature said. Once Blossompaw got a better look she determined it was not in fact a fox, but a cat. He had rusty colored fur and a dark brown muzzle.
"I apologize. My companions and I have journeyed far on a quest. What is your name?" Blossompaw said diplomatically. The cat looked her up and down, deciding if she posed a threat or not.
"I'm called Foxtooth."
It was like when the clouds parted after a rainstorm and the sun warmed the fur of all the forest animals. Blossompaw eagerly looked back at her friends. They were all smiling.
"A warriors name," Whisper said at last, breaking the silence. Foxtooth cocked his head to the side.
"I don't really care why you are here, but you better be leaving. This is my territory," he snapped. Now it was Blossompaw's turn to look confused.
"Just your territory? Are there any other warriors here? Where is your leader?" she rambled off question after question.
"I don't know what you are talking about. Now go," he said with threat behind his words. Blossompaw was about to object when Flint rested his tail on her shoulder and guided her away from the cat.
"Sorry to have bothered you," Flint apologized. Blossompaw looked at Flint in horror.
"We can't have come all this way just to give up when one cat tells us to leave!"
"We aren't giving up. But Foxtooth is right, this isn't out territory and we are trespassing. To him it looks like we brought an army, we have a dog with us for crying out loud. We'll make camp back by the cliff overlooking the mangroves. Give him time to prepare himself and in the morning you and an escort can go explain what you are doing here. But how would it look if we forced him to take us to his camp and tell him we were in control because Starclan said so," Flint explained. Blossompaw reluctantly admitted there was truth to his words.
Blossompaw called everyone to follow her back to the cliffs. Foxtooth watched them go before turning and disappearing into the undergrowth. While the others hunted and slept, Blossompaw spent the whole night creating a plan to speak to Foxtooth and any others with him. She would go only with two escorts so as not to appear a threat. She'd take Flint and Sylvester because they were both strong and if things got too intense they could escape.
When the sun reached halfway to sunhigh Blossompaw called Flint and Sylvester to her.
"I'll do most of the talking. Remain as friendly and non threatening as possible," she instructed. Both toms nodded in agreement. The trio caught a squirrel to bring as a peace offering and held their tails high in the air so it wouldn't look like they were sneaking. They reached the blue twoleg nest unopposed.
"Hello? Is there anyone in there?" she called out. No sooner had the first syllable left her lips than Foxtooth's red furred body appeared in one of the broken windows.
"You again. I thought I told you to scram," he growled, exposing his fangs for which he was named. Flint bristled and Blossompaw tapped his flank with her tail to remind him to stay calm.
"We come with an offering for you. We only want to talk, and I think you'll want to hear what we have to say," Blossompaw said and nodded for Sylvester to deliver the squirrel. Foxtooth eyed the prey before accepting.
"The door is open."
He wasn't joking, there was no door. Blossompaw inspected his camp inside the abandoned twoleg nest. There were no smaller rooms inside the nest, just four walls and a rotting roof with a grass floor and trees growing right through some of the shattered windows. Moldy beams lay on the floor in a pile. Blossompaw saw glowing eyes from beneath the wood.
"My name is Blossompaw, I come from Ravenclan. I have been sent here by my warrior ancestors to help rebuild Ashclan which was lost many seasons ago," Blossompaw started.
"What?" Foxtooth interrupted.
"I'm here to rebuild Ashclan," she summarized.
"What?" Foxtooth said again. His confusion was genuine, he wasn't just throwing them off.
"Well you have a warrior name so I just assumed you knew about Ashclan. Is this not..." Blossompaw was sure everyone could see her embarrassment beneath her pelt. Foxtooth looked like he almost pitied her.
"My name is a tradition, I don't about your clans or warriors," he said softly, apologetically. Another cat suddenly stepped out from beneath the wood pile.
"Fawndapple! I told you to stay hidden!" Foxtooth said, appalled. Blossompaw noted it was another warrior name.
"Blossompaw, was it? Would you care to explain further what's going on. I promise my mate won't bite," she said with a twinkle to her eyes. Foxtooth let out a huff of annoyance.
"Well I suppose I should start from the beginning. A clan is a group of cats who work together to survive, a community of sorts. The leader guides them, the medicine cat uses herbs to heal the sick and wounded, and warriors protect their clan. Queens are nursing mothers and apprentices train under the warriors until they are old enough to receive their warrior name."
"And we have warrior names you say?" Fawndapple asked. Blossompaw nodded.
"We you are born your mother gives your the first part of your name, the last part of your name ends in kit. When you become an apprentice you are a 'paw. When you are a warrior your leader gives you your full name."
"I don't know about all those name stages, it's just been tradition for as long as I can remember that our names have two parts," Fawndapple shrugged.
"I come from very far away in a clan called Ravenclan. There were four separate clans sharing borders, Ravenclan Seaclan Cedarclan and Ashclan. Ashclan was destroyed by an eruption year upon year ago. I received a message from our warrior ancestors that said I had to save Ashclan from fading away," Blossompaw explained.
"You mean the dead can talk to you?" Foxtooth laughed. Blossompaw frowned.
"I don't think I'm explaining this right. Just tell me...do you know anything about Ashclan or why your are named like this?"
"There used to be more of us living in the twoleg nest, a whole group even. But it was leaf bare and prey was scarce. My first litter of kits had just been born and there were too many mouths to feed. Another cat, Owlmoon, had broken his foreleg trying to catch a pheasant. The rest of the group left in the middle of the night, abandoning us here. Owlmoon died of infection a few days afterwards. Foxtooth has been providing for me and our kits ever since. A moon ago we found two other kits left for dead in the forest and we took them in. Our group was not a clan, but..." Fawndapple trailed off.
"But we may know something about Ashclan," Foxtooth finished for his mate. "The unspoken leader of the group was Duststripe. He had been having dreams before they ran off like cowards. Dreams of a cat called Ashstar. That's all we know."
"I can tell you what those dreams mean. Ashstar was the first leader of Ashclan. I believe you are the descendants of his clan, you have forgotten the warrior way of life. He tried contacting you and failed - so he sent me," Blossompaw filled in the gaps. Fawndappled gave her a small smile.
"It makes sense but what if we don't want to be a clan?" she said quietly. Blossompaw had never considered that before. If Ashclan didn't want to be a clan then that was the end of it.
A. What do you think of 'Ashclan?'
B. What do you wonder is going on with the city as of late?
