Chapter 1
Two years after the incident...
"Pebble! Are you okay?"
Pebble winced in pain from the fall she had just taken. As she looked up, she saw the mouse she was trying to catch quickly scurrying into a lush, green bush. She grumbled as she tried to stand up, feeling wobbly and sore. Her best friend immediately ran up beside her, supporting her as she stood.
"Ugh, why am I so bad at catching prey, Rose?" she complained to her gray tabby companion.
Rose rolled her big yellow eyes. "You're not bad!" She exclaimed. "Trust me. Compared to my skills in catching prey, you are amazing."
Pebble smiled and laughed softly, then nuzzled Rose. "You're the best."
Rose smiled. She pawed at Pebble's shoulder playfully. Her smile vanished, and replacing it was a concerned look on her face. "Pebble, I feel giant bumps on your shoulders! What are they?" Rose eyed her shoulders closely, inspecting every detail. Her bright, sunny eyes widened.
"Dude! There are four giant scars on your back!" She exclaimed, ears perked. "They almost look like..."
"Bitemarks?" Pebble finished her sentence.
Pebble did not like going too far down memory lane. Her traumatizing incident at 2 moons old when she used to be a clan cat had scarred her forever, especially being picked up, thrown to the ground, and almost killed by the most horrible cat imaginable. Not to mention, being left by her clan soon after. The question echoed in her mind moons and moons after the incident- how could they have left her and forgotten about her? Where did they go? She wondered what Brambekit looked like by now, and if her mother was even still alive. Her mind began traveling towards her childhood... She had been left in the forest alone. Even moons after the attack she was shaken up about it. The bite marks in her back hurt for a long time, and once they healed they left scars hidden by her dark fur. Pebble remembered the first den she made and slept in, and how scared she felt sleeping alone in the dark forest. She missed her mother and her brother, and her whole clan. But most of all, she desperately missed Riverkit. Her heart ached for a very long time without her, and to this day it still did.
Fortunately, not too long ago, she had met Rose, one of the only other cats she had ever seen since the incident, for when the incident happened, she said goodbye to her old home and trekked on far away from FireClan's reach. She had found a forest that was inhabited by very little cats, so she never saw any around. But when she met Rose, they immediately became friends. They were very similar and she trusted her with her life. She had forgotten what it was like to socialize, to have other cats around, to have someone to share your thoughts and to talk to. She didn't even realize how much she missed being with other cats over the long span of time being alone. When Rose came into her life, she had fixed a lonely part of her aching heart, and she was very grateful for it.
"Thats... exactly what they look like," said Rose, a puzzled look across her face. "But, why are they there?"
Pebble looked at her with her emerald green eyes. "I'll tell you another time, when we have plenty of time and it's a good day for telling incredibly long stories about our history," she mewed humorously. "But for now, it's getting dark, and I should probably be heading to my den. See you soon?"
Rose nodded reassuringly. "See you soon," she smiled.
Pebble nodded and started making her way towards her den. She went through branches, over and under tree trunks, and finally found her den. She crawled through the lichen-covered entrance and deeply inhaled the warm smell.
This was all she ever knew as home.