In The Clouds

"Hi, Firepaw!" Flowerpaw greeted her friend one morning at the fresh-kill pile.

"Hi." Her friend's gaze was distant, and she was staring off into the clouds; she didn't look at Flowerpaw and that got her worried.

"Umm… Firepaw? Are you okay?"

"Yeah; why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you look kind of…. distant. Like you have your head in the clouds," Flowerpaw teased, trying to make a joke.

"Well…. I dunno if it's like that, but…." Firepaw trailed off and absent-mindedly bit into the piece of fresh-kill she had been holding at her paws; it was a little brown wood-mouse.

"Firepaw, something's wrong," Flowerpaw insisted. "I can tell. And you're my friend…. won't you tell me? Please?"

Her voice was kind of high-pitched with desperation and worry, but for a few heartbeats Firepaw didn't reply. Finally, she started to turn her head around and, after what seemed like moons, her gaze came to rest on Flowerpaw's face.

"Yeah? Well, nothing's wrong," Firepaw murmured.

Flowerpaw took this chance to distract her friend from her very apparent spacey-ness, and she leaped forward and clapped her paws together in front of Firepaw's face. "Wah-ha!" she hissed in satisfaction.

"Uh—uh—wuahhhhh!" Firepaw screeched, jumping back. A couple of the warriors stared at her strangely, and a few cats let the fur on their shoulders bristle with fear, but Firepaw didn't make any more sounds and they went back to what they were doing before. Firepaw glared at Flowerpaw.

"I was thinking! Couldn't you see that?!" she hissed, low and under her breath.

Flowerpaw was taken aback by her best friend's ferocity; surely she shouldn't be talking to her like that?

"Uh—um, yes; sure," she mewed shakily. "Anyway, what are you looking so distant about?" she continued, once her friend had calmed down enough for her to ask without the fear of getting clawed or something—that would never happen, but still! Better to be on the safe side…. Firepaw had a tongue as sharp as her claws!

"Well…. last night I had a dream," Firepaw began. "I saw three cats walking together; a pale gray cat, a golden tabby, and a silver tabby. I don't know what it means, but StarClan told me something about meeting these three cats in the mountains….? And they said to take a certain ginger-furred friend with me…. They didn't say exactly who it was, but I think I have pretty good idea…."

"Who is it?" Flowerpaw meowed, her heart speeding up with excitement. Is it…. me?

"It's you!" Firepaw finished, and Flowerpaw let out a squeal.

"Really?!" she squeaked. "You think that it is me?! Oh, Firepaw; that's great! So, when do we leave?"

She observed her friend's face and Firepaw's face had taken on a serious look. "Don't tell everybody about our journey…. I would like to keep it a secret for as long as we possibly can! Don't even tell the leader, or the medicine cats! I…. I don't want them to stop us from leaving." She looked sad. "This sounds important. On the bright side…." She suddenly cheered up. "….StarClan said that we should leave the night after the half-moon!"

"Really?!" Flowerpaw gasped. "But that's only four days away from now!"

"I know! But we really can't delay! This sounds important, and we are supposed to meet other cats, so if we go out late then we'll miss them!" Firepaw let out a challenging hiss, but her eyes were filled with playfulness.

"Oh, I understand," Flowerpaw said, nodding. "You see, I didn't realize at first that there were other cats that we were going to have to meet—"

"And travel with," Firepaw added quickly.

"Okay, and travel with," Flowerpaw amended hastily. "I thought that it was just going to be us!"

"Why would you think that?!" Firepaw exclaimed, wide-eyed. "We could never travel alone!"

This was true, Flowerpaw realized; they would never survive on their own out there in that unknown wilderness….!

"So…. we're leaving in four days?" Flowerpaw whispered suddenly.

"Yeah." Firepaw nodded. "We should probably get ready. Eat lots of prey, and—"

"Oh, yeah." Flowerpaw snorted. "The other cats and warriors will be so happy when they see us eating extra food; more than we're supposed to!" She laughed. "Not a chance."

Firepaw sighed, and nodded. "Okay, I guess you're right. So, just eat normally, and we'll leave soon, then!"

"Okay, I—" Flowerpaw was cut off by Pinkcloud's yowl.

"Flowerpaw! I want you to come on a hunting patrol," she called.

Flowerpaw looked apologetically at her friend. "Sorry," she mewed. She added, in a whisper, "Pinkcloud can be so annoying sometimes! Don't you agree?!"

"Yeah." Firepaw nodded and Flowerpaw got up to go on the hunting patrol.

I've got my head in the clouds, eh?