I was swimming in darkness. There was no light anywhere. I couldn't even see my paws. I flapped my wings, but all it did was send me whirling through the void.
"Autumn? Are you there? Hello? Anyone?!" I yowled. I was met with nothing, not even an echo of my voice. Suddenly, I heard a noise. It wasn't much, just a faint whisper of sound, but it was something. I swam through the darkness towards the direction I heard the voice. As I got closer, I heard more, and they were getting louder. I saw a pinprick of light in the distance and I swam faster. As it drew closer, I heard fragments of what the voices were saying.
"She has arrived... will save...must help... Clans... Savior..." They muttered. I was confused. Who is she? What are the Clans? Savior? Whaaat...? I thought. The voices turned into a roar of conversation I couldn't understand. Come on... Just a little closer... The light was getting closer. Suddenly I heard them muttering a name. It sounded like my name, but it wasn't.
"Skyfeather. Skyfeather. Skyfeather." They chanted. They were saying "Skyfeather"... As if I knew who this cat was. The voices were roaring the name now. I had almost reached the light. It felt like my ears were going to break from the noise.
"SKYFEATHER! SKYFEATHER! SKYFEATHER!" They were yowled. The chant went on and on. My paw just barely brushed the light. I stretched a little further. Suddenly the voices morphed into the sound of one cat calling my name.
"Sky! Sky, wake up!" The cat called. I jolted awake in a panic, only to be met with pain. I hissed as I laid back down.
"Be careful! You could injure yourself more!" A voice mewed. I looked up to see a orange she-cat with darker orange tabby markings. I looked at her in confusion.
"Who are you? How do you know my name?" I chocked out. My voice was raspy from not being used in a long time. The she-cat sat down.
"My name is Tigerpool. I am ThunderClan's medicine cat. As for why I know your name..." She chuckled, "Your brother has been talking about you ever since he woke up." She said. I rose my head.
"Autumn? Where is he! Can I see him?!" I said anxiously. I tried to get up, but she pushed me back down.
"Not right now. He is fine, but you need to rest." She said calmly. I nodded. As I settled down, more questions came to my mind.
"Um, what is ThunderClan? You said you were it's 'medicine cat'?" I asked. She looked at me, her tail twitching in amusment.
"ThunderClan is where I live. I am a medicine cat, which is a cat who heals the injured cats in the clan and communicates with StarClan." She responded. I stared at her in confusion.
"...What? What is StarClan?" I asked. The orange tabby turned around to get something and came back to me with herbs I her mouth. She set them down and started to prepare them, probably for me.
"Okay, let me explain this first. There are four Clans; ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan. Each Clan has their own territory that they live in, patrol, and hunt in. In the lake, there is an island that we gather on every full moon. It is a night of peace where all the Clans are supposed to get along and share news. Anyways, StarClan are the Clan's warrior ancestors. When any cat in the Clan dies, they go to StarClan." She explained as she dressed my wounds. I nodded, pretending to understand what she said. Suddenly, she touched my wing and I jerked back. Mouse-dung! I forgot she could see my wings! I thought. I tried to tuck them behind me, but I was met with pain. I hissed again. She looked at me confused, and then in realization.
"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean to startle you. Uh... How do I explain this... Okay, so you kind of crashed into the middle of our camp... Out of the sky..." She said awkwardly. I stared at her. She sat.
"Basically, one of our warriors spotted something falling out of the sky towards the center of our camp. Once it got close enough, we saw it was a cat, namely you. Before we knew it you hit the ground. All of us rushed over to you to see if you were alive (you were), when we notice three things. One, you were curled around a kit, two, you were both unconscious, and three you had wings. I guess that solve the mystery of how you fell out of the sky, but everyone was confused. There was a lot of discussion on what to do, so eventually I took you both into the medicine cat den. The kit, Autumn, woke up later that day. You stayed unconscious for another 4 days." Tigerpool explained.
"Four days... No wonder I feel horrible..." I muttered in shock. I shook my head.
"Enough of this! I need to go see Autumn!" I said. I sat up, and Tigerpool glared at me.
"I told you, he's fine. But you're not, so I need you to lay down and rest!" She told me. I sighed and plopped down.
"So... How exactly am I injured again? I mean, I know I'm hurt, but where?" I asked curiously. Tiger pool finished dressing my wounds as she told me.
"When you fell, you hit the ground pretty hard. You're back got pretty cut up and you probably sprained you're wing. Fortunately, Autumn didn't really get hurt because you acted as a cushion for him. The most he got was a bump on his head." She responded. I nodded.
"I've already dressed your back and it seems like it's mostly healed, but I didn't really know what to do with you're wing... Since we've never really had to... deal with this kind of thing before..." She said. I could tell that she was trying not to say anything that would offend me. I yawned. She notice and motioned for me to lay down. I complied.
"I'm just going to sleep now..." I said tiredly. I put my head down and drifted off to sleep.
I was awoken by something barreling into my side. I immediately knew who it was and I smiled.
"Hey Autumn! You okay?" I asked laughing. He giggled and burrowed deeper into my side. I could hear Tigerpool talking.
"You shouldn't do that to her! Her injuries are still healing and you crashing into her side like that could reopen them!" She scolded. I gently pushed Autumn off of me and stood up.
"It's okay, really. I feel better already." I exclaimed. I tried to stretch my wing out. I was still met with pain, but not as much as the day before. I also stretched my other wing out. I guess I didn't land on that one, because it didn't hurt at all. Tigerpool didn't seem to think that.
"Don't move either of your wings their both hurt, and... What? Doesn't that hurt?" She asked surprised. I shook my head.
"My left wing hurts, but not my right wing. Is that a problem?" I asked. She slowly shook her head, her tail twitching in confusion.
"No... It's just that both of your wings were hurt, even if the left one was hurt worse than the right one." She shrugged it of.
"Anyways, it seems you are feeling better so you can go outside and explore, play, eat, and do whatever I guess." She said. I smiled. My back still felt sore, but I was just happy to go outside. Autumn laughed.
"Come on Sky! Let's go! I want to introduce you to my new friends!" He said pulling me out of the den. I could hear Tigerpool calling after us.
"Don't forget to stay off your wing. And come to me if anything starts hurting again!" She called. As I slipped out of the dark cave-like den, I squinted my eyes as I was met with sunlight. My eyes widened as I looked at the camp.
There was a ledge that was jutting out over the clearing, and a cave that was behind it. Around half of the camp was a barrier of thorny brambles, and the entrance was a tunnel through it. The other half had a stone wall that went up at a slanted angle. I saw a large, thick bramble bush, and as I was watching a cat slipped out through an entrance that I didn't see before. It's walls were woven with thick roots for reinforcement, so I was guessing that was the nursery. Near where I came out of the medicine cat den there was another cave-like den. There was also a fallen tree in the clearing, and I saw two dens that looked like they had been woven into the branches. There was also a rock outside one of the dens that looked comfortable for laying down and sunning yourself.
I didn't get to stand there much longer because Autumn was already pulling me towards the nursery. As he dragged me over there, I could see a couple of kits standing around talking. When we got closer, I was able to hear their conversation.
"When is Autumn coming back?" A light hazel-colored she-cat asked.
"He went to visit his sister. He probably forgot all about us." That was a tan she-cat that had dark brown stripes.
"Have a little faith, Larkkit! He's coming back." An orange tom said confidently. I could see two younger kits playing in the background. We finally got in their range of sight.
"See! I told you he would be back!" The orange tom exclaimed. When we got there, Autumn pushed me forwards.
"This is Sky! My sister! Sky, meet Honeykit, Larkkit, and Flamekit!" Autumn introduced me. They stared at me, waving their tails in greeting. The orange kit, Flamekit I supose, was the first to speak.
"Hello! I'm Flamekit! It's nice to meet you! These are my sisters Larkkit, the tan one, and Honeykit, the other one." He said politly. His sisters glared at him.
"Oh so I'm 'the other one' now?" Honeykit growled. Flamekit squeaked and jumped behind me. It was then that he noticed my wings.
"Whoa! You really do have wings! Autumn told us that, so did everybody else, but we weren't really sure. But they were right! Did you really come crashing out of the sky? Are you secretly a bird?" I was hit with question after question. I laughed nervously.
"Can you really fly?" Honeykit asked quietly. I shook my self and tried to answer all of their questions.
"Yes, I can fly, just not right now. I hurt my wing when I fell out of the sky so it hurts to move. And as far as I know, I'm not a bird..." I said nervously.
"That's cool I guess..." Larkkit muttered. She sounded uniterested, but I could tell she was just hiding the enthusiasm.
"Um, Sky? Do you think when your wing gets better you could show us how to fly?" Honeykit asked. I chuckled.
"Yeah sure! By the way , how old are you?" I asked. Flamekit bounded up to me.
"Me, Honeykit, and Larkkit are almost 6 moons old, so we'll get to be an apprentice soon! Then the two over there are about 2 moons old. Their names are Smokekit and Dawnkit." He said excitedly. I looked at him confused.
"What's an 'apprentice'?" I asked. Flamekit looked at me in surprise, and then understanding.
"Oh yeah, I forgot you don't know yet." He said.
"I'm assuming Autumn does? Speaking of which, where is Autumn?" I asked.
"While we were all talking I saw Tigerpool call Autumn over to her den." Larkkit said impatiently. I nodded.
"Okay anyways... There are different rankings in a clan. The Leader is the highes, he is the one who leads the clan and stuff. Then comes the Deputy. He is like the second-in-command, because he organizes the patrols. The Warriors are next. They hunt and patrol the territory. Their main goal is to keep the clan safe and healthy. The Medicine cat is also important. She is the healer, and she heals cats when they are sick or injured. The apprentices are Warriors-in-training. They learn how to hunt, fight, and various other things. You can also become a medicine cat apprentice, I guess. There are also Elders. They are Warriors and Queens who have retired. They are to be treated with respect." Flamekit explained. Honeykit picked up from there.
"The Queens are cats who have kits, like us, or are expecting kits. Then comes the kits. In other words, us. Kits sleep in the nursery with our mother until we become 6 moons old, which is when we can start training to be a warrior." She finished. I nodded. I was no longer confused. Suddenly, Autumn came back. As the kits started playing, I sat against the nursery wall and watched them. They said that they were almost 6 moons old, which meant that I wasn't much older than them. My thoughts were interupted by Autumn calling out to me.
"Sky! Come play with us!" He called. I sat there and thought. It seemed almost immature of me to play. I haven't played since I was 4 moons old. But I shrugged those thoughts away. After all, I was still only 6 moons. Why can't I have a little fun?
So with that in mind, I got up and started walking over to where they stood. I don't know how, but my wing was also feeling a little better.
SO that was the second chapter of my story! How did you like it? To boring? To confusing? Not confusing enough? Anyways, I wish you a good Thursday (Or whatever day you're reading this)! - Spirit