Here's Chapter 2, as promised. I stole the words right out of Bluestar's mouth for the apprentice ceremony. Disclaimed, and all that jazz.
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Beatrix rounded the corner of her Twoleg nest and looked up to face the looming shadow of the forest. She stared at it for a long moment, in awe of the dark imposing trees. A Twoleg yelped from behind her, closer now, startling her out of her reverie. The she-cat dashed for the trees, feeling the thud of the Twolegs' footsteps behind her. They were gaining on her when she finally reached the thick undergrowth that pooled around the base of the trees. Beatrix darted into a bramble thicket, clawing her way to the center and ignoring the thorns that snagged in her white pelt.
Breathing hard, the she-cat crouched in her hiding place, watching through the tangle of twigs as the Twolegs came upon the forest. They shouted a few times, trying to lure her out, but she merely glared at them from her safe haven. They wandered back and forth before the trees, and a few times even lumbered into the undergrowth, but as the night grew darker they stumbled away, silent and defeated. When the moon had reached its highest position in the sky, Beatrix emerged from the bramble thicket, stretching her aching muscles and licking her rumpled fur back into place.
"You're fast, for a kittypet," came a sharp meow.
Beatrix froze, smothering a yowl of surprise. She hadn't heard anyone approach. Fearfully, the white she-cat turned around to face whatever monster awaited her.
A ginger tabby she-cat was sitting primly in the shadow of a tall fern, her tail curled around her paws. At her side sat a small brown she-cat, her eyes bright with interest. Both of them were skinny, their pelts thin, showing wiry muscles beneath the fur. Ribs poked out of their sides and their eyes were sunken and hollow. All in all, they looked like the ghosts of cats who had died of starvation in some rainy gutter.
"Who…" Beatrix swallowed nervously and tried again. "Who are you?" Her eyes darted back and forth between the two she-cats as they stole a glance at each other.
"My name is Brightpool," the ginger she-cat replied. She flicked her tail at the smaller cat and meowed, "and this is Tansypaw."
Beatrix frowned at the strange names.
"What's your name, kittypet?" the brown she-cat, Tansypaw, spoke up. Her voice was shrill and hoarse, as if she had a cough.
"Beatrix," Beatrix meowed.
Tansypaw looked up at Brightpool, her gaze questioning. The ginger tabby looked across at Beatrix with a calculating gaze. "How old are you?" she asked quietly, her whiskers twitching.
Beatrix opened her mouth, and then paused. "I…I don't really know," the white she-cat admitted. "Six or seven moons, I think." She'd never given it much thought.
Brightpool nodded, a thoughtful expression on her haggard face. "Excuse us for one moment, would you?" she mewed politely, blinking at Beatrix.
"Sure," the white she-cat murmured, surprised. Brightpool rose to her feet and disappeared swiftly into the undergrowth, the ferns bobbing in her wake.
Tansypaw cast a backwards glance at Beatrix, her eyes slightly narrowed, before following her companion.
Still confused, Beatrix crouched down to the forest floor and strained to hear the two cats, but all she caught was the rustling of leaves. The moon was descending again, the forest growing lighter with every passing moment.
Beatrix's paws were getting cold and numb by the time she heard the faint pad of paws on the ground again. She quickly straightened up, not a moment before Brightpool and Tansypaw bounded out of the ferns. This time, there were two more cats with them, a tall gray tom and a dark tabby.
"Beatrix, this is Cinderstar, the leader of ThunderClan," Brightpool introduced quickly. Beatrix noticed that all of the cats arranged themselves around the tom as though he were superior, especially Tansypaw, who crouched close to the ground and stared up at Cinderstar with admiration in her gaze.
"Greetings, young one," meowed the gray tom, dipping his head to her. His voice was smooth and low, somehow soothing.
Beatrix nodded dumbly in reply.
"Brightpool tells me that you're quick on your feet. We've seen you staring out of the Twoleg nest before, but you've never come outside before. Were you afraid of the forest?"
Beatrix's anger instantly flared. "Of course not! I was stuck in there like some dumb dog!" she hissed.
All four of the cats flinched at the mention of dogs, and Beatrix felt a measure of satisfaction as Tansypaw cast a frightened glance at the Twoleg nest in the distance.
"I see. So you escaped your Twolegs?" Cinderstar meowed. His voice was sharper now, and Beatrix thought he looked annoyed.
"Barely," Beatrix muttered.
The skinny cats all looked at each other for a moment, seeming to decide something that Beatrix couldn't hear. Brightpool blinked at Cinderstar, who nodded quickly to her. The dark brown tabby hissed something in Cinderstar's ear, to which the tom replied, "She'll learn."
Beatrix was beginning to realize that something very important was happening, and she had no idea what it was.
"Wait!" she hissed. "What is this? Who are you cats and where did you come from?"
Cinderstar turned away from the tabby to glance at her, unsurprised. "We are warriors of ThunderClan, a Clan of cats who live in the forest. There are four Clans – ThunderClan, RiverClan, WindClan, and ShadowClan."
At the mention of ShadowClan, Tansypaw let out a low hiss. Brightpool silenced her with a flick of her tail.
"What do you do?" Beatrix asked disdainfully. These cats must have some problems if they were all this skinny. She was beginning to wonder if Cinderstar and his friends were crazy, making up imaginary Clans of wild cats who roamed the forest like ghosts.
Cinderstar frowned. "We live the life all cats should. We hunt prey instead of eating pellets like kittypets. We defend our borders instead of being locked in Twoleg nests. We run through the forest with the wind in our fur instead of staring out the window and dozing in the sun."
As he described the life of a forest cat, Beatrix's eyes gradually grew wider and wider, and her heart began to pound faster. She forgot about the raggedness of their pelts and the grimness of their expressions. What the tall gray tom illustrated was Beatrix's dream.
After a moment Beatrix realized that the cats had fallen silent. They were all staring at her expectantly, except for Tansypaw, who had a sour look on her face. Cinderstar blinked.
"Well?" he meowed, watching her intently.
Beatrix stared at him. "Well…what?" she mewed, aware that she had missed something vital.
The dark tabby at Cinderstar's shoulder snorted, but the gray tom ignored him.
"Would you like to become an apprentice of ThunderClan? We have had a hard leafbare, and our Clan is weak. We barely have enough warriors to feed the Clan, small as it is. We need strong, healthy apprentices to rebuild ThunderClan. Will you join us?"
Beatrix gaped at him, her green eyes round. Without even thinking, she blurted, "Of course!"
Cinderstar nodded. The brown tabby shrugged. Tansypaw narrowed her eyes and turned away. Brightpool strode forward and blinked kindly at Beatrix. "Follow me."
The four forest cats immediately turned and bounded away into the trees. Beatrix rose and ran after them, tripping over roots and cannoning into shrubs that blocked her path. For a moment she thought they had left her, but then she saw a flash of orange and Brightpool was at her side.
"Come on, Beatrix, keep up! I know you can run as fast as we can, I've seen you do it."
Beatrix was about to point out that when Brightpool had seen her she was running for her life, and she was bound to look fast, but she didn't have a chance. Unless she wanted to be left behind she had to follow the she-cat and hope not to fall flat on her face.
Beatrix kept Brightpool's orange flanks in sight for most of the journey as she sprinted desperately after them. She watched enviously as the she-cat cleared tree trunks in one graceful leap, or wound her way through a bramble patch without snagging a single thorn. The fast pace was effortless for her, whereas Beatrix was hard put to keep standing.
Brightpool came to a sudden stop in front of a large mass of thorns, so suddenly that Beatrix nearly careened past her. The white she-cat skidded to a stop at Brightpool's side and sucked down a huge gulp of air, her sides heaving. Brightpool cast a sideways glance at her.
"What do you smell?" she asked quietly.
Beatrix lifted her nose to the air and drew another long breath over her scent glands. "Pine," she replied. Brightpool didn't move or say anything, merely stared at Beatrix expectantly. Apparently 'pine' wasn't enough. Beatrix tasted the air again, this time concentrating harder. "Cats," she confirmed after a moment. "Lots of them. And…prey?" The last one was more of a question. Beatrix knew the scent of sparrow and mouse, having tasted it through the window screens of the Twoleg nest. She wasn't sure this what she had smelled, but it seemed close enough.
Brightpool nodded. "Not bad, for a kittypet. This is the ThunderClan camp. Soon you'll be able to recognize each cat by its own scent, and the other Clans as well. Not to mention, every type of prey."
The ginger she-cat walked forward until she was practically on top of the thorn bush, and then suddenly disappeared.
"Brightpool?" Beatrix questioned, padding forward and looking around. A ginger head peeked out from the thorn bush. Beatrix noticed for the first time a tunnel that had been bored through the thicket, wide enough for two cats to pad through side by side. Brightpool beckoned to Beatrix from within the tunnel.
"Come on," the ginger she-cat meowed. "Cinderstar has already called a Clan meeting."
Beatrix slipped through the tunnel at Brightpool's heels, her pelt pricking. She didn't know what to say to the other cats here, if ThunderClan was real.
When they had emerged from the tunnel, Beatrix took a long look around. She was gazing out at a wide hollow, encircled on all sides by a high wall of thorns. Gaps in the thorn barrier seemed to lead to dens of some sort, and from some padded more scrawny cats. They were all congregating by a tall boulder that protruded from one side of the hollow. There was a den at its base and it had a flat top, where two cats were seated. Beatrix recognized Cinderstar and the dark brown tabby.
There were eight more cats in the clearing that Beatrix didn't know, all seated in a half circle at the base of the boulder, looking up at Cinderstar. Brightpool led her gently to the boulder, where they sat silently, waiting for Cinderstar to speak.
"Cats of ThunderClan. As you are all aware, this leafbare has been one of the most difficult in our history. We are just recovering from an outbreak of greencough that took too many lives." The heads of the gathered cats hung low at these words. "We need more warriors to make our Clan strong again. I have decided to let an outsider join ThunderClan."
Gasps arose from the throng of cats, and all eyes turned to stare at Beatrix in disbelief. Many cats looked angry, but a few were nodding, their expressions merely curious.
"You can't do that, Cinderstar! Kittypets can't be warriors!" one cat growled. A brown tabby tom stepped forward from the circle, his eyes narrowed. He turned to glare at Beatrix. "They don't know what it's like to feel hunger, to see a clanmate die before their eyes." A few murmurs of agreement followed his harsh words.
Cinderstar waved his tail for silence. "She can learn all of these things. I have made my decision. If you disagree, you disagree with me, not her." He stared down at the tom, his face stony. The tabby hesitated, then bowed his head and backed away, his tail twitching.
"If any other cat would like to contest my decision, speak up now," Cinderstar meowed to the crowd.
A black she-cat with white paws stepped forward, and Beatriz braced herself for more scathing words. The she-cat mewed, "Though I dislike the idea of allowing a kittypet to become a warrior, I agree with Cinderstar's decision. ThunderClan needs more warriors. If this cat proves herself worthy, I will accept her like any other ThunderClan apprentice. But if she cannot deal with the responsibilities of being a member of a Clan, we should send her back to the Twolegplace." The cats around her yowled in agreement. Cinderstar dipped his head.
"Thank you, Whitefoot," he meowed. "If Beatrix decides she doesn't want to be a part of ThunderClan, she will be sent back to the Twolegs."
There were no more outbursts after Whitefoot's speech, so Cinderstar turned to Beatrix and beckoned her forward. With tentative steps, the she-cat padded to the middle of the half-circle and gazed around at the ThunderClan cats. They stared cautiously back.
"From this day forward," Cinderstar began, gazing down at Beatrix from his seat on the boulder, "until she has earned her warrior name, this apprentice will be called Icepaw, in honor of her frost-colored coat."
A gust of wind suddenly rippled through the clearing, frigid and swift, and the clouds above the forest parted for an instant, casting a pale ray of morning sunlight onto Beatrix's fur. Her pelt glowed brightly, standing out against the darkness of the fading night and the gray of the boulder behind her. Then the clouds moved again, and the sun blinked out, once again casting the clearing in shadow.
Cinderstar looked up as the icy breeze ruffled his fur. "StarClan has spoken their approval," he murmured. The cats wailed their own approval.
Brightpool padded up to Beatrix's side and dipped her head. "Welcome to ThunderClan, Icepaw."
Icepaw. The white she-cat shivered at the sound of her new name, feeling a thrill in her paws. She was no longer a kittypet, stuck in her Twoleg nest eating dry, bland food and drinking stale water. She was an apprentice of ThunderClan, fighting and hunting living the way a cat should.
"Icepaw!" The name was passed from tongue to tongue across the hollow as the cats greeted her. Sometimes it was a grudging hiss, and sometimes a cheerful mew.
Icepaw padded after Brightpool as the she-cat waked away from the boulder.
"I'll have an apprentice show you around," Brightpool meowed over her shoulder, before she disappeared into one of the dens. Feeling a little lonely and very lost, Icepaw turned around and gaze around at the clearing. Most of the cats had returned to their dens, though a few remained wandering around the hollow. Cinderstar was discussing something with the brown tabby at the base of the boulder.
"Have you ever seen a dog?" came a curious mew. Icepaw knew better than to jump this time, but the voice still startled her. She looked sideways at the cat who had spoken, a dark ginger she-cat who looked to be around her same age.
"Of course," Icepaw replied, her eyes wide. She'd had to live with an old black dog for the first few moons of her life, before it went away and she was left in peace.
The she-cat's whisker twitched. "Wow. I've never seen one. Are they really monsters like Quickstep says?"
Icepaw blinked. "Who's Quickstep?"
"Oh, she's an elder. Are they –"
Her questions were interrupted when Brightpool emerged from the den again. "Robinpaw, would you show Icepaw the ropes? Make sure she knows where everything is." Then she disappeared again.
Robin turned back to Icepaw. "Cool. What don't you know? Ask anything, I can tell you. My father is the deputy," she said with a hint of arrogance.
Icepaw hesitated. "Um…what's a deputy?"
The she-cat gasped at her, her eyes round with disbelief. "You don't even know what a deputy is?" Icepaw's pelt grew hot and she was about to make a sharp retort, when Robinpaw shrugged. "Oh well, I guess you have a lot to learn."
She led Icepaw around the camp, pointing out the different dens. There was the warriors' den, where all of five ThunderClan warriors slept, the apprentices' den, where Robinpaw showed Icepaw her new nest, the elders den, where she met Quickstep, Palenose and Mossfur, the brown tabby who had spoken against her. Robinpaw also showed her the nursery, where two queens, Thrushwing and Specklefoot, were nursing their kits. In a den that was separated by a fern tunnel from the rest of the camp was the medicine cat, Shortwhisker, who greeted them through a mouthful of dried leaves that emitted a pungent, bitter odor.
"And beneath the Highrock," Robinpaw meowed as they emerged from the fern tunnel, is Cinderstar's den. He makes all his announcements from up there."
Icepaw nodded, watching as Cinderstar and the dark tabby finished their conversation and the gray tom slipped into the cave at the foot of the huge stone.
"Who's that?" Icepaw asked as she watched the tabby tom stride away.
Robinpaw straightened and puffed out her chest. "That's Tanglethorn. He's the deputy, and my father."
"Who's your mother?" Icepaw asked, thinking of the two tired-looking queens in the nursery.
Robinpaw's face instantly fell, and her tail drooped between her legs. "My mother died of greencough a few moons ago, along with my brother."
Icepaw stared at the dejected apprentice. She hadn't yet considered the disadvantages to forest life, at least not seriously. Maybe it wasn't such a good thing, if death was such an easy thing to come by.
"Did…a lot of cats die?" Icepaw questioned, fearing Robinpaw's answer. "Does that happen every year?"
The she-cat shook her head. "No. Last leafbare was really bad, and then greencough got around, and almost all the cats who caught it died because there was no catmint." Robinpaw glanced up at Icepaw's bewildered expression. "Catmint is an herb that cures greencough, and the frost killed it all."
"I'm…sorry," Icepaw meowed quietly, though secretly she was relieved. It seemed like an isolated incident – she wasn't in danger, at least not yet. Being a warrior was all fine and good in Icepaw's mind, as long as sickness wasn't always rampant among the Clan.
Robinpaw shrugged and flicked her ears. "It was a while ago. I was really sad at first, but other cats lost friends and family too, and we all had to let them move on to StarClan and focus on our Clan instead."
"Wait…" Icepaw paused in the center of the clearing, and Robinpaw stopped a few paces ahead. "What's StarClan? Is that another Clan? Cinderstar said there were only four!"
Robinpaw masked her surprise a little better this time, but her eyes still popped wide. "I forgot you wouldn't even know about StarClan. They are the Clan of our warrior ancestors, who watch over us from Silverpelt." She flicked her tail upwards at the brightening sky, where the outlines of stars twinkled faintly, almost disappeared in the dawn light.
"Star?" Icepaw mewed incredulously.
Robinpaw nodded, her eyes serious. "When a cat dies, their spirit is lifted into Silverpelt and they join the other cats of StarClan. Medicine cats can speak to them and receive signs and prophecies. I've never met a StarClan warrior, but when I die I'll see my mother again."
The idea of dead cats becoming stars seemed a little preposterous to Icepaw, but as she thought about it, she was somehow comforted. It was nice to believe that there was some starry warrior watching over her, even if it probably wasn't true. Then she thought of how the sun had lit up her pelt when Cinderstar had made her an apprentice, and the icy wind that had blown through the camp. Maybe StarClan was real after all.
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I was thinking of making her not believe in StarClan, but then that was too much like Cloudtail, and just annoying anyway. But Icepaw's not one for blind faith, so there's more to come on this subject…(hint hint nudge nudge Blind Faith).
- ASTER