Two sunrises had passed since the exile. She found herself in Riverclan territory. I'm not stealing prey no matter how hungry I am, I'm just passing through, she thought. The ground here was damp, since she was walking close to the river shore. She stepped on some sand, her paw pads now feeling warm since the sand had been in sunlight. She caught a glimpse of a shell as she was passing along the river shore. Riverclan must decorate with those, she thought as she looked at another shell. She began to wonder what would happen if she was caught by a Riverclan patrol. I'm doing nothing wrong, just passing through, she reminded herself. She would still probably need to come up with a name. The fluffy she-cat had never minded not ever being called by any sort of name, or the constant bullying she got from the Shadowclan cats. She had only ever had a few friends in Shadowclan. The former medicine cat, Poppynose, brought her there. After He died, it felt more lonely in Shadowclan. No one ever figured out what killed Poppynose. Though after she lost Poppynose, she had grown close to a young cat named Farsight, who is Ravenstar's daughter. Farsight was made a warrior less than a moon ago, and they had been pretty close since then. Farsight seemed to think of her as kin of some sort. How did she react when she found out I was exiled? She was out hunting, she wondered with a pang of sadness. Then she set her mind back to Shadowclan. Was the treatment she got there normal? Farsight said it wasn't good at all. She continued walking, her paws damp from stepping in a puddle. Left in her own thoughts, she now wondered what the other clans were like? She gazed into the river and saw a fish. Yuck! I wouldn't want to eat that! She decided. The fish swam off, and she continued walking for a bit longer before stopping to take a drink of water. I am so lost, she thought. The sun was high in the air. It's sunhigh already? She brought up her head form the water a whipped around, silently but quickly as she heard voices of cats. Riverclan cats!
"Nightpaw! Where are you going? We finished our hunt!" Some voice of a she-cat exclaimed.
"I wanna stay out and hunt for a bit longer! I want Shallowstar to see how was I'm doing!" A young sounding tom who she assumed to be Nightpaw answered. The she-cat said something in response that she couldn't quite make out, due to being a good distance away. She got up and stared at the direction where the voices came from. I need to leave! She urgently told herself.
She started leaving at a quick trotting pace, not looking back. She was very careful not to make noise. She scented cat scent. Good, it's stale, the fluffy she-cat observed. She was still noticing how different Riverclan Scent was from Shadowclan. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts and continued padding along the shore quickly but silently. What if I get seen? She wondered, then refused to think that would happen. It won't happen. She moved at a bit of a quicker pace, and slowed down when she thought she got far enough, away from this 'Nightpaw.' Nightpaw was an apprentice name. As far as her knowledge, an apprentice started training at four moons. If she was found, she could get lucky and Nightpaw could be a brand new apprentice, meaning he can't threaten her much. She has been training for almost two moons, with self taught moves. Her fluffy white fur stood on end, her black ear twitching and her tail raised in alarm as she heard a stick break. She braced herself to run but it was too late. As she was about to run, a jet black cat crashed into her, knocking her down. The jet black Tom pinned her down, growling.
"What are you doing on Riverclan territory?" He hissed.
"Just passing through," she said coolly, then used her hind legs to kick the Riverclan cat off, and she spring up from being pinned. The Tom who she guessed was Nightpaw, looked at her in astonishment.
"How could a shadowclan kit have enough strength to fight against a Riverclan apprentice?" He growled.
"I'm an apprentice," she corrected.
"How many moons old are you?" He questioned, narrowing his eyes.
"Five," she answered bluntly.
"You are a kit then. What's your name?" The tom asked.
"I am an apprentice," she mewed, then panicked in her head. I don't have a name! What do I say? She quickly thought, then came up with one. "Frostpaw." She finally answered to the second question the Riverclan apprentice asked.
"I'll call you Frostkit. You aren't an apprentice until you are six moons," Nightpaw stated, then said, "my name is—"
"Nightpaw," she interrupted him, already knowing his name due to hearing it from one of his clanmates talking to him.
"How did you know that? Are you a spy?" Nightpaw questioned, narrowing his eyes with a suspicious gaze on her, his tail lashing.
"I only know that because your clanmate was talking to you, pretty loudly I might add, and I just happened to hear it. And I am not spying for anyone. I am not Shadowclan anymore. I travel alone," she mewed.
"Why?" He asked simply, his hostility fading away.
"I got exiled," she answered bluntly to his question. Hopefully he doesn't ask why. She doesn't exactly know why.
"Did you do something bad?" He eagerly questioned.
"No," she answered vaguely. She didn't want to answer too many questions. She wanted to come off as friendly. She was still confused about how he said that kits aren't an apprentice until six moons. With my time in Shadowclan, it was four, but three for me, she thought, confused. Was there something wrong with Shadowclan?
"You have a leaf on your fur," she commented. Nightpaw shook his fur, and the leaf fell off.
"I should probably bring you back to my clan's camp so we can have a patrol take you back to Shadowclan's camp," he said. Was that sadness in his tone? Did he wish she stayed in Riverclan so they could be friends?
"I'm not going back to live with Shadowclan," she retorted.
"My clan doesn't have time to deal with kits who are lost," he muttered sadly. "And if you don't wanna go back to Shadowclan, then you will starve. I can tell you haven't hunted by the way your belly is growling."
"I don't want to break the warrior code by hunting in other clan's territories," she explained.
"I can't take you to Riverclan, we are struggling enough," he stopped to think, and seemed to have gotten an idea. "I could take you to Thunderclan. There's probably a patrol out. Thunderclan would surely take you! And you could become an actual apprentice, and you would get food, and we could be friends at gatherings!" He exclaimed, excited.
"I-I don't know. Thunderclan doesn't exactly have any reason to take me in. I would be another mouth to feed," she worried.
"Not when you are an apprentice! You will hunt for the clan!" He chirped.
"I guess. I don't think they would let me join but maybe they would keep me for a few days," she gave into her belly growling and agreed to Nightpaw's plan.
"Okay, we will have to search for a patrol now. We don't want to miss one. Follow me!" He called as he trotted quickly along the shoreline.
"Now?" She followed, surprised at how serious he was taking this. Why were Shadowclan cats not this nice? Aside from Farsight, she was like an older sister. They reached a spot with some stepping stones in the river.
"Okay, we are going to cross. When we cross we will be at Sunningrocks. When we meet the a patrol, be polite. Riverclan isn't exactly Thunderclan's favorite clan right now since we just claimed Sunningrocks after we won a battle for it," Nightpaw instructed.
She gave a quick nod, and hopped from stone to stone until they reached the other side. She stepped on one of the large warm stones of Sunningrocks. That feels nice, she thought. She heard a mouse scuffling under a small crevice in the rocks, but she was careful not to hunt it, since she's on Riverclan territory. She saw Nightpaw go to the other side of the stones. She leaped on a large stone then onto the grass where Nightpaw was stranding.
"This is the border for Riverclan and Thunderclan," he explained, then continued, "we won't cross into their territory, but we will wait for a patrol so we can take a safer and more respectful approach that would make it less likely for them to claw my ears off."
"Wouldn't they claw my ears off too?" She asked innocently.
"No. It is against the warrior code to harm kits. Of any clan. Even if they aren't clanborn at all. Kits are not harmed," he answered with an amused tone.
"I'm not a kit!" She squeaked.
"Yes you are, but sure, keep believing you aren't," he said with a friendly roll of his eyes.
"I smell a patrol!" She whispered.
"Where, there's no thunderclan cat scent other than stale ones," he tilted his head.
They sat there for a long while, then suddenly they finally heard pawsteps. I knew I scented a patrol! She thought. "This is the one I scented," she whispered.
Nightpaw stood up, and The fluffy white she-cat copied this action. The Thunderclan patrol took notice of the two young cats patiently waiting for them to approach. The patrol trotted over.
"What do you want?" A she-cat asked, who looked to be an apprentice.
"Greetings Tallfern, Halfeyes, and Spottedpaw," Nightpaw dipped his head politely.
"What do you need?" Halfeyes asked.
Halfeyes has two different colored eyes! That's really cool, the fluffy white she-cat thought.
"I found this Shadowclan kit. She was passing through Riverclan territory, heading to yours. She says she was exiled from Shadowclan. Riverclan is very busy right now. Would you be willing to take this kit to your camp? You could keep her as a guest or prisoner until you figure out why she's not in Shadowclan," he requested.
"Can't Riverclan apprentices learn how to solve things by themselves?" Tallfern muttered, her ear flicking with annoyance.
The she-cat's white fur stood on end in alarm. They don't to take me, she thought. Her white fur with black mottled spots bristled in nervousness. She looked as tiny as she felt.
"It might do good to take the kit. Maybe we can use this opportunity to question Ravenstar about her warriors trespassing. If we kept the kit until the next gathering, we could use her as an example of how ignorant Ravenstar is.," Halfeyes meowed thoughtfully, then said, "Thunderclan will take this kit into our possession."
"Go," Nightpaw gently nudged her over to join the Thunderclan patrol. She felt nervous. She met someone nice and now she would probably never see him again. Then Thunderclan was probably going to make her go back to Shadowclan! This is bad! She thought. Spottedpaw beckoned the kit with her tail to follow. She followed the Thunderclan patrol across their entire territory, not saying much. She almost tripped over a twig or stone several times. She finally broke the silence.
"This territory is really cool!" She squeaked.
"Yea, we have really good territory for hunting, and our camp is really well protected," Spottedpaw mewed with a friendly tone and an amused look in her eyes.
They traveled to the Thunderclan camp for what felt like an entire moon for her. She saw a ravine pretty close in the distance, with thorn bushes around it. Woah! They stopped at the entrance, and she suddenly felt nervous.
"Welcome to the Thunderclan camp," Tallfern meowed. Even she didn't seem very annoyed that the kit with there anymore.
She scented a bunch of different cat scents. She was trying to take in all the scents when Spottedpaw suddenly nudged her, silently telling her to go into the entrance. This is it, she thought, as she followed the two warriors and the apprentice into the Thunderclan camp.
YOU ARE READING
WARRIORS - The outcast | Book 1/6 of : The Starlit Path begins | SERIES #1
Adventure"Embrace what you find cast out of the shadows, as the clouded shadow of the moon will save the clans" An unnamed kit, later known as cloudedkit, is in shadowclan after a warrior had picked her up when she was 2 moons old. She had been all over the...
