An Appearance Doesn't Define Me

Chapter 4: Questions

   I awoke with start, standing stiff. Where am I? I look around and swiftly recall the events of yesterday. Oh, the 'Medicine Den' I plop down with a thud.

   "So, you're awake, everyone was asking about you at sunhigh, I told them to back off seeing as you were still sleeping." I turned my head to look at the voice to see Ivypaw sitting next to the moss I was lying on; a small grey thing was next to her paws.

   "What is that?" I say recoiling away; it stank.

   "A minnow! I thought you would be hungry, so I brought you something from the fresh-kill pile," She replies, thinking for a moment, "Might you like something like a water shrew?" she asks.

   "What the hell is a water shrew?" She looks startled at my choice of profanity but nods and elaborates.

   "Like a mouse." She tells me and I nod, who wants that? "Okay but beware! Dropstar will be dropping by later." She walks away chuckling at her own joke, I roll my eyes and start to clean myself back to a presentable standard only to find a massive patch of cobwebs on my flank. I stop just in time to prevent my tongue contacting the sticky mass.

   Ivypaw walks in with a small black body hanging from her jaws. "Here." She drops it in front of my muzzle, goes and picks up the minnow and curls up in the nest next to me.

   "Soooo... When can I get out of here?" I ask, she looks at me like I just told her, her tail was on her nose.

   "Uh.... I think Dropstar wants to talk to you like I said earlier, and Tallshade.... Tallshade won't let you go before you're healed," she explains.

  "Fine!" I sigh, "Well then since I'm stuck here, I might as well learn something. Who's Tallshade to you?" I ask, being nosey.

   "He's my mentor, he's going to teach me everything about healing!" she looks at my confused face, "So once you're 6 moons old you move out the Nursery and you get a mentor, most kits become a warrior: they hunt and fight for their clan, then if you're lucky there's a chance of being deputy and then leader - like Dropstar - and all Leaders have nine lives, them and Medicine Cats can contact StarClan. There are five clans around the lake, there's the stuck up Thunderclan on the other side of the lake, then the peaceful Skyclan next to them, then the rabbit-eaters, Windclan, on the other side of Thunderclan, you're in RiverClan... and if you're a kittypet you probably came from ShadowClan who's always been hostile." I sat there gawking at the information dump – why was that so much?

   "And Medicine Cats are supposed to stay out of clan feud,." a deep-ish voice comes from a tabby now standing at the entrance. "Ivypaw, Tallshade needs you... Echotail is complaining." He looked at the Apprentice.

   "Oh, no! It might be the kits!" she shoots out the moss and skids out the entrance leaving me.... alone... with this stranger.

   "So which direction did you come from?" he sits in front of me and gets straight to point.

   "Ummm.... I don't know but Ivypaw said I came from ShadowClan..." I say.

   "Ok... Easy! They're next to us so as soon as Tallshade gives clearance for you to leave I'll get some warriors to escort you off the territory." he exclaims.

   "NO!" I shout, I'm not going back now! "I... I can find my own way back; there's no reason to waste resources" I say recovering from my outburst.

   He hesitates before answering, "I don't like strangers hanging around my territory unsupervised but seeing as it's going home and you're not a clan cat nor rouge, so I'll let it slide," he says nodding, "I'll leave you to rest, hope you enjoyed that warrior-caught shrew." He flicked his ear toward the half-eaten shrew in front of me and left.

   I shake my pelt out as movement catches my eye in the corner of the den – a little gap in the bottom of the den gave out to the river that surrounds this little clearing. Then it moves again, one those too many legged things dangles from the room, and I start to spot more spiders in that corner. Great, I roll my eyes, blocking them out as I focus back on the shrew. A quiet, repressed, memory of a brown tabby with white paws and a gentle voice playing in my mind as I did so.