Alone (A Warrior Cat Story) (Book 1)

Chapter 4: Together

I thought to myself what Owl had said to me. That I could i've there with him if I wanted to. It would be nice, and I would have another friend with me. Something was just telling me no in my head and it was not Squirrelflight. I could maybe spend a few days with him but I had to do what I was destined to do.
Now don't get me wrong, Owl was cool and I would love to go and live with him. But it was not up to me at this point. I tried to steer the thoughts from out of my head. He would teach me at least a little bit about hunting. He had told me there was tons of mice there and they weren't hard to catch.
"Alright we are almost there, be prepared to be amazed. This place is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. They took me in when I was real young, I don't really remember it all that much." Owl said to me smiling. I didn't remember my parents at all either. My fist memories were always with Tristan and the female owner. The male owner was never really kind to us. He liked to go and scratch on the female owner, but he never once tried to scratch on us.
"Im ready..." I said back to him. He smiled and then kept on walking and I followed him. Right now I just needed to be with someone... I need to be together. I had no idea how to make it out here, and based off of what Owl had told me, cats cold actually make it out here.
Tristan had always told me otherwise, but there was somewhere, deep inside my head, that I knew cats could make it out here. There was no way we couldn't I always knew that not all cats could be kittypets as Owl liked to call them. I was grateful for him, maybe I could get him to follow me. Help me "rebuild the clans" like Squirrelflight had always told me was my destiny. She said it was written in the stars. And for some reason I believed that... I mean, there were stars in her pelt, it just seemed a little odd the me.
Finally we walked up to big fence about the size of my owners place. I was prepared to jump above the fence but Owl just kept on walking. Surely he didn't think that a normal jump could get him all the way through that right? But he then he disappeared from out of nowhere... I looked around a bit confused, where did he go? Suddenly i saw I head pop up from a little spot under the fence.
"Come on, come through here, I made this whole a long time ago. Like you I tried to run away, but I actually realized I cared about my owners." Owl said to me. I knew Owl didn't mean that in a mean fashion. But it still pissed me off a little because it was not my fault that my owner threw me out.
"I did care about one my owners, but the other one threw me out, and was all fine and dandy about that. She was yelling at him the whole time." I said back to him. I hated that owner so much. It seemed like he only cared about himself and not about others that were around him. Made me so upset just thinking about it so I tried to clear my mind. Owl looked at me sadly and then apologized.
He was a good cat, the cats that came around me place a few times were nothing like him. He suddenly pulled his head back telling me to follow him through the small hole under the fence. I slid under it and then walked in towards him. The place he lived as definitely wasn't best looking. I looked around a bit and then jumped.
"Oh my gosh a coyote, we need to get out of here Owl." I said hissing at him so that they wouldn't hear us. He laughed and I was so confused, he did know that those things would kill him right?
"Moon you're funny... Those black and white ones are cows and the furry white ones are sheep." He said to me. I leaned my claws back in thankful. Then I blushed thinking of how stupid I must have sounded to him. Coyotes in a barnyard. I never heard of it, but it sounded like a friendly place. And the place didn't look so bad besides a bunch of yellow things that were sitting around. "Follow me..."
I followed him as we headed to the big building, there were a few of his owners around that spot. It actually kind of scared be just based off of the past experiences I had with owners. They nodded to Owl and then just kept on working. Surely they must have been at least a little bit scared that they saw another cat here. I remember my owners had always yelled whenever the saw the other cats come over.
"Aren't they scared that another cat is in here?" I said to Owl he just turned around and grinned.
"Of course not, they are used to me bringing cats around here." He told me. I felt thankful, maybe they would maybe even let me live here with him. But then I felt a bit sad that I even dare let that thought pass through my head. Squirrelflight had a quest for me and I could not just ignore that. Owl seemed happy here, and he was all smiles and grins. It made me a bit sad but I could go and do this myself, I didn't always need another cat with me. Besides Squirrelflight of course.
We then walked into a smaller room and he sat down on some of the yellow things I saw from earlier. I felt a little scared to even go near these things because they were huge but Owl just nodded to me to come up.
"I'm kind of hungry. That little bird from earlier wasn't much to feel me up." I told Owl... He nodded and then prodded up from where he had been laying. I felt a little bad for him because he seemed a bit tired. I was not tired at all. I had actually slept fairly well last night. Maybe because Squirrelflight was not there. Firestar had told me that I would have to learn a few things on my own for the next few days. Maybe Squirrelflight had given up on me and didn't believe I could do it anymore. I would prove her wrong. I wasn't weak...
"Alright... Have you ever caught a mouse before in your life?" Owl asked me. I mean in a dream I sorta had, but not really... I didn't kill it, that was Squirrelflight, but I was the one that had eaten it... I shook my head to him. "Well I guess I will try my best to teach you. These ones aren't as smart as the ones that are in the woods."
I watched Owl as he slowed up a bit then sniffed... He then pointed me towards a spot further back in the room. There were 3 back there I saw from far away. I didn't want to scare them away so I just stayed back and let Owl do the talking. He started with what Squirrelflight had done at first. Putting her head little bit low but then the rest of it was completely off of what she had shown me.
He ran as fast as he could from far away. And then barely caught one of them as they looked around wondering where the noise was coming from. It did not seem right at all. No wonder why he had said the were easier to get then the ones in the woods. You had to be careful of a stick being in your way... And these ones just looked straight up dumber then the one from my dream.
"Alright Moon, your turn... Don't worry, if you can't get it at first, Ill find another one or give you some of mine." He told me... I nodded gratefully then sniffed through the air the try and smell were another group of them was. The scent from those ones were still close by and it was hard to smell any others. But rather than smelling one I saw one from the other side of the room. "Come on Moon, I believe in you, just do what I did."
I nodded and then went ahead leaving him behind. I lowered my head doing what both of them had done right off the start. But I tried Squirrelflights way instead of Owls. His just didn't make much sense to me. I slowly began walking making sure I didn't trip on anything as I was going. This was it, I was almost there... Squirrelflight would be so proud of me for catching one of these.
"Hurry run!" Owl yelled from the other side of the room, the mice looked up and then saw me, I was only a few feet away, I had to go now! But I ran and was too slow to try and catch them as the ran inside of a hole in the wall. I looked at Owl frustrated and then shook my head angrily at him.
"What was that?" I yelled at him. He stood back looking at me confused. "I knew what I was doing you scared them off." He looked down seeming to be offended and saddened at the same time. I felt instantly bad that I had been so harsh on him... Clearly he did not Know how to hunt like he had said he did. Squirrelflights way seemed to make way more sense than the way he was trying to teach me.
"Im sorry... I that you said you had never hunted anything before... I was only trying to help." Owl said to me looking saddened as if I was the older cat teaching him not to do certain things. I felt bad for him because he had taken him into his place and I was being a bit mean to him.
"Im sorry, Its just I had a friend that had taught me a better way of doing it." I lied to him. It made him feel a little bit better but he still seemed a bit taken aback by the instance.
"Its okay, I mean your way seemed a bit better than mine, maybe that's why I don't catch the ones in the woods... They hear me coming from miles away." Owl told me. Im glad he got over that so easily. I felt pleased as to what he had said to me. Squirrelflight had taught me well.
"Yeah, you just have to go sneak up on them. I'd never tried it but my friend told me that's how he did it out there." I said to him. It was a lie but I didn't want him to think I was crazy if I said there were cats coming into my dreams. Tristan had always told me his dreams were always about walking around our place and snuggling our owner. Besides a few nightmares he said he had about being with the other owner and getting scratched by him.
We had completely different dreams, mine would always be about being in the woods at some place near a lake... Something I had never seen before but Tristan had always told me about them. So I guess my mind had just assumed that's what they looked like. I had always tried to catch those little animals out there and everytime I failed. I would always just be running straight after them. Now that Squirrelflight had taught me how to do it the right way I knew that some day I would be able to catch one of them... Maybe even right now as I brought myself back to the present.
"Well there's another mouse on the other side of the room if you think you can go and catch that." Owl said to me. I nodded gratefully... This time I would not fail, it wasn't all his fault... If i had reacted a bit sooner then I probably could have caught it as well. I went near it Owl was close behind my back watching every single step I took.
I lowered my body like last time watching every step as I moved in towards it. Making sure I didn't step anywhere nearby that might catch them off guard.
Slowly I moved in really close to them. Then in my head I thought of what Squirrelflight had shown me that night. I jumped and then landed on it. "Yes! I got it!" I yelled out loud.
"Kill it." Owl said from not far away. But he was too late. It hopped from out of my paws and then ran away. Dang it! That was absolutely stupid of me... I had completely messed up the most important part... I had to actually kill the mouse.
"Gosh I am stupid. I forgot you had to actually kill it... Im never going to catch a single animal... Im going to starve out there." I said to myself, just loud enough for Owl to hear it as he drew closer. This time I couldn't blame any of that on me. I just had no idea how I didn't think to kill the mouse after I had caught it.
"No your not, it was very good for your first try. Besides there so many in this barn i don't think we could ever run out." Owl said to me. I realized he was right as I sniffed another one from far away. I knew this place wasn't like the woods. There was an infinite pile of food it seemed like.
I did what I had done the other 2 times, making sure to lower my head as I moved slowly towards it. I think jumped and then bit down on it killing it right away. Owl run over to me super happy.
"Great job! It took me a long time before I caught my first one. You're way seems like a lot smarter than my way." Owl said to me I nodded gratefully as we both sat down and began eating our meal. This one seemed so much better than the mice that I had in my dream. It was so rich and delicious, it was the best thing I had eaten in my life. Way better than that hard dry stuff that my owners had given me. I enjoyed every bite and then Owl looked back at me with a smile.
"Way better than that nasty food that my barn folks give me in the Winter for sure huh?" Owl said to me. I nodded my head, it was the best meal ever. There had never been anything like that. Maybe it was because it was raised in the barn, either way it was definitely better than the one I had eaten in my dream. But even that was still way better than the food my owners gave me besides a few pieces of wet food.
He sat back up in the same spot he had been in before... I decided to head up there nearby him, it was actually way more comfortable then anything I had ever slept on.
I used to sleep on the bigger things in my owners place... They were pretty comfortable, but if I was caught the male owner would shoot this weird smelling water at me.
I looked at Owl happily as he looked back at me. If I wasn't destined to be doing what Squirrelflight wanted me to do then I would definitely be living here with him. He had given me the opportunity and i so badly wanted to say yes.
But at the same time I had remembered what Firestar had said to me the other night, and I did not want to let Squirrelflight down. I had to find out from somewhere what these clans were. I never understood what they meant when they were talking about it to me. If I could just fall asleep maybe Firestar would come and help me in a dream tonight. I knew that Squirrelflight wasn't going to be seeing be for a while sadly. I heard a few words from Owl that made me smile for I past out.
"Thank you Moon, this was the best day I have had in a while... Im so happy that we are together."