Alone (A Warrior Cat Story) (Book 1)

Chapter 10: First One

We continued heading in the direction that the sun had risen, I was surprised that she had not ask what the whole point of this quest was by now. I certainly would have if I was following some other random cat.
I was getting to know her very well though. I liked the cat a lot, there must be something in her mind that was broken because she always thought she was too weak to do anything.
I was pretty sure it wasn't Parrot that was feeding her all of that, I think she just thought of herself like that in the first place. At least I had hoped he was a semi good cat, in the time that I had met him. If I could go back and ask him but it was too late at this point for anything like that.
That would take up to tomorrow evening at this point for a simple question that probably wasn't all that important in the first place. I knew I couldn't ask her because that would probably just make her feel worse about herself.
She was just such a sweet cat, and a real one, I was just so happy she was coming, I didn't know how long I could make it alone with Squirrelflights helps od course. She was a sweet cat, and she did seem to care about me, but when she got hurt by something she did tend to put that wrath on other cats around her.
I hoped that she couldn't hear me thinking about that in my head like that, I wasn't sure how exactly much all those cats were looking at me. Everything I do, they were looking up to me, I didn't want to think bad things about them.
Mint continued walking a bit faster than me and I had to run to catch up. I don't know why she was in such a hurry I had told her that I didn't really know where exactly I was going to, but it seemed like she wanted to get to that unknown destination as soon as possible. I didn't know where we were going so I just wanted to take all the time in the world.
"Slow down... Lets go hunting or something, there is no rush..." I said to her she nodded and then began padding towards me. Me and her both began sniffing and I realized as soon as the vole hit that I had to teach her.
"I smell a few mice, can we catch some of those?" She asked me. I kept on sniffing completely ignoring her question in the first place. I wasn't sure the exact direction it was in and I also wanted to make sure that we would find it before going in the direction. "Moon, hello? You've been like ignoring me all day."
"Sorry, I smell a vole but I don't know where it is, I want to teach you how to hunt that, it is a lot like a mouse." I said back to her. She snorted and then began heading in the direction of one of the mice, I looked back at her a bit angry that she was just ignoring me like she was the one that was trying to teach me how to hunt.
"Seriously Moon, you can teach me how to hunt a vole as soon as I catch one of those mice." She told me. It was a fair point but I also wanted to get her to know what it smelt like and looked like.  It looked sort of like a mouse just with a few differences.
She went ahead and lowered her body for the nearby mouse. As she was getting close to it, just like last time she happened to step on a stick. She was close enough to catch it though this time. But for some reason she just didn't go after it.
"Watch out for th-" I began saying to her. She lowered her head and just hissed at me. It actually had me a bit taken aback. I was just trying to help her I don't know why she was getting so upset. The poor cat had so many issues I felt bad for her.
"Yes watch out for the stick. I know you told me last time, I am just too stupid to look for the sticks, I only think that they wont hear me and my mind gets into some sort of zone." She said to me. I felt a bit bad for her, she was trying to do exactly what I was telling her but she kept failing.
"Alright, just watch me catch a mouse and a vole for us and you will catch one tomorrow, the more we hunt the longer it will take to get to our end goal." I said for her. She looked at me a bit upset. I wasn't trying to be mean, but having her hunt all day meant that we would never be getting anywhere, and I didn't want to be anywhere near that pack from last night.
"Okay I guess... Sorry, I slow you down and make you have to hunt more. I will go back if you want me to, Im just not good at this." She said to me. I looked her in the eyes and felt bad for her. There had to be someone that was bringing her down and making her think bad things about herself.
"Mint, I want you with me, whether you can hunt or not. I will have to tell you something tonight but you probably will not believe me. You are sweet, and I need you with me I cannot do this on my own." I told her. She looked at me back into my eyes and just nodded. It almost seemed like she did not believe anything that I was telling her.
"Alright, so there are around 2 voles nearby, sniff the air and I will tell you the direction that they are in." I said to her. She nodded and then lifted her head and closed her eyes, sniffing at all the nearby scents. I sniffed my head again just to remember which direction the voles were in.
"What is the point in teaching me how to smell them if I can't even catch a mouse." She told me. I shook my head, someday I would have to get all of those negative thoughts from out of her head. That would bring her down everyday for the rest of her life.
"Mint, you will, now I need you too sniff at the air again, and stop thinking so much." I told her. It seemed strange that I was already teaching her something I had just been taught last night. Maybe I just wasn't doing a good job training her. She lifted her head once again and began sniffing at the air. "Now to your left, just slightly nearby the mouse there is a vole, I want you to smell it, I will be the one that goes after it."
She looked like she was trying her best to keep sniffing but it was almost like she was just stuck with all the other scents in the air, there were still a lot of scents I didn't know, but I tried to hide them from the scents that I actually knew.
"I think I smell one over there." She told me. I sniffed again, she was close but I had no idea what animal she was sniffing at. I shook my head and she looked down again looking a bit depressed.
"You were close, once I catch this I will get you to smell it that way you will not forget it." I said to her. She still had her head lowered but she nodded her head. I wanted so bad to fix all the negative things she was thinking about herself at the moment. "Alright, Mint... Its okay, no one can get it the first time. I will show you how to catch it and you must watch every single thing I do."
She nodded and then we began heading towards the direction of the vole. It wasn't very close, the other one was closer but this one was in the direction that we needed to be going. Once we were close I stopped Mint in her tracks so that it did not hear or see us.
"Alright stay here its right over there, I am going to catch it and I want you to watch every single thing that I do." I said to her. I wasn't even sure that I could do this myself, I had done it in a dream from last night. I had to act strong to her though, or else we would fail from being too weak.
I lowered my body just like I was chasing after a mouse. I closed my eyes just hoping she wouldn't yell something stupid or I wouldn't mess it up. I wanted to train her right, but at the same time I also wanted to make myself look good to her.
Once I cleared all of my thoughts I began heading towards it so slowly. I could hear Mint moving around from behind me, not loud but loud enough that the voles might hear her. I looked back at her and shook my head to get her to hush.
Once all was quite I headed towards it again. Slowly, so slowly and so quietly. I was getting so close to it, I looked around me making sure there were no sticks I might step on once again and then I began heading even closer.
Once I was close enough, I hopped on it before it even had a chance. I then bit into it for the killing bite and brought it over to Mint. She looked at me happily and I threw it to her for her to sniff on it.
"This looks almost like a mouse, but it doesn't smell anything like one." She said to me. I laughed and then began eating it, she looked at me a bit broken hearted, she said she would get her own, but I knew it her heart she was still kind of hoping that she could share some with me. And I knew that she had to be super hungry after last night, I don't remember the last time she had eaten if you don't count the little bite of mouse she had last night.
"Take the rest, I am going to catch a mouse for you, you are hungry, I already ate." I told her. She looked at me thankfully and then began eating it. She looked at me with such a huge smile it broke my heart just seeing such a beautiful smile.
"Thank you Moon, what do you mean you ate earlier, you woke up after me and we have been together all day." She said to me. I realized my mistake and felt a bit dumb for not thinking on it. I would have to tell her about my dreams sometime soon, Owl believed me but I don't know if Mint would believe me like he did.
"I will tell you a bit earlier, for now just eat, and I will go and get you some more." I told her. She nodded and then finished what was left of the vole while looking at me with a happy look on her face that made me smile right back at her.
"Thank you Moon, I am so grateful to follow you on my quest, I will try to do better, I want ask you to leave, I am sorry I have issues in my head." She told me. I felt bad for her but I would help her get through all of that stuff. Tristan used to have a sort of similar thing that she was having right now. "This vole is amazing though, even better than the wet food that my owners used to give me."
"The less you think about them the better you will feel Mint." I told her. She nodded and then finished up the final piece of the vole. She then stood up and pushed up against me. Once again I was so grateful to have such a sweet cat with me. I couldn't say it enough.
"Alright Moon, I will catch this mouse, or vole, whatever is closer I don't want to slow you down too much." She said to me. I nodded to her and she began sniffing at the air just like before. I sniffed around just to see if there was anything nearby.
I actually looked a bit disappointed, there was nothing I really knew about anywhere nearby us. Mint continued sniffing and I was about to stop her but she then looked up at me and was smiling.
I looked at her a bit confused but she was just nodding at me, she had to be smelling something I wasn't. Maybe she smelt something that wasn't something too eat and was actually something that would attack us. Maybe like a dog or wolf, but I didn't really smell anything like that nearby so I wasn't sure what it was at all.
Maybe it was a badger, Tristan had told me about those a few times too, and he told me about beavers that had clogged up rivers nearby. I always wondered how he got all of those stories in the first place. He was never out there and he believed that no cat could ever make it out there.
But he had told me about stories of wolves and coyotes, I had never believed any of them and just laughed at them. But as it turned out, everything that he had told me was true. Those things looked just as scary as he had told me in those stories. I shook my head trying to shake out all of those thoughts.
"Where? I have been sniffing forever and cant find anything nearby like that." I said to her. She smiled and then began running around like she was proud of herself. I was wondering if she even found one and was just holding it off to pretend like she had found one.
"Over there, haha, I am better than you." She responded to me. I sniffed it the direction that she was pointing her head towards. I could smell a small sniff of a mouse from very far away. Wow, he must have amazing range on sniffing for scents. I would never have smelt that far normally.
"Yes you are, now prove to me that you can catch it." I told her. She nodded and we started heading in the direction that it was in. Once we were very close i stood back that way it would not hear me coming towards it.
Once Mint caught sight of the mouse she lowered her head and began heading towards it very slowly and looking around that way she would not step on a stick this time. She was doing it perfectly and I was so proud of her for making it this far.
She was getting so close to it, any second now and she would catch it. She began running towards it but she was a bit too early. It heard coming and then began to scurry off towards a nearby pile of roots.
Mint jumped at it but it got into the root just less than half a tailength away from it with her claws. She hissed and then ran towards me looking very upset and disappointed.
"Dang it, what did I do wrong?" Mint asked me. I sighed not at her but I felt a bit bad at her and she began lowering her head. I had to say something to cheer her up quickly.
"You did everything right, you just ran after it too early, next time keep going a bit further, it has good hearing but not that amazing." I told her. She nodded and then began sniffing at the air looking for some more mice. I felt a bit upset but I held it in, she was just trying to catch her first one.
"I don't smell anything lets just go, I will try again later, I've eaten up enough for now." She told me. I thanked her from inside me head and then got up from the spot we were in. We had to start going at some point even though I wanted to take the quest slow, at this point we could get back to Owls before night time.
I dismissed my thoughts from out of my head and then shook my head towards Mint for her to come follow me.

The sun was setting in the sky and Mint was starting to feel very agitated that she still had not smelt a mouse or a vole much less caught one. I felt a bit bad for her, I had smelt a few scents but I wasn't sure what they were and they weren't something that I could try if I didn't know what they were, I could only imagine finding a badger or something else.
I also had no idea how to catch them, catching a rabbit was completely different than trying to catch a mouse. We kept on heading further and further and now the sun was almost to spot to where you could no longer see the light in the sky. It was about time to lower our heads and for me to find out how to catch something new in my dream.
But then all of the sudden Mint stopped and I looked around a bit confused, what was going on? It was a bit too late to catch a mouse it was too dark and at this point they had all already gone to sleep.
But all of the sudden Mint just disappeared and I was so confused. I didn't know whether to follow her or what.
Suddenly from out of nowhere a bunch of baby mice began to scurry off, I was surprised at this close I hadn't have just accidentally smelt one of them.
Mint walked towards me with one of the small mice in her mouth and a big smile on her face, I was pretty sure the only reason she had caught it was because it was about 1/3 of the size of a normal mouse and had no chance. She had not actually tried to hunt it at all. But I just smiled back at her to make her feel better about herself.
"Look Moon! My first one!"