Back To The Start (Book 3) (S1 Finale) (A Warriors Cat Story)

Chapter 2: Something is going on...

I went down in my den, hoping that tonight my mate would come in and cuddle up with me. I doubted that she would, I had fallen asleep without her here, and waken up without her the last couple of nights. I felt a bit lonely, I knew I was the leader, I was supposed to be doing the job that she was doing.
She was taking care of the clan, the kits, and the elders... I suppose I was doing my job as well, taking care of the patrols and the hunts. She was the one that didn't sleep though, I wanted to help her, but she would always tell me that she was okay.
I saw someone walk outside my den, and I realized that it was just Silent going over to the edge of our camp and taking care of it and making sure nothing snuck in over the night. I looked down at the ground a bit sadly, and then I shook my head.
I wanted my mate so badly, but I knew that she was not going to come in. I wondered how Limp must be sleeping as well, since she was the medicine cat, and she also probably was helping out Mint as well. I shook my head, I needed my sleep, a leader should be ready for his clan in the morning.
On that note, I turned my head away from the entrance to my den, and then just looked at the wall, just in darkness. That's when I began to grow a bit tired after the long day of patrolling our territory...

I woke up, and saw that I was at the 4 trunk place that the clans used to originally meet up in the old territory. I looked around a bit confused, my dreams had just been normal lately, just going around, trying to hunt for mice or something else.
This was different though, and I could smell a weird scent in the air. I closed my eyes, I had smelt the scent before, I could just not tell what it was from, and what it was for. I opened my eyes, and then saw a cat it front of me, my vision was blurry though.
I could not tell who it was, and what was going on around me. I could hear cats mewing in pain, and in fury as well. I suddenly felt a quick swipe to the side, and felt a sharp ting of pain. I yelled loudly, and heard a cat beside me begin to laugh.
I blinked my eyes to try to see, but it did me no such sort of luck, it seemed as if I was stuck like this. The cat kept on scratching me, over, and over, and over again. There was nothing I could do, I tried to fight back, but it did no such luck with not being able to see anything.
The cat kept on laughing at me, each cut he gave to me, I got more and more angry, and the laughs seemed to get louder and louder in my ear. I closed my eyes, it always worked in my dreams, the pain seemed to disappear right away.
I kept my eyes closed for just a few moments longer, not trying to test and see if the cat would be back as soon as I opened them. After a few moments longer, and once I felt that it was okay for me to open them, I then opened my eyes and looked around.
My vision was no longer blurry, and I was back to were I was a few moments ago. I was back at the gathering place in the old territory. I looked around, and then began to try to walk. It felt like I was walking, but I was not getting any closer to any of the tree stumps.
I stopped walking, starting to get a bit annoyed, but then I heard the voice of a cat that I recognized. I cat that seemed to visit me in my dreams nearly every single night for quite some time. I turned my head around, to see the face of Squirrelflight.
I smiled at her, happy to see her again, but she did not seem to have that same sort of energy on her. I could not tell what the look on her face was. It looked like the face of a queen to her kit when she was telling the kit not to do a certain thing.
Had I done something wrong? It seemed like I had been doing the correct things... I thought that was the reason that Starclan had stopped visiting me. Was it because I had actually failed them? I looked at her for a few moments, and then I waited for her to begin speaking.
After a few moments longer, she finally raised her voice at me, but it did not sound like her voice. It sounded like the voices of 100 other cats all yelling at me at the exact same time. I lowered my head, a bit afraid of what was going on. I had never had anything like this ever happen to me before.
"Moon, it lights up the sky, but it dims out the stars... Cats will test the Moon, but the Moon must always let Cats know that the stars shine bright." She said to me. I looked at her a bit surprised and a bit confused for a few moments.
I was about to ask her what it meant, even though I knew that she would refuse to tell my anything about it, or she would say that she did not know either. But just as I was about to say something to her, she disappeared from the stump right as I was about to speak.
I then blinked, and right as I opened my eyes it was just darkness, I then closed my eyes, and that was the last of that encounter that I had...
I woke up, and turned my head behind me to see that there was a cat walking over to me. I blinked a couple of times, my vision was still quite a bit blurry since the fact that I had just woken up. Once I blinked, I saw who the cat was that was coming up to me right away.
I felt a bit of sadness, and disappointment that it was not my mate, but I shook my head, and then I lifted myself up. I felt a small amount of pain on my left side, I did not know where it came from, and how it had gotten there. The cat that had come up to me had noticed it as well.
I looked at the cat, as he was looking at the spot that I was in a bit of pain from. I nodded to the cat, as my vision came back to normal now. The cat that had came in to see me was my deputy Owl. He must have just woken up, I could tell that it was the crack of dawn.
The cat looked at the spot for a few moments longer, and then he lowered his head to his leader. He then nodded to me, asking me if he could come into my den. I nodded to him, as he walked into my den, and then he sat down beside me and then began to speak.
"Ouch Moon, looks like you got a couple thorns in you... Wonder where you got that from..." He said to me. I looked at him, and turned my head trying to see the cut that was on my fur. I just could not turn my head far enough around to see it.
I wondered if that was the reason that I had felt the sharp points of pain in my dream last night. I looked at the mossy spot that I had been sleeping last night, and then saw a couple of thorns hanging in to it. I looked at it for a few moments, and then I shook my head a bit frustrated. I then began to speak back to my deputy.
"I guess they were it my moss pile last night, I'll have to get someone to bring me some new ones, I wonder how that got there..." I said to him. He looked back at the moss pile that I had slept on last night for a few moments, and then he too nodded back to me.
I looked outside, wondering which cat I should get to get some moss for the rest of the cats in the camp today. I knew it had been a while since we had a fresh stock, we could use some more. I tended to get my own, I had yesterday as well, but that ended up not working too well for me clearly...
I kept staring out into the clearing thinking of which cat I should give those duties to. I knew that Flame would be busy at camp worrying about his mate and his new born kits. I then thought about Shrivel, I knew she had been feeling a bit down lately, I may as well give her something to do to make her feel important.
I kept my thoughts on how she had been looking at Silent last night, and I could see that she was a bit hurt to see that his eyes were stuck on her sister. I kept on thinking about that, but then I heard the voice of my deputy Owl, as he interrupted my thoughts.
"You should head over to Limp and get it checked out, I can arrange the patrols for you today while you are in there, and you can have a day off, I know you and your mate have been working your tails off." He said to me. I looked at my deputy, and my friend, and then I nodded to him gratefully.
I remember when he had first called Mint my mate, he had a bit of a jealous tone in his voice, but I could tell he had gotten over that now. I knew that he had his own mate, and he was happy with her. I did not like her at first, but she began to grow on me.
I remember that Kettle's other friend Hawk had come with them as well, I hoped that all was going well in Riverclan right now. I usually talked to Youngtail about it, but he had not gone to them lately because he had told me that they were in good shape.
He said he was most worried about Shadowclan, and I could tell why, I had made Kevin their leader in a sort of rush to have 5 clans, that way the cats could all split apart, at the huddled up space that we had been staying at, in Summers house.
I closed my eyes for a few moments, happy that things were going good with the clans... I then remembered the dream that I had last night. The omen that Squirrelflight had given me, I had no clue what any of it had meant, but I was a bit worried about me getting attacked by a cat.
I opened my eyes and then looked at Owl, and then nodded, he could tell that I was a bit worried, but he did not say anything about it, as I then began to speak to him. He just nodded, and turned his head over to me, to hear what it was that I had to say back to him.
"Alright, thank you Owl... You are a great deputy, I hope that you will be a good successor as a leader after me." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, with a bit of a surprised look on his face, but then he nodded back to me.
I then began to walk out of my den, looking around at the clearing, and enjoying the sun on my pelt. This was the best place to live for me, I did not like being in the woods and not being able to enjoy the sun, and I did not want to be in Riverclan either, I hated being around water.
I sat there for a few moments, just soaking up the warmth of the sun, I knew that we did not have much longer until leafbare, and I knew that leaf fall was upon us at this point. There still was nothing like the sun when you got out of bed in the morning.
I heard the voice of my deputy, and then focused on it, as I then realized that he was trying to get my attention and speak to me, before we went our separate ways for the day.
"You are younger than me Moon... You are going to get your 9 lives soon, I am afraid I'll be dead by the time you get your next successor." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, I knew he was right with what he had said, but I did not nod to him, I was not willing to agree with him on it.
I looked down at the ground for a few moments, Silent was older than Owl as well, who would be my next successor after Owl passed on, or rather he went to join the elders? I closed my eyes for a few moments, trying not to think about it, too much yet at least, I still had plenty of time to worry about that.
I then realized of a thing to say to Owl, and it made sense as well, maybe he could still be the next leader. I still had my doubts, I had not even gotten my 9 lives yet, I wondered when that was going to happen... I hoped that I did not lose my 1 life before that time.
"A leader must use this 9 lives for his clan, not for himself... If I die to age, its not like I wake up and get any younger." I said to him. He looked at me fot a few moments, still not too sure about what I had said. He nodded to me anyways.
He then pointed towards the medicine den, for me to go over and get my cut looked at, and worked on. I looked at my deputy, and then gratefully nodded to him. We then began to split our separate ways. I watched my deputy as he began to walk over to where he mate and Shrivel were talking, and I shook my head and then began to walk over to the medicine den.
As I got closer, I turned my head, and saw that the fresh kill pile was basically empty now, I knew that we needed to get that filled up fast. I was about to go over to the tall rock and speak to the clan, but then I realized that I had already given away my duties to Owl for the day.
I shook my head, and then walked into the medicine den. I looked around, and noticed that Rabbit was no longer in here with her kits. I did not see Limp around here either, I figured that she must have just moved her over to the queens den.
I began to turn my head over to walk out of the medicine den, but then I heard a voice speak to me from the corner of my room. I looked back around, and I saw that Limp had just been in her storage room putting some new things into it.
I looked at my friend for a few moments, and then smiled at her and then nodded. She had her face turned on something else, so she was paying no attention to the smile that I was giving her. I shook my head, and then began to listen to her speak to me.
"Oh geesh... You aren't the only cat that had thorns in your nest. You need to make sure that cats pay attention to the moss that they are acquiring next time." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, and then I nodded to her, I knew that she was only giving me advice, but it kind of annoyed me.
I still had not gotten over that day that she had said those things to me and my friends either. I shook my head, and then focused back on her. I knew that she regretted the things that she had said, she was trying to better herself from it as well. I began to talk back to her.
"Yes... I will make sure to tell them, but there is something I need to tell you... I had a dream last night, and I am fairly worried about it." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, with a bit of a surprised look on her face. I was a bit confused as to why it was so, surely she was used to that sort of stuff at this point, being a medicine cat and all.
She then walked out of the larger room quickly, and I saw her going to where she stored all of her herbs. I waited for her to come out with the herbs that she needed to heal me. I sat there for quite a few moments, and she finally walked back out of the room, hurry over to me with the medicine that she needed to heal me.
I sat there for a few moments, and then I let her do her work, it was a bit painful as she first plucked the thorns from out of my fur, but once she mushed up the herb and then began to put it on me, it soothed me down for the time being. I looked at her as she then began to speak back on what I had just said a few moments ago.
"I had a dream as well... I saw some cats, and I think they were in trouble, I was just about to wake you up and tell you, but you got to me first." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, with a bit of a surprised look on my face.
It was a completely different dream than the one that I had. I shook my head, and then began to tell her how I felt on what was happening.
"My dream was very much different... I think we need to find those cats first, hopefully it doesn't take as long as last time. Then I need to meet with you, Owl, and Mint later... Something is going on..."