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

Chapter 6: Follow me...

I looked back at my mate a bit sadly, as she began to walk off, back towards camp. I missed her so badly, and I often wondered if I would ever get to spend time with her again. Sure, eventually Limp would find an apprentice, but I still had my own job to do, and that was to lead my clan.
I could not rely on Owl every day, today was just because of the dream that I had last night. Which I had not even gotten to yet, I knew I should always talk to the medicine cat when I had dreams like that, but what she had dreamed about, seemed a fair bit more important for the time being.
I knew that the time that I got to spend with Mint, was only going to get less and less, as the clan began to fill up, and we kept on piling on with more and more kits. I shook my head, I had a job to do, and if I had to lose my mate because of it, then that was just how it had to be.
I doubt she was thinking of leaving me, she was probably thinking the exact same thoughts as me right now. Especially since I was now the leader of our clan, she and I both knew that a lot of she cats would have a lot of interest in my no matter what I looked like, if I was the leader of a clan.
Kettle had already told me that a she cat had expressed interest in him, and they did not even know each other all that well. I shivered, I loved my mate, I would never leave her for another cat. No matter what cat that I was with, I would not have the time to be with them.
It was a bit sad and disheartening, but it was what it was. Right now, I had to get my mind focused on the task that was ahead of us. That was to make our clan better, and to save some cats lives. Surely they would want to be a part of our clan if we saved them.
If not, I would not be upset if they chose another clan over us, as long as they decided to be a part of the clans. I shook my head, and then kept on walking, taking the lead, as any good leader should be doing for their medicine cat.
Limp nodded to me as I walked past her, and I nodded back to her. I then kept on walking, looking around at the surroundings of my beautiful territory. It was all mine, I owned all of it, and I loved it, I would not give up this life for me old life, even if the chance was thrown at me.
I smiled looking around, forgetting how large our territory was, as we walked over the hill to see the lake in the distance. On the far other side, I could just slightly see to Shadowclans territory through all of the fog that was hiding the air.
That had to be thousands of tail lengths away, if not even millions. I then turned my head, as I spotted Youngtails old place out in the distance. I squinted my eyes at it, trying to remember why we were even going there in the first place.
I knew that Youngtail hated thinking about those memories, he always told me that he had failed the clans, and it was his fault that he let them down. He said that he hoped doing what he was doing now, would give him repentance in the eyes of Starclan.
I hoped so to, I knew that Starclan could be a bit rough on cats at times. I could tell that he was genuinely a good cat, and I still was not sure if it was even his fault that the clans had fallen apart in the first place. There were no other cats to talk to, that were a part of the clans, he was the last one.
I remember back on the day that I had made the hardest decision in my life, which was to be a kittypet, or keep on going down the path that my dreams were telling me to go. If I had made the incorrect decision, I would have never got to be with Mint.
Me and Owl probably would not be as close friends as we were now. Youngtail would still be at his twoleg place, probably dead from starvation at this point, due to the fact that his twoleg owners never came back for him. I wondered why that was so sometimes.
I then forget how cruel the tom owner could be to me and his mate, I would never give up my current life for that one, though I do miss Tristan sometimes, but he had died anyways, so there was not much that I could have done about that.
I sometimes wondered if the tom owner had put poison in our food... I remember not being hungry that morning, so I did not eat, and next thing I knew, I saw Tristan was throwing up, and he was struggling to breath...
We were alone, none of our owners were there to help him, and he passed away in my paws. I was in so much pain that day, and I was tempted to run away, and just die out in the wild. It would have been the easy way out of all of this.
It is what the tom would have wanted in the first place... I was glad that I had not done that however, and that I had stuck in through... Things would have been a lot different, if I had done that to myself that day. There would be a lot of missing pieces to the puzzle.
I shook my head, and then kept on walking over to the smaller twoleg place that was in front of us. I looked over at Limp, as I could hear her quiet footsteps walking from behind me. I then nodded to her, just to make sure that she was ready for it. She looked at me for a few moments, and then she nodded back to me.
That was one thing that I could say about her, she did not hesitate when we came into trouble. She was one of the greatest cats that I had ever met, and I was happy that we had made up for that fight that we had in the woods... I was not sure if Oister had yet however.
I shook my head, it did not matter to me what another clan thought about my clan mates. I just needed to focus on my clan first, and make sure that we were in good hands. I kept on walking, we were only a few tail lengths away from it now, and we were in much better condition to hop over, than we were the first time.
It should not take us long to find what we were looking for, surely right? The place was fairly small, probably only containing maybe 12 twoleg places at the most, as far as I could remember. The problem was really, had Mint meant that it was near the place, or had she meant that it was in there?
I wish that she could be with us, just to tell us, but I knew that she needed to do her task that Limp had assigned her to, and make sure that she got those herbs back safe into camp. I also wanted to talk to her, that was the main reason that those thoughts were coming into my head at the moment.
I shook my head, as I saw that Limp hopped on the fence above me, since I was taking so long to make my choice. I looked at her, and then I nodded to her, and I hopped up onto the fence beside her. She nodded back to me, and she looked around, wondering where we should go to next.
I also wondered if we should have gone back to get Youngtail now that I thought about it. I shook my head on that thought as well... I had noticed earlier this morning that he was not at camp, which was also a lot of the reason I had told Owl that we were having a meeting tonight, but I had not specified his name as one of the names on the list.
He was usually spending his days checking in the other clans, and often sleeping in their camps as well. I would say once every few days I would see him around Windclan camp... He called himself a part of Windclan, but in my eyes he was the real leader of all of the clans...
I knew that he had also led our clan a long time ago as well, he had told me bits and pieces of his story, but a lot of what he said did not add up. I am sure that there was a lot of mistakes that he had made, that he did not want to tell me about.
I closed my eyes, trying not to think about all of that at the moment, as I turned my attention to Limp. Clearing my mind of all of those thoughts that I was trapped in, inside of my head. I looked at my friend, as she then began to speak to me.
"I cannot smell any rose's or daisy's around here anywhere, it must not be in the actual twoleg place, she must have meant from the sides." She said to me. I looked at her, and then I began to sniff the air, just as she had done a few moments ago.
I smelt a couple of flowers, I was not too sure if I knew the scent of Daisy's or Rose's off of the top of my head. But none of them smelt like anything that stood out to me. I looked across the twoleg place, poking my head up to try and see if I could see any of the yards.
I could not see anything however, and I looked down at the ground a bit saddened, and I bit upset at the same time. But that was making me look like a weak leader, and I knew that as a fact for sure. Even if I knew Limp, and me and her were best friends, it was best if I did not show her those emotions from out of me.
After a few more moments of me sniffing and poking my head around, trying to spot anything in particular, I then looked back over at Limp, and I shook my head at her, a bit sadly. She looked around, as if she expected to see something that I might have missed, but she eventually looked back over at me. I at her as well, and shook my head once again, and I began to speak.
"No luck... I wish we would have thought to ask Mint whether it was in or outside of the twoleg place." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, and then she began to look around, as if she was trying to think about something off of the top of her head.
She eventually looked back over at me, and she nodded back at me a bit sadly. Not as if she was hurt, or in pain, but more as if she was beginning to realize our mistake that we had just made... I hoped that we could still find the cats because of it. She began to speak to me and I looked at her to listen.
"Well, I say we check on the outside, I know that Mint does not like to go into twoleg places most of the time... I still am not too good at remembering where the herbs are that she had, but I do not think that they would be inside of a twoleg place." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, thinking through what it was that she had just said to me. I knew that she was right, so I nodded to her to let her know.
She knew more about herbs than I did, so I would let her make the decision, I barely remember those few small things that Jayfeather had taught me. A lot of that was just to help with small little things that we might get in trouble with at first as well.
He had never spoken to me ever since we had gotten Limp, and I had never asked her if Jayfeather had visited her in her dreams. I kind of had my doubts. He was a part of Thunderclan, so why would he be helping Windclan and teaching her about herbs.
I suppose that was the job of Starclan though, it did not matter what clan we were in at the end of the day. I knew that Squirrelflight had been a bit hurt when I had made the decision to chose to lead Windclan, rather than lead her own clan.
I just did not like being around so many trees, I very much enjoyed the wind in the mornings, making the air feel so much nicer, if I was in Thunderclan, I would never get to feel the wind swirling around like I got to feel in my own territory.
I realized that Limp was just staring at me, and I could tell that she was starting to get a bit frustrated as well. I was wasting a lot of time, and I looked up in the sky, noticing that it was nearing noon already, we really needed to get this done fairly fast.
I looked at her, and then looked down at the ground, before eventually lifting my head back up, nodding to her apologetically. She nodded back to me, and then she waited to hear my voice. I sometimes forgot that I was the leader, anr that I was the one that made all of the decisions.
"Good thinking, I have not been around this part of the territory, most of my days are spent around camp... It is nice to get out, and feel to cool breeze in the air sometimes." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, and then she rolled her eyes at me.
I looked at her a bit confused as to what she thought was so funny. She then squinted ger eyes at me, I was getting even more confused by the moment. I must have said something fairly dumb, or the look on my face, must be the look of a stupid cat. She then began to speak back to me.
"Yes... But we are not here for the breeze, we are here because we are looking for cats, and we are trying to help them." She said to me. I looked at her, and then I looked down at the ground, realizing how stupid I was being right now.
She still had her eyes squinted at me, as if she had thought that I had not listened to a word that she had just said to me. I then looked back up at her, and then nodded to her. She still did not look too sure if what I was doing was true or not, so I figured that I should let her know.
"Yes, I know... You take the lead, I will be right behind you, if we don't find them out here, we can go inside and stay the night in there." I said to her. She looked at me, as if she still was not too sure I knew what I was saying, but after a few moments she eventually nodded to me.
I nodded back to her and she looked around one last time, as if she was expecting the roses to just pop out of the middle of the open. She then shook her head, as she hopped down from the fence, I looked at her and then I squinted my eyes at her.
I wondered what it was that was up with her, she was not very trusting of me today. Was there something that she had seen in the dream? She does know that I would never do something evil or do anything to h-
I shook my head, I had done enough thinking for now, as I hopped down from the fence, and I began to follow her. She looked back at me, still having her eyes squinted at me for some odd reason. She then began to speak to me.
"Since you are clearly not focused right now... Just follow me..."