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

Chapter 11: Our Territory

I walked away from the small twoleg place, and it felt like I was alone once again. Before I had met my mate Mint, and before I had even met Owl long before. I had been alone long before that as well, things had always been different after Tristan had been killed.
I always needed another cat by my side, I never realized that. I always thought that it might be better for me to be alone. I felt a bit guilty for pushing Mint away for a while, and telling her to go back home. It wasn't just the fact that I wanted her to be safe somewhere.
I liked her a lot from the start, and I could tell that she had fallen madly in love with me from the beginning as well. I just always felt like I would be better off alone. I knew why, it wasn't just that I was confused as to why that was. I did not want to lose another cat that I loved.
I missed Mint. I missed snuggling up beside her every night, even if the circumstances were not ideal. That hardly seemed to ever happen for me anymore. It was not my fault, nor was it hers. I just wish for once, life around the clan was not so busy.
It would be a long time until that came to pass though. I knew that for a fact, the clans had barely started, there was still so much that needed to be done. Our clan was not even halfway to full strength at the time. I knew it was not just my clan either.
Youngtail was doing his best as well, but there was only so much he could do. The other clans had a lot to learn for themselves as well. My clan had a lot to learn still as well, I could not just be hypocritical.
I shook my head, and then I looked back at the fence to Youngtails old place. That was where the clans had ended, but it also was where the clans had begun as well. I saw Limp sitting on the fence, she was staring at me as I walked away from there.
I thought she should be taking care of Shilo and Steve, but I shook my head as I thought about that. Shilo was probably already asleep, and if Steve had one of those seizures again Shilo would notify Limp right away. I looked at Limp sadly for a few moments.
I was not sad due to the fact that I was leaving her. It was more at the fact that I was leaving her alone with cats that were in trouble. I knew what I was doing was to potentially save one of the cats lives though, and to maybe even have them feel a role in the clans if they did so choose to join us.
Limp nodded to me, she was so far away she could not speak to me now. I nodded back to her, doing the same thing, and then I turned my head back around and kept on walking. A few moments later though, I looked back at her one last time, but this time I could see that she was no longer on top of the fence.
I looked down at the ground a bit sadly, and then I just kept on walking. I could see Thunderclans land not too far ahead of me, and I knew that I should be able to make it into Shadowclan by the time the sun rose onto the horizon.
The only worry that I had about being on Shadowclans land, was the fact that Youngtail had told me they had ran him off and given him a few rough scratches more than once. I could only imagine what they would be thinking if they saw a leader of a rival clan on their land.
I was also worried about Thunderclan as well, they did not attack Youngtail when he went on their land to speak with their leader, but he had told me the looks that some of the cats in the clan had been giving him. Things were not working so well with teaching the other clans about Starclan.
Riverclan was doing alright, and they would listen to what it was that Youngtail had decided to teach them. I might even add that they were listening more than my own clan was. Kettle was doing a very good job leading his own clan, and I was quite proud of my friend.
I had also heard that Skyclan was doing alright at the same time as well. Which made sense to me, Piper and Storm I could tell from the start that they were great cats. I knew that things were going to end up being alright, and there was no need to worry.
I shook my head, I should not be worrying about other clans for one thing at the moment, my mind should be focused on my own clan. Not even my own clan in fact, I should be paying attention to the task that I was doing for Limp.
I shook my head and kept on walking over to Thunderclan land which was right in front of me. I then began to realize how tired I was at the same time as well. I had not slept very well the night before, and it was about to be another night with no sleep.
I thought about maybe laying my head down to rest somewhere, but I shook my head as well. I needed to bring the stinging nettle back to Limp and Shilo as soon as possible. Every moment mattered, especially if I did want Shilo and Steve to join our clan in the first place.
Not to mention that, the entire clan was probably worried about the fact that their leader was missing. Owl was the one that was taking care of the clan at the moment. He had told me that he would do it for the morning, not the next couple of days.
I shook my head once again, trying to clear those thoughts. I knew that Mint, Flame, and a few other would tell Owl that we were out looking for something, there was no need to worry at the moment, things were going to end up being alright, I really needed to stop worrying about all of that.
I was so close to Thunderclan land now, I could smell their scent from not too far away from me. It was a bit of a nasty scent, I was not going to lie. I know that Squirrelflight was a bit dissapointed that I had chosen Windclan over her own clan, but I just did not like being in the woods and I did not like the smell either.
There was just something quite a bit different to me about being in open land, nice looking fields, and flowers all over the place. I did not like being cooped up in small little areas with trees all around me, it sounded a bit weird to say it, but it honestly kind of scared me quite a bit.
I walked past the border marker, past the small little creek that was in front of me. I felt the cold water that I was walking through, and it gave me a weird chill on my spine, something did not seem right in the air tonight, and I was not too sure what it was.
I tried my best to smell the scent that was in the air, to see if something was wrong with that. Everything seemed to smell okay though, and I shook my head, things were going to be okay, and I really needed to stop worrying about things all of the time like that.
I kept on walking, sniffing the scent of Thunderclan all around me. I could smell the scent that they had made around their border, it had not been that long ago that they had reignited their scent as well. It would not be too long from now that they would do the same too.
I figured that I should walk out of Thunderclan before I caused any real trouble. I knew that they would not be too happy to see me on their land. I kept on walking a bit faster than before, but not to the point to where I was running, because I was already worn out from not getting very much sleep.
I did not want to get caught in Thunderclan territory, last thing I wanted was a fight that may even cause a war. We had not even gotten our 9 lives yet, I was did not even want to think about war in the first place. I knew that it would happen at some point, there would be some sort of disagreement at some point.
I had forgotten how long and far the lake was as well, it seemed like at this point I would be out of Thunderclan territory at this point, from the way that I was walking. Maybe it was hard to remember, I did not walk in the territory of another clan very often.
I looked around, still having the fear that a Thunderclan cat would catch me on their land. I did not want to have to be taken back to camp to explain why I was on their land to Summer. I had already spent a lot of time walking so far, I could nearly see that the sun was beginning to rise up into the sky.
I began to walk a bit faster again, if I was going to be caught I would rather it be on the land of Skyclan. If I got caught on Thunderclan land then it might end up turning into a fight. That was not what I wanted to happen right now.
I then began to smell the scent of Skyclan from not too far ahead of me. I nodded thankfully to myself that I was nearly on their land. But after I got on the land of Shadowclan, that is where the real trouble was going to begin. Especially since the fact that Shadowclan still did not have a medicine cat.
I knew why that was so as well, they thought that it was not really that important, and they believed that the cats needed to be ready to hunt and secure their land as well. That was at least Kevin and his deputy had told me.
His deputy I still was not quite sure about either, there was some look on his face that did not look right to me. I did trust Kevin though, if it was a friend that he grew up with, and he trusted, then I was not going to intervene on the decision, I might be completely wrong about the cat for all I know.
As I got to the border between Skyclan, I noticed that something did not smell right at all. I smelt a lot of the smell of Shadowclan around the area, and I did not smell very much Skyclan at all as well. I smelt around for a little bit longer trying to think why that could possibly be so.
I then walked across the border, looking up at the sky the see that the sun was fully up in the sky now. I sat there for just a bit longer. I smelt a bit of Skyclan still, but I smelt a whole lot more of Shadowclan than I did of Skyclan.
I still could not comprehend how that could be possible though. Had there been some sort of flood and Shadowclan had to move here? No... This was even closer, and lower to the ground to the lake, that could not be possible at all.
I sniffed the air a little bit more, trying to focus on the smell. Maybe there had been some sort of meeting held... No, that did not make sense, the Skyclan scent was old, they had not been here for several days... I sniffed a little bit more, and then I smelt a familiar smell that stood out to me.
It was the smell of the blood of cats, there had been a fight here. It all of the sudden began to make a lot more sense. Why there was a lot more of Shadowclan scent than there was of the scent of Skyclan. I then turned my head over as I heard the voice of a familiar cat from near me.
"Moon... What are you doing on our territory?"