Chapter 12: You will need this

I nodded, it was day time at this point and it was time to continue on our journey. Now I knew for sure I was not crazy after last night. Unless I had just imagined her in my dream, it was crazy... There were actual dead cats looking up to me to save everything that they had. Before this I thought you just disappeared when you died... Now I know it is different.

"Mint, you were there last night in that dream? That wasn't just me pretending?" I asked her. She turned back to me with a confused glance like she had know idea what I was talking about. It sort of disappointed me, surely I wasn't faking all of it.

"What? Are you crazy?!" She asked me. Now after she had said that I knew that these cats weren't real. But it seemed like it...

"Oh sorry guess I just had a weird dream." I told her. I lowered my head a bit, I was greatly disappointed... It had all seemed so real I had seen all of those cats in my dreams and in real life. Now I looked like some sort of crazy idiot.

"Yes... I saw them Moon! I'm just joking, that was awesome you weren't lying." She told me. My head went back up, she didn't need to joke around on me like that. Sometimes I had thought that I was crazy but now that just proved my point to me that it was all real.

"Don't scare me like that Mint..." I said to her. She stiffened herself from laughing but I didn't hear it. I didn't see anything from last night and I could barely see anything right now. I had know Idea what direction we were going but I didn't see any other tunnels beside the one that we were on right now luckily.

Right as I was just thinking how long it was going to be I see a gleam of light from the other side of the tunnel. Mint began running and I followed her. She then sat down coaxing in the sunlight. There was a little bit of sunlight this morning but we had been stuck in that cave all day.

I sat down beside me enjoying the sun gleaming down on my pelt. It felt so warm and beautiful.

After a few moments or sitting there, Mint got up and began stretching. I got up as well not realizing how worn out I had been. It had been a bit of a rough patch the last few days, before all of this I had never really been moving around, except at my old house when I like to move around a lot.

But this had taken me to the next step, I had walked non stop, for long distances, over the last few days and it was really starting to wear me apart. Mint seemed fine but she also hadn't had as mich days out and she was used to moving around because her owners actually let her go outside.

I felt so bad for her owners, they probably thought that she had died or something and were mourning her death. I felt bad for Owl as well, I had known he had liked her from right off the start but she had no feeling for him and all her feelings had been towards me.

I felt happy to have Mint by my side, if Owl had truly cared then he would be following me right now. I get that he had loved living in his barnyard but at the same time I could have used his help and he would have helped me stay motivated as well.

But instead Mint was with me, she always thought bad things about herself and I always wondered why. I knew it wasn't Parrot he was a good cat and I could tell. Maybe she had some sort of mental issues, but I wasn't too sure.

"You know... I never really remembered my parents... What about you?" I said asking her. She got up finally and groaned a little bit, I could tell she was tired from last night as well.

"I remember my mother when I was really young. But my old owners took me away from her and threw me into some place that I was stuck in for a while. But then my new owners came in and took me in... I don't really remember her that much besides her being a sweet cat... Then they took me and my sisters away..." She said to me. It was a bit story and I nudged myself against her and she enjoyed the warmth of my body against hers.

"You must have got some of that from her... I wont let anyone take you away from me Mint." I said looking her right into her eyes. I heard a bit of a purr from her as she pushed up against me a little bit further.

"Thank you Moon, I love you." She said to me. It was a word that I had never heard in my life but I knew what it meant. Tristan had told me it was when another cat really really cared about another cat. I said it back to her and then we both began purring together.

We stayed there for a short while just enjoying each others company. I was so happy I was not alone, even though I did have to hunt for her a lot, I would rather have to do that then be alone. Someday really soon she would learn how to hunt for herself as well.

"Alright... Lets go, the sun is heading in the opposite direction now, lets at least travel a little bit today." I told her. She nodded and then we both began to head in the direction that the sun rose in the morning. Just like Squirrelflight had told me to do.

I remembered what that cat Jayfeather had told me last night. He told me about being a medicine cat, and how I would have to teach a little bit of it too the clans until they believed in starclan. He had told me I would be seeing from him the next couple of nights.

I had always believed that cats after they had died went to some sort of place with other dead cats. Tristan had always thought of it as a joke, but now I knew for sure I had seen him to other night. The only difference really was that he didn't have stars on his pelt, so maybe that was actually a part of my imagination I couldn't say it was though. If the other cats were real then maybe seeing him as well was real.

Mint nodded and we began taking off. We wouldn't have as much time as yesterday because we slept really late last night and it had taken a while to get back out of the cave. Along with also snuggling with the beautiful cat as well.

"Im hungry Moon... Can we try hunting?" She asked me. For a few moments I was going to say no because we needed to get on the move. But then I realized how hungry I was as well and I then nodded to her.

"Alright you go first... That way if I don't catch mine we won't be starving... I know we need to get heading on the road as well." She said to me. I nodded and then sat on the ground for a little while. I then lifted my head in the air to smell for any scents that were nearby.

I didn't smell anything that I had recognized which was a little disappointing. I tried a little bit longer but I still could not smell anything in sight.

"I can't smell anything that I recognize... Maybe Squirrelflight will come into your dream tonight and teach you how to hunt something that we don't know about... Im super hungry as well, and I can't catch something I don't know how to hunt." I said to Mint. She looked around for a few but then nodded. I didn't really understand why she would look around, if I didn't smell anything that was far away then she would most definitely not see anything from close up. I wasn't that bad at scenting prey.

She then lowered herself and then began sniffing at the air. I could tell she wasn't having much luck as well because she looked a bit disappointed and after a while of sniffing she lowered her head. She just shook her head.

"There's nothing that I can smell either... And I am better at catching scents than you. Lets just keep going and maybe we will catch something before we sleep tonight." She said to me. I looked at the ground a bit upset. Not at Mint at all, even though it looked like she thought that I was.

"Well... I guess so... Im just so hungry." I said to her. I agreed with what she said on catching the scents. The other day she had absolutely proved me that. But I was by far still the better hunter.

Just by the fact that the only thing she had caught was a baby mice the other day. I had caught my first one outside of my dream on my 2nd basically 1st attempt if Owl hadn't have yelled out.

We continued following down the path that Squirrelflight had said. It seemed like we weren't even near the end. We had been going for days and still we had not yet even crossed paths with other cats.

I lowered my head and we just kept on walking the way that Squirrelflight had told me to do. This would definitely be a long journey. I was happy at myself for allowing Mint to follow me.

It was starting to grow dark and it was about time to rest and sleep. I held Mint back for a few just to let her know it was about time.

"We need to hunt really fast or we are going to be very weak in the morning tomorrow." I said to her. She nodded, we had tried not too long ago to see if we could catch any sniffs of prey. But that last time I didn't even smell prey that I didn't even know what it was.

Me and Mint both lowered our heads this time. I smelt a lot of prey this time. Too many to count at this point. I could tell that Mint smelt the same. At this point it was too late to hunt for 2 things of prey. The sun was about to disappear and we wouldn't be able to see and all the prey would be hiding.

"Lets split up, trust me I won't fail this time... You're right we will be super weak tomorrow if we don't catch something right now." She said to me. It was smart... I was just worried about coyotes and wolves coming after us and us splitting up and not being able to find each other. Or maybe even worse, Mint died to one of those.

"Are you sure? What about coyotes and wolves?" I said to her. She thought about it for a little bit before finally shaking her head. I was too scared for both of us too go out there alone. Neither of us was actually fully used to it.

"Its still too early, Ill meet you back here at night. There's a branch right above us too sleep." She told me. I slowly nodded still not too sure that something wouldn't go wrong. I looked up at the branch... It would be steady enough for us too sleep the night up there, the tree looked fine so Im sure the branch wouldn't fall off.

She began walking in a different direction and I sniffed trying to remember all of the scents. I smelt a vole and a mouse nearby and I decided that I was going to go after the mouse since it was slightly larger.

I saw the mouse from far away and began the transitions that I normally used when I was hunting.

I easily caught the mouse... I bit down on it too make sure it was dead and then began heading towards the direction that Mint had said to head back in for the night. The sun was basically gone at this point so she would have to be heading back not too long after me.

But I worried that she would fail and keep trying... And then something would come after her and kill her. I shook the thoughts from out of my head. If I thought that way, my thoughts would become a reality. I wish the same were true about thinking of good things.

I got back to find that she was not there, but I wasn't too worried about it because I was faster at walking and also better at hunting. She would probably be thinking about it for a while before she actually went after her prey.

Once again the bad thoughts were beginning to feel my mind though. Sometimes she wouldn't think at all when she was hunting. What if she was doing terrible and still trying. I had to stop thinking all of those negative thoughts that were in my head.

But it had already been a while already... She still wasn't back and I was beginning to get very worried. She wasn't leaving me either was she? No way, she expressed her feeling about me already... I was about to get up and head in her direction.

"Mint! Are you okay?" I yelled out as loud as I could. I then heard something snap on some stick nearby me. I was about to hop on top of the branch to run in case something was coming after me. Thankfully it was just Mint, she had a vole with her.

"Calm down Moon... Im okay, I just messed up for the 1st one, I had time for a 2nd though and I caught it!" She said throwing the vole towards me. I nodded to her and gave her a big smile. She had caught one today on her own and this time in wasn't a baby mouse...

"Very good, lets get on this branch though... We still need to be careful... We can eat up there." I said to her. She nodded and then we both hopped up on top of the branch and began eating. She looked so happy to be with me and we were both happy to be eating better food than the owners gave us.

I finished mine first and then looked around making sure nothing was nearby. I also lifted my head sniffing to make sure there were no wolves or coyotes anywhere nearby us. Thankfully I did not smell anything at all.

"Goodnight Moon, hope we are in each others dreams again tonight!" She said to me. I enjoyed having her company everyday but tonight I wanted her to hunt and I wanted to learn whatever it was that Jayfeather was trying to teach me.

I nodded to her and then we both lowered our heads to get some sleep. I moved a bit closer to her to where our pelts touched each others. It felt even better being with her.

I woke up in the territory that I normally was in. I could tell by the woods but it wasn't the same area that I was always in. We were in some sort of gorge and the trees were way above me.

"Hello Moon... Today I am going to be teaching you some skills... Something is going to happen, we cant tell what exactly it is but I need to help you with this. That way when you get there you can teach the clans how to do this." He said to me. I wondered what it was... Medicine usually meant that someone was sick so maybe Mint might get sick soon. Hopefully not from the same sort of thing that Tristan got sick from.

"Alright... I am ready... Can someone tell me what exactly the clans are though?" I asked him. He smiled and then laughed a little bit. It wasn't that funny too me and I didn't understand why no one had told me about them yet... Maybe they thought that I would say no to the quest.

"Unfortunately its not my decision, you will find out what exactly they are very soon." He said to me. It was a bit disappointed but I just nodded to him.

"First thing... We are going to show you how to use cobwebs... You see this?" He said to me. I looked at him but didn't see anything. Suddenly a thing of white spots appeared from nowhere. It always confused me how stuff like that happened in these dreams.

"Whoah? Where did you get that from?" I asked him. He smiled and then just looked at me.

"I cant tell my secrets... However you can find these around tree roots..." He said to me. I then nodded for him to continue. "You use these in case a cat is bleeding that way they wont bleed out."

"Okay... This is starting to scare me... Bleed out? Do you want me to tell Mint in case this happens to me?" I asked him. He nodded and then told me to be silent so he could tell me the rest of what to learn.

"Next since it is fall right now, we are going to get some dried oak leaves to stop any sort of infections." He said to me. Oak leaves as Tristan told me were the leaves that changed color in the fall. I was really young the first time, now the leaves were beginning to fall again this year.

"Okay... So... Something good is not going to happen tomorrow?" I asked him. He looked at me in the eyes. His eyes looked a bit strange for a few seconds until they went back to normal. I didn't really question it though, these cats where strange.

"I wish I could tell you but I really cant... Not even I know what will happen. All I can say... You will need this..."