Chapter 17: Wow!

I woke up, I felt a little bit tired, but not as tired as I normally would have. It seemed like lately I was waking up so tired. After a little bit of time from walking around I usually got over that however.

I looked up to see that Mint was still asleep. I was tempted to wake her up that way we could go ahead and head off towards the mountains. I had heard Tristan tell me about those. He would say they were huge things in the sky made out of stone and lots of trees.

He said there were lots of terrible things in those places, such as coyotes and bears.

I har never really seen a bear before or known what they really look like. He told me the were really big and brown or black. Really fat but they would kill you in one big swoop of their hand. I just know I was a bit afraid to head there because of him telling me those stories.

He had told me stories about coyotes, that had turned out to be true. My whole life I had thought that he was just trying to scare me, that way I would never sneak out. But most of what he told me was true, just a bit overexaggerated. He told me to never try and sneak out because I would die from starvation of I wasn't dead from the monsters first.

But I had made it perfectly fine so far. I kind of missed my old owner, but I really loved being out here and just exploring. Moving around rather than just being stuck in between a bunch of walls every day.

I got up and made sure that I did not wake Mint up so that she could get as much sleep as possible. Squirrelflight had told me they could not train her yet because she was not fully healthy. It didn't make much since to me because it was just a dream that we really were in, in the first place.

Once I got out of the little small cavern in the ditch we had slept in I sniffed around to see if I could smell anything. Unfortunately I had no such luck. I would have thought there was no other cats in the area hunting for prey so there should be plenty.

But I had to realize that at the same time there might be plenty of other animals around here that could be hunting for their own food as well. Cats weren't the only thing that hunted in this world.

I moved a bit further, not to far to where I couldn't find my way back. That way I could see if there was anything nearby. But once again I had no such luck and I didn't want to waste anymore time.

I didn't want to scare Mint if she woke up and saw I was not there. I had heard her yelling the other night when I had gone out hunting because she thought that something had come in and killed me. I didn't want another sort of episode like that one.

I had rushed over to her as fast as I could because I thought she was getting attacked by something. Luckily she was just yelling my name as I found out when I got closer. I almost wanted to not freak out if she did that again but you never really know when 1 of those times it could actually be something serious.

I just began heading back to the crevice that we had slept in last night. Hopefully I would find something lucky tonight, I would most likely sniff around a lot today.

I sniffed around one last time to make sure I didn't miss anything or maybe I had some sort of allergies that were making it hard for me to scent anything.

No luck once again as a headed into the spot. Mint was still asleep which surprised me. But also it really didn't because she had gotten badly injured and this was her first time moving around in a while. She had walked around in the ditch that we had slept in but she had not moved as much as she did yesterday.

It was still early in the sky as well, normally when I went hunting it would take some time. But you cant really hunt when there is nothing out there to hunt for.

I sat down to rest a little bit more just thinking about Mint, how beautiful and how sweet she was. I felt a little bad for Owl since she had been a bit more attracted to me. I could tell he really liked her as well. I didn't really feel the same way as Mint did right off the start but she was so sweet and kind to me, she was really growing on me.

If Owl really did care he would have followed me. At the same time though maybe he would have if he would have known Mint was coming with me. I shook the thoughts from my head, he had told me no in the first place. There was no way he would all of the sudden change his mind.

I began resting my head to sleep a little bit more. I almost didn't want the cats to be in my dreams for the short little time I slept because it almost seemed like they were just making me even more tired.

I closed my eyes and finally well into a peaceful tranquil.

I woke up and feeling something pushing against me. For a second I thought that maybe it was Mint pushing up against me to snuggle as she usually would do that. But the pushes started to hit a bit harder and harder.

I groaned and then opened my eyes. It was about noon as I could see the sun getting near the top of the sky. Mint was pushing me still for me to get up. I pulled myself up finally after a few more moments of her pushing me even though she could clearly see that I was awake.

I was a heavy sleeper, normally it would be Mint that was waking me up but not recently.

"Get up Moon... Its time to continue. I guess you were tired as well." She said to me. I pulled myself off and shook around my body to get my blood to start flowing.

"No I was up earlier but I couldn't find anything to hunt. Im so tired from all of those cats coming into my dreams." I told her. She nodded her understanding and then I got out of the crevice and began looking around.

The sun was still going a bit further up in the sky so I could still tell which direction that we were supposed to go in. The direction that the sun was supposed to set.

Squirrelflight had told me that it was called the sun trail. It was passed down through many cat generations. There I was supposed to find something important for me to finish my journey.

Sadly I had remembered that they had told me that they would not be coming into my dreams anymore. Well at least very often, it kind of saddened me a little bit. I knew they were dead cats but I did enjoy their company.

But if this journey that I was taking was as important as they were telling me then I would go and do as they told. I would miss them though. We began heading in the direction that Squirrelflight had first told me to go not too long ago.

She had told me they weren't expecting me to have another cat follow me on this quest. They said that I need her that way she would keep my hopes up and so that I would not give up. She told me that it was a long journey that I was about to be on.

It had already felt like forever but she told me that this was just the beginning for me. I just wanted it to be over at this point that way I could go ahead and rebuild the clans like I was destined to do.

They told me some things that I had no idea what they were talking about. There was only so much they could tell me and they didn't even know what exactly they were saying themselves. They told me that I would know what it meant when the time came.

"Do you want to go hunt?" Mint said to me as we had already gone a bit further out. We didn't really talk much while we were walking but I had gotten to know her a little bit better while she was stuck down in the ditch for so long.

Parrot was always sweet to her she had told me, but she never felt like it was normal just living with owners and another older cat like that.

I completely understood where she was coming from. Deep in my mind I had known that there was an afterlife. No matter how much they tried to tell me that I might just be imagining all of this. It didn't make sense, and I never understood why they would tell me that in the first place.

Surely they wanted cats to believe in them. She told me that cats not believing was the downfall of the clans in the first place. I couldn't even really blame them if they were being told that it was all just a figment of their imagination.

I didn't express those thoughts to them though. I knew that it might just get Squirrelflight a bit upset. She tended to be like that every now and then. I knew that the cats were real and that's all I really had to think.

I sniffed around and caught a couple of scents. I looked to Mint and then nodded for her to come get a little bit closer to me that way I could teach her.

"You smell all of that? To the right there is a bird, to the left is a vole which you already know, and up ahead in a rabbit which must mean that we are about to head into a clearing." I said to her. She nodded and closed her eyes and just sniffed a little bit.

After a few moments of her with her eyes closed, oh how beautiful she was I thought to myself she opened them back up and nodded again.

"Alright, I'll to catch to vole, if I don't then I don't have to eat. I just want to try it." She said to me. I just shook my head, I never understood why she was like that. I thought maybe she might just have some sort of mental illness or something along those lines.

"If I catch that rabbit that's enough to feel the both of us up, if you catch the vole Ill just get the bird and let you have a taste since you haven't had one before." I said to her. She looked at me and then smiled and nodded. I'm glad that I could at least somewhat make her feel a little bit better.

I never really was the best with words, but that also was because I grew up with Tristan. Out of all cats in this world he was absolutely the worst with words. He made everything good seem like it was bad. I felt a bit bad living with him but I still loved him.

We began heading towards the vole. Once we were close enough to it, she lowered her body and made sure not to step on anything and made sure there was nothing in her way. The poor little vole was just eating and did not know what was coming to it.

She then slowly headed towards it, doing everything that I had trained her to do in the first place. I remembered the first thing that I had caught as I thought to myself.

I probably would have caught the first mouse if Owl hadn't yelled for me to hurry. I couldn't blame him, he didn't really know how to hunt even though he thought he did. I tried my best to teach him what I could though when we were together.

She did everything that she was supposed to but I could tell she wasn't strong enough yet and she was hobbling over a bit as she was heading towards it. I wanted to say something but I would just watch and see if somehow she could still catch it.

She had slipped on anything and she was somewhat quiet. The problem was when she got close to it would she be able to run at it?

She didn't have the cobwebs anymore but I could still see the wound and it would probably heal a bit more but you would be able to see it the rest of her life. I could just see her in a long time in the future sitting down looking at our kids. Bragging about how me and her had fought off a badger and how I had saved her life.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts, I was already thinking about having kids with the cat. I don't know what was in my head at the exact moment...

She then ran towards the vole. She wasn't as fast as she normally was but she was still more than likely fast enough. She slipped a bit last second, and the vole heard her and began to run. But she got on it before it really had a chance.

She began heading towards me with a big smile on her face. I smiled back at her, she was so sweet and the only thing I got from her was just pure happiness.

"You hold on to that for now. Im going to go after the bird, hopefully it is still there." I told her. She nodded and then picked the vole back up which she had put on the ground beside me. I could see a little bit of disappointment on her face. "Good job... I didn't think with the condition you were in you would be able to get that."

She smiled and we continued walking. I sniffed at the air, the bird was not there. But there was a different bird near the same area that the last one was at thankfully.

Once we were close enough to it I went ahead and did the hunting stance that I needed to be in, in order to catch the bird. It was about the same to catch a squirrel just a little bit different. I wouldn't be leaping up to catch it in a tree I would just be leaping up in the direction in was flying.

"Okay so it is like a Squirrel once you're close enough though, it will start to fly up your going to have to jump in the direction it is going." I said to her. She nodded and then watched everything that I was doing.

The poor bird was just on the ground looking for some food itself to eat, it didn't even know what was coming to it. I had only caught 1 before and I had eaten in myself. It was pretty good and I couldn't wait to share it with Mint.

She had a different variety of food that she liked to eat and bird seemed like the type that would be perfect for her.

I slowly began heading towards it, once I was close enough and it knew I was there it flew up in the air. I hopped above it in the direction it was going and easily caught it as it went right into my paws. I finished it off with the killing blow.

"Wow! That was cool! I can't wait to be able to do that." She said to me. I nodded smiling at her. At least she knew herself that she was not ready to do that sort of hunting. I threw it over to her and then began to eat the vole for myself. It was pretty good but I could see how happy she was with the taste of the bird.

"Wow this is amazing, that you so much Moon!" She said to me. I smiled at her and then finished off the rest of the vole that she had caught for me.

"Thank Firestar, shes the one that taught me how to catch that in the first place." I told her. She looked up at the sky and nodded to it, signifying that she was thanking the star cats as well.

It always ingrued me how exactly those cats had stars in their pelt in the first place. I looked at Mint as she finished of the rest of the bird enjoying each bite as it passed through her mouth.

Once she was ready she scratch down in the earth and put the bones that were left from it in it, I did the same as well and then dropped the dirt over it.

It was our way of thanking the star cats that every animal was precious to us because of them losing their lives so that we could have ours.

We then continued in the direction that the sun was setting. It was still a bit early in the day, not exactly early bit it wasn't getting dark any time soon. If we hunted tonight we wouldn't be hungry, but in the morning we definitely would.

But I couldn't eat anything tonight because I was filled up right now so we would probably have to wait till morning.

We continued about the direction that I had smelled the rabbit earlier. This time when I sniffed I could smell even more rabbits. Which told me that it was 100% for sure a big clearing. Maybe we could be able to see the mountains from there.

I couldn't wait to see them, Tristan had told me they were scary but they were beautiful. At least not all the time he wasn't trying to scare me out from going out in the wild.

I could see the clearing right ahead of me and I began running towards it but slowed down when I noticed that Mint was doing the same, or at least trying to.

"Sorry I just wanted too see the mountains like the star cats had told me about, I was hoping that we might be able to see them in the clearing right above us." I said to her nodding towards the clearing that was not too far away. She smiled at me.

"Its okay... I'm sorry I'm slowing us down. Tell me about them if in case we don't see them." She told me. We continued slowly walking towards the clearing. I began to tell her what they were like.

"They are beautiful... Lots of trees and stone everywhere. They go so high up in the sky, it seems like they are endless." I told her. She smiled and then began to walk a little bit faster. I could tell she was just as excited as I was.

"That sounds super cool! I can't wait... I hope we get to see them." She said back to me. I laughed and we continued heading towards the clearing at a bit of a faster pace now.

Once we were there I looked up and saw it... It was absolutely beautiful it wasn't as tall as I was expecting but it looked amazing. Mint was the one that said what I was thinking in my head.

"Wow!"