Chapter 22: Trained

I was in a dream, but I did not see a cat around me. I was used to it however, Squirrelflight usually liked to sneak up on. I would sit there for a little while and then get some rest. I was quite tired and it seemed like the dreams over the other cats were not helping me with that at all.

After a little while it seemed like it was taking longer than usual for them to come. I walked up from the spot that I was laying at then began to walk around. Searching through the area, we were next too moonpool, this is where the cats were supposed to teach me.

I remembered what Squirrelflight had told me, I was supposed to sleep beside the pool. I did so but all of the sudden I was no longer tired and it was starting to annoy me. They had said they wouldn't be talking to me anymore I remembered.

They had told me that it was tine to follow my own path. I don't think that I was ready for it yet, I was scared, I had meant with me but there was no one else left and Mint didn't know how to make it out here either. Like me she had also grown up as a kittypet.

I looked at the pool, the moonlight was making it look so beautiful, I sat there, I wanted to sleep but knew that I could not. I wanted to see them one last time because it did not seem real, not getting to see them anymore. But I could not lay my head to rest.

I sat there for a few moments just thinking sadly to myself, I had Mint with me, I had found the cats that were in the mountains, but before this and after all of this we were alone. I had been alone since the death of Tristan, it still seemed fake.

I remember waking up one morning and pushing up for Tristan to get up, he wasn't responding and his body was cold. I had pushed him off the couch thinking that he was just messing around with me like he did fairly often. But he did not get up.

I had been whining to my female owner to get her in the room and she did. As soon as she saw him she began crying and her partner came into the room and laughed, then he slapped her, I attacked him and that wad the beginning of the end for me.

He was mad and he was yelling at her for some reason even though I was the one that had scratched her and then he left our place and was gone for quite some time. He came back as per usual and he continued hitting her.

That day he had thrown me out, I felt betrayed, she could have done something but she did not, I had helped her so many times but this time when I was the one in dire need of help I did not get any.

I closed my eyes trying not to think about it, then I sat down and tried sleeping again. This time I was almost beginning to get to the point where I was going to. But all of the sudden I heard a few cats walking up to the spot that I was in. When I spun around I noticed the cats from somewhere. They were talking to each other and I could not quite catch what they were saying. I began running over to them.

I wanted to talk to them and ask why they were in my dreams, I ran up to them and they heard me coming, they both spun around but right before they could see me everything disappeared.

I was falling, I didn't know where I was it was so dark but I could feel myself gliding through the air. I could here the cats talking but it was so quite I could not quite hear what they were saying. They were somewhere nearby.

I was not falling anymore I was on the ground, I could hear the cats, I was walking around, it one direction they were getting further and further away, and I tried listening to where they were going, but it was so hard I could not see anything.

I was walking around but there was nothing anywhere, it was all just dark and misty and there was no ground I was just walking. I began going towards the direction that I was thought that I had heard the cats.

I didn't hear them talking anymore but when I was walking further and further in that direction I could suddenly begin to hear footsteps, I couldn't quite tell the exact direction to was coming from but I could take an estimated guess.

I began walking over to it and then all of the sudden the footsteps stopped, I stopped as well, I could not hear them anymore, had I lost them? I cursed myself and I was about to give up when all of the sudden I heard one of the cats talking, it was a she cat.

"Do you hear something?" One of them said. So they heard me? I yelled to them but it didn't seem like they could hear me talking which was quite a bit disappointing. But at least they could hear my footsteps, that was putting me one step closer to actually meeting the cats.

Last time they could not hear or see me at all. I walked up to where I heard the cat talking and I walked into something. It was warm so it was not a rock, or a tree or anything else of that sort. It had to be one of the cats. The cat hissed and yelled to the other cat.

"Hey watch where you are going!" He hissed to her. She yelled something back at him, they were just as confused as I was right now. I didn't know what was going on our why I could not see the cats, why was starclan making this so difficult for me?

"What are you talking about? I am walking in front of you, mouse brain! She said to him. I laughed a little bit, it was a fun little game that we were doing right now. All of the sudden both the cats went silent.

Surely they hadn't have run off, they were so close to me I would have heard them.

"What was that Pettle?" The tom cat said. She made a bit of hushing noise and I walked over to where I had heard it come from. I walked into one of the cats and it hissed at me.

"What is that, something is invisible!" Said the shecat to the tom. They could hear my laugh and they could feel me as I walked into them. Why could I not see them though? Why could they not see me? I could not see anything that was around me.

All of the sudden I was awake, dang it! Why did starclan leave me on that note? I was getting somewhere. Surely those cat's had to be important right? I had seen them now twice and I had seen the other cat twice before as well.

Mint got up when I hopped up on the ground after I had woken up from my dream, she looked around as if she was a bit confused which I could not blame her. I was confused as well, why did starclan have to make this important dreams so hard?

Why could they not just tell me what was going on and what I had to do? I grunted and then sat down beside Mint, the other cats were awake and a few of them were casting glares at me and Mint. I could not blame them it was like Kettle had said yesterday, we were in their territory.

"Are you okay Moon?" Mint said to me, she was squinting her eyes, we were both still tired but I was beginning to wake up. I pulled myself out of the little nest that Stoneteller had put me in last night and then, began stretching myself, Mint did as well but she was still looking at me waiting for an answer.

"Yes, just a strange dream... Invisible cats and all of that, I'll tell you about it later." I said to her as I noticed Kettle walking over to me. I nodded to him and he was smiling at me. Clearly he had gotten a good amount of sleep last night, I wish I could say the same I was exhausted.

"You 2 cat's look like housecats, mind if I take you on hunting trip and see what you can and cant do?" He said to me. I looked at him, I was a bit angry but at the same time I could not really blame him. We still very well did have that look on out pelts.

I had been trained by a lot of cats in my dreams, but there was nothing wrong with learning some more. I had not been trained by any of these mountain cats before so maybe they could teach me something.

"We used to be, we are on a mission by the cats above, but we could always learn a few new things." I said to him. He looked at me with a little smile as if he thought that every single word I had just told him was a lie. But it was not I don't know why these cat's could not believe in that.

At least Stoneteller did, he was in my dreams, he had seen, and he had talked to the cats above. He was down and nodded to me, he then handed us a little bit of food. I had not realized how hungry I was an I gladly took it. He was smiling as us as we ate.

"Interesting, I don't really believe in those sort of cats, but if they really trained you then maybe you can prove me wrong and that I should believe in them." He said to me. I was thinking that was the case. I could not blame him, most cats did not.

"Don't worry, we will try our best, they have taught me a lot, I would have never found Mint and I would probably be dead if they had not." I said to him. He smiled at me and then nodded for us to follow him. We did, the cats around us were staring at us with their eyes squinted as if they were telling us they did not trust us.

Once we were out of the cave, which I was certainly glad we were, we ran into another cat that was waiting for us. It was a she cat that was kind of small but she was clearly an adult though.

Kettle walked up to her and nudged his nose into hers as his friendly way of sharing love and greeting her. Clearly these cats were together. They looked happy as well, I was happy for them, I always loved seeing cats getting along and loving each other.

"Mint, Moon, this is my mate Oister, she is going to help us and help with anything that you 2 need." Kettle said to us. I nodded to her and Moon did as well, she was a beautiful cat Kettle had chosen his mate very smartly and I could tell that she was smart and kind by the way she was looking at us.

Kettle yesterday was the only cat out of the 3 that was not being mean to us and not speaking dirt on us. He kind of just sat there and listened to it shaking his head, clearly both of the cats were cool and I was happy to have both of them with me.

"I will take Mint, and you will take Moon. That way we can split up on 2 directions and make sure that we can hunt for more food." Oister said to the both of us. I nodded but then I began to feel a bit afraid for Mints life at the same time.

Last time we had spread apart in the wild she had been attacked and nearly killed by a badger, speaking of that I looked at Mints belly it was nearly fully healed and she was walking around as if it already was.

"Are you sure about that? What if we get attacked by something?" I said to Kettle pointing right at the scar that was on Mints back. He looked at it closely but then he looked at me a as if he was quite a bit confused, it actually sort of surprised me.

"What do you mean? This isn't the wild my friend, any animals that walk up to us can smell us and our territory." He told me. It was fair enough I was just still so worried about Mint and I did not really want to split up with her. But at some point I had to let her make her own decisions.

"It's okay Moon, we will be okay, you just go hunting and we will see each other a little bit later, I will be okay, I promise..." Mint said to me, I nodded to her but I still was not 100% sure if it was right to be leaving her.

Something in my heart was telling me not to but in my head I knew that she was going to be fine. Kettle nodded to Oister and then we began heading off to go hunting.

I looked back at Mint in the distance until I coule not see her anymore. Once she was gone I looked back to Kettle who was looking at me a bit sadly. I was confused what he was upset about.

"It's okay to be worried about your mate... I am always worried about Oister, my first mate I didn't even say goodbye too and next thing you know I was so young and so was she, she got attacked by a hawk and fell off a cliff." He said to me. It did not make me feel any better about Mint going off on her own but at least it was something we could relate to.

"She got that scar on her belly, because I had not been paying attention and was just walking, I noticed she was gone a retraced her scent and found her getting attacked by the badger. If this does not make you believe in the dead. I don't know what will, there was a medicine cat kind of like Stoneteller just not a leader that taught me, and saved her life." I said to him.

He looked at the ground for a few seconds thinking on it before he finally nodded and smiled at me. We began walking.

I sniffed at the air, we were going to the direction of a squirrel, clearly Kettle had been smelling it this whole time, I wish I could do what he could, he would have to teach me how to do that before we ran back to the lake.

"Hold up, there's a squirrel right there." Kettle said to me. I nodded and we both sat back, he then proceeded to tell me how to catch it. "What you first must do is-"

"I know I've caught plenty before, or else we would have starved to death." I said to him. He looked at me and then nodded for me to tell my to show him up.

I did the exact stance I needed and then ran after it, hopping right on the nearby tree and then catching it right before it got up.

I walked back over to Kettle and I could tell he was shocked, I could not blame him, I still looked young and I still looked like a kittypet. But I was not a kittypet anymore, soon I would be a clan cat, right now I supposed you could call me a rogue.

"I told you I had it." I said to him. He smiled at me and then nodded to me, he then put his paw up for me to hush and then he began walking away. I was a bit confused what he was doing.

But then I noticed that he was going after a mouse, I could see it sitting there, he easily caught it and then ran back to me with a bit of a smile on his face.

"Good job... I did not know you were already trained!"