Chapter 23: Good Luck

"Yes, I have been taught by a few cats, I was just hoping to maybe learn a little bit from you... I haven't seen actual wild cats before." I said to him. He looked a bit upset when I called him a wild cat but it was what it was. I looked at him waiting for him to respond to me.

"We are mountain cats... Not rogues, there is a difference, we do not go around stealing and killing other cats." He said to me. I nodded to him showing him my apology to him. I did not expect a reaction like that from him. But I could not blame him for being upset, the clan cats did exactly the same as well when I called them wild cats.

"Sorry, it just slipped out... I was once a kittypet..." I said to him. He nodded his thanks to my apology and then he sat down right beside me. Nodding for me to continue my story.

"Go on, I want to here what the life with an owner is like." He said to me. I nodded to him. Normally I would be a bit upset when someone called them my owner, but they sort of were. If it was not for the clan cats I would not have made it very long out there on my own.

"Well, I was with some twolegs, they were a tom and a she and one was nice and the other one was mean." I began the story to him. I wasn't sure how to explain it to him, I had not even told Mint yet about my story. I had plenty of free time with her I just never really thought about it, and she never really asked about it.

She would always tell me that we needed to live right now, and to not think about the past but to think about the future. I hoped that I would have a good future with that cat. I loved her so much, and she was so sweet and kind to me.

I noticed that Kettle was squinting his eyes at me wondering why I was not continuing the story. It was almost as if he could read what was going on in my head when I nodded to him. He let out a bit of a purr and a laugh at the same time.

"Go on... I want to hear it." He said to me. I nodded, normally I was afraid to even tell this sort of story to a cat, even the cats that came around my old place. But I trusted this cat, and he seemed like a calm and chill cat. I doubt he would go stir crazy and tell all the other cats about my story in the cave.

Besides it was not really all that much of a crazy story in the first place besides the last few stretches. He nodded for me to continue and my mind went back to what I was talking about.

"I had another cat with me, he died from some sort of poisining. Then a few moons later, I was thrown out from my place, I was basically left to die." I said to him. He nodded to me, he got a little bit comfortable and smiled at me wanting me to continue.

It seemed a bit strange just sitting out in an open environment and just talking. I was not used to it, I was always so afraid that something was going to run at us and attack us. But for some reason my stress just disappeared and I felt a smooth sense of relaxation.

"Thats cool... But what happened after that, how did you learn to hunt? It seems like you would die really fast out there." He said to me. I looked at him and then nodded, I didn't really want to tell him this part of the story I felt like he would not believe me.

Stoneteller had told me that Kettle did not believe that cats went anywhere after they died, and he had even told me he felt iffy about the subject himself. I figured I would just tell him at least half of the story, if something did not seem right to him then I would just have to tell him the truth.

"I was out there, I got attacked by a couple of dogs and I ran and hid in a tree branch for a day." I said to him. He nodded actually looking a bit surprised which confused me a little bit.

"Dogs... I haven't heard about them in a long time... Anyways, go ahead and continue your story." He told me. I nodded, I was a bit surprised, but also at the same time I really was not. I had been told to go to the mountains, and I had also heard from Tristan dogs did not like those types of places.

"Then the next day, I found a cat that took me in, he took me to a place where a new owner would get me." I said to him. This was the harder part of the story for me to explain to him. I sat there for a few moments wondering what I should tell him next.

"Why didn't you?" He asked me. I sat there looking at the ground, wondering what I should tell him, I did not think he would believe me if I told him the truth, but I figured, who cares if he makes me out to be a joke, I am only here for Stoneteller...

"Well... There were cats in my dreams... They were dead cats, but they told me not to and they told me that I was planned to do big things. So I didn't..." I told him. He looked at me a bit confused but he finally began to take it all in and he nodded to me.

"Interesting, Stoneteller tells me about the cats of the dead, I never believe in them because I never see them myself. But if so many cats are seeing them, maybe it is just because I am destined to just not be an important cat." He said to me. I looked at him but then I just shook my head to him which I could tell surprised him a little bit.

"No... The cats of the dead can't visit you unless you believe in them, they visit all cats, even me and I never knew any of them." I said to him. He nodded to me but I could tell that he was starting to get a little bit excited. He smiled and then nodded to me.

"If that is true... Maybe some day I will see my father again." He said to me. I nodded to him, there was a very good possiblity of that. Every cat went somewhere after they died, just depending on what they believed in.

I only got to see Tristan once because of it, and the reason I could see the clan cats is because I was related to one of them, and I believed in cats going somewhere after they died. But I continued where I had left off in my story.

"They told me, I was destined for something, so I went back to the barnyard with the cat that found me." I began saying, he hopped up and smiled at me as if he was a bit excited.

"Barnyard? You must have been near where I lived at when I was younger, does the name Pot ring a bell?" He said to me. I shook my head and he sat back down a little bit disappointed. There were probably other barnyards around, it looked like he had owners that took care of other animals.

"No... The cat that took me in was named Owl..." I said to him. All of the sudden he jumped back up and began hopping around excited.

"Thats the son of Pot! That means Pot must be gone... Is he doing okay?" He asked me. I was actually a bit surprised, he must have came from the same area I was from. I never knew that Owl had a father... I never got to meet my father or my mother which kind of always disappointed me.

"Yes... I didn't know he had a father. He must have been really young. How long have you been here then? You don't look that old." I said to him. He nodded to me and smiled, he sat back down and continued his part of the story.

"Well I used to be with them for a little while, I just got here a few moons ago... That is when I met the love of my life, Oister..." He said to me. I nodded to him, Owl said he had met a few cats that he had helped out but he said they normally went and got owners.

"Thats cool... I wish he would have followed me, I asked him but he did not seem interested..." I said to him. He nodded and then he looked at the ground sadly. I knew the exact thing he was thinking about that I thought about a lot of the time. How you missed your old life.

All of the sudden for the first time I noticed something, on his left eye there was a scar and I could see his eye was squinted there and he had to have been blinded.

"Wait... I think I had heard of you from him. Are you the cat that got blinded by a rabbit?" I asked him. He hopped up a little bit surprised but the a little bit weirded out that I knew he was the cat that it had happened to.

"Yes... Don't tell Oister, I always tell her that I fought down a coyote." He said to me. I laughed a little bit but then nodded to him, as a way of telling him I would do as he asked.

"Thats awesome! It's starting to get a little bit dark out here though... Do you think we should go inside and get some rest, it gets scary out here when it gets dark." I said to him. He looked at me and then he nodded to me.

"It is pretty safe on our territory, but I am a bit tired, lets go ahead and go back." He said to me. I nodded to him and then I picked up the squirrel and we began walking back to the cave which I could see from not too far away.

This mountian place was beautiful, if it were not for the clan cats looking up to me for help, then I would happily ask Stoneteller to let me live here. The trees were amazing and the pathways were so awesome.

It really was a sight to see, I had heard terrible stories from Tristan about these places but now that I had found out for myself, none of it was true, even though a lot of what he told me was. We were not too far away and at the front of the cave I could see Oister smiling to us.

She was a beautiful cat, much like Mint, and I was happy to see her and Kettle getting along so well. She nodded to me and I nodded back to her. After she was done cuddling up to her mate she began talking to me.

"Would have thought you would have caught a bit more, your friend Mint over there caught 3 things... It is a shame that she isn't staying with us, she is a great hunter." She said to me. I nodded to her, I could not deny Mint of that, but Kettle sat there and said something back to her.

"Well... We talked a lot of the time... He knew some of my old friends from a long time ago that I told you about. Remember Owl?" He said to her. She sat there a but surprised but then she nodded to him and looked at me with a smile on her face.

"I'm glad you two are getting along nicely, that is cool that you guys know some old friends. It's a shame that you can't stay any longer, right..." She said to me. I could tell that she had gotten along with Mint quite a bit as well, but so did every cat, Mint was very easy to get along with.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, we just have to continue on our journey." I said to her. She walked over to me and put her head onto mine and then walked back looking a little bit saddened. She then smiled at me as if all of her sadness seemed to just disappear.

"Well, best of luck to the both of you, there is some prey with you back at your nest with Mint, get some good rest you will need it." She said to me. I nodded back to her thanking her. I would have to go to Stoneteller in the morning and talk to him and thank him as well.

I saw Mint not too far away, she was eating a mouse and I ran over to her where there was another mouse sitting there waiting for me. She smiled and looked off the blood that was on her mouth and then we rubbed up against each other when I was close to her. I was glad to hear that she was okay and she had done so good hunting.

"How was it with Kettle..." She said to me. I sat down biting into my mouse, I had already dropped off my squirrel at the prey pile and I was so hungry even though I had already eaten a little bit when I had woken up this morning.

"It was not too bad, he knew some cat, including Owl... I only caught one thing because we were so caught up in a conversation." I said to her. She nodded to me smiling happy that I was getting along with another cat.

Once we were done with our food we sat down and cuddled up close to each other and then layed down and began to rest for the night.

"I'm glad that you had a good day, but don't forget that tomorrow we will have to be leaving on our mission." She said to me. I nodded to her, she was right, I had almost forgotten, I had enjoyed my time at this place so much.

But I could not forget that the starclan cats had destined me to something far more important than these cats no matter how much I did like them. I sat there thinking about ehat she had said and then I fell into a deep sleep.

I woke up, I was a bit disappointed to only have a normal dream that I always used to have about hunting prey, but I knew that the starclan cats had told me that I would not be meeting with them in my dreams anymore.

Mint was already up and she was licking her body cleaning herself up, I began to do the same and she began purring at me, when she was done with herself she began helping me with the parts I could not quite get, I began purring back to her.

"Did you have any dreams about the starclan cats? I didn't get any..." She said to me. I shook my head to her and she looked at the ground a slight bit disappointed, I could not blame her for it because I was disappointed as well.

"Nope... They told me they would not be talking to me often anymore..." I said to her. She nodded to me telling me that she remembered what they had told us, it was a bit disappointing but I was excepting the facts now.

Now it was my turn to reach my part of my destiny, I couldn't always look to them, at some point I had to look to myself and make my own decisions. I then sat down and waited for I dont know what, but then I saw Stoneteller walk from out of his cave.

There were a few cats in the cave, but a lot of them were obviously outside doing their own things, they looked a bit surprised to see him, clearly he did not come out of his little cave very often. He nodded for the both of us to follow him in.

We both looked at each other, I was planning on saying my thanks and goodbyes to him in the first place but surprisingly enough he had come out and he had been the one that was looking for us.

We walked over to the cave, it was dark as always, but with the light from the main cave you could see quite a bit in here. I was surprised to see that Kettle and Oister were in here with us, they looked just as confused as me and Mint did.

"You 4 cats... I have recieved a message from the cats above... You 3 cats will be with each other on his mission to remake his group of cats." He said to all of us. They looked really surprised and then confused at the same time.

I would have thought that starclan would have told me this themselves. But at the same time I realized that it would not make sense for them to. They would believe Stonetellers words over mine.

"What about the cats here? Don't they need us? I was born here I love living here..." Oister said to him. He looked at the cieling for a few moments and then he looked back at Oister and Kettle. He smiled at them.

"You our some of my best cats, but this is just what the cats have told me... I want to wish all of you... Good luck."