Chapter 25: Your Destiny

I looked at him, no one around us had heard and he nodded for me to follow him into the other room. I went ahead and began walking into his cave room that we had layed to rest in the other night. This is where I had seen my final dream with Squirrelflight, I would miss her and all of the other starclan cats.

I looked back at Stoneteller, I knew he was going to tell me something very important by the look on his face so I made sure that I was paying my full attention. He nodded to me and I nodded back at him.

"Moon... The Starclan cats have a destiny for you... But some destinies can change. You must promise that you will not fail them, you are their last hope. Without you they will ciese to exist..." He said to me. I gulped a little bit and then I nodded to him. He looked at me and he smiled.

"Yes... I will do my best..." I said to him. He looked at me dead in my eyes and then he nodded to me. He then walked over to the corner and sat back, he nodded for me to come over.

"I want you to promise this to the cats of the stars... They are looking up to you, although it may not seem like it, you are their last hope." He told me. I looked at him and nodded, then I began walking over to him.

Where he was at there was a stream I had not seen last time. I looked at it and could have sworn that I had seen Firestar and Squirrelflight standing there together smiling at me. But the moment that I blinked they were gone. I looked at Stoneteller and he was staring at the water as well, he then looked over at me.

"You know what to tell them... Not me..." He said to me. I nodded, I was a little bit nervous, I was not the best cat when I was under pressure but I would do my best for these cats. I knew that I would not fail, I never did when I told myself that I was not going to give up.

I sat there for a few moments looking at the water hoping the see the starclan cats, but they were nowhere to be found, I sighed to myself and then I closed my eyes for a few moments. For a few moments I felt afraid, I felt scared like I was a kitten with Tristan again.

The moment passed by me and then I opened my eyes trying to clear my thoughts. Stoneteller was looking right at me and he nodded for me to make the promise to them.

"Squirrelflight... Lionblaze... Jayfeather... Firestar... I promise, that I will do my best for you, I can not promise that I will succeed, but I will die trying." I said to the stream. Although I could not see them, I felt a strong sense of calm and I knew that they were always listening to me when I needed help.

Stoneteller looked at me and then pulled me back for a few moments, he smiled at me and then he nodded at me. I was still afraid, I was always afraid of failure, even when there was no one that I could even fail. But this was a lot worse than the times before.

"I wish you luck on your travels... This will not be the last time I see your blood I sense... Go to Kettle, Oister, and Mint... Tell them that it is time to go, and I wish all of you the best of luck." He said to me. I nodded to him, I was sitting there for a few moments still but he then pushed up against me to go into the other room.

"Thank you Stoneteller, I wish your tribe the best of luck... I hope that some day I will get to see you again." I said to him. He nodded at me and then I began walking through the tunnel to the main room that Stoneteller spent most of his time at.

Mint and the others were nowhere to be seen, but I knew that they had left the room to give Stoneteller his space. I exited the room quietly and then I saw then talking to each other with excited looks all around them. I walked over to them and Kettle nodded to me.

"I thank you, without you help I would have never seen my mother again. The same to Oister as well." He told me, nodding to Oister who looked at me and smiled at me. I smiled back at them and then I nodded to them.

"Stoneteller says we can sleep here for the night and then we have an early morning ahead of us." I said to the cats. They looked at me and then they nodded, they were looking at me as if I was the leader which seemed a bit strange to me.

But I took the leadership in my paws and I would do my best. I smiled at all of them and we all sat down at a nearby nest and layed down for some rest. Kettle and Oister were already out of it, it was very late and we had a very fun day as well.

Mint was still looking there a bit sad, I pushed up against her and she looked at me and smiled. But I could still see a bit of pain on her face. She had seen her brother that had died, I was sure that was the reason she was upset, she had told me that he had died crossing one of the big paths with the monsters.

Luckily we did not have to go by any of them when we came to the mountain but I knew that Mint was afraid of them and we would have to go by one at some point in the future. They were all over the twolegs nest, and I was always so scared when I monster walked by me.

"What's wrong Mint?" I asked her. She lowered her head and I moved close to her feeling her warm body and her love for me. But I knew she was very sad about something and I could feel it in her heart as it pulsed.

"I didn't get to see my mother and father..." She said to me. I looked at her, I could tell she was a bit sad, I felt bad for her that they would not have come and seen her. I then looked at her realizing the reason why that must be. She was still so young, probably just the age between an apprentice and a warrior.

"Mint... This might be because they are still alive out there somewhere." I said to her. She looked at me for a few seconds, she then realized what I had said and she began hopping around. I felt bad for getting her hopes up because I knew what I would have to tell her next.

"If they are out there maybe we can go and find them! They can join us with the clans too!" She said to me. I looked at her for a few seconds but then I shook my head at her. She looked at me saddened by the way I was looking at her and basically telling her no.

"We can't Mint... We have to continue on our journey... Maybe some day we will find them, but we have no idea where they are at and whether we will find them or not." I said to her. She looked at me and then she looked at the ground a bit sadly, I hoped that she was not blaming me for this and thinking that it was my fault.

"I suppose you are right Moon... We don't know... Maybe some day I will find them again." She said to me. I looked at her and then nodded. I really doubted that, those were about the same odds of my mother coming back to life, but you never know what path another cat's destiny may lie.

"Get some rest Mint... We have an early day tomorrow." I told her. She was still looking a bit sad but then she looked at me and then nodded to me. She layed herself down and then quickly fell asleep. I layed down beside her, going up close to her. She began purring in her sleep and I layed to rest with that.

I woke up, Kettle was pushing against me to get me up, Mint was already up stretching and talking to Oister. I looked around and then nodded to him, and like Mint I began stretching off the good sleep that I had gotten last night. It had been a while since I got good sleep like that.

After I was done stretching I nodded to Kettle. I was tempted to say one last goodbye to Stoneteller, but something told me that he was not in his cave, I had said my goodbye to him anyways last night.

"Are you ready to go?" I said to Kettle. He looked at me for a few seconds and then he shook his head. For a few moments I thought he was going to say no and tell me that he wanted to stay here. It would make me sad but I also could not really blame him. These cats took him in, and Oister still had family here.

"No... Oister has to say goodbye to her friends and family and I do as well." He said to me. I looked at him a bit happy that he was saying that he was still going, for a few moments I was a bit afraid that he had changed his mind.

"Alright, you go ahead and do that. I am going to the same place as yesterday and going hunting with Mint. After you are done meet us out there and we will continue with our journey." I said to him. He nodded to me and then I let him and Oister go and talk to their friends and say their goodbyes.

I walked over to Mint he was cleaning herself up and she looked at me and smiled. The she continued where she had left off on cleaning up her fur. I did the same realizing that it had been a few days since the last time I had. Once we were both done I looked at Mint and nodded to her.

"We are going to go and hunt for ourselves and Kettle and Oister if we get enough, while they wish their goodbyes to their friends." I told her. She looked over my head at Oister sadly feeling bad for her that she was leaving her family but she then nodded.

"Alright... Where to?" She said to me. I nodded to her and then I remembered the path that I had gone with Kettle the other day to go hunting was the oppisite path on the direction that the sun rised. That was the direction that Squirrelflight had told me to go, so far it had taken us here so I knew that she was right.

"I suppose we will go to your direction that you hunted yesterday since it is the way that we need to go anyways." I told her. She nodded to me and then I had realized we were going in the exact opposite direction that I had told Kettle. "I have to tell Kettle first."

She nodded to me and then began licking her fur once again. I brushed up against her showing her my love for her and then she looked up at me and smiled at me.

"I will meet you out there then." She said to me. I nodded back to her and then I waited for her to walk out of the cave before I walked over to Kettle who was with the smaller shecat I had seen yesterday talking to her.

"Hi Moon... I wish you luck on your travels... Take care of Kettle for me." She said to me. I nodded to her and she began purring. I looked at Kettle and he was smiling at her, I could tell these 2 cats were good friends, I felt bad for having these cats with me when they had been in a good home for such a long time.

"I will... Kettle, we are going the other direction by the way. We are supposed to go where the sun rises." I told him. He nodded to me, and then he looked back at Hawk and nodded to her as well. They brushed pelts and then Kettle said one last thing to her.

"I will miss you greatly Hawk... You taught me a lot when I was still young and did not know how to hunt or fight... Tell Ginger I will miss her as well since she is not here today." Kettle said to the she cat. She nodded to him and then they brushed pelts one last time.

I realized that Kettle was just about done and Oister was walking over to us. She had a great look of sadness on her face but she also looked excited for the path that was layed ahead for us.

"You 2 ready to go? Lets get something to hunt first... I am hungry." Oister said to the both of us. We both nodded, my stomach grumbled and I realized how hungry I was as well unless I caught I squirrel we were likely having to share our meals this morning with each other. I made a note that I would have to hunt again later in the day.

"Yes... Let's go ahead and head off." I told both of the cats. They both smiled at each other, I could tell they were excited even though they were sad as well that they were leaving their home. I was sad for a while for leaving my home so I could not blame him, even though my home was not nearly as good as theirs.

Once I made sure that they were all ready we walked through the exit of the very large cave that all of the cats slept at. Once we were out I saw that Mint was right out there with the larger she cat that we had been with a few days ago, Ginger.

They looked like they were in an argument and they were about to fight each other to the death. I had noticed that about Ginger and I did not understand why Kettle liked this cat. Kettle ran up on them and pushed himself in between both of the cats.

"What is going on here?" Kettle said to both of the cats, he was looking suspicious at both of the cats wondering who had started it, I knew clearly in my head that it was Ginger. Mint was never one to start an agrument with another cat.

"Your friend was walking around on our territory by herself!" Ginger said to Kettle. Kettle looked at her and for a few moments and then he began to laugh. Ginger looked at him a bit confused as to what was so funny to him, we all began laughing as well.

"Ginger... That is because she was waiting for us... We are about to leave..." Kettle said to Ginger. She looked at him a bit confused what he was talking about, she then looked at Mint still suspicious before she looked back at Kettle and then nodded.

"What do you mean? You are going hunting?" She asked Kettle. I felt bad for her, I could tell that she looked up to Kettle and they were close friends with each other. Kettle looked at her sadly and then he nodded his head to me for me to speak.

"We are going on a journey... This is a destiny by the cats above. Kettle and Oister are coming with us." I told her. I looked at her expecting her to get upset or swipe at me but instead she actually looked at a bit happy and excited. Maybe she had a mental issue and did not like Kettle at all.

"Oh! Can I come with you!" She said to me. For a second I looked at her and thought about saying know, but I could see through her and I could tell she was not a mean cat, she was just one that was not trusting of others that she met.

I looked to Kettle, it was his decision. He looked at her smiling but then he looked at the ground a bit sad. He then shook his head, I felt bad for the cat that Kettle was telking her no.

"This is not my decision, we can go and ask Stoneteller if you want. This would be slowing as done though, he wants us to hurry and continue on with the journey." Kettle said. He looked right at me as if he was looking for my advice. I looked at Ginger, I could tell, that she did not have many friends in the tribe, Kettle might be the only one that she actually has.

"Please... I don't like living here! You know that!" She said to Kettle. I was pretty sure that I already knew that just base off of the way that she had looked when Kettle had pretty much told her no. I felt bad for her and I stepped in for her. Stoneteller had told me something.

"Stoneteller said to me, that if there was another cat willing, they could follow us as well." I told Kettle. Kettle looked at me and then he nodded, but he still did not look like he fully trusted what I was saying to him. I don't know why because he knew that I was not a big fan of Ginger.

"I still think we should tell Stoneteller. He needs to know what cats are in his tribe and out." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments wanting to agree with him but then I shook my head.

"He is not in the cave right now... He will know anyways... He knows things that none of us do." I said to Kettle. He looked at me for a few moments but then he nodded to me. Ginger began hopping up and down excited.

"Oh yes! This is going to be fun!" She said. I looked at her and then laughed, so did the others with us. I looked at all of them and they looked at me as the leader for what to do next.

"Alright... Lets go." I said to all of them. They all looked at me for a few moments and then they nodded. Oister took one last look at the cave and her home and then she looked at me to continue. I felt bad for her but I had a feeling that she would like her new home even more.

We then began walking off as the sun was rising up in the sky, the warm rays that put on me made me feel a lot better. All of the cats with me I knew were my friends, this was my destiny I was sure of it, I was just happy to have them with me.

For a few seconds I felt something pulling me back, I let Kettle take the lead and then I turned around wondering what it could be. On the top of the cliff I saw a cat looking down at me, he was with other cats as well, but they were not alive. I saw my mother and Tristan smiling at me with Stoneteller. Suddenly I heard Stoneteller speaking in my head.

"Good luck Moon, my friend. Do not fear this, this is your destiny."