Chapter 2: We are here...

We were spending in the night in a ditch. It would not be the first time, but I had this weird feeling that it would be our last. I had not seen of any coyotes, but I also had not seen any twoleg places. It seemed a bit strange, but I wasn't worried about either of those right now.

Right now I was mostly worried about my mate... Mint, I loved her so much, I felt bad that we had rushed her so much. She was going to say yes, tell you that she could handle it no matter how tough she knew it was going to be on her, that's just the type of cat she was.

I was worried about her one of a few days ago, it had slowed us down a bit, but it wouldn't be the first time we had been slowed down. She had walked off because when she had woken up she had been asleep when we had woken up. She had begun searching around for us.

She now knew not to do that again, we were not going to leave her behind, me and Kettle had tracked down her scent and managed to get back to Oister safely. It was a scary day for me, much like how I was feeling right now. She cat was so amazing and I loved her so much.

Now she was going to be unconscious, for he knows how long. All of this was my fault, I had tried rushing us, but in the end, the rush ended up slowing down even more. I nudged up against her and feeling the warmth of her, she began purring and it made me feel so much better.

I looked at Kettle and Oister, they were already asleep but I was just so happy to have them with me. I do not know how far I would have gone on this journey if I was alone. I let out a bit of a purr as I thought about it and then I lowered my head to get some rest.

I woke up, I was in a dream. I looked around in hope that maybe Squirrelflight or another cat would be around me somewhere. I had no sort of luck really. I knew where I was at, I was in windclan territory. It was my favorite place to be.

I could see everything from a mile away, unlike the cats that live in the trees. Not only that though, I also didn't really have to deal with any water. It was my favorite place no be, I looked around hoping to see maybe Onestar near me but I had no such luck.

I sat there a bit sadly, I just wanted to get some rest. Soon hopefully we would finally find the lake, the lake... Something felt a bit strange when I heard that word. I looked at the lake, there was a bit of a smaller twoleg place near it, I could see from very far away.

Something was pulling me in towards that place, I did not know exactly why, but what I did know is that I did not want to go there. I had bad memories of that place, living there. Every time I thought about it, I shivered wondering how a cat like Tristan could stand living there.

My calling was the wild, it was absolutely the most fun place to be, there was nothing better than it. No matter how scary it could really get out here. Having land to move around and live in was just absolutely the best, I would not trade anything in the world for it.

But something was somehow pulling me closer to the place. I looked around a bit confused at to what could possibly be doing that. But then I looked at the twoleg place closely. My eyes were zooming in on a cat, it was a bit of an older cat but I had seen the cat before.

It was not the first time, no one told me why I was seeing the cat or whether or not he was important to me. I made a note that I would have to go check at that area though.

I looked around for a few more moments and suddenly my body was slowly moving me to an island on the lake. I looked around and felt a warm tingling sensation, suddenly I smelt the area was fresh with blood. Then I started hearing noises.

Cats were fighting, I saw one cat attacking another cat that looked fairly similar to me. The cat was holding his throat down and smiling. Suddenly I looked around the clearing, there were cats fighting everywhere.

Is this how the clans ended before? I shook my head, the place looked worn out like no one had been there in a while. I wondered what it was but I just shook my head. Suddenly something scratched me and I looked around. I did not see anything.

Suddenly everything around me went dark. I could still hear the fighting and cats begging to have their life spared. I sat there for a few moments soaking it all in, suddenly everything was quiet, and I woke up.

I looked around, we were back in the little ditch, Mint was still alseep. Kettle was already up and he was stretching around. I got up as well then I began stretching around to get the aches and pains out of my body.

Suddenly I felt a brief since of pain, I looked at the front side of my legs and I saw a bit of what looked like a bite from a cat. I looked a bit confused but I hid it from Kettle, I didn't even know where that could have possibly even come from.

I sat there for a few moments I then smiled at Mint, she was going to be okay, she just needed a couple of days of rest to heal from all of that, everything that had happened to her, I loved her so much, she was truly the best cat in the world to me.

Kettle then nudged up against me as he was trying to talk to me. I looked at him and nodded, telling him that I was paying attention to whatever it was that he was about to tell me.

"I told Oister last night to take care of Mint whenever she wakes up, me and you will go hunting, I don't know about you but I am starving." Kettle said to me, looking back at his mate Oister and nodding to her.

I looked at her as well and then I nodded back to Kettle, Kettle had a good idea and the right mindset, I was also fairly hungry, I seemed to notice as my stomach began grumbling telling me to go get something to eat.

We would need to get at least 3 animals, Mint whenever she was going to wake up would be very hungry. Kettle looked at me for me to take the lead for him. After a few moments of me washing my fur I looked at him and nodded to him telling him that I was ready.

He nodded back to me and we walked out of the small little ditch that we had been staying in all of last night after Mint had gone unconscious, I looked at it, smelling it and making a note in my head that this was where we were at whenever we needed to come back later.

Me and Kettle began walking off, this time Kettle took the lead and then after a few moments he held me to a stop. I looked at him a bit confused, he sat there for a few moments in silence but eventually he began talking to me.

"Moon... I am sorry if you thought I was taking control of the group. I'm sorry for making everyone exhausted. I just and very excited about the journey, I hope you forgive me for making this to hard on your mate Mint." He said to me. I looked at him a bit surprised for a few moments.

How did he know that for one, maybe he thought that we were mates already. Which seemed a bit strange at such a young age but I did not ask any questions about it. Kettle was always good at looking into another cats thoughts, I almost thought he should be their next leader.

Kettle in my eyes deserved to be a leader of a clan, I would miss him a lot but I knew that he needed to follow a bit of a different path. After a few moments of me sitting there in silence, he lowered his head in sadness. I pushed up against him telling him to keep his head up.

"Kettle... I do not blame you for any of this, you are keeping us on our feet and that is what we need right now. I don't know if I could have done this quest by myself. I blame myself just as much as you do for yourself." I said to him. He looked up at me with a bit of a smiled and then he nodded to me.

I always wondered what went on in Kettles head and how he always managed to be happy. He was very much unlike Mint, who she seemed to blame herself for just about everything. I'm sure she would after she woke up as well.

I was trying to get her off of that, I wasn't having so much luck as of late though, to be truthful she had been going a bit slow and blaming herself, but I felt like we were all pushing her too far. Underestimating how much pain the had really endured.

"Thank you... That made me feel at least a slight bit better." He said to me, looking at me with a smile, we both then laughed. It felt good to just sit there and relax and just laugh at the most simple things. That was always just the best thing in the world.

"Lets keep going, maybe we can get some food back around the time they happen to wake up. We were up fairly early." I said to Kettle. He looked at me and then he nodded to me. I nodded to him back and then I smiled as we both began walking out of the woods.

As soon as we were out I noticed something the the right, there were rivers. Kettle noticed it as well but he did not seem to think much about it. As I began looking down the river, I could see from far away. I very large lake full of water. I looked at Kettle and then I gasped.

"We are here."