Chapter 12: Safe for the night

I looked at Oister thankfully, I was happy that she was okay. But it was still an omen right? Maybe I was going crazy, but I did not say anything about it as Oister looked away from me and back to Kettle.

They had brought back a rabbit and 2 mice, there was going to be plenty for all of us, I was happy that we were eating good right now. It might not be like that in the cold time. Kettle and Oister probably already knew what that was like, but I was pretty sure neither me or Mint would know what it was like.

Squirrelflight had told me all the cats would get very skinny because all of the animals usually hid up somewhere when the cold times came. There was not much we could find to eat, or drink a lot of the times, because everything was frozen to ice.

I did not even want to imagine it, I knew it was coming soon, just a few moons away. This was probably the worst time to start rebuilding the clans, I shook my head though and then looked over at Mint. She nodded at me thanking that Oister was okay.

I always knew that Mint was always worried about the cats that were around her, she always worried about them before she worried about herself, sometimes that could be bad for her. I was just happy to have her with me still, I nudged myself against her to let her know that.

"Lets split my mouse then, the others have plenty to eat, and more." Mint said to me. I looked at her and then I nodded, she began taking the first bites. I smiled as she was chewing up the flesh of the mouse, I looked up at starclan and thanked them for the prey.

Because I knew that soon the prey would be scarce and hard to come by. Mint looked at me with a bit of a grin, I managed to smile back at her, even though I had a lot on my mind, not good thoughts either, she still managed to always get that from me.

Mint then looked at me for a few minutes and then tossed me the rest of the mouse. I looked at the pieces that she had left me. Clearly she was trying to make up for the extra parts that I had left for her. For a few moments I thought about eating it because I indeed was a bit hungry, but I shook my head for even thinking those sort of thoughts.

"No... You need it more than me Mint, you are still healing." I said to her. She looked at me a bit upset, not at me but at herself as I put the mouse back at her. She then looked over at me for a few moments, and then she nodded, I could tell that she was also fairly hungry still.

"Suit yourself Moon... This is a really good mouse, you might regret not having more." She said to me. I looked at her for a few moments but then I realized she was joking. To be truthful I was thinking about asking Kettle if we could split the rabbit, but it was a bit too late for that now.

I looked over at Limp who was eating up about half of the rabbit that was left for her. She had a big smile on her face, as she looked at me realizing that I was looking at her. She looked a bit dumbfounded at herself, the way she was eating the rabbit was a bit strange but I just smiled at her.

Kettle then walked over to me with a bit a strange look on his face, as if he was a bit upset. I looked at him a bit confused as he walked over to me, then he nodded to me to shy away from the others. I took what was left of the mouse over with me to Kettle.

Once I was over there, Kettle nodded for me to finish my mouse before we began talking to each other. I happily bit into the mouse, Mint was actually right when she had said it was a juicy and yummy mouse. It must have been eating good before its demise.

Once I was done I then licked my lips to wipe of the blood that was on my face from eating the mouse. Once Kettle saw that I was done he then began talking, quite a bit more silent than he usually was, but as he began talking I realized why that was so.

"I'm sorry for not sharing the rabbit, Mint needs it more than us..." He said to me, he then lowered his head to the ground, which was not normal for that cat. I leaned over to him and nudged his head up to make him feel a slight bit better at least.

He still looked a fair bit sad and upset at himself. I kind of felt bad about it, I would have liked Mint to have a bit of the rabbit but I think she was nearly fully healed at this point, I think her passing out a few days ago could have been a fluke.

I was pushing them fairly hard that day, I did not want to think that Mint was fully healed quite yet. You never really know when one of those days the exact same thing could happen again. Maybe that time she might not wake up... I shook my head not even wanting the think about that... We were near the end of our journey anyways. We had already made it to the lake.

Well to be fair I suppose that maybe we were not as far to the end of our journey as I thought, I had not even gotten to the part of starting the clans back up. But this was the part of the journey that Mint could get some rest at least.

I realized that Kettle was looking at me for me to say something. He then coughed to get my attention, he could tell that I was thinking a lot in my head. It was something I did fairly often, but it wasn't that bad of a thing to think of new ideas that might help us right?

"Sorry Kettle... Just got a lot on my mind, I think Mint is nearly fully healed... We are near the end, so she can finish the rest from there... I think you need to think about your mate before you think about mine." I said to him. He looked at me a bit surprised for a few moments and then he nodded.

This time he was the one to start thinking, and just based off of the look on his face I could tell that he was not thinking of good thoughts.

"Thank you, you make a good point, I feel bad for not even thinking about that. Do you think you will find a cure for her? She's begun coughing again." He asked me. I looked at him for a few moments, I did not want to lie to him.

I nodded anyways, I knew that one way or another I would surely find a cure to whatever it was the Oister and the kits were sick from. I had to right? There was no way they could just die surely right? That would make my quest so much harder.

"I hope so, I don't think Starclan would take us all this way for us to to just have our group die, and the future of the clans, but I am a bit scared about one thing that I saw when me and Mint were together, can you keep this a secret so that Oister and Limp don't freak out?" I asked Kettle, Kettle looked at me for a few moments, he had a bit of a scared look on his face as he looked over at his mate, but eventually in the end he nodded to me.

"Go ahead, I will hold my promise. What is this about, did Starclan finally talk to you? What did they say?" He said to me, moving up closer, he clearly wanted to hear what it was that had just happened to us, and I did not blame him, he was worried about the life of his mate.

"Do you know what an omen is?" I asked him. He looked at me for a few moments, he had a bit of a confused look on his face, it kind of told me that he was not sure, but eventually in the end he nodded, but I still did not believe if he truly knew what they were.

"A little bit, Stoneteller told me a bit about them, he said they could often be a bad prophecy, just without words, sometimes good... I am guessing by the look on your face it is not good." He said to me. I looked at him a bit surprised that I was making it that obvious, I then nodded and is face then became I bit scared and sad at the same time.

"I don't think your mate is going to die, she is older and more ready for something like this, but we found a dead squirrel that was killed, just not by another animal." I began saying to him. He looked at me a bit confused but he nodded.

"How did it die then? Did it fall from a tree? I didn't think that a squirrel could die from that." He asked me. I looked at him for a few moments, I thought into that as it being a possibility, but it just did not make much sense as to why there would be blood all over its face, I then shook my head at Kettle.

"I don't think so, it had blood on its mouth, like Oister did yesterday, I don't know if this is about Oister or the kits yet, either way it is no good." I said to him. He looked at me for a few moments, and then he nodded his agreement, I was glad that he was not freaking out about it.

"I hope that you can find a way to make this omen good, Stoneteller told me that if you thought of it as bad, then it often ended bad." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, I was not sure how true that could really be.

I did not question the ways of that cat though, he knew much more about the cats above than I did, I always wondered how he even managed to get into contact with starclan in the first place, but I shook my head and did not ask any questions about it.

"I'm not sure if I can find that much good in something like that, but I will do my best." I said to him. Kettle looked at me for a few moments, he looked a bit sad as he then lowered his head to the ground, I could tell that he was worried about his mate.

I could only imagine, the day that Mint had nearly died, I could almost not sleep with her being beside me. She was not even my mate at the time. I looked over at Oister as I heard her cough, luckily what I had given her did not cough up blood this time.

Kettle then got up and began stretching for a few moments, he then turned over to me to try and get my attention. I turned my head over to him and then I nodded to him to go ahead and start talking.

"Let's go ahead and go, every second counts if it comes to saving the lives of those kits..." Kettle said to me. I realized that he was right as I stood myself up right beside him. The others were waiting for us, clearly bored out of their right minds.

I walked over to the small clearing that we were all in and I nodded to all of them to get their attention before I began talking to each and every one of them.

"Alright guys, we are going to try to go over to Shadowclan territory and get into the twoleg place before the suns sets, we should be somewhat safe in there as long as we look through the fences for dogs before we actually go in." I said to all of them. Each of them looked at me and then nodded.

Once I made sure that they were all ready I began taking the first steps into Shadowclan territory. It seemed a bit more of a boring territory to me, it was full of a bunch of pine trees that all looked the same to me, I had forgotten that we were already in Skyclan territory, I had not even said anything to the others, but I would notify them of the territories and borders when the time came.

I looked behind me to make sure that they were all following me, I then nodded thankfully and kept on with the lead, I could see the lake near where we were at right now, and I could hear the lapping of the water.

I thought back on to where the twoleg nest might possibly be at. The starclan cats had not told me about any twoleg place in shadowclan territory, so I had no clue where to even start in the first place. I thought back to the night that I was in the dream.

The smell of the sap from the trees, but the lake... I did not smell that nearby, I could smell the water from very far away, I knew it was Shadowclan territory for sure, but it had to be on the deep boundaries far behind the lake.

I began turning I bit further to the right as the others followed me, a bit confused why I was switching directions in a big way so fast, but none of them asked me why, I was happy for that because I did not want to talk to anyone right now.

I was worried about the kits, a kits life is more precious than any other cat, they were the future of our clans. Maybe even potentially my clan. I began speeding up a little bit, but not too much to where it might put a strain on Oister and Mint.

I could tell that the sun was beginning to set, and I needed to find the twoleg place before it began to get dark, I did not really know where to find the exact place that we needed to me in. The place that they were at seemed a bit deep into the twolegs nest.

I closed my eyes for a few moments, I was trying to gain my balance and remember where I was supposed to start, the direction of the moon surely right? I remember the direction that it was going at when I looked at the kits that night.

Yes... Right above them in the sky, I saw the moon in the sky at day time, it always confused me as to why it was like that, why? The sun disappeared and made night and day, but it always seemed as if the moon was always in the same place.

The only difference in the moon was sometimes it got big, and then sometimes it got small. I had been told by Squirrelflight that we were supposed to have gatherings with all clans at the island on the lake when the moon reached its full size.

I shook my head and I just kept on walking, we were getting deeper and deeper into Shadowclan territory at this point, but I still was seeing no signs of the twoleg nest anywhere, and the sun was beginning to sun on the horizon.

It was about time for us to find a safe place to rest for the night, I turned to the others to notify them of that, I felt a bit bad for it because it was another day that we were not going to help the kits, and the omen I had was beginning to scare me more and more that I thought about it.

But just as I was about to talk, Limp said something first and she began hopping around happily. I looked at her a bit confused but then I listened in to what it was that she was saying to all of us and it made me smile.

"I see it! Is that it? It's over there to the left!" Limp said to me, I turned over and looked around a bit confused as to what she was looking at, I could tell by the looks on the others face that they were thinking the exact same thing that I was.

It was also beginning to get dark, and it was a bit hard to see, I tried squinting into the woods hoping to see what it was that Limp was looking at. Maybe she was looking at the abandoned house over there, but that was not really close to the direction that she was pointing at so it confused me a bit.

Surely she knew the difference between a twoleg place and an abandoned cabin right? I looked back at her a bit confused and she rolled her eyes at me and the others as they looked back at her thinking the exact same thing that I was.

"Do you not see it, its kind of hard to see through the woods..." She said to us. She then walked over to the front of our line and she pointed her right paw over into the woods to show us what it was that she was looking at.

I tried zooming my eyes in a bit closer to see what it was but I still had no luck seeing it, and I could tell that the others did not see it either. Maybe Limp had eaten the wrong kind of berries earlier and she was seeing things, I looked at her and shook my head.

"Limp, I don't see what you are looking at. Maybe it is because it is dark... Moon, lets find a place to lay down for the night, I don't know about you Mint, but I am exhausted." Oister said pointing over to Mint.

Mint looked at her for a few moments, she then looked at me a bit scared to admit that she was, but then she nodded as well. I nodded back to them my understanding. Then I looked over at Kettle to see what it was that he was looking at.

"There is a place over here, seems like it has a bunch of caves, looks a bit weird and a bit scary, but maybe we could hide over there for the night." Kettle said pointing over to somewhere that I also could not see... What was it with us not being able to see things today.

I closed my eyes, maybe something was just wrong with my eyes. I reopened them and then I blinked a few times just for good measure. I then looked over to where it was that he was pointing at but I still could not see it.

"I'm sorry, maybe its like Oister said, its dark... Can you just lead the way for us?" I said to him. Limp looked at me a bit confused but she did not say a word about it. I felt a bit bad that I was choosing Kettle over her, but he was the older one and he knew a bit more.

"That's because it was a bit further over there, we already passed it not too long ago, but I'll take the lead for all of you." Kettle said to me. I looked at him and nodded, I looked at the others to make sure they were paying attention, they nodded to him as well.

Once Kettle realized that we were just waiting on him, he took over the lead for us. We then began to follow, it was not but just a few moments until we caught into what he was talking about, I looked at the area.

It seemed like I had seen it before, I looked a bit closer and I instantly knew what it was, it was just a bit run down. Obviously because no cat had been in there in quite a long time. I shivered, many cats had died in this area, I could feel their spirits around me in a strange way.

I looked at the caves that he was talking about, I could see the ends of the caves, so he must have not looked that closely when he had said that they were deep and dark scary caves. I looked over at the others who were looking at me as leader for what to do next. I nodded to them and then I began talking.

"This, is Shadowclan camp, it is a bit run down... But soon there will be cats living in here, make sure to thank the spirits for their hospitality as we head in." I said to them. They looked at me a bit surprised for a few moments and then they nodded.

"This place is kind of ugly... What cat would want to live in a place like this?" Limp said to me. Suddenly just as soon as she had said it, I saw a cat appear from out of nowhere, I instantly noticed it as a starclan cat, the others saw the cat just as soon as I did, even Limp.

The cat laughed at Limp in a bit of a joking way, Limp moved back a little bit scared, I could not blame her. The cat almost haf a bit of an invisible feel to it, and it had stars raining all over its pelt, but then Limp managed to regain her balance.

"Young one, this place used to be amazing and beautiful... Many cats used to live here, they used to sleep here and it used to be a happy place, I hope you can bring that back." The cat said to Limp and then put the last part over at me. I looked at the cat that I instantly recognized as Blackstar.

"Thank you Blackstar, we were treat this place kindly, we are blessed to have a place like this to stay the night." I said to him. He looked at me and then he smiled at me, I could tell that he was about to go so I stopped him before that. "Blackstar... How come none of the starclan cats have come to help me?"

But just as soon as I said it, he disappeared, I wondered if he had even heard it. I knew he did, the starclan cats were always watching, even when we could not see them. I looked over at where he had been at a bit sadly, but then I looked back at the others.

"I'm guessing that star means you are a leader?" Kettle asked me. I looked at him for a few moments and then I nodded as my only response. I was still a bit sad that Blackstar had not helped me with that at all. I lowered my head to the ground a bit sadly.

Mint walked over to me and nudged me to make me feel a slight bit better, I felt the warmth of her body, and she always managed to cheer me up. I was so happy to have her with me, she always brought a smile to all the cats faces around her.

"Lets go into one of the caves, its starting to get dark, we will hunt again in the morning and then we will find the twoleg place, I can promise you all on that." I said to the others. They all looked at me and then they nodded, I then took the lead into the biggest cave.

I looked at the others that were with me, they all sat down and began to get a bit of rest, after a few minutes I saw them all fall asleep, and now it was just me and Mint that were awake. I looked over at Mint.

She then began talking queitly to me, I had to drown out all the background noise to hear what she was saying, that was how queit she was talking.

"Some day we will be a part of starclan... I am just happy we are safe for the night..."