A New Beginning }{ UF - Action

[Sunneth]

Title: A New Beginning
Chapters: The whole book (24 chapters total)
Author: Sunneth
Pairing: N/A
Rating: G, I'm sure.
Summary: Dusty, a housecat, is abandoned and joins BarkClan as an apprentice
Warning: Uh... I'm not quite sure.
Disclaimer: The original idea of Warriors is copyrighted to Erin Hunter--I came up with Clans and names, that's it.
Beta: I would like one...
Cover: I have one, but it isn't on the Internet.
Author's Notes: N/A

ALLIEGANCES

BarkClan:
Leader:
Twinklestar—Black tomcat with white paws, ears, and tail-tip, golden eyes
Assistant:
Waterlily—Tortoiseshell she-cat, amber eyes
Healer:
Chewedleaf — Gray she-cat, green eyes
APPRENTICE—Goldenpaw
Warriors:
Mudtail — Dark brown tom, golden eyes
Blackclaw — Gray-black tom, green eyes
Blizzardtail— White tom with silver tail, golden eyes
Jetfoot— White tom with black paws and tail, pale yellow eyes
Silverfur— Striped silver tabby she-cat, golden yellow eyes
Ashtail— Pale gray she-cat, light green eyes
Sparkleheart— Black-and-white she-cat, blue eyes
Sootstripe— Light gray she-cat with darker spots, light blue eyes
Pinetail— Gray tom, green eyes
Firefoot—Orange she-cat, orange eyes

Apprentices:
Toadpaw—Silver-gray tom with a red tail, yellow eyes (Mentor—Silverfur)
Waterpaw— Blue-gray tom, dark blue eyes (Mentor—Sparkleheart)
Rainpaw—Silver, almost gray tom, green eyes (Mentor—Ashtail)
Fishpaw—Silver tom, gold eyes (Mentor—Blizzardtail)
Frogpaw—Tortoiseshell she-cat, amber eyes (Mentor—Jetfoot)
Dustypaw— Dust-colored tom, emerald eyes (Mentor—Firefoot)
Coalpaw— Black-gray she-cat with light-blue eyes (Mentor—Blackclaw)
Goldenpaw— Golden tabby tom, ice blue eyes (Mentor—Chewedleaf)

Kit-mothers:
Whiteheart—White she-cat, blue eyes; partly deaf



Kits:
Mousekit—Small gray she-kit, amber eyes
Boulderkit—Large silver tom with bright green eyes

Elders:
Rosepetal—Tabby she-cat with white paws and tail-tip, pale green eyes; partly deaf and blind

RootClan:
Leader:
Thrushstar—Undersized white she-cat with deep black stripes along back, yellow eyes
Assistant:
Oaktail— Brown tomcat with a scar diagonally across face, green eyes
Healer:
Birdclaw — Golden-gray tomcat, blue eyes
APPRENTICE—Littlepaw
Warriors:
Smalltail — Ginger tom, thin tail, orange eyes
Brownfur — Mottled brown tabby tom, golden-brown eyes
Gingertail— Light golden brown tabby tom, blue eyes
Breezetail — Gray tabby tom, blue eyes
Runningfoot — Slender brown and gray tabby she-cat, amber eyes

Apprentices:
Riverpaw— Blue gray tom, orange eyes (Mentor—Smalltail)
Twigpaw— Brown tom with thin and long legs, golden eyes (Mentor—Runningfoot)
Grasspaw—Tortoiseshell she-cat, amber eyes (Mentor—Brownfur)
Leafpaw—Dark tabby she-cat, yellow eyes (Mentor—Gingertail)
Blackpaw— Gray-black tom, blacker stripes, blue eyes (Mentor—Breezetail)

Kit-mothers:
(None)

Kits:
(None)

Elders:
Icetail—Light blue, almost white, she-cat, blue eyes

LeafClan:
Leader:
Graystar—Elderly, grumpy gray-blue she-cat, ice blue eyes
Assistant:
Flametail— Dark orange tom, lighter orange stripes, orange eyes
Healer:
Brokentooth — Light gray tom, broken front tooth, green eyes
APPRENTICE—none
Warriors:
Rocktail — Blue-gray tom, blue eyes, Graystar’s son
Darktail — Dark striped tabby tom, missing part of tail, amber eyes
Yellowtooth — Yellow-gold she-cat, broken yellow teeth, pale gold eyes
Cindertail — Light gray (with darker flecks) tom, dark green eyes
Gingerfur — Ginger tom with a battle-scarred muzzle, gold eyes
Whitefoot — Small tabby she-cat, white paws


Apprentices:
Dirtpaw— Shorthaired light brown tom, amber eyes (Mentor—Flametail)
Orangepaw — Light orange tom with darker orange stripes, orange eyes (Mentor—Rocktail)
Sharppaw—Small ginger tom, good hearing and smelling, dark blue eyes (Mentor—Darktail)
Shadowpaw— Black tomcat, white paws and chest, amber eyes (Mentor—Yellowtooth)
Softpaw— Gentle pale gray she-cat, pale blue eyes, eldest apprentice (age of a four-moon warrior) (Mentor—Cindertail)

Kit-mothers:
Ashclaw—Pale gray she-cat, yellow eyes

Kits:
Graykit—Small gray she-kit, amber eyes
Blackkit—Small black tom, yellow eyes

Elders:
Stumpyclaw— Dark brown tom, curled claws, green eyes



BranchClan:
Leader:
Whitestar— White she-cat, light green eyes
Assistant:
Sharpclaw— White tom with ginger splotches, very sharp claws, orange eyes
Healer:
Woodtail — Light brown tom, golden-brown eyes
APPRENTICE—Weedpaw
Warriors:
Tangleclaw — Ginger tom with two tangled claws, amber eyes
Tawnyclaw — White tom with black feet and tail, green eyes
Thistletooth — Silver-gray tom with thick black stripes and sharp teeth, green eyes
Bramblepelt — Ginger-brown she-cat, green eyes

Apprentices:
Windpaw— Smoky gray she-cat, amber eyes (Mentor—Tawnyclaw)
Runningpaw — Silver-blue she-cat, fast runner, light blue eyes (Mentor—Bramblepelt)
Weedpaw— Gray tom with tangled fur, yellow eyes (Mentor—Woodtail)

Kit-mothers:
Squirrelfur—Pale orange, almost yellow she-cat, amber eyes

Kits:
Seedkit—Dusky brown tom, amber eyes
Swiftkit—Small tabby she-kit, green eyes
Firekit—Orange tom, yellow eyes

Elders:
(None)

Prologue

A black cat sat on a fallen tree that served as his nest. His head was tipped up to the star-swathed sky; his white ears, paws, and tail-tip glowed in the starlight.

A gray cat with glowing green eyes stalked up to him from a cave across the clearing. “Twinklestar,” she meowed in a hushed voice, “do you seek answers from StarClan?”

“Yes, Chewedleaf,” replied the tom. “These times are filled with much danger. I am on my last life, and I have no idea which cat could possibly follow in my paw steps.”

The old she-cat said nothing. A shooting star blazed over her in the sky, leaving a small streak of light. Chewedleaf looked up to the night sky where the moon was merely a scratch.

Suddenly, the fur along her spine stood on end. Twinklestar looked down at her and then back up at the sky where the trail that the star had left was fading into the darkness.

The fur along Chewedleaf’s spine lay flat as the star trail disappeared completely. He observed this out of the corner of his eye and looked down at her, his eyes burning with curiosity.

“What was it, Chewedleaf?” he asked gently. “Was it a sign from StarClan?”

“Yes,” answered the gray she-cat grimly. Twinklestar wondered what could be so serious. Chewedleaf looked up at him, her eyes unreadable. “Out of the turmoil, a hero like a ghost will rise.”

[Sunneth]

Chapter 1

Life is good.

Or at least, it was, until two moon cycles ago.

The Beckers and their gray tomcat lived happily since he was a moon old—for 7 moon cycles. Then they started to abuse him. He got kicked around, they stepped on his tail, and they poked him in uncomfortable places.

Byron, the cat’s owner, about 11 years old, asked him if he wanted to go outside. When he started to mew happily, he let him outside—but shut the door on the tip of his tail. He never got fed, and had to hunt for his own food and water.

He had 2 moon cycles of this torture, and the threat of amputation, but that torture ended when he got so mad and frustrated, he scratched Byron’s legs to shreds. After they made sure Byron was okay, they took the poor cat outside on the highway, and left him.

They put a slip knot around his neck, and tied the other end to a wooden post, so if he tried to follow, he would choke.

Fortunately, people in cars noticed the gray cat.

Unfortunately, nobody cared.

No one but one group.

Of course, those people had to care. It was their job. The people grabbed him and, after a lot of hissing and spitting, put him into a pen with blankets, a bowl of food, and a bowl of water.

As he was eating happily, he heard the humans talking, saying words that he couldn’t understand. They had brought him in an hour ago. Another voice spoke, and the cat’s ears pricked. He hadn’t heard that voice before.



The next day he wasn’t expecting anybody to come to him, so he was giving himself a wash. The next morning, the normal people came in, grabbed a little cage, and opened the pen door. He cowered in the back of the pen, afraid that the people would shut the door on his tail, like Byron did. So he started hissing fiercely at the people. They jumped back away, afraid they would get clawed. So they set the cage down, coaxing the dusty-gray cat to stop hissing. He slowly stopped hissing. Then he tipped his head to one side, confused. What were they going to do to him?

He came out slowly. Then he dashed into the cage, pulling his tail in so fast that the people were startled. They shrugged and shut the door. He gave a sigh of relief that they couldn’t shut the door on his tail.


“I never knew that animal soap tasted so bad!” the cat muttered, half to himself. The soap had left his fur sudsy, even after they had dried him with a towel. They seemed to know that cats don’t like water that much, so they didn’t waste any time. Naturally, he tried to lick his soapy gray fur clean. That awful taste stuck in his mouth for days.

On the day that the taste went out of his mouth, the people moved the cat in to a room with many loud dogs and few cats. There were concrete dividers in between the animals. There were only four other cats in the room, making a total of five cats to twenty dogs. The dusty-gray cat felt as though he was deaf. But finally, sleep claimed the tired cat.

The next day, when he woke up, the cat across him was staring. She looked about the same age as him, about 10 moons. She was an all black cat, and was staring, surprisingly, at his ear. Then he realized why: two moons ago, when Byron started to abuse the cat, he put him in somebody’s garden with a fierce dog. He nearly broke the dog’s left foreleg, while the dog nearly took his ear. There was a slice out of the right side of his left ear. But he also saw a gleam of something else in her eyes. The other thing turned into amusement when he stretched. His back made a loud cracking.

“Sure is deafening in here, isn’t it?” she purred, her warm, dark blue eyes glimmering. “Well, once you’re here for a while, you get used to it.”

“How long is a while?” he asked cautiously, fearing the answer.

“About a moon,” she replied.

He sighed. “Oh well, at least I’m not with Byron anymore. That’s probably the only good thing about being here.”

She looked hurt when he said that, but she asked, “Who’s Byron?”

“My old owner.” He shuddered. “He kicked me around, teased me, even shut the door on my tail a few times!”

The she-cat winced. “That must have hurt,” she meowed, sympathy in her eyes. The other thing had returned as well.

A stomach growled, loud enough to be heard over the barking. The gray tomcat felt embarrassed when he realized it was him.

The sympathy in her eyes left when she closed her eyes to think. She opened her eyes when she heard the growl, and there was amusement in them. “You might want to eat that, considering how hungry you sound,” she purred, gesturing to the food dish.

“Yeah, I guess I should.” He purred from amusement. He started to crunch the dry food. “Yuck! This stuff is disgusting! How can you eat it?”

The she-cat looked across the path. “Wait… That’s dog food you got there!” she purred. “You might not want to eat that. It’s for dogs, which means it tastes bad. Here, I’ll try to get you some of my food.” He opened his mouth to protest, but she continued, “No, I won’t eat it all anyway. Here, I’ll brush it across the floor with my paw.” She half emptied her food dish, and pushed it across the floor with her paw. All of it slid across the floor and into his cage.

He crunched all the food gratefully. “Thanks,” he mewed, swiping a pink tongue around his muzzle. “Want some dog food?” he joked.

She purred. “Sure, I should try it for future reference,” she joked. “No thanks.” The amusement died from her eyes, and she lowered her voice. “We need to get serious here. We need to get out. We need to escape.”

[Sunneth]

Chapter 2

“Cats of BarkClan, gather together for a meeting!” yowled a black cat with white feet, ears, and a tail tip. His pelt was streaked with mud so his fur couldn’t be seen, and he blended perfectly with the fallen tree he was standing on. Slowly, cats gathered from the treetops onto the clearing.

Old cats and young kits with the kit-mothers came from the bushes, either too young, nursing, or too old to go to the safety of the treetops. Guards also came from the elder bush and the nursery, protecting the cats on the ground. Apprentices and their warrior mentors came from their nests in the trees. Some cats that came out of nests screwed their eyes up at the blinding sunlight that came from the sun at its highest point in the sky.

Cats without apprentices, who were warriors, came from another tree. It was sunhigh, and a ceremony was going to be held to make kits into apprentices. Two warriors were going to be selected to mentor an apprentice each, until it was made into a warrior itself. When there was going to be an apprentice for that warrior to mentor, he would mentor it. That’s how Clan life works.

One warrior looked especially proud: Waterlily, a tortoiseshell kit-mother, was sitting near the roots of the tree with her tail across her feet, where there were two kits sitting, one on either side of her.

The BarkClan leader, Twinklestar, stood on the fallen tree, with his assistant, Frosttail. Frosttail was the second-in-command cat, and as she died, or left the Clan, a new cat was selected for that position. If the Clan leader died, the assistant would become leader and choose a new assistant. But Clan leaders didn’t die often, for they were granted nine lives from StarClan. All Clan cats, from RootClan, BarkClan, BranchClan, and LeafClan, go to StarClan when they die.

StarClan watches over the whole forest, and sends signs to the Clan healers. Clan healers are cats who take care of the sick or wounded. There can only be one healer at a time in each Clan, but the healer can have an apprentice. StarClan has to grant approval for the apprentice to become a healer, just as they grant a leader approval with nine lives.

“As you know, Waterlily has had two healthy kits this season,” Twinklestar began. “These kits are old enough to become apprentices, and will be given a warrior-mentor.” Twinklestar’s voice and golden eyes were filled with pride, for the kits were his own.

One of the kits, a tortoiseshell kit like her mother, squealed with delight. “Hush, Frogkit—I mean, Frogpaw,” whispered Waterlily. An amused purr went through the Clan cats.

“Jetfoot, you have never mentored before. You shall become Frogpaw’s new mentor.” The white warrior with black feet and tail nodded his head and turned to entwine his tail with the she-cat.

“And Blizzardtail, I hear that you are ready for another apprentice now that Jetfoot has earned his warrior name. Your apprentice will be Fishpaw. I entrust you both to teach to your apprentice what you have been taught yourselves.” The white tomcat entwined his tail with the silver-white tomcat; silver tail and red mingled together for a moment.

“Yes, Twinklestar,” the warriors replied at the same time.
“Good.” He nodded toward them. “Now, you may leave. I want to have a word with the senior warriors. Oh, and you too, Chewedleaf.”

The apprentices, kits, kit-mothers, and younger warriors left the Fallen Tree and went to their respective dens. The Clan leader jumped off the tree and padded into his den.

“Now, I think you should know that I am on my last life,” Twinklestar mewed softly after all the cats made themselves comfortable. Gasps came from the cats in the den, except for Chewedleaf. Chewedleaf was the Clan’s healer, and healers can sense that type of thing. “Chewedleaf, I am growing old. Those rat bites that made me lose a life… are they infected?”

The healer inspected the wound. “I think you all should leave,” she said to the warriors. “I need to talk to Twinklestar alone. Wait,” she said to Waterlily as she got up to leave, “you stay.”

“Okay,” Waterlily purred. She and Twinklestar were mates, and Frogpaw and Fishpaw were their children.

“Twinklestar… the rat bites are infected. You will still have at least four moons left to live. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, Chewedleaf. I’ve lived a longer life than any normal cat. It’ll be my time to leave.”

Waterlily’s eyes filled with pain. “Twinklestar… You have done so much for me. Why… If you weren’t there, I would have died from grief at Pearlkit’s death.” Waterlily had three kits: Fishkit, now known as Fishpaw; Frogkit, now known as Frogpaw; and Pearlkit, who died from disease.

“Yes, Waterlily. I will watch down on you from StarClan when I leave.”

“But that isn’t now,” Chewedleaf put in. “You still have a long way to go yet.”

Just then, a grief-stricken wail came from the clearing: “Frosttail!”

[//holly.leaf\\]

That's good. At least, better than mine...