Warriors #6: A Kittypet's Destiny

Chapter 22

Swiftflight's POV

"Swiftflight?"

Even though my own name was being called, it barely seemed to make it into my own ears.

"Swiftflight!"

I then blinked and nearly took a step back when my vision was suddenly filled with nothing but dark ginger fluff. And after shaking my head quickly and finally pulling myself out of my own head, I realized that Foxleap, my former mentor, was waving his tail in my face.

"Hello?" He was meowing to me. "Swiftflight, are you there?"

I held back a frustrated hiss and quickly used one of my paws to push Foxleap's tail away. "I'm here," I finally replied to the tom. I then took a deep breath and flashed him an apologetic look. "Sorry, Foxleap." But I'd prefer it if you keep your tail on... and out of my face!

The ginger tom let out an exhausted huff and rolled his eyes in response. "Great StarClan, did that take a while!" He breathed. "I might as well have been trying to get a rock's attention!"

I tilted my head to the side and flashed my former mentor a confused, skeptical look. "But... rocks aren't living, Foxleap."

"Exactly!" Foxleap replied, shaking his head slowly as his eyes glowed with amazement and humor. "Whatever was keeping your attention made you a seem as good as dead when I was calling your name." He then lightly poked my shoulder with his tail and gave me an inquiring look. "Which was...?"

I narrowed my eyes back at the tom, genuinely confused. "Which was... what?"

Foxleap then let out a small purr of amusement, clearly humored by my haziness. "What was this thing so desperately asking for your attention?"

I flicked my ears as my fur began to bristle with discomfort and nerves. I found that I had no idea how to answer that question. I had an answer, but I wasn't sure if it was anything I wanted to share with my former mentor. "Oh..." I murmured, taking a quick glance at the same place that I had been staring at in my daze just moments ago. I then looked back towards Foxleap and lowered my head to the ground, my heart sinking. "Nothing, Foxleap."

I then screwed my eyes shut and pushed back my own sadness. Great StarClan, that is such a lie...

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Foxleap flashing me a brief concerned look before lifting his head to follow where my gaze had gone to a heartbeat earlier. "Nothing, huh?" I heard him murmur after a moment. I then forced myself to look back up at him, and almost immediately regretted it as I met his smug, knowing gaze. "Nothing wouldn't happen to be collecting moss over by that tree, would it?" He murmured, lashing his tail as if to gesture to something.

I closed my eyes and let out a sigh, my heart filling up with sorrow yet again as I looked back over to where Foxleap had pointed to, which was where Cherrypaw was currently deep in concentration as she gathered moss off of a fallen tree.

As I had unfortunately predicted, Foxleap had been able to see right through everything I had been trying to hide – the fact that I had been staring at Cherrypaw, and the fact that she was something keeping my attention.

And not to mention, a cat that currently hurt my heart, reminding me of a certain horrible reality every time I looked at her.

But there was no way in the name of StarClan that Foxleap was going to know that. "Funny," I simply muttered in response, avoiding Foxleap's gaze.

Despite me trying to dodge the subject, he further pushed on, taking a step closer to me. "Well, am I wrong?" He prompted.

Strangely enough, I could only sigh and close my eyes in response to that question. While Foxleap trying to probe into my thoughts would usually be something that I'd be incredibly frustrated with, I found that this time, I was too overwhelmed with completely different feelings now.