It was morning, Ginger finally made up her mind to explore the forest. She leaped onto the fence and was getting ready to leap down to the other side when Candy showed up looking scared.
"What is wrong Candy?"
"What is wrong with you! Are you actually deciding to go to the forest? It's dangerous! Haven't you heard of Cookie? The poor tom who almost died in the paws of those wild cats? Or Minnie! She was mauled by a badger!"
"I'll be fine!" Ginger rolled her eyes.
"NO! I won't let you go! You are my only friend! I can't lose you!" Candy wailed.
"Candy. I WILL be fine!" Ginger gently reassured her friend.
"Please stay!"
"Well if you want to protect me so much then what about you come with me?"
Candy was taken back and sighed, "Fine, you better come back!"
☆★☆★☆
Ginger jumped down the fence excitedly.
Brush, crumple
Ginger perked up her ears. A squirrel!
Ginger instantly went into a 'hunter's crouch' she made up herself and climbed up the tree the squirrel was in.
Slowly but steadily, she stalked the squirrel on the thick tree branch.
However, just before she was able to pounce on the squirrel and make it her first catch, she heard a voice that sounded VERY angry.
"STOP! That was OUR prey!"
Ginger climbed down the tree and landed clumsily.
"That wasn't yours whoever-you-are! I saw it first!" Ginger protested angrily and attacked the other cat, surprising it.
They wrestled and tumbled and Ginger finally pinned the cat down. She realized the cat was a she-cat by her smell.
The she-cat looked very embarrassed and snapped, "Well, you are lucky I'm not a warrior, or else I would have been the one pinning you!"
"Who are you anyways?"
The other she-cat hesitated a moment before answering her, "My name is Sunpaw"
"Sun-what?"
"Sunpaw"
"Who would put a body part behind their name?!"
"Well, I don't know! That's how the clans and warrior code works"
"What clans, what code?"
"I'm sure you have heard of us before?" Sunpaw rolled her eyes and shook her head disbelievingly and annoyingly and muttered something beneath her breath, "kittypets really are mouse-brained!"
"Kitty-who-what?"
Ginger still did not understand what's going on. What is a Clan? What is the Warrior Code? What is a kittypet? What does 'mouse-brained' mean? These questions whirled through her mind.
Unexpected, Ginger caught a whiff of smell that smelt like 3 or 2 cats.
"Uh-oh! Better go! Bye!" Sunpaw looked nervous as she also picked up the scent.
"Sunpaw! What are you doing?" Ginger heard a voice.
Three cats stepped out. Ginger recognized one she-cat and two toms. The she-cat was Golden with green eyes, a white tom with yellow eyes and a grey tom with amber eyes.
The white tom looked really mean. And as she kind of suspected, he yelled, "SUNPAW!!! Why didn't you defeat this kittypet kit?! YOU WERE AN APPRENTICE FOR TWO MOONS AND YOU COULDn't mgfwmigyimafemfm!"
The white tom was silenced by the golden she-cat who stuffed her tail in his mouth.
"Don't bother Whitepool", she rolled her eyes, "he is alway like this, even if a kit brought back a stag, he won't even praise them one little bit, but..."
Ginger now felt bad for Sunpaw, since she is gonna get a punishment, but instead, something else came out of her mouth.
"You fought well, for a kittypet. I'm Lionleap, What's your name?"
Ginger figured out that Lionleap was asking her.
"My name is Ginger." she answered shyly, "So you are the wildcats? You don't seem scary and mean at all! Do you really sharpen your claws on bones? Hunt rabbits? Live in trees? Run as fast as the wind? Climb trees? Swim? Fight? How do you live? Where do you sleep?" Ginger blurted out.
Lionleap, Sunpaw and the grey tom with amber looked at each other then at Ginger while Whitepool rolled his eyes.
Lionleap then chuckled at her enthusiasm, "We are ThunderClan, we climb trees. It's WindClan that runs as fast as the wind and catches rabbits. ShadowClan sharpen their claws on bones. RiverClan swim and fish. And if the legendary SkyClan exists, they live in Trees. And we all fight. ThunderClan lives in the forest behind us, we live in a camp surrounded by thick oak trees and bramble and other bushes. We have apprentices, warriors, elders, queens, kits, medicine cats, a leader and a deputy. Kits are just kits, Apprentices are warriors-in-training, like Sunpaw" she nodded her head to Sunpaw, "Warriors are the clans most strong cats. They hunt and fight and protect the clan. Queens are she-cats expecting or nursing kits, Elders are retired warriors, medicine cats and leaders, deputies are the second-in-command of the Clan. Last but not least, Leaders are cats that lead the clan"
Ginger listened with her kit eyes wide.
"I wish I can live like that..." she thought dreamly then turned her head embarrassingly and shyly to Lionleap, "C-can I-i j-join y-your-r Th-ThunderClan?"
Lionleap was in thought for a moment.
"Depends", she answered, "If Icestar, our leader agrees, then it's a y--"
She was cut off by Whitepool who spat her tail out of his mouth, "DO YOU HAVE WEBS AND BEES IN YOUR BRAIN AND NEED TO RETIRE TO THE ELDER'S DEN??? LETTING a KITTYPET in a CLAN? EVEN SHADOWCLAN ISN'T SO MOUSE-BRAINED!!!!"
Lionleap rolled her eyes at Whitepool again and whispered to Ginger, "Oh, just ignore him"
