Super Edition: Briarsong's Renascence

Chapter 6

Briarsong let Sully show her around the farm he had called home since he was a kit. After leaving the Hay Barn he across the muddy stinky ground of the holding pens where the goats and sheep slept at night. Briarsong tried to not get her paws dirty but it was impossible, and she loathed the thought of her paws smelling like goat. After they crossed the stinky holding pens Sully brought her to another barn but this one was full of different twoleg items Briarsong had no names for.

"This is called Owl Barn because there is large owl that lives in there. We avoid it, and it avoids us." He gestured for Briarsong to keep moving and he showed her a few more smaller structures that didn't have names but we filled with more twoleg stuff. He brought her back to the Hay Barn and showed her the gate that led into the fields where the goats and sheep graze. Looking off into the meadow with its tall grasses, Briarsong was reminded of home. She hadn't said anything the entire tour of the farm but now Briarsong looked over at Sully and met his bright eyes with her sad ones.

"I miss home," she whispered. "I don't know who I am anymore."

 Sully stepped over and rested his head under her chin and purred. "You are here now. You can live with all of us in the Hay Barn. Mango will come around and the others will love you once they meet you tonight."

"I don't know," Briarsong pulled away and felt Sully flinch at her coldness. "I'm not like you. I grew up in a clan, with a purpose, with a future of protecting my clan. I lived by a very strict set of codes that I have upheld my entire life."

"But you left," Sully said hesitantly, asking more as a question than a statement.

"I'm a Medicine Cat, not a barn cat," Briarsong snapped at him, feeling the loneliness boiling in her belly.

"Can you be a Medicine Cat here?" 

Briarsong paused for a moment and then shook her head. "You don't need a Medicine Cat. You have the twolegs who take care of you. There are no fights or death here. Everything I trained for means nothing."

"I think you gave Mango a good fight," Sully offered, and Briarsong couldn't help but appreciate the kindness he had shown her.

"She'll be fine,"

"Give it a chance?" Sully finally asked after a quiet few moments. His eyes were pleading but his voice was controlled and low. "I think you might like it if you try."

Briarsong padded up to the gate leading to the field and jumped up onto the stone barrier. The twoleg joined her and called out to Brody to bring the flock home just like Briarsong had seen him do many times from within the twoleg home. The twoleg looked over and gave Briarsong a stroke along her spine, and she gave him a little purr of gratitude. The two waited together and watched as the sheep and goats slowly made their way over from the outskirts of the field.

"Pearl," Brody woofed as he lumbered through the gate with his flock. He reached up and touched his nose to Briarsong and then padded off with his usual tail wag. Briarsong and the twoleg waited together until the last of the flock was in and then he let out a deep breath, ruffled Briarsong's fur and then followed Brody off. Briarsong waited a few more moments and looked out past the field and to the trees lining the far off distance. They looked like little blades of grass so far away and she felt like she could reach out and touch them. She sat there until the sun filled the sky with New-Leaf colors and only jumped down once the stars were bright in the sky. To her surprise she found Sully waiting for her by the Hay Barn entrance as she padded over from the field.

"Ready for your first night in the Barn?" Sully asked with a smile. "You can finally meet everyone. They should be in,"

Briarsong was surprised by how nervous she felt to meet the rest of the Barn cats. Would they accept her or hate her? She followed Sully back behind the hay and to the sleeping area the cats had created in the warmth of the hay. Mango was sharing tongues with the the orange tom Morris, the younger and smaller tom Moose was eating a mouse while the tall and slender black cat with the top of one of her ears gone, Cookie watched them with beady eyes.

"This is Briarsong," Sully introduced her and the other cats looked up, some with a more welcoming gaze than others.

"Hello," Briarsong said softly, not sure how she felt.

"Out of the House?" Moose laughed. "Well welcome! Happy to have you here."

"You can't sleep over here," Mango snapped, indicating the nesting area she had made for her and Morris. "So find your own place and don't expect any of us to help you make one."

"Briarsong," Cookie mused. "That is an interesting name. Where did you get it from?"

"I'm from the forest," Briarsong explained, meeting Cookie's steady gaze. She might be old but she was fierce and independent. Even if the Barn cats didn't have a clan, Cookie was their leader.

"Yes. I thought so." Cookie nodded. "It has been a very long time since I met a forest cat."

"You've had forest cats here before?" Briarsong was surprised.

"Not here at the barn." Cookie rolled her eyes. "I've had a very full life before ending up here. I've met some of you forest cats many many moons ago when I was no older than Moose. I think it was Meadowclan whose clan I had accidently wandered into. Very interesting way of life you all live over there."

"Not any more interesting than living in a Barn is to me," Briarsong shot back and she saw Cookie's mouth flicker with a smile. 

"I thought you clan cats were loyal to your clan? Why are you all the way out here?"

"She doesn't have to answer that," Sully spoke up. "This is her first night outside of the twoleg House. Let's talk tomorrow,"

"We will definitely talk." Cookie gave Briarsong a glace before heading over to her sleeping spot and curling up in the hay with a flick of her tail. Briarsong watched the older black she-cat and wasn't afraid or intimated by her. Despite her tough attitude Briarsong liked her and wanted to hear more about her adventures before the Barn.

"I made you a nest for tonight," Sully gestured a little ways away where hay was matted down and moss and grass was woven in. Hesitantly, Briarsong padded up to the nest, sniffed it and then sat down and was surprised by how comfortable it was.

"Thank you," she smiled warmly at him. He met her smile with a huge grin and purred loudly. 

"I'll be right over here," he pointed with his tail to another nest that was closer to where Moose was settled, already snoring. Without another word, Sully made his way over to his nest and settled in for the night. Briarsong appreciated that he hadn't pushed her to share a nest next to him. She had spent so many moons sleeping alone in her den before Ivypaw, and sleeping next to Ivypaw verses Sully would have been very different. Curling up and placing her tail over her eyes, Briarsong hoped once again to dream of Starclan.