An Appearance Doesn't Define Me

Chapter 6: suspicion and secrets

Sapphire

"Um, let's see; Purdy of Thunderclan, Cherrytail and Sparrowpelt of Skyclan, Cinnamontail, Blazefire and Antfur of Shadowclan ...and oh yeah...FIRESTAR himself!" Echotail ends her list with a meaningful but quiet shout

"Who are they?" I ask that last cat sounded important and though I have no idea what the correlation between the cats where, Echotail was clearly angry at Ivypaw's question.

" oh, sorry, Ivypaw here forgot her history and I drilled it back into her." The silver cat responds

"It's getting late, we should probably head back..." Echotail's head looked up to the darkening sky, then the unspeakable happened... it started rain, I felt the water mix into my fur making it weigh more than the dressing did. I looked across to the two cat who stood there weirdly... were they... realisation dawned on me

"You... YOU'RE ENJOYING THE RAIN!" I screeched never have I met a cat who enjoyed the rain, Fred always called said that cats who like the water were idiots and ... other things too...

"That's our reputation, Riverclan like the water, now home time Drypaw." Ivypaw stated calmly while looking amused.  'A what? What's with "clan" cats and their terminology?'

"Well done, Ivykit, you screwed up the new role, you took the kittypet out." A voice behind us came as we walked back, before I could turn around to see the owner of the voice, Ivypaw tutted in front of me and slowed her pace.

"At lest I was given the role, Nutcase." She retorted and turned to face the cat.  I looked behind me to see Ivypaw glaring at an older, almond colour, tomcat with a smug expression on his muzzle, I looked closely at him and saw that his pelt was dripping way to much to be caught in the rain, had he been swimming?

"Yeah well, I actually do something like an, oh yeah, hunting assessment – which I've passed.  You just sit there sorting herbs-"

The ground suddenly gave beneath me, and a yelp escaped my mouth as my left legs became submerged in mud.

"Sapphire! Hold on!" I heard before I felt teeth bury into my scruff as Ivypaw tried to hall me out of the mud, unfortunately, failing miserably. 

"Out the way, Squirt." I felt Ivypaw let go and be quickly replaced with a different cat.  I tried to help by putting my weight on my right legs only causing more of a problem for my cut by making it hurt more than it did yesterday.  The cat heaved me up out of the mud, and I finally saw that it was the cat that was bickering with Ivypaw.

"Thank you..." I trailed off, realising I don't actually know the guy's name only that Ivypaw called him 'Nutcase' – which doesn't sound right

"Nutpaw, Nutpaw's my name." he replied in a softer voice than he used earlier.

It didn't take much longer for us to reach back to the 'Camp', Nutpaw seamed nice – I don't fully like him though.  When we emerged through the reeds Tallshade was there waiting and frowned when he saw the mud on me. 

"Ivypaw, take Sapphire to the stream and clean her up – take of her poultice and check the wound, if it's clear come find me and Dropstar." He directed the apprentice.  The she-cat led me down to a stream as the rain eased off.  It was pretty, the water tumbling over the pebbles in the bottom – little fish swimming effortlessly  through it. 

"I'm going to remove you're poultice and then we're going in the stream." The way she said her statement sent a shiver of obedience down my spine – her persona changed as soon has she had to work.  She stated to remove the cobwebs and mush on my fur and let out a gap once it was off.

" What! What's happened?" I felt my heart start to beat with worry and then settle as soon as the brown ball of fur jumped up and down in my peripheral vision

"It's healed!!!! There might be a scab but that's normal!!!!!!!!!!!  Sleep really works!!!  Water time!" she squeaked and shoved me into the water.  The cold water seeped in between my hairs and onto my skin, it felt colder but better than the rain. Making everything less heavy.  I looked across to see Ivypaw swimming peacefully in the centre, I felt the mud be brushed off a bit the water becoming mucky around me.

"if you move around – Swim – it won't be as gross!" Ivypaw called out paddling towards me.  I looked at her and tried to contain the panic as I became conscious that I didn't know how to swim.  "I can teach you how, I assume there aren't many place to swim in a Twoleg den in the middle of Shadowclan territory." 'How did she know?'

I slowly picked it up soon swimming as though it was second nature.  When we came to the shore, Ivypaw's gaze clocked onto my leg and continued to stare at it,

" what are you doing?" I ask Suspiciously

"Your leg is coloured differently to your pelt..." what is this girl on about...?

"Coloured differently my..." my leg... "My leg's coloured orange!!!!!" What... No, not yet!

"Hmmmmmmmm.... Starclan knows...." Ivypaw hums and as she waddles away ('Til the very next day) only turning around to beckon me with her tail, and kept in waddling when I caught up to her...

"What do you think it is..." I ask not knowing why she's just brushing it off like an old bone,  no-one ever does, they all think it's weird- especially Fred.

"It's probably Starclan be Starclan, Mysterious, Tallshade will know – even if it isn't Starclan." She says smiling.  While being parallel to her I notice her 'Waddle' is more of a hop... this cat is so weird...

"Tallshade!" The shout echos through the clearing and The stubby black Tom appears out off the shadows followed by the silver pelt of Dropstar. 

"Ivypaw, what happened to her paw?" Tallshade's voice coms menacingly as I shroud behind the smaller cat 

"I don't know!  We swam and then BAM! Orange leg!" She replied

"I'm too tired to deal with this go to your nests and we'll talking in the morning – the moon's all ready risen and Sapphire's practically asleep on her paws, so go!" 'Huh, I guess I must look tired to these clan cats.'

We entered the den and Ivypaw quickly sprinted back ward poked her head in a bush, shouted a 'good night' ran to a heap of something and came back with two minnows, the hell is this girl doing,

"You're trying fish before we sleep."

"Your mad."  Then she stared...

And stared

...

And stared

"Okay, fine pass me one." I said with a huff.  As my teeth ripped the slimy flesh I felt the weird feeling of wet scales brush my tongue, but the meat – I cannot lie -  it was delicious, much better than any mouse.  I saw Ivypaw's face light up as she downed her minnow and watched as I picked mine apart.

It wasn't long before Tallshade and Ivypaw fell asleep, I slowly got up and padded toward the exist and left

Time to leave

Hug?????