Leafbelly and I decided to go out hunting together, and we sat down on a cliff and looked out over the view to observe for possible prey spots.
"SteelMask," Leafbelly started the conversation.
"Yes?" I replied, still searching for the movement of prey.
"I gotta say," she said looking at me, "You do not seem to upset by my paw's death, if anything you seem relieved. Why is that?"
"I am sorry, Leafbelly " I apologised to her, "Its true, Tornpaw was a wonderful paw, but I have no idea, but as soon as he was born, I have always been jealous of him. I don't know why it is, and I feel like a horrid cat for feeling like this."
Leafbelly, did not look upset at all by my confession, instead she redirected my feelings, "Perhaps it is because you are in love with Freckledwish, and you saw Tornpaw as a rival for her affections since he could be in the medical den and you could not. Do you think?"
I thought about it and nodded, "It is possible. Maplestripe warned me not to continue obsessing over Freckledwish. I guess I failed in that."
"It's to be expected," Leafbelly spoke, "with everything that has happened, you have been Freckledwish's only friend. I am pretty sure she loves you too. My advice to you, is don't let your feelings stew or be unrecognised too long or you might miss out. Freckledwish might harden her heart to you too to function as a medical cat. Could you live with yourself if that happened?"
A movement happened then, and we could see the prey, so we tore down the cliff to the general area of the wallaby and stopped and fell to full hunter mode. Leafbelly went right and I went left. We were lucky and brought the prey down and dragged it back to camp.
When we returned, I was accosted by GreyCloud, "SteelMask! Follow me, we need to talk!"
I followed him out of town and back up the mountain, with what GreyCloud was about to tell me I understood why he took me there, but the way up I was grumbling, "Greycloud, seriously, why are you dragging me back up here? I have been up here already today and I am tired. Do we have to do it today?"
"Yes!" he snapped, "Now shut up and climb, I don't want to hear another winge out of you!"
"Yes SIR!" I meowed sarcastically, but did as he said.
When we were at the summit and could observe everything around us as it was a 360-degree view, he sat down and started grooming himself.
"What is it?" I grumbled, falling down beside him and rolled over exposing my belly, trusting him to protect us both. I was really exhausted having travelled this same gorge twice.
"I don't know how to begin to say this," GreyCloud began, "But I believe MistCloud has run off."
I sat up suddenly, "What? Why would she do that?"
"She said she was in love with CloudCream and that she did not believe he would murder anyone without a very good reason," GreyCloud said.
"What about you?" I asked him, "Do you think the same as her?"
"No," he meowed, "I do not think that. I think there is no good reasons to kill anyone. Beat them silly, yes, but kill, no."
"I am glad to hear that," I said, "Freckledwish would have been devastated to hear you murdered someone or even thought it ok."
"What is it with you and FreckledWish?" GreyCloud asked me, "You sound exactly like MistCloud with her love of CloudCream. Are you sure you do not love her? I know you have always admired her, but has this changed?"
"I don't know," I mewed, "I guess it is possible."
"Well, you better decide," GreyCloud meowed, "What do you think we should do? Should we go after her?"
I shook my head, "No, he was expelled from the clan, if we went after her it is possible, we could be expelled too. Besides which, I am pretty sure she will return if things were hard enough for her."
"Then I'll stay, but I am going to have to start mixing with the other cats, my whole life has been about MistCloud and CloudCream to this point," he mewed, "I can start by hanging out with my mentor again. He's been hassling me for a while now."
We headed back then, and I spent a couple of sleepless nights after that away from FreckledWish. It was then I decided that I did indeed love FreckledWish, and I needed to tell her like Leafbelly had suggested. Now just how was I going to do this?
