A warrior cats story: A Stone in the River of Life

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Stonepaw pushed away his doubts and slid through the sheet of water that covered the cave. With nimble paws, he leaped from stone to stone down the trail to the rocky ground.  Stonepaw had seen Tiger padding out of the cave and by the pool.  He took a deep breath as he saw the striped body of Tiger.  But there was somecat with her.  That cat was Pine.  "Tiger," he mewed, "I really, really like you."  Stonepaw gasped, his muscles tensed and tears sprung from his eyes as Tiger nuzzled Pine.  She murmured something and Stonepaw ran as Pine glanced at him with shock.  He was never going back to the mountains!  Never going to talk to Tiger again!  Never see the soft glory of Pine or the evil sneer of Lark!  Never!  Stonepaw slowed down and collapsed by a tree.  He had ran past the borders and to the forest beyond.  "I don't love you, Tiger!" he screeched.  Stonepaw shook his head to clear away his thoughts and kept running.  His pawsteps were clumsy and weak and so that made running and sobbing all the harder.  "I don't love ANY OF YOU!  You're such mean cats, you dummy dumb mountain fox-dung cats!" Stonepaw cried.

Stonepaw slowly collapsed by a hill.  He had ran all night and his stomach and paws hurt with a burning sensation.  With sleepy eyes, Stonepaw saw the blurry mass of the lake.  He got up and leaped up a nearby tree.  There was not a lot of rustling in the bushes for it was Leaf-fall. Then, he finally heard something shaking beyond the bushes. Stonepaw leaped easily out of the tree and slept with silent paws over to the blueberry bush. But that scent wasn't prey scent, it was cat. Before Stonepaw knew what happened, two cats erupted from the bushes.  One was a brown tabby tom, and the other a black she-cat with one white paw.  Something seemed familiar about them, but Stonepaw couldn't place his paw on it.  Who are you? Stonepaw willed desperately for them to introduce themselves instead of slowly circling around him.  One glanced at the other and they both shared a look of recognition.  Finally, they just leapt at him.  Stonepaw fought them off easily; he never realized how strong he was!  "Looks like we were wrong, this isn't the dopey cat that stole our sister," the black one panted.  The tom shook his head, "Don't be too sure about that."  "Wait, are you Crow and Claw?" so that's where Stonepaw knew them!  They were Tiger's siblings who had attacked him before.  "Who are you?" Claw, the tabby tom, circled him suspiciously.  "I'm Stonepaw, you attacked me before," Stonepaw dipped his head formally.  "So you were the one who captured Tiger!" Crow probably would have clawed his eyes out if Claw hadn't held her back.  "I didn't take her, I wanted to leave her here.  She insisted on coming with me to the mountains," Stonepaw told them.  "I don't believe you," Crow hissed.  Claw led her away behind the bushes to speak with her.  Stonepaw could've escaped but he didn't.  He wanted to hear what they were saying.  With no roar of a waterfall blocking his hearing range, it was easy for Stonepaw to hear Claw murmur, "Obviously this is the cat, but he couldn't have taken on Tiger and won when he was that weak and puny."  Claw and Crow padded back in front of Stonepaw.  "Where is our sister now?" Claw questioned calmly.  "She stayed with a tribe in the mountains when I left.  She is happy there," Stonepaw choked out those last words.  She would've been happy with me, Stonepaw pushed those thoughts out of his head. "You left her there!?" Crow snarled. "She chose to stay," Stonepaw nodded in agreement with himself. "Now I will go," he knew that they wouldn't try to stop them when he beat them so easily just a few minutes ago, but still walking off even farther away from the mountains made Stonepaw ache in the heart.