Chapter Seven

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    Sunpaw stepped out of the clearing, his heart pounding. Leaving... He was leaving.

    He stopped. Runningpaw wasn't so full of himself, as he thought. He would miss him.

    But would Runningpaw miss Sunpaw...?

    Sunpaw pulled a vine from a nearby tree. He ran his paw down it. The vine caught fire.

    He swiped his paw over it and the fire vanished. The vine was now black. I'm getting good at this.

    He set the now blackened vine down in the middle of the clearing, almost like a snake.

    Remember me, Runningpaw.

    <><><>

    Sunpaw dashed through the forest. Leaving, he was leaving the terrible clans. Life alone in the forest would be great. Nobody to shove him aside, nobody to ignore him.

    But was this really what he wanted? What he wanted was a friend. Somebody to understand him...

He shook his head. He understood himself, and nobody else ever will. And he just wanted to not see all those cats crowding around Runningpaw, somehow praising him that Sunpaw had powers.

He stopped at the border line. There was a field, with some clumps of trees and bushes. It was outside both territories, and he thought he could see an abandoned twoleg nest.

I can live there!

Sunpaw hesitated. He didn't want to burn it down...

But this field was the perfect place. He could practice his powers without burning down the forests again.

He could just live behind the twoleg nest, he decided. His powers weren't like, out of control.

He ran across the field. As he ran, his paws started to warm up.

He slowed down and his paws cooled off. Does that mean he couldn't run without burning anything down?

Only one way to find out.

Sunpaw gradually quickened his speed. His paws warmed up again until they were so hot his paws almost hurt from running.

Suddenly all four of his paws burst into flames. He let out a whoop as he ran across the field. The fire gave him energy to run for a while.

As he arrived at the twoleg nest, he slowed down. The fire on his paws got smaller and smaller until the light flickered dark.

He slipped into the twoleg nest. It was dark.

He swiped his paw in the air. A tiny flicker danced on his paw, illuminating the nest.

The rafters above were just a few boards. The rest must have fallen down. There was a ladder leading up to the rafters, and there was a small area with a little fence. This must have been a barn.

He slipped into the corner after he took away the fire. There was a small pile of hay there.

Sunpaw curled up into a ball.

His first night as a loner.

He would be alone forever, he thought as he drifted into sleep.

But what he didn't know that someone was watching from the rafters.

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