Legacy (Book 1)

Chapter 28: Respect Is Key

Chapter 28: Respect Is Key

"Time for training," the sharp voice woke Rainstone from her dreaming and she jumped to her paws, ducking just in time to avoid banging her head on the rock ceiling of the round hole of a den.

She looked blearily out the hole and saw a young black face, the young she-cat from last night. The she-cat's face was framed by the soft gray light before dawn and her fur looked fuzzy, like that of a little kitten. Her eyes, however, dark hazel, glimmered with unreadable emotions.

"Oh, uh, right," Rainstone muttered, stretching and carefully slipping out of the hole that sloped steeply to the ground.

The she-cat led her over to the trail she had descended yesterday to enter the camp, and sat down, obviously waiting for someone. "What's your name?" Rainstone asked after a tense silence.

"Soot," the cat answered curtly.

Rainstone twitched her whiskers; usually young cats were much brighter than that. "So, how did you come to join Nightwing?" she asked, attempting to strike up a conversation.

"I was a kit, alone, and he helped me," Soot mewed, her voice remote and Rainstone felt a pang of pain. They treat themselves like a Clan but they are hardly friendly with each other, they're doomed to fail.

"Bet Nightwing's idea sounded like an easy way to life," Rainstone mewed slyly.

"Oh, what do you know? You don't know what it's like to be rejected by your family and cast out on your own, hardly able to hunt for yourself," Soot snapped, her fur bristling.

Rainstone swallowed hard against the lump of sad misery of memory that flowed through her. "Don't play the martyr, ever cat has to deal with their own problems," Rainstone mewed firmly. Soot huffed and looked away.

"Who are we waiting for?" Rainstone asked after a while. The sun was coming over the horizon and glancing off the rock surrounding the hollow, making it shine like gold dust.

"Coal is coming with Jet, and Nightwing will supervise," Soot mewed curtly.

"Well, where are they?" Rainstone muttered, scratching her ear with a hind-paw.

"You shouldn't be so impatient," Soot scolded.

"Yeah, whatever, they shouldn't wake me up so early then," Rainstone yawned.

"You won't make it long here, Pepper," Soot muttered.

"Not that your attitude is any better," Rainstone scorned.

"Maybe not, but at least I know how to be respectful," Soot snapped.

Rainstone blinked slowly. Did she have respect? She'd never had any reason to respect anyone. All the toms had treated her horribly and then she mostly just had her family whom she loved, which was different from respect.

When she thought of someone deserving her respect she thought of Sunstar and Flickertail, the cats that had helped a stranger like her and cared for her. Did she have to respect other cats? Why? What had they done to earn her respect?

She decided to ask, "Why should I respect a cat I don't know?" she asked, frowning in quiet confusion.

Soot frowned as well and shrugged, "Like you said, other cats have lives as well, and they deal with difficulties and have made their own accomplishments. I'm not saying you have to respect every cat, but a certain measure of respect is due to most cats," Soot mewed, sounding older then the young fluffy face portrayed.

Rainstone contemplated on that for a few moments. "I guess that makes sense, but I refuse to respect Felix," she added quickly. Soot gave a small laugh and murmur of agreement, and then three cats were heading toward them.