Blood Red

Meeting

Redford slowly woke up as he felt a warm tongue lick, his face. He was startled to see three unknown cats looming over him. He suddenly stood up and reared back in shock. There was a dark grey she-cat with a white muzzle, paws, tail tip and ears, a light brown she-cat with a russet stripe down her back and dark brown paws, and a dark brown tabby tom with blue eyes and a scar over one forepaw. Redford tried to back up, but ended up falling over on his hind legs and into the floor again. The light brown cat started laughing, but the tabby touched the tip of his tail on her to shut her up.

The dark grey cat started speaking. "Hello. I am Shadestar, and this is my friend Catface and my deputy Clawscar. May I ask what your name is?"

"R-Redford." He replied, shaking. These three cats were very imposing in both size and posture. But suddenly, he thought of the stories that his mother told him. She said that there stories were here since the age of the dawn of Brightclan, from One-eye, the founder. The stories go that somewhere out in the woods, outside the twolegplace, which is where Brightclan currently was, in the forest, there existed many clans, of groups of cats lior Brightclan. They had special naming systems, and these three cats has those type of names. Could they be... The fabled Warrior Cats?

"Uh... May I ask you... Are you three from a forest?"

Shadestar hesitated at the unexpected question. "Yes. Of course." She replied. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh um... Its because where I am from, there are stories of Warrior cats living in a forest. Are you a Warrior cat?"

Shadestar looked quite surprised to be answering the question. "Yes. Well then, if you know about us, where we are you from?"

"This twolegplace. I lived with a group of cats called Brightclan. I heard that we have similar systems to yours."

"Ah. So he really did manage to create the clan. Is one-eye your founder?"

"Yes... Wait... How do you know?"

"He came to our clan to learn the ways of a real clan, so he could free the cats of a twisted leader. I knew him personally, nearly fell in love with him." Shadestar chuckled at the memory. "Oh, he was such a thoughtful cat."

Redford widened his eyes in shock. "But that was hundreds of moons ago! How are you supposed to know him personally?"

"The leaders of a clan are always granted nine lives from our ancestors, so they can live longer than normal cats, and also protect the clan." Shadestars, eyes swept over him. "You look famished. I'll hunt something for you. Claw and Cat, stay here and take care of Redford." Shadestar bounded off, while Clawscar and Catface approached Redford.

"Sooooooo.... I heard you say 'lived' back there... What made you leave your clan?" Catface asked.

Redford sighed. I just didn't fit in... Cats discriminated me because of my one eye. So two days ago, I decided to leave. I felt like an outcast... But now I know that my decision was rash, and I shouldn't have done it so soon. But there's no coming back..."

Catface put a paw on Redfords shoulder. "Hey, little guy. Don't worry, there's so much out there for you! Go, explore, and you'll learn!"

"We came here to study how twolegplace cats live, and we did not expect to find you, or Brightclan. Like what your clan thinks about us, that we are just myths, we all thought Brightclan was just an idea that never came true. We were wrong." Clawscar looked straight ahead, not meeting eyes with the much smaller Redford.

After a while, Shadestar arrived with two sparrows and two mice. She dipped her head apologetically. "Sorry, this was all I found." But before she could finish the sentence, Redford had already gone through half a mouse, and finished eating much earlies than the others. Shadestar, seeing his behavior, pushed her sparrow towards him. "I'm not hungry anyways. Here, take it." Redford looked at Shadestar gratefully and devoured the sparrow. "I see that you are famished, little one. You haven't eaten in days... Do you know how to hunt?" Redford shook his head. "No wonder. Okay then, sleep with us tonight. Tomorrow, I will teach you how to hunt."