(Warrior Cats)SmokeTrail's fire

Chapter 22- Flowers And Faith

I sat up to realize that I was almost entirely unscathed. The monster had gone right over my head, but Waterpaw...it ran over his back legs, nd he now lay in a pile of bloody gray fur, yowling and crying. The monster that had hit him stopped on the side of the thunderpath and a twoleg got out.

The group of warriors, Applepaw, and dreamheart stayed put before they ran into the underbrush. They were afraid of twolegs Everyone was. I noticed the twoleg was approaching us, and I stood over waterpaw protectively. I hissed at the twoleg as it tried to touch me. I've learned a lot about two legs from ex-kittypets in the clans and rouges.

I realized with dread, that waterpaw would die if we didn't get help, and this twoleg wasn't going away. I picked up Waterpaw's scruff and dragged him gently over to the twoleg. The twoleg picked up waterpaw very gently, and we were both trapped in the monster.

Waterpaw was laid onto a mound of material in a box. There was another cat in here. I looked around until I spotted another box, a mother and kittens. The mother and kittens were just as friendly and beaten as could be. The queen was awake, and derived her attention from her kits to me.

"Who are You?" She asked. Her voice was gentle, but she was constantly trembling. "Smoketrail. What's wrong? What's your name?" I asked, genuinely curious. The white tabby couldn't have been a kittypet, she was too hurt.

"Orchid...that's My name...and I'm fine, I'm just in a lot of pain right now...I've been almost beaten to death by ruthless humans...they planned to force me to do nothing but have kits. Then they take them, and give them away. I ran away. I had my kittens today...I was found by these humans, and now they are taking me to get me help." The queen meowed. Her blue eyes shimmered.

She stopped trembling, and calmed down, becoming aware that I was covered in blood. "Oh dear, you look horrible...and expecting kittens? You must be very brave..." she murmured. I couldn't help but feel a spark of pride. This cat had been abused, but still she lived on with a litter of four.

Suddenly I felt a jolt as the monster came to a stop. Orchid squeaked in surprise, startled. I hopped into the box she was in, not wanting to bother Waterpaw's crushed legs. Plus they would maybe realized that I was ready to have kits myself rather soon.

I don't remember much about what happened after that. We were healed and taken to a large twoleg den, a whole room to ourselves. It was just me, waterpaw, orchid and her kittens.

Orchid was very friendly. She was becoming more social with us, even comforting waterpaw sometimes. I knew we would have to return home to the clans, but maybe we could take orchid with us. She clearly loved the outside, but she was concerned about her kits. She had a point. She knew the two legs weren't going to keep her kits around, and had already given away one, leaving her with three.

Waterpaw's legs weren't fully healed, but that wouldn't matter. He could rest as much as he wanted to when we got home. During the night, after almost a moon of tasteless food, metallic water, extreme comfort and care, I was just about ready to have the kits, only days away, Orchid told me. I didn't want to have my kits in twolegplace.

I woke everyone up, and we were ready. Orchid herded her clumsy kits to stay close. The window was left open. It would be risky for W aterpaw to jump, but he was simply concerned about getting home. That's all he wanted to do at the time.

The two legs didn't seem to hear us leave the twoleg den, so we walked. We walked all the way to fortrees and rested. We hung out there for a while. I knew it would be a full moon tonight, I was keeping track. I was astonished by what I was greeted with. Shadowclan and windclan coming from the directions of their own clans.

We were going home. For real this time. We were also greeted with many happy faces. And missing ones. Softstar and splitter greeted me with a question I dreaded. "Where do you want to stay?"

I wanted to stay in windclan with my family. But at the same time, I wanted to take Orchid to join shadowclan with her kits. In the end, I chose windclan. Goldeneyes came with me, and my brothers were allowed to join back. I wasn't super happy to leave my friends, but I was giving another cat and kits a chance.

" My name is Orchid. I've lived on my own for a lot of my life. Then I was taken in by twolegs..beaten and bred....I ran away, had kits in the wild, and met smoketrail....it's a long story but I want to stay in the wild..."

Orchidpetal. A beautiful name that soon belonged to a beautiful, sweet she-cat. The kits got along just fine with the clan kits. I guess they would never be able to tell the difference  between themselves and their friends. Thwy were cute little things, clumsy little white and black balls of fluff.

So was faithkit. The journey between almost getting hit by a monster and returning home. Hadn't harmed her at all. She was born without problems, and she was perfectly healthy according to Dreamheart. No blindness, no deafness, no paralysis. She didn't make noise, which gave the impression that she was mute or just really quiet. I didn't mind that, though.

Goldeneyes was pretty happy about it, as surprising as it may seem. Waterpaw healed well, but one thing still torn at my mind. No juniperleaf. She was dead. The day the apprentices brought back the tainted prey, she had been fine, but it soon made her very sick. She had her kits, then died days after.

The kits were fine though, but there was one thing that happened that will always make me smile when I see faithkit.

She looks almost exactly like her father.