Thistle's Mistake

Chapter one

Thistle looked down at his food dish. It had been empty for the past three days, which was the last time he saw his house folk. Why did they take Bailey and not me? Thistle asked himself. The den that his house folk, Bailey and Thistle has lived in was striped from it's normal items. I'm going to go hunt. Thistle told himself. That was one of the many thing Bailey had taught him. Just about everything that he knew came from that cat.

Thistle padded to the clear wall and pushed himself through the flap. He blinked quickly until his eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight. He gave one more glance at his old den. They're not coming back, are they. Thistle told himself as he jumped up on the fence. With a sigh, he jumped off. His collar made that same sound when he landed. The sound drove him crazy. Thistle was only about six moons old, left to defend himself in the dangerous forest. Thistle padded into the forest. Something just seemed to spark his interest about it. Why is the forest so welcoming?

The grey tabby tom padded further into the woods. He tried smelling for some type of prey as his belly grumbled. He padded on faster, unsure of where he was going to show up at. For some reason, a name had stuck with him ever since he could remember. Crow, why do I think I know it, like Crow was a cat? He once again tried to picture where he had heard the name before, but nothing seemed to show up. Thistle stoped dead in his tracks as he caught a faint scent of a mouse. He did his best to track it down, and keep his collar quiet. He managed to find the grey mouse eating something on a tree stump covered in moss and various types of plants surrounding it.

Thistle stalked up to the stump, his collar making a faint noise with every step. He came pretty close to it, only a tail length to the stump from his nose. He gave his hunches a slight wiggle, causing his collar to make that dreaded noise. The mouse stoped and looked at Thistle with black eyes before jumping into the dying undergrowth. Leaf-fall was coming, prey would probably becoming scarce.

Thistle's sigh was broke off as he heard a flump onto the ground. Curious, Thistle crept around the stump. He saw a fluffy calico tail happily swish in the air.
"Hello?" Thistle quietly asked the cat. Right after he had said something, The she-cat's head sprung up, holding the mouse in her mouth.
"Oh, was this your's?" The she-cat dropped the mouse.
"I was stalking it, but I spooked it then you caught it." Thistle explained to the cat.
"You can have it, are you a kittypet?" The cat threw the mouse at Thistle.
"What's a kittypet? Oh, and thank you." Thistle crouched down and quickly ate the mouse.
"You live with twolegs, right?" She must mean house folk.
"Yeah, I did I guess you'd say." The she-cat turned around, she flicked her tail, calling Thistle to follow her.
"I'm guessing they left without you then. Im Nutmeg, by the way."
"I'm Thistle, and your right about my house folk, or twolegs as you call them."

"Do you have a home?" Nutmeg asked, her eyes beaming with curiosity. Thistle shook his head, looking down at the ground.
"You can live with me." Thistle looked up at Nutmeg, she looked sincere.
"Are you sure? If I'll be a problem I-." Nutmeg cut him off.
"No, of course not! And I'm sure Birch won't care." Birch, I've heard that before.
"Thank you." Thistle purred.
"If you need anything, just let me know. I'll be happy to help."

Thistle followed Nutmeg into a dusty clearing, dens made of bushes scattered around it. Few cats where scattered around. A beat up tan she-cat what hissing something to two grey tabby's and a brown tabby. The tan cat walked up to Nutmeg and Thistle.
"Who is this, Nutmeg?" The cat's tone was stern as she glanced at Thistle.
"I just met him, his name is Thistle. I was wondering if you'll let him stay." Nutmeg asked.
"Thistle," The cat repeated his name a few times before continuing. "I think we can do something, but he'll have to do as I say." Thistle watched as a gin spread across the cat's face.

"Thanks Birch! Come on Thistle, I'll show you around." Nutmeg bounced to the other side of the clearing. "This is Birch's den, but don't go in there unless she tells you to, I learned that the hard way." Thistle nodded and tried to peer into the stone den but couldn't see anything. Nutmeg trotted over to another bunch of dens, some made of honeysuckle, brambles or various vines and other bushes.
"This is Raven's, Bramble and Rain's, and Pine's dens." Nutmeg pointed to three of the dens.
"How am I going to remember all of these names!" Thistle looked at the rest of the dens.
"Don't worry, I don't know a lot of cats either. Say, how about we build a den for you, next to mine?" Thistle nodded and followed the calico cat to the other side of camp, then into the woods behind it.

"What do you want it to be made of?" Nutmeg looked at him curiously.
"I really don't know, something warm I guess." Nutmeg looked around before darting into the woods. Thistle bolted after her, getting so close before nearly falling away from her. Thistle winced every time his collar made that noise. Thistle opened his mouth slightly, trying to find out where Nutmeg was. She disappeared? Thistle couldn't smell her anymore.

"Nutmeg?" Thistle looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of her pelt. After looking around for a moment, he was throw to the ground, a surprised snarl coming from his mouth. He looked over to see who it was, but a paw held his head down. A small chuckle told him who it was.
"Nutmeg can you get off of me?" Thistle tried to look up at the She-cat, but couldn't quite She her.
"Na, fighting seems better than finding stuff. We still got half a day left, so let's make the best of it." Nutmeg still stood on top of Thistle. He searched through all of Bailey's and Thistle's fights for what to do. The first thing that came to his mind was to roll over. He leaned forward, quickly shifting his weight behind him, throwing Nutmeg off balance. Almost immediately he kicked his back legs at Nutmeg's belly, sending her flying.

"You'll never defeat me!" Thistle called as he flipped Crow onto his belly before looming over him.
"Are you sure about that?" Crow called before kicking Thistle in his belly, sending him flying towards the ravine. He landed a Fox-length away from it's depths without realizing how close he was to it. He tried to get up before Crow landed on him again. Thistle batted at the black kit's muzzle before kicking Crow off of him.

"Thistle?" Nutmeg broke him from his memory.
"Yeah?" Thistle tilted his head sideways with confusion, hopping that she didn't ask anything while he was day dreaming.
"Are you okay? You just blanked out for a moment." Thistle quickly nodded his head before pushing Nutmeg off of him. Thistle rolled over, pushing himself to his feet. He loomed over top of Nutmeg.