WARRIORS // Uprooted

Chapter 2

Leechstone tottered along beside her dam, flicking her triangle tail in the air as if she had a lot to brag about. She lead the charge into the big new world, sun beating down on her little back and shining in her blue amber-flecked eyes. Behind her was Foxstone, her ginger sister with stocky little legs, and in the back was their smallest sister Leopardstone, who was already skeptical about the whole operation. 

She looked up, ready to ask her mother Brindle a question about the stranger padding across the tall stones with something strange and glowing in his mouth. But then she saw how Brindle's eyes were dilated, how her tail flicked and her entire body trembled, and she kept her mouth shut. What's wrong? she wondered innocently, twitching her ears. 

"Hi!"

Leechstone turned around and came face-to-face with a ginger kit with green-flecked blue eyes and a little white chest, bearing a beaming smile on his face.

"Hi," Leechstone replied softly. "Who're you?"

"'M Snailkit," the newcomer mewed. "Wanna play?"

Leechstone looked up at Brindle. "Can I play wi' him, Mommy?"

Brindle was staring at Snailkit, her tail flitting. She took a long, deep breath and turned her head away, whiskers bouncing, and then she replied. "Yes. But be careful."

"Yay! Thank, Mommy!" Leechstone cried out, running forward and tackling her new friend straight into the dusty ground. Snailkit let out a joyful cry and batted her belly with his back paws, mewing in delight and turning around, galloping away with her hot on his tail. 

His strides were just a little longer than hers, and it kept him a rabbit's stride ahead of her. Despite this she doggedly chased him with endless energy, tripping over rocks and sticks and cats' tails. Finally he tried to climb a rock but Leechstone caught him by the rump, pulling him down and biting his hind leg. He let out a squeal and kicked at her, giggling and stumbling away.

"Snailkit!" a voice suddenly barked as a shadow cast over both of them.

Leechstone looked up to see a sleek long-furred queen a little bigger than her mother standing on top of the rocks, hazel eyes narrowed at the youngster.

"What are you doing over here?" She demanded.

"'M playin' wi' my new frien," Snailkit replied, gesturing with a single paw to Leechstone, who felt itchy and scared under the queen's gaze.

"You shouldn't play with Clustercats," she scolded, coming and herding him toward the entrance of the stone ridge that surrounded their dens. "They'll taint you and make you stupid. Come, play your games with Marigoldkit instead."

Snailkit huffed and followed after his mother, gazing back toward Leechstone. "Sorry!" he called out.

"Shush," The queen grunted, nudging the young tom along. "They won't understand, so save them the sorrow."

Leechstone plopped on her rump. Brindle came over in a hurry and started licking her largest daughter all over her face, purring in terror. "Are you okay, my little love? Are you hurt?"

"No, Mommy. Dusty," she reported, sniffing at her fur where the dirt had embedded itself. "Why can' Snailkit play wi' us?"

Brindle looked perturbed by this question, and Leechstone almost felt guilty for it.

"Because they're different than us," Brindle said slowly after a long moment.

"How?" Foxstone asked as she too came up beside Brindle. Leopardstone hung back.

"StarClan made it that way," she said quietly. "I can't-"

"All cats old enough to speak the Truth of the Roots, come to the Tallstone for a Clan Meeting!"

Leechstone turned her head and blinked. Brindle jolted hard and trembled, then stood. "Come on, little ones," she mewed. "It's - it's time you entered a new stage of life."

She padded out of the stone ridge's confinement. Leechstone peered up at the cat standing guard there - it was the same stranger with the strange stuff in their mouth that glowed. As she passed under the glowing thing she felt the heat, and his glittering green gaze. 

Leechkit had never seen so many cats together before in her entire life.

Beyond a large mound of dirt and stone, a massive number of cats had come together, sitting under a huge stone with a flat, sloped top. At the edge of the stone gazing down at the crowd was a tan-colored cat with long, lean legs and green eyes that seemed to pierce every cat in the clearing.

Leechstone followed her mother into one of the two very distinct crowds that had formed - the cats Leechstone already knew well from their visits to her mother's den were sitting further away from the Tallstone than the cats that were total strangers. 

"Cats of RootClan," the queen began, gazing at the unfamiliar cats, "-and Clustercats," she said, looking toward Leechstone's crowd with a sneer, "today three Cluster kits have learned to walk, and thus are ready to begin their life in service to those who protect them from their own ways. This is a day of rejoicing - we are saving the world from one more violent, uncontrollable rogue that lives inside all Cluster cats. It is our humble and holy duty to keep them at bay, and it is their humble and holy duty to serve us in gratitude.

"Leechstone, Foxstone and Leopardstone, show yourselves."

Leechstone felt like the words this strange queen was saying was bad, and at first didn't want to move. But Brindle nudged her backside and she got up, unable to resist the urge of her own dam. She and her siblings slunk to the front of the crowd, and she sunk a little at the feeling of so many eyes on her. She hated that feeling a lot.

"Leechstone will be trained by Dunlin," The tan queen said. "Foxstone will be trained by Juniper, and Leopardstone will be trained by Buzzard." She flicked her tapered tail, which jolted like a whip above her head. "I pray that they will not train these young Stones into savages like their ancestors, and that they will grow up to be Thralls we can all be serviced by and be satisfied by."

Leechstone flicked her tail back and forth as the Clan cats stood up and dispersed. She was left with the distinct taste of nervous confusion in her mouth. She turned around and looked around, noticing two cats talking to each other - a grey-and-white and a dark ginger had their heads pressed close together. Then the bicolor broke off and padded over to Leechstone, with the ginger walking a few strides behind.

"Are you Dunlin?" Leechstone asked, and blinked in confusion when Dunlin only smiled at her. "Don't wanna talk?"

"He can't," The ginger queen - who Leechstone now recognized as her aunt Dipper - said in a gentle tone. "He can't hear you."

"Oh," Leechstone said, though she didn't think she really understood.

"He's deaf," she explained. "So when he's training you, make sure he's looking at you when you speak. Like this." She used her tail to tap Dunlin's ankle and he immediately turned around. "She'll learn," she said, exaggerating the movements of her mouth a little. Dunlin nodded and turned back to Leechstone, lowering his head and using a paw to touch his nose.

"Oh!" Leechstone giggled, reaching up and smacking her nose into his. "This gonna be fun," she said decidedly, trying to exaggerate her mouth like her auntie had. Dunlin tipped his head in confusion, and then laughed and shrugged.

"You'll get the hang of it," he mouthed silently, and gestured for her to follow him.