Warriors - A New Tale

Chapter twenty

Nuttree walked out of the nursery, warm happiness pouring through her. But suddenly her stomach growled. She had not eaten anything since the evening before. But of course, the Clan had to be fed before the warrior. Nuttree bounded to the exit of the camp, determined to catch something, then to visit Milo. But just before she had exited the camp, she heard someone call her name. "Nuttree, can I talk to you?" Nuttree smelt it was Leopardpaw. She slowly turned around. The apprentice looked depressed. "What's up, Leopardpaw?" She asked the young apprentice. Nuttree was concerned; Leopardpaw was usually pretty happy. Leopardpaw looked down at her paws and fidgeted with them. "I... I don't even know anymore! When I was a kit I thought being an apprentice would be so much fun, but it's not." Her eyes were glazed. "It's not..." she whispered.
Nuttree gave a slow lick on Leopardpaw's right ear. "Alright, I can see you need to talk. Would you like to go somewhere more private?" Leopardpaw nodded, looking deep into Nuttree's eyes. "Can we talk in the forest?"
"Sure"
So they padded through the forest and Leopardpaw started to speak.
"Okay, I guess I'll start with the thing that's not the worst, but still bothers me." She meowed. "I... I was kinda hoping you were gonna be my mentor, Nuttree." Nuttree gave a bashful smile. "Heh... yeah, me too" she mewed. "Darkenedfur's... fine I guess. He's a good teacher, but not a very nice cat."
"Yeah, I can relate"
Leopardpaw nodded slowly. "O-okay, now for the biggie..." she stuttered.
"Cloudkit... it's not fair!" Her eyes started to glaze as she almost yelled out loud. At first, Nuttree wasn't sure what she was talking about. Then she remembered something.
Cloudkit hadn't been made into an apprentice. "What happened with Cloudkit?" Nuttree asked. Leopardpaw looked down. "Everyone says he's blind..." she mewed under her breath. She looked into Nuttree's eyes again. "But he's not!" Nuttree wasn't sure how to respond to that. "Who... who says he's blind?" She questioned.
"Brownpaw, but-"
"GreenClan's medicine cat apprentice. You should probably listen to him."
"No! Cloudkit said he wasn't blind! Are you calling my brother a liar?"
Nuttree didn't say anything back. What was she supposed to say? Leopardpaw took a deep breath. "I'm sorry for yelling, Nuttree. Just no one believes him. I mean, it's him that they're accusing of being blind! Why won't they listen to his opinion about his eyesight?" Nuttree shook his head. "Well Leopardpaw, the fact is he's most likely blind. It's not really a fact of opinions."
Leopardpaw glared at Nuttree. "I thought of all cats, you would understand. I guess not" she meowed, half sad, half angry. Nuttree looked sadly at her. "Come on, bud'. Don't get angry with me"
"Well I am! See you later!" She said, storming back into camp. Nuttree stared after her and sighed sadly. Leopardpaw was witty, she'd realize eventually that she had to listen to her medicine cats.
Nuttree turned around and padded into the forest. She heard the scurry of prey. Maybe hunting would take her mind off of her problems. She took a big sniff. She smelt a rabbit, a pigeon and a squirrel. She chose the pigeon as it was closer to Milo's home; she still really wanted to see him. So she padded quietly to the source of the scent. She started to get a bit nervous as she headed near the fence. Not only because she was more used to hunting under the trees, but also because she was heading near Milo's fence.
Is he waiting for me? She wondered, feeling warm and tingly inside. She shook her head. I'll meet him later. Now it's time to hunt! She sniffed for the pigeon. It was very close. She realized it was almost literally right of her. Stupid! She thought to herself. She crouched down, took a few steps and jumped. Her fangs clumsily sank into the pigeon's body. She put the pigeon down and scraped some dirt over it. Time to visit Milo!
She trotted to the fence and hopped onto it. She saw Milo sitting down and chatting with a white and black cat. Nuttree felt a pang of jealousy until Milo turned his head and beamed up at her. "Nuttree!" He gasped happily. The other tom smiled and looked at her. Milo scurried over to the fence and hopped onto it, then fell off on the other side. Nuttree burst into laughter. The white and black cat chuckled as well. "Leave it to Milo to embarrass himself in front of his crush!"
"Shut up, Tony!" Milo hissed. Nuttree smiled down at Milo and hopped down from the fence next to him. "So," Nuttree mewed, trying to start conversation with him. "Oh, uh..."
Tony hopped onto the fence and hopped off it next to Milo. "Sup" he mewed coolly. Milo smiled at him. "So that's Tony" Milo mewed to her. Nuttree remembered something. "The cat that helped you stalk me? Cool" she meowed, narrowing her eyes. Milo looked down. "Okay, okay! Maybe that was weird, but..."
"Milo only did it 'cause he loves ya" Tony winked. Milo shot an alarmed look at him. Nuttree felt her heart pound and her fur feel hot. Someone loving me? Woah!
Tony smirked at Milo. "Don't act like it's not true, Mr. 'woah! She gets her own breakfast!'"
Milo pounced onto Tony and Nuttree got out of the way. They tumbled around, but Milo was chubbier so Tony easily pinned him. "Oh, so now you want to impress her too? You're only proving my point!"
Milo closed his eyes and looked like he was going to die of embarrassment. "C-come on, T-Tony! Get off of me!"
Nuttree guessed Tony was trying to be funny, but he was just making her uncomfortable. After she thought that thought, he looked at her. "Should I let this cute little guy go?" He asked her. Nuttree nodded. "Yeah, do that."
But he looked down and didn't let him go. "I'll let him go soon enough" he meowed to her. He stared down at Milo. "Admit that you love her! If you don't try, how do you know she won't love you back?" Milo now squirmed under his grip, but Tony unsheathed his claws to keep him down. He chuckled. Nuttree's gut told her that enough was enough.
"Okay, Tony. It's time to stop" She meowed. Tony looked at her and smirked. "You love him, don't you? You want to defend him?"
Even if Nuttree didn't have any feelings at all for Milo, Tony was being a bully and Nuttree needed to stop him! "Get off him, Tony."
Tony chuckled. "You don't get how lucky you are, Nuttree. You can fall in love. You can have kits!"
Nuttree pounced into Tony, slamming him against the fence. Milo scurried away from them both, but not too far away. Tony groaned in pain and Nuttree let him go. Milo looked terrified. "W... what is wrong with you..?" He uttered. Nuttree nuzzled the scared tom. Milo shakily smiled at her.
Tony stood up and chuckled. "Ready to admit your love to each other?" Nuttree glared at him. "Why are you so interested in us, you deviant?!"
Tony- looking embarrassed for once -took a deep breath. "Milo, your housefolk are so kind for so many reasons. One of them being that they didn't take you to the vet. They aren't stopping you from raising a family. Why not taking advantage of that?"
Milo sat up. "Well... I'm not really ready to start a-"
"Nuttree!" Tony meowed, ignoring Milo. "You live in a Clan that supports you! You don't need the housefolk's support! You can raise a family too!"
Suddenly, a Two-leg's angry voice sounded. It yelled "Tonyyyyyyy?!"
Tony chuckled sadly. "See what I mean?" He hopped on the fence. "I'm sorry for this afternoon. I shall make it up to you."
The Two-leg yelled again. "Goodbye" he raced across the fence to his yard, and jumped off.
It was a long moment of silence until someone finally spoke. "So, that was... unexpected" Milo meowed. Nuttree nodded. "Yeah."
"But I guess th-there was... some... some truth in what he... talked about..?" Milo stuttered.
Nuttree looked at him. Did he mean what she thought he meant?
"Uh... that we could... be together?"
Nuttree's heart pounded. Her fur grew hot again. She tried to say something, but her eyes grew wet with tears. Milo looked hopeful.
Nuttree rubbed her eyes with the back of her paw. "You feel like you'd want to be with me?" She asked, trying not to tear up again. Milo looked extremely nervous. "Well... uh... only if you would... I don't know..."
"I... I think I would like that" Nuttree mewed after thinking a while. Obviously the relationship would be a bit hard to keep, considering that Milo was a kittypet and that she was a GreenClan warrior. But Milo was just adorable. And even though Tony was a bit harsh, what he said was right: Nuttree needed to have kits to live on when she'd be gone.
Milo purred. "I... don't know what to say! Just... thank you!"
Nuttree smiled. "You too. But I must go now" she mewed. Milo looked down. "Oh, okay." He looked up. "But... but you'll come back to see me again, won't you?"
Nuttree smiled. "Of course!" She turned around but before she left she meowed "bye, Milo!"

Nuttree arrived back at camp. She had collected the pigeon and was now placing it in the fresh-kill pile. Her mind had been racing with thoughts about Milo before, but now she realized the Clan was quiet and Stormstar was staring down at her. Nuttree swallowed in fear and looked up at her leader. "There you are, Nuttree. You've been gone for so long yet you brought one pigeon? Interesting."
A lot of cats were staring at her. Yellowpaw, Raincloud, Leopardpaw and Mudspeed were some of them. It angered her that her Clan questioned her loyalty until she realized she had just technically broken the Warrior Code...
"Anyway, we may leave now" Stormstar announced. Wait, leave for what? Nuttree wanted to ask; but she didn't want to seem stupid.
She looked around. She spotted Laketoes and Spottedpelt walking side by side. She padded up to them. "Um... excuse me but where are we going?" Laketoes looked at Nuttree. She obviously didn't have the same affection for Nuttree that she did when she was an apprentice. "We are attacking DawnClan" Spottedpelt answered. Nuttree looked down. "Oh..."
"Are you scared to attack your family?" A voice hissed behind her. Nuttree jumped. She smelt that it was Whitestripe who had made the remark. She sighed but said nothing. She smelt Smallbolt walk up next to her. She didn't look at him. "Wait... so you're not my sister?"
Nuttree snapped. "You didn't know that? You're such an idiot!" She glared him in the eye. He jumped back. Nuttree felt guilt tug at her heart. "Wait, no! I didn't mean-"
Smallbolt dashed over to Flameheart and pushed his muzzle into his fur. Nuttree's mind raced. Ah! No! Why would I say that? I'm a jerk and an idiot!
Maybe her eyes had been tearing up, because Sparrowwing looked at her with eyes full of concern. Nuttree quickly turned her gaze to the ground. That didn't stop Sparrowwing from coming over to comfort her.
"Nuttree? Is there something the matter?"
Nuttree kept staring at her paws. "Uh... I'm fine..."
Sparrowwing rested her tail on Nuttree's back. "I know it must be hard for you to attack DawnClan" Sparrowwing mewed. Nuttree turned to look at Sparrowwing. "Is that all you know me for? All anyone knows me for?"
"N-no, that isn't what I-"
"I'm just that she-cat who might be from DawnClan, aren't I?"
Sparrowwing gave a fast shake of the head. "No! Of course not! You're my friend! You're my kits' and mate's friend! As for everyone else, they just don't know who you are yet! They only rely on rumours to figure out who a cat really is."
Nuttree gave a sad smile to the light brown queen. She would've felt better at these warming words, but they were at the DawnClan border. It was time to attack.
"Thank you"