Warriors// A paw In everyplace

Chapter four (back to the barn with you)

After a few minutes of walking the two she-cats came to the river that Poki swam across to get to the place where she saw the first black tom.

"Okay Poki," Snowrush started off "I think the mud on your fur is a bit too thick for my tongue to be able to clean any time soon. So we're going to be using the river water instead." she mewed with a flick of her tail.

Poki's tail drooped and she curled back her lips and stuck out her tongue a little in distaste. Not at the water but because she was going to end up taking the bath that her brothers wanted her to after all.

But she guessed that it wasn't going to be too bad. At least she'd finally get it out of the way...

"Oh don't be like that." The she cat mewed after seeing Poki's reaction "we can make this quick, I promise."

Poki nodded before padding forward and half jumping, half sliding down into the river. For a moment she was completely submerged under the cool water.

She could feel the flow of the stream trying its best to carry her down stream so she started kicking her legs to keep herself in place.

After a few more seconds Poki opened her eyes under the water. And just looked around for a moment. Everything was pretty peaceful under the river's surface.
It was nice and quiet apart from the faint sound of the water flowing over her head. That and the quiet sound made by her paws churning against the current.

She could have possibly stayed under longer if it wasn't for a new sound that crept its way into her ears.

There was a loud crashing sound like someone had fallen hard into the river...
And for a moment there was silence and then it sounded like the sounds of the river had returned again. But instead of the light murmurings of the river water there was a loud sound of roaring water. With the return of the water's sound came a rush of pure terror that overwhelmed Poki. The fear wasn't hers... it came from somewhere else in her like she was remembering something that she never experienced.

All of these things at once were too much for her Poki gasped out a few air bubbles before quickly pushing herself up to  the surface.

She broke the surface with her head and climbed out of the water. Water streamed from her fur as she caught her breath, taking most of the thick mud away with it to reveal her bicolored fur.

The small kit shook the water and mud off of her fur and cleared her fur off the rest of the way.

Once she stopped shaking she noticed that the sounds of the roaring waters had gone along with the fear she felt. Poki sighed in relief at this. 'What was that..?'  She wondered as she turned to look back at the river. Swimming had never scared her before, why now?

'Whoops, that was my fault.' The echoing male's voice returned from earlier. 'What..?' Poki replied in her head. Before the voice could speak again Snowrush meowed from beside her "you swam like a fish until you started freaking out," she mewed "what happened?"

Poki's amber eyes scanned the ground beneath her paws before looking back up to the white cat. "I really don't know..." she admitted "I was doing fine- but then It's like I started remembering something bad... but I have no idea what it was."
She mewed unsure if it made any sense.

"Hm, maybe you had a past scare in the water or something of that nature." Snowrush guessed before mewing again "I think all of the mud is off now. Your fur will dry soon enough with the sun's help. I'll escort you from here, I'm not sure how Sunclan would react to a little fuzz ball passing through uninvited." She said taking a few steps closer to the river.

"Do all forest cats live in 'clans'?" Poki mewed curiously while looking up at Snowrush.
"We are called clan cats, and no." She answered. "Some belong to a clan, follow the warrior code, and are faithful to Starclan." She started "But there are also rouges, rouges are cats that don't belong to a clan or to twolegs. They're selfish beasts that care only for themselves." She meowed harshly.