Bush Cats (A WARRIORS FANFICTION)

Chapter 4

                             ~~~
             a couple of minutes later

By the time I jumped over the fence, I saw Megzy chatting with SquirrelMoon they were both waiting for me so I padded over and sat down. "Ready to go?" SquirrelMoon asked. "Yep!" Megzy and I said in unison. "Alright! I already sent Blacktip and the others back. I told Blacktip to take the usual way back and told him to go to the Medicine den so our medicine cat can take care of his wounds. We are going to take the scenic route. Follow me." She said as she turned towards the bush and flicked her tail in front of her beckoning that it was this way. We walked in the bush for a bit, it was my first time in the bush and it was mind-blowing I loved it one hundred per cent I couldn't stop smiling. The ground was soft under paw, the trees were welcoming, it was comfortably warm, the sun shining through the leaves made the bush even more welcoming and comfortable, and it was full of wonderful smells and sounds all around. SquirrelMoon noticed I was looking around breath taken with a broad smile. She turned around and sat down curling her tail around her paws with a giant Centurion tree behind her which was only native in Australia. "Enjoying our forest." She said cheerfully she must have picked up on my happiness which now that I think about it wouldn't have been hard. "Yep! It's delightful and you live here you're so lucky! This is my first time being in the bush. I mean my parents were born in the bush but I was born on the streets." I pressed my paws against the ground thinking about the fateful day my whole life flipped. SquirrelMoon must have noticed my hurt thinking about my past because she said. "I-I'm so sorry may I ask what happened." She asked carefully. I started to cry thinking about that day and then I just broke down. "You had no right to ask him that you can see he doesn't want to think and talk about it!" Megzy hissed her hackles raising as she stepped in front of me defensively. "Your right, I'm sorry Jacks I shouldn't have asked about your personal life it's not my business. We can take a break here if you want." I looked up slightly. "I'd appreciate that I just need a minute to calm down." I murmured softly "Yep take all the time you need." SquirrelMoon lay down curling up into a small ball and Megzy and I walked over to a small fast-flowing creek. I lay down beside the creek first and looked at my reflection. "You ok?" Megzy whispered I was looking at myself in the fast-flowing water I had heard but hadn't really listened. "Jacks are you alright." She asked again sounding slightly concerned and pawed me softly. I had been thinking deeply and when she pawed me I jumped not realising she had been next to me. "Yeah yeah, I'm fine." I said snapping back to reality with a jump and then calming down seeing as it was just Megzy. and went back to looking at the water, I rested my head on one of my paws looking sad as my reflection constantly shifted in the fast currents. I stuck the paw I was resting on in the water and moved it around softly messing my face up even more, "You're thinking about them aren't you?" Megzy asked guessing correctly. "It's my fault Megs I should've helped!" I whispered fiercely, though it sounded like I was mad at her I really wasn't I was mad at myself. "There's nothing you could have done to stop them. Even if you'd rushed in to help them with the element of surprise and gotten in a couple of good hits pet control employees can't even be fought off by the toughest of cats I should know I had gotten into trouble all the time with pet control employees the gang always said that the only way to avoid them catching you is if you have an owner or you run and got into small places and that's what we did while mocking them of course, but seriously there's nothing you could have done." She said trying to convince me it wasn't my fault but I couldn't help blaming myself for what happened. "Getting caught would have been better than crouching in that box like a coward." I muttered bitterly. "No! It wouldn't you would upset your parents getting yourself into the same situation they were in! And you are no coward your a smart cat Jacks and whoever else tries to tell you otherwise are wrong!" Megzy said sternly "Plus didn't you like meeting me and your adoptive family." she asked slightly wondering if I would rather not have met her. "Of course, I am always going to pick you over someone else or living my life completely different!" I said reassuring her I loved my life. "It's just I wish I would've done something." I said I had brang my paws out of the water by now and I flipped them on their sides to show I truly would have liked to do anything. "Ok Jacks, you may not want to hear this but you need to! You need to stop thinking about what you could have done in the past and start thinking about the present and future it could be truly bright but only if you forget about the past! What's done is done listen to me there's nothing you could have done so just let it go." Megzy had started out sounding stern but ended with a soft and comforting voice and while it stang to hear she was right I had to stop living in the past and start thinking about what was happening now and in the future. I stood up and shook myself looking at Megzy. "You're right, thank you Megzy you got me out of a guilt hole I've been in for a long time, are you ready to go." I said smiling, Megzy stood beside me beaming at me "Anytime!" She said cheerfully and as I looked at her I felt my face go red and as I looked down blushing I felt like I wanted to say something and I needed to say it now. "Hey, Megs I've been meaning to ask for a while now." I padded the ground waiting for Megzy to answer. "What did you want to ask me, if it's battle lessons be warned I won't go easy on you." She got into a small spring position (which had one paw outstretched and the rest just crouched) she said giggling then sat up more seriously. "Was it maybe oh I don't know." She paused to say the second half more quietly. "You like me." "What did you say." I asked a small sly grin creeping along my face had I just heard what I think I heard? "Nothing nothing! I said nothing!" She said her face going red with embarrassment, she hit her face with a paw probably feeling like a total idiot. Megzy was more of a warrior than a normal Lovey Dovey she cat so asking I boy out was unnatural so I just asked for her. "Well, I was hoping maybe you would consider being my mate." I asked hoping she would say yes. She touched her nose to mine and then pulled away and said. "I thought you'd never ask. Come on let's go tell SquirrelMoon we're ready." Megzy said cheerfully then padded quickly off to tell SquirrelMoon we were ready. I chased and then kept pace once we were side by side. "We're ready SquirrelMoon" I cheered, she got up and stretched while letting out a small yawn. "Alright." She said, "How much further do we have to walk is there like a shortcut in the scenic route." I asked. "Actually the shortcut is the scenic route and there's only a couple of metres left to walk but to get there on the scenic route we have to get up this tree." She said and then leapt up to get to a thick sturdy branch close to the top. She got up there within three leaps and Megzy only three and a half. Then it was my turn and I was dreading it I backed up and then ran super swiftly and then leaped up with all my power and dug my claws into the wood hanging on to prove myself to SquirrelMoon, if I fell off I felt like she would think I wasn't cut out for this. I started climbing up and after about 4 minutes of climbing, I reached the branch they were on. Then Megzy pulled me up exhausted "Why are you not just leaping up your tail will support you?" SquirrelMoon asked "Oh um Jacks just had an injury a couple of days ago and it prevented him from exercising it only healed yesterday so his leaping up needs some work and now's not the time that's all." Megzy said quickly. "Oh well when we get to camp after the ceremony I'll introduce you to Orangepaw and Stripepaw they'll show you where a training area for the cats who want to do some training is." SquirrelMoon said happily I had no idea who Orangepaw and Stripepaw were but it didn't matter. "Thank you." I whispered only parts of what she said were true, I did have an injury and I wasn't the best at leaping upwards and this wasn't the time to practise but it hadn't happened a few days ago. What was actually the problem was that half my tail was missing, I wore a prosthetic tail it looked and felt real but it wasn't. What happened was one day I met an older cat and at the time I was very strong and quick almost as much as Megzy but I was also extremely self-absorbed and cocky and I started to brag about it and then he said if all of what I said was true I should fight him to prove it and I accepted his challenge and got too cocky and paid the ultimate price for it. Losing my tail he had bit it off and didn't let up then left me for dead with an evil smile on his face I only survived because of Megzy and my human family but losing my tail made me weak and not able to do anything I could do with my true tail even though it was able to do a couple things like give me balance and wrap around my owners hand as a form of hugging but it would never truly work like my real tail. Since then I vowed I wouldn't be self-absorbed and be nice and pretty selfless. Something amber suddenly caught my eye I turned and saw two amber eyes staring at me. "What the...." I took a large step towards the pair of eyes looking at me forgetting the branch wasn't wide enough to take a large step outwards and I fell over the edge. "Woah!" I snapped back to reality looking down at the ground a thousand feet below falling quickly to the ground. I felt terrified and then I felt a sudden tug on my fur. I looked up to see Megzy smiling at me, I let go of the breath I was holding and smiled gratefully at her. She pulled me back up onto the branch. "Thanks for that and you know my tail." I looked at my tail and twitched it. "Anytime." Megzy said and crouched. She licked my cheek and I purred loudly. "You ok. Did you see something?" SquirrelMoon asked sounding slightly worried. I looked to the branch opposite us where there was a gap in the leaves where I had seen the eyes and saw to my dismay a muddy brown tail wisping away. I was about to call out "Wait who are you" but all evidence of her being there was gone. "There was a cat there." I pointed to the branch where I had seen the eyes. "I'll get Blacktip to check around here later to see if they come back. Shall we keep going we're almost there just a few more paw steps." We nodded and got up and followed SquirrelMoon as we got closer to what looked like a fallen in part of the branch and ahead of it a steep drop I could hear various mews up ahead. I lifted my head and opened my mouth slightly and sniffed. I smiled as I smelt so many different cat scents some young some older some just as old as us. I smiled and looked to Megzy who smiled right back. We leaped over where the branch had broken into two but was still connected to the branch we had been walking along. After we jumped we could clearly see the branch have a steep drop straight down SquirrelMoon sat right by where the branch stopped. The mews were very clear now. "Well, here we I'll meet you down there." SquirrelMoon then jumped off the branch, Megzy and I looked down the branch to see SquirrelMoon pulling herself out of a pool at the bottom she shook herself shaking off almost all the water from her pelt and padded off. There were at least 22 adult cats and 5 kittens down there and I was finally ready to jump. Megzy leaped off the branch in one swift clean movement and then I leaped but then my tail got snagged on a small branch that gave way once I was no longer on the branch. I collided with Megzy accidentally, not being able to see where I was going. Suddenly we could see a glimpse of the water we both took a deep breath before we hit the water I closed my eyes and once the water felt steady I opened my eyes it was pretty dark. I started to panic I didn't know which way was up and I couldn't hold my breath for much longer. Suddenly I saw my locket float off. "No!" I yelped with my mouth still closed. Then all of a sudden I felt something close around my scruff and pull me which I could only assume was up. I started to worry if Megzy was alright after all I couldn't see anything so what if she wasn't ok. Then my locket floated by again I wriggled free and swam towards it I put both paws around it and then put it back around my neck. I swam what I could only assume was up because that was the way I was being pulled before. As I started to feel rather exhausted and feel like I couldn't go on anymore I opened my mouth and let my eyes slowly close then all of a sudden I felt a rush of water behind me and something grabbed my scruff and we started to ascend very quickly and then we broke the surface. I gasped for air and coughed up water spluttering as I was dragged rather forcefully onto dry land. "Stripepaw he could of drowned!" I heard someone say softly I think it was because I had almost drowned as I lay there on the soft ground still spluttering up water. "I know but he kicked me away and went back for that thing around his neck I think he values it and he didn't drown I did save him." The voices were a little more clear now and I looked up weakly to see a solid ginger she-cat and a tabby or mackerel and then I looked further down to see Megzy still soaking wet pacing back and forth. She looked up and saw me and quickly ran to me and started to groom me affectionately. "Thank you." I said to the to the cats above us. "Don't mention it." The solid ginger she-cat and for a minute I thought I saw her blushing. I shook it off I was probably imagining it plus I already had a mate. I began to stand up weakly but I was able to keep myself standing. "Who are you?" I asked curiously. "Oh right sorry, I'm Orangepaw and this is my best friend Stripepaw!" Orangepaw said excitedly. "Nice to meet you! We always like newcomers!" Stripepaw said excitedly. I exchanged a glance with Megzy and I could tell she was thinking the same thing. We going to love our new lives and our new home.