Warriors: Sun and Moon - Into the Town

Chapter 3

  It was dawn, but barely so. The bright, pale light cut through the grey sky but offered no warmth in the chilled morning air. Thankfully, there was not yet any frost.  

Sunpaw sat outside her den, the first to wake up. She had had an unsettling dream about falling from the sky. When she woke, she found her nest to be scattered from her rolling around and flailing all night. She had wondered how she had not woken any of her denmates.  

But now she saw two cats in the camp who were of interest to her. Her heart cringed with envy at the black and white and calico kits yawning while their parents groomed them. They were Bluekit, the tom, and Patchkit, the she-cat. And their mother was Milkpetal, a deaf cat. But their father...oh their father! That was Sunpaw's father, Cloudeye. He was a black tom with white spots, including one around his one blue eye (the other eye was green). He was well-loved by the clan and considered a senior warrior. But Sunpaw didn't love him.

Deciding to approach him, she got to her paws. As she neared, she asked, "Why don't you love me? Is it because I am deaf? Is it because my mother is Oakpool?"

He blinked at her in surprise, glancing at Milkpetal before responding, "Why Sunpaw!" His voice was so soft she had to watch his mouth move, "I love all cats in ThunderClan!"

"Not like you love your mate's kits!" Sunpaw argued, aware for once of her voice raising.

She didn't care who stared.  

He shook his head, "Sunpaw, you don't understand-," but she turned away from him, not wanting to know what he had to say.  

Placing paw after paw on the well-trodden ground, she made her way back to the apprentice den. By now, Riverpaw was sitting outside it.

"Hi!" She called out even though she was close enough to talk more quietly.

He looked to her and placed the paw he had just licked on the ground, "Oh, hey."

Her heart fluttered as his eyes met hers, though it was a brief instant.  

"Would you like to see if we can train together today?" She asked him with both great excitement and nervousness.

He flicked an ear and said, "Uh, sorry, I have an assessment today."

She blinked at him.

He added, "I have to do it alone."

"Oh...," she sighed and scuffed the ground.

But then a voice louder than her own called to her, "Sunpaw!"

Unable to tell by the voice who had spoken, she looked up with great interest. No one ever called out to her, especially for anything good!

But her heart grew angry when she saw the calico, a cat who looked like a cloud with a touch of red and black between her ears and speckled over her body and tail.  

"What do you want, Milkpetal?" Sunpaw asked rudely, though she made sure the queen could see her mouth as she knew the calico's hearing was worse than her own.  

"Cloudeye and I are going out for a walk," she explained, "and we want you to come with us."

Sunpaw looked to her father. He forced a purr that she could almost feel rumbling even across the camp, but he did not look thrilled or enthusiastic in the least.

"Why do you want me to come?" Sunpaw asked.

Milkpetal pulled herself around the apprentice and brushed her cheek to hers, "Because we love you, dear!"

Riverpaw inched away, and looked nervously on. Sunpaw wasn't sure how to react.  

Cloudeye approached, leaving his kits with the chocolate queen who had just emerged with her own kits. "Do you want to come or not?" He inquired.