Warriors: FlightClan's Beginning

Chapter Five

An orange tom with soft blue eyes growled softly under his breath. Vex had made sure he was punished for coming back scratched and without much prey. Flame had been demoted by two; Wren and Pop were now ahead of him. Plus, he was starving, but he couldn't eat because he had to wait for everyone else in front of him.

It had been four days since he and Fall had spoken. Flame was surprisingly excited to meet him that night. He had always thought that his life was fine in the rogue group. It wasn't great, of course, because of his constant injuries, but it wasn't bad. He was fed, and he even had some friends; Flash and Bark, who were only trainees, but Flame enjoyed spending time with them. He had always wanted kits, and Flash and Bark filled that role, at least for now.

But Fall made something inside him long for something more. Flame had felt differently when he was around Fall. Even though it had only been for a few moments, Flame couldn't help but feeling free when he had met Fall. He couldn't wait to see him again.

"Flame!" a tom hissed and Flame turned. A brown tabby tom had spoken. He had amber eyes that looked dull and his white ears were almost completely shredded. When Flame stood up, the brown tabby was only as tall as his nose. "It's your turn to eat."

Flame only nodded and Pop lashed his tail and padded away. Flame padded to the prey pile, which was entirely too small. All that was left was a tiny shrew and a fish. Flame had never particularly liked fish, but it wasn't his least favorite prey. He ate the fish in its entirety and then padded off to find Tiger, the next cat in line to eat.

After Flame had spoken with the dark brown tabby, he headed outside of the camp, where he had made his nest. Vex only allowed his most trusted guardians to live inside the camp. Those cats included Fetch, Yarrow, Peck, Fish, and of course Vex himself. Every other cat had to fend for themselves. At least it made it easier for Flame to sneak away at night.

...

The orange tabby woke up a little after dusk, just as he was planning for. He stood up and stretched. It would be a long trip to the Twolegplace.

Flame didn't do much on his trip. He hadn't thought about doing anything. He mostly stared ahead and at the moon to see how much time he had. The orange tom blocked out the sounds around him so he wouldn't be distracted.

It felt like a short time later when he arrived at the Twolegplace.

Flame couldn't see much of Twolegplace from where he was, but he did see a Thunderpath, which he had to cross to get to the Twolegplace. Flame couldn't see or hear any monsters going by. There were hardly any trees around there, which Flame didn't like. He didn't like being out in the open. There was just one tree, but it didn't give Flame nearly enough coverage as he wanted.

Where did we say we would meet? Somewhere around Twolegplace? That's very specific, Fall, thank you. Flame sighed. He would probably want to meet by the cypress tree, but I am pretty early, and I've never gone in to Twolegplace before... Flame decided it couldn't hurt to just check it out a little. He would be back before Fall arrived.

And so, the orange tabby tom crossed the Thunderpath with ease, as no monsters were passing by. As soon as Flame had reached the other side, his nose was bombarded with many new and unknown scents. Some he recognized, such as the scent of kittypets and twolegs. Other scents smelled burnt and charred, and others smelled like monsters, but slightly different. Flame was amazed.

"Wow," he couldn't help but murmur aloud. It was different than anything he had ever seen.

"It certainly is," Flame whipped around as he heard a soft voice behind him. A very fluffy tan tabby she-cat was standing behind him. She was a tannish brown with much darker brown tabby stripes. She had completely white paws and her eyes were a shimmery emerald green. She had a kittypet collar that was covered in dirt, but underneath the dirt it looked like it was pink. A silver bell was attached to the collar. "For a newcomer, anyway."