| abstract | - "My name is Spiritpaw," he whispered gently, his voice echoing through my ears, as I stared at him, more than a little confused. "You have a Clan name," I noted gently. He nodded, "Yes," he claimed, "We have much to talk about, and plenty of time to talk about it so I see absolutely no reason to rush." I nodded gently, glancing at the two young kits who stood excitedly glancing at the new cat with wide curious eyes. I couldn't help feeling exactly like them. "I think it would be a good idea to do some hunting," he claimed, "No point in telling stories on an empty stomach," his eyes glittered like the stars and he resembled someone I couldn't recognize. I shrugged, gently, "Let's not head towards the Clan though," I claimed, gently, "Let's go hunt by the lake instead. I am afraid of how they will react if we get close to their camp." He nodded, but his eyes were shady, "You will have to head back their soon, Wishpaw, and when you do, it will be much less pleasant than last time." I let his words go for the meanwhile, deciding I would get back to him on that later, as we gently paddled away from the den where the kits had fallen back into a deep sleep. "So you want to hunt around the lake?" he asked me and I nodded. "If you don't mind," I whispered, still not entirely used to being able to express myself to freely, with words and sounds. It felt so free. We gently begin to paddle towards the lake together, not speaking a single word, our silence encasing us, as I slowly began to become aware of what was actually happening. I was meeting the eyes. The eyes... The eyes weren't good though, they were supposed to belong to an evil cat who wanted to hurt me, who was stalking me and following me because they hated me. They should not belong to a kind cat like this. Alarms began to go off in my head as I realized something. Maybe he wasn't the kind cat he claimed to be. Because I have learned, that in my world, nothing was ever as it seemed. An "apprentice" could just as easily be a predator, looking for the proper opportunity to kill me or the kits while we were out hunting. My throat tightened as we continued to walk and I kept my gaze glued onto the strange black tom, trying my hardest not to glare in suspicion. His eyes glowed, even from an angle where they were hard to detect, and I failed to make out the plethora of feelings burrowed into them. He finally stopped walking and sniffed the air for a moment, "We can start hunting now," he claimed, and gently paddled in one direction, while indicating for me to head the other way. I gently began to paddle with slow steps until I was sure that he was a far amount away from where we had split up and rushing back to the den where I had left the kits, my heart pounding quickly, one thought repeating over and over again in my head. Sure, he hadn't done anything to prove I couldn't. But he hadn't done anything to prove that I could either, and he was a very strange cat. Strange usually wasn't a good thing. Just look at my world for a moment, and you might understand exactly why strange bothered me and scared me the way that it did. My paws slammed against the ground, my heart was trying to burst out of my chest, and my mind was beating me up for being so naive. As I finally reached the den, my paws brought me to a stop. They two kits were curled up next to each other, twitching a little, and I realized their dreams must be dark at the moment. No one could blame them. Especially after they just saw their mother die. I swallowed a lump of guilt and betrayal. I still had yet to find out why they had been with their mother, and how long they had been meeting her but I figured I wouldn't be pleased with what I found out. It hardly seemed possible. I gently poked them both, with my clear white paws, and within moments they had jumped to their paws, glancing around with deep worry and fear. I felt a pang of affection for the young kits, who were just one moon old, as they realized that it was just me, and a look of relief entered their eyes. I wasn't like a mother to them, but more of an older sibling, someone to watch over them and make sure that they had a better life than the Clan could offer. And they probably understood that better than ever at the moment. They had just seen a member of their Clan slaughter their mother. I gently flicked my tail at them, at they seemed to understand what I was saying, without needing to make much of a commotion. They quickly lined up behind me, as I led them away from the den we had been living in from a fair amount of time and to a new, unknown one. One where the eyes couldn't find us. The sun was gently setting behind us, as I carried ferns in my jaw, the kits scrambling after me, their eyes wide with excitement while I tried to build a new den. I did feel a little guilty leaving Spiritpaw behind like that, as I soon realized when I kept sniffing the air that no cat was following us, and he had not been planning to steal the kits while I was out hunting. But I didn't regret what I had done. He could still be waiting to hurt the kits, or me. He had been following me for as long as I could possibly remember, and he had haunted my life for so long. It wasn't done before I had set up the den, which was patchy, but not too much different than the one we had left behind near the large tree. As soon as I was done the kits attacked the nests I had set up for them, rolling around while purring at each other. I soon realized that they were talking and felt a small bloom of pride. "You seem to have helped raise them quite well," a voice behind me purred and I whirled around in horror to find Spiritpaw grinning at me, several pieces of prey, which eh must have carried in his jaw, dropped before me feet. "Hey," I squeaked feeling a little nervous. "I thought you would have realized by now that you can't escape me," his eyes glittered a little and I felt my heartbeat increasing, before he gave me a kind blink, "Let's talk, Wishpaw. I can understand your concern and I need to clear up some important facts about your life." I gave the kits a soft glance, as they had now turned to stare at the two of us. I let out a soft sigh, "Alright."
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