Chapter Text
New Game
"You'll regret not listening to me, you soft kitty!"
Rainy woke up in the grass, breathing heavily. It took him a moment to notice he was still in his twolegs' yard, after deciding to take a nap outside. Just a nightmare he thought to himself, already starting to forget what he was scared of. He started to groom his blue-gray pelt, while thinking about the dream. I think Brute was attacking me in it? Recently, there had been a gang led by Brute who had been bullying him and his friends.
He noticed his friend Mikan, who was sitting on his fence next door. "Hey Mikan!" he called out to the orange tom with a green bow around his neck.
"こんにちは、虹." Mikan said, jumping down and then noticing the confused look on Rainy's face. "Oops sorry, you won't understand that. Hi Rainbow, how are you?" Mikan corrected himself to a meow.
"I've been okay, but I did just have a bad dream about Brute attacking me." Rainy mewed.
Mikan seemed to be frightened at the mention of Brute. "Oh, that's too bad. I've been hiding from Brute ever since I saw what he did to Oreo." he meowed. "I probably would've had a nightmare last night if I hadn't stayed up late drinking."
Rainy was curious about this, "Oh, did drinking more water help?" he asked.
"Nope, hard liquor!" Mikan replied. Rainy gave him another confused look. "Don't try it, you're too young. My twolegs told me that cats shouldn't even be drinking it, but they do a bad job of locking the cabinet they keep it in."
Oh right, the mysterious poisonous substance that Mikan keeps drinking.
Their conversation was interrupted by a shout heard not too far away. Mikan bolted at the sound. Oh no. Rainy jumped up on his fence to investigate, and was not surprised to find the large dark-brown tom glaring at him. Of course it's Brute.
Brute shook the fence as he jumped up next to him. "Your time is up, kitty! This is my territory now!" Brute growled. "Unless you want to get a beating like Karma did, I suggest you run away!" Rainy bristled. Karma too? He remembered Karma as the only one of Mikan's friends who never made fun of him. What did he do to deserve getting hurt?
"You can't keep bullying us around! This is my home!" Rainy hissed. He then saw a powerful swat coming at him, so he dodged it by jumping off the fence. "Jumping" was a generous word as it was more of a tumble.
Brute laughed at this. "Run away, kit. I'll kill you if you come back here, understand?"
Rainy considered trying to fight him, but he didn't want to make his nightmare a reality. Not knowing where to go, Rainy bolted into the forest. Maybe I'll run into those forest cats. They can't be as bad as Brute, right? He's heard stories from Lily, but he wasn't sure how many of them were true. All he knew for sure was that they helped her.
After Rainy was far enough away from Brute. He stopped to take a breath. I didn't even get to properly say goodbye to Mikan. He thought solemnly. He took notice of his surroundings and noticed how pretty everything was around him. The green grass, and the white and blue flowers looked so nice. There were also a lot of forest smells around him he didn't recognize, and a strong cat scent around him that he didn't notice at first.
"You are trespassing on ThunderClan territory." meowed a gruff voice. Rainy turned around to see a red muscular tom with yellow eyes, and with him was an amber she-cat with green eyes.
That's what that scent was. Rainy thought. "Are you the Clan cats that live around the lake? I need your help! I've been forced out of my home and I need a place to live!" Rainy pleaded.
"Foxclaw, we should take him to Briarstar." The amber she-cat meowed. "We can't guarantee that you'll be able to join us but we can take you to our leader."
"I am your deputy, Amberflame. I should decide if we take in strays." Foxclaw meowed. "However, yes we can at least take him to Briarstar. Though I think he'd be unwilling to take in another kittypet after what happened with Robinbreeze." There were a lot of names being thrown around, but Rainy did understand that he was talking to Foxclaw and Amberflame. How many of them are there? He wondered.
Amberflame nodded and started leading them away. "Alright then, you can come with us to camp." Amberflame told Rainy. "What's your name?" she asked.
"Rainy" he replied. "Sometimes my twolegs call me Rain-rain or Rainbow or something similar. They change it up a lot. They found me in a rainstorm."
Foxclaw snorted. "Rainy then. We didn't need to know all of that. If you do end up joining us, you'll end up with a new name anyways." At least I'm used to different variations of my name, then.
As they wandered through the forest, Rainy noticed a very large tree that they walked past. Wow, that oak is so tall and ancient, it looks like it's touching the sky! He stopped for a moment to admire it, before realizing the others were still walking ahead. He caught back up to Foxclaw and Amberflame. "Where is the camp, exactly?" he asked.
"It's over there in that hollow." Amberflame replied, pointing her tail in that direction. "The stone walls provide good protection and the one entrance is easy to guard."
He peered his head and saw the camp in the hollow they were walking around. As they approached, Rainy saw the one entrance and a brown she-cat and a handsome ginger tom were sitting outside it, presumably guarding the camp. He gave a polite nod to them and walked past, following Foxclaw, who walked in to call Briarstar's name
An elderly brown tom appeared from the very tall rock and Foxclaw jumped up to tell him exactly what happened. Briarstar, seemingly the leader, yowled to call all of the cats in the camp to gather around. There are so many of them! The leader looked at Rainy. "You stand in the camp of ThunderClan. Explain, what brings you here?" Briarstar inquired.
Rainy felt nervous around such a large group of cats. "Cats have forced me out of my home-" he started. What do I need from them? Foxclaw didn't make it seem like they were too keen on just helping outsiders. "I-I was wondering if I could join you, and maybe learn how to live in the wild."
Briarstar looked down from the rock he was standing on. "This is not a simple ask, kittypet. If you were to join us, we would have to spend moons training you to hunt and fight. How are we supposed to trust that you won't abandon us for your twolegs when we need you guarding camp during a battle?" Briarstar asked. That seemed like a weirdly specific example.
Before Rainy could reply, a young black tom ran out and looked up with big amber eyes at Briarstar. "We have to let him join us! What about Firestar? This could be the next great ThunderClan leader we're dealing with."
The old tom growled "Duskpaw, not every kittypet is going to be like Firestar in those stories from seasons and seasons ago. We don't need another great leader, are you unsatisfied with me or Foxclaw's leadership qualities?" Duskpaw stepped back at these words.
A black she-cat with a white underbelly spoke up next to where Rainy was sitting. "Duskpaw has a point, we can't really judge him just because of where he came from." she meowed in a soft voice. "We should give him a chance to prove himself."
A few other cats murmured in agreement. Briarstar seemed to listen. "Very well then Ravenwing, it seems he has the support of some cats in the Clan, and that's enough for me." He looked down at Rainy. "If you do truly wish to join us, then you must understand that the Clan requires your complete obedience, and you must follow the Warrior Code. Do you want to join ThunderClan?"
Rainy thought about this for a moment. What other choice do I even have? "I do" he responded.
"Very well. From this day forward, until you earn your warrior name, you will be known as Rainpaw. I will assign you a mentor to guide you tomorrow. Duskpaw, show Rainpaw the apprentices den." He signaled to the fluffy black tom who spoke up earlier. "This Clan meeting is dismissed." Briarstar jumped down from the ledge, landing right in front of Rainpaw with a thud. "...Ouch." he meowed in pain. That's quite the height to jump down from. I think I heard a bone crack. It seemed like Briarstar was about to say something, but he just turned over to Foxclaw instead and acted like nothing happened. I guess cats do have nine lives.
Before talking to Duskpaw, Rainpaw decided to thank the she-cat that stood up for him. "Thank you for what you said during the meeting. I don't think I would've been able to stay if it wasn't for you." He meowed to the black she-cat with purple eyes. They can be purple? Huh.
The cat turned to him. "Of course dear. Everyone deserves a chance. I'm sure when you get a good mentor you'll adapt well. Everything will be fine." She mewed.
"I think you'd be a good mentor! Whatever that is. It feels like everyone else just glares at me like there's something wrong with me. You and um, Duskpaw at least stood up for me." Rainpaw meowed.
She frowned at that statement "Well maybe I can talk to Briarstar about that. Some of the other cats aren't that fond of cats like you, but I'd be happy to be your mentor! Hey, why don't you talk to Duskpaw, who's practically jumping up and down over there?" She meowed softly, before wandering off.
Walking past a few other intimidating toms, Rainpaw made his way over to Duskpaw, who greeted him happily. "Hey!" he meowed right in Rainpaw's face. "Welcome to ThunderClan! I'm Duskpaw, let me show you the apprentices' den and introduce you to everyone!" He ran and crashed through the entrance of the den, scattering some loose twigs and brambles. I think my twolegs call that the zoomies.
Rainpaw followed him into the den, and saw two she-cats in there. The black and white one with yellow eyes growled at him. "Hey Duskpaw, were you trying to make a second entrance to the den for our new friend? I don't want to get a cough worse than my Kestrelpaw's when leaf-bare comes around!" She rested her head back down in her nest.
The brown tabby she-cat got up. "No he's just making the opening bigger so he can get through without any brambles scratching his pelt. Despite the fact that he covered himself with brambles in the process. Are you practicing a new move like I am? Bramble Tackle?" She teased.
Duskpaw shook off his pelt. "No, I was just excited that we have a new apprentice. Everyone, meet Rainpaw! he yowled to the two cats in the den.
The brown she-cat scoffed. "Yes, we saw the meeting." She looked over at Rainpaw with her green eyes. "I'm Nettlepaw. Grumpy over there is Badgerpaw. Her brother Kestrelpaw is in the medicine cat den."
Badgerpaw sat back up and glared at Nettlepaw. "Hey! You're more grumpy than I am!" she protested.
"Yes, well I have to be since I'm the oldest. Though we probably both get it from Mosstail being our grandpaw." Nettlepaw meowed casually.
Rainpaw was still taking a moment to process all of the names that were being thrown around. Though from what he knew, these cats seemed to be training as well. He was glad he had cats his age he could live with and maybe become friends with.
He heard a cough behind him and turned around to see another apprentice enter the den. It was a light-brown tabby tom with green eyes. 'Hi there, Rainpaw! I'm Kestrelpaw. It's good to meet you." he meowed somewhat formally, before breaking into a cough. Badgerpaw's brother? Kestrelpaw stopped coughing and spoke up again "I'll be sleeping in the medicine cat den since Blackheart has to watch over me, so you can sleep in my nest for tonight!" He turned around and left the den.
"Will I get sick?" Rainpaw asked, looking around.
Nettlepaw replied. "What, in general? Probably. Though because of Kestrelpaw? No, his illness isn't contagious. He's had it since he was a kit, and none of us have caught it. You can sleep in his nest as much as you want. However I imagine Kestrelpaw will have a problem with that when he recovers. Anyways, welcome to ThunderClan!" she smiled at him, before returning to her nest.
Rainpaw settles into Kestrelpaw's nest, noticing that it also smells like herbs. He thought about how his life changed so much in one day. Getting kicked out, finding and joining ThunderClan, and meeting so many new cats. He was completely drained. Surely it can't get more eventful than this, right?
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