Ravenpaw's farewell

The leafless season was over, the snow had melted away, the days were getting longer and the bushes were growing greener.

Ravenpaw's shoulder had healed, and he and Barry were out hunting again, wandering the meadows at dusk, watching the great brown and white owls whizzing by.

One day towards evening, when they were still fully enjoying the warmest sunshine of the day, a vague cry from afar startled them.

"Barry! Ravenpaw!"

Ravenpaw looked around.The call seemed to come from a distant fence.He crouched down and paced the edge of the grass, tasting the air with his mouth.There are several cats ahead.The smell of milk is dry, and the smell of pet cats...

"It's us!" Two furry figures jumped out from behind the hedge, one light orange and the other a dove gray tabby.

Ravenpaw blinked in surprise. "Riley? Bella? What are you doing here?" A taller figure was behind them. "They insisted on coming to see you," Violet explained, but with a strange voice: "I hope you don't mind."

Barry jumped forward and touched noses with his sister. "Mind? Not at all! It's great to see you!" He looked at Riley and Bella who were sniffing the long grass, "But...the last time I saw them there were several of them?"

Violet's eyes were clouded. "Lulu and Spot have gone to their new home." She blinked. "But we can still see them sometimes, and they are very comfortable. At least I know they are together."

Bella jumped in front of Ravenpaw.She had grown a lot since the last time we met; her head had reached his shoulders.She is taller and slimmer than her brother, and her chin is very pointed, which seems to imply her integrity.Riley still retains some vestiges from his pup days, but he now has broad shoulders and muscular legs.

"Can we go to the farm?" Bella begged. "It's a long way to come here. I just want to catch a mouse!"

"I'm starving!" Riley meowed.

"Of course you can," Barry snorted. "You can stay as long as you want. We have plenty of food, a hotbed for you to sleep in."

Violet snorted. "That's fine; we won't disturb you for more than one night. I don't want our Twolegs to worry too much."

They walked to the barn together, Riley and Bella running ahead, stopping to look at new things.When they saw the cow for the first time, their eyes were as big as copper bells, and Ravenpaw couldn't help laughing at the sight.

"So big!" Bella gasped.

"Are you sure it's friendly?" Riley whispered, eyeing the animal at one end of the pasture.

"Well, it doesn't want to talk to you," Ravenpaw said, "but I'm pretty sure they don't eat cats either. What do you think, Barry?"

The black-and-white tom pretended to think for a while. "I remember once your tail was almost pulled off..." he meowed.

"What?" Violet screamed.

"That's amazing!" Bella meowed. "Tell us about it, Ravenpaw! You beat the cow with samurai skills?"

Violet looked a little excited. "Sorry, they're a bit obsessed with stories of forest-dwelling Clans in the past. There's a pet cat that loves to talk about them—I think you've seen that before. Sma. Thick black and white, right?"

Ravenpaw nodded, the memory springing up again like a fountain. "Yes, he was a friend of Firestar's before he joined ThunderClan."

"We want to join ThunderClan too!" Riley announced, "We're brave, we can fight, and I can get close to Bella without knowing it!"

"Me too!" Bella snorted, "Your voice is as loud as... like..." A dog barking cut through the air, making the cats jump.

"Like a dog!" Bella announced.

Violet crouches, ready to run, but Barry puts his tail on her shoulders: "It's all right; they're well harnessed. They just like the sound they make."

The dogs didn't stop until the Twolegs came out of the red house.

"Come on, let me show you our barn." Ravenpaw meowed. When the cubs saw the huge wooden nest for the first time, their eyes were wide open and they were silent.Almost all the hay was gone, and the farthest ends of the barn were covered in shadow.

Violet shivered: "It's a little scary here."

Barry snorted, "Don't worry; you'll be safe with us. These vicious rats won't do anything wrong while we're here."

"Vicious?" Bella repeated, seeming pleased.

"Not all of them," said Ravenpaw, "but they are sometimes hard to catch. Want to watch me hunt?"

"Yeah!" Riley and Bella meowed.

"I'll show you our nest." Barry said to Violet.

"You can rest here for a while, Ravenpaw will find you something to eat."

Ravenpaw led the children to the back of the barn, where the shadows were so thick that he could almost feel them pressing down on him.The two young cats tried not to make a sound; Bella's footsteps were very light, and Riley did a better job than Ravenpaw had imagined.The smell of rats wafted through the air.Ravenpaw found a fresh scent and followed it around the corner.

"Stand still," he whispered to Riley and Bella.He crouches into a hunting stance and sneaks up to the little hole where the rat smell is strongest.His recently injured shoulder wasn't fully healed, so he spread the weight over his other three legs.Subtle sounds can be heard within earshot.A pointed nose appeared, its whiskers twitching.After a while, the mouse came out of the cave.Ravenpaw swooped in and snapped its neck.Thank StarClan for giving me this prey, he thought.

"What are you talking about?" Riley asked.He tiptoed and stretched his neck to see if Crow Claw had caught it.

Ravenpaw stood up with the mouse in his mouth.He didn't realize it was so loud.He couldn't remember the last time he thanked StarClan. "Nothing," he meowed, "do you want to take it back?"

Riley and Bella jumped up excitedly and dragged the mouse to the haystack.Violet looked surprised.

"You caught it?"

Bella put down the mouse. "No," she gasped, "but we watched Ravenpaw hunt! How clever he is!"

"He hunts like a real warrior!" Riley declared.

Ravenpaw snorted playfully.Has this pet cat ever seen a samurai hunt?

"Beautiful hunting." Barry commented.

"When I become a warrior, I will hunt with Ravenpaw," Bella shrieked.

"Stop it, Bella." Violet sighed, "There won't be any more warriors here, remember?" She glanced at Ravenpaw, "I know you used to be, of course, you're not anymore ,Right?"

Ravenpaw shook his head: "Well, well, I'm not a warrior."

Riley's eyes lit up. "But that doesn't mean we can't be warriors! You can train us, Ravenpaw! We work hard, I swear!"

Bella nodded: "We listen to you in everything, practicing fighting skills and hunting moves. We don't even care about being a dawn patrol!"

Ravenpaw blinked. "Wow. Sma told you so much."

"Oh, yes," Riley meowed. "He said we could be warriors like Mars."

"But ThunderClan is gone." Violet joined in: "Sma has no right to encourage these daydreams. I don't care about your hunting and fighting, as long as you don't get hurt. But you are going to be sent to good families. There's nothing wrong with pet cats, like me."

But there is something wrong here!Ravenpaw found himself wanting to answer.Why does every cat have to be a pet cat when they can survive alone in the wild, hunt for themselves, keep themselves safe, and not be tied down to a twoleg den?

Barry was stacking several pieces of hay.

"Come on, you should eat the mouse while it's still warm. Sleep with us tonight."

"We left at dawn," Violet meowed meanly. "We gotta get back before the Twolegs think we're gone forever."

"But we don't want to go home," Bella whispered.

"It's your home, not ours," Riley complained. "We want to be warriors!"