Territories - Book 1 - The Strength of the Clan (By: Dawnbreaking)

== Prologue ==
“Get him! Go on, get’em!”
“Come on, Cometpelt! You can do it!”
“Russetfur,  grab her prey! It’ll be easy! She’s a queen!”
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Cometpelt glared at her opponent. His fur, true to his name, was a russet color, but it almost looked silver in the moonlight. He had long, nasty claws and wickedly sharp  and yellow teeth.
I’m supposed to beat that? Cometpelt wondered.
Suddenly, Russetfur grinned, and took a swipe at Cometpelt’s eyes. If she hadn’t ducked and rolled, she would now be blind.
He doesn’t care how I leave this battle, Cometpelt realized. He only cares if he gets my food!
Anger coursed through Cometpelt. How dare he attack her! Her mother was the leader of her clan! Even more, she was a queen!
Suddenly, she lunged out at Russetfur, knocking him over and pinning him.
Oh dear, I have to wound him now, don’t I? She wondered. She hated this part of the fight, but it was the way of her clan. Maybe his ear. I’ll only take a little bit, it won’t hurt as much as other spaces, and he could easily lie that it was a battle wound, and not from a queen. Yes, that will do. As she reared up to bite his ear, she spotted deep fear in his eyes. She hesitated, just for a moment, but it was enough. Russetfur grinned and  yowled in distress. Then, at
least five other cats ran out of the shadows, surrounding Cometpelt. She backed off of Russetfur, flattering her ears to show she was submissive. 
“Grab the food.” Russetfur said, still grinning. He was the deputy of his clan.
The fight had taken place in a planter in the twoleg place near the fantasy lands. Cometfur’s clan had only heard stories of such places, and thought they were just lies. Endless mice? Unbothered by Twolegs? Their food at their disposal? Who would believe such a thing? Surely, the clan was better off here.
Cometpelt thought it sounded amazing.
“Hey Russetfur,” one of the cats sneered. “What should we do with this pathetic creature?”
“Good question, Treeblaze.” Russetfur said. “We’ll teach her a lesson. Right… Now.”
As soon as he said that, the cats lunged at Cometpelt. She never stood a chance. Later, she would be laying on the molch, bleeding and swollen from many wounds.
* * *
Ughhhhh… everything hurts. Cometpelt thought.
“How is she doing?” a voice said. Cometplet knew who it was immediately. She wished she was unconscious again.
“Just fine. She’ll wake up any minute now.”
“Good. When she wakes up, I want to talk to her about...”
And then everything went black.
* * *
“Welcome back, Cometpelt.” Cricketsong said, smiling at her. “Had a good rest, I hope?” Cricketsong was the medicine cat of Cometpelt’s clan she was also by far the nicest.
“Yes.” Cometpelt said, standing up. Yup. Everything still hurts.
“Your mother said she would like to speak to you once you were awake. So you better not keep her waiting.”
That woke Cometpelt.
“Yes. At once.” Cometpelt agreed. “Thank you.”
“No problem. It is my job, after all.” Cricketsong said, getting back to work.
Cometpelt walked out of the bush where Cricketsong lived, and walked towards where Owlstar was waiting. She glared at her daughter.
“That was our best catch this entire moon. And you couldn’t even bring it back to camp properly. Why was I cursed with you as one of my kin?” Owlstar spat. 
“I tried, mother. I really did.” Cometpelt said sadly.
“What kind of fool are you for trying to beat the deputy of poison clan?” 
“He attacked me! Not vice versa.”
“Then why didn’t you run?”
“I-I… I wanted to impress you.” Cometpelt said quietly.
“What? Speak up, child.”
“I wanted to impress you!”
“Get out of my sight.” Owlstar spat. “You disgust me. In fact, never come here again. You are nothing but dead weight to this clan. I was wrong to bring you into this world. I wish I was a better mother, because if I was, I would have strangled you the moment you were born. Get. Out. Of. Here.”
Cometpelt looked up at her mother, pain visible in her eyes.
“Fine!” she shouted, turning and running with tears running down her face.
* * *
She wasn’t sure how long or far she had ran, but she just wanted to get away from her mother. 
She only hoped Duststorm could find her.
Once she was fully tired out, she found an alleyway with a metal tube to lay in as it started to rain.
Cometpelt soon grew hungry, and knew she had to hunt for her kits, but she was just too tired and too sad and too worried to do so. 
Cometpelt had fully lost track of time when one day, she heard a cat call out,
“Cometpelt! Cometpelt!”
Worry struck her.
Did mother send out cats to end me? She wondered.
But then, the unthinkable happened.
“Cometpelt! It’s me, Duststorm!”
Cometpelt stood up and ran out of the alley. She stood facing a rusty brown cat with icy blue eyes. Duststorm ran over to her as she collapsed onto her mate with relief.
“Don’t rest yet, Cometflight.” He said to her. “We need to get out of the open. The cats here are ravid. We must hide.”
“Good idea.” Cometpelt agreed. The rain had now  finally stopped after about four long days- Maybe five? Cometstar had no idea- and the sun was now setting.
After they ate the mouse that Duststorm had caught, and settled down in the metal tube.
“Duststorm?’
“Yes?’
“Do you believe in the fantasy lands?”
“I…” He hesitated for a second. “You know, one way to tell if something is a lie or the truth is to ask, could a cat make that up?”
“I think you lost me.”
“What I’m trying to say, is yes, I believe in the fantasy lands. Only because I think no cat could make up such a lie.”
“I’m done.”
“What?”
“I’m done living a life of lies. I’m not going back to my mother, she’ll probably kill our kits and separate us. I don’t want that.” She looked at Duststorm in the eyes. “We’re going to the fantasy lands.”
Category:Literature
Category:Warrior Cats