Jaded View: Chapter fourteen

## Chapter fourteen

“Mum?”
Picklekit laid down beside Lilykit, who was sitting at her mother’s side,
“Picklekit wants to know about, him.” Snowflight lowered her head, “do you
really want to?” Picklekit nodded, “fine. Scrapjaw is a tom, a bit older than
me, he was a very, let’s just say, horrible leader, his son used to claim that
his father took him a dark place in his dreams, and yet his son has never
mentioned it again. One day, Scrapjaw left, and told Darklight to take care of
his son and the clan, at the festival, the rest of us found out he went to
Fireclan, for the free position of leader.”
“But who is his son?”
“Tigerkit, that poor thing hasn’t seen his father in a while, since he was sick
last festival, and wasn’t able to attend.”
“And today, you’ll see that ragged cat.” Lilykit poked her head out of the den,
“see, everyone’s going already. We better follow.” She left the den and ran
after the rest of the clan, Picklekit stayed beside Snowflight, who was
silently staring off into the distance. “What’s wrong mum?”
“Nothing, I’m just thinking.”
“About what?”
“About the clan, Darklight’s getting older by the day, and if he’s the only
thing making Moonlight a kind cat. I doubt the clan cope with her being
leader.” *But I thought Moonlight was nice,* “look, we’re here already.
Stay with me, you don’t want to get lost.” In the crowd of cats, Picklekit saw
Darklight, Greystar and Moonlight pad up a large rock. She saw a glimpse of
another cat, Joltstar. “Do you want to hang out with your friends?” More cats
came into the clearing, “no thanks, I just want to know what we’re doing.”
“We’re waiting for the leaders to tell us about their clans, the we can start
on the fun things.” Picklekit noticed a tortoiseshell she who was talking to a
dark grey she with a giant tuft wrapping around her head. “Hey look, there’s
one of the new trainings! Come over here!” She called waving her tail,
Picklekit and Snowflight padded over. “I heard you were going to take
Shieldtuft’s place in the fighting contest.” Autumnpelt meowed, “yes I am, I
thought I could do something kind, after I was a training.”
“You still got a lot to do.” Shieldtuft chuckled, “you might as well become the
next guarding and fighting cat.”
“I doubt I could do that; I’d have to finish training Lilykit before I could
ever do that. And I thought you had your eyes set for someone already.”
Snowflight smiled, “Cloverkit is very good, but she’s too loyal to leave her
clan. I could choose Blossomfur, but I haven’t seen her in a long time.”
“Blossomfur doesn’t leave camp much, but you should choose her.” Autumnpelt sat
down beside Picklekit, “I would love to know how much you’re enjoying your time
as a training, to me, you look more like a fighter than anything else.” The she
wrapped her soft tail around Picklekit, “I don’t really like fighting, but
hunting seems fun, except for my mentor.”
“I know how you feel, when I was younger, I had a pretty bad mentor, Joltpaw to
be exact, and look how we turned out, I left my clan to help train hunters, and
Joltpaw became Joltstar, guardian of Lightningclan. Maybe you’ll get a close
bond with your mentor, or you’ll turn into something great, *your purpose is*
in your paws, you choose what you will be.*” Picklekit thought about what*
Autumnpelt said, then the call of Jaystar broke her thoughts, “every cat of
each clan, listen to those who lead and watch over you.” The she was standing
on a ledge that towered over the rest, her blind-like eyes watching the clan
cats under her, “Fireclan, you may start.” Picklekit looked over at what seemed
to be the leader, it was a ginger tabby, fluffy fur, crystal blue eyes, *how*
is that Scrapjaw? *The tom looked scared, as his deputy whispered something*
to him, then the deputy stepped back. “Cats of all five clans, Fireclan has
been well since I became leader.” Cats started to murmur, Tigerkit was sitting
beside Silentfrost, she could tell he was shocked, “the older leader…” the
ginger tom let his deputy whisper something into his ear, then continued,
“Scrapjaw, was… defeated in the battle for leadership against me.” Tigerkit
lowered his head, as Silentfrost wrapped her tail around him, and placed her
head on his, whispering something to him. Cheers and the muttering of cats
filled the clearing, then Jaystar spoke above it, “Fireclan is done then,
Oceanclan may continue.”
“Oceanclan has been going well, the river that runs into the ocean is drying
up, Darkleaf claims that it’s a sign from the heavens that something bad will
happen soon.” A pale, sleek furred she meowed; her voice soft. “Shadeclan,”
Picklekit looked at Darklight, since she only saw the tom sometimes, she didn’t
realise how old the tom was, from where she sat, compared to the other leaders,
he looked like he was about to fall over, or even die. “Now that we know that
Scrapjaw is dead, I would say that I am now the full leader of the clan.” The
tom glared at the Fireclan leader, then looked back at the clans, “prey is
going well, one of our trainings has recently been claiming to see a deceased
cat in a dark forest in his dreams, but that wouldn’t happen.”
“What does he mean? Don’t we see dead cats in our dreams?”
“Darklight doesn’t believe in that, to him, Jaystar is just a cat who makes up
things so she can boss everyone around.” Snowflight whispered, “Lightningclan,”
A black tom started to speak, he had a golden tail with bright yellow eyes,
“prey is wonderful, though we’ve found traces of dead birds in our territory.
Our healer found out the culprit, a black she, who goes by the name of Holly.
Our healer says that she’s waiting for someone to leave and says that we cause
most of the rogue issues, which is not true.”
“Where is this she been seen though?”
“Everywhere, once a patrol saw her heading down by the shore, another saw her
heading towards the fields, another saw her crossing the border to Shadeclan,
and another saw her heading through Fireclan, they asked her where she was
going, and all she said was ‘I’m heading towards the Cave Pool.’ Before she
turned tail and ran.”
“Well then, the rest of you clans got to stop that she from even touching your
territory.” Jaystar flicked her tail, “what even is this Cave Pool?”
“No cat knows, but we’ve kept scenting rogues by the territory, and when one
was killed, before it died it said, ‘the flood shall come’ and ‘the tiger shall
fight in front of the falling sun.’” Jaystar shook her head, then called,
“Cloudclan,” A grey tom with blue eyes and freckles stood tall, with Snowkit
behind him, *she’s not a deputy,* “Cloudclan is doing fine, one of our
kits got sick again, and we have finally got a healer, Snowkit.” Jaystar
nodded, then called, “Then the festival shall begin!”

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