CCdC: Book 1-- Chapter 4

The moon’s reflection rippled on the surface of the lake.  Somewhere in the distance an owl was hooting and a canine was yapping.  The kittens were walking on the solid black path, heading toward the seven pines.  
As they approached they saw a figure.  “Hey!” it called out and began dashing toward them.
“Tornado!” Torn called back excitedly and raced toward his friend.  At the last moment they jumped up and their bellies rammed into each other.  They fell to the ground in a tangle of fur.
Upon standing up Tornado twitched his tail, “Where were you?”
“We went to visit Skunk’s home and her friend,” Sweet explained, sitting down neatly.
Tornado flicked his ears, “Why would you do that?”
Skunk explained, “They’ve shown me their home, why not show them mine?”
“Your home isn’t all that impressive,” Tornado mewed, “I’ve seen it.  And it reeks of human.  I’ve smelt it.”
Skunk’s fur stood on end and she growled, “My home is a perfect place!  My humans are nice to me and take very good care of me.”
“Wait until they make you disappear like they did to our family members.” Tornado retorted.
“Calm down,” Sweet spoke up, “we need not have this discussion now.”
“We need to have it sooner or later,” Tornado said, “you can’t really let her believe she’ll be able to stay with her humans.  It was because of a cat like her that they started taking us in the first place anyway!”
“What do you mean?” Skunk asked.
But before she could be answered, Sweet spoke again, “Take us to your family, we need to talk to them.”
“Why?” Tornado gazed at her with a questioning look in his green eyes.
“Her mother took the name Splash,” Sweet explained.
Skunk added, “Snake Splash.”
Tornado wrinkled his nose, “I’ve heard about her.  That’s exactly who I was talking about!”
Skunk tipped her head to the side, “What do you mean?”
Tornado seated himself and pulled his tail around his paws.  “Snake Splash was like you.  She was invited into the family because she looked like she belonged with us.  Everything was good for a while but then two major events happened.  First, she found out she was pregnant and she hadn’t even had her naming ceremony yet.  Second, she fell in love with one of my uncles.  Romantic love is forbidden inside a family.  The family was shunning her one day when a human came by, scooped her up and took her away.  Ever since then, they’ve been laying traps for us; our numbers have been decreasing because of it.”
“It wasn’t her fault, surely,” Skunk protested, “if your family hadn’t shunned her-,”
He cut her off, “Cats have been shunned before and nothing has happened.  Your mother was just a bad sign for us.  We should have known better than to bring her in to the colony.”
“But then why would you bring me?” Skunk asked, genuinely curious.
Tornado sighed, “Honestly?  I was told to seek you out.  I was at the little cliff one night and an ancestor came to me, told me to look for the brightest heart amidst the humans.  I began my search and not long after, I found you.”
“Why did the ancestor want me?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted, “but you don’t question the spirits.  She told me to find you, so I did.  End of story.”
Skunk blinked at him, wonder in her eyes.  Her mind was racing with thoughts.  Why did the ancestor want her?  Why was she better than her mother?  Was she to right her mother’s wrong somehow?  
And then her mind halted on a thought.  Her ears pricked and her muscles tensed as she stood tall.  “My mother fell in love with a tom in your family,” she said, “and then she became pregnant before her ceremony.”
Tornado blinked at her, “Yes, that’s what I said.”
Skunk continued, “Well, doesn’t that mean my father is in your family?”
Tornado’s eyes widened, “Whoa, whoa, there’s no need to talk about fathers.”
“Why not?” Skunk asked.
Sweet explained, “Toms take care of their nieces and nephews.  A cat’s father doesn’t matter.  Only his or her mother and aunts and uncles.”
“How many uncles do you have?” Skunk asked.
“Three remaining,” Tornado said, “Moon-Face, Snake-Fang, and Gold-Leaf.”  He tipped his head to the side a moment, “Well, my grandmother gave birth to two toms today.  Technically they’re my uncles, but since their closer in age to me, I’ll probably end up calling them my cousins.”
“What do you mean?” Skunk questioned, “Why wouldn’t they be called your uncles?”
Torn took his turn to offer an explanation, “Any tom who has had his ceremony is an uncle.  Any she-cat not directly related to you who has had her ceremony is an aunt.  Anyone who hasn’t had their naming ceremony is a cousin.  That’ll change though once we’ve had our naming ceremonies.  Then we’ll be the aunts and uncles and the little ones will be our nieces and nephews.”
Sweet added, “Bark-Fur and Soot-Step are our uncles, Robin-Mask our aunt, her kittens our cousins and Leaf-Flight was our cousin since he is only slightly older than us.”
“Oh,” Skunk mewed.  After a pause, she asked, “So now what do we do?”
“That’s all you say,” Torn teased.
She shrugged, “Well I’m new to this.”
“Now we fight!” Tornado mewed as he leapt at Torn.  
The toms tumbled to the ground.  They held each other closer.   Torn was kicking with his hindpaws and Tornado was battering with his forepaws.  It wasn’t long before Torn knocked Tornado to the side and leapt to his paws, pausing only a heartbeat before lunging at the grey tom.  He stood above him, a paw on his throat and he held his tail high triumphantly.  
“I win!” Torn mewed happily, gazing down at his opponent.
“Maybe this time,” Tornado playfully growled, “but you won’t win next time.”
“Kittens,” a new voice came.  
The four young cats looked up to see who had spoken.  Skunk recognized the brown tabby fur as Leaf-Flight.  
“What are you doing here?” Sweet asked.
Leaf-Flight flicked an ear and responded, “You won’t be my nieces and nephew much longer so I was wondering if you’d like to accompany me tonight.”
“Accompany you?” Skunk repeated.
Sweet was fast on her paws, “I’d love to!”