What's Down There?

Flint trudged through the sand as she walked along the beach, looking for somewhere to take shelter. Her home had been destroyed a few moons ago from a large storm and she has since been searching for a new place to live. The area she was in right now seemed nice enough, but it smelled weird, it smelled like there was danger here that she could not see. The she-cat kept walking though, not wanting to stop and make herself a potential target for whatever she was smelling. She didn’t stop until she stumbled across a large cave entrance on the side of a cliff that seemed to line the entire beach. She cautiously approached the cave and sniffed around, quickly realizing that this is where the danger smell was coming from. Flint scrambled back from the entrance and puffed her fur up, expecting some large creature to suddenly appear from the cave and attack her, but an attack never came. The she-cat blinked a few times and tried to calm herself back down before stepping further into the cave, ignoring the way her logic told her to stay away. She didn’t really want to explore the cave more, but something about it seemed so captivating despite the danger scent. The further she ventured into the darkness, the more scared she became. Eventually there was no more sunlight to shine into the cave and show her where things were, which almost made her turn back before she got lost down here, but then she started to notice that there were plants down here, and they were somehow glowing. The black and cream molly continued to follow the path down into the cave, getting further and further away from the surface. After what felt like hours she made it to a strange area of the cave that had lots of those glowing plants around it, and she thought she could hear the faint sound of voices. 

Voices? Why are there voices down here? 

Flint cautiously padded closer to a small tunnel in the rock, her fur more puffed up than it had ever been before. Was this the danger she was smelling? Sure seemed like it, but as terrified as she was she was also extremely curious. What if it wasn’t danger she was smelling and whatever was making the sounds was friendly? There was only one way to find out, and that was going through the tunnel and seeing what was on the other side. Flint swallowed nervously and held her breath as she slipped into the tunnel, hearing the voices growing louder as she made her way through it. As soon as she emerged on the other side, the voices grew silent and time seemed to stand still. Flint slowly lifted herself to her paws and looked around cautiously. The first thing she noticed was that the voices were coming from cats of all things. 

Why are there cats down here? Do they live here? Or are they lost? 

Most of the cats started to growl and pin their ears back, crowding Flint up against the cave wall. “Hey…hey there,” Flint meowed as she tucked her tail between her legs. A large black and white cat hissed at her and came to stand in front of the group. 

“Who are you and how did you get down here?” the large cat hissed out, “this is CavernClan territory, and we don’t take kindly to trespassers, especially ones who decide to foolishly waltz into our camp…”

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know anyone lived down here! Please don’t hurt me…I was just following the scent I smelled and the voices I heard. I swear I don’t mean any harm” Flint said frantically as the cats continued to growl and snarl at her. 

“What’s going on over here?” a tired sounding voice murmured. The group of cats momentarily stopped their growling and made room for the new cat to see Flint. 

“This random loner tried to sneak into our camp! They say they didn’t ‘mean to’ but I don’t believe that for a second…” the large black and white cat said as she swished her tail in anger. The new cat, a beige colored cat with tired eyes, stepped closer to Flint and sniffed her before stepping back. 

“I smell no threat from them Cloverteeth, they are just a lost cat” the beige she-cat meowed softly. 

“But- but FallowStar” Cloverteeth said in surprise, “this cat is a trespasser! Shouldn’t we punish them? Kick them out? Something?” 

“No,” FallowStar murmured, “this cat is not a threat to us.” The tired looking she-cat turned back to face Flint again, a small smile forming on her face, “now, what is your name? Where do you come from?” 

Flint glanced around the cats for a moment before opening her mouth to speak, “My name is Flint” she murmured nervously, “my former home was destroyed from that big storm a few moons ago so I’ve been searching for a new place to live. I happened to stumble across this cave and even though I was scared I decided to see what was down here. I wasn’t expecting to find cats, honest. I had no idea that I was entering someone else's home” 

“You are welcome to stay here then” FallowStar said with no hesitation, “welcome to CavernClan”

“FallowStar! But she’s a loner! She doesn’t know how clan life works! We don’t even know if she wants to stay!” a new voice meowed in protest. 

“I have made my decision One…Oneswipe” FallowStar said to the pale colored tom, “do not question me” The whole group of cats sighed as their leader walked away to her den with another cat following her. Flint looked around at the cats and gulped. Was she just accepted into the clan without question? Did she even want to stay here?

Cloverteeth, Oneswipe, and the other cats stalked away angrily, only leaving one cat with Flint. “So uh…would you like to be shown around?” the cat asked her, “sorry this is all happening suddenly but this is kinda just what happens when FallowStar makes a decision without any thought behind it” 

“Oh um sure” Flint murmured as she started to follow the other cat around. Soon she learned that this cat's name was Carp-paw and that he was a moon away from his warrior assessment, whatever that meant. He seemed to be very nice compared to the others, which made her feel a little better about staying here and not just running back out of the cave. Maybe the other cats would warm up to her eventually if she did decide to stay, she hoped they would if she did decide to join this group of cave cats. What did they call themselves? Oh right CavernClan. She remembered the leader saying it before she walked away with that other cat, whoever that was. After being shown around Carp-paw brought her to the apprentice den, saying that it’d be a better place for her to rest than in the warriors den, especially since Carp-paw was the only current apprentice. Flint thanked the young tom as he showed her to a nest she could rest in and finally laid down after a long day of traveling. She felt sleep quickly come to her and she yawned before curling up in the nest. She was still very scared so she stayed awake for a little bit longer, but at least one of the cats had shown her kindness. Maybe staying here wouldn’t be so bad after all.