Cara Mia

{|

Prologue:
== ==

A harsh wind swept past Twolegplace and through the forest. Between the dense wood and the Twolegplace was a moorland, and on a small, steep hill were two cats.

One was a tortoiseshell kit chasing a green butterfly in the bright sunlight. Her fur was dark brown and had smaller reddish spots dotting her body. Her eyes were a brilliant green.

The other cat was a blue-eyed, fully grown she-cat whose fur was a medium shade of gray. She was carefully watching the kit as she lay under a maple tree.

As the kit bounced and scampered after the butterfly, a huge white dog bounded toward the cats from behind. Its pink tongue lolled out from its open mouth, and its eyes were shining with the anticipation of making a meal out of the cats.

The kit was so absorbed in the chase of the butterfly, that as the green insect flew high beyond the kit's reach, the little cat took a step forward to try to catch it still. But she wasn't paying attention to the fact that the hill started to get very steep where she was standing, and the kit stumbled and fell, rolling down the hill with a yelp.

The other cat had noticed the fall of the kit.

"Rose!" she exclaimed, starting to make her way down the steep incline.

But just then the dog let out a massive bark from behind her. She whipped around, laid eyes on the quickly nearing brute, then turned back to the falling kit. "Rose, run!" she shrieked. "Run fast! I'll join you later!"

With those last words she turned and fled past the dog. At that time, Rose had stopped rolling and had scrambled to her paws, watching the she-cat nervously. The dog swerved to follow the racing cat, and they disappeared from the small kit's view.

Rose stumbled after her caretaker.

"Tansu!" she wailed, trying to make her way back up toward her. But the hill was way too steep for such a young kit, and she failed at every attempt to climb back up.

After a while though, another loud bark sounded, and as she looked up, Rose could see the dog again, running toward her.

She let out a screech of terror. Without lingering for a single moment more, she hared away, engulfing herself in the forest.

As she ran on, swerving to avoid trees and thorn bushes, her lungs started to burn unbearably.

Then she noticed that there were a few cats who were walking in her direction, fairly near to her. As they noticed her, they broke into a trot, then started to hurtle toward her.

"Help!" she screeched.

There was another bark behind her, much, much nearer now than it was before, and the kit let out a shrill yowl.

The cats finally arrived. One, a dark brown tabby tom, opened his jaws and swiftly picked up the kit by her scruff, swinging her through the air as he whipped around. He wasted no time, but hurried away while the other three cats stayed behind to fight the dog.

Rose let herself go completely limp, grateful toward her rescuer.

It was a while until the tom carrying her started to slow down. Rose opened her eyes and saw a giant bush ahead, covered with the bright pink flowers that grew on it. The bush was extremely dense, and she could barely pick out the outlines of other cats inside it, walking from one area to another.

The cat pushed through a small opening in the giant bush. Inside, there were branches jutting out from the ground everywhere, and the floor was dappled in the sunlight that had made its way through the spaces between the small leaves.

The cats inside stopped what they were doing to stare at him, but the brown cat offered them no explanation. Instead, he turned and padded toward a den made of small, woven branches plucked from the bush.

He stopped at the den and mewed. A voice answered from within, granting entry. He then padded inside.

There was a small space in the den. A gray tom sat on the ground, and with him was a silver she-cat. Their eyes stretched wide when they saw Rose, and the tom carrying her gently put her down.

She curled up on the soft ground, exhausted.

"What is this, Gazethorn?" meowed the gray tom.

"We found her running from a large dog, very close to DashClan's border," Gazethorn said in reply. "The others are fighting the dog away right now. But I didn't see the kit's parents anywhere. She's probably a rogue's kit. What shall we do with her?"

The silver she-cat bent down and started sniffing Rose's pelt, her blue-gray eyes shinning with emotion that she was trying hard to keep hidden. The small kit did not flinch away from the she-cat. She couldn't place it, but there was something drawing her to the silver cat. She almost seemed. ..

Familiar?

"I say we keep her," the she-cat meowed when she looked up and saw the unsympathetic look in the other tom's face. "Put her in our nursery, raise her in our ways. But if her mother comes looking for her, we'll give her back. How does that sound, Crowstar?"

The smoky tom, which appeared to be called Crowstar, nodded gruffly.

"I suppose so," he replied. "Take her away to the nursery."

Gazethorn picked Rose up again, and for some unknown reason, the kit wished that she could go back to the silver she-cat.

The brown tom carried her toward another woven den, bigger than the first one he had entered, across the huge bush.

The four kits playing next to it looked up from their games, eyeing Rose curiously.

Gazethorn ducked as he went through the low entrance and emerged in the nursery.

Moss was covering almost every tail-length of the space, and there were two queens on the moss. A fiery red she-cat stared at Rose in distaste.

Gazethorn carried Rose to a brown and white queen.

She looked up in surprise.

"The kit was running from a dog on the moor," he meowed in reply to the queen's questioning blue eyes. "Nobody knows where her parents are. Will you take care of her and raise her as your own?"

She hesitated.

"She has no one to take care of her, Flowermist," the tom meowed. "Please."

Nodding, Flowermist replied, "I would be glad to."

As Gazethorn left the nursery, the brown and white she-cat started to gently lick Rose's ruffled fur. The soothing motion and the comforting milk scent lulled the kit, and she finally fell asleep, drifting away from the nightmarish events she had experienced that day.

-~-~-~-~-~-

Rose was deep in a dream. A beautiful silver queen was licking her ears. They were in a familiar hollow tree, lying on soft green moss. The strong smell of milk wreathed around the kit.

"You are my darling beauty!" the silver cat meowed. "I am going to miss you so much!"

Rose didn't understand. She squirmed closer to the warmth of her mother.

The silver she-cat put her nose into Rose's fur and mewed, "Oh, my dear! Oh, my Cara! Farewell!"

Then a cat made of shadows padded into the hollow. It bent down grabbed the tiny kit by her scruff.

Rose tried to pull herself away, but the strange cat had a firm hold on her as it carried her away from her mother.

The kit squealed in fright.

As she was being carried farther into the forest, the silver queen walked out from the hollow.

"Mother!" she mewled, uttering her first words. "Don't! Come back!"

The queen stared at her, her eyes glowing.

"I have no choice," she meowed sadly, her expression mournful. "Be a good kit, my Cara! Remember that you're so dear to me!"

The queen's voice faded away, and the world turned pitch black.

"My sweet Cara. I am so, very sorry. Goodbye."

Chapter One:
Rosekit shook herself indignantly. Looking up at Flowermist, she meowed, "Why do you have to wash me? Why does it even matter how good I look?"

"Yeah," squeaked Wingkit. "Why? It doesn't make sense."

Flowermist gazed at the kits.

"You have to look good because you will be remembered by all your clanmates for what you looked like at your apprentice ceremony," she replied patiently. "Ceremonies are memorable events."

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey gather among the Stones for a Clan meeting!" Crowstar yowled.

The leader was standing in the center of dozens of rocks and stones in the treeless clearing. Of course, Rosekit couldn't actually see him. He was outside of camp.

She bounded excitedly toward the edge of the bush, weaving expertly around the branches that stuck out from the ground and formed the dwelling place. As her littermates caught up to her, she quickly challenged them to a race and sped off.

Spottedkit was starting to gain on her, so Rosekit pushed her to the ground. She stretched out a back leg and tripped Wingkit also.

Then she hopped free of the kits and continued the race.

"Hey!" Spottedkit mewed. "No fair!"

Rosekit choked up in her amusement as she skidded to a halt, and Flowermist padded past her, gazing warmly at the kit.

"Hurry up," she meowed with a flick of her tail. "Your ceremony is about to start."

When Rosekit's littermates joined her, they scampered away to the Stones. Nearly all the cats of CinderClan were gathered there, sitting in a crude circle under sun.

As they sat down in the very front of the Clan, Flowermist glanced over at them and gasped.

"Your pelts!" she exclaimed.

The kits all looked down at themselves. Rosekit realized with a jolt that her fur was sticking up in clumps all over the place, and that there was sand covering her pelt. Her littermates' fur was the same way.

I don't want to be remembered as a dirty kit! she thought as she frantically tried to lick her fur. But sand got stuck in her tongue, and she tried to spit it out.

Then the leader called them forward.

She padded in front of all her clanmates while still trying to spit quietly. But the sound came out loud, and she suddenly wished she could melt into the ground when amusement rolled through the entire Clan. Even her littermates let out little mrrows of amusement. She glared at them angrily, her ears flattened, and they stopped.

Rosekit put her tongue back in her mouth with the disgusting sand still on it. She shook her pelt, flicking some sand onto Wingkit and Spottedkit.

Crowstar, who was standing on top of a pointy rock, tried not to let amusement show in his voice.

But he failed.

"Wingkit, Rosekit, and Spottedkit," he addressed. "You have all been with us for six moons, and it is time for you to become apprentices. From this day on, until you receive your warrior names, you all will be known as Wingpaw, Spottedpaw, and Rosepaw."

"Sparklingstream, come here.
 * }