#splashstone

"Did... did that really happen?" Quiver gaped as Splashstone finished his song. It all sounded so fantastical, the spirits of dead cats appearing and speaking to their living friends... well, now that she thought about it, it sounded a little spooky. But the way these TurtleClanners spoke of it, they hadn't seen it that way.

"It did," Dustjump, the old molly who had bound her broken paw, confirmed, her chin held high and pride glowing in her eyes. "We were all there, we all saw them that night."

Quiver crouched down, flattening her ears. "Are they... going to appear again?" She wasn't ready to meet any all-seeing ghosts. What if they didn't like her staying with TurtleClan while she healed? What if they found her as strange and off-putting as most cats seemed to? What if...? She felt her heart rate starting to pick up, heard her own blood rushing in her ears.

"No," Spindlefleck's tail draped over her shoulders pulled her out of her head more than her initial words. "Currentheart and Pearl said they couldn't just appear at will, and they selected Dustjump as their contact among us, besides."

“We’re not far from the Thunderpath,” Spindlefleck murmured, voice low. “Do you think..?” She trailed off into a tense silence, and Splashstone knew she was remembering the kittypet she’d found on the edge of the stinking black stone during her apprentice days.

“Relax, Spindle,” Splashstone did his best to keep his tone light but gentle. Carefree. “The blood-scent isn’t thick enough for that. It’s probably just a loner with a cut.”

Spindlefleck’s fur started to flatten, but Sandtail remained on guard, and Splashstone felt his heart break all over again for the cream colored tom. Even with Currentheart’s assurance that his death had not been Sandtail’s fault, he clearly still held himself at least partially responsible for the tragedy. “We still need to be careful,” Sandtail warned. “We have no idea what could have injured them. We’ll proceed slowly, and I’ll take the lead.”

Splashstone dipped his head to the deputy’s command, setting off after the tom at a creeping pace. They could’ve safely gone faster with Splashstone in the lead–he knew he had the best nose on the patrol–but this wasn’t the time or place to challenge orders, so he slunk along silently after Sandtail.

The patrol finally broke through the forest’s undergrowth to an open stretch of grass and mud in a dip beside the Thunderpath. As Splashstone felt his paws squish into the deep mud, he let out a quiet hiss of annoyance. No wonder he’d never been this way before–no cat in their right mind would ever come this way. So what was a wanderer doing here?

The blood scent led them to a stinking stone opening beneath the Thunderpath. Splashstone could just make out a cream colored ball of fur just inside the entrance of the hole–the source of the blood scent. Sandtail slowed their approach even further, and finally bade them wait with a flick of his tail when they were ten fox lengths away. Splashstone crouched down with an internal groan, his paws sinking deeper into the muddy earth as Sandtail approached the ball of fur alone. 

“Hello?” He called cautiously.

The pile of fur erupted into motion, a skinny cream colored molly leaping to her paws and scrambling a few steps deeper into the tunnel. “Please don’t kill me!” She wailed, “I’m leaving, I really am, I just needed to rest a moment, please give me another chance to go and you’ll never see me again! I-I swear it!”

“What?” Sandtail sputtered. Caution morphed into confusion, then concern in the face of the molly’s abject terror. 

Splashstone and Spindlefleck were making their way to their deputy’s side before he’d even finished signaling to them that it was safe. “We’re not going to hurt you,” Spindlefleck murmured, “we want to help. That injury to your paw looks painful.”

“I-I” The molly gulped in a few deep breaths, her trembling easing just a little. “You mean… you’re not with them, then?”

“We’re not sure what you mean,” Spindlefleck soothed, “we’ve been living here on the beach for a few seasons now, but we’ve never attacked or driven away any cat, and we certainly wouldn’t hurt you. Can you tell us your name? And explain what happened to you?” 

The instructions seemed to be soothing the jumpy molly, her fur was starting to flatten, and her eyes were no longer quite so wide. “My name is Quiver,” she began.

Quiver, Splashstone eyed the way that her three good legs were still shaking just a little. It suits her.

“I lived in a driftwood pile much farther up the beach,” Quiver continued, “I kept to myself, mostly, hunting along the shoreline in the tidepools. Th-then, a little over a quarter moon ago, this group of cats showed up. They were very strange, told me that I needed to leave–that–that I didn’t deserve to set foot on the sand, and that if I didn’t go, they were going to make me leave. They said three sunrises to find somewhere in the forest before they would remove me from the beach themselves. Now, I thought that was just ridiculous, I mean, I’ve never seen them around these parts before, I figured that they were just talking big, the way some cats do, and that so long as I cleared out for a few days they’d lose interest and move on, so I went to stay up in the cliff caves–you know the ones, lots of little nooks and tunnels?”

“We know it,” Sandtail confirmed, his tone just barely impatient. The cliff caves were past TurtleClan’s hunting grounds, but Splashstone had been up that way himself a pawful of times before they’d established boundaries, looking for other survivors. “Please, continue,” Sandtail prompted after the silence had stretched a few more heartbeats.

“Yes! Right! Well, they found me just a day later. Said they’d given me plenty of warning, and that now I needed to be taught a-a lesson, so one of them took my foreleg and–and–” Quiver broke off into a fit of trembling and panting. She didn’t need to continue–the rest of the story was obvious. 

“We’re going to take you back to our camp,” Sandtail said in a low, steady voice. “We have a cat there who can heal–a cat who can help you.” The deputy turned his striking green gaze to Splashstone. “Splash, could you run ahead and tell Dustjump to prepare for an injury? Tell her it looks serious, but that the patient doesn’t seem to be in immediate danger of death,” he dropped his voice to barely a whisper on the last word, but Splashstone still Quiver’s ear twitch nervously. “Spindlefleck and I will help her back.”

“Do you want company?” he murmured.

“Nah,” Splash meowed, “Dustjump probably won’t want more than one cat coming into the den just now.” His tone was dismissive, but he couldn’t deny the little shiver of delight that he felt at Sand’s offer. He’d never thought it was fair, how a tom only a pawful of moons older than he was got to boss him around like he was Shell’s First Mate aboard a ship, but now that Splash had been rightfully acknowledged as an adult, things were… easier. It had turned out Sand wasn’t too much of a beetle brain after all. 

Thoughts of Sand faded as Splash made his way back to camp, the salty flesh of the mojarra causing his mouth to water. He hadn’t seen Dustjump emerge from her den in days to do anything other than eat and make dirt. It was worrying. He knew the old bag of bones was mated to her duties, but she was going to burn herself out at this rate. 

“I said no cat other than me is to come in here!” Dustjump snapped as Splash sauntered into her den. He didn’t take it personally, she was under a lot of stress. 

“Relax Dusty,” he meowed as he set down the fish. “I brought dinner. That way, you don’t even have to leave your den to get fresh-kill tonight.”

“I’m not hungry,” she growled.

“Really? Because I haven’t seen you eat since last night. You won’t help anyone if you wither away any more than you already have.”

“Still a nasty little brat,” she grumbled, but the bite was gone from her mew. That was good. 

Splash settled down beside the old molly while she scarfed down the fish in a few quick gulps. He never would have expected that he could come to love this high-strung old cat, but life was full of surprises.

“How are you?” he asked gently. “And before you say you’re fine, remember that you told me lying about your health does no cat any good.”

“I’m…I’m alright. Not great, but alright.” She sighed.

“And how are they?”

“Foam is… the same. He’s not getting better or worse. Brokenmast’s progress has slowed a little since I don’t have as much time to spend helping him, but he’s avoided the sickness so far.”

“Then it sounds like you’re doing the best that any cat could,” Splash meowed.

“It’s not enough,” Dustjump growled.

“It will be,” Splash said firmly. “You’ll see.”

Sand had always believed that Current had it in him to be an extraordinary cat, wise and brave and kind, and over the last two moons, Current had finally seemed to realize it himself. He had not lost his adventurous, sometimes goofy personality, but had instead gained a more confident and serious side that he would turn on the moment he left the camp. The young tom had grown fiercely dedicated to helping and protecting his campmates, and after a discussion with Shell last night, it had been decided that Current was ready to join the ranks of their group as a full adult. From the squirming kit Sand had carried out of the waves all those moons ago, to the bold, troublesome apprentice, to the kind, confident young cat that sat before him now, Current had come a long way indeed.

“Current, do you promise to remain loyal to your campmates, come what may?” Shell asked.

“I do,” Current’s response held no note of hesitation or uncertainty. This was a cat that understood how deep the bonds between the shipwrecked cats ran, and would defend those bonds with his life.

“Then I grant you your full status as an adult of our group. Current–”

“Wait,” The single word stopped Shell’s speech in its tracks. Sand cocked his head curiously. This wasn’t part of the newly established procedure, but he trusted his apprentice.

Current scanned the gathered cats surrounding him, and when he spoke, his words were as much for them as for Shell. “Moons ago, when we first arrived here, many of us took new names to represent the great change that had transformed us from strangers to a family of survivors. When I took my new name, I did not fully understand that. I thought only of an exciting new name, like we were all playing some sort of game. But I understand it now.” 

He would never have admitted this two moons ago, Sand thought. That alone was evidence of how much he had changed.

“Are you saying you wish to take another new name?” Shell asked uncertainly.

“Not exactly,” Current shook his head. “My name has become part of me. Regardless of the reason I took it, it marks a turning point in my life. But I am not the same cat that I was all those moons ago. I’ve changed and grown in so many ways, and I would like something added to my name to reflect that. Now that I’ve reached another turning point in my life, my acceptance as a full adult among all of you, it seems like the right time.”

Sand felt the truth, the rightness of his campmate’s words deep in his bones. Current had changed, and he deserved a name that reflected that change fully.

“What would you like added?” Shell asked warmly.

“I want all of you to decide,” Current meowed. “You were the ones that watched me grow up. What do you think would best reflect my journey to adulthood?”

At this, the gathered cats began murmuring among themselves. 

“It’s a good idea,” Brokenmast said to Tidechaser. “It seems right for his name to change along with him. But how should he change it?” 

“Perhaps ‘Rushing Current’,” Tidechaser suggested. “He has always charged headfirst into everything, but now rather than being swept up by the undertow of his boldness, he has become the guiding force behind the current.” It was a good idea, but something about it didn’t quite fit, in Sand’s opinion.

“Maybe Current-Octopus,” Splash sniggered to Foam, who rolled his eyes lightly at that, “since he seems to like them so much.” Sand flicked an ear with annoyance. Splash was a great cat, but sometimes he couldn’t quite read the moment.

“Current of the Storm?” 

“Wildcurrent?” 

None of the names were right. None of them represented the young tom’s growth, his love for his campmates, his bold heart. Suddenly, Sand had it. “His name should be Currentheart.”

Current’s eyes locked with Sand’s as the name rung out above the din. The other cats gradually fell quiet, sensing that something important was happening here. “He should be Currentheart, because he has always, always been bold and brave. Sometimes that got him into trouble, when he didn’t think things through. But as I have watched him grow, somewhere along the way, that boldness stopped serving himself and started serving the cats around him. Think. Current has a way of lifting others up, of reaching out to the cats around him even when they don’t think they need it. Tidechaser, who was the first cat to really reach out to you?” Tidechaser blinked slowly, and nodded. “Spindle, who told you stories in the nursery when you felt alone?” 

“Current did,” the young molly looked at her paws. “I know all of you loved me and cared for me, but Current made sure to tell me what was going on. What he’d seen while training. It got me into trouble once but… I appreciated it.” 

Sand nodded and moved on. “Splash, who challenged you to new heights by providing a rival to compete against?” 

Splash’s eyes glinted with pride, and Sand knew that it was pride not only in himself, but in his friend as well. Current really had come to be special to each and every one of them. “Current’s heart has always been the strongest thing about him, and when I look at him now, I see a cat who will put others first, no matter the cost to himself, who will never let anyone feel sad or alone or afraid for long. So his name should be Currentheart.” Sand’s jaws closed with a definitive snap, bringing his speech to an end. When his eyes met Current’s once more, he could see love and gratitude brimming in their amber depths. 

“Thank you,” he meowed unsteadily. “Thank you, Sand. For teaching me. For believing in me. For seeing me. Yes, I want to be Currentheart. I don’t know if I’m really all the things you say I am but I swear, I will try to be.”

“Then Currentheart it is,” Shell purred.

“Current, we name you Currentheart in honor of your boldness and your loving heart, and we welcome you as a full member of our group.” 

Somehow, that didn’t seem like a good enough end to it. Sand tilted his head back, opened his jaws, and yowled “Currentheart! Currentheart!” up into the clear blue sky. After a pawful of heartbeats, the rest of the camp joined in.