Warrior Cats: The Four Clans

"Come gut a fish, will you?"

This is the greeting I get in the morning - after I'm woken up by having seaweed thrown in my face. This became the classic way to wake up the last person still asleep in the morning...curse the person who started that...oh yeah, it was me. Ha! Man, I am brilliant.

Anyway, Trey threw seaweed in my face, which of course, woke me up fast. I grimaced at his request that I go gut a fish, but, sort of having no choice, I got up and changed into my day clothes.

We each have two sets of clothes - night clothes and day clothes. The night clothes aren't literally pajamas; they're just the clothes that get washed during the day. And the day clothes get washed at night.

Simple enough.

I won't mention that Jayden suggested it. That would make the rest of us look stupid.

So I went out the door-less door way of our shelter, over to our circle of stumps around the fire. Actually it's more of a weird triangular-oval shape...more like a kidney, really...

Okay, back to me walking. I went over to an empty tree stump and collapsed down onto it.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Jayden and Conner greeted me at the same time. I stuck my tongue out at them and picked up a fish, starting to clean and gut it.

Nathan came out from between the trees. "Bananas and blueberries," he announced, holding up a bunch of perfectly ripe bananas.

"Where are the blueberries?" Trey asked, one eyebrow raised.

Nathan opened his mouth; his tongue was stained blue.

Jayden stood up silently, walked casually over to Nathan, and whacked him on the side of the head with the palm of his hand.

Nathan cracked up laughing, as did the rest of us. "Relax, Jay," Nathan chuckled. He held out a hand-woven basket that Conner made, full of berries.

"You succeeded! Someone get this guy a trophy!" Jayden cried, throwing his hands in the air.

Nathan laughed again. "Shut up, Shorty," he teased back. Jayden grinned and took the bananas, carrying them over to our "circle."

"So," I yawned, putting the cleaned fish on a dented skillet and holding it over the fire. "What're we going to do today?"

"What're we doin' today, Mama?" Nathan mimicked me in a high falsetto voice as he sat down on the tree stump next to Conner's.

I rolled my eyes, grinning.

"I thought...maybe...we should explore a bit more," Conner suggested, so quietly I had to stop breathing to hear him.

"Trey and I already traveled the perimeter of the island," Nathan argued.

"Right, sorry, it was just an idea," Conner mumbled.

Jayden hit Nathan on the top of the head with his banana before handing it to him. "You and Trey only went around the island on the shore to see how big it is," he pointed out. "I think Connor means we should actually go deeper, look in the forest. Maybe we could find other animals to eat besides fish...or even different plants, like new fruits or even vegetables."

With that, Jayden sat down and peeled his own banana, leaving Nathan somewhat stunned and embarrassed.

"I'll do that," I offered. "If it might mean finding new food, I'll do anything."

"I'll come with you," Conner offered in a normal volume - but he was instantly shy again. "I mean, if you don't mind."

"Sure, man, you can come, it was your idea," I assured him. He grinned at me, and I returned it.

"When will you leave?" Trey asked, grabbing a handful of blueberries from the basket.

"Eager to get rid of me, huh, Trey?" I teased. He grinned as if guilty.

"You should probably leave before ten," Jayden said, jerking his head to the sundial he made. "That way you'll have plenty of time to get back before it starts getting dark."

I nodded. "Yes sir," I said playfully, saluting him.

As I started serving the cooked fish, I started to seriously wonder what we'd find in the forest.