Through our lives, I bet we've believed something had good luck in it. Perhaps we had to do certain actions for something to work out in our favor or a certain necklace had this power in it to grant us luck. I'm going to go into a deeper topic, praying to someone or something. I won't get into it as much, but I've bet we've all said to ourselves once, "Please... Please... Let this work out in the end." Whether you call that praying or just talking to ourselves, we've all felt the same thing: desire.

We're all human, so that means we all have wants. I know if someone were to come up to me and say, "There isn't anything I want," I would think that person is lying. We all want something, even if we can't think of it. Then, in order to get that want, we'll do anything we can. We'll beg, plead, work for it, anything to achieve that goal. Days pass on and soon move to weeks, and sometimes months. In the end, we still don't have what we want. Some people move on and find something else that catches their eye while others still desperately do all they can.

At times, talking to ourselves and giving ourselves a little bit of motivation can help us. There's nothing wrong with telling yourself, "I can do this, I can do this, just a little bit longer." We've all done it once in our lives. However, that person can start to lose hope in themselves and the small words of motivation or having a small conversation with yourself no longer affect you. If that person feels that, do they give up? Some people still do it, but why?

If those words or prays no longer work, why is someone doing it? Perhaps now they've turned to others, hoping they would hear their wishes and prays under their breath. Maybe it's simply a reminder of what they're fighting to get. Every single human being is different there's really no way for one person to fully understand a person's situation the exact way they see it as.

Maybe they're taking the chance that if someone is out there, listening to them, they'll come to help.

X X X

"Hide behind that tree, now!" Runningpaw hissed, shoving the two kits behind the tree without hearing their protests. They tumbled over each other before being forcefully pushed. Olivepaw nudged both of them and quickly ran back to her brother's side just as the head of Robinwing emerged. Her eyes lit up when she spotted the batch, then quickly dropped and flattened her ears. Mothpaw understood, and Jayscar came out behind and showed no sign of joy at finding the apprentices. The last cat to emerge from the patch was Alderfang, the tabby did look relieved when he laid his eyes on them.

Robinwing, still mad, started their lecture, "You guys snuck out of camp just to see the Moon Tree?"

"Yes?" Beechpaw's words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop it. The three warriors sharply directed their attention to him. He yelped, regretting his choice.

"Do you not know the consequences of traveling out here?!" Jayscar demanded, fur rising to express his anger. "We could've lost five warriors!"

"Do you only care about us becoming warriors?!" Runningpaw snarled suddenly, lashing his tail. Olivepaw whirled around and attempted to calm him - which failed. "Is that it? Or do you really care for us?"

"Hush, Jayscar," Robinwing scolded, curling her lip backward. "Runningpaw, we do care about you—"

"No, you don't!" Runningpaw snarled, puffing out his fur and challenging the senior warrior. The brown apprentice curled his lip back while his eyes blazed. Mothpaw wanted to take a step back, but she feared if she even moved a whisker out of place, she would end up receiving a greater punishment than she already had.

"Yeah!" Beechpaw agreed, stepping up to aid his friend. Honeypaw sputtered in disbelief, wanting to stop her brother but he held up his tail. Lowering his face to glare at them he snarled, "The only cat in MeadowClan that cares for my sisters and I is Echoflight! Nobody else cares for us besides the fact we can become warriors to increase our chances for survival."

"Beechpaw!" Mothpaw found herself say, which shocked her just as equally with the hostility in her mouths. Jayscar looked ready to explode on them in any second if Robinwing and Alderfang weren't around as witnesses. The silver apprentice swallowed the fear down her throat.

"No! Beechpaw, stop it!" Inside, she could feel her tail sag to the ground. At the moment when everyone was listening to her, she had only said a few words and nothing that would leave an impact on her brother. Mothpaw did her best to hide it, but her legs didn't corporate with her desire, and they began to tremble.

"You know it's true, can't you see?" Runningpaw muttered, driving the attention to him.

"That's enough—"

Robinwing was cut off by Jayscar who pressed his tail to her nose. She batted him away and opened her jaws to protest. The tom growled under his breath, wanting her to stay silent.

"Think, why does our Clan have to make shifts on which she-cats have to give birth? Why can't they have kits when they want to? Our future was already sealed the moment we were born!" Runningpaw spat venom.

"Runningpaw, stop this right now. We're supposed to be role models for them, don't act like a feather-brained bird in front of the senior warriors!" Olivepaw snarled, standing in front of her brother. She didn't seem to notice she was going against her own words and pitched a fit in front of her brother. "Stop acting like a foolish kit and start acting like an apprentice of MeadowClan!"

"You know it well, too, Olivepaw," Runningpaw's voice lowered, standing up to his younger sister. "The moment you become a warrior, you'll be forced to mate with someone younger than you. In fact, I bet it's going to be Beechpaw." The tabby apprentice jumped back, his face full of disgust while Olivepaw was knocked down, understanding her situation. She glanced at the younger tom who shook his head, clearly not wanting to become her mate in the future. Mothpaw felt her fur bristle, wanting to say something. Honeypaw looked back and forth at them before marching up to the warriors.

"Listen," she snarled, stopping another argument from breaking out. "We left camp in hopes of finding StarClan. The Clan that has abandoned us. None of us want to live in a Clan that forces she-cats to mate just to produce more warriors. The stories Echoflight and Hailbreeze told us in the nursery tell us of a MeadowClan that thrives. When Daystar ruled." Robinwing didn't say anything and Jayscar curled his lip back.

"You don't understand the risks of leaving camp! If Ashstar cared only about your contributions to this Clan as a warrior or queen—"

"Stop it!" Robinwing snarled, batting the silver tom with a paw and turning on him. "We were ordered to find the apprentices and take them back. That's it. You can complain to Ashstar all you want when we get back to camp, but for now." She shot a deadly flower at the apprentices, silencing any protests within them. "We'll be taking them now, we have to head back to camp."

None of the apprentices said a word to each other as they were forced into a line. Jayscar counted them up, giving each of them a glare to remember. Robinwing scouted around the tree while Alderfang looked lost, his eyes clouded with grief and confusion. Mothpaw frowned but didn't dare to utter a word in front of the senior warrior's presence. To her, she saw some shared traits between him and Beechpaw when somecat mentioned the name Ripplestone. She hoped her light-headed brother would see the same thing, but she had learned by now dreams don't come true.

Alderfang's gaze shifted toward the Moon Tree and its empty branches. His amber pools of sorrow drifted above to the tips of the tree, and then they traveled toward the trunk of the old tree. This was the first time Mothpaw had seen a warrior move as if they weren't able to control themselves. The brown tabby padded up to the tree, brushing past Robinwing, his tail waving in front of her face. She jerked her head to shout, but for some unknown reason, nothing came out. Jayscar gave the other tom a look of disapproval, and Beechpaw looked ready to burst since the silver warrior didn't fight.

The warrior stood under the shadow and touched his nose to the base. Mothpaw's eyes widened and her heart rate increased with each second. The two kits were still hiding behind the tree, and it wouldn't take much for the warrior to notice the two scents. She could see his nose twitch, he had to be picking up on their scent by now. He stayed where he was, leaning onto the tree as if StarClan was really there. It made her truly wish that there was a mystical Clan in the stars that was there for all of MeadowClan. Instead, the warrior leaned away, turning to face the group with a sorrowful look. Robinwing's tail dropped to the ground and her ears sank.

"What is it?" asked the she-cat.

"I smell Dapplefur," he mumbled, lowering his head and pointing to the tree. That made Mothpaw's heart stop. Alderfang ribbed against the trunk. "Right here."

"She must've hoped StarClan would've come to her," Robinwing whispered and Jayscar rolled his eyes. She stepped over to the tree trunk and placed her nose onto the trunk, breathing in the scent of their medicine cat. Mothpaw frowned, trying to remember back when they were near the tree.

Did any of us remember Dapplefur's scent being there...? She wanted to move toward the tree to test her theory, but Honeypaw beat her to the idea. Despite Jayscar, the golden apprentice marched up beside Robinwing and shoved her nose onto the tree. Olivepaw's jaw dropped open and Honeypaw pulled back, licking her jaws. The silver warrior beside her raised an eyebrow at the she-cat but didn't say a word. Jayscar flattened his ears when her sister shoved her nose onto the tree once again.

Beechpaw let out a growl under his breath, clearly not impressed with his sister's acts. When Honeypaw pulled back again, her green eyes were wide and darted over to the others. Mothpaw could tell her sister was trying to tell them something, but they couldn't understand her message through her eyes only. Alderfang snapped their attention away when he began to walk around the tree. Her breath got caught in her throat and her heart froze like a cat had forced its icy paws around it.

Then he came out from the other side, giving no signs that he saw the two kits. Frowning, Honeypaw traveled around the tree and stayed there for a few moments. Robinwing shook her head just as the she-cat emerged from the other side, confusion painting her face.

"Get back, now," she growled. The apprentice raced over to the line and bumped into her sister. Mothpaw leaned up and whispered into her ear.

"Were the kits still there?"

"Yes," she whispered back, narrowing her eyes at Alderfang. "How did he not see them?"

"He had to have seen them if you saw them," Mothpaw protested. "I think we should talk to him when we get back."

"You'll talk to him," Honeypaw answered and walked away, leaving her alone and stealing away her confidence with her. Alderfang walked past them without a single glance and prodded them along. Mothpaw cast the Moon Tree one last glance, hoping that the kits would've followed them. They weren't. They stayed behind the tree and didn't come out. Fear and worry planted themselves into her mind for the safety of the two sisters.

I... Please, something keep them safe. Let the mother come back for them, she prayed, knowing that her answer would remain unanswered with no StarClan. In fact, what was the point of praying and hoping for something to help if there wasn't? Her gaze hardened, but her heart still yearned to see to the kit's safety.

Her breath got caught in her throat when her eyes landed on the head of one kit peeking out. They were full of worry, but they remained silent, watching for something to come from nothing. Mothpaw turned her head away, no longer wanting to face the two kits. If Alderfang couldn't see them, then maybe they weren't really there and they were simply figures of her imagination. No, figures of all their imagination.

Giving life to cats in hopes they would represent the one thing they yearned for the most, and only to realize that it wasn't real and remained a simple, insignificant kit's game.