Soot woke up to a water droplet splashing on his nose. He didn't realize he wasn't in his nest until a heartbeat later. And he jumped up, all remnants of sleep long gone. He was surrounded by four cats: Berryheart, a white tom, a white and ginger she-cat and a massive gray tabby tom. The white tom stuck his muzzle in Soot's face and sniffed him. The tiny kitten shrunk back, but the tom insisted. The gray cat prodded the white one with a forepaw, "Come on Greeneyes, leave him be. He has traveled a long way."

He then turned to the unknown she-cat and whispered, barely audible to the newcomer. "Splashfoot, why don't you go reassure the clan. Don't give away too much." Splashfoot nodded curtly and slid out of the opening between two rocks that was just big enough for the large tom standing in front of him. The tom, clearly the one in charge flicked his tail towards the exit and both Berryheart and Greeneyes left the small den. That gave Soot just enough room to get comfortable. He still remained on edge, but they haven't hurt him yet, right? His fur was standing up, and the tom could sense his fear. He placed his tail tip on his shoulder, which soothed the feeling. "Don't worry kit, you are safe here. Why don't you tell me your name. Do you know where you came from? Any family?"

Soot made no move to answer, and the tom gave in to the silence. He moved towards the entrance and before slipping outside murmured, "Welcome to Moonclan. I am Clawstar." Soot wrinkled his nose in confusion. Moonclan? And what funny names... Though he couldn't say much on the matter because he didn't know of any other names.

When Soot awoke from his nap an animal lay in front of him. It was small, and brown. Then he realized, it's the thing I was trying to hunt earlier! Or yesterday, he didn't really know how long he was asleep. He tucked into it, curling his lips at the rancid taste, but as he got used to it, he was fine with the taste. It was awfully musky for a squirrel, or whatever it was, bit it was quite good. It was only when he finished the whole thing when he noticed the shadow at the edge of the den. He fluffed out his fur and hissed at the stranger, only to see it was Berryheart. He immediately flattened his fur and turned back to the carcass laying on the den floor. The gray and white she-cat padded over to him.

"It's called a mouse. Have you never had one before?"

Mouse? What a funny word. "No." He didn't say anything more, though the she-cat continued to talk, Soot learned to drown her out. She left after a while, with her tail drooping behind her. Soot felt bad about hurting her feelings and strolled out of his den to say sorry, bit was hit with so many smells he couldn't find where she was off to. He tried looking for her pelt among the many other, but had no luck in doing so. It was then that he realized he was being stared at. There were so many pairs of eyes, and all of them on him. Here, in this new place, he was an outcast. He shrunk back against the rock of the den he was just in, but had trouble finding the entrance. A she-cat and a tom walked up to him, with distrusting looks in their eyes. The black and white tabby tom prodded Soot's shoulder with a paw and the white she-cat scolded him, "Zebrahstripe! Don't be rude!" The tom, in turn, scuffed her ear playfully. "Yes Snowpelt." The she-cat Nuzzled her muzzle against Soot's, though she still looked as though she would've done the same if she had the chance.

By now, the other cats had, for the most part, stopped staring, though he still got a couple side glances from everycat. He padded slowly back to his den, to see Greeneyes sorting leaves into separate piles and putting the finished ones into crevices in the walls. They took no notice of each other and Soot waited to hear the slow breaths of the leaf sorting cat that signaled sleep before he would close his eyes.