| abstract
| - Don’t be fooled, being cared for and having a warm place to sleep may seem like a perfect idea. However perfection comes at high costs. To achieve such excellence you must make the proper sacrifices. Clans aren’t how they used to be, really. There’s only two now, each abiding by different rules. These regulations brainwash the minds of once proud and powerful warriors. Now instead of living by the once obeyed and praised warrior code, we are living by a set of lies. Independent thinking is unheard of, kill or be killed, and follow all rules or you’ll just a memory slowly rotting away in the minds of loved ones. Now if you do follow by the rules all is well. You won’t have any problems, you will sleep peacefully at night, you will have plenty of food in your belly, and you’ll live a long and happy life. That is… If you have no disability, you stay mindless of anything besides fighting, and you don’t question a thing. Not to mention the odds of you living past your first eight moons are nearly impossible. To be honest, this may seem a bit confusing to you. What does this mean? Why wouldn’t I last longer? Why are there so many rules? Well for starters, our Clan, the Clan of the Forest, is much different than the previous Clans. Sadly we are no longer permitted to speak of those, for even mentioning such a thing was outlawed seasons ago. We have three leaders, three deputies, three medicine cats and their apprentices. Three is a reasonable number. To keep such a Clan intact you need the perfect amount of leadership. The first leader is in charge of the Nursery. They are usually always females unless under certain circumstances. She-cats are able to understand other she-cats easier; it has always been like this. This leader makes sure that all the pregnant and nursing queens are healthy. If any signs of sickness are showed, they are moved away from the others. If the symptoms continue, they are killed. If the queen gives birth to disabled kits, she is killed and so are the kits. If the queen does not birth at least two healthy kits, she is killed along with the kits. Are you still following? Good. Let’s continue. The second leader is in charge of all the Warriors and Apprentices training to be Warriors. Warriors have any basic jobs a warrior would have, hunting, fighting, and training apprentices. Pretty basic, right? Wrong. This leader has to make sure apprentices don’t kill each other during practice; she or he must arrange the battles with the Clan of Night, and they must arrange the Ceremony of the Inept. Now, before I get on with the last leader we must explain this whole “incompetent” thing. If apprentices live past their kit moons, they are granted the title of “-paw”. Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it all before. However there is a catch. During training a lot of apprentices are injured, some even killed. If you injury will last your whole life or longer than a moon, like a broken paw, or a torn tail, you are incompetent. If a twig blinds you in one eye, or if you grow sickly, you are incompetent. Incompetency is deemed by a medicine cat. If she or he deems that you will not get better within a moon, or if your injuries will affect your life as a warrior, then you are qualified for the Ceremony of the Inept. Sometimes Warriors are admitted into this ceremony when they are deemed Incompetent. The Ceremony of the Inept is a quite depressing event. As you walk across the camp, you face the cold stares of your peers. You are a failure to the Clan, and you will be treated as such. You are slashed at, spit on, and forced to listen to their sneering remarks. As you make it to the Leader of the Warriors, he quickly preforms your demise. The body is dragged away to the Leader of Meals, and the Clan is at peace once more. Now with that over with, we get involved with the Leader of the Meals. With a Clan like this, you must make sure no cat starves and becomes incompetent. The final leader, the Leader of the Meals, is quite important. He or she and their deputy assign several hunting patrols throughout the day. They manage the prey inflow and make sure no cat goes hungry. They also prepare the bodies of the incompetent for feasting. If the leader fails to feed all cats or makes warriors and apprentices incompetent due to starvation, they are killed by their deputy, and the deputy assumes their previous position. Finally, the explanation of the leaders is complete. Honestly, I have to explain their rolls so often it gets boring. Medicine cats are one of the most important ranks to have. They deem apprentices and warriors incompetent, they heal the many battle wounds cats manage to get, and they are tremendous spies. The Clan of Night cannot attack a medicine cat, nor can they deny their access into the Clan’s camp. Medicine cats are spiritually connected; therefor they could have imperative information for the Clan of Night’s leader. Medicine cat apprentices are chosen immediately from birth, as long as they show no signs of sickness and are from a litter of more than two. Some say medicine cats can instantly tell if a kit will be their apprentice, others say it is a roll of luck. No cat will know for sure, medicine cats are extremely good at keeping secrets. Lastly, the Clan of the Night must be explained. Picture dozens of incompetent Apprentices decided independent thinking was key to living life to the fullest. Now imagine these cats growing stronger because of their disabilities. Finally visualize these strong, angry cats having kits of their own and raising them in their ways. This used to be the Clan of the Night. However they adapted to thriving when the sun lowered below the horizon. They began to battle the Clan of the Forest, after seasons of these nightly battles, the Leader of the Warriors decided it was best to schedule these battles. One every moon a battle would start, and in two days it would finish. The only time the battle would end early was when at least five cats were killed from either side, or if the injuries could gravely affect the Clan. Another pact was created between the two Clans, the Clan of the Night could roam the territory during the nighttime hours and the Clan of the Forest would reign over the land during the day. A fair trade, really. Keep in mind that even though how gruesome this may seem, it is absolutely normal for every cat in the Clan of the Forest. We were all raised to believe this. You may wonder why no cats rebel or why every cat doesn’t just join the Clan of the Night. The honest answer is that we’re all brainwashed. We don’t think what we’re doing is wrong or that fighting to the death with another Clan is horrific. Except for me… I finally grasped what was going to happen. It came to me that perhaps this was all wrong. So as this long drawn out explanation draws to an end, we begin the real story. The story of how I was deemed incompetent.
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