It's dark, although - not that dark, once his eyes have had a little time to adjust?  There's most of a distinctive moon lighting up the sky; that's probably why.

It's also wet.  Substantially more wet.  He's in a river!  And much, much shorter than he was a minute ago.

He is... a quadruped on the Earth... and he's not great at swimming! Ack! Swim swim swim! Where is the shore!

It's over there!  Not terribly hard to get to; there's a much steeper bank a ways out from the actual waterline.

Swim swim scramble scramble. Climb? Oh he's got claws. Are those going to help at all.

They help, yeah!  Up on the bank, things are much drier, and between the weather and his fur he's not too cold despite his drenching.  He's in a forest.

Well, he was in a forest before, too. Not this one. There aren't any Ibyabekan plants here.

He doesn't know what this kind of quadruped eats or anything. Or if it's supposed to be asleep at night.

He starts walking.

Forest forest.

.....He can smell so many things.  He can't really tell what they are, but there are constantly different ones as he tracks on.  Some of them are from specific plants, he might be able to tell as he passes instances of them enough times.  One of them is: him.  He has a smell now.

Some of them might be other quadrupeds of the same kind he is??  And there are lots of other things that smell alive in vaguely the same way, many of them different from both each other and him.

He doesn't know if this kind of quadruped is social and, if it is, will be happy to meet a new member of the kind, or if they will instead beat him up over him not being already friends with them. Maybe he can veer slightly toward the other-quadruped smells to see if he can catch a glimpse and try to read quadruped body language?

He catches no glimpses.

...well, he'll keep going for a bit then.

Forest forest forest forest.

There's a stream, here, that flows back towards the river he crawled out of.  It, too, looks like it's usually filled with more water than it currently happens to be.

He could probably jump it, but it's not like he has anywhere in particular to go. If he follows it along its length he at least won't be retracing his steps.

If he goes for long enough, long enough that the moon is in a different position in the sky, he comes across a road.  There's a tunnel under it which the steam passes through, lined in brick.

Well, it's pretty hard to see in the tunnel, so he's just going to cross the street instead. Any cars coming? No? Over he goes.

He does not get hit by a car!

On the other side of the road, the forest transitions to coniferousness.

And then he suddenly knows a word for the kind of quadruped he is.  It wouldn't be intuitive to pronounce with his human mouth, but maybe it is with this one.  It's 'cat'.

wut

It's 'cat'.

A baby one is a 'kit'.

If you say so, mysterious cat language information!

This is 'hello'.  'River'.  'Stream'.  'Prey'.  'Hunt'.  'Not'.  'I'.  'You'.  'Clan'.  'Help'.  'Sorry'.  'Trespass'.

They all stick pretty well in his memory, despite how many there are and how quick they come.

Oh, is he about to have to sorry for trespassing? Oh dear.

Here is a bunch of grammar information.

Thanks??

Yeah, that's in there too, once it switches back to vocabulary.  He gets a steady drip of mysterious cat language information for the next while.  The landscape gets a bit marshy, then swampy.

This kind of quadruped - a "cat" - does not seem to be a big fan of marshy swampy landscape. Is there a dry part to walk on.

Not in quite the direction he's been headed.  But it's not so big he can't go around.

He didn't exactly have an appointment there. Around he goes.

As the moon sets and the sun peeks up over the horizon, it becomes clear that there's a third celestial body in the sky.

Well, he already knew he wasn't on Ibyabek. Apparently there's two moons. Great big ones.

And then he's tackled from behind and pinned.

"AAAAH SORRY TRESPASSING?!"

The other quadruped pauses, and then lets him up.

"Sorry! I have no idea where I am or what's going on or why I'm a cat!"

"...Or why you're a cat?"

"I didn't use to be a cat! Have you always been a cat?"

"Yes."

"Well I haven't!"

"What were you instead?"

"I was... a... the thing that is telling me how to say words has not given me a word for it..."

"Well, what was it like."

"...taller and without any fur and with... paws that were good at things..."

"What do you know about how you came to be here."

"...nothing. One minute I was not a cat, and also on a different... ... I don't have the word. Farther away than the moon. And then I was in a river back the way I came, across the... why is it called a Thunder Path... from here, and also a cat."

"It's called a Thunderpath because the monsters on it sound like thunder, and move along it like a path.  ... What were you doing before this?  Generally, in your life, not at the moment you came here."

"I was still in... uh... training? My... place that is farther than the moon... accepted a new... person who talks about how different places that are farther apart than the moon should behave toward each other... and he brought his son, and I was supposed to escort him around..."

The cat stares at him for a moment. 

"I am Tigerstar, leader of ShadowClan.  Do you have a name?"

"Kyeo Sebe Luk."

Tigerstar nods.

"ShadowClan controls this territory, and no cat who isn't part of it is allowed here.  But," he adds, "you could be part of it.  The Clan has been through some hard times, recently.  Many cats have died, by poor leadership or by sickness.  That was before my membership here.  I will restore ShadowClan's previous greatness, and then exceed it.  The life of a Clan cat is not easy, but it is rewarding.  If you want to hunt, so that you may provide yourself and others with food, we can teach you that.  If you want to fight, to defend yourself and anything precious to you, we can teach you that.  Any skill that a cat needs in order to live a life of honor and determination, I want each cat in ShadowClan to have.

"But the strength and integrity of my new Clan must come first.  I could only do this for you, according to my honor and the code which I live by, if you were to join the Clan.  Otherwise, I must escort you out of our territory."

"...well, if I'm going to be a cat now, I should know a lot more about how to do cat things than I do. I would be honored to learn from you, Tigerstar." Do cats bow. They probably don't.

Tigerstar leans forward to touch noses with him.

that's WEIRD but okay

"Your training begins now," he announces.  "Try walking quietly."

He is not used to having four feet nor how these feet behave but he can do obvious things like not stepping on crunchy leaves?

"That's better."  His tone is flat.  "But try something more like this," he demonstrates, "than this.  Feel your weight in your haunches, instead of your paws."

Kyeo doesn't know what that means but he will make an attempt to mimic the other cat's motions.

"You're improving.  Keep doing so while we travel."  And he leads the way, nearly silently.

Follow follow.

Tigerstar stops to suggest improvements to his form a few times.

"Russetfur, one of my warriors, and her apprentice Cedarpaw, began this dawn patrol with me.  Try tracking them."

.......sniff sniff.

There are a lot of cat scents.  There's one element which they all share with Tigerstar but not with him; there's another that they seem pretty split on and which he and Tigerstar both have.

Some of them are stronger than others, but there seems to be one more than one axis on which this is true.  Some of them are - sharper, than the rest, while others are bolder.

Probably being from this planet versus not, and then sex. No idea on the multiple axis of scent strengths. Is there... an axis of scent strength on which him and Tigerstar have every other cat beat handily... and along which he can identify third and fourth place.

It's totally the sharpness.

The next-sharpest pair have a trail heading off at - this - diagonal, but it's hard to tell which direction along it they were going.

...which direction would Kyeo have been less likely to have noticed them in some other way already if they were going that way?

One side of the scent trail goes off at an acute angle to the right of the line he and Tigerstar have been travelling in.  The other side goes back and to the left.  The road he crossed is to their right.

He'll try veering right.

Tigerstar follows without speaking.

For a while it's hard to tell whether it's getting stronger or weaker or if he's just going slightly off the path, on a moment-to-moment basis.  But then there's an especially muddy patch with some paw prints heading in the right direction.

Triumph! Stalk stalk.