The Evolution Of a Leaf

Exile

"Mama! Can we go with you?" Asked Willow, Leaf tumbling after. 

"Yes, my kits, but you must not tell anyone where we are going, or else we will be sent away," she answered.

"Okay..." they chorused.

Leaf and Willow followed Bird as they crept silently through the trees, as quietly as possible, to an unknown place with less trees and more shrubs. 

"It's cold," commented Leaf.

"Of course it is, my dear, as in leaf-bare, it snows here, unlike our tribe."

Suddenly, a rustle behind them made the kits jump.

"Hello, Bird," greeted a lean she-cat whose ribs were showing beneath her pelt. Her voice sounded friendly yet weary, as if Bird had visited her many times. "I see you've brought kits with you. Are they yours?"

"Yes." Bird's voice shone with pride. "The bolder one is Willow that sways in breeze, and the other is Leaf that Shivers in Wind. They have promised not to tell anyone about what I am doing, so you can trust them." Her voice had gained a protective tone in it towards the end of the sentence. "Kits, this is Mint. She is a rogue at who I have been helping, as she, as you can see, has not been faring well." To say this was an understatement. Mint looked as if she had been deprived of prey for a moon.

Mint nodded to the kits in greeting, less wary.

Suddenly, a tom sprang out from the bushes behind them, and knocked Bird to the ground. "I see you have been helping our enemies," he growled, and Bird hissed in pain as he dug his claws into her pelt. "TRAITOR!"

At this time, Mint had crept up behind the tom, and was springing onto him. The tom cruelly sneered, seeing how weak she looked, and gave a harsh blow to her head with one paw, the other still pinning Bird to the ground. Mint gave a soft whimper of pain but Bird was yowling, "Kits! Run! Run anywhere as long as you are not killed by Eagle, or any other cats. This is not your fight!" Eagle, the tom, had scratched her exposed underbelly. Bird was bleeding now. Mint had been knocked out, slumped against a tree.

Eagle seemed to have suddenly changed his mind. "This won't be useful... oh well, I'll let you be exiled," he said cheerfully. Bird just struggled. Her kits were cowering in a nearby bush, whimpering.

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Eagle had scratched Bird until she had agreed to go with him back to the tribe's camp.

"Come with me, or I shall kill you in the most painful way possible," he had growled.

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"Stoneteller!"

"Yes?"

"I have found Bird helping our enemies, ROGUES!"

"Really? Bird, I am disappointed in you. The most suitable punishment for you is exile."

"But Stoneteller-"

"No."

"But-

"No. Just go. Take your kits. Go. Live as a rogue."