Warrior Cats: Sprout || Book One

Chapter Eleven

Lily crouched on the verge of the road, teeth chattering as she shivered uncontrollably. The chill from the rain had sunk into her bones at that point and it was a huge effort to put one paw in front of another. Not like she would ever complain, though.

She sent a sideways glance at her companions, chewing on the inside of her cheek. Luna looked the most confident; her storm-coloured eyes shone with anticipation. Lucas was mellow as always, his mouth a thin line. Lily could not discern whether the emotion in his pale eyes was grief, excitement or a mix of the two. Her final party member, Diego, was morose. He was brooding, his emerald eyes unrestful pools of misery.

Shame constricted the silver tabby's heart. He hasn't said a word since we left the alley... The decision to leave was definitely really hard on him.

To her right was Sleetpath; her ivory-furred uncle was staring at the next row of houses as though his life depended on it. Lily had a hunch that he was seeing much more than houses in his imagination. Lily thought, if I was banished from my family... and then, out of the blue, was given the opportunity to see them again... I'd be nervous, I think, to say the least.

The five of them had been walking for hours now, and were presumably almost at the northernmost edge of the city. The sheets of rain had subsided, but there was a steady drizzle dampening their pelts. Exhaustion made Lily's eyes burn and her paws felt as though they had been fashioned from wood.

It never occurred to me that there would be so much walking...

As much as she loathed to admit it, Lily could see her uncle's perspective when calling her and her friends soft. None of them had any endurance, and their muscles were still largely underdeveloped from kithood. Hunger pains had already began to gnaw at her innards as well; her mouth became flushed with salivation as she pictured tucking into the succulent flesh of a chicken thigh.

Lucas seemed to echo her thoughts, breaking the uncomfortable gap in conversation for the first time in a while. "I'm getting kind of hungry," he mumbled. "Can we eat soon?"

Sleetpath stared at him as though he had grown wings. "We've only been walking for a half-day."

Lucas shuffled his paws awkwardly, averting his gaze. "Uh... I know."

Sleetpath groaned audibly, unsheathing his claws and tearing at the turf. Lucas, Diego, and Luna instinctively backed away from the agitated warrior, eyeing his gnarled talons hesitantly. Lily stood where she was, but still stiffened. She had a considerable amount of trust in the white tom, but it was limited. The memory of his attack on Lucas was still fresh in her mind's eye. She could easily be around him when he was relaxed, but she did not like this grouchy side of him.

Sleetpath obviously had not taken note of their guarded positions. "StarClan, help me," he muttered mutinously. "Are you all hungry?"

Lily glanced self-consciously at her friends before they all nodded curtly.

Sleetpath sighed. "Well, too bad then. If you're that intent on joining the Clans, you'll survive. In the wild, you don't have the luxury of eating when you please."

Diego's expression suddenly hardened. "Well, how was he supposed to know that?" he muttered caustically.

Sleetpath's ear rotated towards the source of noise and Lily internally cringed. Let's not fight... Not this early into our journey...

"What was that?" he demanded. "If you have something to say, say it to my face."

Diego twitched his tail and hunched his shoulders defensively. "It was nothing. Forget it."