Toad jumped as Thrush almost cannoned into him. "Toad! Toad! Guess what?"
"What?" Toad asked.
"We found the Shadow Forest! We didn't go inside, of course, but we saw it and it was soo cool!" Thrush was practically bouncing on her paws.
"Woah, really?" Toad's eyes widened, he'd heard tons of scares stories about the Shadow Forest. "Was it terrifying?"
"Horizon thought so, but I was brave." Thrush puffed out her chest. "It wasn't scary at all!"
"Oh." Toad felt a bit disappointed but also safer. He didn't want something super scary bordering the territory of the Shadow Cats; it could attack the hollow at any time, and he could barely fight!
"Hey, Toad?" Thrush asked.
"Yeah?" Toad flicked his stub and pricked his ears.
"Have you ever seen a red glowy orb thingy?" Thrush asked. "That's what led us to the forest."
"Er...no." Toad meowed, skeptical. "But I'll keep an eye out."
"Alrighty!" Thrush bounced off and Toad thought about what she'd said. Had he been wrong to be afraid of the forest for his entire kithood? Did the bigger cats really over-exaggerate how scary it was? Toad sighed. It was too early for this, and he wanted to get some hunting done. He could think about that Thrush told him later. He padded over to Finch's den. "Hey!" He called. "Are you awake? You can't sleep all day! Sleepy head!"
Finch laughed and climbed out of her den. "I'm wide awake! You're the sleepy head."
"No, I'm not!" Toad laughed and they headed over to the hollow entrance. Toad was glad that Finch was his friend.
