First her mom dies. Things only go downhill from there. Alongside raising her new siblings, Junco must navigate the now dangerous waters of life as a Wanderer. Death and feelings are the worst kind of problems.
Oriole was always very cheerful, and...
Many of the Ancestors did not want to explain what was happening to her. She'd asked Branch, Bellflower, Amber, anyone who would talk to her. But she still wasn't sure who The Forbidden were.
The group was talking about it, but from her spot Oriole could only hear snippets of the main conversation. Pushing past other starry-furred Ancestors, she made her way to the center of the circle. I'm important to this problem, I deserve to be up here with them!
"We cannot be sure, since she left them we can't see her anymore," Frog murmured.
Driftwood snorted, "Of course it's her, what other Wanderer could it be? None of the rest of them are evil, and if Llano dies, he definitely won't end up Forbidden."
"What are we talking about?!" Oriole shouted.
All eyes turned to her.
"Who are The Forbidden and is it Static that you are talking about?" she continued.
Still nobody answered. Why are they so hesitant? If it's about Static, I should definitely be involved! She killed me!
"I was a leader! And now nobody will tell me anything!"
Branch sighed, "Fine, I'm not sure why we were trying to keep anything from you anyway. Probably because most of us would rather not think about it. Yes, we are talking about Static. We have reason to believe she is dead and has joined The Forbidden. Those are the dead Wanderers that were too evil in their life to join the Ancestors."
"Where do they stay then?"
"They roam the world as angry ghosts. The living usually can't see them, but if we go down there they can attack us." So that's why we can't walk amongst the living. The afterlife is simply another life, only without most of the problems. Can we still die up here?
"I have other questions. Where is Granite?"
"Dead. Forbidden," Branch mewed. He did abandon them, everyone. How did he die?
"We aren't sure how he died, we did not see," Branch answered, seemingly having expected her question.
"Does every cat that dies go to an afterlife? If not here then where?"
"We aren't totally sure, though there must be other resting places. I can't really answer that for you, I'm sorry," Branch sighed.
"A little while before I was killed, I found a dead oriole in the prey pile. Was that a sign? Can we even send signs?"
"The Ancestors have no knowledge of the future, we can simply spectate. I can tell you that the oriole was killed by Static while she was hunting. I was watching."
Of course she did. Well she's dead now anyway, right? I suppose by now I knew that they didn't have any view of the future. I wish I could see what will happen. I wish I could tell if Llano was going to survive or not.
"Can we die again up here?"
The silence grew sharper until an ancient Ancestor from the crowd answered simply, "Yes."
"Can we get on with the meeting?" Driftwood interrupted.
Oriole rolled her jade green eyes. What were they accomplishing anyway? All these dead cats do is argue!
"So what makes you think she's dead?" Oriole asked.
"We sense another presence among The Forbidden, it must be her," Driftwood mewed.
"But how did she die?" Branch questioned.
"That is the question, if she had simply bled out it would have been earlier."
I suppose she could have been hit by a monster or attacked by a fox but...
Nobody spoke, but Oriole could tell that all the Ancestors were thinking the same thing.
What if there is something out there that is worse than she was?
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