The Formation Of Butterflies

Chapter 3

"Careful," her mother warned as Butterfly slowly began to stalk the rabbit. The hazel coloured creature lay in blissful ignorance, letting itself relax in the sun. Its burrow lay nowhere in sight and the place was deserted from any form of bushes. In fact the place seemed deserted from anything at all, the grass seemed to have begun to wither away making the place barren and dead. Butterfly couldn't help but be shocked that she managed to find any life there at all.
The rabbit's ears pricked in sudden awareness and Butterfly leapt. It slipped from beneath her paws, its legs kicking out frantically before charging across the fields. Decisively, Butterfly gave chase ignoring her mother's warning screams behind her.
The prey swerved and leapt, its paws pounding beneath it in an inconsistent whirl of panic. It was a rather easy thing to keep up with, all of her playing with Mouse finally started to pay off. Yet it always managed to stay just the extra couple of paw steps ahead. Then it didn't... The creature stopped dead, grinding to a halt, churning up dirt so that it came flying into Butterfly's face. Barely being able to squint, she pounced on the prey breaking its neck.
"Butterfly!"
She sighed. It was her mother's alarming, daft screams again. I've been hunting for a moon now, why does she still insist on being so protective?
"What?" She asked, trying to prevent her voice from growling. Her head whizzed round to stare at the older cat.
Flower didn't react to her tone, staring straight behind her. "Were you not paying attention? You could have been killed!" She cried.
"I was only chasing a rabbit. You need to calm do-" A big grumbling roar echoed from behind her, cutting off Butterfly's words. Slowly, she turned her head.
A monster. It towered over her, its huge gold claw uprooting the earth before flinging it into some huge pile. "What is that?" She asked, her eyes widening.
"Something we need to keep well away from." Flower turned, whisking her away with her tail. There was a deep aching sense of foreboding that settled in her stomach.

"This is getting ridiculous! We need to do something!"
"Yarrow is right!"
"They aren't going to stop!"

The yells, the pleas, the orders just kept on roaring. It was the loudest and most unsettled she'd ever seen the group. Normally, they were calm and easy-going but now all chaos seemed to have broken loose,from the sight of it. She wasn't even in the clearing but instead sitting at the entrance of her den. Yet their hisses were just as loud as ever. She felt her brother begin to lean into her as he too stared out across the clearing.
"What-what's going on?" He mewed in a rather timid voice. Butterfly had to rather strain to hear him over all of the shouting...

"This is our home! We can't leave!"
"Yes we can, you stupid old frog!"

She gave her head a shake, attempting to focus solely on her brother. For a moment she wondered if the truth would be to much for him, sometimes even the smallest of things could send him spiralling into a state of stress and terror. However the truth would come out anyways and looking into those eyes she realised just how much they brimmed with curiosity.
"Our prey is running short," she spoke slowly as she tried to form the words, fortunately her voice still remained to be heard over the shouts...

"Don't be naive you mousebrain!"

Briefly, her head shook again trying to release her ears from the pain of their screams as she carried on talking. "There's been upwalkers attempting to take over our land. We think that's what is causing the shortage." She saw little point in mentioning the monsters. The cat was already terrified of the outside world enough,thanks to Flower. She thought bitterly.
"So does that mean that we erm-erm are going to have to move?" He asked, this time it was even more inherently clear that he was stressing. Her tail found its way to his, locking round it in a tight grip.
"I don't-" she struggled to find the words on her tongue and allowed herself to be interrupted by the shouts of the clearing, turning herself to face them instead. A twinge of guilt twitched in her stomach at opting out of a reply so her tail still remained firm on its hold.
The thing that seemed to have grabbed most of her attention was their great leader finally opening his mouth. Through all of the havoc, he'd remained still, silent, just letting the argument take its own course. Now with a confident clearing of the throat he finally spoke, letting the group know of his decision. Butterfly felt her whole entire posture tense and stiffen as she waited in anticipation. What is he going to say?
"I have came to a decision," he announced letting his voice ring over the clearing. Everyone seemed to come to halt and for that one moment it was as though the whole world had paused. There wasn't even the sound of a cricket. Butterfly gulped as she waited to hear what it was."We will stay."
To say that there was an uproar might have been an understatement. Yes, some cats did agree but under all of the screaming and yowling it became very hard to tell who was on whose side. Butterfly could hardly even fathom how she felt about his decision over all of the noise. There were some points in the coming moments were she actually thought fights were going to break out.They didn't though, luckily they didn't.
Instead everyone's focus seemed to shift. One by one each cat turned towards the two figures on the outskirts of the clearing. Yarrow and Blue.
"We've made the decision to leave," Yarrow declared. A gasp rippled through the clearing as they gazed at her.
However Sunrise didn't look the least bit unsteady and only calmly opened his mouth to ask a question "And what of Paws and Mice?"
"They're coming with me," she stated.
"We are?!" Paws exclaimed from across the clearing. Yarrow only sent him a look and his whole entire body seemed to drop into a submissive slump. I hope Flower doesn't try this with me.
"Are you sure that's wise, Yarrow?" Sunrise questioned further. Although he did well to hide it, Butterfly could see just how much this affected him. After all Yarrow was still his littermate. "While one of you may be able to become a house cat, I doubt all three of you would be lucky enough to stay in the same place."
Now that unsettled her, Yarrow gaze wavered and she seemed to shrink into her fur. Still though her paws stayed firmly in place. For a moment everyone seemed to collectively hold their breath and Butterfly could feel Vole lean even further into her.
"Would you really abandon your family like that? Could you stand the separation?" He persisted on. Butterfly found that to be rather harsh yet it seemed to have done the trick. Yarrow's eyes dropped to the ground and she began to take slow gradual steps back towards everyone else.
Then all eyes turned towards Blue expecting her to do the same but the molly only scoffed, a harsh edge to her tone. "Well I'm still going."
"No,you can't!" A cry broke out from among the cats. A cry Butterfly recognised all too well. One she seemed to hear multiple times a day. Instinctively, Butterfly's eyes sought out her mother. She was sitting in the middle of the group, staring at Blue with huge pleading eyes.She probably just doesn't want to lose another friend after Poppy. Butterfly figured, feeling a small slither of pity for the cat.
It was Sunrise who was able to speak next though just giving a simple "If that's what you wish."
She wondered for a brief moment if Flower was going to protest further but the cat turned so quickly on its heel, that it was clear that there was nothing Flower could say to convince her to stay at all. Blue had disappeared over the horizon in a matter of seconds.

Everyone broke up after that, going off all into their separate cliques and dens. Butterfly gently nudged Vole up onto his paws to make way for Flower entering the den. Her tail dragged on the ground and her eyes were fixed upon her paws. Butterfly wasn't sure if she'd ever seen the molly look so dismayed.
"Everything all right?" Butterfly asked keeping her voice quiet.
"Who knows," Flower replied, an exasperated, distant note in her voice. Her shoulders shrugged slightly at the words but she showed no real attention to the question. Instead whisking her kits up with her tail, signalling them to go to their nests.
"I guess you'll have to start taking Vole out hunting now." The words came from Poppy sitting at the back of the den. The molly had been sitting there to wait for Squirrel returning.She was giving Flower a rather long look as if trying to read every passing thought in her head. Butterfly could feel herself gulp as Flower sharply turned round.
"And what would you know about that? Have you seen the state of your kit!" She snapped, her fur bristling. Butterfly could see the regret hit her face as soon as she said it.
All that came in response was a rumble of a growl in Poppy's throat.

Sorry that this took so long. I've been posting it on FanFiction.Net as well if you see it.