the stars aligned | 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Chapter 1

Sunlight shone down through the trees, dappling the forest floor with light. Birds chirped in the treetops and a cool breeze rustled the leaves.

It was the perfect day for hunting. Echo stalked through the undergrowth, opening her mouth to taste the air. The scent of mouse lingered from near the oak tree, as well as the sound of shuffling. Echo crouched behind a bush and peered through the leaves at the oak tree's roots sticking out of the ground. There — a brown-furred mouse was searching for food among the fallen leaves. It was a good size, too, meaning someone at the Twoleg den would appreciate it.

Echo adjusted her position and slowly started moving forward, keeping her pawsteps light. The mouse kept sniffing around on the forest floor, bathed in a small patch of sunlight. She shuffled forward a few more steps, waited a heartbeat...now!

She leapt forward and killed the mouse with a swift snap of its neck. Quick and clean, like Sylvester taught her. She picked it up in her jaws and padded out of the forest.

It was brighter once she emerged onto the moorland, with nothing to block the sun. Hotter, as well. Waves of heat beat down onto her silver tabby pelt, the fluffy fur doing nothing to cool her down. Echo could see pretty far in all directions from here, on one of the small hills, including the abandoned Twoleg den where the loners lived in one direction and the Clan territories in the other.

They were further than they looked, with a few hills and stretches of moorland in between. But she could see the faint blue of a flowing river and very occasionally, the tiny brown and grey figures of cats patrolling. Echo had tried asking about the Clans before, but her mother shot down her questions pretty quickly. It was forbidden to go there, and Echo tried to respect that rule as much as she could.

Sometimes she saw the Clan cats in her visions — kind-looking queens playing with their kits and brave warriors training their apprentices. It was so organised, Clan life, nothing like the stories of mean, rouge-like cats sharpening their claws on bones and killing other cats for fun that her mother told.

The Clan territories looked quiet today — nothing stirred except for the rustling leaves and the rushing water. With a mental sigh, Echo turned and trudged back up to the abandoned Twoleg den. She raised her tail in greeting to Aquarius as she approached, the brown tabby letting out a purr in reply from his spot just outside the doorway. Aquarius was one of the loners she lived with, only a year or so older than her. He used to be a kittypet before he ran away and found Sylvester, who seemed to be their leader.

The cool air inside the den welcomed Echo as she slipped inside. Cloudy was the first to notice her arrival and yelled out a greeting to her. He was stretched in a patch of sunlight coming in through a gap in the wall, sunning himself. Cloudy was kind and funny, but cats usually assumed they were littermates, thanks to Echo's silver pelt and Cloudy's patched grey and white one; but in reality both Cloudy's parents were dead and he was a six moons older than her.

In a way, she related to him, having never met her father — she assumed he was dead, and Claire never talked about him, nor had she ever asked.

Echo turned away to place her mouse on the fresh-kill pile in the corner of the den. It currently had two pigeons and a rabbit, probably caught by Claire and Aquarius, who went hunting earlier in the morning.

"Echo, you're back," Claire's voice called, and Echo dropped her mouse to go greet her mother. Claire looked basically the same as her, but the older molly had much shorter fur.

"I wasn't gone that long," Echo reminded her, remembering her promise to only be out for a few minutes since she was going alone.

"It felt like a lifetime," Claire replied, licking the top of her daughter's head. Echo purred in response.

Seeing no Clan cats today was a little disappointing, her mind whispered, and Echo agreed.

"How often to Clan cats patrol their territory?" Echo blurted out just as her mother turned to pad away. I shouldn't have done that.

Claire glanced back with a confused, perhaps even irritated, look in her sage eyes. "I don't know," she huffed, eager as usual to get the conversation about Clans over and done with.

"I haven't seen the Clan cats patrolling for ages," Echo continued on, even though she knew she was pushing her luck. Even if her mother exploded with anger at her, maybe she'd get at least a little bit of information.

Claire turned and stalked forward to face her daughter. "They don't patrol between dawn and sunhigh, when you go out," she replied, her tone eerily calm. "Why are you so obsessed with the Clans, Echo? They're just a bunch of rouges who would tear you apart without needing a reason."

No, they're not, Echo wanted to yell back, but she knew she'd reached the end of this discussion. Any more questions and Claire might throw her out of the group. She just nodded instead, looking down at her paws, letting Claire walk away.

How could the Clans be tough and mean when they also looked after their young, hunted in a specific way so the mice and rabbits and voles didn't all die out? Echo couldn't see them as murders without good reason, not at all.

But then again...

An image flashed through her mind, of a grey/blue tom lunging towards her, claws unsheathed and dotted with blood. It came with the fear of doom, tragedy...death. She pushed the image from her mind abruptly. There was no way the Clan cats would kill her like that. It was still scary, though, watching how she would die.

Echo shut her eyes tightly and tried to forget she'd ever had that vision.