Warriors AU: Skyclan's Destiny

Chapter 12

The sun had gone down, leaving the uneven line of Twoleg rooftops outlined against a scarlet sky. Haze clambered up a pile of Twoleg waste, pushing aside pieces of debris, his nose twitching. Last time he'd been here, the pile had been teeming with rats. Now all he could find were stale scents and droppings.

"Not a whisker," Stumpy spat, looking down at him from the top of the heap. "Some other cats must have cleaned the place out already."

"Swift!" Haze hissed.

"We can't be sure of that," Stumpy pointed out. "There are other cats living here; any of them could have taken the rats."

"I know it's Swift," Haze growled. "She doesn't want us living here, so she's trying to starve us." He jumped down from the mound, swiping bad-temperedly at an empty Twoleg box as he landed, and stalked away.

Before he had taken more than three paw steps, he glimpsed a flash of gray and brown out of the corner of his eye. Spinning around, he saw Harper sitting in the shadow of a wall.

"Where have you been?"

Harper's neck fur fluffed up. "Around."

"Well, stay close by in future."

The gray and brown tabby she-cat sprang to her paws. "Why?" she challenged. "I can look after myself."

"There are some dangerous cats around," Haze growled.

To his surprise Harper bounded forward and pushed her forehead against his shoulder with an affectionate purr. "More dangerous than you?" she meowed, looking up; her eyes were glimmering with amusement. "Surely not!"

For a moment Haze wanted to cover her ears with licks as he used to when she was a kit. But those days were long gone. When he didn't say anything, he saw the amusement fade from Harper's eyes.

"I'm going to see how Tracy's getting on," she mewed, turning and stalking across the patch of waste ground.

Haze watched her go, sadness twisting in his belly.

"You won't tame that one so easily."

Haze jumped as he realized that Cinder had padded up behind him. "I don't want to tame her," he responded gruffly. "I want to keep her safe."

"She's old enough to keep herself safe," Cinder pointed out.

"She needs a mother."

Cinder touched her tail-tip briefly to her friend's shoulder. "You've done the best you could."

"But it's not enough, is it?" Haze replied. "It won't ever be enough."

Haze padded across the waste ground, in the opposite direction from the one Harper had taken. At the edge of the open space he leaped onto the fence and began walking along the top, balancing easily. The Twoleg gardens were deserted in the gathering night. Though lights showed in some of the dens, the shadows lay thickly where Haze prowled.

Haze's whiskers quivered and he opened his jaws to taste the air. Rabbit! His belly rumbled and water flooded his jaws, but he knew that this scent came from a rabbit in a Twoleg cage.

I'd be in more trouble than it's worth if I tried to catch it.

As Haze padded along the fence top the smell grew stronger. A new taint mingled with it: the scent of fear. Haze wondered if young Twolegs were trying to play with the rabbit again; he knew that the rabbit didn't like it. Then a terrified shriek rose from the garden just ahead. Haze froze. This wasn't because of clumsy young Twolegs. The rabbit was being hunted!