Caɾղaցe Ɱօօղ ~𝙰 𝚆𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚜 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌

27 🌙

Crescentpaw made it to Shadowclan land by the time dawn broke. She knew she could not hunt while she traveled there. If she was caught prey-stealing the entire plan might backfire.

She traveled along with her belly clenched and growling. This was her first real experience of Shadowclan territory. She had seen their tightly-clustered pines from the lapping lakeshore before, but being inside of them was a lot different. Most of the tree foliage hid the other territories with wide-spread low-reaching branches. Layers and layers of pine needles and prickly flattened pine cones were built up under-paw. They crunched beneath her pads as she walked.

It was reassuring being there early morning. The stars and moon had dimmed out, making way for a glorious shining-sun dawn. Barely a cloud drifted by on the horizon. Wind tugged at her ears and swirled between the trunks, indecisive as it switched directions. It brought with it the scent of pine sap and spruce needles.

The she-cat showered her pace. She realized that she was getting closer to the heart of Shadowclan territory. The brambles were more thickly swathed here, and stumbled into some of them until she saw the dip of their camp's location below.

Crescentpaw rounded the bushery and bramble thickets along the edge of its walls. She kept padding with her tail lowered, then halted at the odd scent that was emitting from this side of camp.

It smelled like... death.

It felt like it, too. Her paws sank into the ground underneath her weight, and that's when she realized.

The earth beneath her paws was barren. The tufts of grass had been ripped up from excavation. A few of the obvious dirt piles were fresh. Others were flattened out and had begun growing grass again, but most were in the same relative shape and size.

These are cat's burial plots. Their bodies are beneath my paws.

Crescentpaw retched. She stepped off of the fresh graves and ducked her head around to the other side of camp, padding faster.

The Riverclan apprentice began to wonder why Shadowclan was burying their clanmates' bodies so close to camp, but the thought was soon forgotten. Someone was breathing raggedly beyond the den walls.

Crescentpaw began more adamantly looking for the entrance, and finally found it. She had to walk down a long snaking bramble tunnel until she emerged into the light on the other side. Somehow being inside the camp gave her less heeby-jeebies than being outside of it did.

A cat was lying in the center of a small clearing, mewing with distress and panting with lack of breath. Crescentpaw bounded over immediately, seeing no other Shadowclan cats. Despite herself she couldn't help noticing the unique camp around her before she reached them.

Shadowclan's base was mostly bramble and holly bush, with thin pine trees stretching high above them. The steep dropping-off slopes of the camp's edges were swamped with herbage. A few flat boulders and overturned stones sat on one side of the clearing, where luscious grasses grew between them. Overgrown weeds conjoined each den wall, providing privacy and seperate den entrance spaces.

The dusty earth was dry and cracked beneath Crescentpaw's pads, but she could see reeds growing in stale swampy water along one shadowy boundary. She averted her eyes from the wildly overgrown camp and looked down at the stranger.

"What's the matter? Are you hurt?"

The she-cat's heaving chest and loss of breath caused her to not be able to speak. Her flanks looked full and well-fed, with stringy but strong haunches stretched out beneath her. She began partially trying to sit up, eventually catching her breath.