Warriors: Impending Storm (ON PAUSE)

Chapter Three

Quail Feather wrinkled her nose as a musky scent filled her nostrils. She lowered herself to the ground, tail twitching, as she ran her tongue across her jaws in disgust. Badger's Paw, she thought darkly. You're stinking up my hunting space!

"Pay attention, young one." To her right, Fox Tooth stood with his tongue lolling, panting like a fox as he walked atop the warm sands of the lakeside. His glossy ginger coat was slick with wetness, soaked through with water, but somehow he managed to look dignified as he stalked towards the edge of the Starpool on long, wiry limbs, his short tail twitching. "He's still in there somewhere, waiting to come up for air. Watch the water!"

The shrews of the Starpool had a tendency to lure their predators into the cold waters of the lake, diving into the foamy waves when they were rooted from their lakeside nests. Quail Feather could not help but admire their ingenuity; rather than flee towards the trees, where they would have a more difficult time finding a hiding place before being set upon by a hungry hunting cat, they ran to the waters, knowing that most of her Tribemates were too afraid of the cold water to dive in after them. Yet her fellow hunters had grown quite knowledgeable of the shrews' tactics; instead of give up the hunt right away, as they had once done, now they waited out the shrews, sitting by the edge of the lake and awaiting their prey's inevitable return to the shore. Either the shrew would have to come up for air, or swim farther out in an attempt to escape, which was a death sentence to any creature trying to swim to the other side. No cat had been able to do so; the stretch was too long, and even if they made it, they would be too exhausted to protect themselves. No—the shrew would have to return to shore, and Fox Tooth's slavering jaws would be waiting to snap its neck when it did so.

"I'm trying," Quail Feather meowed. "I'm trying to blend in, so it thinks we've left it alone." She did not want to tell the brown tom that Badger's Paw's scent was overwhelming her senses; the last thing she wanted to do was whine like a kit in front of a senior member of the Tribe's hunters.

"Blend in? With your dirt-brown coat on white sand?" Fox Tooth snorted loudly. "You'd have a better chance at trying to fool a badger into believing you're a fox!"

"At least she didn't run into the water like a mouse-brain." Kestrel Wing's warm mew was filled with amusement. The brown tom was calling from a large boulder near the edge of the lake, standing atop it like a king on his throne. The big brown hunter stuck out his tongue at his Tribemate, his whiskers twitching as Fox Tooth let out a hiss of annoyance.

"I thought I was fast enough to catch it!" he spat. "And we aren't leaving this spot until I kill the forsaken thing."

"We'll be here all day, then." Kestrel Wing tilted his head towards Quail Feather, mimicking the pitiful mewling of a kit. "I want to go home and curl up in my warm, dry nest and sleep!"

Quail Feather stifled a purr of amusement as Fox Tooth's fur began to rise. "Go make yourself useful then, and hunt along the western edge," he snarled. "And don't come back until you've found something."

Kestrel Wing leapt down from the boulder in one quick, swift jump, landing just pawsteps away from Quail Feather. The handsome brown tom's sleek fur glowed in the sunlight, his pale blue eyes gleaming with amusement as he turned his gaze upon the young novice to his side. "We'd better do as he says, or we'll never hear the end of it," he mewed, nodding towards the western shore. "Let's try our luck there, and see what we can find."

Quail Feather followed Kestrel Wing from a distance, gazing out across the dark indigo waters of the Starpool. Waves rippled across its endless surface, smooth as grass upon the plains, and as Quail Feather stared at the lake she could feel her heart's soft thumping in her chest, excited by the mystery of its beauty and size. What lay beyond the seemingly unending edges of the Starpool? Did the Starpool have an end? And if it did, would there be other cats too?