Omen of the Sun Book Three: Dusk

Chapter Thirty-Three

Cheetahstar

Cheetahstar and Sunpool had found a camp by the second day. It was a good camp, sheltered, but not like he was used to. He was used to having as much room for movement as he needed, with the cliff high above his head, but here, the trees gave him much less height than he was used to. He couldn't see the sky, and most of the time, acorns and leaves and other tree debris that frankly, he didn't want to think about, were landing in his fur. Strange green things tended to come out of his fur when he groomed himself at night. 

But Sunpool had been adamant about staying, since there wasn't likely to be another cliff for them to shelter underneath anywhere near the Clans west of FlowerClan territory, and they had to be close to the Clans. Sunpool had declared that this was close to the Clans, and it was only going to be for about a moon, so he could deal with it, since he'd be returning to FlowerClan right after.

The day after they had made their camp, they had gone out on patrols, one to explore, and one to try and find rogues or loners or even kittypets to join. They had found a few, all of whom were sitting in front of Cheetahstar. Storm, a gray she-cat with hard blue eyes, had joined last of all, and had not talked to anyone, save for Sunpool. She had only spoken to Sunpool when prodded, in short words and sentences. Cheetahstar still wasn't sure why she had joined, but he wasn't complaining. He figured it was because she had been living alone in the wild. Joining a group was the best way to survive. He had told her it wasn't permanent, but she had just looked at him with her cold blue eyes. She looked about his age, and the haughty way she held herself reminded him of his former mate. 

She had gone crazy, just like Oakfrost - in fact, it was from her that he got the "brain itch", as Budfur called it - and had run off. A moon later, he'd found her body just outside FlowerClan territory. The entire area had stank of fox. That had only been a couple of moons ago; just over two seasons. 

Then there was two siblings: Wasp, a golden-brown-striped tom, and his sister, Eagle, a brown and white she-cat who had taken an immediate interest in Jayflight, who hadn't had the heart to tell her that he had a mate back at FlowerClan. Wasp and Eagle were both probably the friendliest they'd brought into the group. Wasp was talented, as well, as he'd shown when they'd tested them, and Eagle was just behind him in terms of skills. That was good, Cheetahstar knew, because they had slightly less than the number of CloudClan cats, but they had a lot of skill on their side.

Another cat they had found was a pure white tom with very dark amber eyes. His name was Bone, and he was enormous. Despite his ominous name and figure, he turned out to be a peace-loving, fight-hating tom. He had said straight off the bat he was a healer, which Cheetahstar figured was basically a medicine cat without the connection to StarClan, but he knew how to fight too, as did every cat who had come into the group. The only problem was, when he had walked into the camp, Storm had sat up straight and stared directly at him, loathingly, waves of anger and grief rolling off her so strongly Cheetahstar could feel them. She had disappeared for the rest of the night, but Sunpool had told Cheetahstar the next day that they had a history, something about kits, and death, and family. Cheetahstar debated asking one or both of them to leave, but had to decide that it was just unhelpful to the group. They didn't have to be near each other. They were both pretty invaluable resources to the group, and he couldn't afford to lose them. 

The next cats were two that Sunpool had found, a pair of best friends so closely bonded that they had appeared to be joined at the hip. One was Fern, a light gray tabby with green eyes, and the other was Enamel, who was a beautiful shade of silvery-white with very dark blue eyes. The two of them had been kittypets at one point, and they had been deserted by their Twolegs. They were happier out in the wild, free, and able to eat prey instead of rat-dropping pellets. They had immediately struck it off with Wasp and Eagle, and Cheetahstar had noticed Wasp staring at Enamel in slack-jawed appreciation more than once. It was funny, he had thought, just how many cats had lived in the same forest, unrestricted by boundaries, yet had never met.

Mistpaw had wormed her way into the group of Enamel, Fern, Wasp, and Eagle, who had immediately all loved her, and how tiny she was. Enamel especially, because she liked to collect things, it seemed, and Mistpaw was definitely something worth collecting. 

He trotted into the camp now, his jaws full with prey. The mice and squirrels had started to come back, and the rogues knew all the best hunting places, so he had let them lead. Storm had come along, but didn't lead, and didn't speak at all. He found himself watching her as she stalked, though. She moved with a kind of grace he had never seen, but she seemed so tense, so controlled. He wondered what had happened to her with Bone.

As he put down the prey on the pile they had started, he looked around the camp, and smiled. All's going according to plan.

This is an interesting chapter hehe

~Rainfeather