Legacy: Infinity (Book 3)

Chapter 34: Cold Fates

Chapter 34: Cold Fates

The dark water lapped softly at the gray stone, washing over it and leaving it glimmering silver in the moonlight. The stars were numerous in the sky overhead and the pools below trapped the light within its dark ripples.

Eleven pairs of paws swept softly past the water, seven kits and four grown cats. Jay led the way with the kits surrounding her, barely managing not to step on one of them or accidentally kick them into the water. Silver led Thunderstorm by the tail, both of the gray cats looked exhausted and Crow stumbled steadily behind them, eyes stuck on the ground as he pulled his tired, old body forward.

But Jay stepped lightly upon the stone and the kits shared her excitement, gasping softly and giggling at the lights reflected in the black pools and tentatively darting out a paw to touch a damp part of the path that shone like moonlit ice.

They were nearly across the valley by now, and the moon's upward climb was nearing it's end as well, now nearly centered above them. But they couldn't stop here, they had to keep going. When she and Amelia had scouted the valley before they had found it mostly unlivable.

The water and stone were beautiful, but a cat couldn't live on water alone and even if there had been fish in the pools and they knew how to catch fish, when leaf-bare came they'd freeze over and the cats would be left to starve. And sleeping in the open on rocks was going to be life-threatening when the fierce cold came.

But it had made no sense, the StarReaders had lived here for seasons upon seasons, how had they survived? And then they'd found it. Jay's tail quivered in anticipation and her pace quickened. "Almost there," she whispered encouragingly to the kits whose tiredness was starting to trump their excitement.

Jay had to pick up Panther again shortly and then Silver had to carry Hail while a few minutes after that both Crow and Thunderstorm were carrying Rusty and Breeze. Jay watched Ice worriedly, she was the next smallest kit and was starting to trip over her own paws. Just a little bit further...

The cool breeze was softer and gentler down in the stone valley than on a mountainside and the cold was less pungent, Jay had high hopes that this place would work well for them. All that was left was to leave the beautiful and unfriendly stone behind them.

"There is it," Jay purred. As she said that a more musky smell mixed with the sharpness of stone and water.

"Trees?" Silver's short question was muffled by the kit in her mouth and Jay nodded, leading the cats to the end of the valley. The flat rock was interrupted by a few piles of rocks that created natural dens and were covered in moss.

From the faint, stale cat scent coming from them, Jay and Amelia had assumed these were the old StarReaders dens. However, this wasn't where they were going to live. Past the dens was the edge of the valley where a short and difficult incline brought them once more out of the valley into a wide ravine, covered in a forest.

"Look at all the trees!" Flint's excited mew brought energy to the sleepy kits and they struggled from the grown cats' grasp to squeak and cheer as they ran around beneath the full trees. The trees were almost exclusively pine and the soft needle bed below offered a warm and quiet ambiance as it stifled the sound of footsteps.

Jay was not exactly thrilled to live among pine trees, for in the ravine it blocked out all of the sky, and the needles were uncomfortably poky under paw. But the ravine was almost completely sheltered from the wind, only the faintest breeze flowing high above and stirring the tree tops. It was noticeably warmer and the scent of prey was heavy here.

"I have to admit, I didn't think a place like this existed here. How far does the forest stretch?" Silver asked, looking in awe up at the pine trees, the dark shadows nearly hiding her silhouette from view.