Warriors: Silent

20

It was just past sun-high when Buckheart, Frostcloud, Littlepaw, and Mosspaw left camp on hunting patrol. "Just one more moon till leaf-fall." Mosspaw groaned. Frostcloud eyed her friend. She couldn't begin to imagine how blistering the heat must be under such a thick coat. It made sense Mosspaw longed for cooler weather.

The patrol padded past Bearwalkers Den, and were on their way to Oak Stump as they chatted. On the horizon, thick black clouds formed, so Frostcloud made a note to hunt quickly and return to camp early. Surely, the below-ground warriors den would provide more shelter from the wind than the apprentice den ever had.

"The den is so empty without you." Mosspaw groaned.

"Is it?" Frostcloud asked. She hadn't thought Mosspaw would notice her absence, even if Frostcloud certainly noticed hers. It felt odd sleeping without a suffocating ball of fur next to her.

"Yeah. So I'd better work to become a warrior soon!" Mosspaw said with a bounce.

Buckheart padded closer to Frostcloud, "You can move your nest near mine, if you want?"

"Why would you let her do that?" Mosspaw asked in what seemed to be a taunting tone, but Frostcloud wasn't sure why she'd be teasing Buckheart over something like that. She and Buckheart were friends, and friends sleep near each other.

"No cat likes to sleep alone." Buckheart answered with an awkward twitch in his ear. Frostcloud raised her tail at her friends gesture, "I'll move my nest when we get back to camp." She said.

Approaching Oak Stump, Littlepaw silently split away from the others. Frostcloud caught the scent of vole a moment after, and realizing that that's what Littlepaw was after, trailed off in the opposite direction.

It wasn't long before Frostcloud picked up a squirrel-scent. And immediately, she dropped into a hunters crouch and watched carefully for the rodent.

There was a ruffle of movement, and Frostcloud spotted the brown squirrel chewing on a nut near the base of a tree, oblivious to her presence. The tip of her tail twitched as Frostcloud planned the catch; the squirrel was too close the tree, and she knew that the moment she pounced, it would see her white pelt and high-tail it up.

So, Frostcloud decided to aim a little higher than the squirrel to break the rodents path. And with her front paw raised slightly, and her hind feet wiggling into a flat placement onto the earth, Frostcloud leapt forward.

The squirrel, as she guessed, caught her movement and bolted up the tree. But Frostcloud had planned for this, and as she flew by the squirrel, she pulled it off the trunk with her claws and teeth, crashing into the undergrowth with the rodent stunned in her grasp. Swiftly, Frostcloud killed it with a bite to the neck.

Satisfied with her catch, Frostcloud trotted back to Oak Stump, where she set the squirrel next to Littlepaw's vole and a chipmunk that smelled like Mosspaw.

An angry shriek broke the forests silence and Frostcloud's fur bristled. Immediately, she pelted towards the sound, where she found Buckheart spitting at a small patrol of MarshClan cats. Mosspaw and Littlepaw erupted from the brush after her- hair on end.

She stared apprehensively at the cats. Why were they here? Had they come to talk to Whitestar? Frostcloud blinked. That wouldn't make sense: Halfstar wasn't in this patrol, and they all seemed so angry.

"You're on PineClan territory!" Buckheart hissed to the leader of the patrol. Frostcloud eyed the tom; a large dark grey cat with black ears, muzzle, legs, and tail tip- immediately, Frostcloud recognized him from her first Gathering.

"You're the one who fell down the ravine!" She said out loud.

The tom turned his wild eyes toward Frostcloud and he hissed violently at her comment. "We've caught the pathetic scent of a Pinecat on MarshClan territory!" He spat, "We're here to teach you thieves a lesson!"