Legacy: Infinity (Book 3)

Chapter 43: When the Moon is Gone

The time had finally come. Jay had been awaiting this moment with a mix of anxiety and excitement. It started late in the night, she'd been thinking out the last few details of their plan of attack when the wind changed direction and it tore through the ravine, sending clumps of snow flying off the pine branches and filling the night air with noise.

The wind was warm on her frozen nose and it wasn't long before she could hear the steady drip of icicles melting. The thaw had begun. Jay sat in the dark with her eyes closed, her nose to the wind, enjoying the fresh feel of a warm, wet, wind on her face as it blew through the forest.

She could hear murmuring from the den and she looked to see cats tumbling out, sleepy-eyed and rumple-furred. "Look! The trees are dancing!" Breeze cried, hopping around in the dark.

"Why is it so loud?" Ice grumbled, sitting down and rubbing her eyes with a paw.

"It isn't cold!" Panther mewled in delight, jumping and blinking in amazement as a drop of water fell on her nose.

"What's going on?" Flint asked in wonder, staring around as if he were in a whole new world. Though, with the wild wind and the excitement of the changing seasons, it was no surprise, especially as this was the first thaw they'd experienced, and quite a lively one at that.

Jay walked over to them, purring as she saw that Silver was leading Thunderstorm around by the tail, describing what was happening. "It's the thaw," she told the group of kits that had congregated under the bare oak tree.

Rusty looked at her, "What does that mean?"

"It means," she mewed, looking up at the small path of star-sprinkled sky, "That soon the snow will melt and this tree will bloom."

The kits looked up in awe at the tree, none of the kits had lived through a thaw before, and Jay wondered if she could rightfully keep considering these young cats kits, as they were now all, with the exception of Panther, up to her shoulder in height.

"Yes, the thaw, it's no longer leaf-bare but new-leaf, and the flowers will bloom, the grass will grow, the prey will run, and the days will be bright and warm," the gray queen sighed, she desired with all her heart that those things were the only things in their future. But there was one dark snow-cloud left on their horizon.

She looked around, Ash was sitting grumpily in the entrance of the den, too tired to be excited, but too restless to go back to sleep. Adder was wandering around the edge of the camp, sniffing the fresh air and flicking his ears as a clump of snow fell on his head. Even Crow had lumbered form his nest, moving stiffly but with new vigor around the camp. Well, since everyone's awake, now is as good a time as ever.

Jay signaled with her tail to Ash and Silver, they came closer and she leaped onto the roots of the oak tree, calling to Adder and Crow, waiting for the cats to gather quietly before her. "Everyone, the thaw has begun, and so it heralds the time to strike."

The cats visibly tensed, a certain amount of excitement and fear radiated from them. "We have been training hard for this moment and the time has now come, before the StarReaders can regain their full strength after a long leaf-bare. While they've been struggling to feed themselves we've lived with full bellies and warm dens. Right now we have the edge, and I intend to use it," Jay mewed. It was the most reasonable excuse she could find for attacking now instead of later when they were more prepared, there was no way she could explain a cat like Time to them..

"Because of their numbers, we already know we can not attack traditionally. Instead, we will have to focus our efforts on Blanche and Lune, the main causes of the StarReaders horrific crimes. Thanks to information Dusk Howl gave me," Jay paused and gave a noticeable nod of thanks to the tom, trying not to cringe, "We know that several of the cats are also likely to give us trouble, asides from those two. But with any luck, we can eliminate the mother and daughter before we have to face them."