Warriors: Losttail's Prophecy

Ch. 14

(Cat above is Thane)

The morning had been raw and cold, but as Losttail padded through the forest the clouds began to clear away. Long claws of sunlight pierced the branches, tipping the leaves with fire where they had changed from green to red, brown, and gold. Leaf-fall was almost upon them.

Tasting the air in the hope of finding some parsley leaves, Losttail caught a stale trace of an unfamiliar scent.

She padded on Before she finally caught the sharp scent of parsley. She found the small sharp leaves and nipped at the stems. Suddenly, a twig snapped and Losttail looked up abruptly.

She looked around and noticed a cat sitting a tree branch that was low to the ground near the Owl Tree. The cat lookwd around Hareleap's size,lithe but muscular, and looked around Nighthowl's age. His fur was black and he watched her with round yellow eyes.

He starred at her and Losttail could sense that he was intrigued by what she was doing. She turned away from him and continued to gather the parsley leaves.

"What are you doing?" The cat asked.

Losttail turned to look at him again. "I'm gathering parsley."

"What for?"

"I need them for a cat." Losttail mewed.

The cat turned his head to one side. "Are you a clan cat?"

Losttail starred at the tom. Can I trust him? He looked friendly. His eyes shone with curiosity and she could tell he was interested.

"Why?" She asked.

The tom shrugged. "I met a clan cat yesterday. He had light brown and cream fur. I think he said his name was Patchpaw."

Losttail felt her whiskers twitch. So this is where Patchpaw was.

She nodded. "Yes, I'm a clan cat. Patchpaw's one of my clan's apprentices."

The black tom brushed his tail back and forth, collecting a couple of near by leaves. "He went on and on yesterday about clan life." He mewed. "He spoke about the warrior code, the other clans, roles in a clan, StarClan."

Losttail just starred back at him, her thoughts drawn to the black cat. She tasted the air. The tom carried the scent of bramble and fern on his pelt, but nothing else familiar. The cat must be living in their territory. He didn't have any scents of the other clan's territories.

"You are in ThunderClan territory." She told him.

"I figured I was." The tom mewed. "My curiosity got the best of me. My mother told me and my siblings stories of the clans when we were kits. They live at that abandoned barn by the moor. When I was big enough, I left to live in the forest. My home's not far from here. It's an old fox burrow that been abandoned for a while."

The tom licked a forepaw and ran it over his ear. "Anyway, what does parsley do?"

"A queen in my clan just had kits and if a queen's milk keeps running, parsley can be used to absorb the milk a save it for later." Losttail explained.

She noticed the black cat's eyes light up. "A queen had kits!" He mewed.

He lifted up his front legs and Losttail could see a dead mouse tucked under him. He grabbed it and tossed it to her. Losttail bent down to sniff it. It was still warm.

"I just caught it so it's still fresh." The tom told her. "If a queen just had kits, she'll need the extra prey."

Losttail put a paw on the mouse. "You caught it, you should have it."