Hawkstar's Story

Part 2

     There was no prey.
     Well, that was being a bit dramatic. I could smell them, but the scents seemed faint. I stopped in my tracts and turned my head, trying to catch sent of fresh prey trails. Nothing. Usually, prey would let out some kind of warning call whenever a patrol was noticed, and so far there was nothing. Because I was in the back of the patrol, nobody else had noticed me suddenly stopping, so I called out.
     "Something's wrong." In the relative silence, my voice seemed a thousand time louder. Still no warning calls. I was starting to freak out a bit.
     Hiddenpounce turned to me and asked, "What do you mean?" everyone else remained quiet. Maybe it was because of the fear on my face? I don't know! But can you blame me? Our sources of food had disappeared!
     "Listen!" I whispered, as quietly as possible, "Something is very wrong."
     For a minute, everyone was silent. Then Nightsnow asked, rather quietly as if dealing with a wild animal, "I don't hear anything, area you sure you're feeling OK?"
     "Nightsnow, you don't hear anything. I don't hear anything. Don't you see?" I cried out in desperation. Iamnotcrazy! I thought angrily. When he continued to stare at me worriedly, I couldn't help but yell out, "THERE IS NO PREY!"
     After I yelled it out, realization dawned on all of their faces. In the silence that followed, it was obvious no prey was anywhere within ear range. Hiddenpounce raised his head high and smelled the air, taking deep breathes. After a moment of this, he turned and agreed.
     "Hawklegs is right, all prey scents are old... Something is very wrong here." He asked, "Has anybody scented or heard any prey since we left camp?"
     Everyone shook their heads no. Hiddenpounce looked even more worried. "This is unusual..." He started, eyes gazing over the fields of flowers as if expecting prey to appear. "I don't thing it's an attack," he continued, "If there were enough cats to form an attack party out here, they wouldn't be able to disguise their scent. Some of them, maybe, not not enough of their cats if they had any hopes of winning a battle in our territory. So I'd say it's safe to split up and try to figure out what is going on. Everyone take different directions. Hawklegs, go north, Nightsnow go south, Archdaze go west, and Sunpath, you are the fastest cat here. Do you thing you can run back to camp and tell Snakestar? You can? OK, good. Everyone, Stay withing ear-range. I am going to go east. Call out if you hear anything."
     I nodded, and quickly checked the slowly setting sun to double check I was going in the right direction. A quick glance told me my clan mates were doing the same. North was in the direction our patrol had been were heading, towards the two leg camp, but that mission seemed to have been abandoned.
     "Hey, be careful and stay alert, got it?" Nightsnow asked, slowly padding up from behind me. I ignored him, still stung by the fact he had thought I was crazy. He placed a paw on my shoulder. I wanted to ignore him, but decided I should at least hear what he had to say.
     "I'm sorry if it seemed like I thought you were crazy earlier... I honestly don't know what I was thinking. If anything I'm the crazy one. Do ya think you could forgive me?" He begged me. I looked him in the eye. He'sactingsoserious, I thought, sodifferentthenthewayhewasactingearlier. Suddenly a thought dawned on me- I was making a way bigger deal of this then I normal. So I smiled.
     "Listen- It's OK. No hard feelings. I must have seemed like I was going nuts. Don't worry about it, OK?" I nudged him in the shoulder with my head, and he licked the tuff of fur at the top of my head. "I'll be careful, and you do the same, got it?" I looked him in the eyes as seriously as possible, but my smile must have given away. the fact that I was bursting with happiness at the thought of not having to deal with a grudge driving between our friendship.
     He nodded and gave me a final head bump, then turned and headed south, directly away from me, to explore. I watched him for only a moment before turning and heading north.

(Note- The biome is....

                              *dramatic drum-solo*

               ALPINE TUNDRA!
               The Alpine Tundra is not a biome that traverses large expanses of terrain like other biomes. This biome is not restricted to certain latitudes. It is not determined by temperature or rainfall gradations either. Instead, this biome can be found at any latitude on earth. Its only dependent on elevation.

I copied that from this link- http://www.thewildclassroom.com/biomes/alpinetundra.html
Go there to learn more about the Alpine Tundra biome.)