Eyesore: The Weight Of Souls

Chapter Seventeen

Jaypaw's pelt prickled as the cats in the camp all turned to look at him and the other two. Their eyes stared, so judgemental, so surprised, so intense. He shook himself. He needed to get a grip and introduce himself before they all came to their senses.

"I'm so sorry to alarm you," Hollypaw started. "Please, let me explain wh-"

"Who are you three?" A ginger tabby shouldered his way to the front of the group, fur bristling. "Why have you come all the way here?"

Hollypaw's breath hitched beside Jaypaw. She stared down at the cats below them.
"I'm, um, I'm Holly," she swallowed. "And this is Jay and Lion. We're um, we're travellers."

The ginger cat surveyed the group, fur still bristling and muscles tensed. "Why are you here?" He repeated.

"We..." She trailed off.

"We need shelter. There's a storm on the horizon and we don't know this area." Jaypaw broke in, rushing over his words. "We used to live with our mother, but she died after a...a fox got her. We can hunt for ourselves, we just need somewhere to last out the storm. No cat likes being out in the cold and wet without shelter. Plus, Lion's scared of them." He looked pointedly at Lionpaw, who did his best to look frightened, but he looked more like what Jaypaw imagined a badger making dirt would look like. Or maybe Crowfeather.

Jaypaw made eye contact with Rising Moon, the pregnant grey and white molly that had been comforting Broken Shadow. A sad story about losing a parent and being all on your own - what mother wouldn't sympathize?

The ginger tom didn't say anything, he simply looked at them, but his muscles relaxed and his fur settled.

"They're just young cats, Furled Bracken, they couldn't be a threat if they tried!" Another cat spoke up. Jaypaw saw her head poking out from under a tree root. A kit peeped out with her.

Furled Bracken nodded.
"Yes, of course, you can seek shelter with us. You can sleep with the softpaws, they'll take care of you."

A white molly walked over to them.
"Hi, I'm Half Moon. I'll introduce you to everyone. Most of us have already caught our prey, but I'll ask a sharpclaw of they'll be okay with going back out and catching something else, so would you guys be okay with sharing?"

Lionpaw nodded. "Yeah, sounds good to us!"

"I'm sure Whispering Breeze will catch you guys something!" She smiled and trotted back among the blur of colours.

"They don't have a fresh kill pile," Lionpaw noted. "I wonder who feeds the kits and elders?"

"The queens must hunt for their kits and the elders for themselves. If they have any elders," Hollypaw said.

"Here's a rabbit!" Half Moon chirped, returning much earlier than expected. "Whispering Breeze had just caught this, but she said a big rabbit would be best for you lot, and she'd go hunt something else for herself."

Lionpaw took the rabbit. "Okay, we'll sit and watch this."

He dragged it over to a free space in the camp, Jaypaw and his group following. As they settled down and started eating, Jaypaw tried to think of a way to find out whatever problem they would have to solve to fulfil the prophecy, if that was what they even had to do here.

"Okay, so that cat over there, the one who's jumping around all over the place? That's Fish Leap. If you'd turned up at some other time, he'd be all over you. Luckily for you, Wind's Song just became a sharpclaw, so he's more interested in that," Half Moon said. "He's a softpaw like me. Softpaws are cats who are training to become sharpclaws."