CHASE

Chapter 26

The scent of cat had was not even stale. It was just gone. Chase would sometimes lift her nose, always wanting to pick up just a bit of that scent but always being disappointed when she only smelled the autumn wind, perhaps mixed with a bit of squirrel.

She and Yew planned to leave in a few days. He had already told his family, and though they were saddened to see the young couple leave, they wished him luck in another forest. Chase had been lingering around, pushing off telling her family. Yew had insisted she do it by the end of the next day or else he would drag her over there himself.

Chase proposed she would do it in the morning, as the sun was already beginning to set. Yew had returned from a hunting trip with a dead rabbit in his jaws.

As they shared the meal, Yew paused.

"The camps are almost certainly abandoned by now. Why don't we go look at them?" Yew suggested.

Chase tensed. There was no harm. After all, the cats were gone, but she had not stepped into that territory since her last encounter with Moonstar. She had not intended on returning.

"Or we don't have to," Yew proposed after seeing her panicked expression.

"No. No, I want to," Chase said. "It might give us some more insight into how the cats live. I've never really explored the territory myself. Let's go after we finish our meal."

With only shards of rabbit bone remaining, Chase and Yew were on their way back to FoxClan territory, a place Chase had not ventured into since she had seen that young kit with blood stained on her paws. Her stomach twisted in knots as she approached the border, and she wondered suddenly if she might turn back. They were in FoxClan's territory before Chase had even realized it. The scent had altogether vanished. 

"Do you know which way their camp is?" Yew asked.

Chase shook her head. "Moonk--I mean, Moonstar--and I usually lingered closer to the border."

"Well, we'll find it," Yew replied. They explored the territory together, finding not much different from their own. The only uniqueness in a clan's territory would have to be the camp, though she and Yew were at a loss at how to find it. It must have been hidden for a reason, Chase supposed.

"The plants have been stomped away here," Yew noticed. "This was a common taken path. Maybe the camp is just up ahead."

Chase lingered behind him until they came to a thick wall of brush. Yew used his broad shoulders to part it aside, letting out a gasp before Chase managed to enter herself.

"What is it? What do you see?" Chase asked.

"Follow," Yew said, and Chase leapt through the bushes, finding on the other side a clearing several dens lined its circumference. 

It looked like it might have been lively at one point. Chase could imagine cats basking out in the sunlight or eating prey from what was now only a discarded pile of bones. Even if the cats had left prey behind, other predators must have gotten ahold of it by now.

Yew was busy peering into one of the larger dens. There were nests made of moss lined along the cold den floor. Many cats must have slept in these dens together.

Chase peered into another smaller den finding decaying and dried up herbs lining along. 

"This must have been a medicine cat den," Yew realized.

"Medicine cat?" Chase asked. She had recalled hearing the term before, but she didn't quite remember their purpose.

"They healed the other cats," Yew stated. "I bet if we go to the end of dens, we'll stumble upon the leader's den."