Web of Lies

viii

The tunnel was longer than she expected. Robinflight couldn't see anything, and had to figure out where the walls were with touch. Quailfern followed nervously behind her, head lowered and ears flat.

"Can we get out of here?" Quailfern pleaded. "It's dark and wet here, my paws are soaking wet, and-"

"Shh! I see something!" Robinflight commanded. She stopped immediately, causing Quailfern to run into her. The tunnel led into a large cave, with a fire in the center. Etches marked the walls, depicting great battles and elaborate ceremonies. Robinflight slowly entered the room, in awe of the grandiosity of the place. How old was this?

"Woah, look over here!" Quailfern exclaimed, running over to a large rock. The rock was dark gray, with white lines going around it. The top was flat, with a clump of moss on it. On the top of the rock were scratches that looked like a hill, a beach, and a cloud. They looked like someone had tried to remove them recently, with contrasting white lines over them.

"What does this mean?" Robinflight wondered out loud. She walked over to the walls of the cave, examining the drawings. It seemed like it was telling a story. She traced the drawings all the way over to the rock, where the story seemed to begin.

The first drawing was of four cats, each one with a symbol over their head. One was a straight line, one was a horizontal line, another was a circle, and the last one was a rhombus with a dot in the middle. The circle one seemed... familiar. Had she seen it before?

She moved to the next drawing. Four locations, a hill, a forest, a cave, and a beach. Was it the four clans, HillClan, BrookClan, MossClan, and OceanClan? The next few drawings didn't seem important, until she got to the ninth.

It was a quarter way across the cave, representing the circle cats in two groups. They looked like they were arguing with each other. The tenth drawing showed the first group moving to a desert, and the circle changed into a triangle.

"Quailfern, come check this out!"

Quailfern padded over to her, examining the drawing. He looked confused, and Robinflight didn't blame him.

"Does this mean that there's a fifth clan? I don't understand!" Quailfern exclaimed.

"I think," Robinflight started, guiding him to all the other drawings. "I think the circle cats are HillClan. I remember hearing a story about them splitting up, but I don't remember the group going to a desert. The story I heard said that they all died from illness on their way to the mountains."

"I heard a similar story, too," Quailfern shared. "But the story my mom told me was that the opposing group joined BrookClan."

"I don't think there's even a desert nearby. Maybe this is why HillClan is so small, they were split in two."

"No, they surely would've re-populated..." Quailfern's sentence trailed off as he continued down the wall. When he got to the last quarter, he piped up. "Hey, check this out!"

"Hm?" Robinflight trotted over to where he stood. Her eyes widened as she looked at the drawing. It was of the rhombus-dot cats, about four of them, running away from flames. They looked like kits. One was behind a bush, one was in a tree, the third was trapped in a hole, and the last one ran away.

"What's wrong?" Quailfern asked, noticing the fearful expression on Robinflight's face. She took a step back, paws trembling.

"Quailfern, I-" She couldn't finish her sentence before the cave faded back to darkness.

"Reedkit! Reedkit, where are you?" She called out desperately. Where was she? What was happening?