Stones (Book Four) Ocean Breeze

Chapter Eight

Ceaderstripe stands and stretches, after Wavekit came back to the den last night everything had been pretty calm.
"Ceaderstripe," Seastar mews, "I'm taking out a small hunting patrol, would you like to come with?"
"Sure," Ceaderstripe nods.
"It'll be me, you, Mousesands, and Ravenpaw," Seastar adds.
"Alrighty," Ceaderstripe steps out of the den and blinks in the early light.
Ravenpaw pads confidently over to Seastar and Ceaderstripe and Mousesands comes from behind them.
"Are we ready?" Seastar asks.
Ceaderstripe and Mousesands nod at the same time and Ravenpaw nods afterwards.
"Then off we go," Seastar leads the way towards the river.
We must be catching fish or something Ceaderstripe thinks.
Mousesands stops at the edge of the water. The rising sun is in front of him so his shadow is cast behind him, making it easier for him to fish. However, the wind was blowing towards the river but that didn't matter when hunting fish.
Ceaderstripe stops and sits at the edge of the river. She watches a silver fish start to swim towards her paws, as she had put her two front paws into the water a bit, liking the way it moved her fur as the water lapped against the shore.
The fish gets close enough but when she lifts her paw to strike it splashes its tail out of the water and then swims away, leaving a cloud of dirt in its place.
Ceaderstripe lashes her tail angrily but sits tight.
After a few moments another fish comes. It has a small fin on bits back with a tear in it, a small stream of blood coming out into the water. She swipes at it, hooking it out of the water and catching it in her mouth. She drops it on the shore and kills it.

After a while Seastar suggests they go back to the group. Ceaderstripe picks up her two fish and follows them. She glances over to Ravenpaw with her three little Minnows, small, but every piece of prey counts.

"Hey Ceaderstripe," Burntwhisker mews, sitting beside her as she takes a bite of one of Ravenpaw's minnows.
She had given her two fish to the Queens and taken one of the minnows for herself.
"Hey," she mews around her mouthful of fish.
"May I?" Burntwhisker nods to the minnow.
Ceaderstripe nods and pushes the remainder of the minnow over to him, "you can have the rest," she mews, "I'm not to hungry anyways," she lies.
Burntwhisker nods and takes a bite of the minnow. After a few moments the minnow is gone.
"I'm going to go see Hemlockheart and the kits," Ceaderstripe stands up, her belly feels a bit unsettled, maybe she should have ate more of the Minnow.
She pads away to the temporary nursery to see Hemlockheart and the kits, "hello."
"Ceaderstripe!" The kits jump up.
"How are you?" Ceaderstripe asks.
The kits talk about how Wavekit has to stay with his mother at all times for the rest of the journey.