Chapter Text
Focus.
Her black and white paws shifted on the cool, wet grass. Her fur silently brushed against the bushes pressed against her sides.
Hunt the way she taught you.
Her blue eyes were locked onto the furry grey shape that scurried through the grass. Her full attention was on the unknowing creature, craving the way her claws would draw blood from the fur.
Focus.
Her pupils turned to slits as her hackles rose along her back. A sharp hiss sliced through the forest air whispering through the trees. The grey mouse whipped its head around, but it was too late as she landed on it with extended claws.
Slices of grey fur stained with drops of blood were clawed away from the mouse as she tore into the creature. Feeble squeaks gave no aid as she kept on slicing into her prey, relentlessly tearing into it until it stopped moving altogether.
Scarlet drops of blood dripped from her jaw and claws. She sniffed the creature thoroughly, checking for any unsavory extra that could be hiding in it, but smelled nothing after a minute. With a heavy sigh, she licked her maw and opened it to grab the mouse.
Suddenly, the sound of rushing wind caused her to look up. She saw a blazing star racing across the sky. Her hackles rose as, beyond any explanation she could ever give, the blazing star seemed to cut the moon in half, and the bright sun was put forth, creating a dawn with a blood red sky.
She hissed in fear as the light from the now dawn quickly creeped over the waking forest. She could hear the fearful caterwauling of other cats in the far distance, which she knew would be from the clan cats. She never went in those territories after all the stories she heard from her mother.
I don't care what happens to those cats, I can't stay in range of this strange dawn. She thought, unsure of what this new light would bring or what it meant. She ignored the nice warm feeling on the back of her fur as she raced into the dark and misty forest where she had come from, not bothering to take her catch with her.
Wet droplets fell on her fur as she bumped into ferns and bark. She could feel the rough bark scratch against her pelt, but she didn't bother checking if her fur was bleeding. Panic and fear pulsed through her bones like the rush of hunting prey, but terrifyingly.
She kept running on until she burst through a tangle of dark glossy bushes. Grass was flung from the dirt as she made an unceremonious landing. She shook her fur as she stood, flinging leaves, grass, and dirt from her black-and-white pelt.
Suddenly she heard a call she recognized from a few moons before. It was the call of a twoleg, an odd creature with furless pelts as tan as sand or brown as the bark on trees, and she didn't like these twolegs. She slowly backed away until she heard the soft ring of a bell, and a fiery orange tom with a strip of blood red fur running to behind his ears with bright green eyes had made his way to the top of the fence.
Amidst the bright dawn light that had reached the twoleg's den, his fur blazed like a forest fire under the red glow. He seemed to sit up straight and face the sun, but his eyes were locked onto the brightening forest.
The she-cat realized that this cat was staring right at her, his green eyes fixated into slits. She was cautiously and slowly backing into the forest, her senses still pricked with panic. She froze as the cat jumped from his fence-post, and the ring of the bell sounded again, making her realize this was simply a kittypet.
"Where are you off to, Rusty?" A strange voice mewed from behind the orange tom.
"Hello, Smudge." Rusty answered as they both looked up to see a black-and-white tom who perched ungracefully on the fence.
"You're not going into the woods now, are you? It's only sunrise, our twolegs are about to wake up!" Smudge seemed to have a pleading tone in his mew.
"Just for a look." Rusty replied, shifting towards the forest.
"Well, you wouldn't get me in there! It's dangerous!" Smudge answered, wrinkling his small black nose. "I know that Henry told me he went into the woods once, and he said he met huge wild cats who ate bones and the bodies of their enemies!"
"Smudge, Henry is so fat and lazy that he couldn't make it past that fence! If he did go to the forest, it was only before the vet." Rusty huffed, wrinkling his pale pink nose.
"No, really. He caught a robin in there!" Smudge insisted.
"Well, if he did, it was before the vet. Now he complains about birds because they disturb his dozing. But anyway, I'm just going to take a look around in there for a bit." Rusty said, facing the forest again.
"Well, don't say I didn't warn you!" Smudge purred. The black-and-white cat turned and plunged off the fence back down into his own garden.
She knew it was time to go, so the she-cat dashed off silently. She went back into the darker and misty part of the woods, slowly losing speed until she was at a walking pace. Her paws sprang across the wet grass, turning her pawpads damp.
"That kittypet is probably going to get his fur torn off by a clan cat." She remarked, a purr rising in her throat. Although Rusty hadn't believed him, Smudge was right about the vicious wild cats. She was definitely one of them, no matter if she was a clan cat or not.
"I'll probably find some scraps of his fur or blood the next time I go that way." She remarked as the faint sound of the ringing bell grew dimmer. "Hope that he at least learns a lesson if they let him out alive."
She sat down, licking her forepaw clean from the dirt that had wedged into the crevices. Her papwads were rough and had various cuts from being taught to climb trees.
Some time passed as the she-cat laid down in the forest clearing, head tilted towards the sunlight. She could feel the light move from which way the warmth went. Luckily, it stayed on her pelt until she was startled from the sounds of rustling leaves behind her.
She quickly whipped around, hissing as the sound became closer. She unsheathed her claws, readying herself for a fight. From the scent, she could tell it was clan cats.
There was more rustling in the bushes until the shape of two cats emerged. One was a lean, pale gray she-cat with a large scar on her shoulder. The other was a large golden tabby with fur around his neck like a lion's mane. They both looked like wise, seasoned cats who had been in many battles.
"Is this the cat you went out to look for, Bluestar?" The golden tabby asked, turning towards the pale gray she-cat. She squinted her eyes at the black-and-white she-cat before nodding her head. "Yes, Lionheart, this is the one."