Stoatfur padded through the forest, trying to find some prey. She knew it was nearing the end of leaf-fall, but it was worth a try. Wasn't it? Besides, she couldn't bear watching her Clan go hungry, much less starve as well.
The golden dawn light dappled her russet fur. Huge oak trees loomed over her head, most of their branches stripped of their foliage. Whatever leaves remained was now a hue of many reds and yellows. The rest of the leaves were lying on the ground, slowly rotting away to a dull dark brown color.
Taking in a whiff of the air, she smelled nothing but damp leaves. Clearly today was going to be a hard one to find food. Then again, wasn't it so for every leaf-fall?
"Going somewhere?" a voice interrupted her thoughts.
Spinning around, she turned to find Oakblaze, his calculating cold eyes staring at her.
"Um...hunting?" Stoatfur replied meekly.
"You were supposed to be assigned to a dawn border patrol! Have you forgotten?!"
"No..."
Of course! She had forgotten about that whole thing in favor of a quick search for some prey!
"I'd just thought I'd catch some prey before going on patrol." Stoatfur tried to explain,"Surely I won't be punished?"
"No, you won't. But you will have to wait for the next one, because they've left all ready," Oakblaze retorted, "Which won't be long, so I expect you to be back soon."
The small brown tabby turned away and stalked off back to the camp.
Stoatfur let out a sigh, perhaps out of relief or guilt or even unsatisfactory with her life, before turning back out into the great forest to hunt again.
She padded back to camp, holding nothing but a scrawny, shriveled shrew in her jaws. Dropping it on the fresh-kill pile, she turned and quickly joined the next border patrol.
A tortoiseshell gave Stoatfur a nudge when she joined them.
"Ah, I see you've decided to arrived on time," the tortoiseshell said jokingly.
Stoatfur nudged her back. "Quit it, Embersong!" But she couldn't help but give out a purr of amusement.
When they got near the edge of their territory, Creekfur gave the patrol a flick of her tail. "Check for any unusual scents, especially the scent of SnowClan!"
With that, the gray she-cat disappeared into the bushes to remark their boundaries.
As Stoatfur sniffed for any SnowClan scent, she got a strange sensation of being watched. Scanning her immediate surroundings, she did not find anything. Even when she sniffed the air, she did not find anything out of the normal. Suddenly, she caught a scent of what she could only describe as a really strong "rotting bird egg" smell. But as soon as she had smelled it, it was gone like it had never been there.
She shook her head, and continued with her duties.
After a long day, Stoatfur staggered towards the bush that made up the warrior's den. Finding a decent nest to sleep in, she curled up and was soon asleep.
The next thing she knew, she was sitting on a hill. A brilliant ball of light was zipping around in the sky, brighter than any other star she'd ever seen.
It slowly descended onto the ground before hundreds of Twolegs poured out of the ball of light. As one of them marched towards her, the she-cat tried to run, but her white paws felt as if they were stuck to the ground. It picked her up and carried her towards the star.
Stoatfur screeched and yowled and flailed in the Twoleg's iron grip, but alas she couldn't escape. When it looked at her, she let out a piercing scream.
The Twoleg had a long neck and a duck bill! Not only this, but it had small circular eyes and four arms. It had short fat legs and duck feet. It had a strange thing on top of its head.
It let out a quack as it carried her.
"Arms?! What are arms?!" Stoatfur cried as she was carried into the light.
The duck-Twoleg hybrid replied, "Oh, so I see you've read the narration, yes?"
"WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!" the russet cat yowled.
Stoatfur woke up in a flash. She saw Beetlecloud staring at her.
"Er... Stoatfur? Are you okay? You were yowling about 'arms' in your sleep."
"N-no, I'm fine."
But she could not banish the dream out of her eyes. It disturbed her how real the dream had felt.
She felt a metallic tang in her mouth. Licking her muzzle, she tasted blood.
An image of the duck-Twoleg hybrid flashed in her mind, its beady little eyes staring at her with interest.
"Was it a dream?" Stoatfur wondered, "Or was it something else? It felt too real to be a dream..."