Chapter 1

"...And so, I crouched, every muscle tense and poised, ready to fling myself into battle, to twist and slash so ferociously that no cat would dare face me again. I leapt..."

The lion sprang, hind legs unfolding in an explosion of released tension, forelegs stretching so far that the tendons jutted out, clearly visible underneath golden fur. His claws glinted, toes spread apart, reaching for the enemy.

"Whiteclaw!" A stern voice sliced through the lion's dream cloud. Whiteclaw landed more awkwardly than he'd intended, forepaws skidding, tearing green grass from its roots. The butterfly circled once over his head, teasing, before lifting up on the breeze Whiteclaw's movement had created and sailing away.

Whiteclaw turned. Another lion sat atop a flat boulder, on the far end of the enclosure. His mane was a stark scarlet, smooth and flowing down his shoulders. "Stop storytelling and get over here. No one was listening to you, anyway."

Whiteclaw shook dust from his dark mane. "Sunray was listening to me," he huffed.

Sunray, a slender lioness, got to her paws. Her large belly swayed beneath her as she walked breathlessly towards Redmane. "Catch a real rabbit. Then I'll be impressed."

Rubbing affectionately against Sunray, Whiteclaw nosed her swollen stomach. "Just wait. Our cubs are going to love my stories." His amber eyes shone.

Sunray sat down at the foot of Redmane's boulder, focused on the lion looming over her, but she still spoke to Whiteclaw. "Maybe they'll actually believe them," she purred.

Whiteclaw sighed. One day he'd show them. He'd catch a rabbit. He didn't particularly see the point of it; the humans had always brought them their rabbits already dead, waiting to be eaten, but recently they'd been occasionally putting live ones in their cage, on the days when no other humans were around.

Redmane lashed his tail as a second lioness joined them at the foot of the boulder. "I have something to warn you all about," he told them. "A storm's coming."

"Oh, here we go." Whiteclaw rolled his eyes. "When will you get it, Redmane? Storms aren't dangerous. And if they are, we've got a place to hide." He angled his head towards a rickety wooden lean-to structure, lined with straw and with silver bowls of fresh water waiting for them whenever they needed.

"This is a bad storm," Redmane cautioned, eyes blazing with frustration. "Can't you sense it? And haven't you noticed the humans acting so oddly?"

With a roll of his eyes, Whiteclaw looked around. Sure, the humans had seemed on edge lately, and some unusual things had been happening. He'd seen large, roaring buildings on wheels moving around, with the anxious rustling of animals inside them, like some of the animals were being taken away from the zoo. But they hadn't been moved. It didn't affect them.

"I've finished the hole in the fence," Redmane informed them, his gaze fixed on the far end of the cage. Beneath the tangled bushes at the edge of the enclosure, Redmane had been working on making a hole in the fence. He'd been working on it for the whole time they'd lived here, the hole hidden by the bush. Whiteclaw couldn't understand it. Sometimes Redmane would return from making the fence hole with his claws frayed and bloodied. How could he be that desperate to escape?

"If anything goes wrong," Redmane growled authoratively, "use that hole and escape."

"We know, Redmane." The new lioness spoke up for the first time, a gleam of affection in her eye.

Redmane sprang down from the rock to her level. "I'm sorry, Lostmane." He rubbed his golden head against hers. "I just have a bad feeling. I need to know we can get out of here if we need to."

Whiteclaw shook his head. Trust Redmane to make a mountain out of a molehill.