Prologue: Endings
The light that glints off the water is bright with the midday sun. The glimmering ripples drift in with the tide, slowing as they flow over the sand. On this side of the bay, the tall evergreens draw out their long shadows over the warm earth, cast beams of shade over the sea. The reeds and the leaves and the needles of the trees all shiver lightly in the wind.
And now a cat, young and adventurous, makes her way steadily along the beach. She pauses now and then to look for shells, scampering intermittently between the water and the tree line. She goes awhile, with her long swishing tail out behind her, until she grows tired; she seeks out a bend in the shore, where the land extends its earthen paw out towards the ocean, and then rests beneath the shade of an old pine, near the water.
And there, only two or three foxlengths away, sits another cat. She sees him as she settles down: a tom, not old, but not young either. He sits, relaxed, with his tail tucked neatly at his side. After a moment he begins to turn to her. She looks away, out towards the ocean.
"You must've walked a long time to get this far from the hills," he says, then, to her. She looks back.
"I guess." She rolls over a pebble at her paw. "How'd you know where I came from?"
The tom blinks once and turns back towards the water. A cool breeze stirs up the pine needles at their paws. He says nothing. In the distance, a pelican soars high beneath the clear sky.
And then, after a time, the cat she-cat speaks again:
"D'ya know where you can find any good shells around here?" She adds, after a moment's thought: "I've been down here all day with no luck."
The tom thinks silently. "Try the tidepools. The water's a bit warmer there." He holds his tail out, pointing the way.
"Alright then." The she-cat thinks to leave, but doesn't. Instead, she finds her gaze fixed on the unexpected company. His tail is tucked in again.
"Aren't you going to ask my name?" she asks.
A pause. "Why would I do that?"
"Well…I'm a stranger aren't I?" She turns a little more towards him. "Said it yourself—I came down from the hills. You wouldn't recognize me."
"You don't seem so strange." He looks at her, slowly. He hesitates, but the hesitation is brief. He blinks. "I'm surprised they'd let you come out so far, on your own."
She puffs up at this. "I can sneak away when I want. I'm trustworthy."
The tom almost laughs, unconvinced. The she-cat, sensing this, shuffles closer to him with irritation. "It's true! After all, I am almost apprentice-age. And once I'm an apprentice, I'll be one step closer to being a warrior!" She can't help but shift around in her excitement. The tom nods.
"Ah yes, a warrior."
"You would know wouldn't you? Aren't you a warrior too?"
The tom shakes his head. The she-cat seems surprised.
"Why is that?"
Another soft breeze. He sweeps his gaze across the ocean, turning his head then towards the hills and forests that lie inland. He finally rests on her. And then he says, "When I was born, there were no Clans in this area."
"Before…?" the she-cat is even closer now, almost sitting right on the tom's paws. "You're going to tell me about it, right? About the time before the Clans?"
The tom grins and closes his eyes. "Of course."