The Adventures of Cloudclan 005
In the heart of a deep, deep forest, there lives a great clan of cats. These cats are noble, fearless, and loyal. They will fight to the death to defend their clan. And in times of trouble, they call upon Starclan, the clan of great cat spirits, to help them. This is Cloudclan.
"Hurry up Lotuspaw!"
Rosepetal called back to the light-golden apprentice. Lotuspaw's blue eyes flashed up from the flower she'd been side-tracked by. She ran to catch up to Ivyblaze and Rosepetal.
"Lotuspaw, this is a border patrol," Ivyblaze chided. "You can't get distracted. We need to stay focused."
"Sorry Ivyblaze," Lotuspaw said. The patrol passed a pond covered in green algae. Rosepetal led the three cats along the bank of the big lake in their territory, over the rocks. Lotuspaw, trying not to fall of the slippery rocks, scrambled to Ivyblaze's side. The sun flickered over the calm waves as they softly lapped against the rocks. Without notice, Rosepetal held her tail up and stopped the patrol.
"Rosepetal, what's wrong?" Lotuspaw asked. Rosepetal was lapping at the air and sniffing intently.
"I smell something," she spoke. "Follow me. Stay low, and keep quiet." Rosepetal led them away from the lake and towards the woods. The deeper they went, the stronger the scent was. Lotuspaw nervously glanced at Ivyblaze. Ivyblaze looked around as they walked. Suddenly she stiffened.
"Look!" she cried, running over to a tree stump. Resting on the stump was the body of a dead squirrel, with bite marks.
"Something's been hunting on our territory!" Lotuspaw cried.
"What? A fox?" Rosepetal asked, padding over. Ivyblaze sniffed.
"Doesn't smell like a fox," she commented. "In fact, it doesn't smell like any scent I know."
"It smells like cat!" Lotuspaw said suddenly. Ivyblaze looked at her, surprised, and then sniffed the squirrel corpse again.
"Why yes, you're right! It was a cat that hunted this! Good work, Lotuspaw!" Ivyblaze praised her. "I'll be sure to tell your mentor Snowfang about this!"
"It wasn't just one cat," Rosepetal interrupted. "Multiple cats were here."
"They left a scent trail!" Ivyblaze pointed out. "It's fresh! They were just here! And it leads that way!" She flicked her tail in the direction of a marsh.
"Are we going to follow it?" Lotuspaw asked nervously.
"Yes. If we move quickly enough, we might be able to catch up to them. Let's move," Rosepetal instructed. She led the patrol across the marsh. Lotuspaw was struggling to catch up, pulling her paws out from the mud that was sucking her paws in. Her legs were all muddy when they reached the other side of the marsh.
"Great. I can't wait to lick all this off," she grumbled.
It wasn't long before the patrol reached an opening in the woods, and Rosepetal spotted four cats.
"Get in that bush," she hissed. "Now!" The three cats jumped in a nearby bush and watched the cats.
"That was a good squirrel you caught there," said one of the cats.
"Why didn't you eat all of it?" another cat asked.
"Well, I wasn't very hungry. Besides, we don't have much time here. We should be getting back to the others," a third cat said.
"Prey-waster!" Rosepetal hissed
"Are we going to confront them?" Lotuspaw asked Rosepetal.
"No. We're right at our border, and they're off our territory."
"But they were stealing our prey!" Ivyblaze argued. "We have every right to go out there and rip them to shreds!"
"They outnumber us," Rosepetal pointed out. "There are four of them and only three of us, and we don't know how good they are at fighting. It's not worth it."
"But we have to-!" Ivyblaze was cut off by Rosepetal.
"A smart warrior only gets in a battle when she's sure she has a chance of winning. Come on, let's go back to report."
The day was a bright sunny day. Newleaf was finally arriving, and Snowfang, Shadowpaw, and Goldenpaw were cleaning out what was rest of the snow. Since it was early dawn, some were still asleep. Moonshine was chatting quietly with Silverstar when the patrol arrived quickly in camp.
"Silverstar! Silverstar!" Lotuspaw cried.
"Hush!" Moonshine hissed. "There are still cats sleeping."
"So? How did the patrol go?" Silverstar asked. Lotuspaw's blue eyes flashed nervously. Rosepetal was about to answer when Blackthorn, a new warrior, came out.
"Honestly! Can't a warrior get any sleep around here? What's up with all this noise?!"
"Blackthorn, the patrol needs to give their report," Silverstar said. Rosepetal cleared her throat.
"Well, we came across a squirrel with cat scent on it," she said. "Multiple cats." Silverstar froze.
"Did you follow the scent?" she asked.
"Yes. We found four cats right off our territory. They had been stealing prey," Rosepetal said.
"Did you attack?" Silverstar was now standing up, looking concerned.
"No. We figured it wasn't worth the risk," admitted Rosepetal.
"What? You should have clawed their eyes out!" Vixenstep snarled.
"Enough, Vixenstep. They made the right decision," said Silverstar. "But we'll have to follow these cats to confront them about this." Ivyblaze glanced nervously at Rosepetal.
"Umm, I'm not sure that's such a good idea," she stammered.
"And why is that?" Silverstar flicked her ears. Lotuspaw lapped her light golden fur and looked at Ivyblaze.
"Because-" Rosepetal began, "Because the cats said something about 'getting back to the others'."
"What does that mean?" Silverstar asked.
"I think-" The cats waited for Rosepetal's answer. "I think that there's another clan in the forest."