~~~Late Morning, West Headquarters
Grey did not sleep well that night. Was it because of the blood still stained on her bedding of cat fur? Or perhaps it was because of the incessant whispering in her ears?
"Leave her. Leave her here." A white stripe running through black fur. Glowing blue eyes.
"No, not my kit…" Silver fur, lightly dappled. Sorrow in deep green eyes.
"Leave her…"
She awoke with a start, her heart pounding and ears still echoing with the strange whispers of cats she did not remember. The cavern around her was still dark and ominous, and she heard cats padding back and forth around her and speaking in hushed whispers that reminded her of her nightmare.
Standing up, she yawned and stretched, making sure to get all the cricks out of her spine before starting a new day of inspection. She had done this a few times before, since she usually did not care for the annually boring and monotonous process that included observing nervous hunters going about their business. However, this time it was not scheduled as usual and rather out of the blue, which arose suspicions in both her and Hunter.
Grey started to pad out of her nest and down the tunnels. Hunter was not aware of this, but she knew the tunnels just as well as he did; however, there were new tunnels that were created that she did not know of. As she stared down the newly created passages, she thought she could hear the echoes of her dreams in the murky darkness. Flicking her ears in irritation at her lack of knowledge, she continued, not wanting to be late and miss anything.
When she stepped out of the underground tunnel, she caught Hunter's scent. He had already been there and was gone. She felt more frustration at waking up so late. Some guards stared at her from around her and she glared back at them without any fear. They turned around and disappeared, as if they were never there at all.
Grey stopped to sniff around some more, trying to distinguish the different scents mixed together in an amalgam of confusion and miscellaneous smells, most of it mixed with blood and fear of prisoners brought in. As she breathed in, she noticed another scent she had not smelled in a while—Hail.
She felt her hair stand up at the scent of her brother. Of course, he was not related to her by blood; nobody was in the Syndicate, but was considered family anyways. Concentrating even more, she identified Hail and Hunter's scents to be both fresh; they must have met each other and left at the same time. But what could Hail want with Hunter…?
Hail was a few moons older than Grey, and much more experienced in the ways of the Syndicate, but Father had chosen her to be heir, for reasons still unknown to all but the chooser. It was an arbitrary decision, and neither of the siblings could refute it. The murderous glare she had received from Hail was still ingrained like a dagger in her memory, and they had not talked much after it; they had not been very good friends since they had met in the first place. Both had demanding and ambitious personalities, and there was no way they could speak without jumping at each other's eyes.
All thoughts for inspection aside, she followed the twisting scent trail out of the alleyway. When she turned the corner, she saw two cats, huddled together behind a trashcan, whispering. She quickly ducked back as one of the figures turned around to check for listeners.
The larger figure was a large, light grey tom with rough patches of darker grey. It was Hail. Beside him, who looked much smaller in comparison, but still just as intimidating, was Hunter. She was too far away to hear what they were saying, but she could just make out Hunter's annoyed hisses.
Finally, Hunter whipped around and started stalking back towards the alleyway where Grey was. Grey quickly leapt back just as Hunter turned the corner to see her.
"Grey? What are you doing up?" he asked, voice as smooth as ever, very different to his annoyed hiss just a few moments before, but the surprise and tenseness was still present in his voice.
"That's what I should be asking you," she retorted, once more irritated at his voice. She thought, I swear your presence is enough to annoy me to no end.
"I was just taking a solitary walk," Hunter smiled and tilted his head in an innocent amusement, but his eyes did not leave Grey's as he stared her down.
Grey said nothing to contradict his lie and hissed, "Well, I was waiting for you so I can start my inspection."
Hunter visibly relaxed as he thought Grey did not suspect anything. Wrong. She knew how to lie just as he did. She smirked inwardly at fooling Hunter this one time.
"Why, you don't need to wait for me to do anything," Hunter purred. "Please, take your time to investigate every bit of our performance, but I promise you won't find anything."
I promise you I will, Grey thought.
~~~ Noon, Edge of West Territory
The forest.
A looming mass of trees, more in one place than Grey had ever seen. Shadows made the distance disappear into the undergrowth, and the branches seemed to close in on each other as a wall to stop her from venturing in. But Hail's scent led into the forest, so into the forest she would follow.
Her paws itched on the soft dirt and grass, so used to the hard cement of the twolegplace. She didn't know how far into the forest she had gone, or how far the forest will go, but the scent started becoming fresher, wreathing in front of her in the leaves and branches. She was close.
"Do you understand?" A low growl, threatening and hushed, that could only belong to one cat.
Grey found herself sliding quietly up a tree, and once safely inside the nest of leaves and branches, she peered through the foliage and observed the action below her. There were two cats, one being Hail and the other a dark brown tabby with a scarred ear. He was lean and gangly, and was crouched down as Hail, the larger of the two stood over him like a tower.
"Yes, Hail," the tabby grumbled, "I'll relay your message."
"See that you do," Hail hissed. He turned around and stalked out of sight. Grey watched the tabby spit after the retreating figure and disappear into the undergrowth as well. She stayed in the tree for a few more heartbeats to make sure neither returned. Then, she slithered back down to the floor and started to retrace her steps back to the twolegplace.
She pondered over the strange meeting between Hail and the forest cat. What was Hail planning now? The forest cat was obviously just a messenger, probably for the clan he belonged in. Grey didn't know much of the clans, but understood there were a number of clans—four, wasn't it?—in the forest and they competed with each other for food, territory and whatnot, often ending in bloody battles. She also knew they had strength in numbers, and had defeated Bloodclan this way. They didn't know anything about the Syndicate, however, since contact with the clans was forbidden, but Hail was dangerously breaching this gap; who knew what would happen if the clans and the Syndicate were to collide?
Suddenly, a cat screeched behind her and fell onto Grey's back. She shrieked in surprise and twisted around, slamming a sheathed claw into the attackers ear, causing him to rear back and howl in pain. Fur bristling, Grey spun around and glared at the offender, a small brown tom, no more than six moons.
"Who are you?" she hissed, ears flattened against her skull and teeth bared in a snarl, her classic intimidation pose.
The tom stared wide-eyed at her but then he hissed back, "I should be asking you that."
Indignation flared up inside her at the sight of this kit defying her, until she remembered she was not on her territory, but his. She started to advance on the young tom when she suddenly smelled more cats behind him. Not good.
Two more toms appeared behind the young kit, both older and noticeably stronger than the first. One was a dusky, dark-golden tom, with broad shoulders and amber eyes. Standing beside him was a black tom with a distinctive white stripe running from his nose to his tail. His eyes were a deep blue and for some reason they looked so familiar.
"Intruder!" The dusky tom growled and pointed at her with a small paw, almost like a tattling kit.
The golden tom stepped forward threateningly and hissed, "What are you doing here, rogue?"
Grey bristled at being called a rogue and snapped back, "I'm standing here, minding my own business, clan cat."
The tom looked taken back for a moment and was about to retort when the black tom suddenly took a step towards Grey and asked, "What is your name?"
His tone was not hostile or demanding, but tentative and uncertain, so different from the previous cat's voice. Grey felt tempted to answer, but instead shot back, "Why should I tell you, ya old geezer?"
The black tom looked at her shocked, and the golden tom hissed in rage, "How dare you speak like that to our leader!"
"Your leader?" Grey snorted contemptuously, "Why, he's too old to be my grandfather!"
"I am not your grandfather…" the black tom looked into the rogue's eyes and meowed, "Grey."
He knew her name.
Shock was her first emotion, splattering across her face like blood. She gaped at the old tom, and then reformed her face into a suspicious snarl.
"How did you know that?" She spat viciously. The way he looked at her… it was discomforting. It was as if he knew her, this clan cat! Fear trickled into her mind.
"Grey?" He spoke her name as if it were fragile and would break if he spoke it too loudly, too rashly. But his very presence was too loud.
It was too much for Grey. The black cat with the white stripe stood ominously before her, like a piece of her life she didn't know about. His blue eyes glowed in a way she didn't like, didn't want to see anymore.
She turned tail and fled, those blue eyes still haunting her.
A/N: Thank you to all reviewers! Unfortunately there's not many... OTL If there's any confusion or you think I mixed something up, please message me and I'll try to clear it up!
Reviews make my day~