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Chapter 2Firelight sat in a small clearing where a stream ran through. As he leaned over to get a drink he heard a snap. It came from up in the trees, it was too loud to be a squirrel or a bird. He took a few drinks, though watching the trees. He spotted the cat on one of the lower branches of a tree. She had black fur and strange yellow markings. "Hello." Firelight called to the she-cat. "Hello." She meowed leaping down. "You're traveling right? Do you need help finding your way?" she offered. "Yes, I'm traveling but I know my way around. By the way if you were trying to sneak up on me, you need to try not to break the twigs so loudly."
"You could tell the difference?" she stared at him with bright yellow eyes. Most travelers didn't know the difference. "Then speak your name and rank."
"Brave little one, huh? My name is Firelight Bravefang…" he was cut off by a voice in the forest. "Firefluff Dreameyes is what I think." Ash purred stepping onto the clearing with Marn and Zinnia following behind. "Hey grass-brain." Firelight wasn't too surprised to see Ash. He was surprised to see Zinnia with him though. The black and white blotchy cat seemed familiar. "Marn, right?"
"Hey, so you remember me." Marn laughed
"So you know each other?" Zeek mewed confused.
"Well I haven't seen Marn since he was a kit. Ash, I use to travel with him. And then Zinnia the little red kit is my daughter. By the way how did you run into her?"
"More like she ran into us, or me to be precise. Remind me to get out of her path next time." He laughed.
"Well you didn't fall at least. You eat too much; she just bounced off of you." Ash teased him, but looked up to the sky, his face darkened and his expression changed. "We need to head toward the fox den were your staying."
"Exactly what I was thinking." Firelight mewed. "I'll lead the way. If I'm right we should get there before dark." He said setting a steady pace toward the den. They all followed, including Zeek. Ash stayed in the rear, he was as alert as a rabbit in the Great Pine City.
They arrived there while the sky was turning from a pink to a dark blue. "Just in time" Marn sighed. "Firelight!"Marigold yowled running up to him. "Don't worry Zinnia is with me." He mewed to the frantic mother. "And these are a few of my old friends." He mewed, noticing she was staring at them suspiciously. "Can we get in the den now?" Marn asked anxiously, Firelight nodded and led the way. It was a veer y large den, enough room for them all. "Help yourself to the Prey Pile." Marigold beckoned them with her tail. They all settled down, each with a piece of prey. "Who are these cats?" Teasel asked setting between his mother and sister. "This cat, the storm cloud grey one, is Ash. We're old friend; I use to travel with him a lot when I was younger. Then the black and white tom is Marn, I haven't seen him since he was a kit. That was seasons ago since I was last here; he's grown quite a bit. Then I believe her name is Zeek, the black and yellow she-cat I just met." Teasel looked at the cats in awe. "Yes, my name is Zeek. I'm Sight in the Trees, or Tree sight, for the queen of Rowans forest." Zeek purred proudly. "Apprentice Tree Sight." Ash corrected. "Well I'm almost a real one." She defended herself. "What does a Tree Sight do?" Teasel asked. "A Tree Sight is someone who moves with swiftness and silence in the trees and spies and watches over the forest." Marn explained. "Not all cats go out for something, there's Tree Sight, Hidden Eyes, Warrior, and then there's cat folk, who do pretty much nothing, but raise a family." Ash mewed, Marn nodded. "I'm a former warrior. Once Firelight left I got bored, I mean its no fun by your self." He laughed. "Stormy left?" Firelight asked confused. "Oh yes, he went in pursue of the Shadow Strikers, I'm not sure if he found them, I get a few bird calls from him. I've been tempted to eat one of those annoying things before. Squirrel call isn't any better." He sighed. "Talking to birds and squirrels?" Teasel thought it as an outrage and a disgrace to cat folk. "A warrior must be patient and listen to even its prey." Firelight explained. "So papa you were a warrior?" Zinnia asked, looking up at his father. He just nodded. "So could you explain why we need to keep in during the night?" Firelight asked. "Alright I'll tell you." Ash sighed. "The Shadow Strikers three main band cats have been spotted around here. Blaze is one of them." He said simply. Though his eyes traveled from Firelight to Zinnia. She shrunk back when she noticed him looking at her. "You know don't you?" Firelight stared at his friend. "Yes. Water huh? That's the one I thought wouldn't return. I mean our folk despise water but yet one of them is water, strange huh?" He laid down and yawned. Marigold gave a hard stare to Ash "How can you be so calm about this! The Shadow Strikers are here. We're in danger." She hissed. "Actually the one with the gift is in danger." Marn corrected. "But it's not this one their after it's the one who olds Fire." He explained. "Does he know he possesses it?" Firelight asked. "Yes, he's actually pretty good at it." Came a voice from the shadows, the group of cats immediately stood up, their neck fur raised. "What a greeting." The black tabby laughed when he stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight. "Stormy." Firelight and Ash welcomed their old companion. "Seems like the 'Ole group is back together." Stormy laughed, though it didn't seem very joyful for laughter, or seeing old friends again. "The Queen sent me to find them three, seems like I found more. The Shadow Strikers are getting closer, the apprentices need Zeek to lead them, the elders are making a fuss, and the nursery is in chaos, frantic mothers, whining kits, we need help." He mewed hurriedly. "So we must go, seems like their not only after young Hazel but the one who holds the Gift of Water." Ash swished his tail toward Zinnia after Stormy finished speaking. "Ah, so she's the one." Was all he said about it. "Well we must go. More the reason to move fast." He started to walk toward the Great Pine City. Ash and Firelight stood up and beckoned the rest to follow. Zinnia followed Stormy with Teasel and Marigold at her side. Ash and Firelight followed behind. Zeek scouted from the trees, this time very silent.
Zinnia felt nervous, the air was filled with anticipation and it was too quiet. There was no chirping of night birds, no hooting of owls, no scuttling of little creatures. The only sound was the wind blowing through the limbs of the bare-winter trees, and the paw-steps of the traveling cats. "We're almost there." Stormy announced.A few minutes later they stepped into a lighted clearing. Fire on candle posts lit it up beautifully. For a few heart-beats, and what seemed like seasons to her, Zinnia thought she must have died. "Amazing, isn't it." Firelights voice brought her back to reality. "It… It's beautiful." She started at the city in awe. "Well enough gawping. Let's head into the Pine." Ash said calmly leading the way to the middle of the extremely large clearing. The tree was so large that Zinnia couldn't think of a word to describe it. "This tree isn't as wide as the lake, but its close. The Pine takes half a day to run around it, the lake takes a full day, and that's running at full speed the whole way. And the tree is so large that no cat has been able to climb it, only the Night Walkers were able to, but they are all gone now." Zeek explained as they came to a giant root of the tree that bent up above the ground and then back in. Where the hump of the root was above ground there was a hole, or an entrance. There were rocks on each side of the entrance, the light of the candles made them sparkle. "I bet that Hazel would be happy to meet Zinnia. Maybe something will get him to smile." Stormy laughed. Though Firelight didn't seem to be too pleased with his comment. "Let's head in." He meowed in an irritated voice. Zeek padded in first, and the rest followed behind. They followed a slope or what was now like steps. The rock and dirt was worn down by the generations of paw steps that have treaded these same paths many, many times. In the entrance steps there were even candles in there, it lit up the walls beautifully. Zinnia looked at the walls as she walked, they were covered in drawings of cats, wolves, foxes, badgers, and some creatures she was unsure of what they were. Some where fighting, and on their fangs were red, or blood. Some were of families of cats, gentle and peaceful times. "These walls tell of the forest's history." Ash Explained. "It's amazing. Never before have I though I would see something so beautiful. The history here is amazing." Zinnia commented. They traveled farther and farther down until Zeek stopped. "Were here." She announced. Zinnia peered around her and her jaw dropped in amazement. It was an area even larger then the clearing above, lit up with beautiful candles and with cats moving about every where. There were caves heading to different areas, dens made out of bushes, sweet smell of cat-nip and fresh prey. "Zeek!" two young cats ran up to Zeek, one a blue-gray tom with a his tail tip twirled, holding a leaf that Zinnia couldn't identify he looked about the same age as herself and Zeek, the other one was much younger and was smoky gray and white. "Hey Memori, Leaf-tail." Zeek greeted with a smile. "Memori could you go and tell Breeze that our Ash and Stormy have arrived and that we have some special guest." The little kit scurried away toward a large cave entrance where a white and tan-brown she-cat sat. Ash and Stormy came forward, "hello Leaf-tail." Ash greeted. "What kind of leaf do you have today?" Stormy asked, trying not to laugh. "sassafras" he said simply. "It took me forever to find. I've been looking for this leaf for a while, I guess we had one sassafras tree in the forest. Isn't it neat?" Leaf-tail smiled, he seemed very proud of his sassafras leaf.
