Chapter 3: Whispers
Raindrop plodded into camp, dropped the raven that Dewdrop had caught onto the fresh-kill pile, and slunk off. It was the day after her quarrel with Mist, and they were both ignoring each other. Mist had been in her hunting group, and Raindrop had not even tried to talk to her; the branch-guard had paid her no attention either. Mist's sister, Leap of Joyful Squirrel, had gently taken on training Raindrop by asking her to join the hunting group and reminding her of the various chores she had had to do for the past day.
She left the prey in the fresh-kill pile alone; Raindrop knew that none of the to-bes liked her, and as she had already been told off for not sharing the night before, she couldn't eat anything until... well, she'd have to figure that out sometime.
The rest of the hunting group filed in, damp from the smoggy, humid mist and drops of water from last night's storm that still glittered from every leaf. Mist dropped a squirrel that Dewdrop had also caught onto the fresh-kill pile before stalking off, Dewdrop herself contributed two mice, Wind dropped a couple of birds and a mouse onto the pile, and Pounce struggled along with a huge crow that she had found, and just barely managed to catch, Raindrop thought irritably.
She turned and stalked off towards the to-bes' den. Around it were the to-bes of her tribe, all of them but Windteller; Raindrop's brother was probably in the Healer's den, learning or whatever; and Pounce, who was now carrying one of Wind's squirrels and a mouse over towards them. Raindrop glanced around, and realized with satisfaction that there was no one for Pounce to Share with; all the to-bes were either asleep, already eating, or busy talking. She would have to go hungry tonight. Then suddenly Raindrop's sneer evaporated, to be replaced with something like horror; she was the only one left; she would have to Share with Pounce!
With a grimace, Raindrop imagined eating something that Pounce had bitten—gross! She turned quickly, looking for someplace to hide; she'd sooner starve than Share with Pounce. But the prey-hunter's expression was already as horrified as Raindrop's; she too had noticed. Their eyes met. Raindrop glared and started towards the den.
"Hey—Raindrop—wait up!" Pounce cried frantically, shooting off after the branch-guard. "You have to—d'you wanna—Share...?" The small, fierce apprentice cringed under the look that Raindrop gave her as she bounced up.
"No," said Raindrop angrily, glaring furiously at the little to-be; happy, cheerful, every cat loves her, what so great about an annoying little— "No, I'm not hungry, and I don't want to Share, go away."
"Aw, please can you Share with me, please, I'm really, really hungry, come on, Raindrop, or just pretend you're Sharing with me, I'm starving, Raindrop, please," she whined. "Please, you must be hungry, come on..." Raindrop just shook her head flatly, and started walking away again. "Well, what am I supposed to do? I can't eat by myself," she dropped her voice to a deadly whisper, as if afraid of some cat hearing. "How 'bout you just pretend you're Sharing with me, and then—"
"Fine," snapped Raindrop, finally deciding she might as well eat.
"Thanks so much," Pounce gasped, sinking down to bite into the squirrel. She passed it to Raindrop, saying, "Here, pretend to take a bite," but Raindrop did rip off a piece of meat before passing it back. The exchange continued for a while Pounce chattered away, unconcerned by her companion's silence, and after a couple of minutes, Raindrop was just nodding, ignoring her, and thinking.
"... and Monkey said he was gonna beat me, but I got to the top first, but I didn't go past up to the canopy, like, under the sky, I mean, well, we're always under it, but still, I was like, ha, Monkey Chatter, I beat your little tail off, you thought you would win, but so there, it looks like branch-guards aren't stronger than prey-hunters, and then, he was passing it off, like, oh, my paw got stuck, you cheated, the rain was in my face, waah, nyah, and... yeah." Pounce didn't seem to ever stop talking, and she spoke so fast that it was almost impossible to understand her, especially when her mouth was full. "Hey, you've been over the canopy, huh? Right? How was it? Did you get in big trouble? Is that why Mist on Whatever isn't training you anymore? Right?"
Raindrop nodded vaguely, not listening. "How was it up there? Huh? Did you see the moon? I only saw it once, and that was, like, a bazillion moons ago, through the leaves in this tree—how was it?" she pressed. Raindrop turned, resurfacing from her thoughts.
"How was what?" she asked blankly.
"The canopy," repeated Pounce emphatically. "You said you saw outside it! Like, over it! Remember—"
"I said what?" demanded Raindrop, nearly spitting the squirrel on Pounce. "What?"
"I said, no, you said, because I asked," Pounce took a deep breath, and said very fast, "that you went up over the canopy, and Mist almost clawed your ears off, and now she won't train you, because you were such a bad little kitty. That's what you said—no, wait, I said that, and... And—you said yes, unless you were speaking monkey, and they nod to say no." Raindrop sprang up, looked around nervously, and then sat down again.
"Alright... I did, but you can't say a word, or you will find yourself earless," she growled into Pounce's ear. "Understand?" Pounce nodded meekly. "Okay," Raindrop nodded and sat down.
"Okay," agreed Pounce, instantly snapping back into chatter mode. "So then—"
"Cats of the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight," yowled a voice; Leafteller's. "Gather here, beneath sky and cloud, and trunk and leaf, and moon and sun, beneath the Gathering Branch. It is time to leave for a Telling."
"I completely forgot about the Telling tonight!" gasped Pounce. "D'you think we're going?"
"I don't know," mewed Raindrop, momentarily forgetting her irritation with Pounce's existence. "I probably won't, though; at least you stand a chance. Good luck with that; I'm going to go... dispose of the... bones. See you." Raindrop walked off, feeling a bit warmed up to the chatty tabby to-be without knowing it. She trotted over to the edge of camp as her tribe's Healer began to list off the cats that would be going with her to the Telling.
The edges of their camp were protected with an almost solid wall of brambles and vines, entwined to form an impenetrable wall around their camp. Raindrop leapt up onto a branch beside the wall, scrambled up the tree until she was above the barrier, and then she dropped the squirrel and mouse's bones over the edge. They fell slowly, twirling and spiraling until they were lost from sight. Raindrop felt dizzy as she watched them fall towards the forest floor she could not see.
After several heartbeats of staring down the shaft of darkness, Raindrop leapt down from the tree, sailing down past the trunk, wind whirling around her, and the thick swirling mist whooshing past. She landed lightly on the vines that formed the mat of her camp's floor, and trotted back towards the center of activity.
"...and the to-bes that will be coming with us are..." Leafteller was finishing. "Fire, Eddy... Pounce," Pounce squealed and careened forward to join her cousin, "and Raindrop."
Raindrop gasped. She was going? Of all the to-bes to choose... she whirled around to get to the camp entrance, or maybe the exit, and found herself face-to-face with Pounce's grin.
"You're coming!" she cried gleefully. "Me and Eddy are too!"
"Uh-huh," she said vaguely, glancing around, and not really listening, her method when in 'conversation' (listening to) Pounce.
"Hi, Raindrop," said Eddy, offering her a smile. "Feel... feel okay? Better?" Raindrop started to reply irritably, not wanting any cat's pity, but a familiar scent hit the roof of her mouth, and a voice said quietly,
"Its okay, Raindrop, he means well; don't claw him up," mewed her brother Windteller, the tribe healer to-be. "Eddy, Pounce," Windteller dipped his head towards the cousins.
He was a gentle young tom with gray patches on his fluffy white pelt, and he was just the sort to be a Healer, at least medicine-wise. His kind disposition was not unlike Eddy's, and he was a popular cat in the tribe for his compassion; every one thought he would make a great leader for their tribe.
Except him.
Only Raindrop had ever really heard him talk about it; a moon after he had been 'chosen' as the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight's next healer, 'Windteller' already had his doubts. He had admitted to his sister that he really didn't think he was ready to lead a tribe, ever.
"Seriously, I can only really do the healing part," 'Whisper', as Raindrop called him, told her anxiously. "Every cat likes me, and I'm not sure I could ever do much more for them than... be just a sympathetic healer; the medicine kind, not the leading kind."
Raindrop had never told him anything of this much significance, preferring to keep her thoughts to herself, but she did her best to reassure her brother.
"Okay," Raindrop sighed, turning back to Eddy and Pounce. "Yeah, I'm okay, thanks, Eddy. Whisper... how's... how's things?" He smiled, and suddenly Raindrop saw something crafty in his grin.
"You!" she cried delightedly. "You asked Leafteller to—to—" He grinned more widely, and Eddy and Pounce looked puzzled. "Thanks so much!" purred Raindrop, winding herself around her brother.
"It's nothing," he grinned awkwardly. "C'mon, we're leaving."
The Jungle was full of nighttime sounds, calling birds, chirping crickets, croaking frogs... The river rushing by was a ribbon of silver under a deep blue sky, stars glittering coolly in the distance, and the occasional cloud drifting across the white-blue disk of the full moon. Beams of moonlight fell through the dense tangle of branches and vines, gilding the leaves in a silver glow. Raindrop led the other five to-bes, Eddy, Pounce, Windteller, and Fire, along the worn path of huge branches and fallen trees, towards the glow of the river that splashed in and out of sight behind the forest's snarl of leaves and ivy. The sky too was hardly visible except for splashes of darkness outlined in silvered leaves.
"Wow," remarked Pounce, breaking the heavy silence. "It's like you can already hear the Waterfall."
A thundering rush of thousands of tons of water falling into the misted pool too far below to see greeted them as they broke out of the Jungle's last wall of ivy and branches, approaching the forest floor. They had left the Understory not very long ago, and the sounds of their home already seemed muffled as they approached the forest floor. The group of cats pushed their way through the last layer of the Jungle, and then they were out.
The river was huge, bigger than Raindrop had ever imagined it, and while during the day, she could see that it was sluggish and brown, through the branches of her home, it looked different at night. It was dark enough for the brown color to disappear, and the moon illuminated every ripple as it reflected the night above them. Birds wheeled high above them, like little points of darkness against the dark expanse of what was the sky, and the soft, tall grass around the edge of the Jungle swished and whispered gently, under the thundering of the Waterfall.
Raindrop's eye's followed the river as it sparkled and splashed towards the end, getting faster... wait, the end of the river? What?
"There it is," mewed a cat. "The Cave of Dancing Moonlight is under there." Of course! That's where the water fell off the edge, thought Raindrop, and behind the Waterfall is the Cave...
"This is the place," remarked Fire on Burning Brushwood, his rusty red-orange fur sparkling with moonlit water droplets. "I think," he added, glancing around; he was an older to-be than the rest of them, but he'd never been to a Telling before.
"Sure looks like it," agreed Eddy, nodding.
"Sure sounds like it," Pounce put in, thrusting her head into their conversation.
"Mmm..." said Raindrop vaguely, wondering how they'd managed not to hear that cat who'd pointed that out. She looked around, and realized that there were no other cats around, other than the to-bes; the branch-guards and prey-hunters were standing a ways off with Leafteller.
"Did you hear that?" she muttered to Windteller.
"Yeah..." he breathed. "They—someone told us, but the others didn't hear. Did—you heard that cat tell us so—right?"
"Yeah," she hissed back, mystified.
"Fire! Raindrop! Pounce! Eddy! Windteller! All of you come here! It is time to make the Descent!"
A while later, the band of cats was standing below the Waterfall, on some rocks above silvery but shadowed pool. Fish were darting about in the water below, and a huge tumble of rocks made a good spot to stand while the last few cats came down. But the rocks were slippery, and the towering Waterfall left the pool in shadow, and the thunder from the tumbling rush of the falls filled their ears so they could hardly hear each other, and the mist was so thick and cold that they could hardly see each other. The Descent had been damp and frigid and slick, and now they waited for Leafteller to clamber down, shivering, colder and wetter than they had ever been in their lives; the Jungle was a humid place, where the constant rain was never colder than warm.
"Okay," said Leafteller, shaking herself until her fur was fluffed out. "Let's go. The moon is nearly at its highest point, but we don't need to be in the Cave until after moonhigh. Come."
They plodded along behind her, Raindrop regretting ever coming along with every step. She was cold and soaked and sore and tired, and she could hardly see a tail-length in front of her. Whisper was breathing heard, and she stayed beside him as they fell further and further behind, plodding towards the river's Crossing Place.
Suddenly it dawned on Raindrop how hard it must be for Windteller; he had no training in fighting or stamina, and his pads were still as soft as they had been in the nursery, because he scarcely left camp. The trees of the Jungle were as unfamiliar to him as the Cave of Dancing Moonlight was to her. With a sigh, she set her pace to match her brother's, thinking that maybe she didn't have someone to talk to like Pounce and Eddy, but at least she had Whisper, to talk to her, and to support.
"Here we are," mewed Leafteller, padding into the Cave of Dancing Moonlight and shaking her fur out. The rest of the group filed in behind her, shivering and shaking out their thin pelts. After the Descent, there had been few words exchanged between any of the tribe cats, and yet every time Raindrop listened to the Waterfall, she could hear swishing and whispering, like there were cats in the Waterfall. But every time she tried to listen to them, they disappeared. It was like looking at the sun.
The Cave was not very big; just a few tail-lengths high, but light form the behind the Waterfall filtered in, throwing dancing patterns onto the smooth stone of the Cave of Dancing Moonlight. The whispering was louder here, and Raindrop strained her ears to hear it as Windteller scrambled into the Cave, panting.
"Hi," he said in a hushed voice, as if they were someplace where there was a sleeping elder, and if you spoke aloud you would get clawed; or as if the Waterfall could hear them.
But what if it can? Thought Raindrop, suddenly shivering. I can hear it, so why couldn't it hear me...
"Cats of the Tribe of Dappled Sunlight," mewed Leafteller, her bright blue eyes sparkling in the dancing light. "We gather here this evening to speak with each other and the Tribe of Endless Hunting. We will begin by thanking the Tribe of Endless Hunting and our ancestors for leading us here, to the Jungle, and thanking them for another moon of good hunting."
"Thank you," murmured the gathered cats.
"Also..." Raindrop decided that this Telling business wasn't really all that great, and she was cold and wet and hungry, and so she began to wash herself.
That's when she heard them.
Beware the prey that becomes the hunter...
What? She almost hissed her query out loud. Raindrop strained her ears to hear the whispering again.
When the branches you guarded can no longer guard you, then the fish will snarl, and the cats must swim...
"What?" Raindrop whispered out loud this time, looking around in fear. She knew she'd heard the Waterfall whispering again. But as she listened to the steady rush, focusing entirely on it, all she could hear was the murmur of the cats around her and its thunder.
"What's what?" asked a voice. Raindrop jumped, afraid that it was those voices again, but all she saw was Windteller's inquisitive face.
Even a light wind can blow in rain and mist...
Windteller gasped. "They're here!"
"Who?" demanded Raindrop, turning to face her brother. "Who, Whisper?"
"It's those voices we heard in the... in the field outside the Jungle," he hissed in a deadly whisper.
"What are they say—"
Water swirling, rippling, rising, leading the way...
"—ing...?" she asked, looking around.
"'Water swirling, rippling—'" began Windteller, but Raindrop cut across him.
"I heard," she snapped. "Its like they only talk when you aren't paying attention, so—"
And the mountains will whisper...
"Those mountains?" hissed Windteller, looking indisputably freaked out. What was going on?!
And the blackness will swallow...
Windteller gulped, and crouched low next to his sister, not even trying to answer the whispers anymore, but Raindrop could tell he was still listening closely.
"What was that?" whispered someone. Raindrop nearly jumped out of her pelt, but turned to find herself facing Eddy's quizzical look.
"What was what?" she hissed back.
"Oh, you know what I mean," replied Eddy. "That whisperi—"
Thunder can tear with claws of silver...
"Thank you, Tribe of Endless Hunting," murmured the cats around them.
"What's going on? I think I might have dozed off," Pounce thrust her head between theirs. "Eddy—why the alarmed-ness?" It was true, Eddy did look stunned, and slowly he turned to face Raindrop and Windteller.
"I—I heard that v—voice a couple nights ago. Asleep; A dream. They said the same thing, and—I—I think they meant you, Windteller," he mewed, looking rather dazed. Windteller's eyes widened. "'Follow the whispers'? Doesn't that sound like—you know—"
"Yeah," said Raindrop, nodding and turning slowly to look at Windteller. "Yeah, that sounds—that makes sense."
A huge crashing roll of thunder suddenly roared outside the Cave, making all the gathered cats jump. Lightning flashed, illuminating streaks of rain as they were thrust down on billowing gusts of wind, like teeth in the silvery light.
Like claws. Silver claws.
۞