Chapter Five

Mirage woke at the break of dawn. She was cold, and she noticed there was frost on the ground. It was so foggy, she could hardly see out of the entrance of the den she and her brothers had made.

She looked to her side to look for her brothers. A twinge of sadness stung her heart.

Thunder was gone.

The young cat rose to her paws, quietly, so as not to wake Falcon, who was asleep at the other end of the den.

Then, Mirage left. She knew she would probably never see Falcon again, but she thought it best not to wake him and say goodbye.

And then there was Thunder. He probably waited for her and Falcon to fall asleep, and then left. He couldn't even stay one last night with his littermates.

Mirage bit back bitter thoughts as she sprinted across the terrain. Her nose was cold. All she could smell was cold.

Well, that's not good, she thought. Curving her path, she jumped up into a tree. Mirage settled a few branches up, out of sight. Her pelt was damp from the fog, so she hoped her scent was hidden well enough.

Mirage trusted herself with her abilities. Trees were good ground for her. So, she lay down and slipped into a dreamless sleep.

xXx

When Mirage woke, she was still in the tree. The fog and frost were gone, and the warm green-leaf sun was shining brightly.

Strange, Mirage thought, stretching. Her muscles were sore from sleeping in the tree.

She looked up into the sky. There were few clouds and it was nearing sunhigh. Honestly, if she hadn't woken in the tree she would have thought the morning was a dream.

She closed her eyes, remembering her brothers' scents. Mirage would never forget them.

But, now it was time to move on.

Mirage started jumping from branch to branch, and soon she noticed the terrain changed. She tasted the air, and was greeted with strange-smelling borders.

She had entered the territory of the Mouse-Pouncers.

"Oh, great." She muttered to herself. She was in enemy territory now. Nothing to do but keep going, she thought to herself.

As Mirage continued to sprint through the trees, she thought. What is even happening? How am I supposed to do this?

She sighed. Her mother and father had gone through this. So had every cat in the forest.

What did they do that I could do? She questioned herself. Mirage honestly had no clue where to go. She should have asked Shine more about –

Her rumbling stomach interrupted her thoughts. Concentrating, Mirage realized that she hadn't eaten anything since the night before. Time to hunt.

She quickly slunk down the trunk of the tree she had recently jumped into.

Again, she tasted the air. She didn't scent anything but the border-smell and leaves.

Mirage soon decided to patrol around for a while. She took in her surroundings. It certainly was different than what she was used to.

In the territory of the Squirrel-Stalkers, the undergrowth was sparse and the trees weren't particularly thick. Mouser-Pouncer territory, on the other hand, had dense undergrowth and the trees were large.

Mirage was so engulfed in the territory, she almost didn't hear the sound of small paws scuttling through the leaves.

She paused, lowering herself into a hunter's crouch. Slowly, she picked through the brush toward the noise. Her eyes finally fixed upon a mouse perched on the roots of a large tree.

She slowly inched forward. The mouse was so into breaking open an acorn that it didn't sense her presence. For a moment, she pitied it. It was so clueless that its death was coming soon.

But, that feeling passed as she felt her stomach pain.

Quickly, Mirage pounced, her paw crushing the mouse's spine. She purred at the sight.

Scooping the mouse up in between her teeth, she headed back to her tree.

Mirage bounded up the trunk effortlessly, settling down on a high branch to enjoy her prey.

As she ate, she thought about her parents.

They had probably thought that their kits would stay Squirrel-Stalkers. Or maybe they didn't care. Maybe they would just act like Mirage and her littermates had never existed, and they would just continue to have more kits.

Mirage didn't settle with that thought very well. She huffed, standing on her branch. The mouse wasn't much of a meal, considering she'd been on the move half the day.

But, it was time to move on. The mouse had satisfied her enough, so she would be able to continue on for a while longer before she had to stop and hunt again.

Mirage raced through the treetops. She blinked away thoughts of her mother and father, who had hostilely chased her and her littermates out of the only place they knew, thoughts of Thunder, who had left his brother and sister right after they had fallen asleep, thoughts of Falcon, and how she herself had left him before he woke.

She blinked away her past. She would not think of them again. But, she couldn't forget.

Mirage sighed. She knew it was futile to try to think back and see where things had gone wrong. She remembered a time when Shine had told her that kits were weaned at five moons. She and her littermates were only four moons. Did they do something wrong? Or had Shine lied to her?

No! Stop thinking about it. Shine wouldn't lie, and you didn't do anything wrong, Mirage chided herself. It was just time.

And life moves on. She had to think, strategically figure out what she had to do in life.

She knew that she would have to become part of the specific territories, and that she would have to find territory for herself, and she had to find a mate.

Mirage just needed to find out how to do that.

And she had no clue.

But, all she had to worry about now was watch where she was going.

Maybe, Mirage thought. I could go to the place in the heart of all the territories. There may be some cats there that could help.

So, she set her course for the heart of the forest.

xXx

It was sunset by the time Mirage reached the heart.

She had overstretched her legs trying to reach a branch on one of the tall oaks surrounding the clearing. Plus, she was starving and exhausted.

There were a lot of cats lying about. She noticed that most of the cats were pretty young, most around twelve moons or younger. Odd.

Mirage knew better than to go down there now. She should have timed her arrival better.

She should have entered the next day at, say, sunhigh. And she should have been on the ground.

Now, though, most cats were settling into random places on the dirt in the clearing. She saw a three-moon-old kit scrambling to get onto the huge rock in the middle. She pitied the small thing instantly.

As Mirage scouted out the clearing, she didn't notice a cat drop on her branch from a branch higher up.

"Well, looks like we've got a new one," Mirage jumped, unsheathing her claws at the raspy voice. The sight that greeted her was not at all what she had expected.

A wiry old she-cat stood before her. The cat had a fading brown pelt dappled with scars and dull, amber eyes. Mirage could see the cat's ribs through its pelt.

The old cat huffed. Mirage instantly thought that this cat should not be climbing trees scaring the life out of younger cats.

"So, what brings you here?" the scrawny old cat asked. Mirage gulped.

"I, uh, well-,"

The old cat narrowed her eyes. "You were weaned. So, you thought you would come here and figure out what you should do."

Mirage blinked. How did this cat know so much?

"It's a common thing around here," the cat said, sitting down. She gazed at the earth below, watching the young kit try to get up the high rock.

"Well, yes, that's why I came here. I was weaned two nights ago." Mirage replied. The old cat kept her eyes fixated at the ground.

"Where are you from?"

"My mother and father were Squirrel-Stalkers."

"Really? And it only took you a day to get here?" the old cat sounded somewhat impressed. She continued, "It's no wonder you came here then. You Squirrel-Stalkers are farther away from what really goes on around the forest. It's natural you would be clueless."

Mirage felt slightly offended at the she-cat's words. "Well…"

"You can stay. All these cats here? I've trained them. Started off with my kit, Wind, but she left for the moors moons ago. A herd of clueless kits came to me, and so I started training them for the outside world. Ever since, this place has been a kind of secret sanctuary for the naïve."

"Secret? With all the cats here-," Mirage started.

"Yes. Part of the training here is to be able to guard the place. When one of them discovers a hostile moving in, they alert the rest, and we all hide in the oaks."

"How do you keep your scent hidden?" Mirage inquired.

The old cat looked out at the setting sun. "That's the convenience of living close to the river. Every day at dawn, patrols break off to go soak in the river. They're careful, of course, not to be caught, but we have had a few instances…" the she-cat trailed off, looking mournfully down at her paws.

"So I see. But wouldn't that be uncomfortable?"

"Uncomfortable?" the old brown cat looked at Mirage with a fire in her eyes. "This is the wild. Comfort only applies when you're a helpless kit."

Mirage felt sympathy toward the old she-cat. Her kit had left her for the moors, and ever since, this cat's home had been turned into a shelter for naïve kits. She didn't know how the old cat put up with it.

"So, how do things work around here?" Mirage inquired, trying to disrupt the silence.

"Well, I train each cat so that they could easily hunt anything in this forest, night or day, river or brush. There's also the guarding, and some kits have extra duties of gathering herbs." The she-cat explained. "So, are you staying or not?"

Mirage blinked, startled. Then she nodded. "If it's alright with you."

"Okay then. You'll start your duties tomorrow." Then, the she-cat jumped into the next oak and down the trunk.

Mirage watched as she herded everyone out of plain sight. Some went into thick bushes, and others went up the oaks. A couple of cats climbed past her, giving her questioning looks.

She stretched out slowly, careful not to re-pull her leg muscles. Then, she settled into the nook of the branch.

Mirage had no clue how cats had the nerve to sleep so high off the ground. But, it was probably about as safe as it was on the ground.

As the moon rose, Mirage slipped into a much needed sleep. And for once, she forgot about her past. She was now looking forward to the future.

A/N: Okay, I know it's been, like, a million years since I updated, so I hope this chapter was good enough. The reason I took forever updating was because I was waiting for my beta to get back with me, but she didn't so…anyway, reviews are always appreciated!