Chapter 8

The sun was just barely above the horizon when the two toms set out to explore the territory. They headed out, following a trail north. The sky was clear and the air was still. The golden light of dawn glinted off the grass and on the trees that dotted the territory.

"You hungry?" Mossclaw asked, pausing.

"Yeah." Ghostface said.

"Let's stop and hunt for awhile then." The two cats disappeared into the prairie grass.

Ghostface scented lots of prey; sparrows, mice, voles, a mole, and a hare. Focusing his attention on the hare, he crouched, his movements coordinating into a swift yet silent action. It was only about a few tail lengths ahead, nibbling a patch of clover. It was large, almost as big as Ghostface. Carefully he moved in and then pounced. The hare made an attempt to dash away. Ghostface began to chase it, close enough to hear it's heart racing and it's paws scrabbling. Leaping, the tom pinned the hare and killed it with a swift and crushing bite. He dragged his massive catch back to the trail where Mossclaw was.

The tortoise shell looked up, pigeon feathers clinging to his mouth. "Sacred mouse scraps, that's a HUGE hare!"

"You can have some, I couldn't finish by my self." Ghostface laid down and began to tear into the hare.

"So… Tell me about you. What was it like at your old tribe?" Mossclaw asked in between bites.

"It was… different. Much different from here. There were several more cats in my tribe, at least three times as many as here, but there were only two tribes. We didn't have 'gatherings' as you have here. We were fierce rivals."

"Oh, that's right! There's a gathering today!"

"Yeah, Barkstar said I was to go…"

"Already! Interesting. I wonder what he's going to say to the other clans."

The two toms chatted for a long while, talking about Ghostface's old tribe and the customs of the clans.

When the sun had risen higher, a patrol came down the dusty path. "It's almost sunhigh and you guys are over here? Didn't Barkstar said to show him the territory, not tell him about it?" Icetail said.

"I can show him however I want, Icetail." Mossclaw said, standing up and glaring at him.

"Barkstar didn't give you the day off, Mossclaw."

"Hey, stop it." Mottledsong said, looking annoyed. "Leave them be, Icetail."

"Don't want me picking on your kin, Mottledsong?"

The she-cat paused and glared, then jogged passed them all smoothly.

A tall, white warrior stepped forward, "Icetail, do you try and make trouble?"

"No, Coldpelt." The silver warrior said defensively.

"Let's go." Coldpelt said and, with a nod to Mossclaw and Ghostface, padded off after Mottledsong, followed by a tri-colored young apprentice and Icetail.

After a few moments, Ghostface said, "What's up Icetail's rump? And why is Mottledsong so… upset about me being her kin?"

"I don't know, Icetail has been uptight lately. And Mottledsong… I'm not so sure about either." Mossclaw shrugged.

"Oh." Ghostface looked down. It seemed as if two cats already hate him, and his only friend was Mossclaw.

"Come on, let's go." They headed up the path again at a swift jog. Soon they arrived at an eerie field with stones in odd shapes sitting in rows.

"This is the upstone place. I hear it's where the two-legs bury their dead!" Mossclaw said.

"Weird." Ghostface said, looking at the stones. They had odd scratch markings on their sides.

"Yeah, but there are LOADS of rats here and some rabbits, too."

They continued heading north until they reached a field of cows and horses. It smelled strongly of manure. Ghostface wrinkled his nose, glancing nervously at the massive beasts that grazed nonchalantly on the dry grass.

Mossclaw saw the expression on the pale tom's face and laughed. "They won't hurt you. They're kind of dumb. Or, at least the cows are. Rabbittail swears she got chased by a bull though, once. She says she's glad she didn't have a tail or else she would have gotten trampled."

Ghostface chuckled and they headed down the border and crossed the stream, which had gone down. They padded for several more minutes until they reached the western-most border where the boulder rock place was. It was a massive, gray rock that bordered the peace hills. There were some scents of foreign cats on it.

"HillsClan is at it again." Mossclaw said, hissing slightly to himself and leaping up onto one of the ledges of the large, long rock. They scent-marked it, then padded toward the peace hills. There was a slow dip in the ground leading towards the peace hills. In the very center was four, even hills with a dip in the center that could accommodate several cats.

"That's where we'll come tonight, and all the clans will be there." Mossclaw said, gazing down at the impressive lay of land. Ghostface wanted to get closer and examine the hills, but Mossclaw jogged off again. "Let's head back to camp. It's late, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to see the Marshclan border again."

Ghostface nodded and followed Mossclaw.