It was difficult to hunt in the Whispering Hills. The sound of the wind through the cracks and crevices of the area created a whistling noise, drowning out any noise prey might make. Similarly, the wind blew around scents, especially in the crevices, and made it impossible to pick any specific trails out. One had to hunt entirely by sight there, and some simply weren't very good at it.
Besides that, the layout of the area was just plain odd. The top was flat for the most part, different from the majority of the rest of Cliffclan territory. The even surface was broken by fissures and crevices cutting deep down, rarely more than a tail-length apart, separating the Hills into what Marigoldpaw expected looked very much like what the dry, cracked mud at the River looked like.
But, well, what the area looked like didn't matter so much as how well one was able to traverse it. The depth of the crevices splitting the earth varied in depth, and it wasn't always guaranteed that there was a way back up. All of the cracks connected, though, as far as Marigoldpaw knew; it was just a matter of walking until one spotted a way out and climbed back up.
None of that mattered now, however. Marigoldpaw wasn't even here to hunt, not entirely. That was the excuse, the reason Squirrelwhisker had let her, but she had reasons of her own.
By itself, the sound of wind through the cliffs was nothing. Plenty of places in Cliffclan's territory made the same noise. But in the Hills the noise was nearly constant, and the entire area made it, building up on itself and growing to a level that blocked out every other sound made.
Including, if one tried hard enough, one's own thoughts.
Squirrelwhisker expected at least two pieces of prey when Marigoldpaw got back to camp, and she fully intended on doing that. Just… not immediately. Maybe not even soon.
Instead she hung her head over the side of one of the crevices, listening intently to the sound with her eyes squeezed shut. If she tried hard enough, if her mind was in just the right state, the whispers of the wind sounded like voices. Far away voices she couldn't understand, but voices nonetheless.
It almost sounded like they were calling her. She could almost hear her name. Almost imagined it was Hawthornpelt, yelling to her from a great distance.
She worried she'd forget the sound of his voice. This helped. Maybe only a little, but it did help. Eventually she pushed herself back to her paws and slid down into the crevices to hunt, picking her way through rocks and the leftover bare branches of scrub bushes.
The whispering didn't let up, but the voice aspect of it faded into the background now that she was no longer concentrating. She devoted herself to looking for prey, scanning every dip in the walls of the crevice, sneaking along slowly so she didn't miss a thing.
There. A mouse, or a shrew- No, it was a mouse, she saw that now, creeping closer. It didn't see her. She sank down into a hunter's crouch, moving forward slowly to make sure that her shadow wouldn't fall on the mouse and startle it. She checked her stance, tensed her muscles, and leapt. Her claws sank into the mouse, cutting off its life and
Marigoldpaw
She jerked, her paws going out from under herself. She landed hard on her side, shaking. "What?" she mewed, voice lost to the whispers. "What?" she repeated.
Marigoldpaw it repeated, further away. Again, Marigoldpaw, just in the distance, fading fast, and then gone, gone, one last Marigold sinking into the unknown.
She didn't catch anything else. She took her mouse and went home, taking Squirrelwhisker's disapproved stare and punishment of no dinner as her due. She wouldn't have eaten anyway.
/
Oriolepaw dipped a paw into the water of the White River. A frog, startled in the depths, swam away from her and out of the water, hopping away. It croaked once.
"The river's a bit low, but I think it's good enough to teach you how to fish," Fawntail was saying. "Better now than when it's leaf-fall and the river is empty." She sighed and flicked an ear.
Oriolepaw looked away from the river, her paw still agitating the water. It was easier that way; the stiller the water, the more she found herself unable to pull herself away. "So what do I do?" she asked.
"Well first of all, stop scaring the fish away," Fawntail scolded. "Second, you need to be fast, and patient. Sit beside me, over here," and Oriolepaw did, "Now, look at the water. See the fish? Stay very still. On this side our shadow is behind us, so it won't fall on the fish. Now wait, and.." Fawntail trailed off, eyes trained on the river. The fish swam lazily, twisting its body. It slowly drifted closer to where Oriolepaw and her mentor sat.
Fawntail's paw flashed out, scooping the fish out of the water and only the bank where she killed it quickly. "Like that," she mewed, satisfied. "You wait until it's close enough then pull it out. You have to be quick, though. Too slow or you hit it wrong and it'll get away. Your turn."
Oriolepaw didn't want to do this. Just being near the water was making her uncomfortable, but she couldn't tell that to Fawntail. So she sat and stared at the water, keeping her eyes moving, looking for a fish. One, smaller than the one Fawntail had caught, swam near. It's mouth opened and closed like it was talking. It was a little funny. Closer.. She shot her paw out, trying to hook it under the fish. It flew out of the water, but the wrong way, not up on the bank but deeper into the water. It flashed away in a sparkle of scales. Oriolepaw sighed.
"Good first try," Fawntail mewed. "Keep going."
"Okay," Oriolepaw sighed, looking back at the water. The splash of her escaping fish had startled the rest and they were slowly coming out of their hiding spots. She heard Fawntail move away, saw a fish skirt by on the bottom of the river, and then
The water rose. It surged downriver, sweeping debris and sand in its path, rolling waves slamming at the banks and crumbling them, catching Oriolepaw up in its depths and trapping her.
Oriolepaw, the river hissed. Oriolepaw, Oriolepaw.
She saw leaves fall, grass grow brittle, time rushing forward as the water had. Prey grew scarce and then bountiful again, flowers spreading across the badlands. Cats died. Kits were born. She saw ceremonies and funerals and celebrations, arguments, affection, sorrow joy collapse death movement leaving leaving follow everything moving
follow follow follow
"What are you doing here?"
light
Something crashed into her, knocking her away from the river. "Hey!" a voice snapped. "Can't you hear me? I said, what are you doing here?"
"What?" Oriolepaw croaked from where she lay. Her eyes were dry and she blunk them hard. She pushed herself to her paws, shaking. "Where am I?" she mewed, finally looking around. The terrain was unfamiliar. Her stare drifted to the cat who had shoved her.
It was Shrewpelt. His expression was annoyed, covering a hidden depth of something she couldn't identify. "Don't you know? You're the one who came here. This is Brushclan."
"I.. How did I get here?" Oriolepaw whispered, her ears laid back.
Shrewpelt's expression melted into one of concern. "You're Oriolepaw," he mewed. "You're from Caveclan."
And you're Shrewpelt, Oriolepaw thought. You and Darkgaze used to be mates. But she mewed, "I know who I am. How did I get here?"
"I don't know. You were walking along the river, staring into it. But this is Brushclan territory, kit. You shouldn't be here."
"No, I.. I know that." Confusion muddled her senses. "I should go back. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened." She took a step back from the water, feeling herself shaking.
"Yes, you should," Shrewpelt mewed. He waited expectantly.
Oriolepaw felt her stomach fall. "I don't know where I am," she admitted. If she had followed the river here she could follow it back, but.. The thought of looking at the water again terrified her. He sighed.
"Come on then. I'll take you to the border," Shrewpelt mewed. He waited until she was stable on her paws and following him before he set out, keeping the pace even.
She remembered the angry expression on his face at the Gathering, a quarter moon ago now, and, later, her mother's sad, guilty expression as she detailed their past to her daughter. She wondered what he was thinking, but he said nothing to give it away.
"Thank you," she mewed eventually, tired of the tense silence. For a moment he seemed to be considering her words.
Then he spoke, "No problem. I wouldn't have let you leave without an escort anyway.. You're obviously ill."
Ill. Oriolepaw supposed she was. He stomach twisted. "Thank you anyway," she mewed.
"Thank you, as well," he said, surprising her. "For what you said. At the Gathering. About Hawkstripe."
"Oh, I.. No problem." She hadn't meant to tell him. Hadn't even wanted to. But the water.. "Did it help?" she asked anyway.
His tail flicked. He didn't look back at her, but she got the feeling he was a little embarrassed. "I think so," he said finally. "Or it will."
"I'm glad," Oriolepaw mewed, and was surprised to find she meant it. He didn't ask how she'd known. She didn't know if it was because the question didn't occur to him, or if he just didn't care.
Finally, ahead of them, the Brushclan terrain suddenly changed to Caveclan, the White River cutting through the territory and marking the border. Oriolepaw knew where she was, though she'd never seen that piece of territory from this side before. "Oh!" she gasped. Her pawsteps sped up, eager to get her back home.
"There it is," Shrewpelt agreed. He kept up with her, though he stopped on Brushclan's side of the White River.
"Oriolepaw!" she heard. It was Fawntail's voice, rising distressed and loud over the trickling of the water.
"Fawntail!" Oriolepaw called back. There was a moment of silence and then footsteps, Fawntail coming into view a moment later.
"Oh, Thank Starclan. Where were you? I looked away for a moment and you were gone." Fawntail's voice was anger mixed with relief. "How could you run off? And into Brushclan? You know you're not allowed!"
"I don't think she did it on purpose," Shrewpelt mewed, and Fawntail seemed to see him for the first time. "I found her by the river, dazed. She didn't even hear me at first she was so out of it."
"Oh. Oh, I'm glad you found her. Thank you for getting her back here, safe." Her anger melted away as she spoke, and then she yowled, "DARKGAZE! Over here!"
A voice drifted to them, tense, "Did you find her?" Beside Oriolepaw, Shrewpelt stiffened almost imperceptibly. Darkgaze's gray form appeared, running to them. "Oh!" she breathed, panting but relieved. "My baby!" She splashed across the water, heedless of the boundary, to embrace Oriolepaw.
Oriolepaw forced herself not to step back from her mother, wrinkling her muzzle. Darkgaze looked up at Shrewpelt. "Did you find her? Thank you," she mewed, genuine emotion and gratitude in her voice. "Shrewpelt, thank you."
"Yes," he mewed, surprised. "I couldn't leave her there," and he repeated what he'd said to Fawntail about finding Oriolepaw.
Darkgaze pushed Oriolepaw back across the river. "Thank you," she repeated to Shrewpelt. Her voice shook a little. When Oriolepaw was halfway across, she followed.
"Darkgaze," Shrewpelt called when they were all on their proper territories. She looked back at him. There was a pause, and then Shrewpelt mewed, "No hard feelings, okay?"
Darkgaze lit up visibly. "No hard feelings," she agreed. They dipped their heads to each other and then they all turned away, heading away from the boundary.
