Disclaimer: I don't own the world of the warrior cats. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Eight: The Journey to Home

Toms, kit-mothers, she-cats, leader, healer, kits, to-bes- all filled by ones and twos slowly out of the home they had shared together for countless generations. The scents of cats known and unknown lingered there, as if their owners' spirits were calling a last farewell to their kin.

Dreamsong looked out over their home, the only home she had ever known, in silence. Deep stood beside the golden she-cat, and felt his heart wrench to leave this place. Each cat in the tribe felt the same pain, and each cat knew that all the others did.

As the last cat, Dreamsong's dark gray tabby brother Eclipse, the she-cat suddenly let out a yowl. Within her cry was a tone of triumph, as if she had just won a battle, and yet under it was a sorrow that made each cats' bones ache, and regret. Deep lifted his head and added his voice to hers. As the cry resounded through the rocks, each cat, from kits so young they would never remember their home, to the eldest cat, who could barely even speak through age.

It was a roaring, screeching tribute to their home, their lives and traditions, their hopes and dreams. The cry was a lament to all that had been lost, but most of all, it was the battle cry of those who would go to battle and death simply for what they knew was right, even if they could see it was hopeless.

And the heart of every cat filled with a fierce joy as the cry died away.

000

For a pair of fleet runners, the journey had take a few hours. With kits, elders and pregnant she-cats, they were still traveling as the sun began to set. When they came to a rocky set of overhangs, Snowwind leapt to the top of a large boulder and Dremsong sat at the base with her at a flick of the black leaders' tail, silhouetted by the sun. The golden she-cats' fur blended perfectly with the sunset; she had allowed the mud to fall off over the past few days.

"We shall rest here tonight," called the black cat, and gestured with her tail to the overhangs. "The elderly and young shall have the farther-back places, as shall Singingheart and Shred." She gestured to the two she-cats with large, kit-bearing bellies. "Those in their prime shall shelter them as best they cat without getting unduly wet themselves," she added as a drop of rain splattered onto her ear and she shook it out briskly.

Snowwind leapt down and followed her own orders, escorting Shred, deep orange and very kit-swollen, under one of the rock overhangs and sheltering with her. Other cats followed her example.

Dreamsong went to search out her mother, Rainbow Shimmer Over Lone Star, and Deep trotted to her side as she spotted the white-and-light-gray-stripped tabby. Together the two younger pair helped the elderly she-cat to lie down under an overhang. As it was large enough to shelter all three of them against the rain that splattered the ground now, they huddled together for warmth as the clouds opened up in the now-dark sky.

000

Just after dawn, the Tribe of Sunset Fire woke as one to find that a separate group of cats had padded down the slope.

Wind That Blows the Fresh Snow got up and greeted the blue-gray tom who was the leader. He introduced himself as High Moon Dancing Above the Crystals of Ice, or Moondance; the leader of the Tribe of Darkened Mountains.

The pair ordered their cats not to harm anyone, and though the hostility was visible in the eyes of many cats, especially the toms, they obeyed. "We are one Tribe now, along with the Tribe of Soft Moonlight

Among the newcomers, Dreamsong saw, was the earth-colored tom she had met with, and had several dreams of- Feather. He didn't see her, so she stayed with Deep.

Around sun-high the clouds dissipated, and the sun started to dry out the set ground. Suddenly, a cat not of the two, now one, tribes leapt off a boulder, and racked his claws down the wing of an eagle. None of the single tribe had seen the predator bird when it had started it's headlong dive at a young to-be with white, gray and orange fur which had formerly been coated in mud but was now only patched with spiky parts.

The eagle shrieked as it beat its wings furiously, and the to-be huddled in fright with his fur puffed out. His rescuer, a tom with a white-silver pelt, landed beside him with a thump. Dreamsong recognized Silverpath, from the Tribe of Soft Moonlight, as he bent to lick the younger tom's ears comfortingly. Other cats, apparently from his tribe, filtered out from around the rocks uncertainly.

Their leader, a she-cat with what appeared to be brown-black fur so streaked in mud that its actual color could scarcely be made out, made her sedate way over to Snowwind and Moondance. She said she Ivyspray, short for Spray of Green Ivy Twining Around Rock Spires. The third tribe melted smoothly with the other cats.

Dreamsong saw that the Tribe of Endless Hunting was lucky that the tree Tribe-Leaders were not as actively violent against the others as previous leaders were. Had less spiritually-dependant, sensible, sturdy cats been in charge, the whole idea of joining the tribes might have been firmly put away behind the cats.

Or was it just luck? wondered the golden she-cat as she walked beside her mother and Deep. Had the Ancestors planned for these three to be in charge? It was to confusing for her to puzzle out on her own.

Suddenly, Feather called out to the rest of the Tribe. "Here we are!" he said, and Drreamsong raced to join him at the entry to their new home together.