I do not own Warriors, Erin Hunter does.
Chapter IV
Just out of the Understaters' Camp:
Hunter slunk through the shadows around the outside of the Understaters' camp, praying she didn't run into Water Lotus Eater, the sunburn-o-phobic Sphynx who wandered around the shadows wearing self-knit sweaters, peering at you with dark, navy blue eyes. Though, she reasoned, if she did run into him, it was unlikely he would be able to tell the other cats what he meant by "a ketTa, ketTa Hunter ketTa, go walking, out of, of, from ah-camp! Anta go see find them. Go! La, la, thatway! Oh, la, ana esefa, me point bad way. Thatway!"
Poor Water Lotus Eater, when he had first joined the Understaters, had spouted gibberish, or what seemed like it to the rest of the cats, for the first few moons before realizing that the others did not understand him. He was adapting now to their language...but it was slow. Painfully slow. At least it would work for Hunter's purposes.
Luckily, the muscular she-cat passed through the shadows without incident, trying to tread softly and silently on the dry leaves and twigs of late summer. A blue-gold glow was starting to tinge the tops of the trees around her, the blanket of darkness across the sky was lifting. Morning was coming, and she would have the comforting cover of dark no longer. Neither would she have the safety of most of the cats being in camp. They would start going about their duties, hunting, training, and building up the camp. She would have to make sure not to run into any of them.
A bird chirped, and Hunter's stomach twisted with hunger. She had forgotten to swipe something from the fresh-kill pile on her way out of camp. Too late to turn back now, though...she would just have to contain her hunger, at least until she got out of the woods, away from potentially running into one of her group.
As if the bird's chirp had been a signal, what must have been at least four or five birds began to chatter excitedly, welcoming the morning warmth and light. The gold Abyssinian dung her claws into the ground, resolving not to hunt until she had found the two Norwegian Forest Cats that Oak so wrongly refused to help. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she continued on, trying to block her ears from the sounds of the birds.
Guilt and embarrassment now washed over her for sneaking out. Oak wasn't the leader! So why was she so afraid that if someone knew she was looking for the Norwegian Forest Cats, she'd get into trouble? But the question was too complicated to probe further. Hunter pushed it away for another time, one not so...secretive.
Sunlight and Moon:
Sunlight awoke to the sound of a disapproving squirrel.
When he poked his head out from under the worn cardboard box in which he and Moon had slept in, he had spotted his friend looking up at a frazzled grey squirrel that clung angrily to his perch in a large oak tree growing out of a dirt patch in the sidewalk, the Norwegian Forest Cat's black-and-while, now much matted tail switching from side to side. When he noticed Sunlight watching him, he half-smiled, half looked regretful. Already he had proved he was not able to hunt, which was embarrassing enough, but this? This was completely undignified! Not that Moon was particularly dignified, but still.
"I was trying to catch us something," Moon meowed to Sunlight, as always when he was hunting; sheepishly. "But the only thing I could find around here was this squirrel...and, as you can see, it won't come down."
"Oh," meowed Sunlight, surprised. "I was thinking we might go and get that thrush I buried last night for this morning...so we wouldn't tire ourselves out like we did last time we hunted."
Moon blinked.
"So that's what we buried it for! I thought we were just doing that for fun!"
Sunlight stared at Moon like he had grown an extra tail.
"You thought that I buried it for FUN?"
"Er...no?"
Sunlight shook his head.
"You're mousebrained," he meowed, white whiskers rising up and then down in a sigh. "Absolutely mousebrained."
Moon grinned.
Mrrroww...bad place to end it, sorry about that. But I wanted to put it up today and to do that I had to end the chapter before I got bored of writing.
Please review! I accept anonymous reviews! We still need cats for the Understaters, also. Form on chapter three.
--Smokefeather