• “A shadow pads through the trees, remaining hidden and very far away from where you can tell a detail, but you know by it’s scent that is an intruder, and a cat.
    You pad forward, curious and alarmed. The cat spots you, it’s eyes glowing a strange purple.
    It doesn’t say a word, but continues padding through the territory, sniffing different things and scanning the land your clan possesses. Then it fades into the darkness, never seen again…” an elder whispered to her denmate. The other elder swapped another sighting, except his was clearly fictional and exaggerated.

    The elder mentioning the first story gasped loudly, then gave him a look. She muttered, “A cat turning into a twoleg and hunting a tree all day?”
    The other elder nodded. “It was a startling thing that happened in the time when I was a warrior…”
    The elder, Honeywhisker, listened carefully to his story, which now seemed very realistic with details on patrols out, time of day, and scents he had detected, one being the cat he had spotted.


    Honeywhisker then replied, “I see… well, Garlicsmell was on dawn patrol, but I see why you-”
    The other elder, of whom we’ll call Leafwind, argued: “No, Garlicsmell was on the Sunhigh! I know, because I proved when we were apprentices that I was much less forgetful!”
    Honeywhisker bristled angrily. “Garlicsmell was the one who made Treestep do his apprentice training!”

    Leafwind snickered. “He forgot he wasn’t supposed to tell other apprentices to do everything for him. But he did have a sharp claw.”
    Honeywhisker looked at him. “And a sharp tongue. He could insult you once in the early morning, and you’d end up feeling insulted and angry for moons.”

    Leafwind agreed by nodding, and they paused their chat while apprentices searched them for ticks.


    Later, they watched warriors pad around the camp, doing different duties for certain reasons. Honeywhisker watched a Sunhigh patrol leave, and a hunting patrol. She saw kits playing around, and apprentices gathering fresh bedding.
    Leafwind was too busy watching a puddle.

    Honeywhisker, amused, turned to give him yet another look.
    “What would possibly make you interested in staring at a puddle?”
    Leafwind shook his head, as if returning from a long daze. “Uh- well, I saw how shiny it was with the bright sun shining down, and it reminded me of leafbare one time when I was a kit, and I saw all the pretty white things fall from the sky…”
    The she-cat smiled, and then they went inside the elder’s den for a nap.