TL;DR wrote:Void thinks a lot, then the five cats leave their camp.
𝓥𝓸𝓲𝓭
Some months had passed, and the place where Void had thought to make his solitary home had grown into a place where several cats now lived. After meeting Honey and Nico, more newcomers had joined them, and they were so many now that there were not enough caves for everyone to sleep separately.
Honey had kitted and her kits had grown into apprentices already. Stella and Misaki, also new faces who had joined him and the others in the clearing a while ago, already pregnant, had also given birth, their kits already out and about and getting in other people’s business. There were now seven kits and four apprentices, filling the silence that had filled the forest only a season ago with their joy and games.
One of the new members of the group, Pattern, had taken over the cave in which Void and Akemi had previously stored their herbs, and transformed it into an herbalist’s den. From there, they assisted the queens with their kits and healed minor injuries the cats had gotten during explorations or hunts. Pattern had told him that before joining with the group, they had lived in a clan, a concept alien to Void. They had told stories of leaders and herbalists and deputies and warriors, making Void’s thoughts swirl.
Still, he had had to admit that some degree of organization would prove vital if they were to keep on expanding and growing, and with Akemi at his side as the most senior group member, he had installed ranks.
He himself was to be the commander, Akemi had been crowned his deputy, and Pattern the herbalist. In his opinion, a division of the others into sentries and hunters would also become necessary at some point in the near future, since already they were too many to take everyone on patrol.
All in all, the cats living in the caves numbered twenty. He had never imagined, when he had first fought his way through the bramble barrier, that one day all the caves and the entire clearing would be brimming with life.
Today, Void planned on heading out himself, leading a small patrol through the territory on a search mission – he had had a dream that had deeply unsettled him, and he needed to check something.
It had been a few nights before, and like any other day he had been nestled in his den, rolled into a tight ball to keep warm, when suddenly he had heard a voice calling out to him. A voice he had not heard in a long time. It had been his sister. He remembered leaping upright, leaving the cave in a flash, and stopping outside, listening with a tilted head for the voice to call him again. It had come from beyond the barrier, but when he had tried to fight his way through, the small path they had cleared was gone and the thorns and vines were woven tighter than ever. Desperate, he had tried to claw at the brambles, but every time he slashed through one, two others had appeared in its place, slowly ensnaring him until he had noticed that there was neither a way forward nor back. He bucked and thrashed, but the vines grew ever closer, holding him in place. His sister’s voice was still calling out to him when he woke up shivering, the scent of wisteria inexplicably clinging to his fur.
The last few days he had been pretty busy with helping to care for the kits and expanding the camp so he had not had the time to investigate his dream, but today Akemi was taking care of any needs that could possibly arise among the cats back in the camp, and he would be able to lead a patrol for the first time in quite a while.
He by himself would have had no idea where to start looking for the source of his dream, but Misaki had told him when they had shared a mouse the day before that, when she had arrived, she had passed a wisteria tree emitting the same sweet scent he had told her about. It lay quite some ways out of the territory they had so far claimed for themselves, but with all the new hungry mouths they had to feed, it was only sensible to clear and explore some new hunting grounds anyway. That was also what he had told the other members of the patrol, who were assembling in the clearing after having eaten breakfast. Only Akemi knew of his true purpose, as likely did Misaki. He had told the queen about his dream, and she had shot him a knowing look when he had announced his patrol in the morning.
He did not mind her being aware of his plans, though. He did not want to unsettle his camp mates should his search prove fruitless, but Misaki had understood his dream and he trusted her not to spill his secrets.
With a shake of his head, he reminded himself to stop overthinking everything so much and hurried to join the rest of the cats that were waiting for him near the bramble barrier. With him, they counted five – Tips, a tiny, scarred tom with a jarring scar, his apprentice, Cinder, son of Honey and Nico, already proving to be on the best way to become a powerful fighter, Honey herself, out of the queens’ den for a while now and eager to make up for the time she had been unable to train and hunt with the rest of them, and lastly Sparrow, Cinder’s sister and apprentice to Pattern, with them to point out herbs that would be life-savers in the paws of the two herbalists.
He smiled at the others, raising his voice to be heard over the shrieking kits that were playing on front of the queens’ cave only a few cat lengths away from them.
“Today, we’re going to explore a bit further than we’ve ever done before. We’re growing and we can’t afford to hunt everything that’s left of the prey if we want to survive longer than just this winter.”
“Why?” Cinder interrupted when Void paused to take a breath. “Why can we not hunt all of the prey if we get hungry?”
Void blinked at him. The young cat asked a lot of questions, a trait that he valued, but he could rarely wait until the appropriate time to ask them. Honey next to her son sighed, but Void answered anyway.
“Because we need there to be some prey left so they can reproduce. If we hunt all the mice there are right now, in spring there will be no new mice born, and we will starve because we were too greedy.”
Cinder seemed to think for a bit. “Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks!”
“So anyway,” Void continued, “we will be travelling beyond our borders and see what is there that we could hunt or claim in the future today. I hope the weather holds. Remember to stay together once we arrive in unknown territory and let me know if you spot anything. Okay?”
The others nodded at him, and with a satisfied flick of his ears he led them out of the camp.
[ 1209 words ]
--level 2
experience: 30/300
Received 55 EXP from a prompt and leveled up.
--inventory
scraps| 1 FP | x4
prey | 2 FP | x0
vole | 2 FP | x1
prey | 3 FP | x0
prey | 3 FP | x0
prey | 4 FP | x0
blackberry leaves | ? | x1
chamomile leaves | ? | x3
dried oak leaves | usage | x2
--items in inventory used
None
--predators:
predator #1 Weasel
predator #2 Large Bird
predator #3 Fox
predator #4 Badger
