𝓢centless 𝓒louds -- for Tuesday's Challenge

The light was blocked out by the cloud. Lightblossom opened one eye as the light faded from the entrance of the den. Slowly, she lifted her pale cream ear, tilting it so it faced the entrance. Her head slowly followed. What little light was left lit up her cream and spotted white coat and her amber eyes glowed as they reflected the light shining through the green leaves that made up her den.


Slowly, she stood, long legs stretching. Small paws stepped over the moss nest and a pink nose was stuck out of the exit, sniffing the air. The scent of neither rain nor snow hung in the air and the she-cat frowned as she backed up a step. She looked around at her small den. In the corner were herbs and a pile of moss. She knew where they were by heart but she couldn’t see them thanks to the cloud in the sky.


“I wonder what it is,” she said to herself. “If not snow or rain.” It was almost leaf-fall, so maybe snow wasn’t too out of the question. Rain was still more likely, however. But the medicine cat had a very good sense of smell. The hint of rain should be in the sky. She looked up again at the green leaves above her, flicking her ear in worry. Could the scentless cloud be a sign from StarClan? Some prophecy or omen?


Buzzing was in her ears and she shook her head, trying to clear it. She couldn’t get confused, not now. But the buzzing wouldn’t clear and she frowned, flicking her cream and white ears. Was it really noise and not just in her head?


She stuck her head out of her den again, eyes wide as she stared up at the sky. A locust landed on her nose and she flinched in surprise, nearly letting out a yelp. She shook her head back and forth, trying to dislodge the small bug. It finally took wing again, the movement not to its liking. Lightblossom stared up at the sky and around at the small camp in horror. The lazy mid-day camp, where the Warriors had been out on patrol or lazing around their den, was now filled with bugs. Lightblossom hurriedly pulled her head back into her den, shuddering. That was why the cloud had had no scent and why there was now an almost insistent buzzing throughout camp. She could hear cats exclaiming their shock and fear throughout the late green-leaf camp. Many would be taking shelter in the dens, huddled in the back and hoping none of the locusts would come within the safety of their sleeping spaces.


Lightblossom did the same, huddling near her herb stores and looking up at the small moving creatures through the leaves of her den. The dark shapes as they ate away at the forest.


When the clan dared to look out of their den again, they would find the locust gone, moving on to the next part of the long journey.


Lightblossom, when she had trained an apprentice into a medicine cat and her bones were weary, would tell the latest litter of kits about the storm of leaf eating bugs that had entered her peaceful home on the day the clouds held no scent. They would look up with wide eyes and open, pink mouths and Lightblossom would look up at the sky, as if worried.


“Little kits,” she would say. “Do you hear a buzzing in your ears? Can you see the sunlight fading as small wings block out the light?”