The Blinding Grey | Prologue is out!

Prologue

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Calm eyes darted through the forest, sunlight just reaching over the horizon. It shone in her face and showed her features to the world, Her long delicate fur, her pelt the color of a boulder, yet her gentle, motherly blue eyes sparkled with the passion a boulder could never possess. Her paws swiftly carried herself through a small clearing undetected to her prey, a thrush pecked at the ground sporadically. Maybe there is some prey for it there? No, there was nothing there, how odd. Stonepelt thought as she lowered her body into a hunting crouch, her stomach and tail flat against the ground.


In an instant all thoughts were erased from her mind and adrenaline raced through her body, lifting her rear and unsheathing her claws, she pounced. Her eyes locked on her prey, who seemed to have noticed the cat lunging after them. The thrush let out a shriek of shock as it tried to fly upward, batting it’s wings quickly and losing a few feathers in the process. The bird isn’t quick enough, stonepelt realized as she untensed her shoulders. Hastily she landed on it- pushing down out of the air and pinning it to the ground. It tried to scream a second time but the lithe warrior had already bit at its neck, killing it.


She let out a sigh of relief, soon it would be Leaf-bare, they needed any and all of the prey they could get. Slinking through the lightened clearing, she padded over to the thrush, but she stopped mid-way. Hm? Am I imagining things? She thought as suddenly her heart began to beat louder and louder. I could’ve sworn I scented something! Stonepelt quickly picked up the prey and leaped onto a tree, climbing up it with the bird still life-less in her maw. As she bit into it, she could taste it’s meat, the juices that it contained and the smell, it was all so intoxicating. Shaking her head she stopped imagining how wonderful the bird would taste, she had to get back to the clan and be able to show she is of some use.


That wasn’t the only reason, In the back of her mind, Stonepelt knew someone had been there beyond the bushes, most likely watching her kill the thrush. She wondered if it was someone who wanted to know the way to the camp so they could ambush? Or maybe they were just a stray killer trying to get their daily dose of death? She made light of it-- but even still it sent chills down her spine. Whoever was there wasn’t a windclanner, they smelled different, yet there was a tinge of familiarity.

Standing atop the branches, she began to race back to the camp, keeping a steady pace as to not fall. Jumping from tree to tree was a trick she had taught herself as an apprentice, something she was proud of. Her thoughts were interrupted as a scent got caught in the wind and in the form of a breeze, blew past her. This time she knew that scent, those were windclanners. No doubt. Maybe a patrol? Stonepelt glanced downward to see if she could spot them, and she did manage to see the top of multiple pelts, their colors were blurred in a smudge as she had to look away quickly, but there were definitely other felines there. Soon the forest began to slowly disappear and the trees began to move farther and farther from each other, she was reaching the camp.


As the trees had gotten so far apart, she was forced to climb down and travel on the ground. It didn’t matter very much, beyond the long grass and bush here and there was the camp.


As she passed through the grass, maneuvering through a trail the cats of the clan had made over the moons, a bulky tom greeted her at the camp’s entrance. His stature so tall compared to hers, she actually had to look up to be able to meet his gaze. “Ah morning stonepelt!” Morning? Stonepelt’s eyes shifted from the tom to the sky, and without her realizing it, the sun had crept up it’s blue hues and made night into day. “I actually hadn’t realized it was morning, guess I was so caught up in trying to find some prey to hunt.” she chuckled, noticing the fatigue her limbs carried, as they trembled even when she stood. “You really shouldn’t overwork yourself like you do- it's bad for you health. We know that you are just wanting to get as much prey as possible but you can’t keep staying up all night, you need to sleep.” His kind voice tried to persuade her, but in Stonepelt’s drowsiness, her mind took it as offensive. She was actually more disappointed than offended, she had gone out of her way and so far into the territory to catch this thrush.. And she didn’t even get a compliment.


“Whatever you say, I even went into the forest to get this one…” Without waiting for his reply she brushed past him and into the clearing, catching a few glances from warriors but other than that nothing much happened. The adrenaline from the hunt had left herself, now it dripped down on the ground in the form of light sprinkles of rain. She could feel his stare on her neck but she didn’t turn around, she simply plopped the bird into the smaller-than-usual fresh-kill pile and headed to the warrior’s den.

A white-pelted tom called Thrushwing lifted his head from his nest and smiled, “Your back! I have been waiting for so long for you to return, you must’ve caught a lot?” He chirped, sitting up and awaiting her reply like a kit to an elder telling a story. Stonepelt turned to him, her face drained of liveliness but some of it seemed to have been revived when the tom spoke to her. “Not a lot actually… I was only able to find a Thrush,” she tilted her head in the direction of the fresh-kill pile. “I went pretty far in the territory too…” Stonepelt sighed with disappointment, laying down next to the chatty tom. “Only one thrush? And you went far into the territory? How far? Like, to the small creek or to the gorge?” She had a hard time listening to him as she was half asleep, but she found it rude to not respond to him. “Y-yea I went pretty far into the territory, so I don’t REALLY remember where I was, but I wasn’t at the gorge. Its like near the creek but you go farther and farther and you reach a forest and I was hunting in the forest.” she tried to explain but her words came out slurred, to her frustration.


The tom’s fur bristled upward and he bolted out of his nest and backed away from her, causing quite the scene. Stonepelt looked around at the staring cats, how embarrassing. “D-did I say something wrong?” Honestly she couldn’t tell if she had, her mind was so moggy from the constant lack of sleep. He looked at her in disbelief and did a double take before she got really close to her and spoke in a hushed voice, “You seriously don’t realize what you did?” he asked astounded. She nodded back plainly, awaiting to know what she did wrong.


“You do know that those woods by the creek… they belong to Thunderclan.” His voice was quieted now as he began to explain what she had done. “This is serious, they might assume it was an attack or your trying to get info on their clan.” Thrushwing began to list off the reasons why this was very bad and Stonepelt tried to listen but found herself wandering off into the land of her own thoughts, and He began to notice.


“Stonepelt!” He put her back into the real world using a hoarse loud whisper. “Don’t tell me you encountered a patrol?”. Their conversation went on for a while before he finally got so tired where he kind of just knocked himself out.

Stonepelt meanwhile contemplated his words, what he said wasn’t true, was it? She hadn’t ACTUALLY encountered a patrol, but, they did see her. And they did follow her. Stonepelt barely slept that night, caught up in the conundrum of the patrol and the crippling anxiety about what she had done.