Chapter Two ~ COTL Dawn Of The Clans

Instructions

Dusk padded through the forest, muttering to himself, “I’d like to see Bark come back with five mice one day,” the rusty tom hissed to no-one in particular. “That old cat can’t even catch a pigeon anymore!” his rant was cut off abruptly by a rustling nearby. The young warrior’s attention snapped to a small bush, surrounded by long grass. Dusk lowered himself to the ground, checking he was downwind, then slowly creeped forward towards his prey. As Dusk reached the bush, he saw it, a small mouse gnawing on a seed, oblivious to the danger behind it. The young warrior readied himself into a pounce, and quickly jumping on the small rodent, before finishing it swiftly with a bite to the neck. The rusty tom smiled as he crawled out from underneath the bush, a mouse in his jaws. Normally, he be heading back to the Den with his catch, but this was only the first of five mice he needed before he could return. Dusk padded along the normal hunting path that his family used, looking for more prey. ‘I’ll be an Elder before I find another four mice!’ he thought to himself, losing hope. The season was late leaffall, so the young warrior wasn’t far from the truth as prey was quickly starting to become scarcer. But just as Dusk was about to find a place to sleep for the night, he glanced over to his left, seeing a large pile of fresh prey sitting under a bush in a small hollow. The young warrior’s eyes widened, he blinked twice, making sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. ‘Maybe I won’t have to spend a night away from my nest after all!’ the tom thought gleefully as he carefully padded towards the fresh kill. As he got towards the bush, the smell of an unfamiliar cat filled his nostrils, causing him to freeze in his tracks. His back fur instinctively stood up as he heard soft snoring coming from a small burrow dug behind the fresh kill, the home of another loner. ‘If they have this much prey, they won’t mind me taking a couple of mice,’ Dusk thought to himself, trying to justify the theft he was about to commit. The young warrior stepped forwards, only barely pressing his paws into the ground, trying hard to make no sounds that might wake the unfamiliar cat. He quickly grabbed four plump mice from the pile, barely able to carry three at a time, he carried the other two mice by the tails. Just as Dusk was about to pad back towards the den with his stolen prey, a large tom, and smaller she-cat emerged from the burrow, quickly noticing the young warrior nearby. “Hey!” the large tom hissed, preparing to charge. Dusk turned and bounded away towards the Den, the large tom only two tail lengths away. The young warrior glanced over his shoulder to look at the angry cat behind him, but his attention quickly turned to the she-cat back at the burrow. The smaller she-cat was hastily trying to get her four very young kits back inside the den, worried about what might unfold outside. Dusk quickly turned back towards the path ahead, he may have been young, but he might just outpace the larger warrior. As the rusty tom bounded away, he considered dropping the mice, he knew that family needed it more than he did. ‘They can just catch more, it’s not my problem!’ the bitter young cat thought to himself, ‘in the end, it’s every cat for himself.’ That sounded just like something Dusk’s father would say. As much as the young tom hated his father’s ways, he was the oldest of his siblings, and knew he would one day carry on Bark’s ways. Dusk continued bounding through the forest, dodging trees and leaping over logs, trying to shake off the larger tom behind. He quickly turned a sharp right, jumping into a thick growth of bramble bushes, too large for the older tom to enter. That didn’t stop Dusk’s heart from pounding any harder as he collapsed on the other side of the bushes, safe for now. “You’ve made a big mistake here, mouse-brain!” the older tom called out from behind the bushes, unable to reach the rusty tom as he bounded back towards his den...