Warriors: Falling Petals [Discontinued]

Chapter Ten - Lost Leaves

Chapter Ten
Lost Leaves

It had been three days since Flowerkit had escaped the fox.

Three days of living in a haze, tired, hungry, and lost. Three days of traveling in circles, gradually losing hope of finding anything familiar. Of scanning the trees for a landmark he might have seen before. Of searching for any sign of Jake or another cat he knew. And there was nothing.

To make matters worse, the forest around him was changing before his eyes. The leafy canopy above him was dominated by yellows and reds instead of standard green, and some trees had no leaves at all, just bare branches outlined against the sky. The days were growing colder. Chilly breezes wound through the forest, sending loose leaves dancing and making Flowerkit shiver with the cold.

He remembered Ashenbird telling him a little bit about the changing of the seasons. He had been born in greenleaf, which meant that the weather was warm and mild and prey was plentiful. After greenleaf came leaf-fall, where the leaves fell and all the forest was busy preparing for leaf-bare which, according to Ashenbird, was horribly cold and where snow (little white specks that melted on your fur) fell from the sky like rain. Then new-leaf would come and everything went back to normal. This had to be leaf-fall, Flowerkit thought, watching with little interest as a gust of wind sent big brown leaves scattering in front of him.

The blown leaves made so much noise that Flowerkit almost missed the young squirrel dashing through them, carrying a small pinecone. It was either completely oblivious to Flowerkit's presence or just too stupid about the danger he posed. Instinctively Flowerkit sprang forward, his claws outstretched. He missed the squirrel and it chattered in surprise, starting to run away, but Flowerkit recovered faster and slammed his paw down on its tail. The squirrel pulled free, leaving only a few shreds of fur in Flowerkit's claws. The furious kitten charged after it as it ran for the nearest tree and launched itself onto the trunk. However, Flowerkit was close enough behind it that as the squirrel hit the bark Flowerkit's claws hit the squirrel and he dragged it back down. After a brief struggle the squirrel went limp and Flowerkit, his chest heaving, held his prize proudly in his jaws. He lied down right where he was and began to eat.

It hadn't been too hard to find food for himself the past few days, as most of the small mammals were so intent on gathering food for the winter that it was easy to sneak up on them. However, Flowerkit's hunting skills were still weak and most of his hunts were messy ones, when he caught the prey at all. But he was surviving, so that was good enough for him.

Later, as the sun began to set, Flowerkit curled up at the base of a beech tree full with golden leaves, his fur fluffed up against the cold. It was difficult to fall asleep because he kept shivering, but the small tom was so exhausted from wandering all day that finally he just gave up on trying to stay warm and let sleep overcome him.

His dreams were a confusing jumble of darkened images. Voices echoed in his ears, cutting out and ringing back strongly with words that Flowerkit couldn't make sense of. "Under the... darkness..." In his dream, all was black, except for a pair of orange eyes blinking at him from the shadows. "Under the cover of darkness..." The eyes disappeared, and Flowerkit looked down to see blood pooling under his paws, staining the black fur around his claws a dark crimson. "Petals..." Suddenly a mass of scarlet leaves swirled around Flowerkit, obscuring his vision. He cried out, and he heard someone call his name in return. In the gaps between the leaves still circling around him, he saw what had to Ashenbird and he yelled out for her, but the leaves battered back at him and he couldn't run towards his mother. Flowerkit was crying out again when all of a sudden the air stilled and the leaves dropped, leaving the kit surrounded by unbroken darkness. "Blood-red petals will fall."