- 278
- #1
Watching the clan leave had been nearly unbearable. Dapplelight felt her gut twist miserably as she watched the travelling cats exit the ravine for the very last time, wondering if Swallowtail had been right to sleep through the farewell. It was almost enough to make her want to slink to her nest and curl up, never to move again. But the ragged hole the leaving cats left wouldn’t stop her from caring for the cats who remained.
At first, optimism fleetingly visited the gorge. The reduced pressure did seem to make each meagre catch stretch a little further. Some days went by without a single piece of fresh kill being brought back, but some days the clan seemed to get lucky, and on one memorable occasion a few days went by with Dapplelight and the other elders bringing back lots of prey, to general delight and gentle teasing. Things, at least briefly, were slightly normal.
Cats slowed down. Some days cats couldn’t make it out of their nests, still suffering the ill effects of the drought. Even the young medicine cat was forced out to hunt, scraping a few pieces of prey back to the camp. Things were just barely stable, but cats were still going hungry. Dapplelight felt her paws and heart grow heavy.
Every evening she prayed to the setting sun that the clan would be okay, that their travelling loved ones were finding better hunting grounds.
That she’d be able to keep ignoring the thirst, the hunger, the exhaustion and the aching in her old bones, and keep going out to hunt.
All she had left was to prey to Sunclan not to abandon them.