In the midst of a waking storm, four slim shapes moved steadily through the forest. Moonlight shone down on their pelts and wind rustled their fur. The leading figure stopped to scent the air, her jaws opening to taste the wind.
“We must keep going, there is plenty of prey here, but there is no time for hunting,” she called to the others, her voice laced with a thick accent. Her golden pelt was dull in the fog of the storm, but her green eyes gleamed like stars.
“I don’t know if Crescent can make it!” a large, brown tabby tom yowled from the back. He gently nudged his mate forward, a silver cat with deep swirls on her pelt, who was leaning on him, one leg badly torn. A smaller grey tom, a pelt matching his mother’s, quickly ran back to help his mother, but she shooed him away gently for his own good.
Crescent blinked calmly, and mewed, “I think I can do it. It can’t be much farther, right?” No one could answer her. “Far or not, I will make it,.” sShe said, breathing. Her mate let out a purr and pressed his nose into her neck fur, helping his mate limp along with the moving group. His yellow eyes flashed with worry whenever Crescent folded her ears back and huffed in frustration from the pain in her left leg.
“Are you sure you don’t want to rest?” he asked.
“I’ll be fine, Snake,” Crescent replied, lashing her tail to keep balance. “Silver knows I can do it, right?” She turned to look at her kit, who was old enough to take care of himself, but not quite old enough to leave her yet.
Silver blinked thoughtfully, “Yeah!” he exclaimed. “Momma can make it!” Crescent purred, feeling new energy flowing through her limbs at her son’s encouragement. Meanwhile, the golden she-cat who was leading had stopped suddenly, making Snake perk up his ears.
“What’s going on, Daisy?” he asked, eyes narrowing against the speeding wind.
“We’re here.” Her voice was quiet, barely heard by the other cats. Crescent moved away from her mate at such a surprising speed, Silver almost ran into her as she hurriedly limped forward beside Daisy, who was standing over the edge of a steep hill. The landscape in front of her was beautiful, even at night. The grass was soft and moist, trees were bunched in groups, and the scent of prey flowed smoothly to any cat who looked for it.
“It’s perfect!” Crescent meowed, her kit running up beside her, followed closely by Snake.
“We must start settling down immediately, mark borders, find dens, good places for pre-” Daisy was cut off by Snake’s awed voice.
“Calm down, Daisy, we only just got here, let us enjoy the night,.” he mewed softly. The four cats all sat down and continued watching the beautiful land that would soon become their home.