Chapter 17
Rage
Crow goes over the winners in his head.
Mouse, Rock, Twig, Moss, and Kale. Huh, wonder who the odd one out is? It would normally be the perfect group... Crow's thoughts are interrupted.
"Ready, Crow?" Stone asks. Crow looks up and nods.
"Yeah," he replies. Crow pads over to the excited cats, rockets with paws.
"Soon, with the help of these noble cats, the prey will return to our forest!" Stone's words bring cheers into the crowd. They die down as Stone continues. "Thanks to the hunters in the hunting competition, we have enough prey to sustain all cats for five sunrises. Hopefully, we will be able to catch enough prey for two more days. Crow, make sure your cats are back in six sunrises. As for the prey, there are three types of prey we are missing: the fish, the birds, and the ground prey: the mice."
How can five cats possibly recover all the prey in the forest in six days? That's only two days per type of prey, not counting travel time! "Try your best. The fate of the forest and the Northern Backyard is in your paws."
Cheers ripple through the crowd once more. He forces a smile and waves his tail. The cheers grow louder. Stone nods to the black cat, and Crow jumps from the boulder. Mouse, Rock, Twig, Moss, and Kale follow. As soon as they're far enough away that the noise from the cats dies down, Crow stops and addresses the cats.
"Alright, any ideas for our quest?" Crow asks.
"Well," Mouse begins, "Stone said there were three types of prey missing, right? So let's start with the fish. It should be easy, since there's only one place the fish could be: the river! And that's easy to find and follow, you know?"
There's a lot of knowledge to Mouse's words. Really, that's impressive thinking.
"Mouse, that's a great plan! We can save the forest prey for after we do the easiest one: the fish. You're a great thinker!" Crow exclaims.
"Oh, it was just common sense," Mouse says, blushing. Crow laughs.
"Whatever you say," Crow laughs. "Kale, you came from the fishing competition. Lead us to the river."
"Okay, can do," Kale says. He does a steady horse-like trot. It took a few seconds for even Crow to catch up. Kale continues to trot the same pace, and after a few minutes, Crow tires. He looks around to see that just about everyone besides Kale is growing tired too.
These cats need something to distract them.
"So, when I did the smarts competition, I gave the cats a riddle. None of them are here now, so do you want to hear it?" Crow asked the cats.
"Hmm, sure. Why not?" Rock asks.
"Don't leave me hanging, Crow! Tell us!" Moss encouraged.
"Alright, alright," Crow says. "So there is this cat named Dandelion. Dandelion sees this rare moss from the giant oak. She wants the moss, but dangerous deadly bees are surrounding the trees, and she can't fly or climb the tree. But Dandelion still manages to get the moss, but how?"
"Moss should have no trouble with this one," Kale says. "It's based on her cousin!" Mouse just rolls her eyes.
"Perhaps Dandelion jumped from one tree onto the oak above the moss then climbed down to the moss?" Twig asks. Crow shakes his head.
"Good thinking, but no," Crow replies. Soon the sound of the rushing river fills his ears.
"Here we are, the river," Kale says. "I don't know about you, but I'm ready to find what has the fish!"
"Kale, the rest of us are tired! Let's catch some lunch," Twig says. The others murmur in agreement.
"Uh, the fish are, like, gone," Moss says.
"Not all of them. Just the large ones. Between the six of us, I'm sure we can catch at least a few smaller ones," Kale relies. The six cats line up against the shore, and Crow counts the shadows by the water.
One, two, three, four, five, six... seven? Wait, what? Crow looks behind his shoulder and sees a black shadow dart into the woods. Confusion, curiosity, and worry spill through him all at once. He looks back at the others, hunting happily.
Wait, Crow looks into the woods again. Two green eyes lock on his.
Is that...
