A Random Story

## Allegiances

### The Ancient Tribe

Healer: Teller of the Pointed Stones (Stoneteller) - brown tabby tom with dark gray eyes

Others: Snowy Leaves - tortoiseshell-and-white she-cat with amber-green eyes

Burning Flame - ginger tabby tom with a paler chest, underbelly, and face

Silver Frost - gray tabby she-cat

Amber Leaves - calico she-cat

Dappled Ground - ginger she-cat with a white underbelly, chest, and paws

Night Hunter - black tom with olive green eyes

Leopard Spots - ginger she-cat with spots like a leopard and gray hindpaws

Sun Dapple - ginger-brown she-cat with spots like a leopard and a white underbelly

Midnight Frost - calico she-cat

Tiny Ember - ginger tom

Burnt Oak - black tom

Ring Eyes - brown tom with matching ringlike eyes

Snow Stone - gray-and-white tom

Rose Pelt - reddish-orange she-cat

White Legs - gray tom with white legs

Raven's Glare - black tom with amber-brown eyes

Bramble Thorn - brown tabby

Ginger Swirl - ginger tabby

Pinecone Seeds - brown tabby tomkit

Sun Sky - golden tabby she-kit with a white chest and underbelly

## Prologue (Stoneteller)

Stoneteller lay down to sleep beside the Pool of the Pointed Stones. He wished that falling-leaves had been kinder, but his wishes were naught but useless, as he could not change the seasons, and frozen-water would be harsher than ever.

He woke up a few seconds later in a starry clearing with soft green grass and a lush forest not like anything he had seen before in the mountains. He looked around, hoping to find that he was hallucinating, and hoping he could just make sure he was inside the stone Cave of the Pointed Stones, in the soft nest next to the Pool of the Pointed Stones, but instead he saw a dark brown tabby she-cat.

"Mother?" his mouth gaped open when he saw the beautiful figure.

"Yes, it is I, Tree Bark," the she-cat said. "You are not the same cat, yet you still are the same cat. Stoneteller, I wish that you would just call me Owl Feathers. I am not the mother of you, yet I am. Now let us let go of the serious thinking and get on to the subject of importance. Look down into your world. Tell me what you see."

"I see the sun sinking beneath the dark green canopy of leaves," Stoneteller replied. "But it seems to me like-" he gazed harder at the sunset. "-it's illuminating a path."

"That is exactly what it is doing," replied Owl Feathers. "Illuminating a path. Some of your cats must leave the mountains along that path. Stoneteller, do you not want your group to survive? Not all cats must go. Only some must go. They will raise their kin in another place, where they will survive and continue these cat's legacy. The ones that stay must try their hardest to survive."

"Leave the mountains?" Stoneteller's mouth gaped open again, but this time in shock. "But the mountains have always been our home!"

"Not anymore."

"Did the Ancestors give you a message, or a sign?" asked Raven's Glare.

"They did," Stoneteller confirmed. "They say that some cats must leave the mountains. Not all, but some."

"But Stoneteller," Raven's Glare protested. "The mountains have always been our home."

"Not always," Stoneteller dipped his head.

## Chapter One (Silver Frost)

Silver Frost spotted a flash of calico pelt next to her, and that meant her sister Amber Leaves were next to her. Silver Frost gave Amber Leaves a quick nod, and then they leaped out at the eagle. Silver Frost managed to claw the eagle's wing feathers, and it struggled to fly, but it couldn't.

Then Amber Leaves raked her claws down it's back. The piercing screams of the eagle hurt their ears, but Amber Leaves pinned down its injured wing and Silver Frost sunk her fangs into its neck. The eagle made one final shudder, and lay still.

"It's pretty scrawny, huh?" asked Amber Leaves.

"Yes, I know," Silver Frost sighed. "Everything this frozen-water is scrawny. But this eagle is better than that hare Night Hunter brung back. Ginger Swirl ate it all!"

Then Silver Frost lifted its head onto her back and Amber Leaves managed to keep it from dragging in the snow. They entered the cave to see everycat fighting to get to it.

Then Sun Sky, Silver Frost and Amber Leaves' little sister, came up to Silver Frost and Amber Leaves. "Wow!" Sun Sky exclaimed. "Silver Frost, you caught that *all by yourself*? Wow!"

"Actually, Amber Leaves helped," Silver Frost laughed.

"Good catch, darlings," Snowy Leaves came up to them. Snowy Leaves was the mother of Silver Frost, Amber Leaves, and Sun Sky. "Even when White Legs was an apprentice nobody was able to catch an eagle in a pairing of two cats."

"Everyone, shush!" Golden Swirl called out suddenly. "Stoneteller has an announcement!"

All the chatter about Silver Frost and Amber Leaves' eagle stopped, even in midsentence. Stoneteller arrived at the entrance of the Tunnel of the Pointed Stones.

"I have had a message from the Ancestors!" yowled Stoneteller.

Suddenly, the room was filled with chatter once more.

"What was the message?"

"They say some cats must leave the mountains."

Everyone gasped.

*Leave the mountains?* Silver Frost thought in horror.

## Chapter Two (Amber Leaves)

*Leave the mountains?!?* Amber Leaves thought in horror. *Wait, leaving the mountains may be a good idea. If cats found a new land, then our legacy may be continued! Whee!*