break the monotony {Taloa/Ame}

Hera was so tired that for once all she wanted was silence and isolation. She'd gone days without sleep after a painful streak of bad luck on clan territory. First an unexpected ThunderClan patrol left her wounded and bleeding, including one oozing gash from ear to muzzle that was refusing to heal. Then when she had retreated into ShadowClan, she had run straight into a sulking tom at the fringes of his territory. Afterwards, she got into a fight with a few rats at Carrionplace. The incessant pounding in her head and the pain from her wounds kept her wide awake despite her best efforts.


First it had riled her up, made her furious, but then that ebbed away to a creeping exhaustion in every step she took. Stumbling every few taillengths, she had slunk to treecut place to hide. It crawled with Furless but as long as you stayed at the edges it was reasonably safe. Excluded from clan territory by a Furless path,  quiet at night, a good hideout for a few days. The pines made for a soft bed of needles to lay on, and the rogue hadn't seen any other clanless cats around.


That was curious. Why wouldn't more cats come here? It really wasn't a bad place as long as you kept an eye out for the occasional stray No-fur and didn't do anything stupid. As if they'd heard her, a noise in the darkness caught Hera's attention. Too quiet for a No-fur; it had to be another cat, but who? "I don't like it when someone sneak up on me. Who are you?"