Hear No Evil [Open]

It was late afternoon in the basin and Leaf-Fall’s cool breeze stirred the she-cat’s fur slightly. Calm blue eyes looked at the land before her, slowly going over every tree and bush within view. It was so…ugly. That was definitely the word for it. It would always be a mystery to her as to why any cat would want to set paw in territory that was so riddled with water and bog that with any step taken yielded more mud caking ones paws than what she deemed necessary. Holly Flower could hardly understand why cats would willingly want to call a place like that home, much less defend it at the cost of their life. They were an anomaly, but a welcome one. Ever since she had heard that the Clans had been brought back her interest was piqued immediately. It was a policy of hers to get Intel on everything happening around her, and this MarshClan was certainly close enough to her that she felt the need to investigate them first.

For that reason she sat outside of their territory. Holly Flower thought herself at a reasonable distance. She wasn’t anywhere close to the border, in fact she was so far away from it she could only detect its scent when the wind shifted. She was seated comfortably under a bush that blended well with her brown fur, giving her a decent hiding spot should any cat happen to come into her viewing range. She was merely there to scout the competition. Leafbare was coming and with it a shortage of prey. The benefits to living in a group were drastically weakened when it came to trying to survive the harshest of the seasons, and despite there being plenty of land unoccupied by Clan cats in the region there was still a slim chance these cats would try to impose themselves on territory that wasn’t there’s. In fact, she was under the impression they already had. If this Clan was led by or comprised of fools who thought the basin was for their taking whenever the going got tough they were under the wrong impression.

Holly Flower wasn’t such a creature that would just acknowledge a new player in the game without knowing what they were about. If they did choose to hunt outside of their border markings she would need to know them quite intimately to figure out countermeasures should they happen to stray into what she considered her home. This insatiable curiosity of hers was infamous to the loners that knew her, and even though some would attribute it to the warrior blood in her she was very much aware that this sometimes troublesome need to know everything was a behavior that was both born and incessantly taught to her. Knowing was half the battle, but utilizing the information gained was what separated the strong from the weak, and she refused to be anything lesser.

She was quietly watching the area claimed by these Clan cats when she felt it. There was a primal eagerness to at least catch a glimpse of one, but it was an urge that she suppressed as quickly as it had surfaced. She didn't want anyone picking up on her immediately, and if any cat happened to catch sight of her all they would see was a stock still she-cat with a half-eaten squirrel at her paws (the only decent prey she’d managed to catch that day). If anything she was sure she would spot any cat across the border before they took notice of her. It was in this confidence that her concentration peaked. Every now and then a leaf would fall or the wind would shift, yet nothing budged her or turned her gaze from what she decided to watch. The amount of concentration she could have when she was set on something was what, in Holly Flower’s opinion, set her apart from the rest.

Still, there were times when her gambles or persistency weren’t rewarded. She had learned to take both her victories and defeats in stride, though she was working to minimalize the latter to great effect. Should she succeed and managed to catch a glimpse of a Clan cat then her curiosity could be sated for the moment and she could return to her home in the Southern Forest to muse about her findings, should she not see one…well then there would be other chances. She could increase her gamble and try to venture into their territory, however the thought of doing that immediately caused her look to sour. There were desperate times when she would consider going into drenched territory for food, but just to catch a peek of these fierce warriors? That would be hardly worth the reward. No, she would do what she always had. She would wait. If there was one thing she was good for it was patiently waiting, observing, scrutinizing every last detail with her concentrated stare. What her brother once remarked as creepy she revered to the highest degree.

As they say: good things come to those who wait.