"Yes, Midgefly," he replied with exaggerated patience. "You would be a Scout just like the rest of them. You would make pilons, stand guard, look for new camps, and so on. Does that interest you?"

He did not like how big her eyes were getting. If he got her too excited, would they pop out of her head and roll away?

"Sure, Midgefly," he repeated. She was a little more excitable than he thought she would be, rough around the edges for sure, but he was growing used to that. His clan seemed to attract free spirits. That was unfortunate for him, he would have preferred to have some stoic types around, but (not that he would ever admit it) positive, upbeat cats were good for Chim. He had enough negativity in his own mind, he couldn't handle anyone else piling on.

"You can have fun as long as you get the job done, okay? I don't think it will be too hard." Not that anyone had tried this before to say for sure.

"Please never call me Chimmster," the leader meowed immediately. "It's Chim. Just Chim."

He looked around them once, then sighed and offered a small nod. "You're right. Let's hunt down something to eat; then we can talk about cairns." His stomach was rumbling softly: no less than usual, but he liked to eat more while they were traveling. He needed to keep his energy up, and sometimes they passed through bountiful lands.

Well, that was unexpected. He just hoped she heard what he said about hunting and wasn't chasing a butterfly.

Chim headed away from their meeting place, slipping past the spruce and deeper into the woods. Blackberry bushes and honeysuckle surrounded him; he checked beneath each shrub for signs of prey and found they were plentiful. It was harder to isolate which scent was fresh enough to track.

He couldn't help feeling a little wistful as he prowled beneath the trees. If a river had been nearby, he could have caught something from there water to eat, but the sound of moving water had been distant for a few days now. They had found plenty of pools to drink from, but Chim had already decided he wouldn't settle the clan down again until they were near a river or lake he could swim in.

Interrupted by the cry of a bird up above, Chim tilted his head back to scowl at a hummingbird as it hovered before him. The fiery little bird dipping down toward him menacingly, perhaps defending its nest, but the warrior didn't feel very threatened. He fell into a crouch, eyeing it until it swooped closer; then he lunged up, sinking his claws through the feathers and dragging the struggling bird back down for a killing bite.

Chim headed back to the gathering spot to find Midgefly had already returned. He blinked once in surprise, then gave her an approving nod. He set his prey down at his paws and greeted her, "Good-looking catch."

Chim raised a brow but didn't respond to her. He settled down with his prey, waiting until she was silent and eating before he began.

"Now, we were going to talk about cairns." He had spent a while perfecting the idea with the help of the other traveling cats, and a few outsiders he trusted well. "You'll be in charge of building them in each territory we choose to settle in. A tall pile of rocks, two or three cats high if you can manage, built on a high point so that every cat can see it while they're exploring. Then, depending on what's nearby, you can mark the stones." Chim went on to explain how some plants could be woven between the stones, or dyes smeared over the stones, to signify different warnings.

"Cairns. We need a way to warn everyone what's around them," he explained. "Cats can look up at the rocks nearby, and see the message. Then they'll know if there's a fox in the area, or a flood is coming, or the camp is being attacked or moved again."


karens

"Well, if you're paying attention, you should notice a lot of dark clouds and heavy rain. That'll be your first hint... when the mud turns into a river, that'll be another sign." Chim rolled his eyes. He thought it would be fairly obvious, sometimes you could sense a flash flood on the wind, but then again he had grown up in the water.

Chim gritted his back teeth. "How about you focus on the other signals, and if there's a flood, I'll send someone else to tell you?"