River looked around, and Freya could sense her distress.

The claw marks were small enough to be from any animal of a creature size, but she didn't know which it could be. All she knew was that she didn't want to be there at the moment.

"What say we move to another location? Say one without the climbing claws?" Freya said.

"I'm looking for a suitable spot. I'm also trying to see which animal made those."

River probably thought it could be either a beast of a creature. That thought did nothing to comfort Freya.

Freya had some idea of what talons looked like, especially now that she had some. She idly attempted to imitate the claw marks.

Her talons were not as thin as the claw marks were. Of the three upper and one lower marks, all were particularly thin.

Whatever had made the marks, it had climbed up the tree on its own power. Freya immediately ruled out dire owls, those would have no need to climb so high.

The bear she had seen would need to climb, but it's claws were wider than the marks.

"What are those marks?"

Freya's whisper was nearly inaudible. Only her hearing, altered in her wild shape, let River pick up what she was saying.

"I believe they were made by Cats. If so, the convoy is in trouble. They may have noticed us."

Freya stifled a squawk.

"Cats?" She hissed, "This close to my homeland?"

"It's probably a scouting party, but if they're here it means that the war is going badly for us."

Freya inched towards the trunk of the tree, following River. The gnarled connections between the limbs and the trunk were covered in similar scratches.

"This is.. or was their lookout."

The swift breeze brought an unwelcome chill. Freya considered a weave that would keep her toasty, but decided against it. She didn't want to use up all of her red mist for comfort, but on the other hand…

Sound below halted their movement and eyes locked on the shade passing across the forest floor.

"Two… no, four… moving on paw," River said.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"They’re cats."

The yellow and brown furred creatures stalked through the woods. Each step was a calculated move, and only the small sound of a branch snapping stirred up the native beasts.

"They’re good. Don't move."

The cats moved methodically to the closest edge of the forest. They were moving along the pathway, just a bit farther into the heavy brush.

"They’re tracking the convoy. It's pretty obvious which way they're heading though at this point. So unless we get them to change direction, their scouts know which way our support runs through."

"What can we do?" Freya asked, sitting up.

"We can see if they have any friends, because I can't intervene directly. If they were beasts? That wouldn't be an issue."

"We're at war and you want to argue semantics about the difference between cats and beasts?"

River sighed.

"Look, it's not that simple."

"It's not that simple?" Freya shout whispered,"Cats eat mice! They're not shy about that! That's the reason for the wall."

"The wall is there because of beasts like the bear. The nation of yellowrock is the thing keeping them from overrunning the races therein. I have met a few cat druids and they are all vegetarian or pescetarian. They understand even if their Marquis does not. Your foxes were able to change their diets, these cats could do the same…"

"But they don’t! I also read books, you know they eat birds also?"

"That can't…"

River looked taken aback.

"What kind of books did your parents give you?"

"You know… the normal kinds?"

The breeze lifted fe a few of the cats' cloaks. With her improved eyesight, she could she distinct spotted differences between the four cats.

"We're going to have to talk about appropriate book reading when this is all over, but for now I can't intervene…."

River let the sentence hang in the air for a long minute. Freya glommed on to a reason.

"But I can? Sweet Miru, what do you expect me to do? Fight them all?"

"You don't have to be the one. We have several capable males down there that are itching for a fight. But you can't be seen to be doing anything that a normal blue jay couldn't."

The roach carriage wheels in Freya's mind turned incredibly fast.

"We can have them set a trap. Or we can get a nearby beast of unusual size to harass them. That would be a natural thing for a beast to do."

"It's good you're thinking. All of the blue jay druids that I know belong to house Miru, and we don't really interact much."

The cats stalked along the boundaries stopping to wait.

"Their packs are particularly light, there must be more of them, or they're foraging off the land. They may be …eating creatures that they find out here. Or they could be close enough to their outpost…"

A whirlwind of possibilities ran through Freyas mind and she settled on the one the didn't make her scream internally. They had to be close to an outpost which meant...

"If there's an outpost, it too will require resupply."

River nodded, finally relaxing in the branches as she moved back. She took a long second to look behind them.

"Again this is all speculation, any druid must be neutral on matter of creatures interacting unless one is a confirmed inujag."

Freya moved away from a line of sight from the cats, achieving her day long dream of full cover and concealment.

"So I need to alert the supply train, and then Stone and Crenshaw will decide what to do."

"Don't discount your grandfather, he was a swordmaster. Still is according to their rules."

"Alright so we need to alert them, but without the cats learning that we know so… we fly with tree cover to a spot where we can land safely. Then we alert them that they're being watched."

River smiled.

"The question isn't when they will make their move, little knife, it's when."