Story Part 29 Part 1 *Exploration*

Snowstar yawned and stretched, then padded out of her den. She saw her kits huddled by the fresh-kill pile and wondered what they were talking about. Whatever, it's probably something trivial, she thought. Raincloud walked up to her then.
"Want to go hunting with me?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied. They walked out the tunnel and headed toward the river.
*At the fresh-kill pile*
"Hmm... There's not nearly enough good prey on the pile today," commented Winterpaw.
"Yeah," mewed Etharpaw, turning over a scrawny mouse with her paw.
"We should hunt for more," announced Eaglepaw. He flicked the small fish he had been looking at back onto the pile. "But first we need something to keep our strength up on the hunt."
Winterpaw held up a decently sized bird. "This should do," he said in a voice muffled by feathers.
The siblings fell to gulping down the morsel. "Alright, let's go!" yowled Etharpaw, done first. They all scampered out the tunnel a few minutes after their parents, leaving a wake of dust behind them.
"Apprentices," coughed Shortwhisker, who had been at the prey pile too.
"Well, where should we go?" asked Winterpaw after they had traveled quite a distance from camp.
Eaglepaw looked right and then left. "That way." He pointed right with his tail. They all went that way.
"Hey, I don't think we've ever gone this way before," meowed Etharpaw, observant as always.
Eaglepaw looked around at their surroundings. "Way cool! You're right!"
Winterpaw looked nervous. "We don't know what's out here," he mewed cautiously.
Etharpaw's eyes sparkled. "You're right! There could be an evil monster out here. Let's find out!" She bolted into some bushes, with Eaglepaw closely following her.
Winterpaw was left alone in the clearing. "Hey guys, don't leave without me!" he howled, chasing after them.
Eaglepaw and Etharpaw were cackling with glee. "This is fun!" cried Etharpaw.
"Did you see the look on Winterpaw's face?" asked Eaglepaw. They stopped running then.
"Shhh... he's following," whispered Etharpaw.
Winterpaw came out from behind them. "There you are." He looked relieved. "How will we get back?"
Eaglepaw flicked his tail. "We'll just follow our scent back."
"C'mon! Let's explore," whined Etharpaw. "I think there's something past those cattails." Hmm... there are cattails here, so there must be water. 
Etharpaw padded forward, reaching out a paw to part the cattails. She gasped and withdrew.
"What is it? What is it?" asked her brothers. Eaglepaw looked excited, but Winterpaw looked almost afraid.
"Ruins," she whispered. "Twoleg ruins on the other side of this pond."
Eaglepaw looked up at the sky. "We haven't been gone long, we must have really ran fast. I wonder why no other warrior has found this place?"
Winterpaw shrugged. "I guess they never bothered going so deep into the territory. If this even is our territory. We may be outside the boundries. Don't we need to hunt?"
Etharpaw peeked back at the twoleg ruins. "Sure, we can hunt over by the ruins. There should be plenty of prey making their homes in there. Let's go look!" She led the way around the pond and over to the ruins.
"Wow, it looks kinda scary from here," whispered Winterpaw. He envisioned the boarded up windows as blank, staring eyes, and the empty space where the door should have been as a gaping mouth.
"Hey, look at this!" called Etharpaw from far away. Her brothers turned to look at her. "There's a bridge thing here, but it must have sunk underwater, because only part of it is here."
"It's called a dock or pier," explained Winterpaw. "Shortwhisker told me that people use them to tie their stuff at and sit on."
"Ooh! I want to sit on it!" yelped Etharpaw. She ran onto the wooden planks. Eerk! The planks groaned with stress.
"Be careful!" called out Eaglepaw. "It doesn't sound stable!"
"I'll be fine," Etharpaw called back. "If twolegs could walk on it than I can." She made it to the end and sat down, looking into the clear water of the pond. Some small fish, too small for prey, swam beneath her, taking shelter under the pier. She looked up across the pond to the opposite bank. A light breeze blew through her fur, ruffling it gently. In that moment she felt perfectly at peace with nature.
"Do you think the dock will support us?" asked Eaglepaw. He had walked up to the beginning of the pier.
"It should," Etharpaw called back. She looked back into the water, but the scene beneath her had changed. Etharpaw gasped as a desert plain spread before her in the water. She could hear paw-steps, a roar, and then saw a flash of an animal she had only heard described in nursery stories, a golden-maned lion!