"I just named Cricket today, he doesn't have a compound name like you guys."

"Why did you name him?"

"Gorsepaw," the cat who first spoke chastises.  "It's nice to meet you as well."

"I named him because he didn't already have a name in mind and he liked the one I came up with."

"Alright."

"I'm Tallstar, leader of WindClan, and these are Onewhisker and Gorsepaw, and my deputy Mudclaw.  Fireheart says you wish to facilitate communication between cats and other Twolegs?"

"Right. I can talk to the Twolegs - at least the ones around here, others may speak languages I don't - and I can talk to you. The Twolegs don't know you can talk and apparently it comes as a surprise the other way around too."

"It certainly does.  WindClan doesn't get much trouble from Twolegs, although we're glad to hear you might be doing something about the Thunderpath."

"The Thunderpath is liable to continue to exist but I can probably put some kind of bridge over it."

"If the monsters stop swerving to try and hit us, that would already be a marked improvement."

"I... expect that's probably a misinterpretation but if they're intentionally hitting you I don't actually know that I can get them to cut it out, since that's fairly sociopathic and might not be responsive to the information that you can talk."

"Then perhaps a bridge is in order."

"It's not all of them," supplies Fireheart.  "But it's happened to me twice, if I wasn't misinterpreting."

"Yikes! Yeah, I'll do a bridge, someone'll just have to show me where."

"We would like one between our territory and Highstones.  I imagine ShadowClan might as well, though if they ask for one connecting our territories directly I would prefer you didn't."

"Where along the road would constitute connecting directly?"

"There are two Thunderpaths, with one that joins to the other.  Highstones is between them, and there's a small stretch where WindClan and ShadowClan border each other, just over there."  Tallstar nods in the opposite direction Cam approached from.

Cam hops off the rock, picks up a stick, and scratches a map in the dirt. "Like so?"

Tallstar stares for a moment at the map.  "Why don't you come and look."  He trots a ways in the indicated direction, followed by his entourage and, more slowly, by Fireheart.  It's not enough distance that they get too far ahead for Cam to follow; he can see the road as soon as they exit the clearing.  It's also much louder - the cars were barely audible where Cam was sitting even though there doesn't appear to be anything substantial enough to block the sound between there and Fourtrees.

"WindClan's territory is along here," nose point to the left "Highstones is over there," nose point to the far corner enclosed by a T in the road "and that's ShadowClan," nose point to the nearer corner at the right of the T.

"I'm not good at interpreting nose-points but I think I follow you."

"Alright.  So our bridge can go anywhere along here, really, although perhaps it should be a bit closer to Barley's farm than Fourtrees."  He gestures somewhat awkwardly and exaggeratedly with a paw to a farmhouse in the distance.

"Cool, I can do that. I don't know of cat-specific bridges to copy but if I have to use a model intended for turtles probably you can manage."

"I don't see why that would make a difference."

"It doesn't make much of one, I'm just thinking out loud."

"Okay.  Should we head that way now?"