Tiny's Last Chance

Chapter 1

20 years A.F.D (After Firestar's Death)

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"Come on, Shadow! Open your eyes already!" His sister, Sugar, complained. 

"Yea! Mama says we can't leave the bed until all of our eyes opened!" Agreed his other sister, Swirl.

His Brother, Nook, was playing with a puff of fuzz that came from the bed. Shadow blinked open one sleepy eye, then the other. Quickly he was on his paws, looking around wildly with wide eyes. He was all black with one white paw. He was named Shadow because of his dark fur.

"Wow! There is so much to see!" Shadow mewed, amazed.

"And there is even more to see on the other side of the bed! Now come on!" Sugar complained, running in place anxiously. 

"Hold on there young'ns." Mint, their mother chuckled. "Aren't you forgetting something? Or should I say... Someone?" Mint looked over at Nook. He was crouched in a lopsided hunting position, prowling the fuzz ball that he had cornered.

Sugar let out an impatient yowl and ran straight into her brother. Nook gave a surprised meow and they tumbled around the bed, pawing at each other. 

"Come on you too! We're going to leave you behind!" Swirl mewled and leaped out of the bed, followed by Shadow. Nook and Sugar stopped fighting and looked as the two bounded away.

"Mama! Shadow and Swirl got a head start!" Sugar wailed, tumbling after her brother and sister. Nook followed close behind, not very excited to leave his fluffy prey. 

Then, Shadow's other brother, Jad, poked his head out from were he was trying to dig under the bed.

"Wait up!" He called, stumbling over his paws as he charged over the bedside.

Shadow's eyes widened as his paws landed on the smooth ground. He stumbled a bit. The ground was lower than expected. But he quickly regained his balance. He stood, looking across the cold wooden floor. At the end of it was a large wall and an opening. 

Excitedly, Shadow ran towards the opening, and leaped, ready to be outside for his first time. But instead of soft grass beneath his paws, he slammed into something that kept him from the outside. He leaped back with curiosity. Then, he squinted. He could just barely see the lining of a dirty window.

"Mama!" Shadow wailed. "Why can't I get outside?"

Mint laughed quietly and looked at Shadow.

"That is because of the window. If you want to go outside, do this." Mint walked up to the window frame and pawed at it, giving out a loud chorus of yowling. Not knowing what else to do, the rest of her kittens joined in, making a loud echo through the house with all their yowling.

A grumbling housefolk ran into the room and growled some words at the cats that they couldn't understand, and opened the window, leaving it open and going back into the other room, answering a wailing housefolk.

"See?" Mint concluded, pointing with a paw to the outside. Unlike other houses, this house didn't have a backyard. It was just a little yard with no fence, and then some forest a bit farther out. Shadow didn't wait a second longer. He leaped out of the window, not even remembering to check what he would land on. He had braced himself for a soft landing and was surprised to feel hard deck beneath his paws when he landed.

Muttering, Shadow slunk off of the deck and felt something that he liked a lot. The soft, grassy, messy ground.