The Forest's Shadows: #1 The Runaway

Chapter 12

The cats leaped over the wall while Night had to carry Bird over the wall. They followed Ash and Cliff into the city.

"They're alley is around this corner." Ash said. He led them into a small alley with bushes.

"Um, so they live here?" Dust asked as he looked around.

"Of course they don't. We have to go farther and we'll be able to find their alley." Ash meowed.

"Hello there," a voice said from above. Every cat looked up and saw a tom, not too high up, poking his head through some kind of fence. Hmmm.... Snow thought. He has a collar... So that means that he's a house cat.

"Who are you?" Snow asked. The house cat smiled.

"Well, I'm Jingle. I live up here. And watch, I could get down safely." He's leaped down to a bush and the leaves flew everywhere.

Every cat was quiet. Jingle poked his head out of the bush.

"That's really dangerous," Night said. "It's better to find a different way down."

"Hmph. But if I try to find a different way down, it'll be longer. And besides," Jingle added. "I don't want my visitors leaving before I could actually talk to them."

The house cat leaped over to them and started to circle Snow. Ummm.... Snow's ears pricked. She swore she heard Night was growling at him. 

Jingle was a red-ish tom with dark red-ish stripes. He had a white underbelly, paws, and tail-tip. His collar was orange with stripes.

He stopped circling her. He went over to Ash and Cliff and asked, "Haven't I seen you before?"

Cliff nodded. "Yeah. Like what? Four months ago?"

"Anyways, we need to get through," Ash said. "We need to see some cats."

"By 'some cats' you mean Bunny and Elm, right?" Jingle guessed. How... how does he know?

"How do you know?" Night asked with his flattened ears. 

Jingle laughed. "Well," he said. "Bunny is my sister. And these two-" he flicked tail to Ash and Cliff. "-have came here before asking to see them. So that's how I know." 

Cliff rolled his eyes. "Well, okay, whatever. We'll be on our way now."

"Can I come? I'd love to see Bunny again," Jingle asked. His eyes were bright and his tail was up. 

"No!" Night, Ash, and Cliff meowed at the same time. Haha.. Snow thought. They must really think he's annoying. Of course I do too. He's weird.. just to circle around me..

The house cat's tail drooped and he looked down at the ground.  "Aww.. Please???"

Night growled. "No." The gray tabby tom turned to Ash and Cliff. "Hurry up and take us to them."

The six cats left the tabby house cat. Ash and Cliff were quietly talking while Bird talking about how cool it would be to see her family. 

Some time past, and the cats finally made it to the alley. Dust saw a silver tabby coming out from behind a trash bin. Oh no.. Dust thought suddenly. Its her.

Night hissed at her and said,  "What are you doing here?"

Ash blinked. "Hey Night. It sounds like you know her."

"That's because I do! And so do Snow and Dust."

The silver tabby she-cat narrowed her eyes as she came forward.  "You three again?" She spat.

A brown tabby tom came into view. His right eye was green while his left eye was yellow. He had a white underbelly and a white marking above his nose. "Ash! Cliff! What are you doing here?"

"We brought you someone," Ash said.

"Someone? Do you mean some cats?" The brown tom corrected.

"Ah yes, right, right," Ash meowed. "These are Night, Snow, Dust, and Bird."

The city tom cat laughed. "Oh wow. This Bird of yours looks like Bunny!"

"Uh, yeahhhhh.." Ash said awkwardly. "Speaking of Bunny, where is she? And Pigeon and Briar?"

"She went to teach them how to scavenge and hunt for food with Scar."

"Aww. Why can't you teach me to hunt??" Bird protested. "I mean, after all, I am the same age as them."

Dust licked Bird's ears. "Because you're too young, sweetie."

"Oh yes!" The brown tabby tom broke in. "I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Elm. This is Silver. Rusty is the small tabby tom that sleeping down there-" he flicked his tail towards a small hole at the bottom of a building- "My mate is Bunny and we have two sons named Pigeon and Briar. You'll know who Scar is when he comes back."

"Elm," Silver interrupted. "Scar knows these cats. I mean, only Snow, Night, and, er, Dust. Rusty knows them too and of course we didn't know their names."

Ash chuckled. "That makes sense."

Elm nodded. "Have some prey and we'll talk about.. stuff."