The monster growled to a stop, grumbled to itself, then went silent with a long exhale like something dying. Freefall opened his eyes and blinked sleepily, and then nosed his mate awake with a gentle touch of his nose to her ear. Bast stretched eagerly, her long body stretching far enough to plant her flexing toes on the dashboard of the monster while her hind end remained on the seat.
Freefall, a gray, and Bast, a brown, were both Abyssinian kittypets rescued by their twoleg from a place that smelled of cats, dogs and misery. Brett was a twoleg who spent his life building twoleg nests and various other things for other twolegs. The two kittypets traveled wherever he went and earned their keep as mascots for the other workers to fawn over and hunting mice that sought to invade the nests while they were still being built.
Brett gave their ears a good scratching each and then opened the side door so they could pad out and explore.
A bit of exploration and a good sniff told them exactly why they were here. A building that smelled strongly of horses and mice was just beginning to show signs of being unstable. Though the horses were gone, based on the staleness of their scent, one scent caught Bast's attention and drew her into the building.
"Where am I?"
Freefall leaped to his paws at the tiny cry and shot after his mate, ears perked to catch the faintest sound.
The air here held a chill that warned of snow in the coming Leafbare, and the large lake reflected the cloudless chilly sky. This wasn't enough to distract the two cats from their purpose, as the little voice piped up "Mama? Birdstar? Anyone?" A frightened whimper was almost lost beneath the calls of the gathering twolegs.
"Freefall, there's a kit in the stables. By the sounds of it, the parents are nowhere around." Bast stuck her head in the open doorway, ears pricked.
"Well then it can't stay there, can it?" Freefall grunted, "The whole place will be completely crushed by the jaws of the great yellow monsters they use by the end of tomorrow."
Bast shot a glance at the monsters in question, waiting patient and silent on the thunderpath leading to the stables. One held a massive paw in the front, cupped like it was ready to scoop water, sharp claws lining the rim. The other bore a massive pair of jaws, made for seizing long pieces of nest and forcefully carrying the impossibly heavy loads out of the way. Nowhere was safe within a nest once the two beasts began destroying.
The fur along the she-cat's back lifted and she flowed into the building like water. It was dark and smelled of wood rot and many moons of horse dirt and rotten hay. Sunlight slanted through breaks in the walls of the nest and dust motes were so thick that Freefall sneezed.
"Hello?" Bast called, "Who's in here?"
There was a frightened gasp and the kit fell silent.
"You can come out now." Freefall meowed, "We're not going to hurt you."
Silence.
"Please." Bast pleaded, "Monsters are going to come consume this building and everything in it. You must come out!"
Sullen silence. Then… "Who are you?"
"My name is Freefall." The tom introduced himself. "I was named after falling off of a twoleg nest and got stuck on long, sharp spikes of a twoleg fence." The scar where the sharp points and speared the tender flesh of his leg had healed well inside, leaving only a small dimple in the flesh. The twolegs had taken great care to remove him and repair the damage where the metal teeth had punctured.
"I'm Bast." The she-cat proclaimed proudly, "I was named when I was rescued by our twoleg."
"Twolegs? Then you're kittypets." The young voice meowed. Slowly a pale gray tabby she-cat with tan paws edged out of the shadows to stare at them. "I'm Swishkit, and I'm going to be the best fisher in Riverclan!"
"Riverclan? There are no other cats in this nest. Are you a clan of one?" Freefall tipped his head curiously.
"N-no…" Swishkit looked downtrodden, "I don't know where my clan is. I never left the camp before now."
"And how did you end up here?" Swishkit jumped as Bast circled around behind her and gave her ears a soothing lick.
"I…" Swishkit tipped her head, thinking hard. "A stranger. Smelling of nasty, rotten mud. I think he took me away."
The calls of twolegs made Swishkit cringe and the two kittypets turn their heads.
"All right, Swishkit. I'll make you a deal. We're going to be around this place for most of the cold season. If we can find your clan, we'll take you back to them. But for now, you really, really need to come with us." Freefall got to his paws.
"Nuh uh. I'm not going out there. There are twolegs and monsters, I can hear them." Swishkit edged back a step, only to bump into Bast, who nudged her forward again.
"Well you certainly can't stand around here." Bast meowed briskly, "Those twolegs plan to destroy this old nest, and before they do that, they're going to tromp all around in here, bumping things, knocking them over, kicking them with their hard, clumsy paws. Do you want your tail trod on?"
Reluctantly, Swishkit allowed herself to be herded outside.
The twolegs called to one another as the three cats made their way out of the building. Only one paid them any mind, and it gave Freefall a greeting and reached down with a massive paw.
Swishkit hissed and ducked low, but Freefall greeted the twoleg enthusiastically and reared up on his hind legs to ram his head affectionately against the twoleg's paw. The massive paw engulfed the kittypet's head entirely and gave it a gruffly affectionate rub.
"You let that creature touch you?" Swishkit mewed in horror, as Freefall shook his fur back into order as the twoleg went back about its business.
"You'll see. Sometimes it makes sense to be friendly with twolegs. These twolegs at least." Freefall purred.
"Come on. Let's get you out of the hubbub. You look like your fur is going to twitch itself right off any second." Bast led Swishkit away from the nest.
The three cats made their way to the edge of the Horseplace and sat to watch the goings on. Twolegs were everywhere, walking in and out of the nest, hard fake pelts around their paws clomping heavily and noisily.
"You see those?" Freefall indicated with his tail at the large, dozing monsters, "Those are going to destroy the nest, starting when the sun rises. They make this great, earth-shaking growling sound, then they strike the nest with a terrific blow, and the nest will crunch like old egg shell. The last place you want to be is inside that nest when that happens."
Swishkit shuddered all over. "S-So where do we sleep tonight?"
"In the belly of another monster."
"No! No way! I've heard what those things can do to you if they hit you. You die instantly beneath their strange round paws!" Swishkit began backing away in terror.
Bast circled behind the kit and soothingly washed behind her ears. "They can't hurt you if you're still, and they don't smell as bad inside. Besides, whoever left you in that nest wasn't looking out for your own good. Do you want to sleep outside where they can find you again?"
The kit hesitated, torn and dancing from paw to paw in indecision. Finally, she meowed uneasily, "And how do you know the twolegs won't take me away and force me to be a kittypet? I'm a Riverclan kit."
When Freefall shrugged blankly in response to Bast's inquiring glance she returned her attention to the kit before her. "Well I still don't know what a Riverclan is, but these twolegs are good twolegs. They won't force you to do anything. We've met cats from distant horizons. They are always welcome to come and go as they pleased as long as they didn't pick fights or get in the twolegs way."
A loud crash from the twoleg nest and a cloud of roiling dust seemed to decide Swishkit. After trying and failing to leap high enough to reach the bottom of the monster's belly, she grumbled and allowed Freefall to pick her up and leap gracefully inside.
It was barely a few heartbeats after the cats made themselves comfortable that the twoleg Freefall had greeted came to the monster, calling in a strange tone. Freefall and Bast were on their paws, purring up a storm as the twoleg proudly laid a slab of meat the size of Swishkit on a flat twoleg thing on the seat of the monster. The twoleg greeted the two kittypets while Swishkit hid under the seat. Both cats welcomed the greeting and caresses, trying hard not to be too obvious in their longing glances at the meal the twoleg brought them.
Finally the twoleg left and the kittypets settled down, devouring the meat eagerly. The heady scent of fish drew the shy kit out of hiding and she could only stare at the impressive slab of meat. Silver fish scales lined one side while pink flesh filled the rest of it. It smelled of fish, but that couldn't be. No fish were that large, were they?
Accepting the inviting flick of Freefall's tail, Swishkit took a bite. Her eyes snapped wide open and she swiped her tongue all the way around her mouth in amazement.
It was fish! The fish had to have been huge, as the remains of a sizeable fin still lined one edge of the meat. It had been bigger than any warrior that ever lived when it had been swimming in the water. The three cats ate heartily and Swishkit lay contentedly against Bast's side, sharing tongues with the larger kittypet.
"You see?" Bast purred, "Some two legs are worth it."
"I guess so."
"Tell me about your clan, Swishkit?" Freefall meowed, stretching out along the seat.
"We're the best clan at the lake. Riverclan, the one I'm from, catches fish for their prey. We follow the warrior code. That's a list of rules a good warrior needs to follow. We take care of each other, even in the worst times." Sorrow flooded the kit's eyes. "I wish I knew which way to go."
"Tell me about this stranger you mentioned before. You said he smelled like rotten mud?" Bast scratched behind her ear with a hind paw daintily.
"Y-yes… A big tom, I think. Black… maybe?"
"You think? Maybe?" You didn't get a good look at him when he hauled you off?" Freefall have the kit a slightly scornful look. "If a cat dragged me across the land, I'd at least get a good look at him."
"I'm just a kit, okay?" Swishkit yowled angrily, jumping to her paws. "He was covered in that rotten mud, it was night and the smell of him made my eyes water. It's not like he introduced himself and declared his alliance before dragging me away! He said if I made so much as a squeak he would throw me in the lake!"
For once, Bast's attempt to soothe the kit didn't deter her. She stomped up to Freefall and glared up at him, "What do you want from me?" she half wailed, "One minute I was asleep and the next he was dragging me away! I'm just a kit for Starclan's sake."
Freefall blinked, his head tipped, and then his eyes gentled, "You're right." He touched her cheek with his nose in apology, "I'm sorry. That would scare me beyond all my wildest nightmares to wake up in the jaws of a stranger."
As Swishkit slowly calmed down, Bast thought carefully and then asked, "What else do you remember about him?"
There was a long silence. Finally Swishkit huddled into herself and mewled anxiously. "I caught a glimpse of his face. I thought I was imagining it. He was crazy. There was nothing but rage. He had one yellow eye, and a big horrible scar where the other one should have been. It looked like a big, angry Rogue had clawed it out."