Chapter 1; Running Terrified

"Get Baron, get Haru, get them – Aargh! – Get them quickly!" Yuki cried, her normally lovely white fur drenched with sweat. Her lovely blue eyes were almost feverish. "Lune, go now!" she cried again, tugging her paw from his, gritting her teeth.

Lune didn't want to leave her, but she wanted Haru and Baron with her for this, and he wouldn't let her down. He also wouldn't trust fetching them to anyone else after what happened last time. The king ran from the room for all the world as though the fires of hell were chasing him.

Don't worry Yuki, I'll get them here, he promised silently, running on all four of his feet for greater speed as he climbed the tower to the exit. It had been fixed since Haru and the Bureau left the Cat Kingdom, it was in the right place again now, Lune didn't have to worry about falling to his death.

Lune avoided the streets; he had been lucky that Haru had been there to save him that day and he didn't want to risk not being on the same street as her when he tried crossing another. He headed to her school over rooftops and along garden fences.

"I love the last day of school," the voice drifted up from the sidewalk just beneath him. "Early out, and this time I don't have to worry about coming back next year!"

"Yeah," Lune stopped. That was Haru's voice, he knew it. "Only you have to worry about what you're gonna do with the rest of your life now."

Lune jumped down from the roof to the sidewalk and ran in the direction of the young, uniformed ladies.

"Haru! Miss Haru!" he called, panting, with a jump he didn't know he had the energy for, he landed in the young woman's arms.

"Lune! What're you doing here?" Haru asked the cat, surprised to see her friend the King in her arms, shaking from stress and exhaustion.

"It's Yuki," he gasped out, on the verge of collapse.

"Alright, I'm coming," Haru said. Lune recognised that she was strained to sound light-hearted about it, probably for her companion's sake. "See you later Hiromi," the brunette added, waving to her friend as she walked off with his majesty in her arms.

"Now, what's this about Yuki?" Haru asked quietly, her feet moving quickly to the crossroads.

"She wants you and Baron, fast," Lune said, slowly getting his breath back as he rested in the arms of the girl who had saved his life. "It's our first litter, she's scared, and I'm terrified."

Haru smiled down at him before her features set and her legs started to really move. Running was no problem for her any more, as long as it was relatively flat – uphill she still had to slow down now and then to catch her breath – she had been staying very fit since running the labyrinth.

"There's Muta," Lune said, leaping down from Haru's arms when he spotted the massive white hairball that was the numero-uno criminal of his realm, but also a good friend.

"Muta, I need to talk to the Baron, fast," Lune said, desperately appealing to the old grouch. "Yuki's in labour with our first littler."

Muta, the famous, and infamous, fat cat hadn't moved when Lune approached him, saying he needed the Baron. Didn't do more than twitch his ears when he saw Haru a tail-length behind the monarch. When Lune said the words "first litter" though, a panicked look spread over his globular features and he started running.

It was a more direct rout than he had taken with Haru when they had all first met, but then, he hadn't been insulted this time, and first litters were always a reason to hurry in his book.

"Baron! We've got an emergency here!" he called, dashing into the refuge still at full speed.

Lune jumped down from Haru's arms again. When Muta had started running, Haru had scooped up the blue-grey and followed. She knew what it was like to try and keep running on near empty, and Lune had looked wan when he found her. It wouldn't do him, Yuki, or the kittens any good if he killed himself by moving too fast with too little air in his lungs.