My paws slammed into the ground, which was completely littered with pine needles. I glanced to the side and saw a familiar tom, who was easily matching my pace. The same dark cream pelt; the same brown paws and ear tips; the same beautiful green eyes that I had known for so long. We were being chased. Trees towered over us, branches ranging from a tail-length above the ground to seven fox-lengths.
We had asked, no, begged to join one of the forest clans. Now, they were hot on our tails. No question what they had answered with.
I could smell their scent markers. We were close to the border! The tom and I raced forward and-
Everything was dark. I opened my eyes and found myself in the alley. A makeshift nest of sharp tendrils, rat fur, and plenty of other scraps lay under me. Walls of brown material blocked the entrances to our home. Only a small opening between the wall and the entrance allowed beams of Cimmerian light to filter in, casting out small thin branches of light into the small area.
I glanced to my right. Suru was right next to me, sprawled out in his nest with his paws hanging over the edges. His pelt was dusty and knotted, like usual. The fur on his neck was standing on end. His whiskers would occasionally twitch, and his claws were unsheathed; he was having a nightmare.
I stood to stretch, shaking the rubbish out of my pelt and lifted a paw to wake Suru, but when I had left his side, he had woken up. He stretched his paws out, allowing small pieces of dirt to fall on the ground, out from between his claws. We never bothered to clean anything. It always ended up dirty again anyways, with clumps of fur, pieces of crow-food that were too small to eat, and of course, tons of dirt and dust strewn about the place.
I flicked my ear, and turned my gaze to him, "Want to see what the two-legs have thrown away?"
Suru nodded, "Of course, Aurora. Just like any other morning."
I turned and pushed my way out of our shoddy den, lightly rubbing my tail across his nose. I purposely kicked dirt up in the tom's face as I exited, just to tease him. I heard him sneeze and laugh softly, and then I felt a strong push on my flank. I fell over from the force and rolled over on my back, just as Suru pushed out after me, a playful grin on his face as he passed me and went on ahead. I stood up, shaking out my matted pelt, and followed him to the silver, dented tube beside our den. We both jumped up to the top of it, one after another, and then leaped up on top of our home, pushing off hard with our hind legs to clear the distance, leaving the tube shaking back and forth like a frightened kitten. Well… It was actually the thing that was in front of our home, forming the main wall of our den. It was a big two-leg thing that, similar to the silver tube, two-legs put things in. Things they didn't need; unwanted things, kind of like us.
Suru was the first to reach the top, where to black platforms rested. The two-legs would sometimes flip them over on their other side to close the two holes in the top; they would normally do this at night, probably so nothing would wander in and get stuck in the dark. Suru crouched, pushing his paws to the edge and waving his tail gently for balance. He leaned over, looking into one of the big holes in the top.
I followed suit and landed beside him with a thump. The two-leg thing was always either freezing cold or burning hot, so it was no surprise when my pads turned to ice. The cold shot up through my paws and into my legs, but I was used to it by then.
We went ahead and jumped in, cringing as we hit the huge mess. Slimy and dried up two-leg food, sharp shards of broken things, and plenty of other stuff that had mixed and spoiled squished and pooled up around our legs and between our claws, making me shiver at the weird feeling. Suru was already burrowed under the mess, searching for anything even slightly edible. We did that every day, as long as the huge monster didn't eat it first.
I copied Suru, and as soon as I was under the surface, overwhelming fowl smells rushed into my mouth and nose, along with small pieces of unnamable debris. I gagged and my eyes began to water, but tried to hold in my food from yesterday. We needed as much food as we could get, so it wasn't good when we got sick. I sniffed around, shifting the things below me, and found a giant berry skin. It was orange and smooth but bumpy, and the inside of the berry was already eaten or buried somewhere. I gripped it between my yellow teeth and pulled it to the surface. I leaned over the edge of the two-leg thing and dropped it on the ground, where I would retrieve it when we were finished searching, and then I went back to my scavenging. After only a few heartbeats I had found something else: Soft, blue berries in some sort of clear box-thing with holes in it. There were only four, plus one that was squished and stuck to the side of the box, and they were pretty small, but we weren't very picky. It was hard to get anything, so as long as it was edible, we were fine with it. I dropped it over the edge as well. Then, I dug around again, and soon after felt something ragged but soft brush against my nose. A dead rat! Rats could be hard to come across, and if you found one, the ones around here were hard to catch, making them a nice treat because they were so hard to get. I pushed my head through the rubbish and bit down on what I assumed was its neck. I planted my hind paws on the surface and dragged it out, only to find it was much heavier than expected… and much longer than expected…
Suru pulled his tail away from me, licking it to smoothen down the fur and lessen the ache from my bite, "Were you planning on eating me?"
I flattened my ears, embarrassed, "Sorry, I thought you were a rat."
He grinned and shook his head, moving his tail back into its normal position, waving in the air, "Find anything?"
"Yeah, an orange berry skin and smaller blue berries," I led him back to the ground, nudging my findings with a paw.
He brushed his tail over one other thing: a small, thin, slimy disc.
"Not sure what it is, though," he poked the slimy thing with a claw, "I tasted a tiny piece and it tastes better than a rat, but also very similar."
I nodded, approving, but I kept a skeptical face, "We might need more. We can't search for a quarter-moon; the two-legs do this every fourth moon."
Suru looked doubtful, "I didn't find anything else in there." Then, his eyes brightened, "Want to go steal some prey from the Clans?"
I nodded eagerly. We had done it a lot in the past. It was actually kind of fun, and it was even more fun now that they had 'prey-guards' specifically to keep us out. I picked up the skin and pushed the box along toward the den. It was behind the big two-leg container with big pieces of brown material covering the entrances and a small opening between the brown material and a stone wall allowed us to enter and exit. The stone wall was right next to a two-leg nest, but the two-leg never noticed us. We were either away or hiding whenever it came out.
I pushed the food, which would hopefully tide us over, along with whatever prey we would manage to steal. However conservative we were, it still wouldn't last long.
Suru was already gone, but I could easily follow his scent. I'd known it for so long that it was embedded into my memory. I caught up to Suru, brushing against him affectionately as we headed toward the forest.
We were both kits when we met. Suru was, and of course still is, two moons older than me. I was four moons and he was six moons. Both of us were abandoned, complete with no parents, no food, we were unwanted by everyone, and we were near death, me more so than him. He seemed reliable and trustworthy, especially since he was probably my last chance, so we began working together for survival. After two seasons had passed, we were back on our feet…mostly. The next thing we did was head to the forest. We had heard about some cat Clans, so we thought they might help us and maybe allow us to join. Well, I can tell you one thing. We were wrong. It probably wasn't a good idea to pick 'ShadowClan', as they called themselves, and we ratty, dirty rogues probably didn't look too appealing, or safe, anyways. We should have cleaned up a bit first at least to make us look less threatening. We begged them, hoping to be accepted, but instead, the leader had some cats chase us to the border. Since then we had periodically stolen prey from each Clan, mostly only ShadowClan though, straight from their camps if we couldn't find enough food searching, and sometimes just for fun. The prey was always warm, and it was my favorite thing to eat, since the only other things we ate were scraps that two-legs tossed out.
Suru pulled me from the lure of any other memories, "We're here."
I blinked, "We are?" I looked up at the towering trees, where the sun was only now ascending the oaks' peaks. Oh, we are.
The borders of ShadowClan started a good ways into the forest, so we continued on, scenting the air the whole way. We didn't need to though, as the oaks turned into pines first. We stopped and waited in a semi-hollow holly brush, watching for any cats that might come by. Seeing a border patrol come by, we ducked down farther.
They checked and renewed the scent marks, then paused for a moment. There were four of them: Two younger ones and two older ones. One of the older ones, a tom with several scars littering his brown pelt, glanced down at the small brown tabby tom, which seemed stuck to his side, "Do you smell anything unusual, Littlepaw?"
The tom's blue eyes sparkled. He was clearly excited to help out, but he was so small. He looked like a kitten actually. He parted his jaws, scenting the air, and then turned back to the older brown tom, "No."
I let out a quiet sigh, Stupid apprentice.
The other younger cat, yet another tom with grey tabby stripes, was much bigger. He actually looked like an apprentice or whatever they were called.
The last, another tom, was a silver-grey tabby. He nodded to the grey apprentice, "What about you, Wetpaw?"
Wetpaw had already been scenting the air and immediately shook his head, "No. I don't smell anything.
The warriors didn't bother to check for themselves and instead relied on the younger cats' abilities.
Nice move.
Then, they left without noticing us.
We waited for them to get a good ways away from us, and then moved out from our hiding place, being careful not to rustle the bushes and ferns surrounding us. We hopped from bramble thicket to bramble thicket, slowly getting closer to the camp. Soon, more sharp brambles, the ones surrounding the dark hollow that served as the ShadowClan camp, came into sight. We pushed our way into the sharp tangles, ignoring the scratching of each tendril. Suru watched the camp, checking how busy it was. Few cats dotted the hollow.
An old grey tom stretched out on a rock, bathing in the sunlight, a black and white she-cat lay on the ground, two kits tumbling over her, and a dark brown tabby was eating a frog in a small, almost completely encircled alcove. Two warriors were back-to-back, guarding their clan's prey, but they looked tired, as if they had been there for a long time.
We nodded at each other and split up; I headed toward the west entrance tunnel while he headed to the east entrance tunnel. I pressed my belly low to the ground as I reached the short, shaded path and, licking my muzzle, pushed through the downward-sloping tunnel. At the bottom, I stopped, glancing at Suru across the camp in the other tunnel. We waited in the shadows, waiting for a good opportunity, and it came surprisingly quick.
One of the warriors tapped the other's shoulder with his tail. He tilted his head toward one of the large dens, and they both headed toward it, disappearing into the shadows of the den.
I met eyes with Suru again and lashed my tail, signaling for him to start. We both rushed in at the same time, heading straight toward the center, where the prey-pile was located. I heard one of the kits wail as we intruded their camp, "Brokenstar! Help!" This caused several cats to poke their heads out of the dens, which frightened me a bit. Neither of us was very strong or fast; we don't eat well as you've probably noticed.
Suru was in the center already, though. He latched his jaws around a fat but small owl, a rare food source in the Clans, and turned sharply, spraying dirt up into pursuing cat's eyes. He dashed back to his tunnel, escaping successfully and unharmed with the prey.
I reached the pile and ducked my head as I passed it, gripping whatever I could. I got a warm vole, and headed toward Suru's tunnel, running as fast as I could in short bursts. I felt hot breath on my haunches, so my short running bursts turned into big leaps. My paws hit the entrance to the tunnel, but when I leaped again, I felt claws dig through my unkempt fur and into the base of my tail, pulling me backward. I screeched, feeling warm blood bloom and pool around the attacker's claws, and flipped over, dropping the vole. I recognized the cat as the tabby tom from the alcove, and I jabbed my hind paws into his stomach as hard as I could. He loosened his grip, although he wasn't fazed too much. I grabbed the vole again and pushed through the tunnel, following Suru's scent. Along the way, the clan cat lashed out large black claws at my ankles, leaving deep scratches and drawing blood. The tom didn't lighten up on his chase until I had passed the border, where Suru was waiting for me, pacing beside the owl, which was on the ground. The clan cat skidded to a halt, lashing his crooked tail. He didn't say anything, just growled and headed back to his camp, cursing under his breath.
I slumped over, out of breath, and dropped the vole, which had deep tooth marks in its neck by now. He hadn't caught us, though, and that's what mattered.
Suru licked the base of my tail, cleaning away the blood, which made me wince as his rough tongue rasped over the tender, torn area of skin, and then he bent over farther and cleaned the blood from my heels. When he was finished cleaning my wounds, he pressed against me for support, picking up his owl and my vole, "Come on," he managed through the mix of fur and feathers, "Let's go home."
We arrived back home around sunset. We had searched around the two-leg place a bit more for food, but ended up empty pawed, aside from the prey we stole. We stored the prey in the den, and then climbed the cold two-leg thing again, checking for anything the two-legs may have thrown out throughout the day. Unfortunately, the holes in the top were closed, so there was no way to access anything inside. I shrugged and, looking up, locked my eyes on the clear thing allowing us to see inside the two-leg nest.
A familiar light grey she-cat was curled up on her two-leg by a bright fire with a bell around her delicate little neck, and she purred as the two-leg's paw scratched her ears. She opened one eye, seeing me, and smiled a cocky smile. I remembered her name as being Ruby. She was always rude and snotty about our home, calling it a 'pile of dirt' ready to blow away with the wind. She would brag about her two-leg's nest, talking about all of the soft nests for sleeping, plentiful food, warm temperatures, and of course, the love of her two-leg. She pretty much thought we were balls of thin, wiry dust and she was a beautiful, well-taken care of cat that could just step all over us. Sometimes, while we were away, she would take our food, and I mean all of it, and bury it somewhere in the town where we would never find it. She turned away from me and closed her eyes again.
I flattened my ears, fairly upset really, because I wanted a home. I wanted to be loved, I wanted to belong somewhere, and I didn't want to go hungry or get sick all the time. That wasn't going to happen and I knew it, but that didn't stop me from being upset. My tail dragged as I headed back to the den, eyes clouded in shadow. Suru followed close behind, unsure of how to cheer me up.
Sure enough, when we reached the den, everything but the prey we had just stolen was gone, almost definitely Ruby's doing.
My eyes were cloudy, watering, and glazed over as I lay down in the corner of the den, digging my claws into the ground. I'm extremely strong, emotionally anyway, but this wasn't fair. My ears and cheeks were burning in anger. We couldn't have anything could we? We couldn't go a day without worrying could we? We couldn't-
Suru pressed his nose against mine, lying down in front of me, "I promise we'll have a home. I'll find one for us. Just don't worry."
I know what you're thinking: Cheap. That's it. Your just thinking it's cheap, but it made me feel better at the moment. Anything, no matter how poorly put together or planned, would have cheered me up then, aside from seeing Ruby's little, stuck up, snotty face of course.
(So yeah… that happened. Unless I think of something for a third chapter, this story will only have two chapters. I recently joined the Warriors Challenge Forum (which is amazing by the way) and this is half of my first challenge. Songstar (known on FanFiction as Mossshine of the Stars) created the challenge, and I have to finish a story based around a song called Orphan by Kagamine Rin. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, and look forward to the next, second, and final chapter of this short story. Oh wait! If you can guess who the canon cats were and also why I named Aurora and Suru what they are named then you… um… can be …proud? Anyways, thanks for reading and review if you think it needs improvement, or even if you just want to. ^_^)
