The Rogues of Twolegplace

Crimson curled up closer to her father, Nightshade. She was shivering anyways, and so was her two surviving littermates, Scarlett and Amber. They're mother had been hit by a monster a couple nights before, and so their father had been trying to keep them alive.

Life was hard in the twolegplace. They lived by force of claws, and knowing their way around. They were under a twoleg dumpster, watching the rain pour down beyond them. They suddenly heard the squeal of a rat dying outside.

"Come on, you three. We need to steal their rat." Nightshade mewed, leading them out. They were only seven moons, but they hadn't eaten since the death of their mother, Copper. They scurried out, seeing a large dark tabby tom. He was holding a mouse in his teeth.

Nightshade growled. "Give us the rat, or you'll feel claws in your throat."

Crimson and her littermates growled threateningly, unsheathing their claws. The rogue dropped the rat and leaped for Nightshade. Crimson did as she had done in every battle for food, she ran for the rat and grabbed it. Scarlett and Amber jumped to their father's aid.

They weren't managing very well, and the ball of red, black, and tabby fur was screeching and rolling on the ground, blood and fur flying off of them. Crimson wriggled underneath the dumpster and hid the rat there. The larger cat wouldn't be able to wriggle underneath.

She let out a yowl, causing Scarlett to look up. She nodded, and then dug her claws into the cat's throat, blood dripping from her claws.

"We've got it!" she yowled. Nightshade stood up, his daughters crowding around them, blood streaming into the puddles in the alley.

"Let's eat," he meowed, and they all slid back under the dumpster and shared the rat. It wasn't much, but it soothed the constant aching in Crimson's stomach for a short while.

They noticed a black she-cat pad into the alley, looking down at the body of the tabby and letting out a yowl of despair. A couple tiny black kits peeked into the alleyway and began wailing pitifully.

Crimson watched, uncaring clear in her gaze. She whispered to her father, "If she doesn't leave soon, we're going to need to sneak past her."

Her father nodded, and they all crouched beneath the dumpster. But the young she-cat gathered her kits behind her and began padding off, probably in search of food.

Scarlett squirmed out from beneath the twoleg dumpster, Amber close behind her.

"The poor kits!" Amber remarked. Crimson cuffed her over the ears,

"It's part of life. They'll survive. Anyways, it was that cat or us, and wouldn't you sacrifice one life for all four off ours? You can't care about individual cats in this world, you'd die within one sunrise." She mewed.

Nightshade padded over. "That's right, we couldn't have gone without food for much longer. Scarlett, jump into the dumpster and see if you can roll one of the bags of twoleg junk over. We may find something else to eat."

Scarlett did as she was told, her dark red-brown fur a flash as she leaped up onto the big box full of twoleg stuff. She did this often, and the disgusting heap didn't bother Crimson's sister.

Suddenly a black bag fell down and split, twoleg stuff spilling out. Scarlett leaped down after it. She sniffed.

"There seems to be some twoleg food here, but not much." She reported.

"Amber, find it." Nightshade mewed, and Amber did. They all had specific jobs for specific circumstances, it had kept them safe and fed...well, at least fed, for their whole life.

Amber dove into the pile of rubbish, sniffing. She pulled out a weird twoleg thing, with something that looked like the remains of a bird in it.

She left it at their paws, leaping back into the pile and grabbing another piece of twoleg food.

"That's all there is." She mewed.

Nightshade began to divide up the food. Each of them got a mouthful of twoleg food.

"Come on, let's keep moving." Crimson mewed.

"No, we should stay here. It's sheltered enough from the rain, and its dark out. We'll move in the morning." Nightshade mewed. "Come on, gather around me and I'll tell you the story of The Forest."

"Yes! I love that story!" Amber mewed excitedly. They all gathered around their father's paws.

Nightshade began, "Where we stand right now, there was once huge trees, bigger than anything you've seen before. It was like the grassy part of twolegplace, only bigger and overgrown with plants. There was prey all over this place, birds and things called mice, voles, and rabbits. There were cats living in this forest, cats that could hunt all day and have too much to eat, and cats who worked together to survive..."

Crimson stared up at her father, not believing what she was hearing,

He continued, "Food was never a problem, and no cat ever starved. But then...the twoleg monsters came and destroyed all the trees and rivers and beauty and prey, and built the twolegplace that we live in now. The cats were forced to leave and find somewhere new to live, and no cat has seen them since." Nightshade finished.

"Wow! Twolegs must be even stupider than I thought to destroy a place like that!" Amber mewed.

"Yeah, twolegs are so annoying!" Scarlett agreed.

"Do you think the cats found a new home?" Crimson asked.

"Legend has it that they all moved far away from here, to a place that no cat knows about but them." Nightshade mewed.