Twig hadn't realized how beautiful the snow was.
In the darkness of the box, he was the only one who was awake. The side of the cardboard box, which had been torn away, was the only light source. It dimly outlined the shape of the wicker basket and his mother, who had her back to him and was dozing fitfully. His littermates, Robin, Blue, and Branch, were curled into their mother's stomach, snoring softly. His father was nowhere to be seen.
If his littermates had been awake, they would be romping in the snow, or trying to catch Robin's unnaturally long tail. But they weren't, so at first Twig had yearned for their company. Now he was too busy gazing in awe at the white flakes that drifted to the ground lazily.
His small mouth slowly opened, exposing his little pink tongue. He had never seen snow before. There was almost always a winter chill along the abandoned street where they lived, but there had never been something as strange as the almost-visible flakes.
"Be careful: I don't want you to get a cold." A soft voice said, and he jumped with surprise before looking around.
His mother, Grey, was peering at him with gentle blue eyes. They were the same blue eyes that Blue and Robin had, but Branch and Twig had the same oak-colored eyes as their father. Her pure white fur shimmered as she slunk from the basket, leaving the sleeping forms of his brothers and only sister behind. As she sat beside him, he couldn't help but feel a thrill in his heart when he realized that he was so tall he reached her shoulder.
Even though he was big for his age, he was nothing compared to his mother's elegance.
Grey had the softest white fur, sleek against her plump frame. Even though they lived in the dark alleys of the neighborhood, they had never starved. His father, Ashclaw, would never let that happen.
Ashclaw was a warm and comforting tom, which seemed to make up for his constant absence. He would stay with us throughout the night but leave before the sun peeked out, signaling morning. He never came home until the sun faded away, but when he did, he always had something big and plump for us to eat.
Twig had always wondered where his father would vanish off to every day, and where he got the food. Unlike his father, he had never traveled past the willow tree on the opposite side of the street, which was where his father would always appear every day. Grey had never seemed to wonder where her mate went, but when I would ask her, she would tell me gently that he had his reasons for going wherever he went. But I could tell she wondered the same question too.
"Have you ever seen snow?" I ask, and as she wrapped her tail around me, I realized that no matter how big I was, I was still her kit.
"When I was your size, yes." She replied, looking tall and proud despite the fact we were living in a cardboard box while other cats could live in homes and get fat off of slop. Not that I was jealous.
"Was it like this?" I asked as a grey-white flake landed on my nose, making me sneeze and Grey chuckle.
"No, where I lived it was whiter and cleaner. But I guess this is pretty cool too." She said.
As I gazed out, my vision slowly became focused on the trees beyond the gritty street. The dark shadows in between the trees looked forbidding and mysterious, pulling me towards them and pushing me back at the same time. The willow no longer seemed graceful but more of mourning, its long branches arcing downward.
I was so focused on the trees I hadn't seen the dark grey shape along the edge of the trees, watching me. It wasn't until Grey nudged me and nodded towards my father when I looked up and saw it.
"Ashclaw!" I cheered, launching out on the snow. But the snow wasn't like the ground I was used to. I sunk through it, the snow going up to my chin. I looked around, surprised, then tried again, only bounding a short distance before crashing to the soft and cold earth again.
As I slowly and awkwardly made my way to Ashclaw, he watched me with an amused grin before meeting me halfway. His webbed paws and long legs made him look graceful as he headed towards me, expertly stepping through the cold wet mush that I call snow.
Suddenly I was off the ground and high in the air, only seeing a grey chest and grey long legs as he carried me by the scruff back to the box, Grey watching us, her tail curled around her paws. After he set me down, I shook my fur out like I had seen the mangy dog that had lived near us a while back as Ashclaw touched noses to Grey with affection.
"Bit too cold to be romping around in the snow isn't it?" He asked, and I stared at him.
"Never for me!" I mewl, causing Robin to stir, wake up, and then yawn. He blinked sleepily before allowing his eyes to focus.
"You look like a big wet stretched out cotton ball." He said, then saw Ashclaw and raced out of the wicker basket to knock him down, cheering his father's name as he did.
"I seem to have forgotten how big you all really are!" Ashclaw, chuckling as Robin kneaded his stomach playfully, using his forepaws to keep him down while he looked proud to have knocked down his own father. And Ashclaw was pretty big.
"Did you bring food for us?" I asked, and Ashclaw's eyes sparkled.
"Of course I did. And if you eat it all, I'll teach you to do an attack move." He said, causing us to cheer happily, which made Blue and Branch wake up.
"Will you shut up?" Blue said grumpily, focusing on the scene with her sharp blue eyes. "I'm trying to sleep. I was up last night searching through the scrap mound for blankets." She said, referring to the huge overwhelming hill of things that the humans threw out. Blankets, rotting food, and sometimes even fabric things that Grey called 'clothes' were thrown out. If we were lucky, we could find big blankets that we would use to line the insides of the basket.
"Ashclaw has dinner!" Robin said, but neither Blue nor Branch seemed to join in on his enthusiasm. Branch touched noses with their father, and Blue and Ashclaw acknowledged each other with a nod of the head.
"Well, if you let him up, maybe he can get it." Branch snapped, and Robin scurried back, allowing Ashclaw to roll to his feet.
We watched patiently as he walked to the curb, looked both ways to be safe, and then raced across like the road was hot. When he got to the other side, he darted around the willow tree and came back with a fish in his jaws.
The fish was plump and fat, its scales shimmering in the weak sunlight. He ran back across the street, then set the fish in front of me and Robin to share. As he made rounds to get more fish for Grey, Branch, Blue, and himself, I watched him.
One day, I will figure out where you vanish off to.
Okay so Twig is a kind of a rogue. Doesn't really fit in with humans and doesn't really know about the Warriors yet.
Notice how I said yet.
Anyway, review! If you review it makes me happy and will make me want to post more chapters!
-Lilith