Hey you! You clicked on this? Please, read the story and see the author's note at the end.
A tortoiseshell had awoke and yawned. He stood up and padded out of the shelter the horseplace cats let him stay in. The sky was beginning to get lighter in blue as the sun was beginning to rise on the moor. The cat set off for his journey, large cubed dens lining the grass beside the stone paths. The cat made sure not to stay here for too long, as he knew that the hairless creatures will come out and try to grab him. He later found himself at a plain when the neighborhood came to a close. He found a rabbit as black as midnight munching lazily at the grass. The tortoiseshell crept up on the hare until it was a whisker-length away. He pounced on the unfortunate creature, cracking its spine. The cat picked up his food and looked for a spot to rest. He found a thicket and went towards it to investigate. There was a hole in the bush, but it seemed to be covered in vines as well as the rest of the bush was. The cat went inside to find it surprisingly dark and had gorse bushes lined inside the den,along with it being very spacey, but specks of light seemed to fill the den. He leaned towards and found that the lights were actually fireflies that seemed to be emitting light even though they were dead. The bush also smelled of rabbits and mice, except the scents were fresh.
"What are you doing in here?" A voice boomed. The cat turned around to see a marbled grey tabby glaring right at him from the entrance of the den.
"You see-" The cat meowed smoothly.
"Silence!" The tabby hissed. "Who are you?"
"I'm Sol and I was just looking for a den for me to stay in." Sol answered.
"But that is my house. So get out." The other cat circled the invader, not letting him escape.
The tom was wary of his captor, trying to calculate her next move. "Then where will I go?"
"In the box houses. Or you could build your own den." The cat growled.
"How do you do that?" Sol asked.
"Come with me." The cat flicked her tail for Sol to come with her to a dense forest. The sun was nowhere to be seen, but you could make out the shapes of thickets. "Grab a large leafy plant." The tortoiseshell tom did as he was told and got a hold of one of the plants. Sol dragged the plant back to the plains and set it beside the tabby's den. "Next you-"
"I can handle the rest myself, thank you." Sol went back into the forest and got branches. Gradually, he was getting more and more pieces of wood to make his den stable. He tried to line them up but the twigs kept on falling. Eventually, the den was decent enough. The stranger gave Sol some prey for energy. When Sol turned his attention back to everything around him, the sky was purple with clouds having an orange glow to them. Sol went to a hill where he could see the sun setting, taking in deep breaths as he focused on the sunset. When the last ray of sunshine faded away, making the sky darken, the sun-maned tom had turned to where his den was. He walked off towards it, now relaxed.
"Hey." Sol turned to see the she-cat again.
"What do you want?" He meowed.
"Listen, sorry for being so rough on you. How about you stay here a little while and I don't bother you much, okay?" Sol pondered his offer.
"Can I tell you something then?" Sol asked.
"What is it?" The tabby sat down beside the loner, wanting to hear what he had to say.
"From beyond Twolegplace live four groups of cats. They have wronged me. They kick me out of their territory just because they were too gullible to believe me!" Sol spat. "I hope to make them suffer. And by doing that, I shall make my own group." The marbled she-cat looked at Sol with a blank expression.
"Can you say that in a more..." The cat mumbled about trying to say this nicely to her newcomer. "understandable way?"
The tom sighed. "I'm going to make my own group of cats to go and take down these other groups of cats sometime in the future. I want you to join that."
"Okay!" The cat squealed. "My name's Pepper by the way." Sol nodded and looked up to the stars. Watch me. Watch me make those pathetic clans pay for their ignorance. The tom gazed at his first member in pride. She'll help me. It may only be one, but soon, we'll become much more.
"Where would you like to start?" The tom asked Pepper.
"Umm, we have to get bracken and moss. Gorse branches, we need lots of those." Pepper listed.
"We'll do that in the morning. I'm tired." Sol went back into his den and plopped down on his nest. Pepper headed off to her own, preparing for the next day.
"Hey Sol?" Sol woke up drowsily to see Pepper looking at him with a gleeful face.
"Yes, what is it?" Sol murmured.
"Come on, we have to assemble everything to make your cat group!" Pepper squealed.
"What do you mean assemble? We have to get the materials first." Sol meowed. He rose from his nest and followed his partner outside. There was a large pile of thickets, twigs, and other building materials for nests.
"Pepper!" Sol exclaimed. "How did you collect all of this so fast?"
"Some cats helped me." Pepper blankly responded.
"Where are they now?" Sol demanded.
"One of them went to go back to their housefolk while the other had ran away to a stone statue." Pepper meowed.
"Why didn't you tell them to stay?" The tom asked.
"Well, Mist said she wanted to stay but she doesn't want her friend to get attacked. And Valleywalker told me that he had to get ready for the moon tribute to some dead cat." Pepper explained
"Valleywalker? What type of name is that?" Sol asked.
"I thought you said we had to get the cats to stay." The tabby meowed.
"Whatever, where's Mist?" Sol sighed.
"I'll show you." Sol raced after his member as soon as he realized that she ran off. When coming to the nest, a fence blocked their view of anything. Pepper leaped up to look around. Sol jumped and also stood on the fence, looking for Mist.
"Pepper? What are you doing here?" Sol saw a dark gray tabby she-cat with gray ears and piercing blue eyes. However, the cat looked extremely thin and her fur had all sorts of rags and injuries.
"Greetings Mist. Pepper has told me about you. We'd like for you to join our nation." Sol offered.
Mist nodded quickly. "Yes! Take me with you!"
"But you told me you can't join!" Pepper told the loner.
"Sarah was going to get mad at me! Now let me join!" Mist insisted.
"Absolutely not!" A voice hissed. A fluffy silver tabby stomped outside, although she heaved with every step. "You need to protect me and my kits!"
"Get the father to help you." Mist spat at the tabby. She turned back to the loners. "We have to go. Now." Mist jumped up the fence and sprinted towards the plain. Sol and Pepper chased after her until they finally reached their camp.
"We'll make your den for you and you can rest." Pepper panted.
"No, I can make it myself. I have too much energy to just sit and watch. Mist got a thicket piece and plopped it near Pepper's den, getting moss to make her bed with. The loners were in awe.
"That was fast." Sol remarked. "Now, why were you so eager to come with us?"
"Sarah was having kits and asked me to get food for her. I agreed but she took all of my food! When I try to get it back, she scratches me and starves me even more. Me being the good cat I am, I decided not to attack a defenseless queen. But I wish I killed her when I had the chance." Mist growled.
"Your scratches look infected. Don't worry, I have some nettles for you." Pepper chewed up some nettle leaves and applied it to Mist's scratches. She winced in pain but decided not to say anything. Sol placed down a rabbit for the newcomer. The dark grey she-cat devoured it hungrily. The tom got her another rabbit to eat and the cat wolfed it down.
"Thanks." Mist meowed.
"You're welcome." Pepper shot a glare at Sol but he just shrugged. Pepper put some burrs on the poulticed spots after she was done.
"Rest for a while. They'll sting but it's for the best." Pepper assured the dark she-cat. "Anyways, how do we get to Valleywalker?" Mist cocked her head.
"Him? You have to answer questions about the dead cat they worship." Mist explained. "Get all of them right and you'll have him part of the nation. Get any of them wrong and he'll never want to join you again, if you're lucky."
"What if you're unlucky?" Pepper asked uneasily.
"You'll get crushed under the weight of all of them." Mist meowed grimly.
"There's more than one?" The marbled she-cat gasped.
"Yes." Mist confirmed.
"How about you tell us the test answers so that we don't die?" Sol requested. Mist agreed to tell him. He had to get Valleywalker and his colleagues to join. Or at least he could get out alive.
Prepare to lose your minds. While this may not seem like it at first, this is going to become a trollfic. If you're looking for other content, well, go do that. If you want to continue reading this, well, I'll work on this whenever I have time.
Fear the Valleywalkers. Fear them. (Jk, don't fear them, they only exist on the website) ~Steamtip