"Firestar...where are you?"
Graystripe awoke with a flash. The last thing he remembered was being carried away in a monster, a twoleg had captured him. We watched out of the glass to see Firestar staring at horror at the monster. The monster took a sudden jerk, and Graystripe was thrown aside and knocked unconsious.
His vision cleared, the first thing he saw was a shiny silver mesh woven together like a spider's web. He sat up, only to bump his head on something hard. He looked up, only to see a black roof. He groaned, head aching. He looked around. There were more silver webs surrounding him, with dens similar to his, but nothing there. His ears flattened. Where was he?
Graystripe heard something creak, he swung his head around, a twoleg came in, holding 2 bowls and it approached his cage and opened it. Graystripe shrunk back, spitting and hissing. The twoleg stepped back, but cautiously put the 2 bowls in his cage and closed it quickly. Graystipe looked in them, water and what looked like rabbit droppings.
"What is this rubbish?" he mewed, sniffing it, it didn't smell very good, but his stomach screamed in hunger. Back in the forest, the twolegs were destroying the forest and driving off most of the prey, which left Thunderclan, Shadowclan, and Windclan starving. All except Riverclan, who had plenty of fish in the river.
"That's called kittypet food, I believe." a voice meowed somewhere near him. Graystripe jumped in suprise, hitting his head on the black roof, he hissed in pain and twisted around. At the end of the dens, was a mass of black fur. It moved, faced Graystripe with twinkling green eyes.
"Who are you?" Graystripe meowed, shaking his aching head.
"My name is Storm, I'm a former rogue." the she-cat answered, standing up and stretching. Graystripe's ears flattened and remembered his kits, Stormfur, along with his sister, Feathertail, in Riverclan. Would he ever be able to see them again?
"The twolegs captured me a few weeks ago, I was too weak to defend myself so they took me here." Storm continued.
Graystriped nodded. Weeks? What are those? moons maybe? "I'm Graystripe... deputy cat of Thunderclan" he sat up more, caring not to hit his head on the roof again.
"Thunder...clan? Oh, I've heard of clans living in the forest." Storm nodded thoughtfully, licking her paw.
"Yes... the twolegs are destroying the forest though, the clans are on the brink of starvation, and we've already lost of few of our members..." Graystipe trailed off, remembering the death of Speckletail.
"I'm sorry to hear that, rogues look after themselves, but in my case, I'm expecting kits, and I nearly starved myself." Storm mewed, and for the first time, Graystripe noticed the swollen belly.
"Are there any other cats here?" Graystripe meowed, alittle loudly in case some unseen cats could hear him, but Storm shook her head.
"There were many here at one point, mostly kits though, they were taken by the twolegs, and never came back."
Graystripe gulped. Probably back to their nests, and became kittypets.
Some twolegs came in, carrying bundles of rags in their arms, Graystripe scented more cats and fear-scent.
One twoleg whispered to the other, it nodded, came over to a den next to Graystripe's, opened it, and put the rags inside. Out emerged a small tabby tom, shaking violently in fear. Some other twolegs came over, and put more cats in the dens. Then, they left.
"Where am I? What's happening?" the tabby mewed, to Graystripe he didn't look older than 6 or 7 moons. Other cats began to mewl in fear like little kits.
"Calm down!" Storm screeched loudly. The cats silenced immediately, all staring at her.
"What's going on?" a she-cat hissed somewhere below Graystripe.
"Why did the twolegs take us away?" yowled a tom from across the room.
"Storm said to be quiet!" Graystripe yowled over the commotion without thinking. The cats stared at him now, he felt his fur grow hot.
"Thank you Graystripe." Storm meowed, then she turned her attention to the other cats, "this place is called a pound, this is where twolegs take cats and dogs and place them here, then other twolegs come and take them away."
"I'm not turning into no kittypet! That's the worst life ever!" the tom acorss the room hissed.
"Hey! I was once a kittypet ya know!" the she-cat growled from under Graystripe.
"Calm down, Lily." said another she-cat, somewhere above him, with a much gentler voice.
"Shut your mouse hole, Rose!" spat Lily from down below.
"All of you shut up before the twolegs come back and take you away again!" Storm bellowed out, Lily and Rose stopped bickering.
The tomcat next to Graystripe spoke up, "What will happen if the twolegs don't take you?"
Storm sighed, "That part I don't know. An old tomcat that was here about a moon ago was taken by the twolegs that live here, I smelled his fear-scent as they took him into a small room, he meowed loudly, but all was silent, then I smelled death-scent. They might've killed him."
Graystripe gasped. Killed him? Why would they do that? Twolegs are so cruel.
The tomcat whimpered, "I don't wanna die!"
"Nor do I!" Lily called out
"Me niether!" the tom from across the room and Rose meowed at both the same time.
"...why don't we try and escape?" Graystripe mewed quietly. The tabby tom stared at him between the mesh.
"What a great idea...Graystripe, was it?" Lily called out from under him.
The other cats murmered in agreement.
"We can't." Storm meowed, the cats stared at her in disbelief.
"But this thing on the mesh! It's what keeps up locked in here! Ever thought of picking at it?" spoke a new voice from somewhere above. Graystripe jumped, yet again hitting his head on the black roof. He shook the stars out of his eyes.
"Who said that?"
"I did!" the voice meowed again.
"Pebble?" Storm spoke up, standing and trying to peer through the mesh.
"That's my name!" Pebble said.
"Pebble! I thought the twolegs took you!"
"Nope, I've just been sleeping for a long time, and all your meowing woke me up." Pebble replied.
"Pebble!" Rose mewed, "you said something about these things on the meshes."
"Oh yes... we could try picking at them with our claws." Pebble replied.
"Then we could escape!" the tabby mewed joyfully.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple though. This place is swarming with twolegs, they're bound to see us, and some of us are kind of...weak." Storm sighed, and Graystripe knew she was right, she was expecting kits, and by the looks of the cats visible, they were really thin.
"Why not we gather our strength, and escape...by moonhigh?" he suggested.
"That's a good plan." the tom meowed from across the room.
Pebble yowled in agreement.
"How long will that take though?" Rose asked.
"A couple of days, by the least." Graystripe replied, "Eat as much as you can to gain strength." he looked over to the bowl with kittypet food in it. It wasn't a mouse, or a vole, but it's better than starving.
"Then it's settled!" Storm called out from across the room. Graystripe smiled. They were going to get out of here, and he was gonna find his clan again, and stay with them forever.