The morning light, soft, pale, new, stretched over the Yard casting long shadows that trekked west. The air was fresh and clean from the night rains which had left pools of water to stand, in holes, ruts, and a handful of discarded bathtubs glistening in the light and reflecting a pink sky. Overall the Yard looked for lack of a better word, beautiful, despite the rotting, molding trash and refuse.
It was shortly after such a sunrise that Mar woke to the distant, and muffled sound of birds, but made no move to rise. Her body ached and her muscles felt like they had turned to stone sometime in the night, her form sure to remain in the tight ball it had coiled into for all time. Her ears however, twitched and rotated to catch the small scraping sounds of rodents as they scurried and clawed their way about her. Their intoxicating scents knoting her belly with an immense and powerful hunger.
When at last she did stretch herself awake it was with slow decisive movements so as not to agrivate her injuries. Yet regardless of how slowly she moved there was still much pain. Carefully for the next hour or so she tended to her wounds and matted fur as best she could, cleaning and raking through them with a bristled pink tongue. Feeling a bit more refreshed from her wash rather than her rest she crept about the small cave in her trash heap attempting to catch a mouse, or rat. The queen's movements were awkward and stiff, the space confining, and in the end efforts fruitless. With a sigh she resorted to batting around roaches and other crawling things, a tasteless, far less appealing breakfast, but a breakfast none the less, and for that she was grateful.
After a while the queen moved towards the opening she had crawled through sometime in the night when she had found this refuge and sniffed about cautiously. Mar had, had her fill of other cats for a lifetime, the fighting, the territory disputes, defending her kills, and fending off forceful and undesired mates.
"Suitors," her mother had called them, giving the relentless toms, and their vile deeds a cute, simple sounding name so as not to frighten her, the kitten she had been when first she noticed the males clamoring and fighting over her mother like a half dead crow. Mar snorted, her nostrils flairing, there were far too many toms in the world. And all of them it would seem were ready to use, abuse, and leave females heavy with kitten. Although she had ultimately found herself in the clutches of perhaps the worst of them Mar thanked her lucky stars that she had yet to be mothered. She was young yet, though, and would be sooner or later, she reminded herself.
Slowly then, cautiously Mar edged her way out of hiding and into the Yard. It was a bright and airy day, the sky blue and clear and inviting. Hurrying to a pool of runoff she cupped her hands and began ladeling the cool, life giving water to her lips. The liquid soothed as it went down, before settling, uncomfortably heavy at the pit of her stomach, one of the many grievances that accompanied starvation, whenever you did get something of quantity, even if that something was just water it hurt. She sat down by her little pool of water and looked about sniffing as she did. The rain had washed away much of the scents she had caught last night, but traces still lingered.
There was the strong and pungent odor of Macavity's men, the musk of a handful of toms who had sprayed the area, and even the scents of females, also in great number. Poor things, she thought, being around so many males. Mar was uncomfortable with the thought of staying here long, not just out in the open by the pool of water, but in the Yard itself. There were too many variables, too many strange cats to fend off, toms, and besides, this was the last place she had been seen. They would be back, in number and they would be looking for her.
Walking low to the ground she made her way slowly through the Yard, head down, ears alert, and eyes wide. Although she could not sense anyone, she did not want to be caught weak, and unawares. After cutting around many rubbish piles she decided at last that it would be a good idea to get a decent vantage of where she was headed and carefully made her way up a rickety, metal mountain. From there she could see the whole expanse of it, and it was grand. Movement down below however, had caught her hunter's eye and caused her to look. She wrinkled her nose, failing at first to understand what it was she was seeing.
Down there, on the other side of the rise was a tom cat, a silver tabby who was moving his body in a most unusual, most unnatural way. He was up, on his hind legs, spinning, whirling and leaping through the air. Mar crouched down low so she could watch. She had seen many unnatural and terrifying things during her time with Macavity, but this was strangely beautiful. A female, calico, her coat a blend of yellows, blacks, and whites dashed into the Yard and leapt up into the air. The male caught her then, lifting her high above him before bringing her back down and holding her close, the female smiled brightly. It was the most absurd, irrational, wonderful thing Mar had seen in all her life, they weren't fighting, one was not trying to dominate the other or break them to their will, moreover they seemed to actually be enjoying one anonther's company. The queen fought to suppress a laugh as she inched ever forward trying to see more.
It was then that it happened. A toaster oven near the top of her mountain tumbled and fell with great clanging gusto all the way down. The two cats looked up, and the male seemed to bristle slightly, moving the female behind him. Mar had little time to marvel at the fact that he seemed to have been protecting her and she raced and slid down the others side. The queen managed to ignore much of her aches and pains spurred on by fear until she reached her hiding place where it all came rushing back to her. As she sat panting however, her body in pain her mind was alight was wonder and awe. What had they been doing? Were there more cats who lived in such peace? Would they root her out, and if they did would they let her stay? She doubted it, but smiled secretly to herself. Maybe she could stay, just for a little longer, just until she learned how to do whatever it was that they were doing. Contented with the thought she settled her weary and aching body down for an afternoon nap.
