Chapter Three
Echo was back inside now, but she still couldn't get those amber eyes out of her head. All she could think about was how they looked when they locked onto hers. They felt familiar, but she didn't have any idea where she could have seen them before.
"Echo, is everything okay?" asked Song. She had been watching her kits' every move outside and had not missed Echo's reaction to the eyes she saw. Echo wondered if she had seen the eyes herself.
"Everything's fine," she mumbled. "When are we going to go outside again?" Her mother looked uncomfortable.
"Are you sure you want to go outside again?" she asked nervously. "You've been troubled ever since you went out there you haven't been so g… yourself." Echo didn't miss Song's mistake. She knew that she had been about to say grumpy. Truth be told, sometimes Echo didn't want to be around herself.
"Of course," Echo said in fake surprise. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Never mind," meowed Song, standing up from her comfortable spot on the sofa. She padded over to where Flower and Storm were wrestling. Song pulled the tussling kits apart, purring in amusement.
"Dinner time," she said, a strange gleam of excitement and fear in her eyes. Echo blinked. Had she just imagined it, or had Song suddenly started thinking about their father? The kitchen door opened and the Housefolk came out with four bowls of the food she always fed them. Echo thought that it tasted dry, but Song always said to be happy that we had enough food.
'Who wouldn't?' Echo would think. 'All of us are cooped up in these stupid houses anyway.' Flower and Storm continued their fight on the carpet, but Echo just yawned. Her mother always said that she acted too old for her age.
She curled up, her mother padding up and laying next to her. Echo tucked her nose under her paws and closed her eyes, breathing in the soft scent of her mother. She took one last glance at Song before letting darkness pull her under.
Echo was awoken by a nudge in her flank. Sleepily, she blinked open her eyes. Echo glanced over at the screen door, and it was still dark out. She turned around to see Song prodding Flower and Storm awake too.
What's going on?" asked Flower. "Is there a fire?"
"No little one," meowed her mother, slightly purring. "We're leaving." Echo widened her eyes.
"Why?" Her mother smiled.
"I'm taking us to a different, better place, one that I think you'll like better than a Twoleg nest." A Twoleg? What's that?
Song took a deep breath, "I am taking you to ThunderClan."