Tangle opened her eyes with a pounding headache. She tried to raise her head, but it took to much effort so she had to settle for a sideways view of the brick wall she faced. She noticed that it was darker than earlier and wondered briefly if her vision was failing, but no, she realized that this must be "night". Her ability to see being nearly useless, she closed her eyes and cast out her strongest sense, smell.
Under the heavy and ever-present odor of Twolegplace, she could just smell her sister's sweet scent.
"Wisp?" her voice sounded horribly dry, she licked her lips and tried again. "Wisp?"
"Tangle! You're finally awake! Mama isn't back yet and I was getting a little scared with the dark coming on, don't you think it's kinda creepy? It's different than closing your eyes 'cause there's shadows and stuff, and I'm just so glad that you're awake." Wisp babbled happily, glad that her sister was no longer in Dreamland.
Blinking hard to clear the fuzziness from her head, Tangle carefully sat up. "You said Mama isn't back yet?"
Wisp's happiness evaporated. "No, and I'm starving! What if she doesn't come back?" she whispered, eyes wide.
"I'm sure she'll be back soon. She probably ran into some trouble and she's just waiting it out." Tangle assured her sister, remembering the cats in her dream. Surely they would have told her if their mother was dead, right? That is, if it really was more than just a dream that she met those cats. Speaking of which, she should tell Wisp about her dream and they could both figure out what it meant. She opened her mouth to tell Wisp about it when she was interrupted by a vision.
A kit wakes up, opening her big blue eyes and yawning. She excitedly paws her mother's tail until she too wakes up, relating to her a dream about swimming. Something flashes in the queen's eyes. Love? Regret? Fear?
The kit asks something.
"No!" The blue queen tells the young black and white kit.
"But why, Bluefur?" The kit asks innocently. "Why can't I tell Thrushpelt?"
"Because we are ThunderClan, we don't swim."
"It was just a dream!"
"Sometimes keeping dreams to ourselves is best."
With the words ringing in her ears, Tangle felt the memory slide into her own. She could not tell if it was a dream, or one of her own memories. The message was clear, tell no one about her dream. Was this what happened if your soul was joined to another? Foreign memories twining with your own until you lost yourself? The kit tried to shake the thought.
A howl broke the stillness of the night.
The sister's looked at each other, and quickly scrambled to the safety their nest under the dumpster.
…
After the first howl, many others had joined it accompanied by distant barks creating a symphony harmonious to none.
Between the constant howling and worry for their mother, Tangle slept restlessly with flitting dreams of gray fur with shifting blue and yellow eyes that reminded her of her mother, but terrified her at the same time.
Finally, when the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, did their mother return home, exhausted, with only a lizard to show for her efforts.
"Mama!" Tangle and Wisp chorused. "What took you so long?"
"My darlings, I'm so sorry I wasn't back earlier!" Their mother apologized, leaning down to give each daughter a lick. "I finally found this, but out of nowhere this dog pack showed up and I had to hide in a tree and they didn't leave until after moonhigh."
She flopped down to eat her catch ravenously while her two kits crowded her belly to nurse.
After finishing off her lizard, the exhausted queen turned to her kits, slightly rejuvenated. "What did you two do after I was gone?"
Looking at each other, the sisters made a silent pact not to worry their mother about Tangle's fall.
"We…uh… explored." Tangle began uncertainly.
"We climbed that huge mountain of trash and then we raced to the bottom!" Wisp meowed, eyes shining.
"I won." Tangle added smugly.
Wisp just rolled her eyes and continued. "Then Tangle took a really long nap."
"And what did you do while she was napping?" Their mother asked, amused.
"I fought off a ferocious dog single-pawed!"
"Did not!" objected her spotted sister.
"Did too!"
A tussle ensued, ending in a draw when their mother separated them when they rolled too near the glass.
After giving them both stern looks before carefully brushing away the troublesome glass, the queen asked her kits "How about some hunting practice?"
…
A moon and a half later, the two were "hunting" cockroaches as supplements for what little milk their mother could give them. Their hearing and sight improved each day, steadily making them better hunters.
Day after day, the prey that the kits' mother was able to bring home became less and less. Most days she returned empty pawed, with less milk for her quickly growing daughters.
Horrified by how thin her kits were becoming, the queen knew she would have to move to an area with more prey as soon as her daughters could travel, which was still nearly a moon away.
She cringed. Not only that, but the only two places with good prey were the forest where blood-thirsty Clan cats killed anyone who dared trespass, and the inner twolegplace, where dangerous gangs like the Greasers lay, and her kits' father.
"Mama?" Tangle croaked. "I'm so hungry." She looked at her mother, skin drawn back from her eyes, making them huge on her small skull.
The she–cat decided. Uncertain of the Clan's scruples, she gathered her daughters and readied herself for the inner twolegplace.
959 words in this one, sloooowly getting longer, my goal is 1,500 words per chapter. Ugh, I fail.
Sorry it took so long, my excuse involves a xc meet and a baby squirrel named Squirt.
Anonymous Fishy: Hmmm, I'll keep that in mind. I'm trying to increase by 100 words each chapter; sorry they're all so short. I'm trying!
Twilightmoon: Thanks!
Whispersong: Voila.