Chapter 3

You guys are great! Keep up with the reviews! And also, I still need kits and descriptions for my other story "The Beginning". Check it out if you have any ideas for kits.

P.S Thnx PinkRhinosAreBest and Hawksky

Rowan's den

Stick and Strike crawled towards the entrance of Rowan's den. It was located far from Ava's, at the far end of the TwolegPlace. A light drizzle had began after they had left Ava's home, and they where slinking through the shadow's with their ears flat on their heads, squinting against the rain.

Finally they reached it. It was an old abandoned Twoleg's nest, falling apart and large.

Stick squeezed into the small hole in one side of the Twoleg nest and Strike followed.

Inside it was dark, with only some dim light seeping through the openings in the ceiling. Stick and Strike relied on their sense of direction and their whiskers to tell where they were going.

Even if it was sunny out, it was still always eerily dim and quite. It seemed that not even the strongest song birds could penetrate these walls with their sing-song voices.

They reached the place where Rowan slept. There was a hole in the wall and that's were Rowan was.

Strike stepped inside, his sides scraping the broken pieces of wood. Stick followed, trying to stop himself from trembling. The smell of fear was imminent in the air.

Strike ignored the smell, his face hard.

There was Rowan's nest. It was just behind a patch of light, concealed in the shadows.

It was quite, with just the rustle of wind, seeping through the hole.

"Rowan," Strike called.

There was a shifting sound then eyes, one an eerie blue-grey and the other a startling yellow, showed through the darkness.

"Where's Ava?" came the strangely silky voice from the cat. Rowan. "Or did you two forget what I sent you out for?"

Stick was shaking, making the wooden floor creek. He had never met Rowan face-to-face.

"She didn't come," Strike answered, barley able to stay eye-to-eye with Rowan.

"And so you decide to come empty pawed?" Rowan purred menacingly. "And where's Jet?"

"Ava killed him," Strike said. "She fought us… after I said something to make her upset."

Upset wasn't half of it. He had made her outraged.

Strike couldn't keep the fact that he had provoked Ava a secret. If he didn't say so, Rowan somehow would know he hadn't told him the whole story. Then he would kill him.

Rowan laughed a cold heartless laugh that almost made Strike tremble.

"You're not upset?" Strike asked confused.

"Jet was a fool," Rowan said, sounding somewhat pleased. "If he had had any sense, he wouldn't have fought Ava. He's was an idiot, useless."

"You knew he would fight her?" Strike asked, even more confused than before.

"Of course! I knew you'd say something stupid to provoke Ava," Rowan purred. Strike flinched at his comment. "Then Ava would kill one of you. Of course, I didn't know who but if one of you had died, it wouldn't really affected me would it?"

Strike stopped himself at spitting at his leader.

"Of course it wouldn't have affected you Rowan," Strike said reluctantly. "I just have one question. What was the point of sending us out for Ava if you knew what was going to happen?"

Rowan's eyes narrowed. "Luckily for you, Strike, I won't take that as questioning my orders. I just wanted you to check up on lovely Ava, see how she's doing. Of course I knew she'd never come to talk to me. Ah, she is a lovely she-cat, isn't she? Fierce. If she had come, I would know there was something wrong with her. Too bad she lives in the past, isn't it? She'd never accept me as her leader. Or of course her ma…"

Rowam didn't finish, just sort of faded off.

Then he quickly sat. "However, I want you to keep an eye on her. If she gets up into any trouble or she begins to act strangely, you know what to do…"

Strike smirked. He knew exactly what to do. Kill her.

Rowan stepped out of his nest and into the patch of sunlight in front of him.

Rowan was now completely visible. He was a large brown tom, scars marking his body and face. One eye had a scar going through it. His ears looked like they had been chewed on by rats. His muzzle had a scr running from his mouth to the bottom of his chin.

Stick, who hadn't spoken the entire time, was know trembling even fiercer. His eyes widened at the leader's horrifying appearance.

"Let's just see what our Ava has been doing," Rowan purred.

…

It was dark out. I had left my den as soon as Strike and Stick had gone out of sight.

I was furious.

Rowan thought he could just waltz up to me and talk to me? After his plotting against Scourge? I don't think so!

I wanted to rip his eyes out!

I was so distracted; I accidently stepped of the white walking path and was on the Thunderpath. Then I heard it. A sharp, high honking noise of a monster. I whipped around and was blinded by the bright lights. When I got my senses back, I saw that the monster was only a few tail-lengths. And it wasn't going to stop.

I let out a screech of surprise and leaped of the Thunderpath, barely just saving my tail. I crashed into a soft pile of junk, and stared on as the monster sped past.

Stay focused Ava! I snarled to myself.

That's when I felt sick. I don't know why. Suddenly, I felt bile running up my throat and I tried hard to swallow it but couldn't keep it down. I threw up and when I was finally done, I had a terrible taste in kmy mouth. What was the matter with me?

Poor, poor naïve Ava. :-)