Chapter 6
"Alright, here's our stop." Oliver announced as the taxi cab stopped at a curb.
He glanced back at Starla and a surprised look appeared on his furry face. "Are..you Ok? Starla?"
The grey and white kitten's eyes were open wide and her fur was all messed up from how fast their ride had been. "Starla?"
Starla blinked and did a slight double take as she heard her name yet again. "I'm Ok!" she said quickly.
Oliver gave her a skeptical look but nodded his head. "Ok...Let's go. We're almost there." he said.
Starla started down off the cab, but her paw slipped, and she fell onto the sidewalk, face first.
"Starla, are you alright?" Oliver asked, quickly jumping down from the taxi cab and standing beside his friend.
Starla sat up and shook her head. "Yeah..I'm fine." she said. The grey kitten licked her paw and ran it over her ruffled up fur, smoothing it down. She fixed the hair tuft on her head and then smiled at Oliver. "Alright. Let's go!" she said, getting to her paws.
The two young cats resumed their journey.
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After they had been walking for awhile, Oliver suddenly stopped. Starla, who was following him, didn't notice her friend stop until she smacked into him. The grey and white kitten rubbed her nose. "Hey Oliver, why'd you stop?" she asked.
Oliver looked back at her. "I thought I saw Dodger." he replied.
The two kittens scanned the crowd for him. All of a sudden, Starla called out, "I see him!" She pointed a paw.
Running through the crowd at break neck speed was the white and brown mutt known as Dodger. He had a row of sausages coiled around his neck as he ran.
Oliver and Starla soon found out why he was running, when Old Louie emerged from the crowd, face red from anger and yelling in madness as he chased after Dodger. "Get back here, pooch! Those are my hotdogs!" he screamed in rage.
"Run!" Oliver cried, realizing that Louie was coming their way, and didn't see them. The two kittens broke into a run, eventually catching up with Dodger. The mutt noticed them and said, "Hey cats. What are you two doing on this side of town?"
"We came to see you!" Starla replied.
Dodger nodded as they ran. "I see...Hey kid, I never did get your name." he said coolly.
"My name's Starla." The kitten answered.
"Starla, huh? Nice name. It suits you." Starla felt herself go a little red. "Come on cats. Let's get outta here." Dodger stopped running and let the two kittens climb on his back. "Hold on back there!" he ordered as he started to run, Old Louie's outraged shouts coming closer.
Finally, they lost their pursuer by hiding in a big card board box that was in an alley. Neither Oliver, Dodger nor Starla dared even breath until Louie had gone. When he finally did leave, all the animals heaved big sighs of relief.
"So you two came to see me, did you?" Dodger said as he led the cats out of the box.
Oliver nodded. "Yeah! Well, you see, Starla's feeling a lot better than she did when we first brought her to my house. So.." he paused to take a breath before going on. "I thought maybe we could take her to meet the rest of the Gang!"
Dodger smirked and looked at Starla. "You wanna go meet a bunch of mutts, kitty?" he asked, ruffling the hair up on Starla's head.
Starla groaned inwardly. She licked her paw and, for the second time in the past hour, smoothed her hair back down. "You bet!" she said in answer to Dodger. "Just as long as they're nice like you." The little grey and white kitten added hastily. "..Just as long as they don't chase cats."
"The Gang? Chase cats? Nah." Dodger gave a careless shrug with one shoulder.
It was then that Oliver decided to speak up. "So hey. Um..Are we going or what?"
Dodger turned to Starla. "What do you think? Can you handle the trip?"
Starla smirked at him. "Are you kidding me? All day I've been chased by a stray, almost fallen off a taxi cab and to top it all off, I was pursued by a red faced hot dog man." The grey and white kitten puffed her chest out bravely and shot her friends a smile. "I can handle anything!" she declared.
Dodger and Oliver's eyes met for a moment. It wasn't like Starla to act so brave, Oliver thought. Their adventure on the streets today must have really done something for her. That, and the fact that she wasn't scrounging around for food, hungry and weak helped!
The dog and orange kitten looked back at Starla. "Okay, kitty. If you say so." Dodger said with a smirk. He rose to his paws, and Oliver followed suit. "Follow me." The mutt said, starting out of the alley.
Starla followed eagerly behind Oliver. She was determined to prove that she could handle anything a dog could handle. With this in mind, Starla began to walk faster. In fact, she was so focused on her thoughts, the grey kitten began to stray away from her friends.
It wasn't until she heard Oliver's frantic shouts that she realized what was going on. The kitten screeched in fear as she discovered that she had walked out into the middle of a busy street. Starla shrieked and ducked down low as a bus came her way.
Luckily, the kitten ducked just before the bus could hit her. Heaving a shaky sigh, Starla raised her head slowly and glanced back as she watched the bus drive out of sight.
"Starla watch out!" Came another shout. Starla recognized it as Oliver's, but she didn't see him anywhere.
"Oliver, where are you?!" she cried, looking all around. She didn't even see the truck coming toward her.
"Starla! Duck!" Oliver cried again.
Starla finally noticed the truck, but it was too late for her to duck. The kitten closed her eyes and braced herself, but before she could be hit, Dodger, seeming to have come out of nowhere, suddenly darted in front of the truck.
He grabbed her ribbon and yanked her out of harm's way just in the nick of time. Then, moving as quickly as he could, the stray mutt carried Starla out of the street and dropped her onto the sidewalk.
The grey and white kitten sat up, trembling like crazy, remembering how close the truck had come to her. If it had not been for Dodger..Why she'd be...
"Starla what were you thinking?! You could have been killed!" Oliver cried, glancing worriedly at his friend.
Starla shook her head, trying to clear her mind of these dreadful thoughts. "I know...I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking, walking into the street like that." she said sheepishly.
Dodger rolled his eyes. "You weren't thinking is what you were thinking." he said simply.
Starla looked embarrassed. "Sorry." she apologized again.
"Please try to pay more attention to where you're at, Starla." Oliver said suddenly. He threw his paws around her in a small hug. Starla had no idea why, but she blushed a little at this. "You're one of my very best friends, and I don't want to see you hurt!" The orange striped kitten added.
"So...are we still goin', or do you want to go home?" Dodger asked. He shifted his gaze so it was on Starla. "You've had quite a scare, kitty. It might be wise to head home."
Hearing this, Starla bristled. What was Dodger saying? That she was too big a wimp to keep going on? Was he calling her a fraidy cat?! The grey and white kitten pulled away from Oliver and gave Dodger a glare. "I'm not scared! Let's keep going!" she said.
Oliver frowned worriedly at Starla. "Are you sure, Starla? You don't have to do this today. Not if you don't want to."
Starla shook her head stubbornly. "Oliver, I didn't come this far to just quit. I'm not giving up. So let's go!" she said. The grey kitten lowered her voice. "Besides, I've got this feeling Dodger thinks I'm not strong or brave enough to get there. I've gotta prove I'm not a fraidy cat."
Hearing this, Oliver shrugged and sighed. "Ok, Starla. If you really want to do it, we'll keep going." he said.
Starla nodded her head and looked up at Dodger. "Alright, we're ready to continue." she said.
Dodger smirked, appearing impressed that the kitten wasn't backing down, in spite of her frightful experience. Maybe she had some back bone in her afterall. Maybe.
"This way, kitties." he said, as the three animals resumed their journey, this time making sure Starla walked in between both of them. They did not want another incident where Starla almost got hurt..or worse.