Faded Stars – Relenting
Sparkpelt, now dubbed 'Sparky' by the old kittypets, sighed as she curled up on the soft rock that the hare-brained Twolegs had thought was an acceptable substitute for a nest of moss and bracken. She idly stared outside of the window, which was now translucent with frost, so that all she saw was blurs of colour. She sighed. Even if she had been able to go outside, the lion's share of her Clanmates had gone off to the Cutter; they lived out their days bemoaning what had happened, moping around the gardens of the Twolegs, and trying to summon the energy to do anything substantial.
Sparkpelt decided to break herself out of her torpor and go outside. As she did, she was assaulted with an icy blast of frigid air, one that made her fluff her fur out. She wandered out to the middle of the frozen garden, watching birds mocking her inability to escape. Once again, more out of habit than hope, she clawed at the place where her weird Twoleg chip had gone in, to no avail. One of the Twolegs she was stuck with picked her up, putting her in a Twoleg prison – a carrier, she'd heard the old kittypets call it – then loading her into a monster.
They drove for a while, finally stopping near a large Twoleg nest. The Twoleg carried her into the den, where an older Twoleg took her over. She was let out in a fenced -off area. A hard leaf full of hard Twoleg pellets – give her a mouse any day – and one full of bitter Twoleg water stood beside her, while a single other cat was in the area.
"Hello." He mewed.
"Hey."
"What's wrong? I've never seen a cat look so sad."
"I recently lost everything."
"Not everything, you have your housefolk."
"I didn't want to be a kittypet."
"Why not? You get food, shelter, warmth…"
"I was one of the wild cats around the lake." She told the other cat, who was licking his brown tabby fur.
"Really? That must have been so cool!"
"It was fulfilling. We lived with honour, followed a code, cared for young and old."
"So… did you eat bones?"
"No, but we did catch prey and eat them."
"Cool!" His eyes were shining. "I'm Buck, by the way."
Sparkpelt smiled; this cat somehow helped her to forget the fact that she was in Twolegplace. Even if it didn't last, there was something endearing about Buck, who was a veteran of Twolegplace, as he told her, and who thought her stories of being wild were really cool. They ended up talking nearly into the sunrise and curling up together on a soft rock.
For the first time, Sparkpelt didn't feel like she was drowning as she awoke the next day.
A couple of days later, the Twolegs took her back to their nest, where she looked out into the trees covered in small icicles, feeling a sense of peace creeping up on her.
There were friendly kittypets, and not all were naïve about life. Refreshed, she went deeper into Twolegplace (as the shock only came when leaving it) and trotted to a 'Park' she'd heard about.
It was a beautiful sight, seeing trees that weren't inaccessible to her, a small lake running through, and – she smelled- mice! The mouse smell came from behind a Twoleg nest, and there she saw it – three plump, juicy mice that had been sneaking food from the nest. She licked her lips, slowly creeping forwards, and… Gotcha! She thought, taking the kill. She trotted back to the nest, the mice swinging in her jaws, as she made her way to the Clan cats that had been imprisoned. They exclaimed happily when they saw her quarry, and they settled down for a between-pellets snack. Sparkpelt's mouth sang with the forest tastes she so missed, as she shared tongues with the Clan cats and felt the leafbare sun on her back.
Things were looking up.
