Chapter 9: Rain
The next morning, Phoenix did not wake up until rather late; the exhausting events of the day before left her asleep until almost sunhigh. When she did get up, she limped across the kitchen floor, and was about to eat something and go outside, when a twoleg kit spotted her and picked her up. Then, the kit noticed Phoenix's scratches along her back, and her limp, and of course she told the other twoleg kit, a male, who ran off and told the grown twolegs. They took her tenderly and wrapped up her leg in some brace or bandage, then talked for a long time while the kits stroked her gently.
Watching as rain fell against the windows, Phoenix drifted into an uneasy sleep.
It was dark. Phoenix was in the center of the blackness, and it was so complete she could hardly comprehend it in its infinity. She jolted awake in the dark twoleg nest, and stood up. Staring out the window, she could see something different in the sky. It was light and slivery, and the stars were diamond bright.
She crept out of the nest, feeling as if her senses were supercharged. Trotting across the frosty cold yard, she was following something she felt rather than knew. Phoenix bounded onto the wall and landed easily on the other side, where the SkyClan cats lived. Her paws led her across the stiff grass, to the tree where she and Teddy had met Patchfoot and Tinypaw. She broke into a sprint. There were clouds gathering above her, and her heart was pounding in her throat. Finally, Phoenix skidded to a halt near a ledge overlooking SkyClan's gorge; it was bathed in light from the full moon above her, and the silhouettes of many cats could be seen on the rock. Many cats. A whole clan full, it seemed.
Phoenix crouched low in the grass and watched as a cream-and-white she-cat leapt up onto a small rock to address the clan below her. Phoenix thought she could recognize Tinypaw and Patchfoot among the Gathered cats. They stood up one by one to speak to the others, and as the full moon began to set, they filed to the edge, and leapt off, one by one; they seemed a very organized group.
The last to leave was the cream-and-white she-cat. She turned, and looked straight at Phoenix, nodded, and leapt down after her clan.
The next morning, Phoenix woke up to the sound of rain drumming once more against the windows of the twolegs' nest. Undaunted, she bounded outside, feeling a new energy rushing through her: She had seen a Gathering! Whether it had been real or a dream, Phoenix would never know, but she did know where she was going now.
"Teddy! Oi!" she sailed off the wall, but landed awkwardly because of her bandaged ankle. It felt much better, but it was certainly not healed. "Ted?" the yard was deserted. "Hello—? Aaak!"
Suddenly a large brown something landed on Phoenix's back. She grappled with it for several heartbeats, but then she had it pinned down. With a feeling of sinking horror, she realized that her attacker had green eyes, like Teddy's, and its fur was dark and plastered to its skin. Wait a second, those eyes were green, but—
"Teddy!" Phoenix cried in delight. "Where did you learn those fighting moves? They're awesome!"
"And you! You beat me anyway!" replied her friend. "Where were you yesterday?"
"I was really sore, and my twolegs put me in a bandage, then I fell asleep and..." Phoenix trailed off, and Teddy nodded understandingly. There was a long silence. Phoenix broke it.
"So where were you yesterday?" she asked.
"I…I went to see the clan cats," he mewed.
"You did?" said Phoenix. " So that's where you learned those fighting moves, huh?"
"Yeah," purred Teddy. "But it gets better! Guess what Patchfoot told me!"
"Ummm…no idea. What?"
"He said we could come back today for a lesson!" cried Teddy, bursting with excitement.
"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
About a moon later...
It had been raining for nearly two weeks now, and at the end of the fist week, the twolegs had started not to let Phoenix out, when they left every day, by tying shut the cat flap. Phoenix was itching to get outside and keep training with Teddy, who was probably way ahead of her learning by now, and she missed training with Patchfoot and Teddy. So when she awoke in the early dawn hours to see more rain falling, Phoenix decided to get outside before anyone woke up.
Darting nimbly across the kitchen floor, Phoenix was a much stronger and agile young cat, and she reached the back door in a few bounds. She kept running, full force at the cat flap, and she felt the twine snap under the force of her speed. Phoenix burst through the cat flap, and outside, with a squeak of pride and excitement.
Phoenix's yard was a generally gray sort of color, with little rivulets of cold water running everywhere through the grass. A cold, clinging mist covered everything, and the leaves on all the plants and trees had fallen: it was almost leaf-bare. But her victory was short-lived; a few seconds after she made it outside, Phoenix was sopping wet and freezing cold.
Shivering, Phoenix looked around for shelter, and spotted a small space in the wall where a stone in the wall had fallen out. She dove into it, and found that, even if she couldn't squeeze through it to get to Teddy's yard, she would be able to see him when he came out. For a long time, she crouched in the crevice, wishing she could go back inside, but knowing that if she did, she would not be let out again. Finally, sopping wet, she crept out of the crevice, deciding that Teddy had not been let out today.
A moon ago, Phoenix and Teddy had gone to visit the SkyClan cats for a fighting lesson, and they had returned every day since, learning to hunt and fight like clan cats. On the day before her twolegs had started keeping her inside, Patchfoot told them that she and Teddy were descendants of SkyClan cats! Amazed, they had gone home to ponder this, and Phoenix had not managed to come back.
Leaping onto their wall one last time, she watched his yard for a few heartbeats. The rain fell around her, soaking her to the skin, plastering her fur against her, sliding down the roof of Teddy's house, splashing onto the step in front of the door...
Suddenly, the back door swung open. Phoenix gasped and sailed down from the ledge, diving into a bush when she saw that it was not Teddy, but his twolegs. She watched as they came out, a male, a female, and a male kit; they were holding a silver mesh cage thing, and when they had closed the door, they walked towards their monster, holding up their forepaws to keep the rain off. Curiously, Phoenix crept along behind them in their well-kept bushes. Then one of them turned, and with a shock like a lightning bolt hitting her, Phoenix realized what was in the mesh cage, what they were taking to get into the monster they rode, what was trapped, and caged, and doomed: it was Teddy!
"Teddy! Teddy!" she yowled so hard that her throat felt raw, and she choked as rain went up her nose, but Phoenix didn't care; all she knew is that they were taking away her best friend, away in their monster, and she burst through the last bush and sprinted after them.
"Phoenix! Help me! Phoenix! Help!" Teddy twisted around when he heard his friend's cry, and he yowled back at her, clawing at the cage's bars in panic, his face screwed up with terror. "Phoenix!"
"I'm coming, Teddy, I'm coming!" Phoenix yowled wildly in reply, her breath coming in short, painful gasps as she raced after Teddy. The twolegs had noticed, and the lagging kit even stooped down to coax her, but Phoenix tore past him, eyes streaming, throat sore, and her heart thumping madly. The grown twolegs were shoving Teddy into the monster's belly, and Phoenix had one last glimpse of his petrified face before the kit climbed in, and the door slammed shut. The last thing she thought she could hear over the monster's growling was Teddy's voice.
"Phoenix! Help! They're taking me away! To the vet! To the Cutter's!"
