The Land Between

by psioniccat

Every cat in the forest disappears, leaving four remaining apprentices, one from each Clan. Each is as ordinary as the last - until they discover strange new abilities they can't control. The talentless Rainpaw, who can travel through time, the outcasted Rosepaw, who turns invisible, the disinterested Smokepaw, destroyer of reality, and...well, you'd just have to meet her.

12. Stalemate

The Land Between, Chapter Twelve

"Got some!"

Rosepaw's voice traveled across the smooth surface of the dais to where Smokepaw lay curled on his side by the stone structure, awaiting her return. She hopped onto the platform and trotted in his direction, two mice closed in her mouth. She dropped one before him.

"Hey, thanks," He meowed, forking it over with his paws. "Looks like you've got your work unwittingly cut out for you. Team hunter."

"As well as being invisible, and reading spooky runes?" Rosepaw asked, chomping into her mouse. "Where do you think they are, anyway? Jadepaw and Rainpaw? It's late morning by now."

"Oh, look at all this cool stuff, look at this boring endless sand, and depressing green sky, and lame platform thing," Smokepaw mimicked in a high pitched voice. "Oh Rainpaw, let's look around for more cool stuff because clearly this place is full of it and obviously none of this is boring!"

Rosepaw giggled, but then wiped it off her face like she felt bad. "You're being too hard on her. Obviously this is all a dream come true for her."

"Obviously," Smokepaw echoed. He picked at the mouse with his claws. "Hey, it's good we've got her on our team. Someone's gotta care about all this stuff if we're literally going to create a new universe."

"Yeah…" They ate in silence, but Smokepaw had lost most of his appetite, even though he'd barely eaten at all in the last several days. There was something about food that just seemed kind of…repulsive to him. He used to love food. It was too bad.

"I'll leave the rest of this for Jadepaw and Rainpaw," he decided finally, sitting up straight.

"You sure?" Rosepaw asked, licking her chops. "So you're content to just sit and wait for them, then?"
"Yeah." Smokepaw yawned and stretched. "I'm sure they won't be long."

Overhead, the bright, pastel moon had risen high in the sky, brightening up the bleak sand of Creare. Smokepaw watched it for a while. It was…too bright. Like it was insisting on having its presence acknowledged. He really preferred the dark purple moon that had risen last night. Not like any of that mattered.

He went and sat in the meager shade provided by the dais's central structure with the moon directly overhead. Behind him, Rosepaw perched on top, studying the runes, mumbling softly to herself.

Smokepaw closed his eyes. Behind his closed lids he saw a flurry of frantic, stressed activity, a bunch of trees collapsing and the thunderclap of the earth opening beneath him. As he dozed off, the activity intensified, turning more nonsensical and scattered until it squabbled itself into blackness and he began to open his eyes.

His lids felt heavy, even though he didn't feel sleepy, it just felt difficult to open them. So difficult. When he finally did, he saw hazy purple and blue structures around him, cool stone under his fur, and he sat up, opening them wide, in time to find himself perched on a narrow tower inside a shady, insidious temple –

Smokepaw forced his eyes open with a gasp, leaping into a sitting position. The stone dais under him was unchanged. The red sand coated the bleak horizon.

"You okay?" Came a voice. Rosepaw slinked around the structure to where he sat.

"Yeah. Really weird dream." Smokepaw shook out his fur. He looked up at the sky. The colorful moon was starting to sink, slowly tugging darkness over Creare, and he realized he'd slept longer than he'd intended.

"I think we should go look for them," Rosepaw meowed nervously. "This doesn't feel right. It's been almost an entire day…or, whatever a day can be measured as with these equally split light-dark phases going on. I can't see either Jadepaw or Rainpaw intentionally just taking off on us."

"Yeah, with their gung-ho team spirit and everything," Smokepaw muttered. "I guess you make a good point."

Rosepaw leaped on top of the structure again. "I was studying the countdown in here. I believe last night, when we activated it, it started counting down form precisely fourteen days. Now, it's at about thirteen, because that was close to twenty-four hours ago now. I feel very nervous about this. And it's not just me being paranoid, which is something I do do, I'll admit it, it's…something else. It's almost like there's this big piece of my brain that's screaming about this. Like screaming at me to pay attention. And it doesn't feel good at all."

"Yeah, that's pretty sketchy." Smokepaw observed.

"Whatever it's counting down to can't be good, from our present standpoint," she said. "And I don't feel comfortable waiting and not acting. It arouses too many spooky, fundamental questions. Why fourteen days? Why that unit of measurement? Why have a countdown at all?"

"But we have no idea what to do," Smokepaw shrugged. "Jadepaw was the only one with a shred of a sense, and she's gone AWOL."

"So let's go find them." Rosepaw set her jaw. "Look, I know you don't care about any of this, and I certainly don't to the degree Jadepaw does, or even Rainpaw, but I can't ignore this thing in my head. And if you don't want to come, whatever, but I'm going to go."

"No, I'll come with you." Smokepaw stood up. "I'm not going to willingly let you go off alone and get yourself in danger. I'm not a monster. Well, not a complete monster. I'm kind of a monster."

The two of them followed the time quadrant to the edge of the dais and stepped off, assuming that'd be the most likely route the other two apprentices must have taken, because that was the direction they'd approached from yesterday. Smokepaw started scenting the air and the sand, but found nothing, absolutely nothing, even though no wind had blown all day to mask their scent.

And it wasn't that he didn't smell the other apprentices, it was that he didn't smell anything at all. The sand itself was odorless. The air was empty. It was like everything had been constructed from pure void.

They walked for a long time, wordless. Smokepaw almost suggested splitting up, but he sensed Rosepaw was too nervous, and secretly, he kind of was too. Creare gave him these weird, wary creeps he couldn't really describe. Overhead, the dark purple moon rose in full swing.

"So…you really don't like to talk a lot, do you?" Rosepaw asked finally.

"It's not that…" Smokepaw mused. "It's just I prefer silence, and anything else I find insufferable."

Rosepaw laughed. "You were like this back in ShadowClan, too, I'm guessing?"

"Kind of…" He titled his head to the side, actually considering it. "I mean, things were kind of different then, like I was never really that stressed out and I didn't feel like foxdung all the time. And things were just…eh. I don't think I miss ShadowClan. I don't know what it is. Whatever. It doesn't really matter anymore, I guess."

"Yeah." Rosepaw sighed. "I don't really miss RiverClan either. I mean, if all of this, the whole new universe and everything we have to figure out how to do, if that's to find and save our Clans…I don't know if I want to save mine? I mean I do, and I will, because they're cats and my friends and they deserve it and all, but…I guess, if I had my first choice, I wouldn't have to go and live with them."

"Hmm." Smokepaw said, considering. "So, anyway, do you think you're turning into some sort of psychic or something?"

"Huh? I don't think so."

"Well, you said the quadrant for 'psyche' was yours, pretty decisively, and you could read those runes for some reason, and you were talking about getting a weird sixth sense about the countdown…"

"Maybe. I mean it's possible. I do feel like my abilities have kind of been evolving and changing since I got here. I don't even know if I'm invisible anymore. Technically, if you guys can see me, and we're not in our old universe anymore, does it even matter if I am or not? You know?"

"Yeah." Smokepaw said. "I guess I relate to that. Like, I noticed pretty quick upon being here that my paws aren't wrecking everything as I walk anymore."

"Oh, you're right!" Rosepaw turned to look at the trails of pawprints they'd been making in the sand. "You aren't making all those little holes!"

"Yeah. So maybe it's more of a deliberate thing now," he said. "That I have more control over? But I don't really care. It's really just a relief. I have literally zero intention of ever using my powers."

"Seriously?"

"Yep." Smokepaw looked straight ahead. In the distance, something was vaguely visible on the horizon. "Using them will never be a thing ever again."

"Jeez…" Rosepaw mewed. "I was getting kind of excited about mine."

"Good! Not me." Smokepaw nodded at the horizon. "Something's there."

They walked a little closer. Smokepaw squinted in the purple darkness. "I think…I think that's the dais. We made a big circle."

"Oh, mousedung." Rosepaw spat, sitting down heavily. "I'm so fed up with this stupid sand!"

"Yeah, sand's pretty lame," he agreed. Out of the corner of his eye, a shape flitted past. Immediately, a lifetime of aggressive ambushing and hypervigilance flooded Smokepaw's entire brain, and he dropped into a defensive stance, fur all the way up, teeth bared, ears back, emitting a loud snarl. Rosepaw, obviously dumbfounded about what had happened, shakily mimicked his stance.

"Rrrowr!" Smokepaw snarled. Another dark shape flashed by, and, despite his calculated surveillance, he found himself ambushed from behind, from a different dark form. The one he'd been tracking ambushed Rosepaw just as he was bowled over and pinned hard into the sand.

"Hey, idiot!" spat his attacker. Smokepaw fought hard to turn over and see, and saw a cat…or something. It smacked him over the head before he could get a good look, causing his ears to ring. He felt himself being dragged across the sand, and began to struggle, only to get another rough whopping from his assailant. "Stop fighting! You can't do anything!"

Smokepaw was so dizzy he could barely figure out which way was up. He could smell Rosepaw, however, and another scent…something powerful and funky and distinctly alien to anything he'd ever known. He distantly saw a big purple stone being pushed aside, felt himself being dragged down a sandy, stony slope into darkness. His attacker stepped away. Rosepaw's fur was all pushed against him.

His head swam like crazy. He managed to sit up, swaying his head back and forth to try and bring his location into focus, get it to stop flipping around like crazy. Whoever had attacked him had hit him hard. Even Snakefur had never done this level of damage. But even in his compromised state, he could tell whoever it was, had certainly not intended to kill.

"No, no, take all the time you need!" Someone was saying, a different voice than his attacker's. "It's not like we're all on a cosmic countdown or anything! Good Sept Lord, how long does it take you guys to get your bearings? That was like getting struck over the head with a fur pillow!"

"Shut up," Smokepaw managed to snarl. He could hazily see two figures a fox-length away, sitting and staring at him and Rosepaw, who was lying beneath him. "I'll rip your throats out."

"You guys are IDIOTS!" Yowled the same speaker. "What on Aster would possess you to walk around Creare in broad daylight?! SO STUPID! Ugh, you're lucky we were here!"

"Who are you?" Smokepaw growled. Beside him, Rosepaw was rising to her paws, blinking dully. His vision finally cleared, though his head pounded.

He was in a large underground den, what seemed to be a cave under the sand, the same reddish color as the sand above. It seemed to be lit by little piles of sparkly white sand that was glowing brightly in the darkness. As he peered around, he saw smaller tunnels leading off to other cave areas. "Where are we?"

The two figures looked at him. Smokepaw looked at them. He…he wasn't sure what he saw. At first he saw two cats, side by side, but then his brain second guessed itself. One cat, the one who'd been talking and insulting them a moment ago, was a bright, deep orange, but not like the orange cats he was used to in the forest, this was a pure, unbridled orange, like the embers of a fire. It was so weird. He appeared to be a tom. His eyes were bright orange. And the more Smokepaw peered…the more he realized the cat wasn't covered in fur at all, but tiny, miniscule feathers instead. And running down the length of his spine, all the way to the end of his long tail, little crooked ridges, like spiked horns, seemed to emerge from his fur…er…feathers.

"Hello." He said flatly at Smokepaw's obvious staring. "Yeah, nice to meet you, whatever. I don't know what your name is and I don't care. I'm Rust, and this is my friend, Rye. And we need to have a word with you two."

The other creature looked similar to the first, except her pelt was a deep, cool, yet brilliant, blue instead of orange. Another unnatural color that looked totally wrong on a cat…thing…but whatever. The ridged little horns on her tail stuck up long and straight. "Yo." She spoke darkly. By her voice, Smokepaw could tell she was the one who'd attacked him, and his fur prickled.

"What are you?" He growled. "You aren't cats, are you."

"We…aren't cats?" Rust laughed in shock, like he was hearing something stupid, which was basically the way he'd been reacting to everything so far. "Of course we're cats, you stupid head! What do you think a cat looks like?!"

"Like…us?" Smokepaw mewed.

"I pity the universe where a cat looks as pathetic and defenseless as someone like you." Rust growled. "Where are your feathers? Where are your tail spikes? How do you even fight? No wonder you were so easy to take down."

"Rust, can we get to the point here?" Rye interrupted him. She was watching Smokepaw stonily, her narrow blue eyes in long, glittering slits.

"Yeah, sorry." Rust sighed. "Look, morons. You're creators, right? Yeah, obviously. We're creators too, we're from the previous team that was here before you guys arrived and reset everything, so now we're trapped here. Just like you will be. Especially if you walk around Creare in broad daylight like a couple of kittens dropped on their heads!"

"Whoa…what?" Rosepaw asked, on her feet beside Smokepaw now. "You said you're from a previous team of creators?"

"Yeah." Rust barked. "Whole different universe, different Anima, different Animus, different deal going down on Creare, whole different new universe. Theoretically. We failed at that part."

"So Create Space doesn't exist just for us?"

"No!" He spat. "You aren't the only creators to exist! Create Space, and Creare, are like a big bus stop! Do you know what that is?"

"No," said Smokepaw and Rosepaw in unison.

"Oh boy." Rust laughed sarcastically. "This is going to be even more difficult than I feared. A bus stop is a big place where buses full of Tallwalkers pick up and drop off lots of Tallwalkers! And that's what Creare is! It's just a big bus stop for universes at the creation end of their entropy cycle to drop off their creators so they can create their new universe and move on! One universe, one set of creators go through Create Space, it resets, brings in another set, resets, rinse, and repeat! Got it?"

"No," said Smokepaw.

"So…you guys are from another universe." Rosepaw observed calmly. "You two…you're what cats are in an alternate universe ."

"Hit the nail on the head, genius." Rust sighed.

But Rosepaw didn't look at all perturbed by his hostile, impatient attitude, even though Smokepaw found him pretty unbearable. "Wow," she meowed. "Awkward as this meeting may be, I would love to sit down with you and talk about our respective lives! All the similarities and differences between us…I mean, it has to be fascinating!"

"Who cares!" Rust sighed. "None of that matters anymore, furball!"

"Rosepaw."

"None of that matters anymore, Rosepaw! That would be the lamest conversation ever, and totally contradictory to what we're trying to accomplish! Right, Rye?"
"I agree it sounds quite lame." Rye said darkly.

"Did you guys live in a forest too?" Rosepaw carried right on, not caring whatsoever. "Were you divided into Clans?"

"No, we lived in a city full of Tallwalkers and their cars and buses on a powerful and awesome planet called Aster," Rust said dead-ly. "I have no idea what your planet was called, and I don't care, because it's probably stupid anyway. And what the hell is a Clan? That sounds like the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"We lived in Septs." Rye chimed in.

"That sounds stupid." Smokepaw provided.

"Okay!" Rosepaw yowled, interjecting dramatically. She'd almost moved to stand between Smokepaw and the mystery cats. "Rust." She addressed him directly. "What is going on here. What do you mean you're trapped here? Why can't we walk around Creare?"

"What's going on here is that you two idiots are the reason everyone is going to die and why everything is so screwed up," Rust growled. "And I hate – hate – having to watch a new batch of naïve, bright-eyed creators stroll around this wretched place exploring all the wonder and lore and meanwhile dragging the rest of us long-suffering, mega-doomed creators into an even worse fate of death and misery. Guess what, star-eyes. You're never going to create a new universe, trust me, that's off the table because it wasn't ever even on it, sorry, and you're all going to die here, just like us, so don't even bother."

"Uh…" Rosepaw and Smokepaw met eyes. "So we're in danger?"
"Yeah, you're in danger! In fact, let me take a moment to offer my humblest sympathies that you were the poor saps picked as the propagators for your crappy universe, because it would have been a lot quicker and less miserable to be obliterated into nonexistence like the rest of it."

"All of this steaming and raging isn't helping us," Smokepaw said flatly. "Trust me, bro, I definitely don't care enough about whatever it is you're trying to explain to us to actually sit here and suffer through this weird one-cat-rant you're staging. So if you don't start talking to me like a regular cat – which I'm going to assume you are, because just by using the name 'cat' to describe yourself and your freaky species, you better hold yourself to the certain standard of basic decent behavior that the rest of us have to. Okay?!"

Rosepaw was staring sideways at him, eyes round. "Whoa." She mewed.

"Yeah, I think you're laying it on unusually thick," Rye said to Rust. "Our guests, frail and simple-minded as they may be, don't deserve this verbal flogging you're giving them."

"Fine!" Rust spat. "Fine. I will stopper my built-up, totally justified resentment long enough to explain the gist of what I have to say. Because it's actually really important."

"Go." Said Smokepaw shortly.

"Alright." Rust sighed. "My team arrived here quite a while ago, exactly how you guys did. We explored all over Creare, learned all about Anima and Animus and creating the new universe, got to work trying to accomplish what the rune on the dais wanted and then…things started going wrong. Create Space revealed it's true nature as a dark cesspool of evil and garbage. It was really complicated and a lot of bad stuff happened, blah, blah, blah. And then the timer ran out and our old universe was destroyed. And that was it. We failed. We missed our chance to fulfill the rune and build the new universe. And a little while later, Create Space wiped out everything having to do with us – and started over for the four of you, because that's what it does. It's ruthless. It doesn't care if you fail. And now we're trapped in Create Space forever and we're going to die, and so will all of you."

"Why do you say we're surely going to die?" Rosepaw asked calmly. She sat down, tail wrapping around her paws.

Rust took a deep breath, and let it out in a melancholy sigh. "Because Creare is in stalemate. It's under lockdown. It was for us, and it is for you guys, too. Which basically means it's not going to create a new universe for you. Even if you do everything right, the pawprints, your unique traits and strengths, your genetic matter – we still don't know what that means! – and provide your old universe to the dais, Creare still won't give you a new one. It is just plain not going to work. Even if you do it all perfectly, you're out of luck. Sorry."

"Why?" Smokepaw asked.

"Because of Scylla and Charybdis," Rust sighed. He looked up at Smokepaw and Rosepaw's blank expressions. "Scylla and Charybdis are queen and king of Anima and Animus, respectively. They've screwed up Create Space by skewing the balance between good and evil. Create Space, on its own, is completely neutral. It isn't bad or good, it doesn't pick sides, it's nothing. It's blank. And that's where Anima and Animus come in. Scylla is supposed to the queen of good, and Charybdis the king of evil. From what we've gathered, Charybdis is minding his own business on Animus like the royalty is supposed to, but Scylla…all we know is things got a little kooky with her. And instead of helping the creators understand Create Space and what Creare wants and assisting them in building the new universes, she's been weirdly hoarding the creators in her palace on Anima."

"How is that bad?" Rosepaw asked. "In a place this strange, how can you know what her motives are?"

"That's what we thought too," Rust spoke. "Until some of the cats from our Septs turned up on Anima and they were…all wrong. They weren't right. It was like talking to a cat that was dead. We didn't – we still don't – know what Scylla was doing with them, and why she wanted to gather and keep all of us on Anima like that. We knew something was seriously wrong, but when we tried to leave, and get back to Creare, she wouldn't let us go. We had to break out."

"Oh no," Rosepaw whispered.

"Creare has locked itself down for all universes and creators until Scylla and Charybdis are sorted out and the balance between Anima and Animus is restored." Rust finished. "That's what we've figured out. Mostly me, that's what I've figured out, because apparently I'm the only one from my team interested in studying the runes and learning as much as I can. I believe this has been going on long before your team, long before my team, and that Creare has been in stalemate for lightyears. Which means I think all the teams who came here before us didn't make it out alive."

He looked between both of them, blue eyes flicking back and forth. "In other words, Create Space is broken."

"Oh, joy." Smokepaw sat down. "And I was starting to worry this was only a fun, straightforward adventure with cool powers and mystical runes. Hurray!"

"You guys were our only hope," Rust said suddenly. "We were hoping that when Creare reset and the next universe and the new creators arrived, they might stand a chance against Scylla and Charybdis and fixing this stinking place so we can actually get a new universe and get out of here. We were waiting and waiting for you guys. We arrived here, what, four, five months ago now? And we've been waiting at least a month since our old universe was destroyed. Here Rye and I were, praying upon praying to the Sept Lord that the new batch of creators would be from a universe where you guys would be insanely strong and you'd be able to beat the crap out of Scylla and Charybdis and fix everything, but we got the weakest of the weak! Weaker than us, even, and we're already pretty stinking weak! Yeah. You're dead. All of you."

"Was your team just the two of you?" Rosepaw asked. "Because there're four of us…if that helps."

"No, there were four of us…" Rye spoke up, glancing sideways at Rust.

"But then one died," Rust agreed. "A while ago, actually. Although I have no idea how long precisely. I know it was before the countdown ran out and we lost our old universe. Being trapped in this place has sure destroyed my faculties! Is it a week? A month? A year? Who knows! Not me. Oh well. Hahaha!"

"Yeah," Rye cut in. "And then the other is in jail."

"What's jail?" Rosepaw asked.

"Oh my Sept Lord, you are such an idiot." Rust gaped. "What kind of idiot doesn't know what JAIL IS!"

"Excuse me?" Rosepaw made an annoyed face.

"Help me, Rye. Give me oxygen. I can't believe we're surrounded by the most dumbfoundingly stupid morons to ever be conceived in any universe."

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY!" Smokepaw snarled suddenly. He didn't even mean to. It just came out of him.

"Yes," Rosepaw agreed heartily. "Is there a reason you guys are needlessly aggressive and cruel all the time?"

"Don't listen to him, he suffers from a rare disease called never knowing when to shut the hell up," Rye said.

Rosepaw sighed for a long time. Rust steamed, glaring at the ground. "Is there anything we can do to change this? This is so bleak." She mewed.

"Well…" Rye spoke now. There was something about her that was spooking Smokepaw out. She wasn't like any she-cat he knew. And there was something about her measured calculating gaze. "How long is your countdown on the dais?"

"Fourteen days," Rosepaw said. "Thirteen, now."

"…Fourteen?" Rust stammered. "It's fourteen? Seriously? Oh, you're dead."

"We had three months," Rye said.

"Moons?" Rosepaw asked. "Oh jeez."

"You at least have your old universe, don't you?" Rust asked.

"Uh…why would we have that?" Smokepaw returned. "What does that even mean? How do you 'have' a universe?"

"It's CRUCIAL!" Rust snapped. "One of the things Creare requires for making a new universe is that it needs your old universe – well, just the planet you lived on – to be deposited into the cylindrical opening on the dais before the countdown runs out and it gets destroyed and you miss the window to create a new one!"

"So the countdown is counting down to the destruction of our old universe?" Rosepaw asked.

"Yes!" Rust nodded. "And if you don't have everything else in place to make the new universe by then, the old one gets destroyed forever, and you can never use it to create a new one, and then you can never leave Creare, just like us. Without your old universe intact, you're out of luck. It's game over."

"I don't…" Rosepaw looked at Smokepaw. "I don't think we have it."

Rust sighed impatiently. "Well who in your team is the location creator?"

"I think…it's Jadepaw, right?" Smokepaw asked, looking at Rosepaw for clarification. "She can, like, teleport or something."

"Then she's the one who has it," Rust instructed.

"So what do we do?" Rosepaw asked.

He snorted loudly and shook his head in exasperation. "You better go get it."

"We don't know where she is," Smokepaw said. "We were out looking for her, and our time creator, or whatever, when you ambushed us and beat the living daylights out of us."

"I'm sure she's on Anima," Rust said, sounding bored. "If she's a location creator, that's where her spirit lives, so she's the princess of Anima, yay, great, and I bet Scylla already came and recruited her because that's what happened to our location creator, before he was murdered."

"What does Scylla want with her?" Rosepaw asked, fur standing on end.

"That's what we don't know!" Rust said. "I don't want to know, frankly, that's why we've been hiding out here on Creare, because you better believe Scylla's still out there looking for us, losing her mind that a couple of creators eluded her and are still hanging around even after Create Space was reset. But if Jadepaw's on Anima, and if your time creator is too, and if she has your old universe with her, she needs to GET OUT. Because, trust me, Scylla's never letting her and that thing out of there."

Smokepaw looked at Rosepaw. Rosepaw looked at Smokepaw. The silence stretched long. Rosepaw's blue eyes were carefully calculating, he could see the cogs turning in her mind. He had to admit, she was pretty intelligent. Pretty savvy. Or maybe that was just because she was morphing into a powerful cat psychic. As for him…

He imagined Jadepaw, on Anima, wherever that was, and her being with Scylla, whoever that was, and imagined her exuberant curiosity and excitement being squandered by the darkness and misery Rust had just laid out. And it was…

"Oh no." He groaned loudly.

"What?" Rosepaw asked.

"I have to go find her." Smokepaw sighed. "Both of them. Darn it."

Hi everyone, I hope all that exposition wasn't too confusing. As you've probably gleaned by now, this story does get a little heady with the worldbuilding, but if you're at all confused, just ask and I can explain! There'll be a lot more explained about the alternate universe cats, so don't worry if you're confused about them. Also, this chapter and the last are longer and denser than how most will be moving forward, just because of all the exposition. The rest will be simpler :).

Please review!

~Delaney