CHAPTER 12
Gorsenose shook a bunch of bramble off his fur and Deerfoot gave an amused purr. "If we keep falling into brambles at this rate, we'll never be out of the forest!" the young tom exclaimed.
The leader shook his head. "It's quite a long way out of the forest, and from there to the city. That's why I organized a deadline of one month."
"How long is the estimation by the time we reach the city?" Fluffyfur asked, her white, fluffy tail curling around her lover.
"Today's March 4th, isn't it?" the leader asked.
Earlflight and Fluffyfur nodded.
"Let me think..." the leader thought as he did some calculations in his head. "March 13th. We'll reach the city by then."
"That's a long time!" Gorsenose whined.
"Not when you have friends," Fluffyfur mentioned, smiling as she dug her nose into the leader's pelt.
The leader gave a small chuckle. "Fluffyfur, you don't need to show it off to everybody."
Fluffyfur gave a small oops and pulled away from the leader. The leader nodded contentedly and continued traveling across the ground. The ground was still grassy underpaw, and white clouds clouded the beautiful blue sky. The river had turned by now, so no longer was it guiding them. Spruce and beech trees were around them, guarding the end of the forest. It was a little more than middday, and the sun was quite low in the sky.
"Dodododododo," Gorsenose mumbled, stones rolling under his paws. "Lalalalalala..."
The leader flashed an exasperated glance at the gray tom. "You don't need to have everybody know your boredom!"
"Sorry," Gorsenose meowed. He turned over to Deerfoot. "What's gotten into his fur?"
"Exasperation, probably," Deerfoot answered. "We're all bored. It's as if this journey wasn't as fun as we thought it'd be."
Earlflight's stomach began to rumble. "I'm hungry!" she wailed.
The leader felt a growl rise in his throat. "Fine, we'll hunt," the leader growled. "Meet me back here when you're done." The cats nodded and rushed off into the forest, as the leader let his senses reach. He sniffed a vole, and tracked it to a tree, where it was digging a burrow. The leader began to sneak up on it. His eyes widened and he started to waggle his rump.
"Hello!"
The vole ran into his burrow.
"Mouse-dung!" the leader growled. "Who is it now?" The leader turned around to see a brown-colored tom sitting on his fence. "Who are you?" the leader growled.
"I'm Yodelie," the tom answered happily. "Who're you?"
"The leader," the leader meowed regrettably. "I was trying to catch a vole there! Couldn't you see me?"
"Soh-ree," Yodelie meowed, rolling his eyes. "I just got so excited at seeing a cat actually hunt! Where are you going?"
"Where are we going," the leader corrected. "I've got four other cats with me, and we're prepared for a fight."
"Well, then where are they going?" Yodelie repeated.
"To the city," the leader answered.
Yodelie's eyes widened in surprise. "The city?" he asked. "Oh, I know a shortcut to there! I could help you, if you want."
"No, thanks." The leader shook his pelt. "We're perfectly fine on our own. I've already got cats nagging me."
Yodelie nodded. "Well, I could just help you find a quicker way there, and then go back home. What day is it today?"
"March 4th," the leader answered.
"And when do you plan to get back?" Yodelie asked.
"April 4th," the leader replied, thinking of why he was revealing all this information to a kittypet. Then again, Fluffyfur was a kittypet when I first met her.
"With the way I know, you'll be coming back on March 26th," Yodelie replied. "That's nine days before you should come back."
"Thanks, but I've already revealed enough. We can manage on our own." The leader waved his tail and was about to pad away when Yodelie interrupted again.
"I'm also good at jumping," Yodelie protested. "Pretty pretty please can I come with you?"
The leader thought for a moment. "Oh, fine," he meowed regrettably. "But the rest of my team needs to agree."
Yodelie nodded. "Okie-dokie!"
The leader padded away from the kittypet's fence back to where they had met up. Gorsenose had two mice dangling from his jaws, Deerfoot had a squirrel, Earlflight had a vole, and Fluffyfur had a thrush. The leader nodded. "Good job. Lay it down here." He pointed with his tail towards a grassy spot in the middle of the field.
As the cats placed their prey there, the leader looked at them, and they looked at him. "While I was hunting, I met a kittypet named Yodelie. He knows a quicker way to the city, that will get us back home by March 26th instead of April 4th. Plus, he's a good jumper. I've decided that he should come with us. Does anyone disagree?"
No one responded. Finally, everyone nodded their heads. "We need to get home quick, plus we might need to jump out in the city," Gorsenose mentioned.
"That's the problem," the leader responded. "He's only leading us up to the city, and not any farther."
"Perhaps we could persuade him to go farther when that time comes." Earlflight ended the conversation quickly. "For now, let's call him over."
The leader nodded contentedly and ran off into the forest where he had been hunting the mouse. "Yodelie!" he called. "You can come!"
"Hooray!" Yodelie meowed, leaping off his fence and racing through the forest towards the group of cats. "So, so, are we leaving yet? I can show you the shortcut!"
"Is it dangerous?" Fluffyfur asked.
"It's only a short cut through my housefolk's houses," Yodelie answered, pointing his tail towards the Twolegplace. "It's risky, but it's quick."
"Do you mean the Twolegplace with the pine trees and rocks?" Earlflight asked.
"Yep," Yodelie mewed.
"That's where the Marshmellows live," the leader cut in. "Pointedpelt, Brownwing, Toto, all of them. We'll have to risk sneaking through there, and we have to be unseen if we want to get through."
The cats were silent for a moment. Then Gorsenose gulped. "It's a risk we have to take."
"More cats, or no cats at all," the leader argued.
"We need to get there quick!" Gorsenose protected.
"We don't want the Marshmellows to attack us!" the leader defended.
"Perhaps we could try sneaking atop the fences and up the roofs," Deerfoot suggested.
"Good idea." Fluffyfur nodded. "The leader, do you agree."
There was silence. Every cat was staring at the leader. Then he nodded. "We're going through the Twolegplace. Like Gorsenose said, it's a risk we have to take. We just need to get to this city. We need to."