Thank you for the lovely reviews! Hopefully, you won't be disappointed by this chapter ;). More will be revealed in time, so stick around!

Also, just a note that this will have a pretty irregular update schedule. I'll try to post new chapters as regularly as possible, but my creative drive waxes and wanes, so it'll probably be anywhere from 1-7 days between chapters. Sorry for the inconvenience ^^'

CHAPTER 1

With a startled yelp, Tiki awakened from her short-lived nap to find claws pricking her pelt. Jumping up, she automatically crouched and unsheathed her claws only to see Taika rolling on his back in laughter in front of her, claws out. She scoffed at him and rolled her eyes.

"Really, Taika? That was necessary?" Tiki grumbled, lying back down on the bed and laying her tail over her nose with an angry huff. Taika finally finished his fit of laughter and grinned at his sister.

"Yes," he said. "Duh. You looked ridiculous, and your tail was twitching. I had to catch it."

Sometimes Tiki really hated his prey drive. He was as bad as Mishka. "Well, now I'm going to be annoyed all day. You did this to yourself." Tiki smiled to herself in satisfaction when she saw his grin drop. She gave up on returning to sleep and stretched with a yawn, her tail curling up behind her. She leaped down from the soft surface and shook out her paw.

"Aw, come on, Tiki!" Taika complained, following her down. His brown tail curled behind him in a half-arch, flicking at the tip. "You can't just give me the cold shoulder all day. All I did was—"

"Annoy me relentlessly, depriving me of the sleep I need to be in a good mood?" Tiki quipped, fixing her brother with a stare. "Yeah." Taika grumbled but muttered his surrender, and Tiki moved on ahead of him, flicking him in the face with her tail. He sputtered, and Tiki chuckled, in a better mood now that she had annoyed him a little.

"So Tiki," Taika said, catching up to her. "Guess what I found while I was outside yesterday?"

"What?" Tiki asked, humoring him as she walked over to her food bowl. "Another moose? You know they're around, right?"

"Nah, but you still can't convince me they're not aliens," Taika argued, sitting down next to her. "Anyway, I scented another cat, and it wasn't Feltze. It smelled like the forest."

Tiki paused in her meal, looking up at her brother. "Another cat? Smelled like the forest? What are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that I scented another cat that didn't smell familiar. It smelled like it had been living out in the forest this whole time," Taika explained. "And it had other scents on it like it lived in a group. I'm thinking there's a group of cats living somewhere in the mountains."

"Taika, that's ridiculous. No cat can survive in the winter here. It's too cold. How can a group living in the middle of nowhere expect to do what a single cat can't?" Tiki resumed eating, rolling her eyes at her brother.

"It's spring, Tiki. And I've never smelled these cats before. It's totally possible that they live here now!" Taika said, groaning. "Come on. I'll even let you smell 'em."

"I'm not going all the way into the middle of the mountains just to look for a ghost, Taika," Tiki grumbled, walking out of the pantry. Behind her, Taika simply sat and looked at her as she walked away, flicking her tail.

A few hours later, Tiki was sitting on the windowsill in the living room, looking out the window. It was raining, and the raindrops were making trails down the glass pane, catching Tiki's lime-green gaze. As she looked out into the night, she could faintly see the lights of Quarry Village piercing the fog.

"Hey, Tiki!" a feminine voice said from behind her. Tiki was jolted out of her thoughts, and she turned around, offering a smile.

"Hi, Mishka," Tiki said to the fluffy blonde Malamute, who was looking up at her, wagging her tail. "What's up?"

"Well, I was looking for Taika, and then I saw the moose," said Mishka quietly. "It was so cool! Anyway, I came looking for you 'cause I can't find him. He said he had a surprise earlier and that I had to wait to tell you, but I couldn't keep it a secret anymore, so I came to tell you!"

Tiki chuckled at the hyper dog. "Alright. Did you find anything interesting while you were outside?"

"A deer!"

As Mishka started salivating, Tiki rolled her eyes. "Okay. See you in a bit." She jumped down from the windowsill and walked over to the stairs, and stepping up, she jogged to the upper floor. When she got to the hallway, she walked down, looking around.

"Taika? You around?" Tiki called. She jumped when Taika's voice came loudly from the laundry room.

"In here, Tiki!"

Tiki turned around and sat down on the floor, raising an eyebrow. "You're not planning anything, are you?" Tiki asked suspiciously, wondering what he was doing in there.

"What? No! I'm just grooming!" Taika's voice argued from the open doorway. Tiki sighed.

"Yeah, sure. You about done in there?" she asked impatiently. Hearing Taika's 'proper' voice answer her, she audibly groaned.

"Can't rush perfection, Tiki!"

Tiki sat down outside the laundry room door, waiting for Taika. For all of his crudeness, her brother was a maniac when it came to cleanliness. She wasn't even that vain, for goodness's sake.

"So, did you need something?" Taika asked, finally exiting the laundry room, still licking a particularly troubling cowlick on his chest fur.

"No, just haven't seen you all day," Tiki replied, swatting him over the head with her tail. "Jerk. Mishka said you had a surprise, but then again, it is Mishka, and she found a deer. Somehow I doubt you actually have anything to surprise me with."

Taika playfully growled at her, flicking his left ear. He led the two into the nearest room, and Taika hopped up onto the bed, turning around to face Tiki once he was stable. She followed him up, puffing as her soft muscles contracted.

"Well, you're right and wrong. I don't have a surprise for you, but I have something that will surprise you, so sit down and pay attention," Taika said, sticking his tongue out at Tiki, who had walked over to the window. She scoffed incredulously at him before pointedly sitting down. "I found more evidence that there is a group of cats up in the mountains."

Tiki rolled her eyes. "What's this evidence? A scent that's probably just the next-door neighbor's new housecat?"

Taika shook his head excitedly. "Three of them. In the same place, at the same time."

"I—what?"

"I'm going looking for them," Taika said brashly, sitting straight up and puffing out his chest. "This could be my one chance to experience total freedom!"

Tiki gaped at him. "Taika, are you listening to yourself? You don't know that they are even there, and there are all sorts of dangers in the mountains! You could die for nothing!" Tiki dropped her voice to a whisper. "I might never see you again."

Taika smiled sympathetically at his sister, laying his tail across her shoulders. "Hey. I'm not saying I'm leaving you behind."

Tiki was becoming increasingly wary. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You can come with me if you want," Taika offered. Tiki glared at him.

"I'm an overweight housecat, Taika," Tiki seethed. "How the heck am I supposed to survive in the woods for crying out loud?"

"You have me," Taika said firmly, and all the fight seemed to go out of Tiki. Her ears drooped, and she curled her tail around her paws protectively. Twitching her ear, she looked up.

"I can't just leave everyone, Taika," Tiki sighed, the corners of her mouth twitching downward. "What about Mishka and our people? They'd be devastated if not just one, but two of their companions up and left."

"I—" Taika sighed. "Tiki, you don't have to come. I'm sorry for forcing you, this is just something I really feel like I have to do."

Tiki appeared to be in deep thought for a moment before snapping her head up. "Taika, where you go, I go," Tiki said firmly, green eyes blazing. "I will follow you to the ends of the earth."