Chapter 2

Tiki stood in front of her house, green eyes looking up to the heavens, tail twitching next to her. Occasionally, she would look back at the closed door, and her brow would furrow, and then she would turn away again. Across the drive from her was the field, green and young, and the path to total freedom. The notion scared her a little bit, and she wouldn't dream of going on her own.

"Tiki?" She heard Taika calling from behind her, and she turned her head slightly so she could see her brother in her peripheral vision. "Are you ready?" Taika walked up so that he was next to Tiki and looked at her.

"As I'll ever be," Tiki responded, sighing, her ear twitching. She was prepared to go, yes, but in no way was she ready, and she'd never be eager to leave like Taika.

Taika's features softened considerably. "You don't have to go, Tiki. It's not too late to change your mind. I won't hold it against you."

"You know I'm coming, Taika. Don't try to change my mind."

Taika sighed and then smiled half-heartedly. "Alright. Come on, we're wasting daylight." Tiki looked up again; the sun had been creeping steadily towards the western horizon, and Taika had a point. It was better to travel in the daytime.

Tiki inhaled sharply, letting the warm sunlight wash over her black pelt as she turned around to look at her home. "I'll...I'll be there in a minute," Tiki murmured. "I'd just like to say goodbye."

Taika nodded and walked on, stopping just before the drive and sniffing the air. Tiki lay down in the grass, which was still a little damp from morning dew, and looked at the place she'd lived in for ages. She could still remember when she first saw the house; it was after that nerve-wracking experience of flying, and leaving what she had known in that foggy place.

"Bye," she murmured to the house, and to everyone in it, because she'd likely never see them again. Tiki got up, walked to the house's facade, and touched her house to it, the wind ruffling her black fur from the back. She thought she heard a muffled "Tiki!" on the breeze, and she reluctantly turned away, giving one final glance back at her home before walking away for good.

The moment that she stepped onto the black, cracked asphalt of the drive, Tiki knew that she couldn't turn back. It was her time. She was going.

"Alright," Taika chirped once she had stopped next to him, "let's get this show on the road. We're going to head up the trail, then take a left, and we'll go down that way."

Tiki had no idea what he was talking about, but she figured he knew what he was doing, so she shrugged and followed him as they walked up the drive. It was pretty steep, and rather patchy, but it ended at the third and final house—there were only three houses on the tiny drive—and they weren't going that way, so Tiki didn't worry about her claws getting dulled.

Taika led her left at the top onto an even more cracked driveway with boulders lining one side of it, and beyond them, the forest. It was green, but a bright kind of green, because the snow had only just melted and it was new-spring. On the other side lay the field across from her house, the one that always was bright green, and then dull green, and then yellow, that Taika complained was full of cockleburrs.

The driveway curved left as they walked along, and soon they had reached the "trail", as Taika had called it. Next to where cracked asphalt turned into dirt was a stake, and atop it sat a rubber penguin. Tiki chuckled, because it was one of her people who had done that.

"So, Taika," Tiki said conversationally to her brother, who looked over at her inquisitively, "where are these cats?"

Taika shrugged. "I dunno. I'm just following the scent I picked up. Signs point to somewhere between Ecker and the next hill over—maybe that canyon?" He gestured with his tail to somewhere approximately southwest of their current position. Tiki rolled her eyes.

"'No Plan Taika' strikes again," Tiki deadpanned, nudging him in the shoulder. He was left spluttering as Tiki walked up the trail between the clumps of forest.

"Hey! That was one time," Taika grumbled. Tiki leveled him with a stare.

"Uh-huh," she said sarcastically. "Remind me how many times you've endeavored to 'defend' your territory, not thinking about the consequences of your decisions, and come back scratched up?"

"Yeah, well—oh my gosh, look! A bird!" Taika screeched. Tiki whirled around, gaze darting frantically all over the canopy.

"Where? Where?" Tiki said hysterically, already crouching. Taika held his focused expression for a moment more before collapsing, rolling around on the ground, and laughing. Tiki sat down frustratedly, looking at Taika with real annoyance on her face.

"I can't believe you fell for that!" Taika snickered before catching wind of Tiki's mood, his laughing expression turning to a hesitant one. "Uh, it was just a joke! You don't have to take it so seriou—"

Tiki pounced on him with a grin, flipping her brother over onto his back with a loud huff as he hit the ground. She pinned his paws down and looked down at him with an unreadable expression. She leaned into his face and hissed, "Don't take it so seriously."

With that, Tiki got up, a self-satisfied smirk on her face. Taika groaned in frustration as he was once again one-upped by his sister. "Let's just keep going. We have a lot of ground to cover, and—" Taika stopped. He warily stepped forward, his nose in the air.

"Taika? What's going on?" Tiki started to ask, but Taika's tail in her face stopped her speech. He twitched his ear back at her, warning her to be quiet. After a moment, Taika stepped back quietly.

"We're here," he uttered quietly. "This is a scent marker," he continued, gesturing to the massive aspen that he had been stopped next to. "There are at least ten different scents on that thing. We're in their territory."

Tiki's eyes widened considerably. I didn't think they'd have an organized territory like Taika, and I know how he gets when defending his… "Maybe we should turn back," she suggested nervously. "I don't want to get into a fight."

"Tiki, we're so close," Taika hissed, looking around wildly. "They're here, I can feel it."

Tiki stepped back worriedly. "Taika, you're scaring me."

"Don't you feel it?" he said, suddenly, in a rather composed manner compared to his earlier speech. "The pull?"

Tiki blinked and considered his words. The pull. She had felt something when she stepped out onto the rough tarmac of the drive, and been out there for the first time. Now that Tiki thought about it, there was something pulling her to this group of cats. How else could she have agreed to follow Taika so easily? He may have been her brother, but he was in no way experienced in taking care of himself, let alone both of them.

"I do," Tiki said slowly. "I do feel it."

"Halt!" A voice suddenly surrounded them, echoing off the trees, and Tiki whimpered and crouched behind Taika, who had lifted his paw, claws outstretched.

A pitch-black tom with a vibrant white chest bounded out from the brush surrounding the two cats, his green eyes glinting dangerously. The scar over his eye only served to increase his intimidation factor, and Tiki felt even Taika shiver a little.

"Who are you, and what are you doing this deep in TreeClan territory?"