They made their way down the cliff, their destination being Twolegplace, or as East called it, the smooth-pelt nesting grounds.

"We'll be heading through some farms," warned East. "I know some mean cats there." Ember gave him a look of disbelief.

Kittypets were scorned in the Clan- never in front of the daylight warriors, of course, but scorned nonetheless.

"I'll believe it when I see it." East rolled his eyes.

"And you'll see it all right." They continued through the various pastures and barns, full of fat, freshly-killed mice.

With travel being so leisurely, Ember was able to mull on matters pressing her mind.

Should she try to find her Clan, or live her life as a loner with East, always traveling? She might find a mate someday, but would they be in or outside SkyClan?

If they wanted to join, would Leafstar let them? Maybe East would come, too. Her, her mate, and East.

East's voice startled Ember out of her thoughts.

"Ember? We've got a problem." In front of them was a 50 foot chain-link fence. Over, under or around, thought Ember.

She dug a shallow hole. The fence extended into the ground. It would take days to go around.

"Over." she said, voicing her notion. "That's the only way." East had been silent, observing her come up with a plan, but now he spoke.

"Do you really think we can climb that far?" he gestured to the pen.

"Yes," said Ember confidently. The first twenty feet were stimulating, the 30th exhausting, and the 40-50th positively torturous. And to top it all off, Ember took twice as long to climb, because of her injured paw-bone.

By the time they got down, the sun was three-quarters of the way across the sky, and they needed to find shelter.

"I know a place," said East, and picked his way across a corn field to an empty barn.

"This is it. One of my most deluxe hideaways," he said. "Enjoy at your own risk!"

"What?" asked Ember, confused. The barn looked dark and deserted to her.

"You might get too fat," he whispered. But it was not so. Three sleek shapes slinked out from adjacent hay bales.

"There are cats on our property." hissed one. "And we don't like cats, do we, Nightshade?" Nightshade shook her head.

"Not at all, Sumac."

As they came into the light, Ember could see that Nightshade was a blue-eyed, black she-cat, Sumac was a burly white she-cat, and the other one was a tall dark brown tom with green eyes.

"We-we don't want any trouble," whimpered East. Ember could see that he was not good in life-or-death situations.

"Oh, but we do," hissed the tom, and lunged at Ember.

"Run!" yowled Ember, as she was bowled over by a heavy brown body. It was too late, however, as Sumac gave him a good pummeling. Fighting, Ember wriggled out of the tom's grasp, then pulled East away from Sumac.

"Timber- get them!" yelled Nightshade, obviously the leader of the group.

But Ember and East didn't stop running until they had reached Twolegplace.

That was when they realized that they were hopelessly lost.