Mama was pacing anxiously and had just turned around again when she noticed the two light gray animals crossing the field, moving slowly towards the pagoda. The sky was gradually becoming darker and the rain had not let up, so it was impossible to confirm what she wanted to believe. Not wishing to leave the shelter of the pagoda, or startle potentially dangerous creatures; she lingered underneath the very perimeter of the roof. Leisurely and painstakingly, they trekked through the wet grass; finally drawing near enough that they could recognize each other.

Baba came to stand beside her, hurrying out into the rain when he could distinguish the arrivals. Finding herself smiling, Mama retreated into the center of the pagoda, where only the wind could reach her; and she watched as her mate and in-laws entered.

"Yao-Lin," she said gracefully. "Hui-An, how nice it is to see you again."

"You came back!" Dongwa happily voiced the obvious.

"Why are you here?" Mama asked.

Yeh-Yeh sighed as he sat on the floor. "Hmm, well, I was just not able to enjoy my home anymore. I guess a big reason is that Lord Vu's calligraphers are very controlling."

"And we missed the laughter of our loved ones," Nai-Nai concluded. "We had to salvage what we could."

"You may have noticed Sagwa's gone," Dongwa began coldly, but Nai-Nai shook her head.

"No, she is the reason we were able to find you."

"She said she had something to take care of," Yeh-Yeh intercepted, "And that we could find her in the alleyway."

"Well, then? What are we waiting for?" Baba asked, and as they moved towards the four steps leading to the grass it was impossible to overlook that Dongwa was hanging back. Baba turned to look at his eldest. "Ah, that's what."

"You go on ahead. I'll catch up," he announced.

Hun-Hun weaved her way through as the cats traipsed down the stairs, and approached Dongwa. "You should come with us."

"You're not staying here?"

"You are?" she fired back. "I thought you were going to catch up."

He gave a nearly imperceptible sigh. "I don't think I'm ready to see her again."

"How can you say that? She's family."

"But she's...moody!" he finally blurted.

Hun-Hun almost smiled at his foolishness. "She gets attacked by a raging bull and says she's okay, and you can't handle a little hostility?"

"Hun-Hun, she said I didn't care about Sheegwa."

"Yes, Dongwa, I was there. Don't punish your parents because of what Sagwa said to you."

Dongwa raised his brows at her. "So that's what you think. I've been meaning to get your opinion."

"Then let me tell you," Hun-Hun said, as she walked closer to him. She circled his body as she gave him an appraising glance. "You still have one sister who is alive, who you can go talk to right now, and you're taking it for granted. You have no idea how lucky you are."

"Were, Hun-Hun, were. I'm not a cat of privilege anymore."

"Family is not a privilege, Dongwa. It's an opportunity. Don't waste it."

"Fine," Dongwa grumbled, standing up. "But if you're still going to join my family, I'd like to hear about yours."

"I don't have family."

"What?"

They stepped out into the steady rain, and both of them looked down, effectively breaking eye contact. "I grew up alone," she told him. "Everything your parents taught you, I taught myself. Well, except calligraphy, of course," she added with a chuckle. "And, well, I met other cats who also had nothing."

"The alley cats."

Hun-Hun nodded as they stepped onto the grass. "We kept running into each other. So it made the most sense to live in the same spot. We agreed we'd always have each other's backs."

Dongwa recalled being a spoiled palace cat since birth. No wonder the guys had hated him.

"And so they kind of became my family," she told him.

"Hm. I guess we both have family in the alley. Except yours will be happy to see you," he added in a grumble.

"So will yours. I promise."

Together, they ran to catch up to the rest of their clan.


Upon reaching the alley later that day, the line shifted into single file and they squeezed through the elaborate design of the gate. Last in line, Dongwa happened to look down and notice that his message to Sheegwa was laying face-down on the wet ground, and he meandered offcourse to upright the board and brush it clean with a wet paw.

"Dongwa?" Mama called from the alley.

"I'm coming," he called back, and leaned the board securely against the alley wall, kicking some dirt around the bottom in an attempt to hold it in place. Then he walked to the gate and crawled through the intricate bars to join his family. Sagwa was not among them. Jet-Jet was; although keeping in mind he had discontinued their relationship, Dongwa didn't think he still counted as family...

"Nah, I haven't seen her since yesterday," Jet-Jet was saying, and his eyes shifted to Dongwa as the latter approached.

"All I know is, we haven't eaten yet," Hun-Hun reminded them. "I'll go get dinner."

Dongwa's stomach rolled as he remembered the ancestor in the Magistrate's pond, and he wondered just how many times he had eaten a relative. Unless a human brought them home, the numbers could only climb.

Hun-Hun took off, and Jet-Jet decided to turn around and follow her without another word to the Miaos. Obviously breaking up with Sagwa hadn't been something he had wanted to do. But why did Dongwa care?

"I wonder what's keeping her," Baba mused.

"It must be important, if she didn't go with you," Mama told her in-laws.

Dongwa scoffed. "Suuure. Nobody whose name actually has 'silly' in it does something that's not important." He turned to face the gate and saw Sagwa sitting right in his path. "Oh, uh," he said eloquently.

"You mean not important like playing tag?" she asked, and her comment made her parents and grandparents turn around.

Dongwa rolled his eyes. "The only reason I'm going to dignify that with a response is to apologize for almost drowning you."

"You did," she said curtly, tail flipping in provocation.

Well, she certainly didn't seem happy to see him. Dongwa's eyes narrowed. At least Hun-Hun had been right about one thing; he had been taking Sagwa for granted. But she was doing the same.

A group of alley cats come together and look out for one another; and a brother and sister who grew up in the same house couldn't even get along. It really didn't seem fair.

He backed away from her, relenting. "Fine," he said. "I'm going to leave that apology with you. If you decide to take it, I'll be with Hun-Hun." He turned around and ran off.

Mama looked at her in-laws, who observed the situation with quiet disapproval. She looked back at Sagwa with narrow eyes and a twitching tail, clearly displaying her exasperation. "That does it. I have had enough!" she declared. She marched forward and raised a paw, giving Sagwa a push in the direction of her brother. "You will both deliver the apology you owe, and that's final!"

When Sagwa tried shaking her away, Mama snagged Sagwa by the ear and began pulling her towards the water.

"Ouch! Mama, please!"

Mama let go. "You can do it the easy way...or my way."

"Okay! I'm going." Sagwa turned around and walked dejectedly towards the water, and Mama sauntered after her; determined to make it happen.

"Is it just me, or is she changing?" Yeh-Yeh asked into the awkward silence.

"I hope so," Baba answered, "Otherwise we are very unaware of our surroundings, and that...cannot bode well for strays."

"Well..." Nai-Nai said. "Look on the bright side."

"Which is?"

"The only creatures that can fit through the gate are ones we can handle."

Baba couldn't deny the truth in his mother's words; and despite missing his little girl, he began to feel safer...

...But he had been tricked by a sense of security before. His eyes narrowed as he moved lethargically to the stacked boxes and crawled into the nearest one. His thoughts barely had the time to shift from his youngest child to the fact that there weren't enough boxes for everyone before he fell into sleep.


That night, as Jet-Jet got up to feast on the bounty of fish, he was distracted by the sound that came to him on the breeze. Following his ears, he limped around the alley wall and looked out across the sea. But his ears had deceived him, for all was quiet. He turned and was beginning to return home when the noise began again, this time coming from his left. With the speed of a veteran stray, he snapped his head around.

It was as if the wind had learned how to speak...

No, that wasn't what it was. And Jet-Jet's eyes went wide as he realized what he was listening to.

Above the peaceful chorus of chirping crickets, Sheegwa's name floated through the grass blades.

Then someone else spoke. "What are you doing?"

Jet-Jet turned to look at Sagwa. "Come here. Listen."

"Listen to what?" she asked, as she walked. But he was quiet, letting the proof be her answer. They sat down together, their bodies touching; and she smiled, tail waving serenely as she listened to the crickets raise awareness of her lost sister. And, as she had witnessed her parents do in an act of intimacy, her tail curled around his.

"That's amazing," she whispered. "I guess every animal knows now."

"You're gonna find her."

Sagwa leaned more heavily into him, comforted by his words and his presence. She tilted her head up at him, inquisitively. "So...that avalanche you were in," she began. "Was that real?"

His ears flattened as he recalled the fear of being on a moving hill. "Yeah. I...thought I saw Sheegwa, so I ran down a cliff. Stupid," he mumbled.

"No, I'm impressed! I can't believe you would do that."

"I'll do it again if I gotta."

She smiled into his eyes. "Were you always this good?" she asked. Her question was intended to be rhetorical, but the way Jet-Jet was looking at her made her stomach clench.

He finally shook his head. "No."

Her smile may have died, but her love for him never faltered. She placed her paw on his, content to remain by his side.