"Come on, Rusty!" Smudge yowled, running across the grass.

Rusty stopped. "I can't go any longer!" he heaved. He took deep breaths.

Smudge stopped and looked back, his copper eyes wide. His round face was contorted with disappointment. "Seems like I won the race," he commented, also breathing heavily.

"Shut up," Rusty mewed teasingly, smiling.

Both toms were silent for a long time, getting their breath back. They flopped on the grass together, their backs touching as they faced opposite ways. Soon you couldn't even hear their breathing. They just lay in complete and utter silence.

"I can't believe you're running away," Rusty murmured, his lazy smile disappearing to leave room for a frown.

"I don't want to be a house cat anymore, Rusty," Smudge told his good friend stubbornly. "Why do you think I've been making you race me? Why do you think I've been trying to hunt? I'm gonna be a wild cat."

"Where will you go?" Rusty asked quietly. "You'll be alone."

"You could come with me and help me find out," Smudge offered. He grunted as he pulled himself up into a sitting position.

"You're not serious," the other cat murmured. He sat up as well, wide-eyed. Dark green eyes linked with copper.

"What do you say, Rusty?" the mottled black-and-white cat asked, growing excited. He hopped to his feet, pacing. "Think about it! We could travel together, learning to hunt mice and fight big dogs. We could do everything we can't here!" He stopped and looked back. "We could be free."

"What gave you this idea?" Rusty questioned him, beginning to groom his ginger tabby fur. He was growing stressed and confused, and he needed something rhythmic to calm him. "About being free and leaving? We're happy here. We don't need to go anywhere."

"The rumors about the wild cats in the woods," Smudge responded. "You've heard them. They say that they eat anyone who dares trespass, and they are the size of a car. They have claws that will tear you open." He huffed. "All talk, if you ask me. The cats probably don't even exist.

"But it got me thinking: what if there are cats out there somewhere who hunt and don't have to rely on housefolk?" he continued. "They definitely exist. It isn't crazy to think about! We have claws for a reason. Wanna know my theory?"

"Sure," Rusty hesitantly responded. "What is it?"

"We were once wild, like… like mice, and squirrels, and deer are," Smudge meowed seriously. "But then housefolk took us and made us live with them. After so many generations, there are some cats with housefolk and some that couldn't even imagine it. We just so happened to be two of the former."

"So you're saying we could transition into the other type if we left," Rusty finished. His friend nodded. "Well, I couldn't begin to think about leaving! What would I do without Henry?"

"Henry is just a housefolk," Smudge told him. "I'm your friend. We've known each other for as long as either of us could remember. I knew you before you even lived with Henry. You'd abandon me for him?"

Rusty opened his mouth to respond, but the other tom shook his head. The bell on his collar jingled as he meowed, "No, I won't do that to you. You can choose what you want. I'm going no matter what, though." He turned and ran back in the direction of his nest.

Rusty watched him go. He couldn't leave Henry, but he couldn't just let Smudge go alone. I can't understand his fantasy about being free and whatever, he thought as his paws travelled across the grass in the direction of his own nest. We're already free. We're already happy. Why leave?

The next morning, Rusty woke up to tapping on the "sliding glass door", as Henry called it. Smudge was hitting it with a forepaw. He continued until his friend stood before him, half-asleep.

"I'm out of here," Smudge informed him. "Are you coming?"

Rusty had already thought his answer through. After taking a deep breath, he replied, "I'm sorry, but no. I belong here, Smudge. I won't follow you to somewhere strange and unknown. I'll miss you."

Smudge was quiet for a while. When he spoke again, it was, "I understand. I'll miss you too, Rusty." He tore the silver bell off of his green collar. He set it down. "This is for you. To remember me, you know? I won't need it; it'll only scare prey away."

"Do you ever know how to hunt?!" Rusty asked, growing angry. Angry that his only friend was leaving him. Angry that he was being left with a choice. Just angry.

"No, but I'll learn," Smudge replied sadly, seeing his friend's clear frustration with his departure. "I've spent five moons with my housefolk, Rusty. That's enough for me. I'm okay with that being not enough for you."

Smudge dipped his head solemnly, then turned and slowly walked away. He went into the woods beside Rusty's nest without looking back. The ginger tabby jumped onto a kitchen counter and pushed the partially open window up enough for him to run through. Once he was outside, he went to the other side of the clear door.

There lay the bell, part of it brown from the silver stuff wearing away. Rusty picked it up and held it in his teeth as he got back inside. He hid it in his soft gray bed, in a small piece of open fabric where the white filling was exposed.

Many nights he watched out every window that he could see the woods. He waited for his friend to reappear, maybe even apologize for being gone for so long. However, it never happened. A full moon and some days passed, yet he never came back.

One night Rusty was hunting. Funny. It was as if he were with Smudge, out in the wild. He didn't even have his blue collar around his neck. And look, there his bicolored friend was! He didn't wear his collar, either.

"Found a pheasant!" Smudge meowed cheerfully, his dark eyes bright. The bird was squeezed between his jaw and chest.

"You mouse-brain, you scared my squirrel away!" Rusty told him, smiling. He stood up straight to look at the pheasant. "Lucky catch," he complimented. "Everyone's gonna fight over it."

"No need," Smudge snorted. "This will feed multiple cats."

Rusty stopped smiling as he slowly realized something: this wasn't real. It was just a dream. Smudge was probably dead by now, his body being eaten by scavengers. He opened his mouth to tell the dream-Smudge that, but the cat caught on fire. He gasped and jumped back.

"What's wrong?" dream-Smudge asked. "You act like you've seen our ancestors." He didn't seem bothered or even notice that his flesh was being eaten by the flames.

"You're… you're…" Rusty stuttered, frozen with fear. His vision went black as he fainted. There was only one thing he heard other than crackling flames or a worried dream-Smudge.

"Fire will save the Clans."

This is a complete rewrite, so that means that some things (like Smudge's personality) will be different. But I'll still keep the most important things (Bluestar giving up her kits, Tigerclaw being evil). And some things I just like too much to get rid of.

thanks for reading i guess.