Thank you to all the support you gave me last chapter! *hugs* You're the best!

QLKwriter: I agree, cool beans wouldn't taste so good... I'm glad you love it! ^^ I'll definitely continue it, don't worry! Thanks!

Aspen's Soul in Night's Wish: Thanks! :) I'm really glad you like it! Here's the next chapter for you, hope you like it as much!

ShadowHawk540-2: I'm glad you're happy again! ^^ So am I! I have a story to write I'm good. Thanks so much!

Cosmicjade: Thank you so much for reading my story! I'm glad you like it, here's the next chapter! ^^

Silverkitty16: Thank you! :) I actually managed to get my homework done after about 6 or 7 hours of work, so I decided to spend tonight writing. Good luck on your own story! And I think I get what you mean, I absolutely love Ivy and Rowan and they're only one (well now two) chapter(s) in... :P

kirani100: Thanks a million for reading my story! ^^ Glad you think it's interesting!

Willowdream of ForestClan: Mother and father will be revealed eventually... glad it's not too obvious yet. ^^ Thank you!

Leopardstar2002: Haha, thanks! I sure hope it will too!

Rowankit took off around the corner, pounding toward the Thunderpath beyond. I followed as best I could, squinting to focus on his dark ginger fur. If only my vision would clear up, then maybe I could lead the way for once. Finally, we emerged into the sunlight beyond the alley, scooting instinctively into the shadows to hide from the constant stream of Monsters.

We started down the side-path, but I'd only taken two steps before a huge Monster roared past, buffeting my black and white fur with not only wind, but also spray from a dirty puddle left over from last night's rainstorm. I shrank away from the cold droplets, quickly licking any spot I felt wetness splatter to dry myself off.

Up ahead, Rowankit bounded alongside a side-path puddle, pausing momentarily to lap up a few mouthfuls. Well if Rowankit thought they were clear enough to drink out of, I should be able to catch a quick drink too, and while I was there I might as well check my reflection to see how much mud was left in my fur. Bounding over to the same spot Rowankit had just vacated, I peered into the shadow-darkened water.

It wasn't that bad, I supposed. There were a few spots of mud on my cheeks and my forehead, but at least my ears looked fine. It was just my luck, I supposed, that the mud had landed everywhere except my black ears, where they would be virtually invisible. Though I supposed my tail had gotten a little muddy, too, so it couldn't be that black fur repelled mud.

Before I began lapping I leaned closer to the water, squinting, trying to make out my eye color. Nope, they hadn't changed from their teal color. I sighed; it looked like I'd have to deal with blurry vision for a while longer.

Great.

As I straightened up, swiping my tongue around my lips to catch any stray droplets clinging to my chin, I heard Rowankit's voice calling back to me. "Ivykit, come on! What's holding you up?" He waited at the end of the side-path, tail twitching impatiently.

"Coming!" I bounded to join him. "I had to wash off my fur. It got muddy."

Rowankit rolled his eyes. "She-cats," he muttered.

"Hey, I had to take a drink too!" I complained, ramming him with my shoulder. "Which I happened to have noticed you did too, so drinking can't just be a she-cat thing."

Rowankit didn't reply. We continued on in relative silence, darting along the edges of Twoleg dens, dodging Twoleg kits and their reaching, grabbing, grubby paws. Thalia had warned us about them. They snatched up kits like us and carried them home to be treated like kittypets and cooped up inside a den all day, every day, for the rest of our lives. I shivered just thinking of it. What kind of cat would want that life?

"How much farther?" I asked, slinking past a hard-edged den entrance.

Rowankit peered past a long line of Monsters. "Not far," he muttered. "Not too far."

"You've been saying that for the past few Thunderpaths," I grumbled, clawing at a few loose stones on the ground.

"Yeah, but this'll be the last time," he promised, his voice growing louder with excitement. "Look! There it is!"

I lifted my chin, peering over his back. After a few moments of searching I saw the blurred outline of a tall, pale gray structure. I gulped. "We… we're going to climb that?"

"Sure, why not?" Rowankit shrugged. Then, smirking playfully, added, "You aren't scared, are you?"

"No," I replied automatically. "It's just… well, it's so big!"

"You just said you weren't scared," Rowankit reminded me. He flicked his tail high into the air, setting off straight for it, glancing over his shoulder with a grin. "Coming?" Swallowing hard, I followed.

As we drew nearer, random details popped out at me. There, along the bottom, stood a long row of windows, the clear stuff inside broken. I could even spot the glimmer of reflected sun in the shards lying on the ground. There, near the middle, opened a gaping hole in the gray stone, chunks of debris crowding the side of the structure directly beneath. There, just above that opening, another hole opened where a twisted strip of metal had plunged through. And there, at the top, a square, raggedy-looking pelt fluttered weakly in the breeze.

My heart skipped a beat—if I could see all that, maybe my eyes were almost finished changing color! I stared around for a puddle to look into before realizing I'd just seen my reflection, and my eyes were still aqua. Fox dung.

"I dare you to climb all the way up to that pelt," Rowanpaw whispered, pausing at the base of the broken-down Twoleg den.

Again, I gulped. All the way to the top?

Rowankit watched me shrewdly. When I didn't move he shrugged again. "I guess you're not impulsive enough for something like this," he meowed casually. "Guess that's okay, not everyone's the same. Only tonight I get to tell Thalia just how much more impulsive I was today."

I leaped to his side immediately. "I'm coming too," I decided, trying to keep the quaver out of my voice. "I'm definitely impulsive enough for a… a simple thing like this! We can tell Thalia together!"

If Rowankit picked up on my hesitation he didn't mention it. Grinning broadly, he bounded forward, beckoning to me with his tail. "Great!" he exclaimed. "I was hoping you wouldn't make me climb this thing alone."

Any other time I would have teased Rowankit for being a coward. But this time I realized I was probably more scared than him. For one thing, he wasn't watching his paws to make sure his shaking knees didn't send him tumbling over the edge of the rock he'd just surmounted.

Rowankit led the way up the rubble heap to a smashed window. As I followed, I couldn't help glaring enviously at his sure-footed leaps. How could he be so confident?

"In we go!" he sang cheerfully, hopping neatly through the dusty window. After taking a deep breath and casting one final glance around at the mess of Thunderpaths, Twolegs, Monsters, and solid, not broken-down Twoleg dens, I leaped after him. No, it didn't matter that I'd much prefer to be dodging Twoleg kits and mud splatters from Monsters. Thalia said to stick with Rowankit, so I needed to stick with Rowankit. No matter what.

I'd never been inside a Twoleg den before. Thalia had strictly forbidden it, and I could see why; the dust was enough to make any cat sneeze to death. I imagined myself staggering out of this den, dust turning my black ears and tail white like the rest of my body, and collapsing beside the Thunderpath, sneezing incessantly the whole time.

I shook my head vigorously. Now was not the time to get distracted. Peering around the inside of the Twoleg den, I tried to make sense of my surroundings. Several lumpy masses, colored gray from dust, stood smushed together in a corner. In the center, a broken-down staircase wound upward. Everything was coated with about a tail-length of dust.

"There's our way up," Rowankit whispered. He leaped through the thick dust like it was mist, creating a path toward the damp-looking stairs. I followed in his wake, half-expecting some terrifying creature to leap out from behind the pile of Twoleg objects. Maybe a dog had claimed this spot for a den. Would it chase us into a dead end like in Toby's story?

We scrambled onto the first step together. Immediately, the wood sank beneath our weight. I dug in my claws, but luckily it didn't break. I wondered if there was anything below the staircase. Like maybe a dog.

"Maybe we should… stand on different steps," Rowankit suggested, and for the first time I thought I detected a quaver in his voice. Was he actually as scared as me? I didn't know whether I was glad of it or not.

"O… okay," I meowed, trying to sound brave. Rowankit eased himself back down onto the floor and I suddenly realized he wasn't going to be beside me anymore. But… so what? It wasn't like I was going to fall or anything, right? I took a step forward, pulling myself onto the next stair.

The wood sagged under my weight. That was okay, though, right? The first step had dipped, too, but it hadn't snapped in two. It was fine. I was fine. Everything was fine.

I leaped onto the next one. It bowed lower than the first two had. I hesitated, wondering if I should go back, but before I had time to decide, it split down the middle. Stupid indecisiveness.

I panicked, scrabbling at the board, my claws moving too fast to be able to sink in. As I slipped nearer to the dark opening, the jagged wood surrounding it exactly like a dog's teeth, I felt a sharp twinge in my neck. Glancing up, I saw a flash of dark ginger and realized Rowankit must have sunk his teeth into my scruff like Thalia had done when we were younger.

"Plant your claws into the wood!" he growled around a tuft of my fur. I automatically did as he ordered, fear blocking any resistance from my mind, and my descent stopped abruptly. Rowankit heaved backwards and I pulled up with my claws and together, he and I collapsed onto the second step.

Panting, I wriggled free of his grip. At once, he was on top of me, nosing my fur. "Ivykit?" he asked urgently. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I muttered, pushing him off with a paw to his tawny chest.

"Okay, okay." He settled back onto his haunches, the light of fear dimming in his eyes. After a couple heartbeats in which we panted together, he grinned. "Wasn't that so cool, though?"

I shook my head. So cool? So to Rowankit, almost getting eaten by a dog-mouth hole was so cool? I changed the subject. "How about you lead the way this time?" I suggested, glancing warily up at the remaining steps.

Rowankit looked a little amused. Yeah, sure, try almost falling to your death, then making that expression again. I shoved him with my shoulder and he gave a semi-surprised laugh. "Okay, I'll go first." He placed his paws on the faulty stair. "You'll have to be the one to pull me back if I fall, though, okay?" he teased.

I pushed against his heels, forcing him to take a step forward. "Move your lazy butt," I retorted with a small grin and a snort.

We managed to climb the rest of the staircase without incident. By the time we were about halfway up, I'd finally managed to figure out Rowankit's tricks—he always stuck to the edges of the steps and made sure to test each board first. If it creaked or sagged too much, he'd leap across to the other side. Finally, we reached the second level.

There was a distinct lack of dusty objects piled in the corners, but other than that it looked almost exactly like the one below. The same dust coated the floor like the pelt of some monstrous beast (like a dog), the same windows lined up around the edges, transparent shards (like dog teeth) decorating the ground, and the same staircase spiraled upward, leading to the next level (which could turn out to be a dog's den).

Rowankit started straight for the stairs, clambering onto the first step with almost no hesitation. "Come on, Ivykit," he called excitedly. "We're almost at the top!"

"Did you see the den from the outside?" I muttered, scrambling along in his path. "We're nowhere near the top."

As it turned out, I was quite right. We climbed up three more levels without incident, other than the building growing steadily more decrepit. On the third floor, I spotted a section of the floor caving in and insisted Rowankit test the floor too, rather than bounding carelessly across it with his head in La-La Land on his way to the stairs. On the fifth floor there was a small section of stairs missing, but Rowankit helped me up on the railing and we were able to continue upwards, with me carefully placing my paws exactly where Rowankit's had been. On the sixth floor the stairs were gone.

Rowankit peered up at the ceiling, then down at the floor, then searched the walls half desperately, with me trailing behind insisting he test the floors before realizing how much I sounded like Thalia and consenting to wait at the top of the stairs leading down. But there was nothing. The stairs themselves had crumbled away altogether, leaving only small sections at the top and bottom, hanging on like bats.

"Well…" I hesitated, watching Rowankit make another round of the room. The foreboding sensation I'd felt when first stepping inside the Twoleg den had progressively grown stronger with each floor we reached. By now it had grown strong enough to overpower my fear of looking like a coward. "Rowankit—"

"I think there's a way to get up over here," he interrupted, not listening. He stood next to an opening in the wall, the wind flattening his fur against his body, peering up along the outer wall of the den.

I took a deep breath. "Rowankit, I think we should go back. It might be dangerous."

Rowankit rolled his eyes at me. "Come on, what's there to be scared of? We'll be fine." He bounded through the hole, balancing easily on the protruding metal beyond.

Well there was no way in a hundred moons—a thousand moons—I was going to let Rowankit do this all on his own. Plus, without him testing the steps, I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it back down on my own. So I followed him through the hole.

I was so high up even the Monsters looked small, almost rat-sized. Standing on the thin metal rod, hanging from the side of the building, I shrank away from the precariously far drop onto the Thunderpath, huddling into the somewhat solid wall beside me. I gulped, claws scraping against my foothold with a loud screeching noise. I flattened my ears against it.

"It's easy, come on," Rowankit encouraged me, glancing over his shoulder. "We're almost there."

You are, I thought bitterly. I haven't even started. Why did Rowankit have to be so good at everything?

I determinedly took a step forward. The wind blew through my fur, so strong I almost thought a dog was clawing me over and over again. Multiple times I almost lost my footing, but always managed to somehow catch myself. Then, just as I passed the middle of the pole, I slipped.

Claws scrabbling frantically at the unyielding metal, I slid backwards along the pole. "Rowankit!" I screamed, terror strengthening my voice so it exploded out louder than the raging wind, raising it to a pitch twenty times higher than normal. "Rowankit, help!"

My brother turned. As if in slow motion, his eyes bulged, his jaw dropped, and his ears flattened against his skull. I saw his pupils contract about as half as fast as normal. "Ivykit!" he shrieked, lunging toward me like a miniature tiger.

But he wasn't fast enough. In a heartbeat, I slid over the edge of the metal rod and plummeted straight for the ground far, far below.

I thought that was it. I thought I was done for and I'd splat into nothing but a memory against the Monsters roaring along the Thunderpath below.

I squeezed my eyes shut; I didn't want to see the ground hit me. I knew falling must take a long time; I didn't want to know when it would all be over.

When the pain first came, I cried out in surprise, the scream I didn't know was coming from my own mouth cutting off abruptly. Not only had it come much sooner than I'd expected, but it had also come in the wrong place. Wouldn't it normally start in my legs, as they'd hit the ground first? Surely not on my scruff?

I blinked. Fuzzy and indistinct, the ground swung back and forth below me. It swung. It didn't rush up to slap me like I'd thought it surely must, like it had been only moments before. Someone had caught me. But who? Or what?

The something placed me gently on the sidewalk, landing beside me. I blinked up at it, letting it come slowly into focus. But… no, it… it couldn't be!

My savior was a raven.

The huge, black bird gazed down at me, cocking its head to the side. It stood taller than me—a meal for at least two or three adult cats. I'd been saved by a piece of prey.

The raven let out a croaking Caw!—I jumped—and took off, flapping its long wings to quickly gain altitude. I watched as if flapped away, settling on a light-post several Monster-lengths from me.

Darkness gathered at the edges of my vision. My frantically beating heart from a moment ago had slowed back to normal. I blinked several times, trying desperately to stay awake. I wanted to watch the raven, see what it did. It couldn't be a normal bird, could it?

But I couldn't fight the darkness for more than a few heartbeats. Finally, I gave up, letting my head flop onto the ground, resting my chin on my numb paws, eyelids drooping as the adrenaline began to drain from my body. Now that the danger was over, it seemed my mind had decided it was a good time to recharge.

There, on the side-path in the shadow of the decrepit old Twoleg den, with Monsters racing by and Twolegs swarming along the opposite side of the Thunderpath, I blacked out.

I absolutely loved writing this chapter. ^^; I think I have an unhealthy, ultra-clingy relationship with plot twists.

I'm also going to start questions of the chapter, thought they might be terminated in the future due to a lack of inspiration or some other reason. My answers to these questions will be posted at the end of next chapter, though since I'm going away this weekend I'll unfortunately not be able to type it up until next week or next weekend.

QOTC: What do you like most about Take Flight so far?