Switcharoo

Thunderclan: A Wretched Heart

May's POV

"Rwaaaarrr!" He squeaked.

"That's hardly a battle cry, this is a battle cry. " She hissed.

"You sound like a snake, not a lion."

"Well, at least I don't sound like a mouse." She retorted. He bowled her over and started batting her lightly.

"Hiss, take this!" She overpowered him and pinned him to the ground. "I win!" she grinned. I giggled at their energy. They just never seem to stop.

"Thanks for looking after them Blossompaw."

"No problem."

"Come along, kits." She signaled them to follow with the flick of her tail.

"Coming! Bye Blossompaw!" They say in unison. I waved my paw then realized what I was doing when they gave me strange looks.

"Umm, bye." I quickly put my paw down. They shrugged and scampered off to their mother.

"I'm glad you still do human things." He playfully shoved me.

"Hey, Mosspaw." I said with a giddy grin.

"I said you could call me Drew," he flicked me on my ear. Then he came in close to my ear and whispered my human name. "May." I quickly backed away.

"Yeah, right, sorry I forgot." I swiped up a pawful of leaves at him. The dry leaves seemed to blend with his fur. Even his dark emerald eyes looked like it was part of the pile. He shook them off then flipped his long strands of fur out of his eyes.

"Still as playful as ever, I see." He used his tail to throw leaves at me.

"Hey! I just groomed my pelt also." I shook them off. I licked my paw and smoothed down my pelt of any ruffles.

"You know, you're cute as a cat." I falter as I try to stand up.

"Uh, t-thank you?" I stutter.

"Race you to the old oak tree." He sprints ahead toward the entrance, leaving me flustered.

"Hey! I was disoriented!" I chase after him. We streak through the forest. Light on our feet, as fast as a Linoone. I never felt so free. We quickly reached our destination.

"Woo! That was fun!" I skid to a halt.

"Now that I have you alone." I felt myself heating up. "We need to talk about something important."

"A-and what is that important matter w-we need ta-to talk about?" I stutter even more. He gave me a strange look.

"What the heck are you blundering about? We need to talk about how to get out of here." I felt myself heat up with embarrassment this time. Wow, that was a stupid misunderstanding.

"Umm, nothing. Don't worry about it. And what do you mean by get out?" I regain my composure. That was a sudden change from fun to serious.

"Do you want to be a cat forever?" He growled. I hesitate, but shake my head. I wonder what happened to my Pokémon, are they okay? What about my friends and family? I slowly gain recognition.

"I've been thinking for a while and nothing is coming to my mind of why we're here… so far we've been fitting in, but what if we become too comfortable with it? What if we're are stuck like this forever?" I shake my head to keep the thought away. I haven't even thought about it till now. All I was doing was fitting in and having fun. What's wrong with that?

"You're right, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking right." He paces back and forth.

"I've also noticed you're not exactly fitting in. You are just a slight bit off to what other cats are doing." I felt myself shrug in embarrassment.

"I kind of noticed that also, oh, smart one." I retort. He smirks.

"Why do you think I keep reminding you to call me Drew? Why do you think I keep calling you May?" I trots up to me. "You're the closes thing to human." He sighs and turns away. "We need to stay in touch with that or else… We might forget who we really were." He sits down and digs his claws into the soft soil. "What are we going to do if we forget who we are?"

I stare at him for the longest time. I haven't even thought… "Hey, Drew?" I ask hesitantly. "What do you mean by forget who we are?" He looked up at me.

"Do you enjoy being a cat?" I hesitate. "Do you like the way things are? Did you also enjoy being with your family? Did you enjoy being with your Pokémon? If we stay like this, everything we were will be gone." He slides his claws back into his soft paws.

"So what do we do?" I ask. He pauses for a moment.

"All we can do for now is wait." he shrugged.

"Wait for what!?" I ask angrily, "for Pokémon to fall from the sky?"

"Then what do you think we should do?" He snapped back. I cowered from his gaze. "What else can we do? That's why I called you out here, to remind you who you are." His gaze softened and he calmed down. "We have to anchor ourselves to who we are, so we never forget."

"It's not like we could forget who we were." He stared at me.

"Do you remember your first Pokémon?"

"Yeah, of course… It's a chick.. A Torchic. Yeah a Torchic. That evolved into Combusken, then.. Then Blaziken." I can't believe I hesitated there… What-

"Do you remember the first ribbon you won in a Pokémon contest?" I open my mouth to speak, but I lost the words. I can't remember. I felt myself begin to panic. My legs buckled and I sat down, overwhelmed by realization. How could I forget my first ribbon?! It was probably one of the most important day of my life.

"Don't worry." Drew sat down next to me. "It was the Fallarbor Town Ribbon. Remember?" The memory floods back into my head. I sit up alarmed.

"Yeah, now I remember." Our fur brushed against each other then he leaned on me.

"Well the main thing now is to-"

"Hey! Blossompaw, I've been looking all over for you!" Gravelpaw jumped out of the bushes from the other end of the clearing. Drew back stepped away from me. "Oh, am I disturbing something?" He twitched his whiskers. "Well then I'll be leaving if-"

"No, it's fine, I was leaving anyway." The fur on Drew's neck started to rise. He stalked away and leaped into the undergrowth. What got into his fur?

"So, do you wanna start hunting now?" Gravelpaw stretched his legs. "Prey will be running back to their burrows so- Hello, Blossompaw, are you listening to me?" I snapped my head up at the sound of my name.

"Wha? Oh, sorry, I was just…" I hadn't realized it, but I was staring at the same spot where Drew leaped into. I don't know why, but I had the strangest feeling… like I was being watched.

"Come on, I'll show you a good hunting spot." Gravelpaw nudged me.

"Yeah, sure." He took the lead and bound ahead. I followed behind hastily. It's probably just my imagination. He lead me to a deep undergrowth. We traveled a long ways so we must be at the border, upper Shadowclan border for sure.

"I'll go this way, you can try over there." He flicked his tail in my direction then walked behind a bush. I sniff the air. A mouse is somewhere close by and something else is jumbled up in the air. But, I can't seem to figure it out. I shrug it off. I smell a lot of things I don't know, so there really isn't a difference, is there? I shake my head then bring my hunches down and slide through the forest floor, like a Seviper. I could hear the little mouse nibbling on something just a few inches ahead. I kill it with a swift blow to the neck. But before I pick it up, I hear the slightest rustle. I wipe around staring down a bush. A small rumble rises in my throat and I jump into the undergrowth at this strange attacker. I slice the air with unsheathed claws, trying to slash at his muzzle. But I was quickly bowled over and pinned to the ground under the cat's weight. I squirm underneath to get out.

"May, stop already." He hissed into my ear. I abruptly stop and look up. The dark brown tom was staring at me, or really glaring to clarify.

"What are you doing here?" I whispered angrily. "Were you following me the entire time?" His ears drooped.

"Not exactly."

"Then it was your scent that was in the air." I sighed. I thought something bad was stalking me. Well, unless you call this furball evil. "Grr, get off me." He frowned but got off. I shake off the dried leaves on my pelt then trotted back to my mouse. The same scent returned to the roof of my mouth as I opened to carry the mouse. Wait, wasn't Drew the one following me? I whipped around in circles with my mouth open to try and catch the scent again.

"What are you doing?" Drew twitched his whiskers. I ignored him and continued to taste the air.

"There's something weird."

"Besides you?"

"No, like, like, something was here. Something that we should be worried about." I stopped as the scent overwhelmed me near a tree. I abruptly stopped and followed the trail.

"Hey, wait up!" Drew hastily followed from behind.

I stopped quickly and ducked behind the bush.

"Thanks for waiting." Drew said loudly and sarcastically.

"No, shhh!" I muffled his mouth with my tail. "Look." over by the start of the Shadowclan border were foxes. Four of them to be exact. This is bad, they're heading this way. What do we do?!