Chapter Two

Days passed, falling into weeks. Luna and her littermates grew in size, and cleverness. Luna and Rose liked to play tricks on Leaf, but then the tomcat would always strike back on his own.

Star would pretend to get annoyed with them when they were messing around, but secretly, she was enjoying their playfulness. The young mother was truly proud of her kits, and couldn't have wished for better ones.

Now, Star was sitting, watching her litter scuffle on the porch. The sun was setting, the afternoon taking its leave.

Leaf pounced on top of Rose, gnawing on her brown ear.

Rose let out a yowl and quickly rolled onto her back, squashing Leaf flat against the wooden boards of the porch. Luna crept forward and bit down on Rose's tail. The she-cat flew off of her brother and crashed down on Luna, pounding her with her paws, claws sheathed. Leaf leapt on top of the both of them, and then they all went rolling around the porch, a tight ball of fluffy fur and bright eyes.

When they finally broke apart, it was hard for Luna to catch her breath. They had played like this for a few weeks now, always at the same time of day. As she licked a fresh bruise, Rose padded over to Leaf, who was trying not to make it noticeable that there was a splinter in his ear that was causing him great pain.

"Here, I'll help," Rose murmured softly, leaning down to clench her sharp teeth on the light brown spike. Leaf squeezed his eyes shut before the brief amount of extra pain. Although Luna would have been wailing aloud at this point, Leaf endured it without a sound. Rose licked at the wound left from the splinter, and Leaf let out a warm purr.

"Thanks, Rose," he said. "It must have come from the boards when we were rolling around."

Star gazed down upon her kits with deep, glowing pride. They were so tough, and yet so willing to help each other out. Their father would have been so proud of them.

"What're you thinking about, Mama?" Star looked down to see Luna staring at her with bright, curious eyes.

"I was just thinking about how proud you're father would have been of you," Star murmured, purring as she stroked her smallest kit with her tail. "And how proud I am of you." Luna purred as well, and leaned against her mother.

"Well, I'm going to make my father extra proud, and the rest of you can just watch me," Leaf meowed boldly, puffing out his chest.

"Ha, fat chance!" Rose growled playfully. "You can't even get a splinter out by yourself!"

With a yowl, Leaf leapt on top of his sibling, and then they were back to play fighting once more.

"That didn't take much time, now did it?" Star purred.

"Nope," Luna laughed as she ran over to join in on the fight. She swiped at Rose's tail, then yowled with shock as Leaf crashed into her from behind.

"How did you do that?" Rose gasped, just as surprised as Luna.

Rolling away from his sisters, Leaf chuckled, meowing, "It's a little trick I made up. All by myself, too."

Star felt her heart swell up with happiness. Already, her young son was teaching himself fighting moves. He was so like his father, making up ways to survive. Leaf would be a truly excellent fighter when he got older; Star could already see it.

Luna pricked up her ears suddenly at the sound of something strange. She listened hard, straining to hear it again.

Her eyes flashed open as the noise came again. Without a word, Luna dashed off the porch and raced into the garden. She didn't stop until she came near the area where the sound had come from.

Pausing to listen again, Luna lifted her right ear straight up into the air. For a minute, there was nothing. But then, a thin wailing sliced the air with sharp claws. Luna only had to run a few paw steps before coming to the source of the sound.

A kit was laying there, its mouth opened wide towards the heavens in a soundless scream. Luna crept forward cautiously, unsure of what was wrong. And then she saw it.

The kitten's hind leg was bent at a sickening angle, almost backwards. Luna gulped and looked closer at its face. There was blood all over one side, and it took her a minute to figure out what was causing all of it.

When Luna realized what it was, she turned her head away with a wave of nausea. The kit's ear had been torn to ribbons. Pieces of it were hanging off, and the entire top half was missing.

Luna inhaled deeply, trying to get herself together. The kitten was no longer moving, or making any noise. There was a faint rise and fall of its chest, so Luna knew that the kit wasn't dead, yet.

Before she could figure out what to do, Star appeared next to her, out of breath.

"Luna, what's wrong?" she panted.

Luna flicked her tail to the still body of cat, unable to say anything. She didn't see Star's expression, but it was stony.

"Get me some leaves."

Luna nodded and, trying to forget the image of the kitten's ear, dashed off farther into the woods. It wasn't hard to find soft leaves. She gathered a mouthful of them and ran back to her mother.

She dropped the pile at her mother's feet, and stood a little bit away to watch.

Her mother took the leaves without a word and bunched a few of them together. Star wrapped them around the kit's ears, and pressed up against them. Soon, they were soaked with blood, and Star rolled fresh ones together to use instead.

Luna watched with eyes as round as the moon, trying to memorize everything her mother was doing. Even as a kitten, Luna knew that this could be useful later on.

After a while, the bleeding slowed greatly, until there was just a small trickle of blood running constantly down the kitten's head. Star glanced at the kitten's leg, and then turned to Luna.

"You're going to have to help me carry her out of here," she meowed to her daughter.

Luna nodded and stepped forward to help. Her mother gripped the kit's shoulders with gentle teeth after instructing Luna to grab her hind legs. Slowly, the three made their way out of the forest. When they arrived back at the Tallcreature's house, Leaf and Rose were waiting on the front porch, staring with wide eyes at the new kitten.

"Get out of the way," Star grunted under a mouthful of fur. The siblings scrambled out of the way, still open-mouthed.

"Who is she, Mama?" Rose asked carefully.

Star didn't reply. She gently set the kitten down on the wooden boards of the porch, and then bent over her to examine her leg. She closed her eyes and looked down, as though praying.

"Come on, you two," Leaf suddenly meowed. "Let's go inside." He began quickly ushering his sisters inside, but Luna glanced back before she was shoved inside the house. She had just enough time to see her mother grip the end of the kitten's leg and jerked her head to one side so that the leg was facing the right way again, but the bone made a sickening crack.

The Tallcreatures had never really paid much attention to the small of family of cats, so it wasn't a surprise that they didn't notice a fifth cat. Star kept her at one side of the bed that they all shared, so she had plenty of room.

The kitten still hadn't woken up, and it had been three whole days. Luna kept checking to make sure she was still breathing; she had never known that anyone could sleep that long. Star said that the leg was broken, so it was a good thing that the kit was sleeping, or she might have moved around and made it break again.

There was no way to save the kitten's ear; it was shredded beyond repair. Instead, Star let it heal the way it was. Leaf and Rose thought that it looked creepy, but Luna found it fascinating. She thought that the kit's ears made it different from everyone else, and sometimes, she wished that she had ears just like her.

Luna was relieved when the kitten woke up after four days. She was starting to get worried about her.

"MAMA!" Luna yowled when the kitten opened her eyes. "MAMA, SHE'S AWAKE!"

"There's really no need to shout," Star muttered crossly as she hurried over. They both watched as the kit looked around sleepily. Leaf and Rose were out in the garden, so they couldn't come and watch.

The kitten looked extremely confused when her eyes came to rest on Luna and Star.

"Good morning, little one," Star meowed, tipping her head to one side and blinking warmly. "My name is Star. ("And I'm Luna!" her daughter said proudly). How do you feel?"

The kitten blinked fuzzily, and then mumbled, "M- My leg hurts…"

"Alright, and how about your ear?" Star asked her.

"That hurts too…"

Star gave a small laugh at how sleepy the kitten was. You would be too, if you sleepy for four days straight, she reminded herself.

"What's your name?" Luna burst out before she could stop herself.

"M- My name?" The kit looked confused again. "Oh….right, my name's Moss…"

"Moss…" Luna repeated, feeling the word on her tongue. "Cool!"

"Where did you come from?" Luna asked her.

"I- I'm kind of tired…Is it okay if I go back to sleep?" Moss mumbled to Star.

"Of course," Star told her kindly. "Sleep for as long as you like."

The kitten settled back down in the bed, and in the next minute she was asleep once more. Luna walked away from her sleeping form with Star, then whispered excitedly, "Wow, Moss is such a cool name!" She looked away dreamily. "I wonder where she came from…."

Luna never did find out where Moss came from. She avoided the question whenever it came up, and she never said how she got injured, either. Luna and Moss became great friends almost as soon as Moss started feeling better. The pair were inseparable, just how Rose and Leaf never wanted to leave each other. Luna loved to prowl the gardens with Moss, playing games and chasing each other.

All four of the kittens were growing bigger and bigger each day. Leaf was now strong enough to take down Star, and this was certainly saying something. Luna wasn't too good at fighting herself, but Star told her that she had the makings of an amazing hunter. Rose whispered to her after that she was just saying that, but Luna was sure Star was being truthful.

Moss, however, was an excellent fighter. She could take on the other three kits and win single-handedly. Luna always wondered how she had gotten to be so good, but Moss never seemed to answer any of her questions that involved her past.

Luna was seven months old when she had the first dream. She'd had many dreams before, but this one was different.

Luna dashed onto the front porch, followed closely by Moss and Rose. Leaf was sitting with Star on the steps, watching the sun rise. Luna led the way over to them. Star leaned forward and purred kindly. "Now, kits, you all know that you're getting older. You're all stronger and tougher than before," she meowed warmly. Leaf and Rose glanced at each other, remembering all the times Star had said that they were stronger before. But much to their surprise, Star went on this time. "It's time for you to leave this house. The humans are angry at us for being here, and now that you're all bigger, you take up more room. They won't be pleased if there are five full grown cats living with them," Star said sternly. Rose exchanged astonished looks with Moss. "What?" Rose cried. "I don't want to leave, Mama! Only if you come with us!" Star shook her head sadly. "I cannot. My place is here. Besides, you are all old enough to take care of yourselves now. All that's left for me to teach you is to hunt. Then you must leave me."

Luna woke up with a start, breathing hard. She realized that it was a dream after a while, and then she lay back down, wondering what had woken her up. There was light streaming in through a window over her bed. She looked over to see that Moss was the only one who was still sleeping. Rose was crouched over, washing herself. Leaf and Star weren't there.

Rose looked up at Luna and, seeing that she was awake, meowed, "Star wants to talk to us outside."

Luna jumped to her paws, assuming that it was Rose who had woken her up. She bounced over to Moss and prodded her in the side.

"Come on," she hissed, poking her again. "Star wants to talk to us." Moss moaned and rolled over.

"I don't wanna…."

Luna kept poking her until Moss crawled out of bed. Then the three kittens left the bed, heading for the door. Feeling unusually happy, Luna dashed into the front porch, and was followed closely by Moss and Rose. Leaf was sitting with Star on the steps, watching the sun rise. Luna led the way over to them, feeling that this was all very familiar.

Star leaned forward and purred kindly. "Now kits, you all know that you're getting older. You're all stronger and tougher than before," she meowed warmly. Luna watched Leaf and Rose glance at each other. Luna tipped her head to one side. This is a lot like my dream...

"It's time for you to leave this house. The humans are angry at us for being here, and now that you're all bigger, you take up much more room," Star went on. Luna shook her head. Was she going crazy? Everything was exactly like her dream…This is so weird…

"They won't be happy if there are five full grown cats living with them," Star said sternly. Rose exchanged astonished looks with Moss.

"What?" she cried. "I don't want to leave, Mama! Only if you come with us!"

Star shook her head sadly. "I cannot. My place is here. Besides, you are all old enough to take care of yourselves now. All that's left for me to teach you is to hunt. Then you must leave me."

Luna shook her head with disbelief as she walked away from her littermates. How could she have a dream, and then have the dream play out in the real world? Maybe there was something wrong with her? Luna's eyes widened fearfully. What's happening to me?