Selena will be in this chapter! But she isn't the same Selena. Lol

Chapter 3, Selena

Skye started off briskly the next morning, proudly padding along the auburn asphalt. He almost felt like he owned it, as it if was his. It could have been, too, considering nobody else seemed to live here.

But as soon as he thought that, he was proved sadly wrong.

Ahead things looked different. Instead of just being bushes in the asphalt-less places, a solid, jagged-edged blue building stretched twenty feet up into the sky, and bordering it was about a foot of the usual bushes until it reached the asphalt. Skye felt curious about this and quickened his pace, hurrying. Soon, he came right up to the border of the bushes. He froze, peering into the city thing in shock.

There were others inside it, and they moved around and talked. They were all different, different animals obviously. Skye saw a bear, a wolf, a zebra, a hippo…He did not know how he knew the names of these animals, but he didn't care, he was glad to know.

Skye padded foreword happily, wanting to get to know more about the animals. He stepped through the buildings, staring at unfamiliar faces as he went.

"Hi there!" A young leopard crashed into him on accident. Skye was so scared he fell down, curled up, and began to cry in earnest. The leopard looked uneasy then slid away.

Skye felt embarrassed, so he stood up, wiping away the tears. He hurried on, but before he could do something, he fell into a hole that was just sitting in the middle of the asphalt. He slipped and screamed as he ran into some animals.

He was in some kind of warm, round cave carved into the asphalt. He saw a lot of animals sitting around a bowl of milky whitish stuff with orange flecks in it. Was this a house maybe? The animals did not look surprised to see him, so Skye scrambled out. Maybe animals fell down into those hole-houses daily.

And now, as he looked, Skye saw holes in the asphalt everywhere. He smiled, realizing that they WERE homes. Homes to different families of animals.

Skye was also surprised to find that the species of the animals living in the holes varied quite a lot. It looked to him one time that a fox and a lion had mated, and their kids were an armadillo, a weasel, and a rat.

He hurried on. There were so many animals here. They packed in around Skye and he had to worm his way through them. But he liked it in this city, so he began to relax.

He passed by a sheep that was holding carrots. "Only three full carrots for a dozen!" He yelled. He saw Skye staring at him and came closer, grinning. Skye turned and ran away, flitting between the buildings. More animals he passed were selling things, and he didn't like them at all, so he finally plunged into the bushes.

As soon as he did, he wished he hadn't. Some mangy street cats reared out from the most tiny, hidden corners and leaped onto him. Skye screamed and rolled as they raked their claws at him and tore his pelt. He rolled and rolled, trying to get them off. He rolled into the open, and the other animals saw the cats that were attacking him. Instantly, they dropped everything and ran away screaming. Skye yowled and cried. These animals were not very supportive of him, obviously. And he needed so much help.

Skye tore himself from the evil cats and bounded away from them. They did not chase him, much to his great relief. Soon he just mingled back in with the crowd.

His belly began to growl, so he pulled himself into the bushes and nibbled on the leaves of the bushes. It was so revolting…

"Why are you eating bushes?" Came a voice. Skye looked up quickly to see a black and white she-cat with amber eyes staring down at him. She wasn't pretty, with scrubby fur, dull eyes and a gross little face. She was holding a carrot underneath her paw.

He stared at her blankly. "I'm hungry," he managed.

"Well, we don't eat bushes around here," She growled. "Gosh, where were you born? In one of the caps?"

She was confusing Skye, and some fear crept into him too. "I--," He didn't know what to say.

She didn't seem to care. Instead, she held up the carrot in her jaws. It was huge. About seven feet long and three feet wide at the base.

She shook under its weight and dropped it. "I dug it up this morning," She said proudly. "Isn't it such a feast?"

"You eat those things?" Skye asked her.

Her eyes grew bulbous with shock. "DUH!"

Skye backed up. "Well, I wasn't raised here…"

"Not in this city, you mean?" The weird black and white cat asked.

"Not…well…in a canyon, with snow…"

"OH! Down there? You were born down there? Lucky! In the south?! Tell me what snow is like! Did you see any," She lowered her voice, "Traders?"

Skye looked at her in confusion. "What are traders?"

"They're evil guys who steal away the young animals, like me and you, and trade them for carrots."

Skye sat up, wrapping his bushy silver tail around his legs. "Well, I don't really have any parents and everything, so I never learned any of this stuff. Do you live here?"

She nodded. "I do. In this city. It's called Snowtown. The thing is, my mom, who's a lynx, is really strict, and she won't let me or my brother venture away from the city and go south. I mean, we are SO close to the south, too! We really want to see snow, but she's so protective and won't let us. So we just have fun in the city. We like to climb the buildings. They're so slick, it's so hard, but when you--,"

Skye lifted his tail to stop her. "What's your name, anyway?"

"I'm Selena," She said, "And my brother is Jeremy. Isn't that such a dumb name? I'm going to be eight moons this weekend, but Jeremy is still only five moons, so I have to watch out for him."

Skye looked at her carefully. "Do you have a father?"

"Yes! Let me show you him, come on….what is your name?"

"Skye," He said nervously.

"Ok then, Skye. Well, let's move." Selena started off with Skye after her. They headed into the city steadily.

"Right here," Selena said, "This hole." She crouched down and wriggled through one of the holes in the asphalt. Skye followed her cautiously.

Selena looked around, and so did Skye. Her family's hole-house was rather small, and a little messy, but it seemed pretty good.

"Nobody but Jeremy is home," Selena meowed, "And he's sleeping." She flicked her tail at a little coyote pup that was slumbering on some leaves.

"Yeah," She went on, "My mom is at work, she works at the carrot-preparing factory. Carrots for Micemorsel, you know."

Skye felt squeamish—he did not know.

"And my dad works at….um…oh yeah, he works behind the desk at the hotel downtown. Alone they amount of carrots they get would not support our family, but together they can just make it, yeah. But whatever."

Skye curled up his tail. "I don't understand the carrot currency thing."

She sighed. "It's easy. You earn different sizes of carrots, Fullcarrots, Halfcarrots, and so on, and with those you can pay for your house, food and whatnot."

Skye shuffled. "But couldn't you just dig up carrots and use that as money?"

Selena shook her head. "Nope. You used to be able to, just about a moon before I was born. But the laws were changed. They said that you can only pay with carrots that have been marked by the president's money crew: and the mark looks like a little shield and sword. It's burned into the carrot."

"But you eat carrots too?" Skye asked.

"Of course. Usually everyone eats the normal food-Micemorsel. It's this milky white stuff with carrot in it and little bits of the belly of these white mice that are bred for Micemorsel. It's actually really gross. You could eat carrots, but you have to dig them up to get them. I mean, then you wouldn't have to pay, but digging them up takes a long time….here, let me show you the place where they sell Micemorsel. Come on!" Selena raced off with Skye hurrying after the long-winded cat. They raced through town and finally Selena stopped.

Skye looked up. A whole bunch of buildings had been strung together with wooden walls. (AN: Incase your wondering, they get the wood from the trees up north.) The big words, 'MICEMORSEL AND CARROT CO.' were burned into those walls. There were holes in the walls too, with shelves at the base of them, and some animals, obviously sellers, stared out through the large holes, to it looked like a stand. On those shelves were bowls of Micemorsel, or sometimes platters of just plain carrots, some steamed carrots…

"Isn't it awesome?" Selena asked. "Look at how long the lines are for the Micemorsel. It's so popular, it's weird." She sat, staring at it. "What should we do next?"

"I'm going to leave town and go farther…up," Skye said, "Because there has to be so much more to see."

Selena looked at him with shock. "Oh! Can I please, please, PLEASE come with you?"

"But why? Doesn't your mom not let you leave the city?"

"Well, yeah…but I'm sure we could do it unnoticed…"

"Then alright, I guess." He said.

Selena started to bounce. "Let's leave now! Come on, come on!" She sped away, and he bounded after her.

The document/upload feature wasn't working on my computer…so I couldn't update. Growls yeah so review please!