"This way," said Slashpaw, poking his head through the window. He leapt onto the platform and then down to the tile floor. Doom followed. When they were about half way across the room, the door creaked open.
"Twoleg!" Slashpaw hissed.
"Over here!" Doom launched himself over to a pile of boxes in the corner of the room and hid behind it, Slashpaw on his tail.
The same Twoleg that had carried Slashpaw into the building stepped into the room. When he saw that Slashpaw was no longer on the platform, he cried out and rushed toward it.
"Come on," Doom whispered. The two cats raced silently across the floor and out the door.
"Which way now?" asked Doom.
"I... I'm not sure," Slashpaw said. "I couldn't see much because I was covered in a Twoleg pelt–"
"A jacket?"
"Sure." They padded into the center of the lobby and looked around. There was another platform situated across from the main doors with a chair behind it. On either side was a door.
"I can hear barking coming from that door," Slashpaw said, gesturing to the door to the right of the platform.
"So maybe we should try the other door and see if that is where they keep the cats," Doom concluded. The two trotted to the door on the left side. Doom set his shoulder against it and pushed. Surprisingly, the door scraped open slowly. As Slashpaw slipped through, the scent of many, many cats greeted him.
"Great DreamClan...," he breathed. "Doom! You have to see this!"
Cages upon cages filled the room, lined up against the walls, stacked one on top of the other, all filled with cats. Some were sleeping, eating, talking to their neighbors, or just sitting around and staring blankly into the air.
"Wow," Doom said as he joined Slashpaw. "I wonder why the Twolegs are trapping so many cats in here!"
"Ice?" Slashpaw called. "Ice, where are you?" A few cats turned at the sound of his voice, but most just ignored him. How would they ever find Ice in here? There were over a Clan's worth of cats!
"Hey!" called a cat from a cage nearby. Doom and Slashpaw hurried over to her cage. A young she-cat was inside. She was old enough to probably have seen quite a few moons in the warriors den, but younger than Doom. She had glossy, chocolate-brown fur with a white-tipped tail, one white hind paw, and a small crescent moon shape on her chest.
"How did you get out of your cages?" she asked, head cocked to the side.
"We didn't," Doom said. "We're here to rescue a friend."
"You mean you snuck in here from outside?" she asked, sounding impressed.
"Yes," Slashpaw said, proud. "Have you seen a dark tabby she-cat about my size get brought in here?"
"Yeah, just yesterday," answered the she-cat. "But if you came here for her, you're too late."
"What?"
"Someone adopted her earlier today, just after the shelter opened for the day," she said. "I was surprised. Only one day here and then she's gone! Some cats here have been here for years."
"What do you mean?" asked Slashpaw.
"A housefolk came and took her home to be his pet," she explained. Slashpaw assumed that 'housefolk' was the kittypet word for a Twoleg.
"But we've been outside all morning and we didn't see any Twolegs come in," Doom said.
"It must have been when we were looking for water," Slashpaw said, heart sinking. He had been sure that they would be able to rescue Ice and return to the forest, but now how would they ever find her?
"Thank you for your help," Doom said. "Er... what was your name?"
"I'm Luna," she said. "And listen: I think I know where your friend was taken to. I recognized the housefolk that took her. I was born in a house near his."
Doom and Slashpaw exchanged hopeful glances. Slashpaw didn't know what a 'house' was, but this sounded promising.
"Could you tell us how to get there?"asked Doom.
"I can do better," said Luna. "I can bring you there. Just get me out of this cage!"
"How?" Doom asked, studying the front of the cage.
"I've been watching the housefolk who feed us, and I think I've figured out how to open the cage. Do you see that latch on the left?"
"Yes."
"I can't reach the latch from inside the cage. See that little part that points down? Flip it up with your paw. Good. Now slide it over. No, the other way! There you go!" Luna pushed the door of the cage open with a forepaw. "Yes! I'm free! Thank you."
Doom and Slashpaw stepped to the side to let her out.
"I'm Doom," said the black cat, "and this is my son Slashpaw."
"Nice to meet you," she said. "Now where do we go?" she asked, stepping onto the tile – once white, now discolored with many years of use.
"Well, I guess we can go out the same way we got in," Doom said, looking at Slashpaw, who nodded. The three cats trotted to the door, and Doom pushed it open. They were nearly to the room with the open window when a door past the cat room swung open. Slashpaw caught a whiff of kittypet food and dog food. A Twoleg stepped into the lobby, arms full of paper bags that smelled strongly of kittypet food.
"Run!" Doom yowled. The three cats raced to the door as the Twoleg spotted them and cried out. The door was half open, and the cats slipped in.
"No," whispered Slashpaw as they slid to a stop in the middle of the room. The window was closed.
"Slashpaw, can you open it again?" asked Doom.
"I'll try!" was his response. He threw himself upwards onto the platform and then onto the windowsill. He pawed desperately at the latch. The Twoleg had closed it tightly.
"It won't open!" he screeched in panic. Just then, the Twoleg crashed through the door.
"Run!" Luna yowled. The Twoleg ran at her and Doom. Luna dodged to his right and Doom to his left. The Twoleg grabbed at Doom, who managed to slip past him, and then the Twoleg ran forward toward Slashpaw. The apprentice shrank against the window, fur standing on end with terror.
"Jump!" Doom cried. Slashpaw was too scared to do anything but obey. He leapt onto the Twoleg's head (the Twoleg yelled in surprise and reached up with his clumsy paws to grab him), and then onto a counter, scattering the strange Twoleg things everywhere. He ran along it to the end and jumped down.
"Come on!" Doom said as he raced toward them. The three cats sped out the door and into the main room.
"How do we get out?" Slashpaw panted.
"I don't –" Doom began to say when Luna interrupted.
"There's a housefolk opening the front doors!" she cried. The three cats sprinted forward and, as the new Twoleg opened the door from the outside to get in, slipped through onto the snowy path, ignoring the Twoleg's yowl of shock. They raced across the path and snow-laden grass.
"This way!" Doom said, taking the lead. They scrambled up a fence and into a Twoleg's garden.
"We have to hide," Luna said. "They'll be searching for us."
"Over here," Slashpaw said. This garden had a row of pine trees at the back. "We can hide in these pines."
"Good idea, Slashpaw," Doom said. They walked as fast as they could to the trees, glancing over their shoulders for pursuing Twolegs.
Slashpaw led the way, ducking under the low boughs and climbing up near the trunk. Doom and Luna followed close behind, Luna hissing when a twig poked her in the flank. Slashpaw stopped about halfway up the trunk where the branches were the thickest. The trio made themselves as comfortable as they could. Slashpaw found a thick limb and lay on it, his hind legs hanging off the sides and his forepaws under his chin. Now all they could do was wait.
Slashpaw was so comfortable with the scent of pine swirling around him that he nearly fell asleep. He couldn't help but think of his old Clan with the pine needles whispering to each other in the breeze. He longed for his nest in the apprentice den and this training bouts with Windystar. How long had he been away? He couldn't even remember. Long enough for a new litter of kits to be born? Long enough for a few of the apprentice den's residents to move to the warriors den? Had Skykit, Heatherkit, and Frostkit been apprenticed yet?
Slashpaw had to purr when he thought of Whitefeather's kits. The three bundles of fluffy energy had been the closest thing he'd ever had to siblings. He decided that they were not apprentices yet. They couldn't be old enough! He hadn't been gone that long... had he?
Would he ever know? Would he ever see PineClan again?