Well this is it. The last chapter.

I'd like to thank all the people that gave me a review. The story is partially yours as without support I'd probably have given up around chapter 2, so thanks.

I'd also like to thank the 200 odd people that took the time to read it or parts of seeing the counter go up does mean a lot.

I hope this answers a couple of questions.

…..

The huskies suddenly threw their heads back as one and howled their grief to the stars, accompanied by the scream of a distraught cat who'd found her friend only to have him stolen away again.

The great white pollicles surrounding their pack mate continued to howl, but the tone began to change. It began to take on a note of triumph and joy, of welcome and victory, of happiness and relief...

…

The carnage was slowly cleared away, the cats and pollicles glad for the distraction from the events after the battle. The carcasses of the dogs were disposed of around the area, no doubt the human news would go on about the discovery of so many bodies for a few days, but it would all be forgotten within a week.

Jenny had managed to get a sleeping draught into Jemima who was now curled up in her bed with Demeter and Misto waiting for her to wake, they both wanted to be there for her when she opened her eyes.

Munkunstrap, Alonzo, Old Deuteronomy and the leader of the huskies were Old Deut's secluded den discussing the night's events and the presence of Toby and their saviours.

The husky leader, who was female much to the Jellicle's surprise, had introduced herself as Namid and was giving a brief explanation of her peoples history and why they were at the junkyard.

"Our people were created back before memory together with the Jellicle Cats, the dolphins and the eagles as guardians of the world. The Jellicles were given the responsibility of the cities and towns, the Dolphins were given the oceans and the Eagles the skies. We (the Pollicles) were given the guardianship of the wilderness. We have kept the traditions of our forebears and still run our packs in the northern snows. We have had to accept being 'domesticated' by the humans over time however there are those of us that continue to live the roles given to us by the great pack leader, who you call The Everlasting Cat."

"Forgive me Namid, but we don't know any of this" broke in Old Deut. "I fear that in our lives amongst the humans has relegated what you've said beyond myth and legend and to our shame has been forgotten."

"There is nothing to forgive my friend" replied Namid. "We are in the most part uncorrupted by the humans and our storytellers and shaman's keep these memories alive within the northern clans. It would be quite easy for us to pass them to you so that they may live again within your tribe."

"That is a discussion for another time however" continued the husky. "There has always been an obligation between the guardians to give aid to the others when the situation is dire. This has only happened a pawfull of times in all our history and never between us and yourselves. Until now. It is to our shame that our degenerated cousins have been the cause of it. They have forgotten from whence they came. They are nothing more than mindless beasts now."

"There is no shame in coming to the defence of another person or group. You cannot control your cousins anymore than we can control the one that led them. If anything then, we Jellicles are more at fault than yourselves. Macavity was once one of us before his insanity took him over" related the old cat. "But can you tell us why you are here?"

"Ah that is a story for the ages" said Namid." As you may know. My people have long been harnessed by the humans to pull sleds and run with them in the snows of the world. It was is for this that we exist. Not the harnessing but for the ranging and exploration of the world. A number of years ago, a pack that was living up in the northern parts of this place had given into their care a small puppy. He'd only just been given the power of speech and could only tell us a little of his origins. He said that he was raised by three kind people that were alike yet unlike him. He remembered the scent and sound of the smallest as she loved him as a son and he loved her as a mother in return. He said that he made a mistake in anger and fear and attacked someone he shouldn't and was sent away to live somewhere that was cold and had little joy. Indeed the only light in his world were the visits of his little mother. Then one day a human came and took him out of that place and after a long journey hw was placed with the pack."

"Over time he grew and eventually travelled over the seas to a gathering that the humans called Iditarod. It was here that we have our great gathering as the packs get together. Toby as we knew him was brought before the great shaman Nahimana and we were told that he was to have a great destiny. As he was born in blood and death, he would bring life and love and reconciliation between the great tribes. It was also at this point that he was given his true name of Tadita or One Who Runs, and oh did he not live up to that name."

"Tadita quickly rose to the position of guide in his pack. One of the youngest ever to hold the position in memory. He became a famous runner and guide. He was moved by the humans from pack to pack and lived with us all. Yet through it he never forgot his little mother and the love he felt for her."

" Six months ago, the night before the last gathering he had a vision. A vision of blood and death and he knew that he had to return. He went before Nahimana and asked for permission to leave the packs and come back into the cities. Such was his agitation, that permission was also give for the rest of his current pack to send 11 others with him. He went amongst us and chose out ten of the best fighters and trackers, I was chosen to come and record the journey and provide aid as a healer if required."

"We used our magic to conceal ourselves aboard a ship bound for these shores and once we made landfall, Tadita led us to this place. We ranged around this city and discovered foul, disgusting conditions that our cousins were subjected to. They were chained up like brood animals in cages and forced to breed beasts until they died. We destroyed these puppy farms as we found them and freed our cousins as we could. It is to our shame that we had to kill many of the guard dogs as they would not stop trying to prevent us from carrying out this duty."

Munkunstrap spoke up, "we knew of the farms, but the scouts we sent reported them too well guarded and to be honest we were just relieved that we were safe again after so long living in fear of our insane ex-tribemate Macavity."

"We are not blaming you," reassured Namid. "We have also had to leave lesser evils alone in the world whilst we dealt with greaters. We've also had to hide and bide our time when the greaters were too strong to fight directly. Only a fool rushes in when there is no hope."

"As I was saying. We cleared out these farms as we found them. Many of them were old and run down and had the feeling of neglect and abandonment. The poor animals we rescued had not seen care in months, the sights we saw chilled our blood. At some however we found traces of large movements of dogs out of the farms. We tracked as many of these down as we could, which resulted in skirmishes as fights within the alleyways and vacant lots of the city. The animals we found were savages, bred and trained only for the kill, if not of someone else then they would fight amongst themselves. They had no discipline and were easy to defeat."

"Tadita and myself also made cloaked visits to this junkyard to see the creatures that cared for him as a newborn. What we found surprised me greatly. To see that he'd been rescued by the Jellicles just reaffirmed the plan to stay and help where we could."

"We didn't even suspect" murmured Old Deut, "you're magic must be very powerful for our mystics not to detect you."

"It is not that we are powerful so much as specialised" replied Namid. "We have developed our talents over the ages and honed them to allow us to perform our tasks in the wild."

"Two nights ago we were tracking a large pack of dogs when we came across a strange spoor. It had the feel of wrongness to it. We immediately began to chase this down however it was extremely elusive and led us all over the city for that night and the next day. We eventually tracked it back to the junkyard just in time to see the object of our search attack you Munkunstrap. We decided to wait to see what you would do and only stepped in when it was obvious that you would not survive without our aid."

"We were hoping that revealing our presence would have allowed a peaceful end to the confrontation, however that was not to be. To see Tadita engage those animals and disregard his own safety for that of another guardian was enough to convince us to aid the fight."

"Yes but was the cost worth it?" asked Alonzo. "You have all sustained injuries in our defence, and Toby, I mean Tadita, has been killed."

"You don't understand. Tadita went to his end gladly. He died knowing that he had given this existence in defence of his family and would be accepted in the great hunt and be allowed to return when it was time" replied Namid.

"Don't you see Alonzo? If Toby was a jellicle, we'd have said that he's on the Heavyside Layer awaiting his rebirth" coached Old Deut. "We'd like to thank you once more Namid. You have given us much to think over. I'd like to extend the hospitality of the junkyard to you and your pack, though finding space for something of your size may be an issue."

"Do not worry about our size" Namid said with a grin as her fur rippled and she seemed to shrink in on herself. The next moment she was no larger than Munkunstrap and like the Jellicles was now bipedal. "We have ways of dealing with that."

Old Deut laughed at the amazed looks on his sons faces and told Munkunstrap to find the pollicles somewhere to stay while they were at the junkyard.

The trio left the den and made their way back to the main clearing. The other huskies upon seeing their leader all went through the same rippling effect and transformed into similar states to the shock of the watching jellicles. Several empty dens were made available to the huskies and occupied by the three mated pairs in the group, another shock to the cats that there were only 5 males in the group of 12 that had gone into battle accustomed as they were to only having toms doing the fighting. The other pollicles were spread out through the junkyard with whoever thought they could spare the room for a visitor or two, there was no shortage of offers.

Namid moved in with Demeter, Munkunstrap and Jemima, who still hadn't woken and settled into the kittens old room. The next morning she was woken by a quiet sobbing from the room next door and went to investigate, pretty sure she knew what she would find, and she was right.

Jemima was curled up on her bed crying into her pillow so as not to wake the two exhausted cats asleep in chairs in front of her. She'd woken and found them both there passed out before the events of the night before had come crashing down on her again. As was her nature, she'd muffled her tears in her pillow to let them sleep.

Namid approached quietly and took the young queen by the shoulders, wrapping her into a big hug before picking the distraught cat up and taking her back into the room next door so that they could mourn together.

As the cats tears started to diminish, Namid began to explain. "Jemima that is your name? Good. Jemima. Don't cry. Tadita, Toby to you, gave his life for you and your friends. He did it gladly. He did it knowing he'd join the great hunt as his reward. Mourn him but don't cry for him, cry for us who don't have him with us anymore."

"But it's hard" cried Jem, "I only just found him again and he's been taken away for the third time. I'll never get to know him and talk to him and find out about his life."

"I can let you know if you want? I know him and his story. I was to be his mate when he came of age" replied Namid.

"I'd like that" said Jemima tears still streaming down her face. "I'd like that a lot."

And so Namid did. They sat there for hours as Namid talked about Toby and his life. Demeter came in after a while and sat with her daughter, not even batting an eyelid at sitting in the same room as a pollicle, seemingly over the issues she had with them after the events of the night before. Misto woke and came into the room, only to be shooed out and sent back to his den for a decent sleep. He only allowed them to push him out, after assuring himself that Jem was ok. Still upset but ok.

Later after Jem had settled into sleep again in the comforting arms of her mother, Namid went out and gathered the other huskies a task. The pollicles listened closely and then turned and ran out of the junkyard, rippling back into a canine forma as they left. Namid looked around at the clearing and the recovering cats, then went off to find Munkunstrap and Jenny to see if there was anything she could do to help out.

….

Jemima tossed in her sleep. Opening her eyes she found herself on a moonlit field rich with the scents of summer. She looked around, somehow knowing that all this could not be real and spotted a figure approaching her. It was a vaguely humanoid amorphous shape but had two piercing blue eyes which drew her attention.

Jemima blinked, and there was Toby as he'd been as a puppy. "Hello mother" he said and threw himself into her arms.

"To… Toby?" she said. "What is this? What are we doing here?"

"I, umm, asked for a favour. I knew you'd be upset and I asked if I could help" answered Toby. "As for where we are it's a reflection of the great sky range or Heavyside Layer if you'd prefer. I was given permission for a very short visit to make you feel better. Things are going to be alright. Don't cry. I need for you to live and go on with your life. I love you and want you to be happy."

While talking Toby was flickering through a variety of forms, from the familiar pollicle puppy, to a human child, a cat, an eagle, a dolphin and back to a dog, however one thing remained the same. Those piercing eyes.

They ran out of words to say and simply ended up sitting on the ground holding each other.

Toby looked up at the sky, "Mother. I have to go, but I've been told I can give you one last message."

"I'll see you soon."

And with that Toby got to his feet, kissed Jemima on the forehead and faded away.

Jemima looked around one last time, then closed her eyes.

When she opened them, she saw the faces of her parents and smiled.

"Are you ok darling" asked Demeter?

"Yes. I am. I miss him but I know he's happy and he's in a better place" replied the young queen.

Munkunstrap just smiled and gently folded his mate and youngest daughter into a hug.

….

A week later the group of huskies returned and reported to Namid. "We found him. It is done."

Namid sighed and went in search of Mununstrap.

She found him talking to Alonzo and Tugger on the back of the TSE-1.

"Munkunstrap. I have some news" called Namid to the protector. "Macavity is dead."

"Wait! What?" was the shocked reply.

"I sent my pack out to track him down and remove him. They have just returned with news that he has been destroyed."

Munk looked at Alonzo and Tugger, a grin slowly replacing the look of shock. "He's gone. He's finally gone!"

The celebrations went for days the end of which Namid and her pack took their leave and returned to their range.

…

14 months later.

….

Misto was pacing outside the medical den being watched over by half the toms of the tribe.

"What's taking so long?" he asked no one in particular again.

"It'll happen when it happens" said his brother in law, Pouncival.

"Oh sure. It's all right for you. Electra didn't even make it to the den. Jem's been in there for hours!" shot back Mistofollees.

"Chill son" said Munkunstrap. "All you can do is wait. At least your not getting drunk like Tugger did" and looked over at his brother.

Tugger winced remembering the aftermath of that particular event.

A black and gold head poked out of the door to the medical den and looked around. "Misto. You can come in now. You too Munk."

The little tuxedo tom was gone so quickly that the rest of the cats thought he'd used magic, the only thing to belay this was the banging of the door as it bounced off the stops.

Munk approached Demeter a little more slowly. "How did she go?" he asked.

"It was hard, she's so small, but she's a trooper and held in there. Come in. She wants to see you" replied Dem.

She led the silver and black tom into the medical den and through to one of the rooms. They entered the door and looked together at their daughter curled up on the bed with her mate sitting beside here with a look of shock on his face.

There, lying on the bed beside the tired queen was a tiny ball of grey and white fur. It moved it's head at the sound of the two cats entering the room and looked up at his grandparents with a pair of vivid blue eyes. "I've named him Toby" said Jemima and looked down at her kitten with love.

fin

…

Well there you go. I ended up leaving a couple of little things out of this chapter that I originally intended to use, but in the end they didn't fit. Yes I know it's fluffy, I don't care, I thought it all worked out well. I know kittens are born blind but that just makes this one special hmm?

Enjoy it?

Now I need to figure out what to write next. Anyone got any idea's PM me.

Oh and I've gone and edited some of the earlier chapters. It was pointed out to me that I'd screwed up a continuity point and gotten a pairing mucked up, I actually intended it to be the edited version to start with but had a brain fart that I didn't notice.