Chapter One

Monster Shells

Wren and I grew quickly. I had always been bigger than her, but the difference was getting greater as we grew. Our parents started to teach us things we needed to know, how to hunt, how to fight, how to live. We went on long walks, where our parents would point out important things like thunderpaths, live monsters, twolegs, and, the worse things, dogs.

One day, when we were six moons old, when Willow was sleeping and our father was out hunting, I made a decision.

"Wren," I meowed.

"What, Shatter?"

"Let's go exploring by ourselves!" I exclaimed.

Wren shook her head. "No. That's dumb, Shatter."

"No its not, Wren! We'll have so much fun, and we can even catch some food!"

"Not enough food for us and mama and papa."

"Well... yeah, but still. They'll be so proud! Come on Wren."

Wren sighed, "Well... all right, Shatter." She stood up and walked over to me. "But, if we get in trouble, I'm going to be so angry at you."

"I'll tell them that it was my idea," I promised.

"Oh, well, in that case..." Wren poked my shoulder. "You're it!" she ran off before I had even understood what happened.

"Wren!" I yowled. Purring, I chased after her.

I caught up with her quickly, and pounced onto her back. We rolled over a couple of times before coming to a stop with Wren pinning my down. "I win, Shatter."

I wriggled out from under her and looked around. "Wow, Wren, look at all these dead monsters!" There were piles of them all around us. "We've never been here before."

Wren shook her head, "No, 'cause usually when we go out with mama and papa we go the other way, towards the thunderpath. We don't come back here."

"But there's so much to do here!" I ran up to one of the monster shells. "I found a hole, Wren!" I squeezed through the hole and found myself inside the dead monster. It was much bigger than the one we lived it.

"Shatter?" Wren meowed from outside. "What hole?"

I stuck my head out of the monster. "Here, Wren."

"Oh..." Wren walked over to the hole and squeezed through it. "Wow, this is huge."

I nodded. "Its amazing. Come on!" I ran to the other side of the monster, where I could make out a dark tunnel. "Look at this!"

Wren padded up beside me. "Shatter... we're in a dead monster, right? Well, do you think, when we died, things live in us?"

I flicked her with my tail. "Don't be silly, Wren, we're not big enough to live in."

"A mouse could live in us."

"Only one. Mice lives in groups, though," I pointed out.

Wren looked thoughtful, then she nodded. "Yeah... I guess so."

"Let's go in here," I meowed, staring into the tunnel. "Where do you think it goes?"

Wren shrugged. "I don't know, Shatter. But I think you're too big."

"No, I'll fit."

"No," Wren meowed, pushing me out of the way. "I'll fit. Stay here."

I watched as my sister crouched and pulled herself into the tunnel. Soon, even her long tail had disappeared into the darkness. "Wren!" I called.

"Wait, Shatter, I'm almost there... Oh! Shatter, its a cave!"

"A cave?"

"Its made of dead mo-" I heard her hiss.

"Wren? Are you all right?"

"I just pricked my paw," she replied. "These monster shells are sharp. I'm coming back, Shatter."

"All right." A moment later, she was pulling herself out of the tunnel. I sniffed her paw, "Let me see."

She sat down and turned it over. "Just a little prick on my pad."

I licked it, "There, all better."

Wren purred, "Thanks, Shatter." Then she stood up. "Let's get out of these monsters." She padded over to the hole and stepped out into the sunshine. I followed her. We walked between the huge piles of monsters.

"What about bugs?" Wren suddenly meowed.

"What about bugs?" I asked.

"Could they live in us?"

"Um... I guess so... Let's play a game, Wren!" I ran away from her than turned around to face her and crouched. "Grrr. I'm a dog. I'm going to eat you!"

Wren shook her head. "No you're not. I'm going to eat you!"
"Cat's don't eat dogs."

"Most cats don't," Wren agreed. "But I'm a super cat! I eat dogs all the time!" she hissed playfully and ran towards me.

I pretended to growl again and got myself ready for her attack, when I noticed something behind her. I stood up and stared over her shoulder.

Wren came to a stop right before she hit me. "What are you doing, Shatter? Do you want me to eat you?"

"There are eyes in the monster shells." I meowed.

"What do you mean?" Wren spun around, I heard her gasp and knew she had seen the same thing I did. Glowing eyes were appearing in all the dark shadows and holes in the piles of monster shells.

"Run," I hissed at my sister. When she shook her head, I hissed again, "Run, Wren. I'm going to follow you." On hearing that I'd follow, she turned around and ran away from the eyes. A moment later, I followed her. I adjusted my pace so that I'd stay a taillength behind her. There was no way I'd let those eyes get near her!

We turned a corner and suddenly Wren stopped running. It was so unexpected that I almost ran into her, but managed to stop just in time. In front of us was a large brown cat.

"Where're you two off to in such a hurry?" he meowed.

"There were eyes..." Wren meowed quietly.

"Rats, you mean?" the tom meowed. "Good thing you ran away, those rats would've eaten up two little kits like you."

"We're not kits," I meowed bravely.

The tom looked at me. "No, I guess you aren't. Hey... you two look a lot like Shard. Are you his kits?"

I nodded.

"I haven't seen Shard in moons, or his pretty mate... Willow, right?" When I nodded, he carried on. "Must've been busy with you two... I'll take you home, shall I? Rats will be less likely to bother me."

I glanced at Wren, and then nodded for the third time. "Yes... thank you."

"No problem," the tom meowed. "It'll be nice to see your parents again. Let's go... oh, by the way, m'name's Bear."