Chapter Three

Escape

"You caught that?"

Wren nodded and dropped the large rat at my feet. "And that means that I win," she purred.

"She's right," Bear called over to us.

"But I caught more," I complained.

"My rat is bigger," Wren meowed.

"Oh yeah?" I pounced on her playfully. "Beat me now!"

Wren wriggled out from underneath me. "You may be big and fat, but I'm faster," She turned around and ran towards Bear. I started to follow her, but we both froze when we saw a sandy coloured cat walk around a bunch of dead monster shells.

Bear stood up. "Sandy?"

"Bear," she meowed. "Those two huge toms, the one's you said killed..." she trailed off and glanced over at us quickly. "They've been asking about you, Bear, and the kits. They found out about Shale, and how she died moons before these two were born, so they know you were lying about them being yours. They're trying to find you... you have to leave."

For a moment Bear was silent. "You're right... thank you for telling me..."

Sandy touched his side with her nose, "You've been a good friend, Bear. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too..." Bear glanced at his den, the one he had shared with us for just over a moon. "Good bye."

"Good luck," Sandy meowed. She looked over at us. "Good luck," she repeated.

(***)

"Go," Bear hissed.

I ran across the clearing with Wren at my side. We reached the other side and ducked behind a monster shell. Bear joined us within seconds.

"Did he see us?" Wren meowed.

Bear shook his head. "No. Go, Shatter," he meowed to me, since I was in the lead.

I began to creep forward. It was good to hear my name again, after a moon of being called Silver. Bear had started using out real names again, now that we had been discovered anyway. It seemed like we had been creeping through the monster graveyard for moons.

We reached the end of the pile and all stopped walking. Bear stepped up beside me and looked quickly looked around the clearing. "All right, go," he meowed. The three of us ran together to the other side and into another pile of monster pieces.

"How many more..." Wren complained.

"We're almost out," Bear promised. "Keep going, Shatter."

I nodded and started forward yet again. I tried to find tunnels that I knew Bear would fit through. I was almost the same size as him, and I was pretty sure that the only reason he was still bigger was because of his long fur. We reached the end of that pile, and this time when we looked out we could see a thunderpath, and live monsters, and twolegs. We were almost out. "Go," Bear meowed. "Run for it. Once we're out, they'll stop following us."

"Fast as you can, Wren," I meowed.

She nodded. "Fast as I can."

We started running at the same time, but Wren quickly gained and soon was at least a taillength ahead of me. Just as I had gotten bigger, Wren had gotten sleeker and quicker. She was much faster than me. I was watching her get farther and farther ahead of me, and closer and closer to the huge walls that we had to pass. Then suddenly, something hit me.

I rolled over and was up on my feet again before the huge black cat could dig his claws into my side. He lunged towards me, and I lashed out at his face in response. I heard Bear hissing and out of the corner of my eye saw him fighting the huge bluish gray cat. I felt claws dig into my left foreleg, and I yowled in pain as they tore down my leg. I pulled away and felt the claws rip out of my leg, then, hissing, I threw myself onto the tom.

I'm not sure quite what I did, but the black cat was soon limping away. I turned my attention to Bear and the gray cat. With a hiss I threw myself into that battle. Bear and I quickly beat back the huge tom. Then, we turned together and ran out of the monster graveyard, to where Wren was waiting for us.