Chapter Four

Farewell

"Shatter, stop it. You're hurt."

"I'm fine," I hissed under my breath, and I kept walked despite her order. Bear and Wren followed me as I led us as far away from the monster graveyard as I could.

"Shatter."

"I'm fine," I replied, once again.

"Wren," Bear spoke up, "Your brother's a born fighter. I've never seen a cat pick it up that quickly, let alone beat off two full grown, killer toms."

I paused at that and glanced back at him. "I didn't do it myself, Bear. You fought off that grey one. I just helped a bit."

Bear purred, "A bit? Shatter, I was losing. You're amazing."

"It's because he's so fat and stubborn," I heard Wren mutter.

"I'm not f-"

"No, you're just stubborn, now, sit down," Wren ordered. This time, I did what I was told with a sigh. Wren inspected my shoulder. "They don't look too bad."

"Exactly, I'm fine."

Bear glanced at my wound over Wren's head. "They'll heal. But you'll be scarred."

I shrugged.

Bear shook his head at me, then meowed "All right, Wren, let's try to find somewhere to spend the night? Fighter can find us some food."

"What happened to Silver?" I meowed.

"I decided that Fighter suits you much better," Bear explained.

"All right then, Fluff, I'll go hunting."

Bear purred again, "Very clever."

"I thought so," I meowed. I stood up and walked away to find something for us to eat.

(***)

When I returned with two rats, Bear was gone. I dropped my rats at Wren's feet. "Where is he?"

"In the den," She meowed. "Come on," she picked up one of the rats and led me away. After a few turns and a walk part of couple of twoleg nests, we found Bear under a twoleg wooden platform.

"Nice catch, Fighter," he meowed.

I dropped the rat. "Thanks, Fluff." Wren and I sat beside Bear, and we all ate our fill. After we had eaten, Bear curled up and fell fast asleep. I started lazily licking the dried blood from my shoulder.

"Shatter?"

"What?" I meowed in between licks.

"Bear's hurt too, you know. It's not like you, though, it's not a cut. I don't know what it is, and he tried to hide it, but I noticed."

"He..." I trailed off and glanced at her, then at Bear. "Are you sure, Wren? He seemed perfectly fi-"

"You're an unobservant fur ball, Shatter." Wren hissed.

"All right..." I meowed quietly. "All right, sorry. What are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Wren meowed, calming down as quickly as she had gotten angry. She yawned, and then added, "We should try to talk to him about it."

"You should go to sleep," I corrected.

"Shatter."

"Wren," I replied.

"Fine..." she lowered her head. "Fine. You get some sleep too."

"Of course, Wren."

(***)

I was woken up by what sounded almost like thunder. I tried to get to my feet, but Bear hissed at me to stop.

"Its just a twoleg," he meowed. "On the platform above us. Stay quiet and it'll never know we're here."

I lowered myself back down. "There hasn't been a twoleg up there for days... Can't it smell us?"

Bear shook his head. "Twolegs are stupid, Shatter. They don't know how to smell for things."

When the sounds finally stopped, Bear meowed. "All right, I think we've stayed here long enough. Let's get out of here." I stood up and led the way out from under the platform. Before stepping out, I quickly glanced around and could see no twolegs. So I left the shelter of the platform, Bear and Wren following me. We were halfway across the grass clearing when suddenly a twoleg came into view and closed a huge flat tree.

"We're trapped!" Wren meowed loudly. "Follow me." She bolted past me, straight towards the wall of flat trees. She must have seen a hole, so I ran after her with Bear right beside me. Then, Wren jumped.

It was the highest jump I had ever seen, landing her right on top of the wall. I came to a stop. "Wren, I can't do that."

"Neither can I," Bear added.

"Yes you-" Wren's eyes suddenly flicked to something behind us. Bear and I spun around to face the twoleg. I placed myself a step in front of Bear and hissed at the twoleg.

It crouched and held a paw towards us.

"Go away," I hissed again, arching my back.

Another twoleg walked out of the den and joined the first one. It also crouched and put something that looked like a flat white rock on the ground. The two twolegs then backed up and sat down on the wooden platform.

"Shatter, Bear, come on," Wren meowed from the top of the wall.

"Wait..." Bear walked cautiously towards the white rock. "This is food."

"Don't, Bear, wait."
"Calm down, Shatter," Bear meowed. "I used to belong to twolegs, back before I met your father and Shale. This is food. These are good twolegs."

"Good twolegs? There's no such thing, Bear," Wren called.

Bear flicked her tail at her. "Yes there are." He had reached the white rock, and he sniffed the stuff on it. Then he licked it. "This is good food."

"Bear, the twolegs!" I meowed loudly. The smaller one had moved forward. Bear raised his head and stared at it. It moved slowly forward, then 0placed its paw on his head. "Bear," I started to go forward, fully prepared to attack the twoleg, but a sound stopped me. It was Bear purring.

I froze. "Bear, we have to go."

There was a long moment of silence before Bear turned to look at me. "Shatter..." he glanced up and Wren, "Wren. These are good twolegs, I can tell. We could live with them and be safe."

I shook my head, and behind me I heard Wren meow "We can't, Bear."

"Well..." Bear glanced down at his paws for a moment. "I... I think I'll stay with them." He ignored our meows of protest and continued. "Its not because I don't care for you. I couldn't care more about you two if you were my own kits. But I'm sick. I can feel it. I... something tells me that these twolegs will be able to help me."

"But... what about us, Bear?"

"You're more than capable of taking care of yourselves," Bear pointed out. "I would be very happy if you chose to stay with me, but I understand if you feel the need to move on."

Suddenly Wren was standing beside me. "Bear... we'll miss you." She walked over to him and pressed her head against his side. "Thank you for everything, Bear..."

Bear licked her forehead. "I'll miss you too, Wren, but I feel like we'll meet again someday."

I walked up to join them, watching the twolegs carefully. "Goodbye, Fluff," I meowed.

Bear purred. "Goodbye, Fighter. You've grown so much since I first met you... both of you have. Take care of yourselves."

"I'll protect her."

"I don't need any protecting," Wren protested. She touched Bear's shoulder one last time, then turned and walked back to the wall, where she repeated the huge leap that landed her on the top. "Come on, Shatter."

I ran to the wall, got ready, and then jumped. My jump was nowhere near as graceful as Wren's. I had to pull myself up the last bit by my front paws. Once I was on top of the wall, Wren and I glanced back at Bear one last time, to see that the smaller twoleg was gently picking him up.

For once, it was Wren who led us away.