Chapter Nine

The Curse

"Fox? No... no, you're dead..." the she-cat took a step back, her eyes wide with shock. "You died."

Fox shook his head. "No, mother. I never died. I left."

"All my kits died," the she-cat hissed. "My four beautiful kits. Snow, Wolf, Blossom, Fox..." she stared down at the ground sadly.

"I'm not dead."

Suddenly, she was staring at Fox again. "You must be. You have to be. You all died. It was a curse. I shouldn't have had kits with a kittypet. He was weak, you were all too weak... you all died. I tried to protect you."

"Mo-"

"Quite," she hissed at him. "If you are not dead, then you're not my son. My sons died."

I started to talk at the same time Wren did. We glanced quickly at each other, then I fell silent and let Wren continue. "This is your son. He didn't die. There's no curse."

"Of course there's a curse," the she-cat hissed, I almost leapt forward to protect my sister, but managed to hold back. "If there wasn't a curse, why would my little Snow have gotten sick when I took care of her? Why would Wolf be killed by rogues, when all us rogues had an agreement to never hurt kits? Why would a twoleg thrown a rock at Blossom, so hard that it killed her? Why was my Fox crushed by a twoleg monster?"

I shivered unintentionally and glanced over at Fox to see that he had done the same. Crushed by a twoleg monster? Maybe it had happened, and he'd survived? But that didn't make sense. He was perfectly healthy, perfectly fit. There was nothing wrong with him. I couldn't help myself, I stepped towards his mother and in my most threatening voice meowed, "I think you need to leave now." I noticed that Wren had moved closer to Fox after the story of his apparent death. I had to protect them both from the crazy she-cat.

"You're traveling with a ghost," she told me. "Crushed by a twoleg monster, while he was crossing a thunderpath. I saw it happen. He was dead."

"Leave."

She stared at me for a moment, then turned and disappeared through the bushes.

(***)

"She's sick, Fox," Wren was murmuring quietly. "Of course that never happened. What happened to your sisters and brother was terrible, and in her mind she made up the story of what happened to you."

We had decided to leave that place. To head to the fields, where we would be safe. Wren and I walked on either side of Fox, whose head was drooped to the ground.

"I know," he meowed. "Still..."

Wren licked his shoulder. "I know."

We walked in silence for awhile. Then the twoleg dens stopped. In front of us were fields. Fox brightened immediately.

"That's amazing," Wren meowed. "We'll find a home there, for sure!"

"Can ghost cat's have homes?"

I spun around to see Fox's mother sitting on top of twoleg wall. I felt Fox stiffen at my side, but he didn't turn around. "You two go," I meowed, glanced at Wren. "I'll get rid of her and catch up."

Wren nodded, then gently prodded Fox's side. "Let's go, Flare."

I walked towards the twoleg wall and jumped up on top, hoping that the jump looked graceful, but knowing that it probably hadn't. I walked right up to Fox's mother. She was a small cat, I was surprised that she wasn't intimidated,

"Leave us alone."

"There is a curse," she meowed at me. "It clung to me, it killed my kits." She stared right at Wren and Fox, who were just disappearing behind a grassy hill. "You're traveling with a ghost."

"Fox is not a ghost. He's not dead." Then I heard a terrible sound, a loud screech, a thump, the roar of a twoleg monster.

"The curse..." Fox's mother murmured one last time.

Then, from the other side of the grassy hill, came a yowl of anguish. "No, no, no, no, no!"

I was off of the wall in a flash, I landed on the cool green grass, and I ran.