Chapter 8:

Lovino panted heavily as he forced his paws to continue moving across the soft forest ground. Night had descended making it hard to see the trees around them. Lovino squinted ahead, trying to discern trunk for background, and swerving sharply when he cut it too close. Gilbert had been keeping this speedy pace up all day, barely slowing or showing signs of losing energy. Lovino, on the other hand, was at the end of his rope. Tongue lolling out the side of his mouth, the tom struggled to follow the cat in front of him, his white fur and silver stripes gleaming in the star light.

The cats were flying across the densely packed earth, paws barley skimming the surface, leaving trails of spinning leaves in their wake. Lovino had long lost track of where they were headed, trusting the silver tabby in front of him to be his guide; and he hated it. Being dependent on some other cat was hard for him, and always wounded his pride. But at this point he was too tired to care, and begged silently in his head for Gilbert to stop at some point. Giving in to his crying pads, Lovino skidded to a stop and allowed himself to drop to the ground.

Gilbert heard the light thump behind him and slowed to a halt a few paw strides ahead. Lovino was lying on his side, panting heavily in the dark. The poor tom was exhausted, but this was sadly lost on Gilbert as he padded up to his traveling buddy.

"Hey, dude! What's wrong?"

"What's… wrong?" Lovino panted, turning to glare at the cat in front of him. "What's wrong?! I'll tell you what's wrong! That deadly pace you've been setting for the past sun cycle's what's wrong!" he took a break to catch his breath once more. "What kind of unearthly being can run that fast for that long?!"

"Hahaha!" Gilbert chuckled in that boisterous voice. "With the awesome life style that I've been living, I've been running most of my life!"

"With that attitude I wouldn't be surprised if most of it was from being run out of town." Lovino muttered angrily under his breath. Gilbert glared at the comment, but shrugged it off a few moments later.

"So, you're tired. Alright. We'll rest for a bit." And the tabby sat down next to him to wait.

It couldn't have been more than a few moments, Lovino's muscles still ached in pain and he was short of breath, but to Gilbert it felt more like a few days. The tom was twitching and fidgeting with anticipation, paws whining to run through the forest once again. Eventually, Gilbert had to stand and pace to try to keep himself calm. Lovino looked up from where he had been grooming himself, watching Gilbert with an annoyed look. Why couldn't that cat keep still? Gilbert sat back next to Lovino, wanting to distract himself with some talk.

"Hey, Lovino." He poked the cat in the shoulder with a paw, and Lovino had to force himself not to jump on the tabby and claw his ears off. "Wanna see something cool?" The tabby stood and held a forepaw out towards Lovino.

The tom had no idea what he was doing. Gilbert rolled his eyes again.

"You're supposed to his my paw with one of your paws!"

"Why?"

"I saw these two Nofurs do this once. I thought it was a much awesomer greeting than touching noses or bowing." Gilbert listed the two customary actions with obvious annoyance and disgust. Lovino still looked at him like he was crazy.

"Just try it!" Gilbert said frustrated.

Lovino sighed and stood, deciding to throw him a bone for once, and raised a paw above Gilbert's.

"Uh… how does this work?"

"Just bring it down on top of mine. Like a slap. No claws, though. Don't need you scratching up my awesome pads."

Lovino rolled his eyes for what must have been the tenth time that day, and brought his paw speeding towards Gilbert; only to have the tabby yank his away at the last second. Lovino's paw struck the ground with a mighty whump, and the tom cried out in pain as Gilbert busted into hysterical laughter. Lovino growled and crouched in front of the silver tom, muscles bunching as he prepared to spring.

"Uh, oh." Gilbert turned and ran as Lovino lunged at him.

Like a flash of silvery water, Gilbert bounded up and over the crest of a hill in the forest and Lovino gave chase. The tabby continued to laugh and giggle in glee as he fled over hills and valleys, past trees and hallows, and Lovino felt something peculiar bubbling in his stomach. He was enjoying this. Running over the ever passing landscape had earlier seemed like more of a punishment, but now he was really seeing the forest; the silver outlines of shapes in the dark, the deep clinging scents of passing creatures and aging plants, all of it spoke to the wild contained deep within.

The wind flowed through his fur and lifted his spirits, and he spotted Gilbert's tail flickering and waving just out of reach. The scenery was replaced within Lovino's mind, and suddenly he was running though a fall colored park on the midst of a shining day, chasing a smaller brown tail fleeing in front of him. The face of a kit turned back to face him, its brown furred features covered by a white spot on its mussel.

Come on, brother! Faster!

Lovino stopped dead in his tracks out of shock. He stood stiff, hunched and breathing. As the sound of paw steps ceased behind Gilbert, the tabby slowed and looked behind him. Walking back over the peak of the hill he had crossed, he was shocked to see the tan tom frozen like that. He padded slowly over to Lovino.

"Hey… you all right?" he asked cautiously.

Lovino's head shot up, furious gaze locked on Gilbert's red eyes, and Gilbert felt frightened for one of the few times in his life.

"I can't believe I let myself get dragged around like that!" Gilbert stepped back at the force of his outcry.

"Honestly, prancing around like a fluff headed kit, what was I thinking?"

"Hey, everyone needs to have fun once in a while." He remarked, still a little unsure of the tom's current mood.

Lovino glared at him again, before turning and walking past, purposefully allowing his shoulder to bump Gilbert out of the way.

"Listen, thanks for getting me this far, but I have real business to take care of." He spoke very condescendingly. "I can't keep playing games with you, little kit. So just run off and find some new play mate."

Gilbert whipped around, now furious.

"Who in the star cat's names made your mission so much more important than mine? You have no idea what I'm looking for, so don't even give me that sort of talk, dung face!" he snapped. Lovino whirled around to face him, pressing his mussel close to Gilbert's personal space.

"I'll tell you what, mange breeder! I'm looking for family, while you're just out here dancing through the lea-"

"Wait, wait." Gilbert interrupted, previous malice gone from his voice. "You're looking for family?"

"Yeah. My brother." Lovino murmured. Gilbert's eyes lit up.

"I'm looking for my brother, too!" Lovino looked towards him with disbelief.

A flash lit up the sky a blinding white, and a monstrous roar ripped through the air as rain began to fall heavily upon their heads. Lovino glared towards the sky with a look of utter frustration. He was done with the world! Gilbert chuckled a bit, and spoke up with a friendlier tone.

"Let's find a place to rest until the rain is gone."

"Yeah." The anger had finally left Lovino along with the rain, leaving the cat simply tired and depressed. "Let's do that."

Gilbert gazed in wonder at the rain drops falling over head. The droplets caught the star light and shone like small gems dropping down from the sky. He was captivated by their simple beauty. The cat curled next to him just grumbled in annoyance. Lovino didn't like the closeness between them, but the branches they were crouched under only provided a spot of total cover where their leaves crossed to form a sturdy roof. Gilbert looked over at the tan tom beside him, and felt a stab of sympathy towards the cat. He was obviously distressed and angry at… well, everything it seemed. But one questioned still lingered in the tabby's mind.

"So, Lovino?" The tom's eyes drifted to Gilbert.

"Can you tell me about your brother?" Lovino now picked his head up. "Like, how you got separated, and what he was like?"

"Why?" Lovino asked with suspicion in his voice.

"Because I'm interested. And I'm looking for a brother too. And… I can tell it bothers you, so why not share the burden?" Lovino glared at him.

"Hey, it may sound silly, but I know from experience that talking about it does relieve some stress."

Lovino sighed in defeat. He was too tired to put up a fight again, and he was feeling bad about the mange breeder comment.

"Alright, I'll tell you. It was many seasons ago, so many I lost count. I was still a kit at the time, my brother just weaned off mother's milk."

We lived in the depths of the denning place, where the dens rose higher than all the others, straight metal trees stabbing at the sky. We slept in a soiled, old box in an alley. It was small, but with all four of us curled together inside, it was warm. One day, our parents walked off, and never came back. I wouldn't become aware until much later of the possibility that they were dead. Eventually, we got hungry, so as the oldest I took my brother to find food. We were so young at the time, we had no concept of how scary the world was, or how dangerous it was to be alone. To us, it was an adventure. And opportunity to be big cats. We got lucky the first few moons, the bins nearby were full of half eaten Nofur food, and the cats around us were willing to share with kits.

My brother looked up to me, worshiped me like a wise old cat who knew everything about everything. But we could not have been more wrong. I tried to teach him to hunt, but when he failed, I just said he wasn't doing it right, and he agreed whole heartedly. There were so many times we were close to death, but never realized it. He was almost crushed by a Beast, we were almost shredded by some rogues, torn apart by dogs, and food was becoming harder and harder to find. We were getting hungry, and my brother was getting whiney, and my nerves were at an end. I yelled at him to stop, and to go back to the box to wait for me… Oh, how could I have possibly known what was going to happen? When I got back to the box, he was lying on his side, breathing shallow and quick, and his fur felt like it was on fire. He was sick. Very sick. And each day it got worse.

His eyes glazed over, he could no longer stand, and I didn't know what to do. Panic clawed at my chest as I desperately searched for food. But it was pointless. Eventually, I heard of a cat in the park who knew about herbs and how to heal sick cats. I went to find him. Surely this healer could fix my brother. But he couldn't. Turns out, there is a special plant to get rid of fevers, he told me all about it. How it looked, how it tasted, how it smelled; but he had none. The plant was located in a part of town guarded by an extremely territorial group of rogues, who beat and sometimes killed the cats who trespassed.

But I was naive and desperate. I thought him a coward, a sniffling crying kit. But I was strong. Nothing could touch me. I could sneak past those rogues and take as many plants as I wanted no problem. So in the dead of night, I suck up to their boundary, and crossed the line. I got to the park, moving as silently as I could. The night was dense and black; I should have known it was a bad idea when I couldn't see a thing. I made it to the center of the park, and a sharp, stinging scent caught my nose. It was the fever plant. I left my stealth plan at the wayside in my excitement and ran towards the clump of leaves growing next to a huge oak tree. I was so distracted scooping up huge mouthfuls of thick scented stems that I was oblivious to the gleaming yellow eyes concentrated on me from the woods.

The silent figures crept slowly behind me, barely making a sound as they got closer and closer. By the time their horrid and stale scent caught my nose, they were on me. With a yowl, claws glinting in the night, they knocked me roughly to the side, pressing their heavy paws on my shoulders, sharp nails digging into my fur, a few inches from drawing blood. One pressed my head to the ground, grinding my nose in the dirt as they laughed above me. The one in the lead, a skinny grey tom, walked up and stuck is mussel in my face with scorn in his gaze. There was an absolute hatred for me that I had never seen in a cat before; and he had never met me before.

"Heh heh heh." His voice was gruff and strained like he hadn't spoken in a long time. "Looks like a rat has come sniffing at our door!" The other cats mewed in agreement.

"Well, we can't have rats scurrying around. They'll stink up the whole place!" I was trying to retort with a sharp come back about how bad they smelled, but my jaws were still clamped around the fever plant. The lead rogue noticed this and snapped the greens from me.

"What's this?" his voice was building in outrage. "This mangy rat has been tearing up our grass! Destroying our property!" The rest growled and hissed furiously at me. "No one takes from our territory and gets away with it! Teach him a lesson, boys!"

Teeth fastened around my neck and yanked me high into the air. I screamed as I was tossed aside, unable to defend myself as they descended upon me. Paws beat against me from all angles, sending me flying around like a piece of limp prey from angry cat to angry cat. Claws slashed down my fur, fangs bit and tore at my flesh. I felt warm and wet blood clog my pelt and splatter across the ground. Pain blossomed from all sides so fast and so quick that all the strikes blended together in a thousand points of suffering. I remember wishing for death right then and there. I thought the forest of flashing legs and squirming bodies would never stop!

My bruised and beaten body rolled across the ground and fell into a ditch, landing with a squelch in the sticky mud below. The substance clogged my wounds, but my mind was so far gone from consciousness that all I could do was let out a strained mew of pain. Cruel laughter drifted from above. The rogues stood in a line at the top of the gulch, shouting crude words and chuckling at my pain. As they turned and stalked away, the leader shot back one more insult that I could not hear before my vision went black.

When I next came to, I was sitting within a Metal Beast, tired and wrapped in brightly colored pelts with an ageing female Nofur taking me farther and farther away from my home, and my brother.

As the tale came to a close, Lovino was staring despairingly at the ground below, sadness welling to a breaking point. Gilbert watched him with a kind and worried gaze.

"There are some nights I still see them… the flashes of moving fur, the sting of failing paws, and those symbols… the strange 'x' scars marring their bodies… And some days, I wonder, why am I even trying? With how easily I was snatched up, and left him alone for so long… I don't even deserve to be his brother anymore. I don't even know if he's still alive!" Lovino wailed in despair as Gilbert chose to speak up.

"That's not true and you know it." Lovino looked up towards him, sorrow visible in his eyes. "No matter how far apart, no matter how many seasons separate you, a bond between brothers is something that can never be broken." Lovino still looked at him with disbelief. "If your brother is alive, and out there, then I know, with absolute certainty, that he's waiting for you to find him. He's waited all this time, and he'll wait a thousand years more until you find him again."

Lovino sniffed and rubbed his face. "How do you know?"

Gilbert gave him a 'duh' face. "I told you already, I have a brother too! And I lost him the same…"

It was also many seasons ago. I was a young cat, in the prime of my youth. At the time, I ruled the alley ways! My name had spread far and wide from my famous tricks; I've stolen bones from dogs, food from Nofurs, escaped from more kennels than I can count! Cats came from far and wide to ask my advice and help, and I couldn't have been happier. But there was one thing I was proud of more than anything else; my younger brother.

He was such a little kit, with stubby legs and a head for too big from the rest of his body, but I loved him more than life itself. He was a tough kit. Durable, in for all the rough patches that came with having such an awesome brother. Once he was big enough, I took him on all my excursions and tried to teach him to be just like me! He was slow, though, not able to keep pace, and was always in danger. But I never saw it that way, I just saw an opportunity to show off again.

I look care of him as best I could, he was always well fed, always safe, we had a great relationship. But I should have known I was running on luck, and that it was soon to run out.

I'd found a meat shop on the street full of tasty looking goodies. We planned to sneak in once a Nofur opened the door, very routine, we had done this before. Once the opportunity came, we were inside in a flash, quickly scouring the place for all the food we could find before he returned. Cramming a variety of different juicy meats into our mouths, we made a break for the door. In a split second, something flashed out of the corner of my eye, and I heard my brother scream in pain.

His paw had caught in the floor, sending him flat on his face and causing the food to scatter across the hard surface I turned back, dropping my own share as I tried to yank him out from the floor boards. At that moment, the Nofur came back in and spotted us. Screaming in outrage, he grabbed some tool off his desk and I knew he was calling for the animal catchers. Panic sped my pace as I yanked harder on my brother's scruff. He whined in pain, begging me to stop before his paw ripped off. But I was deaf in my desperation, and with a final tug, his paw popped free leaving a few blonde tuffs of fur behind on the wood.

We turned and sprinted for the opening that the Nofur had left open, leaping onto the street side and dashing down the side of the Black Path. Eventually, I figured we had left the place far behind, and I slowed to a walk. Laughter bubbled in my chest at the thrill of a close getaway, and I turned to my brother to boast. But something caught his eye, and he was staring wide-eyed behind me. Before he could open his mouth, a force slammed into my side and I was hoisted high into the air, dangling above my open mouthed brother.

I squirmed to look behind me, and was met with the huge, square face of a male Nofur. Some kind of mesh material surrounded me and I knew what this was. Desperately, I thrashed and slashed with my claws at the netting, but they just became tangled and caught within the small holes, and the Nofur walked away, blind to my struggles. I heard a desperate plea coming from the ground. My brother was running after us, pelting at full speed to try and keep up with the huge Nofur's strides. But it was no use. We got to his Metal Beast, and he shoved me into a cage in the back, slamming the doors in my face with only the grate allowing me to see outside.

The Beast started with a grumble and began to pull away, slowly gaining speed as it rolled down the Black Path. He was still running, trying to reach me, shouting my name and pleading for me to be let go. I knew at this point, the Nofur would notice and take him too; I couldn't allow that.

"Stop!" I shouted. "Don't follow me! Turn around and go home! Find a safe place to hide and wait for me there! I'll come find you again! I promise, brother!"

He had skidded to a halt, gazing confused and sad at the fleeing beast. At last he spoke up.

"Okay! I'll wait for you, brother! I'll wait as long as it takes for you to find me again! I promise!"

Emotion welled in my chest. He was so brave, so determined, just like me. I was so proud.

"I love you!" I screamed as the Metal Beast put on a burst of speed and revved out of sight.

"And that… was the last time I saw him." Gilbert gazed solemnly out of the tree, caught up in melancholy memories. "I was stuck in that kennel for a long time. The cages were metal with no opening for me to slip a paw towards the latch. And they fed us through flaps in the front so the door was never opened. It wasn't until that earth growl came along and cracked the den in half that I was able to escape. It's been a long time… but I know he's still waiting. A promise between brothers is a promise that will last forever."

He spoke with such convection and confidence, that Lovino could only stare. To have so much belief and hope… it made his own worries seem pointless. Of course his brother would be glad to see Lovino.

"Yeah." Lovino watched the rain fall. "Brothers are brothers."

Gilbert smiled at him.

"Now you get it."

And the two wandering felines drifted into sleep, with thoughts of reunion their lullabies.