CHAPTER 3-Migration

She followed the star long after the sun had set. The crescent moon drifted among the darkening clouds and helped to light her way as she padded wearily across the city. The wild thumping of her head and stopped beating so fast and she was calm enough to collect her senses, but not calm enough to stop jumping and seizing at every little noise.

There was the smell of concrete and dirt in the air all around her, stronger near the road so that she would sneeze every so often. Where am I going...

A row of black shapes loomed up in front of her so suddenly that she skidded to a halt and almost fell over in surprise, only to realize that they were only trash cans and not a gang of shadows coming to take her away. Embarrassed, she forced her ruffled fur to lie flat and hoped that no one spotted her.

Her stomach rumbled and she glanced down sharply in surprise. When was the last time she had eaten? Last night? The stench of rotten things mingled together seeped out from inside the trash cans, but beyond the acidic reek came a tiny, familiar pale smell. Food! her stomach screamed, but she wrinkled her nose and hesitated.

Well. She was a cat. What did she have to lose? Bunching up her hindquarters, she flexed her muscles to test them out and held her breath. The metal gleamed in the moon coldly and she narrowed her eyes, keeping them fixed at the top of the lid. Now!

She made a daring leap forward-and it was just enough for her to latch her claws onto the head of the trash can and she winced as she felt her claws graze harshly against the metal, the sound of it raking through her ears. Throwing herself forward, she tried to land herself on top but only succeeded in sending the entire thing toppling down onto the sidewalk.

CRASH! BANG! A million rockets went off and collided in her ear drums, throwing off a wild symphony of banging and of clattering pans. A cry of surprise broke out of her throat as she scrambled away to one side, heart thudding and eyes wide. The can now lay on its side, the contents spewed every which way as if it had exploded. What a mess, she thought, and shuddered to think of what the people would say when they found this the next morning.

Her stomach rumbled again, and she was beginning to question its taste of rotten cabbage and plastic forks and old rubber heels when she spotted something that at least looked remotely edible among the scrambled mess. Nosing it, she stuck the tip of her tongue out and carefully tasted it. Chicken. Brightening, Ashley quickly lapped it up and soon discovered leftover noodles, bones, and an apple core. The nauseating smell made her gag, but at least it would fill her belly for the night.

Ashley was busy lapping up spilled milk when she heard the soft patter of paws coming her way. For a fleeting, terrifyingly real moment, she wondered if another cat was coming toward her, but was greeted with a pair of glowing eyes when she lifted her head. The rancid, oily smell that came in waves told her it was not a cat, unless it was a cat who had spent the last two weeks living in a garbage chute.

Its ringed tail bristled, its soft grey fur shone a milky color under the moon. A raccoon, Ashley realized. The creature sauntered forward until it was a few feet in front of her. It bared its teeth and hissed.

Ashley blinked in surprise.

It snarled again and took a closer step forward, as if taunting her.

It wants the food, she realized. It's hungry and it wants-

"Ow! Hey, stop!" Its nails fastened themselves into her skin and she felt its hot breath as it breathed the stench of rotten eggs into her nostrils. Its mad, angry chittering was the only thing she could hear. She tried to fling it off. The raccoon held on securely with its teeth, tightening its jaws with every movement she made until the searing pain in her shoulder was too much to bear.

Grunting, she stood up on her hind legs and thrashed crazily, feeling a heavy thunk! as she connected with a telephone pole. The raccoon shrieked in pain. Instantly, its hold gave way and she was on her feet, gasping through her breath and running as fast as she could, not seeing where she went but feeling the red-hot pain throbbing in her shoulder as if someone had taken a poker and had burned her.

The raccoon...had it left? Hurling herself into a bush, the black cat cautiously peered out. There, outlined in moonlight, was the raccoon making a feast of the overturned trash can. At least it's gone now.

She checked herself hastily. She was bleeding from a scratch on her nose, and reluctantly she sniffed her shoulder. The fur there was mangled and broken, and judging from the wetness she knew that there was blood too. Could raccoons kill cats? she wondered. If so, then she was lucky to have survived.

She awoke to the warmth of sunlight soaking through her fur. Blinking groggily, she slowly sat up and remembered just in time to not jostle her shoulder. The blood had dried into a dark brown and stuck to the edges of her fur. With a few licks, it came off.

The cat was lying in a shallow ditch in the ground, and as she tried to scramble out her paws throbbed in protest. They were marred with small scratches from walking on the rough concrete all night long. But where was the smell of smog and sidewalk dust? When she gazed around, she was greeted with the sight of long, winding grass that flowed with the wind. Ashley had finally escaped the bustling grasp of the city. The grass murmured sleepily and shone like a sea of sun. They gave off a tangy and sweet scent that she couldn't get enough of, and when she stretched her back and tail it seemed that today would be different. It felt so fresh, so clean.

But the star. The star! It had disappeared among the bright blue of the sky. Now what? Now she was completely and utterly alone. A wail rose in her throat and she choked it down, determined not to give in to the feeling of despair that threatened to bring her down.

The silence was deafening. And then she felt it. It was a slight touch, so gentle that she wasn't sure if she had actually felt it or not. A sigh of the wind, a fluttering of a butterfly, the trace of pollen, so delicate and subtle. It wound its fingers over her and gently tugged. She blinked.

She concentrated with all her might and it took faith for her to finally decide that yes, it was real. The star hadn't left her. It was still there somewhere, hurrying her onward. It pointed toward something in the distance, a hazy smudge in the faraway sky that looked like a stain among the blue. A forest?

Ashley began to journey once more. Her paws felt as if they would fall off, but she couldn't give up, not when it was so close!

An old, cracked road wound its way through the tall grass like a river. By the looks of it, nothing had trod upon it for a long, long time. A road. It seemed to peer at it with an ancient, weathered face. The cracks deepened. She delicately placed one paw on its surface and felt the weathered, roughness of it. The cracks deepened.

And she began to follow it.

Her throat burned as if she had swallowed sand, and for some queer reason Ashley felt that she was not on earth but was actually drifting somewhere a million miles away, away from her body and from everything else. Everything ached. Moving her limbs was like moving the rusty arm of a thousand-year-old machine that had broken down. She just couldn't do it. Exhaustion had settled into every seam of her existence; it nestled in her weary lungs and glued her eyes shut. Where am I? she wondered. Had she reached the forest? She didn't remember. Her brain worked through a fog, if it could even work at all. Her body was shutting itself down.

"See, Berrynose, I told you I smelled an intruder."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"I told you! But do you ever listen to me?"

"Bumblestripe, just shut up for once. What should we do with her?"

"Can't you see that she's awfully hurt? We should take her with us!"

"Mouse-brain. She might be an intruder from another Clan."

But we can't just leave her here! She's..."

The voices drifted away and Ashley was spun into a spiral, falling from dizzying heights.