Chapter 3: Blackmail Has A Name

It has been coming up two months since my adoption. Rusty and I have been enhancing our endurance and training our bodies every chance we were together. I felt a level of kinship with the kit who I now call friend. He is an optimist that desires adventure. Meanwhile I am a realist that feels caged. We've been inseparable. He brings out my adventurous side and I keep him safe.

While Rusty and I were training, Adi has been doing a training of a sort herself. I've been watching her. She managed to scrounge together enough money to buy a cheap laptop. Since then, she's been using it daily for some kind of research. I could only guess it was towards getting a veterinarian career. The pictures of pet surgeries and anatomy diagrams gave it away. Fortunately for me, she also was interested in animal behavioral patterns. Every night she'd watch a nature documentary, and I'd be there with her. I still couldn't decipher the human language, but I did get some free chances to observe animals and how they act via those documentaries. I knew they'd come in handy eventually.

Rusty and I's latest adventure began on a slightly overcast afternoon. The sky was shrouded with light clouds giving cooling shade but not implying rain just yet. Usually Adi kept me inside on weekends, but she'd recently been making some kind of document, an application of sorts, and sending it to various groups. She was a hard worker. Whatever she was working towards, I was sure she'd somehow make it possible.

Regardless of Adi, I shook myself out in the morning breeze. My fur slightly fluffed at the motion. My black spots left warm patches touching my skin. Then I heard the neighbor's door click in an oh so familiar manner. Just as always, I leapt onto the fence separating our yards awaiting Rusty's attention. These past two months had matured him a bit, but he was still a kit, meanwhile Rusty reminded me that I was a kit as well. All this knowledge given by my past life left me mature, too mature. It had a tendency to give me stress. Rusty was my ball of sunshine who melted away that worry. He was my best friend.

"Smudge! You're out today!" My friend mewed with a happy grin.

"I am. Adi's been busy lately, so I get more time out here. Since we worked so hard on our jumping yesterday, let's do something you want to today."

Rusty's eyes lit with delight. He knew the purpose of our training, but he wanted to know the wider world. Waiting for it just wasn't in his nature.

"I want to meet some more cats of the area."

Rusty was really an extroverted cat. I loved his caring nature.

"I think I know a few that you haven't met yet. I made sure they're safe."

Rusty tilted his head before replying, "You smudged them."

I tilted my ears back in annoyance. "Please stop using my name like it is an action. Sure I have some secrets on them, but it's for the greater good."

Rusty laughed at my reaction. With that light hearted laugh, I couldn't keep up my act. Rusty finished laughing to respond. "Exactly! Smudged! That's what you do. Don't act like you aren't having fun."

I had to concede. Digging into cats' pasts was quite enjoyable. I may be somewhat of a sociopath for being like this, but having something to sway a cat or push them in my desired direction gave me a thrill. It wasn't like I used that information actively, but it made me feel safe and somewhat powerful.

"We're heading this way. There's two cats I want you to meet. One is a rogue and the other claims to know about the cats in the forest."

Whenever I mentioned the forest, Rusty's ears would perk, and a pep would enter his step. He truly loved the place, or at least the idea of it. As we made our way towards where I knew the cats would be, we passed many other backyards, or gardens as they were locally termed, and a few cats we knew. Human's would believe we aren't super social creatures. They are wrong. Despite old cat Henry being slow and lazy, cats come to him to chat.

"Hey Henry, Dolly."

Henry looked up slowly, but Dolly, the short silver furred cat with somewhat glassy eyes, looked up a good bit quicker.

"Hey Smudge, Rusty. You two out on another adventure or is Smudge out to put another smudge on some cat?"

I scowled at the term. Apparently I'd done the whole blackmailing thing too much because now every cat in the place called getting blackmailed getting smudged. If you are wondering if I had anything on Dolly, I did. Every cat talks about her glassy eyes, but I was the one who found out one is fake. Yes really. One is an actual glass eye. I don't know how it happened, but it popped out one day. She tried to hide it, but I found her and convinced her I'd get her home secretly. No other cat knew, but I did.

"Adventure today." I responded.

"Smudge told me we're meeting two cats. One is a rogue and the other knows about the forest cats/"

I saw Henry's head lift at this. He was always the proponent of fearing the forest. What I had on him was that he wasn't as "fixed" as every cat believed. In truth, he had a couple mollies he'd go out to see under the cover of night. He wasn't nearly as lazy as he pretended to be.

"What is there to know? It's dangerous out there. Those cats would tear you to pieces over a mouse."

Rusty snorted at that, believing Henry a liar, but in all the time I've known him, his rumors always originate from a nugget of truth. Likely the forest cats were territorial.

Dolly spoke up next. "I don't know. The forest is pretty scary. I'm guessing you're wanting to meet Scratch and Bark."

I gave a nod. "Got it in one."

With that, Rusty and I kept going. Soon we came upon an alley. Bark and Scratch were chatting inside. It was clear they were mates despite Bark being a pet. They looked up as we approached.

"Smudge. Back again to get more dirt on us?"

I shook my head somewhat playfully. "No. We're out here to hear some stories. Rusty here wants to know about the forest while I wouldn't mind learning some skills."

Scratch's eyes softened at my response. Often cats forget how young I am until I ask for things like this. While Bark starting telling Rusty some stories she'd heard second hand about the forest, Scratch began teaching me some basic skills like how to crouch, stalk on asphalt, and some very basic battle moves. I was by no means a prodigy or even good at these things, but I am the type to take note and memorize what I did see. It was material Rusty and I could train on going forward. With each day that passed, I could tell the call of the wild was getting stronger to Rusty. Meanwhile my own flightiness was peaking as well. This was largely due to a letter I spotted at my home. It bore two bright letters and in blocky type was one word. The way Adi danced at seeing it told me everything. It was an acceptance letter, and it was for a college. Soon Adi would leave, and my options were to stay with her parents who hated me or find something else. I already knew my answer. I was going to leave when she left. I only faintly hoped that when I finally disappeared, she'd cut connections with her parents who neglected her.