Recap: Khia made a sketchy deal with Oakpaw in order to escape and find her brother. No surprise, Oak decided to cash this in early.


"Leaving?" she exclaims, mouth hanging open in suspended disbelief. Oakpaw glares at her, shushing her with impatient vigour. "Leaving?" she repeats, in a loud stage-whisper. "Right now?" She risks a glance at Thad, who looks just as confused as she is. When they made their deal, Khia had somehow assumed their escape would be clandestine and quiet, preferably in the middle of the night. No one would have to know until, of course, the inevitable discovery of their absence. No one encompassed both Thad and Gideon. Thaddeus deserves to be innocent. Gideon would get in the way.

Oakpaw rolls his eyes and shoulders his way in front of Thad. "That's what I just said."

"But I- not yet!" she exclaims, bristling as several cats turn to look at them. She still can't fight, and she doesn't feel ready to leave, to venture out into the darkness and danger that surrounds Cariad. She wonders why Oakpaw is suddenly so insistent, so malcontent and sharp.

"Leave with me now, or stay here and abandon your brother to PureClan." His words are cruel, but he says them without harsh inflection, only that consistent sense of urgency. Khia begins to bristle; she would never abandon Cariad, not while they both live.

"Khia?" Thaddeus asks, uncertaintly. "What's going on, what are you doing with him-"

"Shut up, city brat," Oakpaw snarls; they have even more of an audience now, and Khia attempts to placate them with a calm smile. "Come on, Khia. I'm not going to languish for another second inside this pit." With that, the bulky tabby turns to leave, pushing his way into the shadows beside the warehouse wall. He's determined, she sees, but that's only the nature of his character. Was it really his injury that bound him here, she wonders, or something else?

Khia doesn't turn to look at Thad, doesn't farewell him. If the world is not really such a malicious place as she's come to think it is, they will see each other again. He will only demand explanations, and then, refuse to let her leave. With him.

"Wait!" he hears him say, but she grits her teeth and moves on. No doubt he'll be off to find Gideon, and Khia really doesn't need more than one excuse not to leave. She catches up to Oakpaw, who's crouched amongst a pile of stale boxes that smell of sweat and rot. He's eyeing the exit, hardly subtle, but here in the darkness there's no one to see them.

"What's your plan?" Khia gasps, a little breathless. The excitement of escape and subterfuge has gone straight to her lungs.

Dimly, she spies Oakpaw rolling his eyes in likely exasperation. "That's your part of the bargain, remember? You help me escape, then I return the favour by helping your brother escape. So, what have you come up with so far?"

Khia squeaks indignantly. "You never told me to come up with a escape plan! And even if I had one, it would not involve running out in broad daylight for everyone to see!"

"You'd better come up with one quick," Oakpaw says, staring hard again at the warehouse doors, as if he can destroy the guards with the concentrated force of his very gaze. Maybe that's what he's trying to do. "They'll come looking for me soon, and no doubt your friends will start up a search and rescue party." She almost winces, because of course they will, even though this is something she must do. They'd keep her from danger, like a tiny kit or senseless idiot. They ought to know that danger has been with her her whole life.

Khia begins to think hard, pushing her friends from her mind. At Tillman's, she was able to sneak around unheard because of her small size and spatial awareness- neither of which Oakpaw seems to have in spades. She knew the guard rosters, and the tricks of that rotting house. She seems to have no advantage here.

"We'll just have to run fast," she says, looking pointedly at Oakpaw's leg. "Be quick, keep to the shadows. Outpacing them is our only chance."

Oakpaw shows no sign of discomfort or foreboding, though she sees the muscles twitch in his forelegs. Below them his unsheathed claws rest uneasily against the stained cement of the floor. Khia almost tells him to put them away; there's no chance of fighting their way out. She creeps closer to the exit, waving with her tail for Oakpaw to follow. The guard on the left seems tired, a little jaded, as though the war effort is not exactly living up to his expectations. He will be easiest to sneak past.

"Wait," her companion says, craning his head to stare past the guards. "Someone's coming." He gasps, then, sounded wholly shocked and stupefied. Khia follows his gaze; approaching the warehouse, strolling without a care in the world, is a strapping tabby tom with scars on his face and a wildness in his steps. Khia knows, innately, that this is yet another Clanner. She wonders if he means to attack or join them.

"Come on," Khia replies, "this is our chance." Oakpaw has stilled, staring abjectly at the tom who approaches. The guards have noticed too, and they move towards him with hostility lining every inch of their bodies. She gives him a sharp nudge to break him from his reverie. Without waiting to see if he follows, she rushes from their shadowed alcove, sticking so close to the wall that it brushes roughly against her fur as she runs. For a thrilling moment she is unveiled before the occupants of the warehouse, exposed and fleeing, before she bursts outside with the promise of freedom and adventure swelling in her chest. Oakpaw thumps along behind her.

The encounter between the guards and wild tom has turned feral; they look ready to attack while, in contrast, the tabby surveys them with idle superiority. They all turn to look as the pair scramble past, but none of them move; the events of the morning, perhaps, have stunned them, and they are more used to guarding the way in, not the way out.

"Run," Oakpaw grunts, as they segway into the early shadows. Khia hisses out something shaky and breathless in reply, because, clearly, that's exactly what she's doing. They tear down the street in tandem, ducking around a corner and weaving between lamp-posts. She feels elated, as though she should laugh or giggle; Cariad is suddenly so close again, and she hasn't felt so happy since Etch's untimely death. Oakpaw overtakes her, and she lets him; he strides along with purpose and lurid determination, and he doesn't limp at all. They run for blocks, though Khia's not wholly sure where they are, or what direction they head in. Grey and looming buildings flit past on either side of the streets, and nothing alive seems to stand out at all. Khia thinks, as they run, that she'll be glad to see the end of the city, and she likely won't ever be back. Eventually, Oakpaw slows to a winded walk, and she does the same.

"Easier than I thought," he murmurs, more to himself than Khia. He then throws her a strange look, as if she's proved more useful than he originally considered. "Do you know how to hunt?" he asks, louder.

Khia's thoughts turn back to that dark building and the horde of rats it sheltered, and how utterly helpless she'd become in the face of their fury. "Not really," she replies lightly. She prays he doesn't probe into her fighting abilities; she's none too good at that either. Oakpaw only grunts at her.

"Why did you want to leave in broad daylight?" she says. "A little warning might be nice."

"It was time," Oakpaw snaps. "It worked out fine, and it's over now."

Khia sighs shortly; she knows there's more to it than that, and the Clanner has only left her to the wild devices of her imagination. She senses that the burly tom dislikes conversation even more than she does, but she still has questions that he has dodged, ignored or refused to answer. They trail off into silence as they walk, ears pricked and steps cautious. Miss and her henchmen won't give up Oakpaw without a fight, not after dedicating so much time and effort into molding him into a suitably sympathetic weapon.

"So," she begins, starting her merciless pursuit of answers. "Sablefrost and Smokefang. You never said how they died." She's wondered, for days, even agonised over it. She couldn't even confide in Gideon, though she knows he'd have zero insight into such an issue. Oakpaw stiffens as she utters their names; it must be jarring, to hear the names of one's inner circle on a veritable stranger's tongue.

"Painfully," he answers shortly. "It's nothing you want to hear, Khia, especially when we're going so near the monster that had them killed."

"Killed?" she repeats, her voice rising a few unsteady octaves. "As in murdered? By who? When?"

"It was months ago," Oakpaw says, looking down at her. "You wouldn't have been more than a kit."

"By someone in the city?" she persists. "I thought they were invincible!"

"As far as you're concerned, we are," Oakpaw growls, quashing her insubordination as swiftly as possible. "It was our leader, and it was perfectly in her right. You won't even see her, Khia, so don't start taking on notions of vengeance. Besides, you look like you could barely even tackle a mouse."

Khia stares down at her paws, lithe and quick against the cold pavement, amazed they don't falter. They're not alive, though she had grown up thinking that somewhere, whoever these mysterious parental figures were, they were alive and well. But they're dead, and none of her instincts had even hinted at the fact. She's suddenly chilled; Cariad could very well be dead too, for her instincts and well-wishes count for nothing at all. He probably is, probably has been all along, and now she's abandoned her friends and the only viable cause in her life.

But she's going into the den of the monsters anyway.

Notions of vengeance, indeed.

"How did you know them?" she asks, clearing her mind of thoughts of death (those can come later). Perhaps he didn't really, if loose Clan ties are encouraged and enforced. Oakpaw snorts in wry amusement beside her; it sounds more like the distant rumbling of thunder, more than any sound a cat should make.

"I was wondering when you would ask," he says, as though on the edge of a long and rambling spiel.

From behind, there's a wordless shout, a jubilant and victorious cry. Khia sees it all crash down in an instant: they've found her, will catch and kill her, will never let her know the fate of her brother. She stumbles.

"Run," Oakpaw says, throwing a glance over his shoulder. He bumps his chest against her side, and nearly whips her with his tail as he turns. "Run!"

They break into a wordless sprint, Khia's claws raking against the cement with every step. More voices form a cacophony meters behind them, and every nightmare Khia's ever conjured is suddenly dogging her heels, breathing down her bristling spine. The beastly rats of her innocent youth, and the hulking toms who took it from her. The Bayard, come to turn her into a broodmare, and the barbed jaws of PureClan warriors and vengeful rebels alike. Khia has never run faster in her life.

Oakpaw lags behind, just a little, just enough. Finally, he's limping. "Split up!" he yowls, already poised to dart off down the next available alley or side street. "I'll find you, Khia!"

Their parting is too quick for protest. Oakpaw is gone before she can say a word, or worry about what is to come. What is to come? She's suddenly defenseless, alone, ripe for the plucking. Khia ignores the raucous shouts echoing down the street and keeps running. It may be optimistic, wishful, foolhardy, but Khia thinks she can smell the forest on the breeze. She runs on, and does not falter.


whoo y'all know what the mid-semester break means! (more terrible and ever-shortening ttatt chapters- where's the end? i can't see it.)

to answer an anon review- hahahaha smokefang is literally as dead as possible. sorry.