Lindsay slowly blinked open her eyes, emitting a loud yawn as she rose from her comfortable nest, and trudged her way to the food bowl. At least she thought it was the one with the dry pellets provided by the housefolk, but when she dipped her head, preparing to crunch, cold water suddenly splotched her golden fur, making it unsettlingly wet.
"Eugh!", she exclaimed in display, shaking her head in an attempt to dry off. A small snicker erupted from behind her, as a young black cat smiled at her embarrassment. "Silly pellet-brain!" commented Duncan, full of mischievous joy. Lindsay rolled her eyes and began to lick at her pelt. Sure, she wasn't the smartest cat around, but she was sure that her immature denmate had his share of mistakes too. Still disgruntled, she went over to the other bowl, and chewed satisfiedly, making sure that it was loud enough to reach Duncan's ears.
"Wha- What's this" said Lindsay, confused, as her tongue touched not a familiar pellet, but a weirdly smooth surface. Duncan snickered louder this time before explaining "Oh, I love this place. You've finished the food and are trying to eat the bowl! By our housefolk, can you be dumber?".
"Why did I have to get stuck with you!" exclaimed Lindsay. She was sure that she would have realized she was finished- she usually did, at least 4 out of 5 times, or was it 3- if not for her earlier mistake and Duncan's following taunt distracting her mind. She sighed, walking toward a small flap in the wall of her housefolks' den. Maybe she'd have a better day in the yard, but of course, Duncan had to follow. "You know, maybe we could go beyond", he announced unexpectedly, his blue eyes full of, not jeering malevolence, but what looked to Lindsay like curious wonder. She stopped in her tracks, a little surprised. She could hardly remember Duncan talking to her without a snarky manner, much less in whatever this was- granted, she could hardly remember too much in general.
"Well… won't our housefolk be sad and wonder where we've gone…" responded Lindsay, as she anxiously licked her shoulders. She would have harshly refused to worrying her odd caretakers like that otherwise, but she did enjoy Duncan's new attitude. However, it seemed to vanish as quickly as it appeared, as he grunted and rolled his eyes thoroughly. "We'll obviously be back when it's time for them to play with us, and plus, it's not like they check this wasteland much, they probably find it as boring as I do," commented Duncan contemptuously, curling his lip. Lindsay tried not to show it, but she was taken aback at Duncan's insults of the most fun area she'd known. "Well, I guess they'd be happy then," she conceded, "But how do we leave?"
"By climbing over the fence, what do you expect," snorted Duncan, "We're cats, agile and quick, not stupid, lumbering beasts like dogs. Well, you're stupid, but at least you can do most cat things." Lindsay huffed in annoyance, but followed Duncan up what he had called a fence- she thought it was another wall, but it did look a bit different now that she was looking at it more closely.
As the two cats perched themselves on the top, Duncan swept his gaze over a previously unknown world. "What are you waiting for, let's go!" he yelled excitedly, jumping off the fence… only to feel a sudden weight slamming into him. "Oops heh heh, sorry," apologized Lindsay, who while genuine in her accident, did not feel too remorseful in what had happened. "As I said, stupid, if not less graceful than a dog," reflected Duncan crossly, as he rightened himself back on his paws. "But whatever- Let's EXPLORE!" he suddenly shouted gleefully, Lindsay's accident seeming forgotten, as the two cats padded, surrounded by plants that did not look nearly as neat as they did in the yard along with all sorts of unfamiliar scents. Even Duncan seemed confused, his nose twitching to and fro as they traveled and found stronger and stronger scents. A look of thought crossed his face, only to be momentarily replaced by one seeming to mix doubt and fear. "I think I scent a cat- a wild one-" he meowed, without his usual confidence. Lindsay suddenly understood his fear, having heard all sorts of scary stories about the cats who lived beyond the supervision of housefolk. "Do they- do they really eat our b-brains and b-bones," Lindsay stuttered, very afraid herself.
"Probably just a myth, but stop with that fear-scent," Duncan hissed quietly, "we don't want them to know that we're here". Lindsay tried to compose herself, whispering frantically, "Sh-should we head back now? M-m-maybe we can still escape." "Back to that boring place? Hate to admit it, but maybe we don't have a choice, curse those wild losers!" he snorted with a mix of contempt and anger as he reluctantly pivoted his paws and began to walk in the direction of the yard. Lindsay followed, relieved to re-enter into familiarity, but something sharp then snagged her pad.
"Ow!" she exclaimed, as the thorn sunk in her flesh. "What- Oh a thorn, really?" sighed Duncan with annoyance. "Hold still, let me pull it out," he encouraged as his jaws closed on the thorn. Lindsay did her best to contain her panic, but Duncan seemed to not know what he was doing, and rather than her pad being freed, the thorn seemed to dislodge itself further. Duncan grumpily gave up soon with a weary sigh of resignation. "We'll have to show the housefolk," he grumbled, "Lean on my shoulder for now".
It was difficult to walk while keeping her injured paw off the ground, even with Duncan's support, and it didn't help that the wild cat could notice them any second. Her injury aside, Lindsay and Duncan were hardly more than kits, and even she could figure out their odds of success if a fight broke out. However, the fence soon appeared in view, much to her delight, but Duncan looked troubled. "Can you climb it with that thorn sticking out," he asked. Of Course! She had completely forgotten that there was a fence in the way, now how was she to get back? Would she have to stay here all alone, waiting for the wild cat to track her down and eat her brain and bones? Or was it that they would use her bones to make their dens? She heard different stories, but maybe they were all true.
Duncan's confident voice broke her thinking. "Stay here, and don't do anything stupid, like you usually do", he commented. Lindsay huffed exasperatedly. Did he help her back to the yard just to insult her? Then the black cat continued, "I'll go get the big housefolk, he'll probably know what to do." Lindsay licked her shoulder, hating the idea of being left alone, but happy to soon see the familiar faces of the housefolk, as Duncan leaped on top of the fence then disappeared into the yard. She leaned against it herself, using her three good paws to steady herself.
All of a sudden, the scent of cat filled her nostrils, and she almost panicked, fearing the wild cat had tracked her down, but soon recognized the scent of a cat in the neighboring den. "Br- Bracelet?", she asked, as another golden cat, though with light gray streaks along her pelt, padded into view.
The other cat's mouth curled into amusement as she meowed, "No, Bridgette, though that sounds like a cool name. But is everything okay? I scented some blood." "I stepped on a thorn," clarified Lindsay, "but Duncan is getting my housefolk, they'll know what to do." "Well, Lindsay," said Bridgette eagerly, "I know how to heal scrapes from thorns too. Geoff has stepped on them quite a lot."
"Who?" asked Lindsay, trying without success to remember a cat's face along with the name. "Oh, never mind," her companion hastily responded, "Let me just remove the thorn, do what I tell you." Bridgette seemed more careful than Duncan, and sure enough, her thorn soon slid out, causing a sharp jolt of pain. It was at that moment that Lindsay noticed black paws leaping onto the fence as Duncan peered down at her. "I got the housefo-" Duncan started, suddenly noticing Bridgette's presence. "Huh, Bridgette, what the heck are you doing so near our den," he then inquired warily.
"I smelled blood, and wanted to check if everything was okay," Bridgette stated coolly, "and the trouble with the thorn should be over now". Duncan yawned and licked his shoulder as he meowed, "Well, now I don't have to get the lug over the fence, but now I just had to act cute for his attention all for no reason. And he might be mad that I brought him to this field of boredom for nothing." "Only you think it's boring," piped Lindsay, earning an eye-roll from her denmate. Even Bridgette seemed doubtful of her claim.
"Anyway," stated Duncan, "I don't want to just run like a scared-sissy mouse, from one loser wild cat. Sure, he's probably bigger than me, but I have the surprise factor. Plus, now that the thorn is gone, there's two of us." As he finished, his gaze rounded on Lindsay, with an expression that seemed to convey desperate hope. "She still has a wound that I need to treat," Bridgette interjected, "and plus, why are you sure this wild cat is hostile?"
"What? Of course they are!" Duncan exclaimed, "Those stories are probably exaggerations, but they've earned a bad rep." Suddenly, his blue eyes gleamed as he continued, " Of course, not as bad as the one I'll earn though!" As he finished his meow, his chest puffed up, the white tuft on it seeming to enlarge. He looked at it himself, and said quietly, almost in a reverent whisper, "Soon, they'll see that as a skull."
"Is it one? I always thought it looked like a snowball," Lindsay stated uncertainly, earning an exasperated grunt from her denmate. "Whatever," he mewed, "just get that wound dealt with, I'll go exploring the other way on my own, without any dead weight" With that last scathing remark, Duncan jumped down from the fence and trotted in the direction opposite of their original path.
"Wow, do you deal with that every day?" asked Bridgette, rolling her eyes in Duncan's direction, "Well, anyway, let me lick your wound, it does not look particularly deep or wide, but there's some marigold here, and it should prevent an infection." "Okay," agreed Lindsay, "But wait, how do you know it does?" "Well," started Bridgette wryly, "that arrogant tom isn't the only cat here to try to see what's beyond." "You explored too?!," gasped Lindsay, in awe of the cat licking her wound. Was she a daring adventurer who had already done everything Duncan had set out to do. "Well…," Bridette repeated in a much more humble tone, "no, but I talk to the other cats here, and I remember an old tom saying that he once knew what he called something like a… herb cat, a healer of some sort of group who knew many advanced remedies. He remembered a few himself, and I memorized what he told me."
Lindsay licked her chest self-consciously, not fully understanding what Bridgette was trying to communicate, but the she-cat did seem to understand what to do, and soon enough, Lindsay's wound was covered in a poultice of a strange plant, was it called Marisilver? Either way, the bleeding seemed to have stopped, and while her paw still hurt a bit, she was able to leap the fence with ease, entering back into the familiar yard.