The Lost Kits

Chapter 5

Ella ran for a long time until she was sure no one was chasing herand the sun was rising. She looked at her surrounding and noticed that wherever she was, it was much different from her home. There were lots of tree, all different kinds and too many to count. She wasn't sure where she was and when she's entered this place. She had only focused on running and escaping from the street cats. I know one thing for sure. This is definitely not a No-Fur place.
Nothing was familiar to Ella. It was much different from her home, with no No-Furs or comfortable soft pelts. There was just trees, plants and dirt. Lots of dirt.
Ella was relaxing at the base of a tree and was beginning to doze off when she heard voices. She jumped up and looked frantically for a place to hide, diving into a bramble thicket as a group of cats came into view. They smelled of the forest and looked nothing like the cats Ella was used to seeing.
   A tabby tom with golden brown fur seemed to be in charge. "We'll go along the Twolegplace border, then circle around towards the Riverclan border, in case they're trying to take back Sunningrocks." The tom meowed to the rest of the group, a small dusky brown she-cat and a long white-furred tom, who had a younger dark grey Tom by his side. Ella couldn't make sense of most of his words. Twolegplace? Riverclan?
   Ella stiffened as the cats came closer and paused near her hiding place. The brambles were digging into her painfully, but she didn't dare move.
   "When Firestar gets back, he won't make me go on border patrols all the time and-" The young tom's grumbling was cut off as the long haired white tom spoke. "I can smell a kittypet. The scent is fresh, so they must be nearby." He meowed. The younger tom looked around and spotted the blood that had dropped from Ella's wounds over by the tree and ran over to it. "Look what I found!" The young tom exclaimed, an excited gleam in his eye.
   The other cats padded over. "Good job, Rainpaw." The white Tom looked impressed. As the cats were looking at the blood on the ground and the scuffed up dirt, Ella wriggled out the other side of the thicket. She off without a backwards glance, but was too tired to make it very far and stopped at the base of a giant sycamore tree.
   Ella slumped to the ground and closed her eyes. Sleep called to her, but she knew she needed to get away, in case those cats found her. But she was just so tired...
   Ella awoke a little later with the midday sun beating down on her. She groaned and tried to get to her paws, but she felt as though she would fall apart if she moved. She was also extremely thirsty and hungry. She was so desperate for food that she would have eaten a whole bowl of the delicious little pellets that the No-Furs gave her, even if her littermates disagreed with her opinion on the taste.
   Ella was still slumped there, half awake, when she sniffed the air and caught a faint whiff of cat. She could hear the cat now, padding closer, and willed herself to get up.
But Ella had just dragged herself to her paws when the long haired white tom she had seen earlier padded into view. His eye widened in shock when he saw her and before she could run he had her pinned down.
"What are you doing on ThunderClan territory?" He snarled. "We don't welcome rouges."
   "Please don't hurt me!" Ella begged. "I don't even know what rouge is! Or what ThunderClan is!"
   His eyes softened. "You're a kittypet?" He meowed curiously, letting Ella get to her paws. She noticed that he kept his claws unsheathed and his muscles tensed in case she tried to run.
   "I'm, I don't know what a kittypet is either. I live with No-Furs." Or used to live with them, she silently added.
   "So you are a kittypet. What are you doing so far from the Twolegplace?" He asked, and suddenly Ella found herself telling him everything. She explained how everything had been so peaceful, and suddenly it all went wrong. She even mentioned seeing him with the other cats earlier.
   "Are they part of Thunderclan too?" She asked.
   "Yes, they're my clanmates." He replied, and explained to her the four clans, and how they had leaders and deputies and warriors.
When the tom was finished, Ella realized she still hadn't introduced herself, or asked his name. She was about to speak when she heard a cat yowling nearby.
"Cloudtail! We should get back to camp!" It must be another clan cat.
Cloudtail, who must have been the white tom, jumped to his paws. "I have to go." He meowed. "You know a place in ThunderClan territory where you can stay to rest, unless you want to come back to camp with me. We have a medicine cat who can give you some herbs for your scratches."
Ella hesitated before replying. She wanted a cat look at her scratches and be able to rest and eat, but she remembered Cloudtail's reaction when he'd first seen her and knew she couldn't accept his kind offer. "I can't go to your camp, but I'd love to have somewhere to stay." She meowed, surprising herself. I should be going to save my littermates! But... Maybe it would be good for me to regain my strength.
Cloudtail nodded, then glanced back in the direction from which the yowl had come. "My clanmates will come looking for me if I don't go soon, so just head that way until you reach the Thunderpath and wait for me there. There shouldn't be any border patrols." He told her, then turned and vanished into the undergrowth before Ella could even ask what a Thunderpath was. With a sigh, she turned and padded in the direction he had waved his tail in.
   Ella moved slowly, unused to the uneven ground and the roots and brambles. The forest was peaceful and beautiful, but Ella preferred the cozy No-Fur nest. Lost in thought she almost slammed into the rock in front of her. Bunching up her muscles, she leaped to the top and scanned the forest around her. Am I still going the right-
Ella's thought were interrupted by a cat slamming into her. She tumbled to the ground, hissing, with the cat, a light grey tom, on top of her. She pushed the cat off and jumped to her paws, lashing her tail. The tom looked similar to Rainpaw, the young cat she'd seen with Cloudtail earlier.
"What are you doing on ThunderClan territory?" The tom growled. Again? Ella thought. She took a step back, preparing to flee. The cat noticed her movement and lunged at her, attempting to pin her down. She dodged and ran, but she was tired and in a unfamiliar forest, and didn't make it far before she was pinned down.
"I'll give you one more chance to tell me what you're doing here." He snarled, though Ella could see through his menacing act. She considered trying to fight, but he looked strong and she was already tired. Then she remembered something that Cloudtail had mentioned.
"I'm a kittypet. I was trying to get back to the Twolegplace, but I must have went the wrong way." She tried her best to look terrified and innocent.
It worked, and the tom relaxed slightly. "Oh. That makes sense." The tom meowed, sounding more friendly. "I'll take you back to the Twolegplace. My name's Sootpaw, by the way."
Sootpaw chattered the whole way back to the Twolegplace, with Ella barely speaking. By the time they saw the fence, Ella's ears ached almost as much as her paws. She barely heard what Sootpaw meowed as she scrambled over the fence and collapsed on the other side, falling into a dreamless sleep.

A/N- Yay! I finally finished another chapter... Sorry if it sucks, I didn't really have any inspiration. Hopefully I'll do better on the next one.