Gilafang's Resentment (Book 4)

Chapter 12

Gilapaw looked back at his patrol before he slipped into the hold they had found in the red stone wall. Squeezing through, he felt his pelt tear ever so slightly as he wriggled his way in. The rough stone scratched his skin. When he finally made it through he looked back to see tiny tufts of brown and orange fur hanging in the crevice. Ouch.

Gilapaw shook what was left of his pelt before he looked around to get his bearings. Around him were large, red stones cut in identical shapes. Inside them were tiny, rounded tipped trees that were just as orderly and identical as the boxes they were contained in.

Twolegs are weird.

Gilapaw swung his scruffy head around again to look at the thunderpath in front of him. It was coming straight towards him, and it split into two directly in front of his paws, going in either direction. The hard dirt under his paws was white with different dark pebbles encased inside it, like some sort of glue. What?

Suddenly a squeal of a twoleg made Gilapaw jump out of his skin, crouching in the white rock. A twoleg kit clutching his mother's paw was trying to tear itself from her grasp to run to Gilapaw. The mother twoleg looked exasperated, her long, curly red head-fur bouncing in her eyes as her kit shook her arm. Gilapaw took the chance to scramble out of the way, running across the black thunderpath blindly.

A loud rumbling filled his ears and Gilapaw spun around wildly to see a large yellow monster swerving towards him, and he froze, crouching in the middle of the road in fear. He closed his eyes and waited for his death to come, but as heartbeat after heartbeat passed by, nothing happened. He opened his eyes to see the car had driven over him, and he had slipped under the gap between the ground and the monster's intricate belly. Breathing a sigh of relief, he slipped off the road and onto the other side.

He saw right in front of him a large row of houses, all with neatly groomed short grass on their front territories. Some had large barriers made of various thins, some of shiny string woven in a complicated diamond pattern, and some of large multicolored wooden slabs sticking out of the dirt. He passed a blue barrier like this and spent a few heartbeats trying to figure out where the twolegs got such a wood.

Blue trees? I wish I've seen one! He thought in confusion and continued on.

He poked his nose into one of the cracks between the blue slab, looking inside, and quickly flinched away as soon as he saw what was inside. A large black dog with brown flecks was sleeping in a small den made of more colored wood. He backed away slowly, and sighed.

I should get the patrol and give them the all clear. Gilapaw thought and turned tail to retrace his steps. Past the fences, past the thunderpath and across, then to the trimmed trees and to the hole. He squeezed through with much difficulty again and faced his clanmates with wide eyes.

"So?" Badgerfang prompted, his eyebrows raised. He gave his pelt a once-over before he spoke, checking if he was okay. He gave a satisfied smile. "Good job, Gilapaw." He praised proudly.

Gilapaw purred. "Thanks. All clear. Only, don't go in the garden with the blue wood barrier. It has a mean looking dog in it." He warned. Turtleface tipped her head.

"Blue wood? Twolegs are crazy!" She echoed in laughter. Exactly my thoughts. Gilapaw silently agreed, smiling to himself. Snowtip giggled too.

One by one they pushed themselves into the hole, until the whole patrol was safely through. Ryeflight's eyes were wide as he took it all in.

"Its just like the stories." He breathed. The rest of the patrol looked around in fascination. Turtleface poked a tree and giggled as it jostled in its pot, leaping down to explore the rest of the path.

"Twolegs are so weird!" Snowtip commented as she stared at the walls across the thunderpath. "I can see a purple wood barrier!"

Badgerfang stepped forward. "Everyone quiet. Lets just cross the thunderpath and look for kittypets."

Just as he spoke, a friendly meow sounded from behind them. "Kittypets? Whats that?" It asked, its mew light and innocent. Gilapaw still jumped, whipping around. A light cream kittypet with orange spots was staring at them with dazzling blue eyes. "Hi! I'm Sam, whats your name? You lot sure look funny, what is it your housefolk feed you poor things? Y'all look half starved!"