CreekClan: Journey to Bravery

Creek's Saviors

My mother, Sterling, and I had just woken up. Dawn was rising over the fences, nests, and walls of the twolegplace. My small stomach was already rumbling, half a mouse not being able to satisfy my eight moon's hunger.

Life as a twolegplace rouge was hard, but we made it through. As far as I knew, I had never met my father and didn't have any littermates. It was just Mother and I. Sweet and peaceful, just the two of us.

"Well, Creek, are you ready to go?" My mother's clear voice rang through the air.

"Sure!" My young, strong voice was just as loud. I was very proud of my voice at that time- I had believed that it made me powerful.

The two of us quickly set off and roamed the twolegplace. Even though we had a den, we couldn't-wouldn't- claim territory, as Mother believed that twolegplace belonged to all cats. There was a few spots we used often, but today we were looking for a new place.

Sterling knew the twolegplace better than her own pelt, but even a few things managed to slip by her. Sometimes, like this day, we looked for overlooked areas. Hopefully we would get lucky.

--------------------------------------

As we soon found, the day was searing hot and we had to stop to rest our aching pads. We had found a nice, cozy little spot to hunt, and managed to fish out a family of mice.

Soon we headed home. But we were stopped....

------------------------------------

bark

howl

bark

The sounds of dogs reached our ears. Two, I thought. But no, I was wrong. There was three.

We were downwind from them, and they had caught our scent. Then we wind stopped and we scented them as well.

Sterling had hoped this day would never come, but as a rouge she knew it would.

The dogs burst out behind us, snapping at our heels, their hot, rank breath on our tails. Soon we were trapped.

------------------------------------

The dogs had caught us in an alleyway. They were advancing slowly, menacingly. The scents of two other cats soon came into being.

An adult tom named Scorch, who had been kind to my mother and I was one of them. He was an uncle to me, my only 'kin' besides mother.

The other scent was new. It came from a young brown tabby tom, only a moon or so older than me.

He and Scorch jumped over the brick wall behind us, hissing and growling. Scorch swiped at the largest dog's nose, and the newcomer jumped onto the smallest. Mother and I tackled the medium dog.

The dog threw me off, but Mother held on. The dog soon flung her at the wall. She fell to the ground with a dull crack. Which could only mean one thing.

------------------------------------

I had seen cats die before. It wasn't uncommon here in twolegplace. But that didn't stop me from being shocked at my mother's death. How could Sterling die? She was the bravest and strongest cat I knew! Worst yet... How could she leave me?

Scorch took one look at me and ran down the alleyway, distracting the dogs. He led them around to the other side, giving me and the young tom time to drag my mother up the wall. I was grateful for the distraction, but I doubted I would ever see Scorch again.

------------------------------------

"Are you okay?" That was what he asked me. A simple, ignorant, 'are you okay.' Of course I wasn't okay! Mother had just died right in front of me! How could I be okay?

I glared at him, yet I wasn't mad. I was confused and cared and sad. What else should I have felt? I wasn't a vengeful type of cat back then, not really now either.

------------------------------------

That night the tom, Kink, and I buried Mother in her favorite hunting spot: the stretch of soft grass under the birch tree by the yellow nest with the catmint. Then Kink took me to his sleeping spot to stay the night.

--------------------------------------

Twolegplace was never the same for me again. Yet Kink and Scorch had saved me, which was better than nothing, and for that I'm glad.