Forest's Fate

Chapter 4

The light seeps behind my eyelids as I wake up after a fitful, freezing night. I'm surprised that I actually fell asleep. As I open my eyes, I see that many cats in my den are already awake. They sit in corners, talking to each other in sharp whispers. I slowly sit up, and I'm starting to wonder what in the world they're talking about when a cat approaches me.

"Hi!" the cat exclaims.

"Hi," I mutter in reply. Unlike the others, this cat seems to be very cheerful...perhaps overly so. I glance at her messy, rugged ginger fur and her bright ocean-blue eyes, wanting to ask her why she's so happy. Before I say a word, though, she starts to talk.

        "I'm Stripe, and I've been here for quite a while! You're new, aren't ya? Well, don't worry, you'll blend in easily with the crowd soon. That fight training they do here is hard and sometimes the food here is scarce, but ye know, it's re-e-e-ealy good to be optimistic about this. I mean, it's for a really good cause. We're gonna save Gardinia from falling apart! I always wanted to do something important and awesome, so this right here is my chance." Stripe is cheerfully rambling and talking so fast that I can't keep up with her words. I'm starting to question her sanity.

        Finally, I decide to interrupt her passionate speech with a question I've been wondering since we got here. "How exactly are we going to save Gardinia?"

Stripe's ears perk up. "You don't know yet?" I'm about to shake my head, but of course, she starts up again. "Oh yeah, you're new! So anyway, we as cats from Earth have to help because the Superiors are losing their control of Gardinia. The rebels are winning! What's going to happen when the Superiors lose control and the normal cats take over? I mean, Superiors are, like, meant to be leaders. They were born with special powers! It can be chaotic if the rules no longer exist!"

        My head is spinning with this information. "Special...powers?" When Stripe eagerly nods, I shake my head, trying to clear out the confusion that I was feeling. I thought cats only had powers in the stories of that random crazy she-cat that lived in the human den next to mine. Tilting my head to the side, I mumble slowly, "So, is Name a Superior?"

        "Yeah!" Stripe's blue eyes widen. "He teleports! That's how we all got here from Earth! I mean, isn't that amazing?!" She continues to ramble about Name, but I stop listening right there. A sickening feeling comes through my stomach, as if I've just swallowed one of the perfect-looking rocks in this camp. I got teleported here! How am I supposed to get out of here if I was only able to get here through Name's power?

       I gulp, looking down. It looks like Name is right. I'm really stuck in this stupid camp.

        Stripe's high pitched voice suddenly shakes me out of my miserable stance. "Hey! Hello, hello? Are ya okay? Hel-l-l-l-lo?"

        I flex my claws and look up at her, annoyance searing through my body for no explainable reason. "I'm fine!" I nearly shout at the idiotic cat. I suddenly notice that I have gotten the attention of nearly the whole entire cave of cats; most of them have already turned around to watch me with their wide stares.

        Gritting my teeth, I lower my voice and get so close to Stripe so that our noses are basically touching. "Listen, I don't think I spent one whole day in this hell-hole, but I have enough of it. I have a stupid strike from that Name, and apparently after three of those, he has the right to erase my memory. If you think of a way to escape, please," I pause for a second, looking around at the other cats, and then drop my voice to a whisper. "Please let me know, okay?"

I think I have somehow scared the tail out of Stripe because her eyes widen in fear and she backs away. Right after a moment, I know I have ranted to the wrong cat because her head slightly tilts in confusion. "Okay," she murmurs, shrugging. She starts to walk away, but I jump up as one final question pops up in my head.

"Wait!" I hiss. She turns back around, and I blurt out my random question. "Is Name really Name's actual name?"

Stripe shakes her head. "Nope, everyone here knows that's just what he makes everyone call him. No one knows his actual name. Who would name their kit Name?" She chuckles, and then I watch her scamper away to a group of cats chatting near the front of the entrance and sit down next to them. She was meowing something to them in a soft voice, gesturing her tail in my direction. I narrow my eyes, knowing that she's probably telling them how crazy I am. Great, first I'm threatened to have my memory taken away, and now I'm getting a bad reputation.

Before I go smash my head against a wall, there is a loud yowl from outside, and all of the cats stand up and start pushing each other to get out of the cave. Finally, there's something interesting going on. I shake out my fur and fight the crowd to get to the entrance.

        As soon as I'm out of the cave, I shove my way to the front of the crowd to see who called us. Surprisingly, Name is nowhere in sight, but there is a white cat with a black tail, paws, and ears sitting patiently in the middle of the clearing, away from the others. I squinted my eyes, taking notice of her brown eyes that were the color of dirt and the sharp, fox-like features of her face. At first glance at this cat, I know she means business. The only thing I'm wondering is what she wants from us.

        When everyone is finally out, the chattering between all of the cats is so deafening that I resist the urge to scream at them to shut up. That turned out not to be necessary, though, because that she-cat stands up and shouts, "Silence!" Her loud voice pierces through the whole crowd, and after just a second, the whole camp falls in silence. I seriously want to thank her for shutting their mouths.

After a moment, Little Miss Badass starts to speak, her voice just as loud as before so everyone in the back can hear. "Okay, you stupid bird-heads, we're going to do fight training before we hunt today!" Many cats start to groan, but of course, Little Miss Badass interrupts their miserable noises with a furious, "Shut up!" As for me, I'm already eagerly standing up from my sitting position. Maybe I can learn some fighting skills so I can beat up Name and force him to teleport me back to Earth!

"Come on, bird-heads, you get the drill by now! Get in groups!" Little Miss Badass shouts, and right away, everyone is on their paws. Right away, I attempt to follow Little Miss Badass so I can get in a group with her. She really seems to be the cat who can beat up Name, so I bet I can learn from her.

        Even though I was tall, it definitely wasn't easy to follow a cat like her, though, in this crowd of cats. She seems to be walking right by the entrance, but I lose her for about five seconds, and after I swear I see her again, she disappears again. Right before I consider giving up and just going to the random group that formed right next to me, the crowd cleared out, and I clearly see Little Miss Badass yelling something at the cats in front of her. I stealthily run to the back of the group right before they got out of the camp.

        I hope I made the right choice.

                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey, guys! So, how did you like this chapter? What did you think about "Little Miss Badass," as Forest calls her? Any guesses on what her name actually is? 😅

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