Broken Code

Chapter 19

"I'm sorry. I really am, you didn't deserve to be treated like that. I made a huge mistake and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, but I understand if you don't. I probably won't ever see you again, and I wanted to thank you for your hospitality. I would've never gotten through the past week without you. So thank you. You are one of the closest friends I've ever had. May Starclan light your path." Ashpaw meowed through the door of one of the rooms in the Twoleg den. Fluffy had gone inside to ignore him and he wanted to end their relationship on good terms before he headed back out to Streamclan.

There was no response.

"Goodbye Fluffy." Ashpaw meowed one last time, waiting a few heartbeats before padding down the stairs and away from his kittypet friend.

The white tom had planned out his escape the night before. Between sunhigh and sunset each day, the Twolegs came home from wherever they went during the day. The door in the back of the house would open and the Twolegs were never really paying attention to what they were doing, so Ashpaw was going to sneak under their legs and run as fast as he could towards the forest.

"Twolegs...we should try to stay out of their way." Bluepaw warned, craning her nack to find a small Twoleg family splashing in the river.

"How are we going to get away from them?" Ashpaw could hardly keep the worry out of his meow, gulping it down into his stomach instead.

"You're fast right?" She tilted her head and he nodded. "I say we run."

Ashpaw snapped back into reality. Twolegs caught him once, but they won't catch him again.

He knew that the Twolegs were coming back to their den sometime soon, he was pacing back and forth and back and forth. His heart pounded in his white furry chest. The handle on the door jiggled and Ashpaw's ears flicked up.

The Twolegs were home.

It's now or never. Ashpaw mumbled to himself, gathering his haunches and unsheathing his claws to get a better grip on the carpet. He ducked his ears down just as the door swung open and a few Twolegs came inside.

It was as if all of his battle training mattered most in this situation. Instinct took over as he swerved underneath the legs of a small Twoleg, darting between them like they were trees in his home forest.

"Hey! He's escaping!" A loud Twoleg shouted, ducking down and reaching for Ashpaw who just barely managed to slip through his fingers.

Ashpaw's heart was pounding against his chest, his life seemed to flash before his eyes but in a different way than before. When he had nearly died during the battle with Grassclan, everything seemed to slow down. But now everything sped up as he tore across the grass and out of the Twoleg den.

He could feel the vibrations under his paws as the Twolegs ran after him, screaming and yowling like mad men. He broke into a more of a gallop to put more distance between himself and the Twolegs. The tree line got closer and closer and soon, he bounded into the bushes, finally free from him captivity to return to his home in Streamclan once more.

~

The forest didn't smell the same as Ashpaw was used to. That was his first warning. Trees didn't look the same, bushes weren't in the right spots. Maybe I'm just in the wrong clan. Maybe this is Pineclan territory. He thought, even though it smelled nothing like Pineclan cats. He sighed.

"What if it's a different forest?" He mumbled aloud to himself. "It can't be. Starclan take me home please." Ashpaw's voice cracked a little as he kept walking along.

A sparrow landed a few foxlengths ahead of him. Instantly, Ashpaw's mouth watered with the thought of freshkill and he dropped into a flawless hunter's crouch.