Embers

Chapter 1

Agnes stood, panting. She was only on the second shelf, and she was already winded from the climb. But I have to see it tonight, she said silently. Catching her breath, she scrambled onto the next shelf, then looked around the den. She saw the little twoleg, asleep in its weird nest, and curled next to it was her sister, Madeline, her black pelt almost invisible in the darkness of the den. Starting to climb again, she finally reached the fourth shelf, near the window.

She moves closer to it. It's so beautiful, Agnes thought. Through the glass was the pasty white moon, shining down on her face. Agnes always dreamed about the moon and it's amazing aura. She flicked her tail, mesmerized by the moon, when she froze at the sound of an object falling off the shelf next to her. The light flickered on, and the twoleg walked over to her. It made weird soft sounds, and picked her off the shelf. She started to struggle against it's grasp.

"No! What about the moon?" She said to it, hoping it would understand. But it continued to carry her to the nest, where Madeline now sat up, awake. It turned off the light.

"Why do you go up there anyways? It's just the moon," mewed Madeline, her Amber eyes gleaming through the darkness as the twoleg plopped Agnes next to her and settled into the nest. "It's there every night. You don't have to check on it,"

Agnes was still thinking about the moon. "But it's so mesmerizing and amazing. How can you be so narrow minded?" Agnes breathed. Her sister was always down to earth and blunt, while she was more imaginative and open minded.

"You know what would be amazing? You not waking me up in the middle of the night," Madeline lay her head down again and rested her tail over her eyes. Agnes rolled her eyes and lay down next to her. She thought about how life would be like underneath the moon and sun, not shut up in a loud, messy twoleg den with a collar scratching her neck. Soon sleep wrapped around her into darkness.

Agnes woke up in the empty nest, not finding Madeline nor the twoleg next to her. Sunlight streamed through the window, brightening the room. She jumped from the nest and headed for the door, which was now open since it was sunhigh. Walking down the stairs, she met Madeline by their food bowls. She was already eating her pellets when she walked forward.

"Ugh! Not this stuff again! Why does the twoleg always give us the same stuff every day! It taste like dirt," Agnes hissed at her food bowl. Her sister stopped eating and looked at her.

"I think it taste fine. It doesn't matter anyways, seeing how there are no mice anywhere," she bent down to start eating again. She thought about the mice their mother, Floss, would bring for them each day. Until Shard was hit by the monster. She remembered the terrible memory of Madeline and Agnes finding her body covered in grit by the Thunderpath. A long time later, the twoleg found them and moved them to their den. Madeline was excited for this, but Agnes hated the den and everything in it.

Swallowing her disgust, she started to choke down the brown pellets that looked like mouse dropping, and gagged at the dry taste. Looking around, she found the bowl full of water. The water wasn't as good as spring water, but it would have to do.

She followed her sister to the door, where the twoleg was leaving. Thinking quickly, she bolted for the door, saying goodbye to the den and her sister forever. This time her escape would work, or so she thought. The twoleg grabbed her before she could leave the door, and purred into her fur. Twisting, she dropped from it's hairless forepaws onto the cold floor. When she turned to the door again, She found it closed in her face and the twoleg gone.

"You really don't give up, don't you?" Madeline sat on one of the couches, licking her paw.

"At least I know I'm not okay with being a fat, lazy kittypet," she retorted. She remembered the loner living by the den, and how he told her about the clan cats who called cats that lived with twolegs were called kittypets. She always wondered about the clans, especially Thunderclan, where the cats lived in the shade of the green trees and hunted mice and even birds. She shuddered as she thought of Riverclan, their fur always wet. AND they went in water on purpose!

Madeline just snorted and turned to lay in the patch of sunlight that fell from another window.

Agnes shook her pelt and admired the lean, strong muscles underneath. She was fitter then her sister, who just ate and sat around all day. Agnes enjoyed racing up and down the stairs, and pretending to hunt a mouse. She climbed up onto the windowsill and looked outside into the backyard. Green leaves grew from the spiny trees where birds chipped from them, taunting Agnes and how she couldn't get them.

"Today, I'm going to get out of here, and you'll be prey," she whispered softly. She continued to watch them until the twoleg got home. She had memorized when the twoleg got home, just a while before sunset. She waited near the door, muscles tense.

"What are you doing now?" Madeline called from the couch.

"Nothing. Oh, and Madeline, you may be lazy, but you're my sister no matter what," she said as she heard movement from behind the front door.

"What does that even mean? Wha-" Madeline's question was cut off as the twoleg opened the door, when Agnes bolted outside. She rounded the corner of the den, stunned to find a dead end. Turning, she saw the twolegs's furless face and paws reaching out to her. Panic swirled inside her as she looked back at the fence until her eyes fell on a hole, just large enough for her to slip through. She slithered through it, narrowly missing the twolegs paw as it tried to grab her tail. Scrambling up, she found herself facing the forest. The forest that led to the clans. She hurried out deeper into the forest at the sound if the twolegs starting to push past the fence. Once Agnes was sure it was gone, she stopped.

First, she said silently, this collar. Pushing her paw up between her neck and the collar, she started to claw at the fabric until a rip tore apart it. She shook her fur, relishing the release of the collar. The sun was starting to set, so she clambered up a tree onto one of the branches where no fox could get her. She curled her tail over her nose and closed her eyes.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves of the trees, waking Agnes.She climbed down the trunk and looked around. She remembered how the loner, whose name was Martin, said there was an island where the clans met sometimes. She decided to go there if she wanted to know where to go. Opening her mouth and looking for a scent, she was hit by a wave of strong cat smell near her. Straining her ears, she could hear only one cat heading to the edge of the forest. Before she could move, a voice spoke.

"A cat!" The young tom's voice was low, as if he was speaking to himself. Then he went silent, as if he disappeared. Disappointment jabbed Agnes. She had hoped she would come across a clan cat.

Suddenly, something jumped on her back, making her fall onto her stomach.

"Who are you and why are you on Thunderclan territory?" The small tom's voice spoke again. Excitement sparked in Agnes' heart at the sound of Thunderclan . She thought for a moment, then went limp. A "hmp" of satisfaction came from the tom, which quickly went away as Agnes sprung up, throwing him off and turned to him. The tom had dust-colored with bright blue eyes. He looked up at Agnes in surprise as she pushed her paw down on his back. 

"My name is Agnes and I want to join the clans,"