Book 4: Sol's Revenge & Whisper's Path

Whisper

I sat quietly away from my twolegs. I always was the cat that liked to be somewhat separate than others, and I never started the conversation. Every once in awhile the twolegs would let out cooing noises and motion for me to come over to them. I ignored them and kept my gaze directed out the window at the garden. The garden was the only thing that made the twolegs somewhat bearable.

I was never meant to be a kittypet, as Echo had stressed. We didn't care for belly scratches or soft beds. We craved wide open spaces and having to hunt for our own food. To feel air and earth as we breathed. The garden one of my twolegs farmed was a wide expanse of flower plants and trees. Birds mice and squirrels thrived in the area. I usually never caught prey, but I enjoyed chasing them around the yard.

But I never stayed in the garden for long. Echo was always waiting for me by the ditch next to the Thunderpath. It was outspokenly referred to as the place our father abandoned us. Echo wasn't a house kittypet like Sol and I were. We had to beg to be let outside, but she got to live out there permanently. She showed me her twolegs's nest. There was a hole in a door with a flimsy screen over it, and when you went through the hole you entered the den of the monsters. The giant monsters that traversed the Thunderpath were always asleep in this den however, and she had a water dish and food dish inside.

Even though this is all Echo said she desired, I sensed resentment. My twolegs loved me, they wanted to hold me and pet me all the time. She was more like a stray who was fed occasionally. That's the real reason she wanted to be a rogue so badly, so she could pretend that it was her idea that she was locked outside. I wasn't always that close with my sister. Sol, although we had nothing in common, was always better company than Echo.

Harry and Echo had been the closest out of our litter before he died of the coughing sickness. He was a follower, and went along with everything Echo said. He practically worshiped the ground on which she walked. I was never the argumentative kind, so Echo had no squabble with me. But Sol seemed unaware that Echo was in charge of the siblings. He challenged her when we were playing a game. If she was mean to him he told Cinders.

The thing about Cinders, she did always love Sol best. It was because he was born so weak and sick, she thought he needed extra love to survive. But she couldn't just create more love, she needed to take that attention from someplace else. So Harry, Echo, and I did not get extra milk before we fell asleep at night. We were not told stories of magnificent sky warriors.

Sol would never realize this, but he was slightly to blame for Harry's death. Harry got the coughing sickness because of a game we were playing with Echo. There were puddles all over the walking path, it was a cold leaf bare morning. The game was to see who could jump over the largest puddle. Harry was overambitious, wanting to impress Echo, and he landed right in the middle of a frosty puddle.

He ran out a second later and was shivering uncontrollably. Cinders heard the commotion and came to see what was the matter. She licked Harry's fur the wrong way to try and warm him up, but Harry needed nutrients to fight off sickness. Cinders had started to ween us off her milk, and refused to give him anything to eat that wasn't fresh prey. But Sol, when he complained he was hungry, still got milk. Harry got sick, Sol did not. Echo resented him for it.

My twolegs finally opened the door for me and I dashed outside before they could change their minds. I went straight to the ditch and saw Echo's sleek black pelt bristled against the wind. She heard my pawsteps and her ears perked up. She turned around quickly, golden eyes flashing.

"You're late," she teased, no malice behind her words. I shrugged.

"My twolegs wouldn't let me out," I explained. She nodded and waved her tail to follow me. We began to walk. There wasn't a whole lot to discuss. 'I saw this squirrel today.' 'A leaf moved in the breeze, very exciting.'