Hope ✓

Chapter Twelve

I watched as Flick narrowed his eyes at the unfamiliar voice. I peered behind him to see a large, black tom with two other cats behind him. One looked to be a blue-grey she-cat and the other a dark grey tabby tom.

"Why hello, Flick." The black tom addressed him.

Flick turned around to face the cats. "Cliff." He nodded to the center black tom.

"Thought we'd never see you again, brother." Cliff said to Flick.

Wait, brother? Did Flick used to live with these cats? Then why did it seem he wasn't happy to see them? Something must have happened between Flick and these cats.

"Who's your new companion?" The blue-grey she-cat walked around to examine me.

"Nettle, this is Lavenderpaw." Flick told her.

I looked over Nettle just as she did me and stepped back. The she-cat was missing an eye and had a large scar along her back. Her eyes were a frosty color.

"What a strange name . . ." Nettle said with interest.

"That's because I'm a clan cat." I raised my head. Did these cats even know what a clan was?

Flick shot me a look at those words, but I couldn't take them back. The black tom, Cliff, flicked his tail; but it was the dark grey tabby tom who responded.

"Why would you bring a clan cat onto our territory?" He hissed and narrowed his eyes at Flick.

The dark grey tabby tom had a long scar on his side and his fur was sleek. His eyes were like deadly yellow daggers.

"No, River, this is a good thing. My brother seems to have captured a clan cat and brought her back to be our prisoner." Cliff said with a cruel grin. "Aster will be pleased to hear of this."

I heard a slight growl emerge from Flick. "Yes, she is my prisoner. She was wandering too far from her clan and I tricked her into earning my trust. Then I lured her here, back to the group."

I looked at him, shock and betrayal in my eyes. Why was Flick handing me over? Then my gaze hardened. I was right not to trust him, I should know better than to trust strange cats.

Cliff looked from Flick to me and then nodded. "Perfect. River, Nettle, and I will escort the two of you back to camp."

River and Nettle positioned themselves behind us while Cliff lead the way into the darkened alley. I kept my head down, not wanting to even look at Flick.

After walking a while, I looked up. I started to see eyes watching us from the shadows and sometimes a cat would pass us, coming from the direction we were heading. I got a bad feeling about this place, and it wasn't just about the fact that these cats seemed to hate clan cats.

Soon enough, I began to see more and more cats. They watched us from broken windows and behind what looked like tall, silver tree stumps with an awful smell radiating off of them. There were two cats fighting over a piece of what I thought was freshkill but it didn't smell very fresh. I shook my head and kept going. Something bad must have happened to these cats; who would wasn't to live like this?

We came to a stop and Cliff stepped forward. "Aster, Flick has returned."

At those words, a brown and black she-cat emerged from the shadows. She had a scarred ear and a scar just under her eye. Her long legs also had a scar or two, and she had a nick in her tail. Her eyes were a dark green color.

"Flick?" She called, asking for conformation. "My son has returned home?"

Flick sighed. "Yes, it's me, Aster." He answered.