Rise of Our Clans: Book 1: Parting Gift

8

  Valley River was shocked awake by the sun suddenly rising. No, not the sun. Valley River realized the light was trapped inside of something.
  But it was still jarring to have it go from dark to light so fast. A pair of twolegs came in and began opening the cages. One was holding a container of the weird pebbles that Valley River hadn't touched because she wasn't sure it was actually food.
  They began moving things around the cages, refilling the stones and scooping scat out of the stones of sand. Was she supposed to use those? Well it made sense to keep her paws from getting dirty, and it was nice of the twolegs to clean it out.
  She then realized that when the twoleg opened her cage she could escape. Valley River tensed as the twoleg opened her cage, and then shot out of it to the area where the wall opened. But instead of it swinging open, she ran right into it with a loud thud.
  A twoleg made clicking noises and approached her. Valley River hissed and fluffed out all her fur. She ran past it and looked for any way to escape. But she couldn't. *If I can't escape, I'm not giving the twolegs the pleasure of being able to catch me!*
  She continued zooming around, between the pillar like legs of twolegs, around a structure that she had seen cats scratching. Realizing it was taller than a twoleg, she climbed up it as fast as she could and settled at the top. It was soft like a pelt, and she glared down at the twolegs below her, lashing her tail.
  "You go Valley River!" Valley River glanced at Shard pacing excitedly inside his cage. She looked over at Shard with a warm feeling in her chest. His excitement at her near escape gave her hope.
  When the twolegs realized they couldn't catch Valley River, they went back to their business, cleaning out the different cages and letting cats out. Shard hissed and spat when they got to his cage, he tried to escape the cage like Valley River, but one of the twolegs grabbed and held him with his claws facing away from the twoleg.
  "It'll be okay Shard, we'll get out somehow!" Valley River meowed encouragement to Shard. The twolegs then shoved him back into his cage. When they opened the door to leave, Valley River jumped down and tried to run for it, but the door was closed by the time she got out.
  "You can't keep us here forever!" Valley River yowled. She sat in front of the door, wondering how Mossy Oak and the others were. They must be devastated, do they think I'm dead? I wish I could tell them that I'm merely trapped and I'll be home when I can be!
  "It's no use hon, there's only three ways to get out of this room." A she cat meowed from behind Valley River. She turned to see a friendly looking large sandy tabby. Her fur was thick and she looked like a sand covered bush. "How?" Valley River perked her ears. "Well, you go to the vet, get adopted, or put to sleep."
  From the way this stranger said sleep, Valley River had a feeling that she really meant death. "Oh... But it's important that I escape, I have a family that needs me!" Valley River felt like crying. "I'm sorry, but you're a kittypet now. I'm Sunflower, my house folk loved me, but when they changed dens, they couldn't take me with them so I was brought here."
  "I'm Valley River, I'm from the mountains." Valley River introduced herself. Sunflower looked amazed. "I didn't know there were cats in the mountains! I always thought that it was just birds and goats." She blinked her dark eyes.
  "There's more than birds and goats. There's hares, and mice, and lemmings, shrews, wolves, sharptooths."
  "What's a sharptooth?" Sunflower interrupted. "It's like a cat, but way bigger, and scarier. They eat smaller cats when they get the chance, but luckily they only come out at night." Valley River imagined the injured one in the bottom of the ravine. It was the injured sharptooth that convinced Mossy Oak and White River to leave.
  "I don't think I want to live in the mountains if there are things like that there!" Sunflower shivered. "You'd fit in well with your thick fur." Valley River commented. She then remembered about Shard. I have to get him out.
  "Do you know if there's any way to open the cages from the outside?" Valley River asked. "Well, yes, but why?" Sunflower tilted her head. "There's still one cat stuck in his cage, I want to help him out."
  "You mean Shard? He's so mean to the rest of the cats here and to the twolegs! I don't think it's worth letting him out." Sunflower bristled. "I can hear you!" Shard meowed from his cage, twitching the white tip of his black tail.
  "That's because he's a wild cat like me. We don't belong inside these dens. We belong in the forest." Valley River urged. "Sunflower, why are you talking to that stray? You don't want to get fleas, do you?" A small black tom asked. "Oh come on Charcoal, she's not that bad." Sunflower rolled her eyes.
  And I don't have fleas! Valley River thought but didn't say aloud. As though the universe was willing herself to prove Charcoal's point, her fur started itching on her neck. Determinedly, she kept from scratching in front of these kittypets. The word felt nasty after meeting cats like Charcoal and Cupcake. "Still, she's new, and she could be dangerous!" Charcoal growled.
  "I'll just go I guess." Valley River slunk towards Shard's cage. "Can you get me out? This place is too small for a cat! Hell, this room is too small." Shard paced back and forth. She felt sad for him, and he was right. There was no space to run freely inside the cage.
  "I'll figure something out." Valley River promised. She had to figure something out, this was no place to have her kits. And she noticed no other cat here had kits. What will the twolegs do with my kits when they're born?
  "Look, you can unlock it with this thing. I can't get it from the inside, but maybe you can?" Shard pawed at a piece of the hard metallic vine that was loose and flopped around when he struck it. She saw it was caught on another piece of vine. "I see." Valley River nodded.
  She gripped the vine in her teeth and pulled it so the cage door fell open and Shard jumped onto the fake grass. He was smaller than Valley River, but he also carried the hard muscles and wild scent of the outside. She noticed a missing patch of fur at the base of his tail. "What happened there?" She gasped.
  "It happened the last time one of these kittypets thought it was a good idea to make me into a kittypet." Shard purred proudly. "We can get in there when the twolegs come here at night to put us away." Shard looked at the opening door. "In the mean time, you should eat a bit. I know the kibble looks nasty and doesn't taste very good, but it's food. And you need food for strength." Shard told the gray she-cat.
  Nodding, Valley River went to her food stone and gulped down a few mouthfuls of the scented pebbles. It didn't taste as bad as she thought it would, but it was still hard and dry. She stared at the water, not trusting it. As a kit, she'd been taught not to trust water from a standing source. "The water is safe you know," Sunflower mewed, spooking Valley River.
  She let out a soft purr as Valley River turned to face her. "They replace it every day so it doesn't turn rancid." She explained. "Oh." Valley River blinked. "Are you going back to the mountains after you escape?" The sandy ginger she-cat sat outside Valley River's cage. "No, I'm going to the river. That's where my friends and my mate will be waiting for me." Or they'll already have moved on.
  Sunflower's golden eyes widened. "Can I tell you a secret?" She glanced back at Cupcake and Charcoal, who were sharing tongues. It seemed sharing tongues was not only a tradition of the tribe. Other cats in the background played with a strangely colored mouse, wasting prey, and others yet scratched the pelt tree, or slept on the grass.
  "Of course." Valley River nodded, Sunflower climbed into the cage with Valley River. She lapped at the sharp water momentarily before turning to look at Sunflower. "I've always wanted to go to the forest. I was born a stray, but I was rescued before I ever got to see the forest up close."
  "Maybe you can escape with me and Shard?" Valley River offered. Sunflower glanced at the black and white tom, who was sitting in front of the opening wall. None of the kittypets got close to him. "I don't know... Foxes, illness, badgers, hawks..." She murmured nervously.
  Valley River recognized illness and hawks, but she did not know of foxes and badgers. "What are foxes and badgers?" Valley River asked. "You don't know? But you're a wildborn cat!" Sunflower gasped. "Yes, but we don't have foxes or badgers in the mountains whatever those are."
  "A fox is bigger than a cat, it has a long pointed about and a bushy tail, and its pelt is red like a flame." Sunflower said, "and a badger is even bigger than a fox. I've heard they can kill a cat with a single swipe of its big claws!" Her claws curled into the metal.
  All the more reason to return to my friends! "I have to escape anyway. Plus, if I didn't know of foxes and badgers, my friends definitely don't. I have to warn them of the dangers of the forest." Valley River's tail bushed. "Right, you can easily identify a badger by the black and white stripes on their faces." Sunflower advised.
  Then Valley River heard a creek and looked toward the door cracking open. It was now or never. "Sunflower, even if you don't come, will you help me and Shard escape?"