The Path (A Warrior Cat Story) (Book 2)

Chapter 29: I know you...

Briar took the very first steps, once he was a safe distance for the rest to start running as well, Shadow took the very first steps in front of us a bit greedily, but I thought nothing of it. The twolegs had not even noticed that Briar had gone out it seemed, but once Shadow started running from behind him thats when they noticed and they began to freak out.
I began running right after Shadow with Limp following me right at my side. I could tell that the twolegs had no idea what was going on or what to do in the first place. They were probably used to maybe 1 cat running out, but not a whole group of cats.
I got out with Limp just before they closed the door to try to stop the rest of us. Once they realized that they hadn't stopped any other cats they opened the door once again, and one twoleg ran out of the room. He started shouting to the rest of the twolegs that were in this large room to get their attention.
But by now, we were already out of the room, they were far behind us by now. Now I just needed to wait for what Briar instructed us to do next, he was the leader for us now. I did not know these types of places like he did. Briar then stopped at a corner and turned his head around us.
He then looked behind him just to make sure that none of the twolegs were on our backs. I could hear lots of them freaking out and running around in the other rooms. We still had a fair amount of time, but eventually they would find us, I shivered thinking about what they would do to us.
"What do we do now Briar?" Limp asked him, her eyes were wide, I could tell that she was afraid, this was something new to her as well. I realized that she had not really been through anything scary during the time that she had been with our little group, this was definitely something new to her.
Of course I had not been through what she had in her past so I could not quite blame her for even being the slightest bit scared. I did not know what her owners were like, and what they might have done to her, and her brothers and her sisters.
I did not like twolegs, I loved one of my owners, but that other owner had ruined my depiction of any other twoleg. Especially the stories that I had been told about by other cats, whether that be from starclan, or just other cats that I had met in my old twoleg place or in the wild.
"I am not sure, right around the corner is the exit to the building. The place is closed right now, it is very late. I don't think that anyone is going to be coming in." He said to us. I looked at him, I was a bit confused as to what he meant by the word closed. I suppose that meant that no other twolegs were looking to adopt any other animals.
I looked around, now I was beginning to get a little bit scared. If there was no twolegs opening the doors for us to get out, then we would be stuck here for the night, and the twolegs were looking for us as well... Eventually they would find us, surely right?
"What do we do then, we can't just stay here right? Where do we hide?" I asked him. He looked at me for a few moments, but I could tell that he had no clue in his right mind how to respond to what I had just asked. He did not have an answer to that question.
Shadow looked around, he was the only cat he was not scared out of the rest of us. I did not know why, maybe that was because he had no fear of the twolegs, if I had heard what Briar had said to him correctly, he often attacked and fought his owners, I hoped he was not like that to the cats around him.
I could not blame him for that, I had attacked the male twoleg because he was attacked my female owner. He came in and hit me very hard, but I did not see him ever hit his mate ever again. I did not know what Shadow had gone through, he was a bit of a mean cat but I could not blame him quite yet.
"We could hide in a litter room, but I don't know where else to hide, they open up the doors every so often in the night whenever one of the twolegs leave. We could just test our luck and wait, the doors are right around the corner." Briar said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then squinted my eyes.
If I had known that it was going to be this rough, I might have thought twice about trying this in the first place. I closed my eyes for a few moments, and I just began praying to starclan, surely they would help me find a way out of this, none of this mattered anymore.
Would they really help me though, they had brought Limp to this exact location, they had brought me back to her I suppose, but this was not the way that I would have wanted her to come back. But they had told me the cure, at least we might be able to save Oister...
"Ew... You want us to hide in the twoleg litter places? They never clean up any of their stuff..." She said to him. I looked at her, and almost wanted to halfway laugh, but now was not the time to be doing that, I thought about sitting in one of the twoleg litter places for a few moments.
I then looked at Briar, he was looking right at me, he knew that I was the leader, he knew that it was me that needed to make the final decision. I thought about telling him to hide in the bathroom, but then my thoughts came back to the kits...
They were coming to the shelter that we were at right now, maybe starclan had planned this out perfectly for us. If they were going to be giving away their kits, the twolegs would be opening the doors for them, that would be the perfect time for us to run out.
"First, tell me where the litter place is, and I will think about it." I said to Briar, Shadow looked at me a little bit angrily but he did not say anything to me. He would understand what I was getting at when the time came, we would find a way out of here, and maybe it was not too late to save the kits.
Briar looked at me and then he nodded to me, I could tell that he thought of this as the right decision, but what I was doing would make both sides happy, and maybe it would still give us enough time to find the kits and save them, they should be coming back at any moment now, the sun had completely set now.
"It is right behind you... We can hide in here and wait out the night, the twolegs will not think to find us in there, we can wait til the morning." He said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, and then I nodded to him, Limp looked at me with a little bit of a surprised look on her face.
"What about the kits? Is it too late for them? Did they die?" Limp said to me. I looked at her for a few moments, I could tell that she was actually worried about them, her apology I could tell was real now. But it still hurt me quite a bit, so I was not ready to forgive her quite yet for that.
She still had a lot left to prove, if she could save Oister, then that is when I could forgive her. I knew that Oister thought of her like she was her mother, and I did not blame her, she had lost her kits, I forget how, but this would prove that she really meant what she said to me.
"No... They are coming to the shelter, I did not meet them, but they came to me in my dream... They will be here tonight, just wait... Once we are in the litter place I will explain every thing to everyone." I said to her. She looked at me for a few moments, still not too sure, but then she nodded to me.
Shadow smiled thinking it was funny that I was talking about seeing cats in my dreams, but he did not say anything about it. Briar had no sort of emotion on his face so I could not tell what he might be thinking at the moment.
But eventually each cat nodded to me, hearing the footsteps of the twolegs drawing closer than ever to us. It was now or never, we had to hide, they would find us here, and I did not know if Briar knew of many other places to hide that were this close to the front entrance.
All of us then began to run to the twoleg litter place, right as we were about to turn, I saw the twolegs and froze, if they saw us then we would be trapped in there. I thought for a moment to warn the others but the twolegs luckily walked right past us as if they had not seen us.
I then ran into the litter room thanking starclan that they had saved us right there, otherwise we would have been in a lot of trouble. Once we were in, I looked around a bit surprised, this was a lot bigger than any of the other litter rooms that I had ever been in.
It seemed like to the others this was completely normal for them, I shook my head and then kept on following the path that Briar was making for us. We then ran in between the walls of one of the litter rooms and we all hopped on top of the litter box that twolegs tended to drop dirt in.
Each cat looked around at each other, thanking who knows what that we had gotten out of there safe and had not been caught by any of the twolegs, I smiled and then nodded to each cat, then I looked at Briar, he was looking at me once again.
I keep on forgetting that I was the leader, I was supposed to make the final decision on what it was that we were going to do. I looked at him and then I nodded at him as well, I then tried my best to regain my strength and step in for the rest of us.
"Alright... So the plan is, we hide in here, then when the place calms down and they give up on finding us, the moment that we hear a twoleg come to the front, we run out of here and then follow them, they will open the door for us." I said to each of them. Shadow nodded to me, I could tell that he thought it was a good idea.
Limp always thought every idea of mine was a good idea, so that did not really matter. But Briar I could tell was not too sure about my plan of getting out of here. I looked at him and then squinted my eyes at him, we were all in on it except him, what was it that he was so afraid of?
"It would just be safer if we just hide in here for the night..." Briar said to me. I looked at him for a few moments, he was right, and any any situation that I was in besides this one, I would agree with him on it. But I knew that we needed to find the kits, and every moment with Oister mattered...
Shadow looked at Briar and then he hissed at him, it actually moved me back a little, I was not expecting that from him. I was not too sure if I really did want this cat in a part of the clans, but I would at least give him a chance I suppose...
"Briar... You mouse brain! We have to get out of here, do you want to stay in here another night? The twolegs come in hear all the time in the morning... Plus your friend, he has friends that he is trying to save..." Shadow said to him. I looked at Shadow and then nodded, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.
I had not expected that from him at all, he had said exactly what was on my mind none the less, and we could not stay in hear for the night... Still I could tell that Briar was not too sure about what Shadow had said and he looked back over at me just to clarify if what he said was right...
"We have to Briar... Oister is on her death bed... There are kits that I need to save, we can't just stay in here..." I said to him. Briar still did not look to sure if what I was saying was the right decision. But eventually, he did realize that I was the leader, and he nodded to me and stepped back.
By now, I could tell that the twolegs had just about given up on finding us, I no longer heard any more footsteps moving around the place, and all was silent... Now it was just time for us to play the waiting game, eventually one of the twolegs would leave this place.
Limp was shivering, and Shadow was just staring at the walls, Briar had his eyes squinted at me, I could tell that he did not agree with my decision one bit, but if he wanted to learn what it was like in the wild, then he would have to get over that at some point.
I then heard the footsteps of a twoleg as it was about to walk past the litter room. Each cat then lifted its head up, aware of what was going on, they then looked at me. The twoleg was talking to another twoleg, and I could hear the footsteps of two as they were walking past us.
"Go! This is it!" I said to them, they all then nodded to me, as we hopped down from the litter box, all nearly at the exact same time, and nearly crashing in too each other... I then took the lead for them, and began walking out of the twoleg litter room.
Once we were through the exit, I then looked around trying to remember where we were at in the first place, I then nodded and saw the twolegs walking right past us, I watched them just as they turned the corner, and then I turned my head to the other cats that were with me, and I nodded to them, to let them know that this was it.
We then slowly began following the path that the twolegs had set out for us, I looked around to make sure that there were no other twolegs in the room that might be watching us, and then I nodded to myself and kept on walking towards where I could hear their footsteps.
Once we were around the corner, I looked at the exit door for the shelter, I then looked at the twolegs as they were walking right towards it... This was it! This was how we were going to get out, it was now or never... I looked at the others to make sure that they were ready, each of them nodded to me.
I then turned my head back to the twolegs, and noticed that they had stopped just at the entrance, they were just talking to each other, I looked at each one of them quite a bit confused, I then saw the male twoleg turn his head and he began walking right towards us.
Each of us stopped moving, not sure what to do, but somehow the twoleg had not seen us, and he walked right past as, no less than 3 or 4 tail lengths away from us. I then sighed, thanking starclan for that one, as the other twoleg then kept on walking towards the door.
Each one of us then began walking closer to her, once she opened it, we all began running at the exact same time, getting through it just in time before it crushed into us. Luckily the twoleg had not heard our quiet footsteps behind her as well...
But she was still right in front of us, so we still needed to be sneaky. We sat there for a few moments, waiting for the twoleg to keep on walking, as I heard a few mews, I turned my head over to them, and saw a couple kits...
There were 3 of them, and then I noticed why the twoleg had gone out here in the first place, she was going right towards them... I looked at the kits, it was very dark, and it was hard to see, but I recognized one of the kits... These were the kits that I was supposed to save...
However one was missing, I shook my head, trying not to think about it, I then saw that the twoleg was less than a few tail lengths away from them now, she was going right after them, the other cats then saw the kits as well, Shadow thought nothing of it, but I could tell that the other 2 knew who these kits were right away...
"Those are the kits Moon! What do we do?" Limp said to me. I turned my head to her, trying to think of what we could possibly do, to stop the twoleg, she had just picked up the kits, and now she was rubbing the fur of the kits... I missed that from my old owner...
I shook my head, and brought my mind back to the present, even though the twoleg seemed she was friendly, I knew what we had to do, it might be a bit cruel but it was what I had to do if I did not want to let starclan down, and if I wanted to save the kits from being kittypets the rest of their lives...
"Everyone scratch on to the twoleg... Not to hard, just to get her to drop the kits... Briar, Shadow, and I will pick up the kits, Limp... You just take the lead for us and lead us somewhere safe..." I said to each one of them. They all nodded to me.
Shadow began to smile for some reason, I shook my head I bit confused for a few moments, and then I turned my head back to the twoleg who was still gently rubbing the kits...
"Oh... That is what I do best..." Shadow said to me. I rolled my eyes at him and then I stopped myself, my heart was beginning to pump faster than before, I was beginning to get an adrenaline rush... This was it, we have to do this right now!
I then began running at the twoleg, I hissed at her to scare her, she moved back, but she did not drop the kits... Then each of us then hopped onto the twoleg and then began to lightly scratch against the twoleg, it did not get her to drop the kits however...
I then saw Shadow jump onto the twolegs arm, he then cut into the twoleg a bit harsher than I had asked for him to do... I was about to say something about it, but maybe that was all that we needed to do in the first place, the twoleg then dropped the kits onto the ground.
Right away, each one of us began to pick up one of the kits, I picked up the one that I had seen in the dream the other night... The one that had died, but then Jayfeather had come in and brought the kit back to life... I shook my head not thinking about it and then just kept on running where Limp was leading us...
I heard the footsteps of the twoleg from behind me, but instead of it running towards us, it was running away from us... Shadow had done a good job getting his point across, although it was a bit harsh, he had gotten the twoleg to drop the kits, it was just what we needed.
I then saw Limp stop right in front of us, I looked at her a bit confused for a few moments, but she wasn't looking at me, she was looking at something else completely. I then saw 2 cats that stepped in front of her, hissing at Limp.
"Our kits are dying! Why did you take them away! Give them back now!" The she cat said right away, with a very angry look on her face. I decided that I needed to step in before things got a little out of hand...
As I walked in front of Limp, I then stopped and dropped the young kit, who was somehow asleep, and paying no attention to what was going on around it... However, its parents looked at me a bit surprised and their eyes opened wide...
"Wait... I know you..."