Totally Original Cat Story 1: The Origins
Whelp, this was inevitable. Warriors has been an obsession of mine for the past two years and well… it inspired me.
If you do not know what Warrior Cats is, please read part one of my mega review series as I explain the premise in great detail there. All you need to know for this post is that Warriors is a young readers’ xenofiction (animal/non-human perspective fiction) series about four/five cat colonies called Clans coexisting in the woods. Though they live apart, they share history, laws, traditions, and religious beliefs. The series has been going on for 21 years, starting in 2003 with the first book Into the Wild. There are currently 100+ books with more on the horizon. The series spans multiple in-universe years with literally thousands of characters, numerous locations/ landmarks, and many, many stories. Warriors has had a profound impact on me creatively. Without it, I would not be writing or drawing today. It’s a huge, influential, and daunting series with a dedicated fanbase of children and adults alike… and it’s not all that great.
I have many problems with Warriors, despite my love for it. If you read my agonizingly long mega reviews, you know what they are. If not, here’s a brief summary:
The Supernatural Nonsense: I am not quiet about my distaste for the supernatural nonsense in Warriors. The cats can just walk into their afterlives and talk to their passed on loved ones, making death feel pointless and unimpactful (except Bristlefrost’s). Some cats can see and speak to ghosts. The Moonpool is no longer just a holy site. It is a literal portal to Kitty Cat Heaven and Hell. The cats can dream themselves into Kitty Hell and if their dream-self is killed, their corporal body dies in real life. Cats can straight up kill ghosts. Like… ghosts are physical beings that can be cut up by claws… it’s ridiculous. I really hate StarClan (Kitty Heaven) and how they and their stupid, convoluted lore are written. The cats are so reliant on StarClan’s guidance that they no longer think for themselves. I plan on digging deeper into this topic another day. I have a lot to say. I hate StarClan so much.
The Clans Do Not Feel Like Clans: There are well over 1000 characters in Warriors and about 150 of them have personalities. ThunderClan currently has 40+ cats and less than 10 of them actually speak or do anything. The Clans are supposed to be close-knit communities with these deeply ingrained traditions and values, but they don’t feel like it. Most of our MCs hardly interact with their Clan most of the time. Hell, families do not feel like families because these cats hardly speak to each other. Friends. Rivals. Enemies. None of those exist! Mentors are basically a second/third parent to the young cats of the Clan, but do the young cats ever go to their mentors for guidance after they become warriors? No. They hardly think about them! It sucks! You couple all of this with how similar the Clans feel to each other and you ultimately get five very boring “communities” who all have the exact same traditions, values, skill sets, etc. Lame.
Poor Planning and Writing: Warriors is written by multiple people and is released at a fast rate. Because of that, the authors do not have time to sit down and think out their plots and characters. This leads to shoddy character development, rough plots, contrivances, and more. I go over this stuff in detail in my mega reviews. The writing itself is quite poor. It’s very tell>show and most of the POVs read/feel the same (with a few exceptions). It’s honestly difficult to parse who is who if one were to remove the characters’ names from the prose. I’ll also talk about this aspect of Warriors in more detail later on in a different post.
Retcons and Incest: Due to the Erins not keeping track of the family trees and the constant retconned relationships, the Clans are brimming with incest. Hell, even if we ignore that, the Clans’ xenophobic/anti-Clan mixing views lead to incest. But it wouldn’t be so obvious and bad if the Erins gave a damn ages ago and kept track of the families. And if they didn’t put in incest in the later books. In Onestar’s Confession, the Erins decided to make Onewhisker Heathertail’s father and Ashfoot his sister. Ashfoot’s grandson (who is also Onestar’s great nephew), Breezepelt, hooks up with Heathertail, his second cousin, and has kittens with her. This was retconned into the books deliberately for no reason. And they somehow didn’t catch it even though we all know that Ashfoot is Breezepelt’s grandmother! This is what infuriates and disgusts me the most about the inbreeding. The majority of it is from retcons, general laziness, and a severe lack of self awareness. Absolutely shameful.
All in all, Warriors is kind of crap. There’s a lot that I like and a lot that I dislike, but instead of waiting for the series to do what I wished it would do, I’m just gonna make my own!
What I’m Removing, Changing, and Keeping
Let’s discuss the stuff I removed first. No religion and supernatural crap. A lot of xenofiction has religion as a big part of the animals’ culture and I’m sick of it honestly. I decided to get rid of it as a personal challenge. You can culture-build without having a religion. Plus, I think animals are interesting enough already without religion needing to be a big part of their lives. That and I don’t want the cats fighting ghosts and whatnot.
In the book The Plague Dogs there is a character named the tod. The tod is a male fox who is so wild and “other” that he doesn’t understand the concept of names. He certainly doesn’t understand the concept of gods and religion like how the dogs, Rolf and Snitter, do. I want to do something similar where the cats are too animal to understand mystical human ideas like religion and art. However, I’m not going to go full animal as, unlike the tod, the cats are domestic. Due to their close proximity to humans, the cats have an understanding of human items like houses, cars, guns, and hell, even numbers. However, things like art and religion are too much for them to grasp. I believe animals are very practical beings who don’t sit around contemplating on the state of the world or the origin of life. They’re too busy trying not to die to start a religion.
There are only three colonies instead of five. This is for simplicity on my end. Warriors has too many cats congested in one area and we’ve seen how hard it is for the Erins to keep track of all of them. Right now, my two colonies (one of them is gone, more on that later) there are ~40 adult cats in each group, each one fleshed out and recorded on stupidly long spreadsheets and extensive family trees. I’m using Warriors’ shoddy history as a guide on what not to do. No incest nor voiceless background cats in my books!
I have way more predators. Warriors is roughly based in England so the largest four-legged predators they deal with are dogs. My story roughly takes place in the America Northwest/Southern Canada area. North America is brimming with rich wildlife. We got foxes and badgers too, but we also have wolves, bears, fishers, various birds of prey, stoats, snakes, otters, beavers, raccoons, bobcats, lynxes, cougars, coyotes, wolverines, deer, moose, and I can keep going. I want nature to feel like nature, dangers and all. I also want to highlight some neat North American animals because they’re cool and I like them.
The colonies work together, but stay apart for practicality. I never understood why the Clans are so combative with each other. I mean, I like the drama, but logically it doesn’t make sense for them to be at each others throats when they’re all the same and not hounded by predators all the time. In Dawn of the Clans, Clear Sky is seen as a power hungry lunatic for establishing borders and fighting off any cat who enters “his land.” He gets raked across the coals for this, but the other Clans adopt this draconian border policy for… no reason. The Erins don’t explain why they went from working together to being isolated and hostile. I wanted my colonies to stay apart because smaller groups are easier to manage (for the cats and for me) and they attract less predators. There is colony conflict and a “we’re better than them” mentality, but they’re mostly collaborative. It’s counterproductive to be enemies in a world full of predators. There are still borders, but they’re used to differentiate which territory is which. Plus, my colonies are not close to each other. They have plenty of room and thus have no reason to hunt on another’s land. They also have festivals and celebrations to keep morale high and hostility low.
Fighting is strictly forbidden as fighting leads to injuries, and injuries lead to death. Cats caught fighting within the colony, or with the other colony cats, are punished. Disputes are to be talked out, not fought. Real cats are not combative. They tend to just puff up their fur and scream until their enemy backs off. I took that and made the cats diplomatic. Soldiers are trained to fight, but they only combat predators. The soldier role is the most dangerous role in the colony, especially with the lack of medicine cats. As much as I like medicine cats in Warriors, I don’t want my cats to use herbs and other plants to heal wounds. It crosses a line for me. I feel like medicine cats remove a lot of the stakes and tension from fights. I want injuries to matter. I want death to matter. An infected wound can and will kill a cat. Wild animals try their best to avoid injuries if they can help it. I want that drama so yeah no magical healing plants.
For the sake of fun, I have full-on purebreds who would not survive in the wild surviving in the wild. I think it’s funny. I love these cat breeds so I’m putting them in, realism be damned. I’m not taking the story that seriously nor am I going for Watership Down levels of grounded-ness. Think Felidae’s dark humor mixed with Warriors’ structure. That’s what I’m going for. My book is targeting an older audience— roughly late teen to adult— as I want to explore darker themes that are inappropriate or too challenging for children (that and I also straight hate writing for kids. Creating children’s media is a skill that I do not have). Xenofiction is a versatile genre and I don’t like that a huge chunk of them are for kids. Nature is bloody y’all. Let’s explore that. Oh and the cats will look like real cats (for the most part) because I want to play with genetics. No highlighter yellow cats with blue eyes here.
Now onto stuff I’m keeping. Since I’m taking inspiration from Warriors, there’s a lot of unavoidable similarities. The easiest one being the colony hierarchy. Mine is more similar to the Tribe of Rushing Water— where they split “warrior” into two groups, prey-hunters and cave-guards— but I did my best to make it different. My colonies work like military units with ranks, titles, subordinates, superiors, rigid schedules, disciplines, etc. I thought, for a group of intelligent mesopredators, they would eventually create this kind of militaristic system to effectively and efficiently survive in the wild. Now that I think about, it’s similar to Watership Down’s rabbit warrens. They can’t go fooling around when there’s predators everywhere.
Political Roles
Commander: The leader of the colony who has the final say on all decisions. They maintain order, promote cats to higher ranks, and decide if an outsider is good enough to join. Commanders also conduct ceremonies and festivals (if they so choose).
Second Commander (or the second): Seconds are chosen by the commander only. They are the deputies. When the commander is out of commission, the second takes over. Succession is exactly the same as in Warriors. When the commander retires, dies, or is ousted, the second becomes the commander. I couldn’t avoid this as it made the most logical/logistical sense within the story. I thought about the cats having a democratic vote, but this caused problems for the story I wanted to tell so copy/paste.
Ambassador: Ambassadors are the diplomats of the colony. They exchange news, arrange meetings, talk through conflicts, and work as a third leader of the colony if the commanders are out of commission. If the first and second commander are killed, exiled, or whatever else, the ambassador ascends to commander. Like the second, ambassadors are only chosen by the commander. Oftentimes, scout majors are chosen to be ambassadors as they tend to be faster than soldiers, but this isn’t always the case. On the night of the waxing crescent phase, all ambassadors go to Outsider’s Grove to look for recruits. It is their job to convince the cats there to join their colony over the others (and examine if the cats are fit enough to join).
The Council: There are five council members, excluding the previous three roles (8 in total), each chosen by the commander. Once a captain is appointed to the council, they gain the new rank and title “Major.” They discuss news, vote on decisions, and exchange ideas. While not in meetings, majors attend to their normal captain duties.
Field Roles
Majors: The highest ranking field role. Majors are essentially captains but with more authority. There are usually 1-2 majors per group.
Captains: Each group has at least 1-2 captains. Captains are appointed by the commander after a previous captain is promoted, demoted, retires, dies, or is exiled. Captains maintain their groups, oversee training, delegate jobs, set squads on missions, track sleeping schedules, report to the commander, perform assessments, lead trainee graduation ceremonies, and more. They’re busy cats.
Nurses: Nurses maintain the safety and cleanliness of the camp, keep track of mated pairs and their litters, and protect, care for, and teach kittens. When kittens are old enough (3-5 months) nurses enlist their help for tasks like camp cleaning and den repair. Nurses teach kittens basic in-camp evasion and hiding techniques and regularly run drills. Usually, there are 4 total nurses with 1 captain and 1 major.
Instead of nursery queens being an unofficial rank, here it’s an official one. I have plans to expand upon the role in-story.
Soldiers: The most dangerous role. Soldiers are the fighters and defenders of the colony. They chase/fight off intruders and predators, they guard the camp entrance, and they shadow scouts to keep them safe while they perform their duties. Since being a soldier is a very demanding and dangerous job, the job is widely unpopular, but the cats who choose it are treated with respect. Soldier trainees go through more rigorous training where they learn specific battle techniques for different predators. Four of the best soldiers are selected to be sentries, guards who sit by the camp entrance and keep an eye out for intruders. There must be at least one sentry at the entrance at all times. There are usually 2 soldier captains, and 2 majors.
Scouts: The most common role. Scouts go out, patrol the land for predators, hunt, and alert the colony of any danger. Scouts do not fight normally, but they are trained to combat competitors like stoats, weasels, and foxes as they will deal with them on hunts. They do not fight more dangerous predators like coyotes unless they absolutely have to. If a scout is being chased by a predator they are trained to lead it far away from the camp and lose it before returning home. There are usually 2 scout captains and 2 majors.
Trainees: Younger cats who train to become scouts, soldiers, or nurses are called trainees. Kittens can choose whatever role they want. All trainees need to be about 6 months old before they can begin a 2 month basic training regiment under the guidance of captains. Here, they learn how to hunt, track, climb, evade predators, fight, and perform/read tail-signals. During this time, trainees can switch roles if they so choose, but once they are assigned to a trainer, it is heavily encouraged to not switch as to not waste the trainer’s time. Captains are not allowed to reject a trainee unless they fail an assessment numerous times. If they do, that captain can commune with the other group captains and suggest putting that trainee in a different group.
I kept the 6 months rule as, as with deputies, it just makes the most sense. Warriors is weird in that 6-month-old cats are treated like kittens (and I mean like tiny tiny kittens) until they receive the “paw” suffix where they level up to adolescent. Apprentices are always said to be real short when, in reality, 6-month-old cats are about the size of a grown cat. They wouldn’t be that small compared to an adult. At 6 months, a cat is big enough and strong enough to do more vigorous tasks. Plus they’re officially an adolescent until they hit a year old where they’re classified as grown. So yeah, 6 months to start training just made sense, especially in my more dangerous world. Warriors got that right.
I adore the mentoring system of Warriors. I like seeing the young cats bond with their mentor and rely on them for guidance and schooling. When it’s done well, the author can showcase both characters’ relationship with each other and build upon them. Plus, it’s a great way to show the differences between cultures. Unfortunately, Warriors doesn’t really do that often. I changed quite a bit about the training regiments, treating it more like school where all trainees are taught the basics by the captains first before being assigned to an individual for one-on-one training. Each group requires different skills. There is crossover obviously (there’s only so much you can do with cats), but I tried my best to set everything apart from Warriors.
I want to avoid battle and hunting training as much as possible as it’s boring as sin. All cats inherently know how to hunt, even kittens, but the captains help refine those skills before they begin 1-on-1 training, y’know the stuff I actually want to write. I’m not going to put y’all through yet another hunting lesson where Examplepaw learns how to set his paws as to not scare off the prey.
I always felt likeWarriors needed more roles just to make colony life more interesting, especially high ranks, titles, and accolades for younger cats to strive after. You create more drama that way.
Moving on, I got a whole new naming system! Instead of the names denoting rank, my names denote who the cats are related to. My cats have a first name and a last name comprised of their parents’ names. The prefix is the mother’s name and the suffix is the father’s name. So Winter SilverFang is a cat’s full name. If the father is unknown, the kittens are given the generic suffix “-Seed.” The mother is usually always known, but if the mother is not, the kittens are not given a last name. This is how nurses keep track of family lines. For example, Winter’s mother is Silver SandCloud. Silver has a sister named Dawn SandCloud. Dawn has a daughter named Rain DawnSeed. By tracing the names back, the cats know that Rain and Winter are cousins. The cats (and me) created this to prevent inbreeding. Warriors has a serious incest problem and I wanted to mitigate that as much as possible. Plus the names are fun. Thorn TurtleFlash, Strike OwlSlash, Fox AppleBone, Night RavenBadger, Wren SwanJumper, Ice MistWatcher, and more. It’s fun. It’s silly. I’m proud of it.
My cats welcome outsiders. This is for genetic diversity and bolstering numbers. Cats keep dying so on boarding new cats greatly helps the colonies. However, they don’t allow lazy chumps to join their groups. Outsiders must go through a series of tests before being accepted. The tests usually last 2-3 weeks. If they pass, they become trainees. Outsiders are given a month to decide if they truly want to stay. If they decide that colony life is not for them, or they fail the tests, they are chased out of the territory and are not allowed back. The outsider could try-out a different colony if they fail the tests of another, though this pisses off the colony that booted them out.
Funnily enough, as I was drafting the rules, I hadn’t read The Broken Code yet so when I got around to it and arrived to the part in The Place of No Stars where the Clans finally decided to allow other Clan cats to join their group after a series of trials, I was floored. I didn’t think that would happen in my lifetime. I guess the Erins finally realized how inbred ThunderClan is and found a way to bring in fresh genes whilst keeping the Clans’ signature xenophobia.
“Simpsons Did It!”
Similar to how The Simpsons has done basically every animated sitcom plot imaginable, Warriors has done basically everything you could do for a series about cats living in the woods. With a series this massive, there are going to be similarities between it and the stories it inspires. I’m very aware of that fact and I’m trying my damndest to make it uniquely mine. While plotting, I hit a few roadblocks because I thought “wait a minute, didn’t Warriors already do this?” I had to push this thought away as it stopped me from working on the project. I hope with my unique voice, humor, and take on things people will see that while yes my books are similar to Warriors, they’re not a rip-off. Warriors is similar to Tailchaser’s Song, but they have wildly different tones and styles. Honestly, you have to stretch pretty far to say Warriors ripped off Tailchaser. There’s only so much you can do with cats living in the wild. I just want a kitty cat soap opera without magic and more political drama. That’s it.
A Brief Overview of the Story, the Map, and the Colonies
Now that you know the basics, let’s talk about book one. Yes, book one. This is going to be a trilogy. I plan on having more 3 book long arcs, but I’m getting way ahead of myself. Do know all of this is still in the rough draft phase so names, and whatever else are subject to change.
Arc one follows Shadow, a 2-year-old black tomcat with a short temper and a hatred for authority. He and his brother Ash are strays living on the streets. For two months, the brothers have been searching for their sister, Violet. She vanished when a new group of cats moved in and started hassling the established colonies there. Opal is the leader of this colony of bullies and she’s not someone you mess with. Cats either join her or get killed. Many have left the town, others became house cats, and the crazier ones ran off to the dangerous, predator-infested woods nearby.
After a run in with Opal’s Gang, Shadow and Ash trek to an unoccupied neighborhood where they meet a house cat named Winston. Winston desires more out of his cushy life. His neighbor, Wren, was a forest cat and the stories he tells are exciting to Winston. The house cat tells the brothers that he has seen Violet and a stray named Dante speaking to Wren awhile back. He and the brothers talk to the former forest cat. Wren is an old tom with a haunted past. He states that he is from Hill Colony, a colony that no longer exists. He won’t tell them what happened to his kin. Instead he tells them where to find the forest cats. Shadow is not eager to leave the town for the even more dangerous forest, but Ash convinces him that they need to find Violet and make sure she is okay. Besides, their home is being taken over by Opal’s ever growing colony. They have no where else to go. Perhaps being with the forest colonies won’t be so bad. Reluctant, Shadow agrees and Winston eagerly follows them, happy to be free of his boring life.
Along the journey they run into a molly named Pearl. She is Opal’s sister. She defected from her hostile sister’s group to search for their lost littermate Amber. She joins the toms and together they go to the woods. After spending a few days on the outskirts, they meet an elegant white cat named Storm RoseThorn, the ambassador of Pine Colony. She leads the cats to her camp and there they find their family members. Since Amber nor Violet want to leave, the newcomers join and are put through rigorous tests. While with Pine Colony, Shadow learns of the murder of Maple Colony’s former ambassador Bone. Some Maple Colony cats believe a Pine Colony cat killed him as their scent was on his body, but Pine Colony denies this. Tensions are high, inside and out. Shadow’s snooping and ambition creates powerful enemies and draws the attention of Hill Colony’s destructor— a massive predator whose name sends shivers down the spines of all the cats living in the forest.
And this where my synopsis stops as I don’t want to give the whole plot away. I’ll talk more about the characters in another post.
This is a map I made using Inkarnate. It’s a bit rough but I plan on drawing my own map when the book is ready as I hate using templates for my art. This is just a guide for myself as I write the story. Most of the names and the notable locations are subject to change. The colonies named themselves after their environments. My cats are intelligent but practical. They didn’t take the time to name themselves anything flowery because why would they?
The territories are large and so the cats have neutral zones set up everywhere. The island, the area around the waterfall, the areas where the crossing stones are in the river, and the entire forest underneath and around Hill Colony’s land are neutral. All social events and meetings take place on neutral ground.
Pine Colony and Maple Colony have similar environments though Pine Colony has more coniferous trees, which gives them less ground cover and an overall darker environment. Maple Colony has more deciduous trees and so have more hiding places and a brighter forest. Hill Colony was located atop a cliff surrounded by hills, tall grass, and valleys. Though they thrived for generations, they were never truly safe. Their lack of sufficient cover was their ultimate downfall. Once their base was found, that was it. The predator who destroyed them now roams their old territory and the neutral zone beneath it, causing a lot of strife and fear in the surviving colonies.
Well would you look at that! We got ShadowClan, ThunderClan, and WindClan! The environments are the same and yeah, they are and that’s not gonna change. See the above Simpsons Did It section. ThunderClan is hard to differ from, living in a generic deciduous forest. Oh well, Maple’s not my main. Pine is and I deliberately ripped off ShadowClan’s land as I love coniferous woods and wanted my cats to deal with the more challenging environment.
Hill Colony is WindClan but with hills… and dead. WindClan is my favorite Clan because I adore the open environment and speedy cats, but after I spent too long thinking about it, I ultimately felt it was too impractical for cats to want to live in the open. Domestic cats are sneaky little guys who prefer hiding under or within cover to hunt and escape. Tall grass is helpful but a large predator would still see a cat slinking about. Birds of prey would definitely see a cat. Hill Colony was able to evade predators for a while, thanks to being able to spot them from afar, but once a predator they could not combat arrived… lol rip. They had a good run for a couple generations but their downfall was predictable. So yeah Hill Colony is WindClan but worse.
And that’s it for now. I’ll make more posts about this later on whenever I feel like it.
Sneak Peek 👀
Here’s a little excerpt from the first chapter of draft one. As it is the first draft, it’s real rough, but I thinks it’s a solid foundation.
Chapter One
Cycle 11 Autumn, New Moon
Shadow hated moonless nights. It wasn’t the light of the moon that comforted him,— not that he could see it, thanks to the rain and the harsh yellow light of the metal poles— but the belief that, under the moon’s glow, predators stayed away. It was foolish, he knew, but having spent cycles roaming the town with his siblings and witnessing cats being flattened by cars, torn apart by dogs, and even stuffed into sacks by young humans to be tossed around like a plaything and somehow managing to escape it all, Shadow felt the old superstition held some weight. But tonight, the moonlight was gone and he was in enemy territory.
Thunder rumbled overhead. Being soaked to the bone weighed him down and his paws slipped in the puddles, but he kept moving with his ears and eyes scanning every corner and dark alley. If he stayed still for too long, a stray dog or a territorial cat could jump him and kill or severely injure him. Then Ash would be on his own and the thought of his brother fending off the dangers of the streets on his own hurt Shadow’s heart. They had to survive together. They somehow made it through two winters. They can survive another one… if Shadow can manage to scrounge up some food.
For phases now, he and Ash had to rely on human scraps, having been banned from the choice rat-catching areas by Opal’s Gang. Three cycles ago, a group of vicious mollies led by the sister duo, Opal and Jade, arrived, killed the previous matriarchs of the largest colony in town and took over. Opal’s new colony quickly took over the northern part of town and had been swiftly making their way down, chasing out or merging with the other colonies along the way. Shadow and his siblings, Ash and Violet, did not belong to any colony, but that didn’t stop Opal from propositioning them. During a rotbox scavenging, Opal and a small group of her cats cornered Shadow and his siblings and offered them a place amongst them. Shadow refused, knowing full well that they would be on the bottom of the pack— fed last and treated worse. As soon as he said no, they jumped them. Fortunately, the street-born siblings knew how to navigate out of scrap and flee with only a few scratches. Unfortunately, they had lost access to that rotbox. And it was a good one too, Shadow lamented, his stomach growling at the thought. Humans throw out the best foods. Perhaps I can find another one.
His paws, toughened from cycles of walking upon the hard ground of the town, splashed in the puddles as he trekked on, his nose and ears alert for anything that could be food. He spotted a pair of humans rushing inside their home, holding loose pelts over their heads to block the rain. He stopped and contemplated padding over and meowing for food. Some humans were friendly, but others were not. It was always hard to tell which was what. He watched one dig around in her sack while the other shivered from the wet coldness of the rain. Shadow squinted. She could have food. I could go and beg. Then he shuddered. No. What if she’s too friendly? She’ll pick me up.
Shadow hated being touched by humans. He’ll never forget being picked up by one. Without his permission, the giant scooped him up and would not stop stroking his spine. It was a young human, a female kitten— Shadow didn’t know what humans called their offspring nor did he care to learn. The kit would not put him down no matter how many times Shadow told her to. Ash and Violet were hidden away and the parents of the kit didn’t do anything. Instead, they were making those weird soft huffing noises humans made when they found something amusing. Shadow didn’t want to hurt the poor kit. She didn’t know better but… well, one has to learn how to behave somehow. Shadow turned away from the humans and kept walking.
Seeing them made him think of Violet. His sister was always better with humans than he was. She enjoyed being touched by them. Shadow snorted. She probably got taken by one of them and locked inside their home. That’s what happens when you’re too friendly. He huffed in amusement. She’s probably driving her humans mad. Better them than me.
A day after Opal’s Gang chased them out of their beloved rotbox area, Violet disappeared. She had been gone for two cycles now and Ash was worried sick. Shadow, not so much. She’s fine wherever she is. She probably joined Opal just to piss me off. He snorted again and scowled, rain streaming down his whiskers. Yeah. She would do that.
Pushing Violet out of his mind, he turned a corner down an alley. This was an unfamiliar area. The back was blocked by a fence. Wet human scraps littered the ground and a metal rotbox was nestled close to the wall of an eating place. Shadow’s eyes watered from the rank stench of the rotbox. It smelled worse than usual, thanks to the rain mixing with the rotting food and foul juices that leaked from the shiny black sacks. The humans who owned the box forgot to close it. Usually this was a good thing, but the rancid smell turned his stomach. Great moon above, what did they throw in there? A dead dog?
He wrinkled his nose and turned away. Then he heard a series of squeaking nearby. He stood rigid, his ears turned back. The squeaking was coming from the rotbox. He whirled around, orange eyes bright and focused.
Letting instinct guide his paws, he crouched and slowly stalked forward. That squeaking is definitely coming from the rotbox but where? Inside? Their sounds are not bouncing off the metal so they were not inside. His nose didn’t help him here. It was all up to his ears. Even in the rain, he could hear the high-pitched squeaking and tittering of his prey. He stopped and listened harder. They are underneath! He moved again, even slower this time. His paws lightly stepped into a puddle of who-knows-what. He fought the urge to shake it as he didn’t want to scare his target away. Then the quick flash of a thin, fleshly tail darting under the shelter of the box. A rat! His heart soared. Real prey! He hadn’t had real prey in phases! He wiggled his haunches in excitement. He and Ash would eat good tonight if he could kill one. Perhaps even two!
But then he remembered where he was. A human eating place. Humans hate rats, especially near their food. Shadow’s excitement faded. Cats died from eating tainted rats. He took a step back. They could be fine. I’ll have to kill one to sniff it… but with this smelly thing, their scent would be covered. But I could catch one and sniff it somewhere else. Yeah. He crept forward once again and slid out his claws. Now how am I—
“What is this? A stranger on our land?”
Shadow startled. The rats squealed in alarm and scurried further underneath the box. Damn! Shadow whirled and bared his teeth at the newcomers. Three ragged-looking mollies blocked the entrance of the alley, the flickering yellow light from the poles glinting in their hate-filled eyes. The lead, a ginger-and-white molly with scarred ears, looked Shadow up and down with a sneer. Her rain-slicked long fur hugged her lean, strong build. Jade! Shadow’s tail trembled.
Jade’s voice was icy and smooth. “What are you doing here?” Then, her cold amber eyes widened. “Wait… I know you.”
Despite his racing heart and shaky body, Shadow kept his voice light and innocent. “Oh? You do?”
“Yes.” She squinted. “Aren’t you Shadow?”
“Oh yes. That is me.” He looked behind her and her companions at the entrance. Keep her talking. “And you’re Jade. What can I do ya for?” There was no way he could whip around them without getting mauled. Behind him was the half-a-leap tall rotbox and a two leap tall fence at the end of the alley. He could scale them easily, but Jade was fast. He won’t leave this without a stretch.
“Mm-hm.” Jade padded toward him, her companions, a white two-color and a brown, flanking her. Jade leaned over and sniffed him. Shadow fought back the urge to hiss and smack her away. “Yes,” she said, eyeing him. “You are Shadow.” She let out a soft purr. “Where’s your moony sister? I have a member who would like to speak to her again.” She slid out her claws. Shadow watched them warily. He kept his own concealed, not wanting to threaten the brutal molly.
A flash of lightning lit the small alley as he said, “Violet’s gone.”
“Oh? Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is she dead?”
“I… don’t know.”
Jade huffed, “I hope so. Well Shadow, why are you out here alone? Where’s your brother? Is he gone too?”
Keep her talking. Wait for the right moment. “He’s fine.”
“Is he hunting on our lands too?”
“This is your land?” He widened his eyes and tilted his head, hoping he looked dumb enough to warrant mercy. It did not work.
Jade squinted at him. “You’re not slow, Shadow. Don’t pretend.” She folded her ears back and hissed. “Everyone knows this is our land. And you are—“
Not wasting a beat, Shadow whipped around, past the rotbox and toward the fence. Growling and yowling, the mollies gave chase. He leapt half-way up the metal fence. It swayed and creaked under his weight as he scampered up and over. He landed hard on his paws and took off, weaving through the streets, leaping walls, and crawling under fences without losing speed. Jade and her posse’s hisses and yowls faded into the background.
Soon his chest burned and he had to stop. He hopped onto the deck of a house, knocking over a potted plant, and looked back, breathing hard. Jade and her friends were blurry shapes in the distance. Not wanting to wait for them to catch up, he dropped down and dashed across the hard cold ground. Cars rested along the neighborhood street. He thought about hiding under one of them, hoping their acrid scent would cover his own, but he wanted to get out of Opal’s territory as quickly as possible. No doubt Jade will go back and report him to her sister. Jade was scary enough. He did not want to face Opal.
He stopped at a road crisscross, waited for a few cars to zoom past, and once the road was clear, he bolted across and crashed into the scraggly bushes on the other side. He was out of Opal’s land now. At least he thought so. He and Ash will have to move again. As he caught his breath, he watched the other side of the street. He didn’t see Jade. He’d lost them.
Sighing, he crawled from under the bush and padded through the grass. The small grassy area, or “the park” as house cats called it, was mostly clean with a few overflowing rot containers. Wet dead leaves stuck to his paws as he miserably trudged his way to a lone bench shadowed by a leafless tree. The bench overlooked the river that cut the town in two. Huddled in a furry black ball was Ash. He lifted his head when Shadow drew near.
“Hey!” Ash uncurled and stretched his legs. “You’re back! You catch anything?”
“No,” grumbled Shadow. He slid under the bench and shook himself.
Ash hissed and shielded his face. “Shadow!”
“Sorry,” Shadow collapsed beside him under the bench and began licking his soaking fur. Ash settled back down and leaned over to sniff him. “What’s wrong? Did Opal find you?”
“Jade found me.”
Ash sucked on his teeth. “Ah, great. Did they chase you?”
“Yeah.”
“All the way here?”
“No. I lost them… I think.”
Ash purred, moved closer and bumped Shadow with his shoulder. “No one can catch you.”
“Hmph. Ash, we need to move.”
“What? No! We’re safe here.”
Shadow lifted his head and faced him. “Not for long. Jade will tell Opal and she will hunt us down. They’ll take this place soon.”
“But where else can we go? We still haven’t found Violet—“
“Forget about Violet. She’s fine. We need to worry about ourselves.”
“Stop saying that!” Ash folded his ears back. “She’s family, Shadow! We need to find her.”
“Violet is tough. Wherever she is, she’s fine. She left on her own accord.”
“We don’t know that!”
Shadow stood, tail-tip flicking back and forth. “Listen Ash, we gotta get out of here before we are found out!”
The bigger tom stood as well, standing a head taller than his brother. “Where? There’s nowhere else to go!”
“I don’t know!” Shadow snapped. Ash flinched away. Shadow softened his voice. “I’m sorry. I’m just tired and hungry.” He collapsed onto this side, releasing a long defeated sigh. Ash leaned over, licked the top of his head and then settled beside him, tucking his paws under his chest. They were silent for a while, listening to the rumbling of thunder until Ash asked,
“How about we go to that fancy neighborhood on the edge of town? You know, the one with all those stuffy cats? I don’t think Opal has marked that area.”
Shadow huffed out his nose. “She has.”
“How do you know?”
“She owns this town, Ash.”
“She doesn’t own all of it. That neighborhood is huge.” He prodded his brother’s side. “Come on, Shadow. We haven’t checked that area for Violet.”
“I’m telling you, Violet is fine.”
Ash sighed. “Let’s go check that area.”
Shadow flipped onto his back and stared at the rotting wood of the bench. Seeing no other option, he said “Alright,” he closed his eyes. “We’ll take a look.”
Ash moved closer and pressed his spine against Shadow’s side. “Good. While there, we may be able to charm a human into giving us some food.”
Oh yeah and there’s no name for it currently. I’ll think of one later. I’m actually working on two novels at the moment. The other one I’ve been chipping away at since 2018. It’s been torturous. I’ll talk about that one later.
