Forbidden Shadows, Chapter Five

The cats silently padded along, concealed in the tall wheat of the field that engulfed the land on one side of the city, the only home they had known. The wheat was tall and golden, and stretched vastly across the land as far as the strays could see. The bright sunshine of Thursday afternoon shined in their eyes, the grass itched and scratched their pelts, the kittens ran along playfully, tripping up the adults, yet it was almost time for the apocalypse to begin in the city, ending all cats. They had a fear that either the humans or Hawkscreech would be close behind them soon, and they guessed both. But no one spoke about it at all.

They didn't want speak about them NOT coming either, for fear of jinxing their very last hopes.

They were scared.

Willowfur, a tabby-tan she-stray, finally spoke up. "We should find a place to stop and hunt," the tan stray said wisely.

She looked at Stormcloud and Bluejay, and they nodded. They knew Willowfur had hunted many years in the forest before coming to the city life, so she was an experienced cat at hunting live beings for food. Especially mice, which the field was teeming with.

Willowfur went off to hunt, but the rest of the strays worried she would just betray them and leave. They all knew that Willowfur was a quiet being, and could easily slip away and abandon the strays. They all wished they could do it too, but they had made a decision. They must stick together.

Slowly the sun began to lower. The sky tinged bright orange and pink as the sun dipped below the horizon. And thus dusk began.

The cats were horribly tired, having left their city early in the morning and traveled until dusk. Willowfur had not yet returned, but no cat thought to speak. Truthfully, they were worried that the rest of the cats would do it soon, so that they would be alone with cats who had a powerful omen to use against them. This thought spread through the cats until they came across a shed next to an abandoned farmhouse.

They figured out how to kill the mice, and so they ate their supper curled up in the shed. But although they were cramped in the tiny shed, every cat comfortably fell asleep.

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Stormcloud snapped awake. Bluejay did as well. Darkness filtered into the worn-down shed of splintery, broken wooden boards, so the two cats knew it was still late at night. But what was that thundering noise in the distance?

The cats listened quietly and carefully to the noise they heard. Someone - or something - was stomping towards the shed. Maybe it was only the farm humans coming home. But late at night? Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Now everycat else awoke, and as they listened, the stomping and thundering got louder and louder, as if whoever or whatever this stomper happened to be, it was coming closer.

Suddenly their shed door burst open, bringing the stray cats to their paws instantly.

Indeed something was wrong, for what they saw horrified them.