Chapter 3

If I haven't mentioned it already, the alleyway was sort of our home, for me, Sally, and Jen, if you haven't guessed it by now. At the time, I was about... what, a year old? One day, a few day later, me and my sister groomed each other, lying next to a pile of trash. "Remember Maria? She was the one with the soft brown flecked cream fur and lilac-tinted eyes." Sally asked, lapping at his shoulder. Oreo searched through his memories for a moment. "I think so. Was she the one always giving us presents? Like that clump of... 'catnip'? I think it was called?"

"Yeah, that was her. That catnip was delicious! I wonder where she got it anyway?" Sally purred. "Yeah. But what happened to her again? I don't remember." "Some tom came along and said he wanted to show her around town... if I remember correctly?" "Alright." Oreo groomed Sally's ears, a bit bored. "I'm back!" I turned around, seeing Jen had returned from scrap hunting.

All of the scraps in their garbage bin had been eaten, and the humans hadn't thrown their trash in it in a few days, so she had to search elsewhere for it. Me and Sally always wanted to help with scrap hunting, but Jen said she just wanted to do it herself. Plus, they weren't allowed out of the alleyway, just as before. "Welcome back!" Sally greeted her, padding up. "What all did you find?" "Well, I found this small piece of rotted bread," she said, dropping it on the cement ground, "and half a steak." Jen laid the appetizing chunk of meat on the ground as well.

"I'll take the bread, you two can have the steak." She took the piece of bread and padded to the place where she always slept, in a corner a few feet from the garbage bin. I couldn't help but notice Jen was looking skinny. She should really have some steak too ... "Thank you!" Sally meowed, picking up the steak piece and padding to me. She sat down beside me, and I sat up from my lying position. "Did you notice Jen looked thin?" "A little," she said, not paying much attention as she hungrily took a bite of the steak. I took some of it, and it was very juicy for a garbage scrap. I caught another glance at her. 𝘠𝘶𝘱, 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦.

I ripped a good sized lump off the steak. "Woah, relax, buddy! There's enough to go around!" Sally said. "I'm giving this to Jen. She's probably starving and won't tell us because she doesn't want us to worry." "Oh, okay. But.. I'm pretty sure she would've told us if she was that hungry, ri.." Her voice faded away as I trotted up to her. "Jen, here. I'm not even that hungry. You can have this."

I dropped the steak on the ground. She looked at me. "Thank you, Oreo. I've been meaning to tell you all something... Wait until your sister is done eating." I tilted my head. "Alright, then." I padded back to where Sally was, sitting down next to her. "What do you think she's gonna tell us?" Sally asked, talking another bite. "I don't know. We'll have to wait and see." Though I didn't show it much on the outside, I did really wonder what she had to tell us. Maybe she was going to finally let me and Sally out of the alleyway, and we could hunt for scraps too!

"Wait..." Sally whispered. "What?" I asked in a quiet voice. Why were we whispering? "Do you think she's pregnant?" I scoffed. "She doesn't even have a mate, Sally. And I just said she was looking skinny. Even if she was pregnant, wouldn't she look a bit bigger, not smaller?" "Well, that is true.." She considered. "Yeah, it's probably something else then," she muffled with food in her mouth.

She swallowed. "I'm done, Jen!" She meowed proudly, standing up. "Alright," she said. I stood up as well. "Oreo, Sally, come here." We both cantered up to her, sitting down. She sighed.

"The truth is, I know you two have been wanting to go outside for a long time. And now, the scraps are getting scarce because there are more cats coming into town. I don't want to be a burden, taking all the food. I.. think it's about time you two move out out town and found your purpose in life. I know it certainly isn't here in a dusty old alleyway. You would be able to roam wherever you wanted. I want you to be happy, but I also understand that I haven't taught you two how to hunt and fend for yourselves. So, if you'd like to stay for a couple more days for me to teach you, I will be happy to. I just don't want to be in control of you guys anymore, you're both almost full grown cats, and you can make your own decisions. So whatever you choose, I will fully support you."

I was a bit appalled, but I understood. I was also thinking of leaving soon too, I just didn't want to bring it up in case Jen got upset about it. She was a bit unpredictable sometimes. I could never understand what kind of personality she had. It was just a mix of everything. Before I could think about what we should do, Sally spoke. "But.. You're an alleycat. Shouldn't you have moved out, too? You're not a burden, either. You should come with us!"

𝘏𝘮𝘮, 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵, 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘢. 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘮𝘦. "Well, I wasted my opportunity to be free. I can't exactly go back now.." I didn't know what she meant by that, but I didn't say anything. "But I don't want you to waste it. You need to find your purpose. I may not have one, but I know you do, Sally and Oreo." Jen smiled. I turned to my sister. "Well, what do you think? should we stay here, or go now?"

Personally, I wanted to go now. I knew enough to fend for myself, and so did Sally. .. Probably. We could find a nice place to live somewhere out of town, and we could go scrap hunting whenever we were hungry. "I think... we should go now. We know enough to fend for ourselves, right?" I nodded. "Very well. I love you, my dears," said Jen, looking a bit sad. I booped her on the nose affectionately. "We love you too, Mo-"

I stopped myself as I almost said 𝘔𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘢. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳. But I quickly corrected myself, saying, "We love you too, Jen." Sally gave her a lick on her ear. "Bye, Jen!" She meowed, following me as I began to pad off to the exit. "Goodbye, my kittens..."

The search for our home began. The entire time we were walking along the pathway and past human houses, I couldn't get my mind off Momma. I wondered if.. Sally remembered anything from before she came out of the portal. Did she have any information…? "Hey, uh, Sally?" I asked her. "Hmm?" She purred, looking at me with her green eyes.

"Do you... remember anything about before we lived in the alleyway?" "Uhm.. no. I don't even remember how we got to the alleyway," she chuckled. "Didn't Jen say she rescued us from getting squashed on the pathway when we were just tiny kittens?" 𝘠𝘦𝘴, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘧 𝘐 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳.

"What? Am I supposed to or something?" She joked sarcastically, smiling at me. "No, just... wondering." 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵, 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵… 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵.

Eventually we found our way out of the town and saw the forest. We were on one side of the pathway, and on the other side was the forest. "Are you sure this is a good idea, Oreo? Someone told me there were wolves in there…" "Come on, Sally. You don't actually believe that, do you? You and I both agree that we're not going to be pets, so where else will we stay if we don't go in there?" She stared off into the forest.

"Hmm, yeah, but there could still be-" I cut her off. "Who even told you that?" "The forgetful old grey tabby she-cat who... lied a lot?" "Exactly. She lied a lot. What makes you think she was telling the truth when she said there were wolves here? She was probably just trying to scare us. If there were actual wolves, Jen would've warned us, too." Sally thought for a moment. "I suppose you're right. You're really talented at persuading cats, Oreo."

"I just use the information I know to prove a statement wrong. But," Oreo puffed out his chest with pride, "Why, thank you, Sally! I'm the king of persuading cats!" "Shut up, ya goof. Come on, it'll be sunset before we know it!" We bounded across the pathway, no horse-pulls in sight. We scuttled through the tall grass and trees, a whole bunch of fireflies around us. There were so many trees, it blocked out most of the sunlight so the fireflies probably thought it was night.

My paws skidded to a halt as I spotted a huge lump of dirt, at least five times bigger than me. "Wait! Is this a.. fox den?" I had no idea what a fox den looked like, but I knew the scent of fox, since there was a sick one roaming through town once, and the scent was smothered all over the large mud burrow in front of me. Sally breathed. "I think so. It smells just like the fox scent back in town when it was there for a few days."

I got a bit scared as I realized there could be foxes living here that could kill us. "Sally, we need to go. Now. They could b-"

"Wait, Oreo. The scent is faded. They must have left at least a week ago." I sighed in relief, sitting down. "Interesting. They certainly won't come back, right?" "Probably not. Why would they leave for so long? Perhaps there were cubs before and the mother got hunted by a human, and the cubs got taken by a predator." "Whichever way, we could live here. I'm sure within a few hours, we could get it cleaned up. We could even use some ferns to sleep on if we wanted to. There's most likely some here."

"Hold up!" She meowed, sniffing the ground. "What if the wolves killed them off? Are there wolves in this forest?" "Certainly not. If you're still not convinced, sniff around for them. I've heard they stink like musky old dogs. If you're not going to do that, help me clean up the den." "I'll take a sniff around, thanks." Sally trotted off.

I was mostly doing the work, clearing all the stinky fur and loose dried-up grass, as Sally cautiously looked around. She never gives up.. Whatever, at least we both have a place to sleep, I thought. She'll probably be sniffing around until sunset. I, on the other hand, am content with the safe haven we have found and am happy to help maintain it. But, she'll probably help at sometime, right?

As I finished clearing out the den, using ferns to make the sleeping place a bit more comfy, using leaves to insulate the place and covering up all the cracks in the den, and placing a flower I found next to a tree that smelled pleasant in the den to get rid of the fox odor, I sighed, tired from working.

Sally trotted up to me. "You find anything?" I asked, grooming my chest fur. "Nope! But I'm going to go find some food, we'll need it." Oh, here's the perfect opportunity... ... I thought mischievously. "Madam, allow me to come with thou, for thy wolves will eat- "Rawr!" She leaped at me and we both started play-fighting. She batted me away. "That's one less scrap for you!

"Awww, come on! That's not fair, I was going to be your noble knight in shining fur!" Sally rolled her eyes and smiled sarcastically. "You can be my knight in shining fur anytime you want, but I gotta go get us food." I yawned. "Alright, you do that. I'm gonna take a nap." She nodded and bounded away as I sleepily walked into our new den.

Later that day, I had woken up from my nap. Sally came back with a frown and said, "Oreo, we might have to start hunting prey.

I can't find the trash cans, or the town for that matter." "Really?" I asked my sister, confused. "Yes! I followed the scent trail and everything, but the scent of some stinky mouse covered it up and I couldn't follow it back to the town." "Ok, do you have any idea how to catch prey? Because I don't." "I guess we will have to learn. Look, there's a rabbit right there," she pointed out with her muzzle at a large rabbit hiding in a bush a few feet away from their den.

"I've seen other cats do this before. You just crouch, and then pounce." She hunkered down, her eyes locked on the rabbit. Slowly, she crept forward, her tail twitching in anticipation. She crept closer and closer, until she was close enough to pounce. With a sudden burst of energy, she leaped forward, her claws outstretched, and she snatched up the rabbit in her powerful jaws, killing it with a quick bite to the neck.

"Woah!" I yelped. She did that like a pro. I was amazed at how quickly my sister had pounced on the rabbit. She had moved with such agility and speed that I couldn't help but be impressed. It was incredible to watch her in action.

This might be more difficult than I originally thought... "See?" She replied in a soft voice. "Easy!" I huffed with annoyance. "Let me try," I boasted, trying to sound like I could do it. Even though.. I probably couldn't. "Alright. Go ahead, brave tom." I looked around to see if I could find anything. I eventually spotted a mouse munching on grass. I slowly crawled up to it, but a few seconds later, it turned its head and spotted me. 𝘍𝘪𝘴𝘩! I thought.

The wind blew toward the mouse, so it could scent me! "It smelled me!" I screeched. Just as it was scampering away, I sprinted as fast as I could towards the mouse, but it ran behind a tree and I crashed into it. The mouse ran away squealing as I, dazed, was trying to figure out what just happened. I looked around, staggering to get up, seeing Sally standing in front of me with a smirk.

"It probably smelled you because you needed a bath." I scoffed. "If anything, it's because you're the stinky one!" "Oh, yeah? Well, I don't smell like a skunk, so you must be the one!" I got up and followed back to the den with her, looking cross. Sally dropped her catch on the ground. "Let's not waste this." With a glance back at me, she added, "You better be polite and clean yourself up before dinner!"

I grumbled something under my breath and started grooming myself thoroughly. After I was clean, we both dug into the rabbit and enjoyed our dinner in peace.