Chapter 3

I followed Oreo as we walked along the side of the pathway, past all the houses, and I began to lag behind a few times. I was lost in thought, thinking if I should have just said that we should stay with Jen. Honestly... I let my pride get the best of me! I had no idea how to fend for myself, and I had never caught a rat, I had only tried it one and failed! If Oreo didn't know anything either, then I didn't know what else we would do...

"Hey, uh, Sally?" He asked, looking at me with curiosity and mystery. "Hmm?" I asked him, purring, as I wanted to be enthusiastic, in case Oreo was scared too. "Do you... remember anything about before we lived in the alleyway?" Before the alleyway..? No, I barely remembered how we got to the alleyway, Jen rescued us from a horse-pull, right? "Uhm.. no. I don't even remember how we got to the alleyway," I chuckled.

I didn't understand why the question was so random... Was Oreo thinking about Jen and the alleyway, too? "Didn't Jen say she rescued us from getting squashed on the pathway when we were just tiny kittens?" I asked him, remembering that was what Jen always told us. Oreo didn't respond, thinking hard. "What? Am I supposed to or something?" I joked, trying to seem happier and to change the subject, as something was clearly not... I can't describe it, I can't find the right word... Not right.

"No, just... wondering," Oreo muttered, looking forward to walking straight ahead. We continued walking along the pathway until we made our way out of town, and I could see the lush forest in front of us, on the other side of the pathway. I felt a wave of fear, and a bit of dread wash over me, and I began to rethink this whole thing. We couldn't live by ourselves! And-

And...

And wolves! I remembered there was that grey tabby cat that told us there were wolves in a forest nearby... what if it was this one?! I had to stop Oreo before he bounded off... "Are you sure this is a good idea, Oreo? Someone told me there were wolves in there…" I mewled. He sighed, "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?" Yeah, being a pet was not on my list of places to live...

Humans have good food, but if we lived with them, that meant we would be at the mercy of someone else. We wanted to be able to explore and roam on our own terms, and living with humans would limit that freedom, and we'd get our claws ripped out! "Hmm, yeah, but there could still be-" I started, but got interrupted. "Who even told you that?" "The forgetful old grey tabby she-cat who... lied a lot?"

I meowed to him, recalling her raspy, mysterious voice. "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 have warned us, too." I pondered, realizing Oreo's argument made sense. "I suppose you're right. You're really talented at persuading cats, Oreo."

He said simply, "I just use the information I know to prove a statement wrong. But," I watched as he fluffed out his chest boastfully, "Why, thank you, Sally! I'm the king of persuading cats!" I scoffed, letting out a laugh as I did so. "Shut up, ya goof." I looked at the sky, realizing the sun would come down soon. "Come on, it'll be sunset before we know it!" We scurried across the pathway, and sprinted into the forest, through the grass and trees. I felt so alive - The air was so much clearer and easier to breathe!

There were fireflies everywhere, flooding the whole place as far as you could see. Why were there fireflies though...? The trees were so thick, it was probably them that were blocking out the sunlight and making the fireflies think it was night. Oreo stopped abruptly in front of a huge lump of dirt. "Wait!" I stopped as well, wondering what the lump of dirt was. "Is this a.. fox den?"

I scanned the lump, wondering, and sniffing it. "I think so. It smells just like the fox scent back in town when it was there for a few days." I continued sniffing the den, scenting that the scent was quite faded. I turned around and heard him yelp, "Sally, we need to go. Now. They could b-""Wait, Oreo. The scent is faded. They must have left at least a week ago." He sighed in relief, sitting down.

"Interesting. They certainly won't come back, right?" He asked. "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," I said, thinking of the possibilities. "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!" I yelped, sniffing the ground, this time with intensity.

"What if the wolves killed them off? Are there wolves in this forest?" Panic began to set in. "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..." I sighed, still super suspicious about this place. There could still be wolves or foxes here that could tear us to shreds!

I cantered off, my guard up. I sniffed around the perimeter of the forest for what seemed like a long time, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I was still suspicious, but I decided to trust my brother. As I was walking back, I felt a pang of hunger, and it slowed me down. I should go back to town and get us some scraps... I'll go tell Oreo first, though. I made it back to the den, which looked a lot better now. I trotted up to Oreo as he asked, grooming his chest fur, "You find anything?"

"Nope! But I'm going to go find some food, we'll need it." I was about to turn to go find the scraps, but Oreo smirked at me, saying in a stupid accent, "Madam, allow me to come with thou, for thy wolves will eat-" "Rawr!" I leaped at him, landing on top of him as we started play-fighting. I bopped him away with my paw. "That's one less scrap for you!" I hissed playfully. "Awww, come on! That's not fair, I was going to be your noble knight in shining fur!"

I rolled my eyes, smiling. "You can be my knight in shining fur anytime you want, but I gotta go get us food." Oreo yawned. "Alright, you do that. I'm gonna take a nap." I nodded, silently scoffing as I hopped away.

Stupid.

...

I love him, though.