1 Twolegs!

Stretching on her long limbs, Ash let out a huge yawn that showed all of her razor sharp teeth. She had tried to sleep for a long time now, but the yowling of the twolegs never seemed to get any quieter. In fact, it only seemed to get louder. Ash narrowed her eyes from her high up perch in the twoleg room. It was the second highest thing she could land on in the room, but the adult twolegs still managed to tower above it.

There was, of course, another sleep option for Ash. No twoleg seemed to have any idea on how to get so far up. But, it wasn't safe enough to sleep on and if she ever did sleep on it, upon waking, Ash would most likely bang her head on the ceiling. The thing also seemed to spin whenever the twolegs pushed something on their den walls. The spinning was sure to make Ash fall off, and if she didn't fall, she'd be very dizzy and sick after the terrifying ride.

Sighing, Ash leaped off her high-up perch and started padding out the den. She shook herself as she yawned once more, licking a paw and drawing it over her ear. Maybe this time, she'd manage to escape.

Ash hadn't been a kittypet her entire life. When she was still a small kitten, she'd lived with her mother and her siblings as rogues on the outskirts of twolegplace. They barely had enough food to feed all of them, but Ash preferred that life over the life of a kittypet. She hated depending on twolegs for food and shelter when she was capable of providing all of that on her own. If she could just get out of this awful twoleg home, she'd get to go back to the freedom of being a rogue and possibly reunite with her mother, her brothers, and her sisters, whom she had lost so long ago.

It wasn't Ash's fault or Ash's littermates' fault. It was the twolegs and that was another reason to why Ash hated them so much. But as much as she hated to admit it, she knew deep inside her that it was also partially her mother's fault. Her mother's fault, for simply staring and watching as the entire scene enfolded:

Ash let out her most threatening snarl as she pounced on her brown tabby sister. "I got you now, Lilac!"

"Sure you do!" Lilac wriggled underneath her sister's weight. "But not for long." She heaved herself up rolling Ash over on her back. Ash lunged and playfully nipped her sister's ear.

"Ow! That hurt! You're not fair." Lilac shook her sister off indignantly. "That was my favorite ear!"

"How can you have a favorite ear?" Ash wondered. "That's silly!"

"Kits..." Their mother, Lily, called to them. "Come here."

"Why Mother?!" Lilac asked. "What's wrong?" She and Ash began padding over to their mother's side along with the rest of her littermates.

Both Lilac and Ash noticed how their mother's body had suddenly stiffened. Lilac's tail twitched nervously and she pressed closer to her mothers brown tabby fur. She had always looked exactly like her mother: Same brown tabby fur, white chest and belly fur, white around her muzzle, and a white stripe down her nose. The only difference was that the kittens' mother had four white paws, while Lilac had only one.

Their mother stood on her paws, holding her front right paw at an awkward angle. She'd gotten it twisted from a fight with another rogue cat for food. She sniffed the air, her ears twitching as she listened to the sounds in all different directions.

"Twolegs." Their mother whispered so softly, Ash almost didn't hear. She'd heard other cats talking about twolegs, but had no clue what they were.

Without warning, the kits' mother reached down and grabbed Lilac by her scruff before racing off, not even taking a glance at the rest of her litter. If I can save one kit, I'll save Lilac. She thought.

"Wait Mama, Wait!" Ash and her two brothers called after staying still for a moment, in shock at their mother forgetting about them. The three kits scampered after their mother as fast as their tiny legs carried them. Ash's youngest brother Dusty tripped over his fore-paws and Ash went back to help him before both raced away.

They now trailed far behind their mother and Lilac as well as their other brother. "Wait!" They cried as they tried to catch up. They were in unfamiliar twoleg territory and all four kittens were scared. Ash started to pull ahead of Dusty, but she knew he was right behind her as she could feel his breath on her tail. But suddenly his breath disappeared and Ash heard his "Wait!" screams turn into "Help!" screams.

Tiny heart beating fast, Ash slowly turned on her paws and stared in horror at the scene in front of her. Dusty was being lifted far above the ground by two strangely shaped hairless paws. Twolegs. She knew what they were immediately, they looked exactly like her mother and other rogues had told her in their scary stories. Strange pink hairless skin, loose colorful pelts that seemed to hang off of their skin. Their faces hairless except for at the very top and some had just a little on their lower face. They stood on their back legs and towered above everyone.

Ash whimpered as the same twoleg who'd captured Dusty reached down for her. She unsheathed tiny claws and scratched at it's hairless paw. It snatched its paw back in surprise and Ash took that moment to dash in and bite down hard on one of its exposed hind paws. The twoleg yowled in pain, dropping Dusty and trying to shake off Ash. Ash tumbled off before standing again and getting ready to run, only to glance back and see Dusty in the grasp of another twoleg.

The first twoleg reached for Ash again but out of the corner of her eye, Ash noticed her other brother, Grey dash in front of her and claw at the twoleg's hand. Ash saw Dusty claw at the other twoleg's face as he tried to free himself from the tight grasp. Together the three of them fought their hardest against the twolegs and Ash couldn't help but wonder where their mother was. Then she saw her. Ash's mother stood in a shady area with Lilac still in her jaws. Lilac fought in her mother's grasp, but their mother just sat their with her tail curled around her paws, her face expressionless.

Suddenly Ash's brothers were beside her.

"Run!" Grey screamed. And the three turned and raced away straight towards their mother. Upon seeing them coming towards her, their mother got to her paws, stretched, and leaped up racing away. Dusty, Grey, and Ash followed hard at her paws, running faster now that they knew what the threat was. Ash noticed her mother set Lilac down and Lilac kept pace with her mother.

Suddenly a loud noise filled the air and Ash and her littermates couldn't help but whimper in terror. They were nearing the forest, a place they'd always been forbidden to go. Surely the twolegs couldn't have followed them here.

Ash's mother, Lily, stopped and turned around, her eyes narrowed. Her four kittens crouched beside her and slowly, starting with Lilac they fearfully turned around. The twolegs had disappeared but another strange scent filled Ash's nostrils. Her mother, Lily whimpered.

"Dogs."

Ash's eyes widened in terror. She'd seen a dog once, when she was a very, very tiny kit. They were huge menacing creatures, three times the size of a cat, with floppy ears and evil eyes. Sure enough, two dogs burst into the clearing. They were tall and lean, with huge muscles rippling beneath their black and brown pelts. They caught sight of the mother and her kittens and their tails lashed furiously. One crept towards them, drool hanging out of it's mouth and dripping to the ground as it got nearer.

The kittens screamed and raced away. Lily picked up Lilac and joined them. But the five of them, mother and kits, weren't fast enough. The dogs had them surrounded and Lily could hear the twolegs not far behind. Lily dropped Lilac and stood over her daughter, snarling at the dogs. Her other kits crowded around her, but Lily paid them no attention.

It wasn't her fault Lily was this way. She'd been raised to have favorites and when in danger, to only protect one of the kittens. If one came out alive, she'd know she was a good mother. And this was how she had lived, as it was because of this reason that all of her littermates had died. Her mother had protected her and no one else so of course she knew nothing better.

Grey let out a fearful yowl as one of the dogs lunged and picked him up by his scruff. The other three kits watched in pure horror as the dog shook its head and Grey yelped in terror, crying for help and waving his little legs in panic as he tried to fight back. Ash wanted to help him but she was too frozen in terror to move. And it was because of this that the remaining four cats didn't notice the twolegs creep up on them.

The first two managed to grab Dusty and Ash but Lily bit at the third. The twolegs held Dusty and Ash in a way so they were helpless to fight back, like Grey was. Ash looked down at her brother as she was lifted higher into the air and squealed in horror to see that he hung limply in the dog's jaws. Was he dead? No, he couldn't be dead.

The twolegs had a strange conversation before turning and starting to walk away, leaving Lily, Lilac, and one of the two dogs. The other trotted beside the third twoleg, who took Grey from it and headed in a different direction than the other two.

Ash wriggled around to look back one last time. She saw her mother, Lily fighting furiously with the other dog. She saw her sister, Lilac wriggle out from underneath her mother and race away, into the forest. A strange ginger she-cat dashed in to help Lily. Lilac was nowhere to be seen. Then the twoleg holding Ash turned a corner, and Ash could no longer see or hear what was happening anymore.

And now she was here. Ash looked up as she felt the hairless paw of a twoleg touch her paw. She flinched but did her best not to move away. She had to gain their trust. After many failed attempts at running away, she found that the only way to escape was to make the twolegs not suspicious of her. She'd been doing this for days, but knew she'd never be able to get comfortable around a twoleg again. It was their fault all of this had happened. If it hadn't been for them, Grey, Dusty, and Lilac would still be here. Even Lily would be here, cleaning her four kittens and hunting for them.

But the twolegs had to ruin that. And they had to ruin Ash's escape chances. They ruined everything! And Ash had every right to hate them for it.