Blossompaw's Escape

Part One: The Capture

The monster rumbled to life with a vicious snarl. The smell of exhaust and smoke like fumes filled the air as it jolted onto the thunder path with several bumps and groans. The screeching of other monsters could be heard even through the belly of this one. Blossompaw began to whimper like a lost kit, her voice shrill and echoing through the hollow space.

The annoyed voices of twolegs reached her ears. Their bickering tones grew snappish and she cracked open an eye to watch them. They kept gesturing at her as she continued to wail. Eventually one of them leaned back around on the seat he was it and reached for her cage.

Blossompaw rolled backwards into the far corner in fear, her mewls grew louder and more frantic and the twoleg shook her cage violently, making her head become dizzy and confused. The twoleg threw her cage back down and it clattered to the floor at and awkward angle. Blossompaw knew to hold her tongue.

She glanced around with wide set blue eyes, taking in everything without fully understanding anything. There were other cages sloppily spewed about and stacked in the monster. And there were other animals trapped inside. Blossompaw tried to scream again but found it was stuck in her throat, she trashed around wildly but her muscles strained her not to.

"Adderfang!" she screeched out her father's name. "Save me!"

Her cry for help earned her cage another jostle from one of the twolegs. She lay down with her head on her paws and her ears flat against her skull. She watched the twolegs intently. There were three of them, two were sitting at the front of the monster and one was sitting in the back with the cages. He was the one who kept shaking her cage to get her to shut up. She felt a growl form in the back of her throat but she forced it down.

There was only one female towleg out of the group; she was sitting in the front of the monster. Every once in a while she would glance up at a thing hanging from the roof of the monsters stomach. The little rectangle was almost like a puddle, it showed the female twoleg the reflections of what was behind her.

She wore a cruel smile that unnerved Blossompaw. A thought tugged at the back of her mind. What do the twolegs want from us? She wondered this as she peered at the other animals in the corner of her vision. Most of them were lying down like her, with eyes tightly closed. She knew every single one of them was praying it was only a dream, and they would wake up back it a den or a nest or wherever they called home.

But this was no dream. It was a nightmare.

At some point Blossompaw either fell asleep or passed out - she wasn't entirely sure. But when she awoke she was in another cage, this one more spacious, and she was trapped in a twoleg complex. The cage was mounted to a wall, and it was glass so she could see the cage below and above hers. There were also cages on both sides as well. The entire wall seemed to be made of confined animals. On the wall across from her was a door, there were no windows to reassure her the outside world still existed.

Blossompaw sat up straight, her head almost brushed against the roof of the box but not quite. It was exactly three paces long and three paces wide. In the corner were two plastic blue bowls. One had hard pellets in it, the other contained water with a metallic taste to it. There was also a pan with litter and a soft mat for sleeping. She supposed this was the sad life of a kittypet.

But was she a kittypet now? Or was it something worse?

She glanced at the cage to her left, that cage was a fair amount larger than her own - to accommodate a dog a lot bigger than her. The dog was laying on his side with his chin resting on his paws. But he wasn't asleep, his brown eyes were narrow slits. And he was watching her. She awkwardly held the eye contact. She wanted to say something, to speak to him, but she wasn't sure what to say. Maybe something along the lines of Hey, how's it going? We are probably going to die in here by the way.

She settled with, "um...dog?"

The dog stirred and grumbled a "yes,"

"Do you, well, know what is happening?" she asked hopefully. Her blue eyes were earnest and her white tail twitched while awaiting the answer.

"No, and if I did know what's going on why would I tell a cat?" he muttered in a heavy accent, he wasn't from around the forest. Blossompaw chose to ignore his rude comment on her being a cat.

"Well you must know something!" she exclaimed with a huff.

"How do you figure that?"

"Because you're hiding something, I can tell. You won't make eye contact, you are barely facing me," she read his features proudly. The old dog rose to his paws and faced her squarely. She realized with a start he was blind in one eye, it was all fogged up and cloudy.

"Don't stare now," he chided. She quickly looked away, aghast.

"I'm sorry, I just thought...I wanted to think you knew how to get out of here," she apologized. His gaze softened and he let out a long sigh. She took that to mean 'it's okay.'

"My name is Chance," he offered.

"I'm Blossompaw," the apprentice said in return. Just saying her name aloud filled her with some degree of confidence. It reminded her that she was a clan cat - someday she would be a warrior. And to make that happen she would have to find her own way out of here. Her conversation with the dog ended and she settled on the mat for sleep. A new found determination gave her something worth fighting for.

I should be training with the other apprentices right now. Silverpaw and Shadepaw. Birchpaw and Frogpaw. Even bitter Larkpaw. She thought to herself. Please don't forget me. She begged silently, a single tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and rolled down her cheek. I'm still alive, I swear.

Here you guys go! The first new and revised chapter to start BE. Consider in a thanksgiving present, cause we are ahead of schedule for my plan of starting in December. Anyways tell me what you think in the comments - any grammar or spelling mistakes or feedback.

Man, I missed Chance. I think he might be one of my fav characters in this whole book. I just love old and senile mentor characters.