Escape

Ash kept her ears perked as she choked down the hardened rabbit pellets she'd never gotten used to. At night, she sometimes managed to catch a house rat, but it wasn't common and the hardened pellets were all she was able to eat for now. Out of the corner of her eyes, she watched the twolegs noisily move around in their den. Their kit reached down to touch Ash, who used all of her strength to try not to flinch away. She could only hope the little twoleg wouldn't pick her up and was extremely grateful when it didn't.

Ash finished with the hardened pellets and started to lap at he water. It wasn't bad, but it smelled of twolegs and had a weird filtered taste to it. It wasn't at all like the water Ash, her littermates, and her mother used to drink when they were all together. And it was certainly very different from the cool and refreshing water in the streams of the forest.

Despite the fact that Ash disliked each of the meals the twolegs provided for her, she ate them with no complaint. She had to keep her strength up for today was the day she'd run away. Ash finished the horrid meal and licked her lips to try and get the taste away. Then she leaped up onto the perch of a window and sat there with her tail hanging down. She looked out with longing eyes at the forest but knew deep inside her that today would be the last day she'd be cooped up in this horrid twoleg nest and the first day she'd be able to live in the wild in a long time.

Ash narrowed her leafy green eyes as she watched the outside world, designing an escape plan for how she'd lose the twolegs and enter the world of the wild.

One of the twolegs noticed Ash staring outside, and started yowling at her and pointing to the door. Ash leapt down from her perch with a sigh. What did the twolegs want this time? she wondered, padding over to the twoleg. To her surprise, the twoleg opened the door.

It shouldn't be so easy. Ash thought as she hesitantly took a step outside for the first time in a very long time. She crossed the unnaturally short, even grass over to the fence that separated the twoleg den from the rest of the twolegplace. With a quick glance behind her, she noticed the twoleg still holding the door open and watching Ash.

Can't leave now, Ash thought as she bunched her muscles and leaped to the top of the fence. Stumbling a little, she used her tail to regain her balance, before staring out into the wild, which was closer to her than ever before.

Ash let out a small yelp as she felt a hairless and strange paw patting her head. The feel was kind of comforting, but Ash didn't like it and probably never would. The twoleg made some strange noises to Ash before turning and heading back inside the nest and closing the door. Taking another glance behind her, Ash noticed the twoleg watching from the window.

Sighing, Ash carefully laid herself down on the fence as something caught her eye. Fresh, clear water was barely visible through the wide trunks of the trees. Ash's mouth watered as she longed to taste it and wondered how long it would be until she could. Bored, she started to groom herself as slow as possible so she could make the wait more bearable. She looked like a kittypet simply sitting here, relaxing, and not being productive, and she hated it.

After a long groom, Ash found herself unable to wait any longer. She took a glance behind her, relieved to find that there were no twolegs in sight. Before she could have any more doubts, Ash leapt off of the twoleg fence and ran, heading straight for the forest. To her relief, no twolegs noticed, or started to yowl and come after her.

When she was sitting atop the fence, she had planned out the safest route that strayed as far as possible from anything that related to twolegs. She did have to cross the path of one or two sleeping twoleg monsters and did so as carefully and quickly as possible. At last, she reached the edge of the twolegplace and the beginning of the forest, but to her dismay a huge Thunderpath lay in between. Monsters thundered by leaving an awful stench behind that made Ash want to vomit.

Ash tried to remember the time she, her littermates, and their mother had come across a Thunderpath and what they'd done to cross it.

"Mama, what's that?" Lilac questioned from where she hid in between Lily's legs.

"That, my dear, is a Thunderpath." Lily replied. "And we're going to have to cross it."

"We're gonna do what?!" Grey's fur stood up all over. "I'm not getting any closer to that thing than I already am." He sat far away from his family and the thunderpath.

Lily whipped around to face him, her long tail nearly knocking Ash over in the process. "Well then I guess you'll have to be left behind." She snapped before turning back around.

Grey flattened his ears against his head and stared at his mother with wide eyes. Ash padded over to him and gently licked his ear.

"It's okay. Mama's crossing with us so we'll be fine." She told her brother.

"You think?" He questioned with narrowed eyes.

"I know." Ash replied. "She cares about us. It's jus'..." Ash trailed off, knowing that she was convincing herself as well as her brother with these words. "It's just hard for her sometimes with us complaining so much. She needs to be strict sometimes to get us to do what she wants and what she knows is best."

"Okay." Grey looked convinced and followed Ash back to where their other two littermates were lined up at the edge of the Thunderpath.

"Alright kits." Lily mewed. "Listen and pay attention to what I say and do, for you'll be needing this when you grow older and I'm no longer here to protect you. Without me by your side, you'll need to cross Thunderpaths very often to find good prey places."

Her four kits nodded, their eyes wide. When a gap opened on the Thunderpath and it looked like there were no monsters left, Lily placed a white paw on the Thunderpath.

Lilac crept forward. "What are you doing?"

"Feeling for vibrations." Lily replied. "When a monster is coming, there will be vibrations on the Thunderpath. When it's safe to cross, they'll either be very little vibrations, or no vibrations at all." Lily paused. "A monster is coming now."

The four kits crept closer to try and see if a monster was close, but saw nothing. Hesitantly, Ash placed a paw on the Thunderpath and felt strong vibrations coming from the hard stone.

"Back!" Lily warned and she and her kits crawled backwards as a monster came out of nowhere and rushed down the Thunderpath.

Lily paced back towards the Thunderpath and placed a paw on the stone, once more. Her kits followed her lead.

"When I say run," Lily ordered. "I want you guys to run as fast as you can and don't stop until we're safely across."

The kits nodded, their eyes wide with fear, but also a small bit of excitement. Two more monsters passed before the vibrations on the Thunderpath ceased.

Lily looked both ways before yelling, "Run!"

She and her kits immediately took off. Ash ran faster than she ever had in her entire life. Lily reached the edge first and reached down to pluck Dusty off of the Thunderpath as he neared her. Still racing across, Ash felt the vibrations of the Thunderpath start up again, and felt her heart beating so loud she was sure she'd scared off all the mice in the forest. She let her tail stream out behind her and pushed herself harder.

Lily plucked Lilac off the Thunderpath and then Ash as Grey tumbled down and landed beside his mother. Lily congratulated her kits as not one, but two monsters roared past, before leading them away.

Remembering her mother's lesson from what seemed like so long ago, Ash hesitantly reached out to touch the Thunderpath. The vibrations she felt were strong so she snatched her paw away and crouched down as she watched a monster speed by, wrinkling her nose at it's awful stench. This crossing would be far more nerve racking than her first time, for this time she'd be crossing the Thunderpath by herself, with no one to help or congratulate her once she reached the other side.

Ash's heart thumped nervously in her chest and she heard it much louder than the roar of the monsters as they raced each other across the Thunderpath. She placed a shaky paw on the Thunderpath. The vibrations were not as strong as the first time, but still they signaled a monster on it's way.

After the second monster passed, the Thunderpath grew awfully quiet and Ash touched the cool, black surface once more. There were no more vibrations. Ash immediately took off and managed to make it to the other side without feeling a single vibration on the hard stone. She tumbled into the soft, natural grass on the other side. Breathing in the scent of the wild, Ash raced into the forest, not looking back as she heard the rumble of a monster as it passed on the Thunderpath behind her.

She headed straight for the stream, stopping to stare at it for a few moments, before she crouched down and hesitantly lapped at the water. It tasted so natural, better than any water Ash had ever tasted. The twolegplace water she'd drunk as both a small kitten with her mother and a kittypet didn't compare at all to the water of the stream. Ash thirstily slurped the water, until she felt she'd drank enough.

Then she turned around and slipped into the shelter of the trees to explore the forest and leave the life of a twolegplace cat behind her forever.