Rightfully Mine

A sudden rustling in the undergrowth caused Ash to turn around. It was starting to get late and she was looking for a place to rest. A cool wind blew by, causing her to shiver as it carried a strange scent in her direction. The scent was that of another cat, only this cat smelled nothing like any of the twolegplace cats Ash had ever met.

Maybe I'm in its territory. Ash wondered. She knew how much the rogue twolegplace cats were possessive of their territory. Perhaps it was the same for cats living in the wild. Though Ash couldn't help but wonder why the wild cats would be possessive of such a large piece of land. Surely there's enough prey and shelter for everyone to share.

Slowly, Ash turned in circles looking around her to see if the strange cat would show itself. When no cat did, Ash continued searching for a place to sleep. At last, after a thorough searching, she found herself staring up into the branches of a tall tree. One of the lower branches was sheltered with the leaves from a cluster of higher branches. If she tucked moss and maybe even some feathers into the place where the branch met the trunk of the tree, she'd be able to create a nice sheltered and hidden nest for her to sleep in.

Ash clawed some moss out of an old log and collected some from rocks, taking about three trips until she had enough for a good sized nest. Then, she padded back towards the stream to look for some prey to hunt. She was hoping to catch a bird so that she'd get some feathers for her nest, but as long as she had something to eat, she'd be fine.

As she neared the stream, the scent of fresh vole greeted her. She followed it to the base of a tree and looked up to see a thrush dancing on one of the lower branches of the tree. Two voles were sniffing around at it's roots. Which should I catch? Ash pondered. She'd be able to catch both voles at the same time because they were so close to one another, but the bird would provide her with both prey to enjoy and feathers for her nest.

Bunching her muscles and straightening her tail, she slowly crept forward making her decision. She'd go for the bird. But just as she was preparing to leap, a brown blur passed in front of her face landing on one of the two voles, who were now starting to separate. Ash gasped as she recognized the scent of the strange cat from earlier.

The cat had sent the other vole into a frightened frenzy and it dropped it's food and headed straight towards Ash as the thrush started to fly away. Ash, still crouched and prepared to leap, quickly dropped her head and delivered a killing bite to the vole, before shooting up in the air towards the bird. Her jump was successful and she managed to catch the thrush between her two front paws. The thrush struggled from her grasp but failed in getting away from her as it tumbled back down to the forest undergrowth with her.

Landing quite clumsily, Ash quickly pinned the still struggling bird to the ground and bit down hard on it's neck. It let out a final squawk of defiance before falling still. Ash panted, catching her breath, and looked up to see a brown tabby tom with piercing blue eyes staring at her in awe.

Ash picked up the thrush and carried it over to the vole dropping it beside her first catch. She stood over her prey and returned to tom's stare.

The tom shook his head and tried his hardest to look menacing.

"Who do you think you are?!" He growled. "You can't just come on our territory, steal our prey, and make a home here! Get out!"

Ash let out an amused snort. Whatever attempts he'd had in sounding fierce and scaring her, he'd failed at. Not looking for a fight, she picked up her prey and started to leave.

"Hey! Get back here!" The tom snarled and she could hear him unsheathe his claws and scrape them against the ground. "I told you to get out! That doesn't mean you can take our prey with you."

Ash whirled around dropping her prey at her paws. "Your prey!" She snapped. "I don't recall you ever catching it. As I recall, you caught that vole over there." Ash gestured with a paw towards the vole lying beside the tom. "And I caught this vole and this thrush. So I'm confused, how ever does that make it yours?!"

"Simple." The tom stared at her coolly. "You caught it on our territory. That's what makes it ours."

'What kind of rule was this?' Ash wondered. 'That wasn't right! In Twolegplace, whenever we caught prey it was ours, it didn't matter if the prey was in any cat's territory. As long as we didn't stay in that cat's territory, we could keep the prey.'

"That isn't fair!" Ash snapped. "I might've caught this prey on your territory, but I still caught it. And you didn't make any attempt to try and stop me. You just sat there and watched me. So, why is it wrong for me to take the prey that I fairly caught, even if it's on your territory.

"Plus, how would I know that this is your territory. You did an awfully terrible job of marking it out."

The tom didn't answer. Instead, he narrowed his eyes and lunged straight for the prey beneath Ash's paws. Instinctively, Ash unsheathed her claws and lashed a paw out. It made contact with the tom's ear and he stopped suddenly and snatched his head back causing his ear to tear. He let out a yowl of pain and glared at her in surprise.

Ash stared back, daring him to try and attack her again. He did and Ash was ready. They tumbled and rolled over, just as Ash used to do with her sister and brothers in their play fighting. Only this fight was real and Ash was fighting for the prey that she'd caught and that was rightfully hers.

During the fight, the tom ripped off the collar that had become a nuisance to Ash during her exploring. It had no bell like the collars on most kittypets, otherwise she'd have a much harder time catching her prey.

"Kittypet!" The tom snarled.

"I am no kittypet!" Ash retorted, lunging for him once more.

The battle went on for a long time. Ash had never really trained in fighting, and it was quite obvious that this tom had many moons of experience whether it was simply playfighting with whatever littermates he might have or training. Ash was scarred and bruised all over, and she was starting to get really tired, but she kept fighting.

"Give up!" The tom pinned her down on her back.

"Never!" Ash growled. She continued to fight and slash at him but he never released her. He only stared down at her with amusement in his eyes. Eventually Ash fell limp.

The tom snorted with pleasure and relaxed his grip on Ash.

"Now trot along back to your twolegs and let me take that prey that I'm very grateful you caught for me. I'm sure your twolegs will be happy to give—"

With the last of her strength, Ash reared up and flipped him off of her. Getting to her paws, she made a dash for her prey, which was still lying where she'd left it, as the tom tumbled and rolled, stumbling to get to his paws. He stared at her surprised, as she bounded out of the clearing they fought in, with her tail held straight up in the air.

Ash quickly glanced behind her and saw the tom groaning and mumbling to himself as he picked up his vole, before slinking into the undergrowth. She raised her head and tail higher as she carried the prey she'd worked so hard to get.

Life in the wild was proving to be harder than she'd thought it would be. But at least she was no longer relying on the twolegs to do everything for her. At least she'd finally know what it was like to be free, and to fend for herself.

Ash was glad she'd won that fight. It proved her strength. It proved she would stop at nothing to gain what was rightfully hers.

'I showed him.' Ash thought happily. 'I showed him what was rightfully mine.'