Jinx -> @LeAzzy

***

Hollowkit's POV

I opened my eyes when the sound of cats stirring about made me jolt awake. Ripplecurrent was sitting up, Lionkit and Pebblekit were play fighting again, while everyone else was grabbing the sweet-smelling flowers out of the ground and mingling. Lark was talking quietly to Wildstar and Marshstar. "Ripplecurrent, what's going on?" I mewled, glancing up at my grey mother. Ripplecurrent blinked down at me and began to clean me up.

As much as I hated being cleaned, I let her so she would answer me. Between licks she murmured, "It isn't anything to worry about. We're just going on another journey," Lionkit and Pebblekit rushed over at the word "journey".

"Where are we going? Is it somewhere safe?" Lionkit asked, his head tilted.

"Can we eat soon?" Pebblekit slumped her shoulders.

I tried to get out of Ripplecurrent's grasp but she just held me in place with one big paw while she cleaned my thick fur. When her eyes lay on Lionkit and Pebblekit, she finally stopped. Their fur was sticking up because of the dust and small rocks stuck in their pelts. "I just cleaned your pelts! Quit playing around!" She scolded.

Silverfeather, Tigerstripe, Stormcloud, and Crowflight came into the den with prey in their jaws as my siblings sat down with a "humph".

"Yes, fresh-kill!" Dreampaw gasped. I watched the beautiful, silver she-cat hurry over to the patrol. Her ears flattened to her head in frustration when they pushed past her. They dropped the robin, the starling, and the mouse for the lucky ones in RockClan to eat while Stormcloud handed the squirrel to Ripplecurrent. The both of them began to eat it together while I watched a StreamClan patrol come into the den. I watched as the they, Dawnflower, Blackwind, Wolftail, and Ghostglow, came back with a wagtail, two minnows, a vole, and a finch. The apprentices and few of our warriors ate with each other.

"I hate it how StreamClan is so close to us! It's gross!" Lionkit muttered to Pebblekit. They sat with their backs to me, facing the center of the den.

Pebblekit flicked our brother on the ear and glanced back at me. She turned back to Lionkit with her ears flat to her head. "Watch what you say about StreamClan, Lionkit! You know Hollowkit's mother is from StreamClan,"

I cocked my head to the side in confusion. Ripplecurrent is from RockClan, so I must be a RockClan cat... Right? I wondered.

Without thinking much of my sister's comment, I watched the two medicine cats give each other half of the flower portions that were provided.

Just as I began to doze off, I was suddenly picked up by someone. "Wh-what?" I began squirming around in the cats' grip out of confusion. "Stop moving so much, Hollowkit, we have to get moving." Stormcloud muttered through a mouthful of my fur. Where are we going? I wanted to ask, Are the scary monsters coming back? Are we in danger? Is the den going to cave in? I held in my thoughts and took a deep breath. Within heartbeats, I found myself fast asleep.

***

I woke up as I was set down. Drowsily, I blinked up at Stormcloud. Are we safe now?

Sadly, I noticed we were just at the fence we had stayed at before. It was broken; the dark wood was splintered where it had snapped and fallen. Blood was stained all over the wood. A pool of blood was behind the group of cats. No one seemed to care that it was there. Nightshade was no where to be found and I wondered if that blood had been her blood.

Lionkit and Pebblekit were asleep beside Ripplecurrent's paws. "Okay," Lark began with Marshstar and Wildstar standing tall and proud beside him. Wildstar was small compared to the two tall toms, but she held her chin high. I purred to myself at how she was small compared to the other two beside her.

"We are going to search for a new home in Twolegplace," Lark informed us. I shivered as the wind blew harshly, whistling and whipping the branches around us. I nuzzled into Stormcloud's leg. He didn't even have to look at me as he lifted his long leg and pushed me into his stomach. Feeling safer and warmer, I listened attentively. "We will be going on the Thunderpath until we find a suitable forest or cave or anything for us to live in." All the warriors and apprentices of StreamClan and RockClan nodded.

"Are we going back to our original home when the air is clear?" Sparkdust asked as everyone stood up to leave.

The three leaders exchanged unsure glances. "Hopefully," was all Marshstar could manage to give as an answer. Sparkdust - nor any of the others waiting for an answer - seemed content with it, but they kept silent as we headed out.

The cats in StreamClan and RockClan stayed in behind their leaders. I tried to walk by myself but before I could hop anymore than three footsteps, I was lifted off the ground by Stormcloud once again. Lionkit was carried by Ripplecurrent and Pebblekit was carried by Crescentmoon. Crescentmoon always helped out kits. "Crescentmoon would be a good mother, wouldn't she, Stormcloud?" I meowed, "Too bad she didn't have her own kits. If only Twistedsoul was still here," Stormcloud hushed me as we began to leave.

"This time, we won't be separating. Everyone keep quiet and stay together." Wildstar murmured over her shoulder for everyone to hear. Lark didn't say anything so I took that as he agreed. Lark scared me. His skull-protector made me feel like he was evil, but he was generally a nice tom, and I knew that.

Hopping over the broken fence, we stayed together as a group on the black and streaked Thunderpath. There were no infected Twolegs or dogs around, only their growls were faintly passed in the breeze.

I gazed around the Twolegplace. Though the sky was bright, it was gloomy, dark, and everything was yellowing as greenleaf was coming to an end. The transparent barriers in the walls of the Twolegnests were either broken or boarded up. One of them had bloody paw-prints from a Twoleg smeared on it.

I gasped as a dog growled from the left side of the group, StreamClan's side. Turning my head from the right side to the left side, I saw a huge, injured dog on a chain trying to get to us. Gulping, I forced myself to look away. The Twolegplace was such a dark place to be, but to everyone else, they hardly seemed to care. I guessed it was because we had been through just as much as the Twolegs and dogs had.

Sighing, I looked to the black ground. Everything was quiet in the Twolegplace; the only sound was the echo of our paw-steps.

We passed by a boarded up Twolegnest with a silver-mesh fence surrounding the perimeter. A figure sat on top of the roof. It was a small, dark figure. Is it a cat? Go away! We don't need anymore mouths to feed!

The figure hopped down from the roof, trotted to the fence, and leaped over it. It was a black tortoiseshell she-cat with cold, lifeless green eyes. I hissed at her, trying to intimidate her, even though I knew she wouldn't hear me.

"Sorry to bother you, but have you seen my brother, Swipe? He's black with dark grey flecks." The she-cat asked, halting our group.

The three leaders shook their head. The she-cat kept away from Lark, seeming to be intimidated and frightened by the muscular, scarred tom. The black she-cat looked at Marshstar for an answer. "Well can I stay with your group until I find him? There's nothing to eat around here and I don't have anywhere's else to go." Wildstar instantly butted in as if she was the ruler of both Clans.

"No. We have too many mouths to feed."

"What if I hunt for myself?"

"No-"

Lark shot Wildstar a warning glare for her to shut her mouth. She rolled her eyes and stared straight. "As long as you can hunt and fight, you can stick around until you find your brother. If you never do find him, you and I will stick together because I am not with RockClan and StreamClan." The black she-cat swallowed but nodded, as if not sure if she should argue or not.

When the patrol set off again, the she-cat stuck to the right side of the group. Some of the warriors were hostile to be picking up another loner in need so I thought it was a good idea for her to keep her distance.

"I'm Jinx, who are you?" She glanced over at Marshstar. He bowed his head to her as we trotted along. "I am Marshstar, the leader of RockClan," Jinx nodded to him. "Hello, Marshstar."

Fireflywing lashed her tail from beside us. Her eyes were narrowed and her ears were flattened back. Fireflywing seemed annoyed, as well as her sister, Mistnose. I felt Stormcloud purr as he seen the action too.

We kept going silently after that; taking random turns until we came to a long, straight Thunderpath with no Twolegnests on either side. By then, the sun was beginning to drift down. "The sun went down a lot quicker than I thought it would," Foxtuft muttered to no one in particular.

"Yet another reason to find a new home before the first snow," Dawnflower sighed. Rowantail muttered something in return.

"What?" Her sister meowed.

"Nothing! I wasn't talking to you."

Well who were you talking to? I wanted to ask. I could hear the sarcastic tone as I pictured myself asking her that. I purred to myself.

The group was slowing down as we went up a hill. It was a short one. The Thunderpath broke off into an even thicker and longer one. On the left side of the Thunderpath we traveled on was a mirror image of our Thunderpath. On that side, it was almost completely empty. The only monsters on it were the few that had ran off into the ditch and tried to run on that one.

This time, the Thunderpath we stood on wasn't empty. It had monster upon monster on it.

On the opposite side, there were two Twolegs stumbling around. One was going the opposite way we were while the other was going the same way. Neither seemed to notice us as we stood there.

"What do we do now? We need to eat and rest," Wolftail asked, his ear twitching.

Stormcloud set me down. "We'll go slow. You can walk by yourself," He whispered. I nodded, excited to do something on my own for once. My neck was getting sore anyway!

Wildstar looked over at Lark and Marshstar. "Lets find a suitable ditch where no monsters are lying and then rest there." Marshstar concluded.

Slowly, the sore and tired group of Clan cats zig-zagged down the Thunderpath. We all avoided the monsters. I expected one to roar to life and come tearing down the Thunderpath towards us, but none did. They looked all too injured to move anyway.

Some had collided into each other while some were off into the ditch. Few of the monsters were even burnt and flipped over, their bellies exposed. The more ground we covered, the more monsters appeared on the Thunderpath. They must have been fighting to get out of the Twolegplace! I thought, gazing around with my fur on end.

I gasped as a Twoleg kit hit the transparent barrier with its naked and pale paws. It had stringy, long, light brown fur on its head. A pink flower wrapped around it's forehead, keeping the fur out of its face. It growled at us and eyeballed us with bloodshot eyes.

The two front openings to the monster was wide open, but there were no signs of the kits' mother or father. StreamClan went on the left side of the monster while RockClan went on the right side. I ducked under the wing-looking opening.

Several other Twolegs - of all sizes and ages - were seen inside the monsters. As we neared the end, there were more on the outside than the inside of the monsters.

Suddenly the bunch of monsters came to an end. The Thunderpath still went on and on, but huge blocks of rock lay in our way in a straight line. The blocks were grey and thin but tall. They made a line across both Thunderpaths; I assumed it was a sign to not cross. StreamClan and RockClan ducked down as Twoleg after Twoleg - even a few dogs - stumbled around beyond the blocks. "Oh no," Jinx whispered, her tail trembling.

The blocks were no more than two-cats tall. Many, many black-and-white monsters with red and blue lights on top stood just outside of the blocks. I noticed some of the Twolegs that were stumbling around had black-and-white suits on.

"The Twolegs must have been trying to keep out the infection from the other Twolegplace," Wildstar murmured. A few of the cats nodded.

"Well, they did a terrible job." Ripplecurrent spat, twitching her orange ear.

Lark gestured with his tail for everyone to go to the right. Wildstar and Marshstar led us off of the hot Thunderpath and into a ditch. Lark took up the rear. I had to practically run to keep up with my father.

Wildstar took StreamClan to the left and settled while Marshstar took RockClan the opposite way. Exhausted, I fell asleep without even eating.

***

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed, comment what you think, and keep your heads up!

P_A83 out!