Oliver was just starting to appreciate the peace and quiet on the journey back to the wall when Pipsqueak spoke up. Great, he thought. More questions. And when we're right at the exit, too.

"Is there anything else we can do? You were batting him around earlier. Could we grab him and drag him back with us?" The black cat sounded quieter than usual, which made Oliver pause to look back at her.

She seemed less perky than usual, but she didn't seem to be hurt, so he flicked his tail dismissively and continued walking. "No. Or rather, we could, but it wouldn't matter. He would just end up right back here as soon as we left."

"Why? The Natives are able to mess around in the land of the living. You said the mouse that I killed was one of them, right? That we have to catch them or else they don't come back here. Can't Roger do something like that, too?"

"No, because he's from there." Oliver sat down and tried to remind himself that the black cat didn't know any better, and didn't have anyone else to ask questions. "When something travels from the land of the living to the land of the dead, it leaves behind a kind of dirty spot. Like when you catch prey and then have to clean the blood off of you. There's something stuck on us now that wants to go back to a specific time and place in the land of the living. With you and I, or with other animals that are supposed to go back and forth between the lands, that dirty spot guides us back to when we left. We get put back at the point our nap ends."

Oliver closed his eyes slowly as Pipsqueak began looking herself over. "No, it's not something you can see or feel. It's just there. The Natives don't have anything like that because they didn't come from the land of the living, so they can show up pretty much anywhere. And yes, they can decide when and where they end up at. They're doing all sorts of things they shouldn't be doing just to get to the land of the living, so it's easy for them to do one more weird thing on top of that."

"But with Roger or someone else that dies, that dirty spot is there. He can't decide when or where to go back to. He's going to go right back to the moment that led to him leaving the land of the living – the moment he made the decisions that killed him. So..." Oliver trailed off to let Pipsqueak think it through.

He saw her ears droop as she understood. "...if he hasn't decided to do anything different, he'll make the same decision. He won't care about staying in the land of the living, or with his friend. So he'll do the same thing that brought him here in the first place."

Oliver closed his eyes slowly in an acknowledgement. "Exactly. This is why it is important for us to catch any Natives we find in the land of the living. One must have slipped past us and found Roger while he was alive. Roger listened to it, probably for several seasons, and now his head is so twisted that he is convinced he should be here. So, we could drag him along with us and leave for the land of the living... but he would be right back here before we even woke up."

"Then could we..." Pipsqueak looked blankly down at the ground as she trailed off, unable to think of anything.

"Why the sudden concern? This whole time you've been complaining about how you wanted me to hurry up and bring you back, and how helping Roger was a waste of time. Now you want to help him, when we're almost out of this place?" Oliver glanced back to the side, where the wall was just barely visible through some of the trees.

"I thought I smelled something in that last memory, and I...." Pipsqueak looked away. "It doesn't matter. If there's nothing more we can do, then there's nothing more we can do." She was quiet for another moment before looking back at Oliver. "There's not, is there?"

Oliver flicked his tail again. "There's nothing else I know of. All we can really do is show them the way back. If the spirit wants to stay here, that's it." Something sad began to fill Pipsqueak's eyes, which made Oliver wince. "But we haven't left yet. Talking never works, but if you can think of anything else, we can always look for Roger again to try it."

He didn't mention that it would be nearly impossible to find a specific spirit without a memory to guide them. The sudden hope that glimmered in Pipsqueak's eyes felt too good to kill again, especially while they were still in the dull forest.

"Okay. I'll keep thinking." Pipsqueak looked back in the direction they had been traveling. "So how do we get out of here? I assume it can't be easy, or else the Natives would have all done it?"

"Actually, it's very easy. It's not far; come on." Oliver stood again and began walking. "Remember how I told you there's a Native that guards this place?"

"Um... yes. One of the nice ones? A big cat, I think you said?" Pipsqueak began walking after Oliver, though she glanced back behind her as she walked.

"A 'panther', yes. There's a dark spot that he guards. If you step into it you'll be on the other side of the wall. In the in-between land. Then it's just a matter of concentrating on the land of the living, and you'll be back there. Waking up from your nap."

"The wall? What's..." Pipsqueak looked back at Oliver, then slowed as she spotted it through the trees. "Oh. That's the wall."

Oliver perked his ears in amusement as he looked back and saw the black cat staring high up into the sky. "Yes. That's the wall. No, I don't know where it came from or why it's here. But it stops anything from getting past it."

"I can see that. I could spend an entire season trying to climb that, and I don't think I'd get to the top."

"I've never known anyone to try, but that seems right. Some of the birds have said they can't see the top of it, even when they fly as high as they can." Oliver turned and started walking the last few paces towards the wall.

Some of the shadows shifted, and a panther sat before the two cats. It stared at Oliver for a moment, then slowly looked over at Pipsqueak. "You found the kitten. Good; thank you."

"I am not a kitten!" Pipsqueak hissed and took a step closer... only to stop as she fully took in the size of the panther.

The panther ignored her and looked back at Oliver. "I do not see any Natives trying to sneak past with you. But I do not see a spirit either. Were you not able to find him?"

Oliver shook his head. "No, we found him. But we couldn't convince him to leave."

The panther closed his eyes and nodded. "That is unfortunate. But thank you all the same for trying." It looked back at the wall, and a section of it faded into empty nothingness. "The spirit you left behind is still waiting for you in the in-between land. I wish you luck in explaining it to her."

Oliver flicked his tail in annoyance at the thought of that conversation, then began walking forward. He stepped into the empty section of the wall, then vanished.

The panther stared at Pipsqueak.

Pipsqueak started walking towards the wall, then wavered a little. "I-I'm not a kitten."

The panther's pupils narrowed, leaving two emerald orbs gleaming out from the darkness. "You want to leave this place now."

Pipsqueak let out a tiny squeak, then dashed into the empty spot in the wall.

~

"You're back!" The blazing orb rushed towards the wall as Oliver and Pipsqueak appeared outside it, dashing around them in a circle... then it slowed to a stop next to Pipsqueak. "Wait, this isn't Roger... did he... were you not able to find him?" The empty landscape took on a blue tinge as the bright orb sank sadly towards the ground.

Oliver shook his head slightly. "No, we found him. I showed him your memories, and I tried to get him to come back. But... he didn't want to."

Pipsqueak sniffed the air again, then leaned towards the blazing orb. The black cat narrowed her eyes and stared at the bright orb with an intense focus, and her tail twitched slowly behind her.

"But... no, he wouldn't... he..." The ground beneath the orb darkened nearly to black as her glow shifted to a deeper blue. "He wouldn't leave me..."

"He did." Oliver flattened his ears and looked down at his paws. First Roger, then Pipsqueak, and now this lady, too. He was a cat, not one of those human therapists. His job was to be pet and fed, not to talk everybody through their issues. "There's nothing more we can do. There's nothing more you can do. You have to go back now."

"No... no, you're lying! You're being a cat. Roger wouldn't do that!" Bits of red began to creep into the dark blue surrounding the spirit as she moved towards Oliver. "He wouldn't leave me! You're trying something – you're just trying to trick me into thinking you tried, but you didn't, did you?!"

"We did!" Pipsqueak moved between Oliver and the spirit. "I was there. Oliver showed him the memories – the meals, the tennis ball, the pillow. None of them worked. He..." Pipsqueak hesitated, squinting into the flame. "He didn't think he could take care of you anymore. He thought you'd be better off without him. He told us to go, and for you to find someone else."

The red vanished from the spirit's glow, leaving only the empty blue. "I don't want anyone else... I just want him back..."

"But he's gone." Oliver straightened to peek out from behind the smaller black cat. "You have to come back with us."

"I... but... n-no." The spirit drifted closer to the ground, and some of the glow dimmed. "I won't. If... if this is where Roger is, then I'm not leaving him. I'll... I'll go after him. I'll stay here. Even this miserable place. If this is where Roger is staying, this is where I want to be."

"...we'll try again."

Oliver blinked and looked down at Pipsqueak, surprised at the words that had just come from the black cat. Pipsqueak was still staring intently at the orb in front of her, though something had changed in her posture. The confusion and curiosity was gone, and the drooping of her ears and tail suggested something had made her sad. "What? After all that pestering me to leave, now you want to stay? You want to, what was it you said? 'Waste more effort helping a human'?"

Pipsqueak turned and sat up, curling her tail around as she glared back at Oliver. "I'm not. Jerk. You know why."

Oliver stared back at her for a long moment, then flicked his tail. "You need to see a vet. That water gave you some serious head damage." He exhaled, then blinked slowly. "Fine. But what I tried didn't work. You will have to come up with something different to try. And you'll need to get another memory, so we can use it to track Roger back down again."

Pipsqueak gave a slow blink of her eyes, then turned back to the bluish orb. Bits of yellow were creeping into the glow as curiosity and hope began to come back to the spirit, and Pipsqueak lowered her head slightly. "We'll try again."

The blue of the blazing orb shifted into yellows and greens at the black cat's words. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" It spun in place, then began to circle around the two cats.

"I need another memory from you. What Oliver tried didn't work." Pipsqueak watched the sphere zip around her, then reached up to bat at it. "Stop that! Slow down and hold still; I'm trying to think."

The orb was flung to the ground, where it bounced a few times before rising back up to the cats' eye level. "Don't do that, cat!"

"Then don't zip around like that! Calm down, I'm trying to help you!" Pipsqueak hissed back at the orb... and the orb shivered, then dropped back to the ground. Blues started to creep into the glow, but for the most part the greens and yellows of hope and happiness remained. Pipsqueak nodded, then looked back at Oliver. "The last memory you tried had some pain at the end of it. Why was that?"

Oliver drooped his ears as he looked back at the blazing orb. "It touched on her memory of Roger's death. Her memories of sleeping beside him at night have been tainted by the memory of how he died. That's where that pain came from."

Pipsqueak looked back at the spirit. "That got a different reaction out of him. He didn't really care the other times, but that memory made him seem brighter. I think it made him care more, even though he was angry. So let me have that memory. The memory of learning he was dead."

The light from the orb dimmed, and the dreary landscape grew darker than ever. "...I don't like that memory. It hurts. I don't want to think about it."

The black cat closed her eyes and nodded slightly. "I know. But I think I can use that memory to get through to him."

Oliver nodded slowly. "We've tried luring him with treats and waiting for him to come out, like when proper cats hunt, and that didn't work. But maybe startling him out of hiding like we're a bunch of silly dogs will have better results."

Pipsqueak glared at Oliver.

More of the light faded as the spirit dropped closer to the ground and began to concentrate... then a single flickering blue ember appeared on the ground between the sphere of light and the black cat. "This is it. This is when I found him."

Pipsqueak looked down at the ember. She started to raise her paw to touch it, but stopped halfway there. Just looking at it hurt.

"Do you want me to carry that instead? It's going to be rough, but it will guide us back to Roger." Oliver hesitated as he looked at the slowly flickering mote of light. "Somebody has to hold it."

"No. I'll bring it." Pipsqueak watched it for another moment... then she reached out to touch it. The ember vanished even as a blue speckle appeared in the fur on her back.

Pipsqueak collapsed to the ground and closed her eyes. "...ow."

The spirit began to rise back into the air, and the sad blue glow shifted to a concerned purple. "Are you okay? I'm sorry; I didn't mean..."

"It's okay." Pipsqueak slowly opened her eyes, then crawled back to a sitting position. Something angry flickered in the cat's eyes as she wobbled where she sat. "It's just very heavy. You shouldn't have had to deal with this."

"Do you want to rest for a minute? We have time." Oliver leaned down and nuzzled against the black cat, helping prop her a little straighter up.

"No. No, I don't want to hold on to this any longer than I have to. Come on. Let's go." Her fur bristled as she rose and began walking to the stone wall.

Oliver followed after her, and just as before the shadows shifted as they approached the wall. The panther appeared once more, and it growled as Pipsqueak approached. "What do you think you are doing? The other cat already saved you from this place once. You should go back home. This is no place for kittens."

Pipsqueak hissed up at the panther and arched her back. "I am not a kitten! I am here to do what Oliver could not. I am finding that lady's friend, and then I am bringing him back to her. Now get out of my way!"

The panther stared back at her for a long moment... then a section of the wall vanished, leaving only empty blackness in place of the rock. The panther twitched its whiskers in a smile and shifted aside. "Then I wish you luck, cat."

Pipsqueak hissed again and strode into the emptiness beyond the opening. Oliver's whiskers twitched in a smug gesture as he followed after.

The panther vanished back into the shadows as the gap in the wall filled with stone once more, and the blazing spirit settled back to the empty ground to wait.