Spark wasn't just falling.

  She slowly fluttered open one eye, taking in the scene before her. She was moving, yet her paws were still and her fur was stiff. The ground is shaking! Spark realized with a jolt. She was inside a gray, rusty room, as the twolegs would call it.

  Twolegs!

  Spark crashed to her paws before tripping on something beneath her. A cold, hard surface, criss-crossed with wires, was beneath her paws. It wasn't just under her, it was all around her.

  She was captured. And by twolegs? How- why? They never bothered cats much! Confused, she glanced around the room, trying to ignore the rumbling vibration beneath her paws. It was getting onto her nerves more and more, the feeling of the ground crashing beneath her paws yet herself not moving a tail-length. She stilled, licking her shoulder rapidly, trying to calm down.

  She needed to get out, and quick. How? As far as she know, there is no exit to the cage. Even if she managed to get out, there's still the walls that blocked any trace of outside from her. She couldn't even tell if it began to rain again.

  She couldn't tell if Amber was safe. If Fog was safe. If Storm, Holly, and Wolf were safe. All she knew was that she was stuck in this moving cage.

  The ground beneath her suddenly crashed again, and she stumbled clumsily, falling against the concrete floor. Shifting onto her paws with a hiss, she sniffed the air deeply for the first time, and gagged at the stench of twolegs and smoke in the air. Where in the world am I? She pinned her ears back against her skull, slowly growing aware of her surroundings.

  Shaking ground. Passing who-knows-what distances without moving. The scent of smoke and twolegs combined in the air. The vibration, the unnatural sensation of hovering mid-air.

  She knew where she is.

~~~

  The monster kept on moving.

  Spark shook her head again, feeling groggy all the way to her claw-tips. The shaking and groaning of the monster had calmed a bit, and she felt stupid for not knowing the first moment.

  Fog told stories like this your whole life, frog-brain! She hissed at herself internally, scrabbling desperately for a claw-hold. And stories talking about how you shouldn't run off into the rain, about staying safe and in one piece until the Stars themselves take you away. And about how you shouldn't let your brother be captured by the deadliest rogues ever. And about how you should come when your mother calls. And about how cats who get into those monsters never escapes. And about- She cut herself off. Feeling downright tired, she let herself curl into a small, wet ball, russet fur stained brown with mud, white paws speckled with dirt.

  Maybe this is a dream. She squeezed her eyes ever so shut. Maybe things will be all right when I wake up. Maybe I never even left the den to see Storm and them. When I wake up, I will find warm sunshine over me. I will find Amber poking me with a paw. It's just another nightmare.

  Yet even as another wave of sleep crashed over her, she knew it wasn't.

~~~

  Grumbling noises.

  Raucous clanks and hisses.

  The monster halting to a stop.

  Spark scrambled right up, eyes wide, and bristled immediately as a bright, almost blinding flash of sunlight spilled into the monster.

  Wow. She thought, blinking furiously. Now this isn't the sun I expected.

  The door opened.

~~~

Whoo-hoo! After weeks later, I finally managed to update *clap clap clap*

Anyways, hope you like the chapter? If you like it, please don't forget to comment and vote!

~River