"Crimsonpaw!" Jaguarpaw's faint wail sounded somewhere behind her. Crimsonpaw stared around the alleyway she had stopped in, her heart pounding. The sounds of twolegplace roared in her ears, blotting out any other sound or scent. She barely heard Jaguarpaw's voice as he searched the streets for her.

"Crim!" He called again, his voice loud and desperate.

She wished she could answer, but she couldn't find her voice. Crimsonpaw opened her jaws, but no sound came out. Her throat squeezed shut and she choked back a gasp, still panting from her run through twolegplace. She heard Jaguarpaw's call again and decided to run towards his voice. She began trotting along the hard pathway, exiting the alleyway and onto the side of a thunderpath.

Monsters roared by, kicking up foul smelling dust in their wake. Twolegs paced loudly down the hard pathway, their feet causing frightening vibrations through the stone. "Jaguarpaw!" She gasped out, her voice barely a whisper. "Help me!"

She narrowly dodged the feet of a twoleg, scrambling onto the thunderpath. A monster dashed towards Crimsonpaw and she let out a shrill cry, darting to the side. There was a deafening screech of the monster's paws sliding on the thunderpath and the it skidded sideways, right into Crimsonpaw's path again. She squeaked, eyes wide as her whole body tensed up. Just as the monster was nearly ontop of her, it swerved to the other side again, zooming past so quickly that Crimsonpaw fell over.

Her cheek hit the hot, sticky thunderpath and she hissed, scrambling back to her paws to see a twoleg striding straight towards her. She tried to get out of the way but the twoleg's paw gripped onto her scruff, hauling her roughly into the air. She yowled and kicked against the twoleg. "No! Put me down!" She cried.

She was carried by the scruff into a less busy part of twolegplace where she was tossed into a wire mesh cage. Crimsonpaw clawed at the cage. "No! No! No!" She wailed. "Let me out!" Her yowls were answered by a harsh bark from the twoleg and their large pale paw slammed onto the top of her cage, jolting it. She grew quiet. Her amber eyes were wide, her heart pounding erratically in her chest. She was petrified.

Why did I let Jaguarpaw take me here? This place is evil! She tried to move, but her body was frozen solid.

"Hey! You!" A tom's voice sounded beside her.

"Jaguarpaw?" She whispered hopefully, turning to see a white and grey dappled tom sitting in a cage similar to her's. She sighed in disappointment.

The tom chuckled. He looked no older than her, his blue eyes watching her. "My name's Cloud. What's your name?"

"Cr-Crimson..." She breathed, staring around to look for an escape. She didn't want to say that she was from the clans. She didn't want Cloud to have the same reaction Tiger did.

"There's no escape from here." Cloud muttered, his gaze lingering on her pelt. "How'd a kittypet such as yourself get caught on the streets? Don't you have housefolk?"

"What makes you think I'm a kittypet?" She curled her lip in disgust.

"Your pelt... It's too beautiful and thick to be from a rogue or loner." Cloud meowed.

"I'm no kittypet!" Crimsonpaw hissed and lashed her tail.

"Odd.." Cloud shrugged. "So you're a fellow rogue then?"

"...Yes."

"Huh, well you should consider yourself lucky, you seem to have had a good life up until this point. Well fed, clean fur.. I'd give a lot for a life with those kind of rewards." He laughed. "Anyway, you had better start praying to the light, because this is where we will die."

"Is everything a joke to you?" She hissed in reply.

"No."

Crimsonpaw sighed heavily and pricked her ears when she saw a pair of familiar blue eyes flash in the corner of her eye. She turned but saw nothing. Jaguarpaw? She clung to the last string of hope that the golden spotted tom had found her and was going to rescue her.

Suddenly there was a pained yowl from where she cat seen Jaguarpaw's eyes flash by. The twoleg's head perked up and glanced in the direction of the yowl before walking towards it. As the twoleg investigated the sound, Crimsonpaw saw Jaguarpaw creep stealthily through the shadows, easily keeping hidden among the twoleg items strewn about the place.

Jaguarpaw climbed up to where Crimsonpaw's cage was and breathed. "Looks like you're losing the bet."

"What bet?" She growled.

"The one about getting into the least amount of trouble before our warrior ceremonies." The golden tom smirked as he managed to unlock her cage.

Crimsonpaw rolled her eyes and darted out of the cage, brushing her muzzle against his. "Thank Starclan you're here."

Jaguarpaw purred in reply and flung open Cloud's cage as well. "Let's go!" He yowled.

The apprentice's yowl alerted the twoleg to their presence and they let out a snarl, lunging for the three young cats. Jaguarpaw slid down onto the ground and darted away with Crimsonpaw quickly following. Cloud ran off in the opposite direction.

Once the twoleg's angry yowls faded into the ongoing drone of twolegplace, Jaguarpaw slowed the pace to a quick trot. "So how was that for your first trip here?"

"Never going back. Ever." Crimsonpaw muttered in reply.

"Sounds fair."

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