And everyone was coming out of their dens, awakened by the sudden noise and commotion in the common area.
There was no formal leader, but Oak had been in charge of the watch so he jumps onto the meeting tree. You stand beneath it, as is customary for the meeting holder’s tomfriend of the evening.
“Everyone!” he yowls, a note of panic in his meow. “You know how we’ve been tracking the twolegs?”
There is a confused murmur of assent from the gathered crowd. There seems to be a consensus that Oak is actually going crazy, something that’s been discussed before but never acted on.
“Well, they’re cutting down the trees! I saw it with my own eyes!”
“Cutting down the trees?” calls out a black tom, Night. “Don’t be daft. Twolegs can’t cut down trees!”
“But big yellow monsters with twolegs inside them can!” contests Oak, a frustrated look on his face. “I swear!”
Cries of concern, boos and hisses, and all manner of other reactions come out in a tangled rush from the assembled toms. You flatten your ears - it's way too loud. You rather hate loud noises.
It actually gets to the point where no one can hear anyone else and the voices compete for dominance. It’s like a thunderstorm except the thunder is disorganized as all get out.
You decide to do something about that.
“Everyone SHUT UP!” you roar, taking advantage of your naturally loud voice. “Can’t you hear it?”
It’s true. The sound of twoleg monsters is now echoing through the forest as the cold, uncaring sun rises. You can hear the sound of trees falling now. You haven’t heard that sound in moons, not since the great blizzard that killed old Frost back in the day.
Everyone else can hear it too. You can see the wide eyes of panic, the fluffed up fur, and the way everyone tenses.
“What do we do?”
“Where do we go?”
“They’re going to get our camp! We can’t stay here! You know what twolegs do to cats they find in the wild!”
It is pandemonium, but this time of a scared nature. And you know everything about pandemonium thanks to your old family (whom you haven’t thought about in a while. Huh).
You look to Oak, and he gratefully jumps off the meeting tree so that you have a chance to hop on.
“Everyone, calm down,” you call, radiating your confident personality out even when you too are worried. “I have a plan.”
“You do?” Night calls out skeptically.
Well, actually you don’t. You’re making it up on the spot. He doesn’t need to know that.
“I do! Listen, the twolegs are going to come. Frost told us about this day. So, we leave. We can’t stop them because their monsters are too powerful.” Words spill from your mouth and you make them sound awesome.
“Where do we go?” asks another tom, Snowflake, Frost’s son from a previous relationship.
“We find another forest! The world is a big, big place and I know there’s another home for us out there. Remember the story about the clans? They did this too. Twolegs have always been taking trees and there have always been places for cats to go.”
“However,” you continue confidently, “where exactly isn’t the biggest concern. What we need to be worried about is getting out of here as fast as we can. The twolegs will get us otherwise.”
Everyone nods as the sound of twoleg machinery gets louder. You can hear it coming closer and although it ruffles your fur you force it down.
“So, although we have to abandon camp, we should stick together, okay?”
Everyone agrees, and you begin leading the way.
LEAVE TERRITORY ==>
