Chapter Text
Pebble woke up. She lifted her head up to look around. The ground all around her was flat, unlike the tilted side of the mountain. Through the hazy state of her mind, she realized that she must be at the bottom of it. Her limp form must have slid the rest of the way down. Everything hurt. She glanced down at her body. She was curled up in a sort of nest made of moss and ferns. She noticed there was a ball of fur next to her on the nest. No, not a ball of fur, a cat. It had sandy yellow fur and was snoring quietly in its sleep. She quickly put her head back down, lifting it took too much energy and made her nauseous. She would deal with her problems the next time she woke up.
* * *
Pebble slept for who knows how long, and when she woke up her head was pounding. She struggled to stand up, but her legs buckled beneath her weight.
"Woah, take it easy! You shouldn't just stand up after a fall like that." A voice came from somewhere behind her. Waves of pain and dizziness hit her head when she tried to turn around, and she let out a pained mewl.
"Here, eat this, it'll make you feel better," The voice said. Pebble heard the crunch and squelch of wet fallen leaves as the creature came closer to her, and suddenly it was right in front of her. It was the cat from before, this time awake and holding something wrapped in a leaf in its mouth. The cat set the bundle down in front of Pebble, and sat looking expectantly at her. When she hesitated, the cat let out a low mrrow of laughter.
"Don't worry, I'm not trying to poison you! I swear I know what I'm doing, I'm a professional." The cat looked proudly at the bundle, straightening its posture and puffing out its chest.
When Pebble looked closer at the cat's pelt, she noticed the scars littering its body. From the smell of it, the cat was a tom. He was skinny and a little smaller than her, probably younger too. His yellow fur was long and kind of messy. In short, this cat looked unlike any other cats she had ever seen.
The tom put the leaf down and unbundled the strange food. Inside, there laid a bunch of weird leaves and flowers smushed together. She didn't want to be rude, so she tried the food by taking a small nibble. It was bitter.
”Yuck!” she exclaimed after she spit it out, desperately licking her fur to get the taste out of her mouth.
“Too bitter?” the cat let out an amused purr. “Sorry, recently I've been working harder to make it sweet.”
“Well, you failed. That still tasted terrible.” Pebble said annoyedly. Although she was mad at his laughing, or maybe just hangry. Her stomach let out a huge growl.
“Are you hungry?” the cat asked, clearly trying not to laugh.
“Well, what does it sound like?” Pebble said defensively.
“Umm, okay then, what's your name?” he said, trying to change the subject.
“Pebble,” she said.
“Do you mean Pebblestorm?”
“No, just Pebble.” Pebble answered simply.
“Wait, you're a kittypet?” He seemed very surprised. “Well, I guess I could have known from the way you look.”
“Huh? What's a kittypet?” she asked, confused.
“A plaything for the twolegs.” he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“I’m not a plaything! And what do you mean by ‘The way I look?’” she said firmly.
The cat looked at the ground sheepishly. “Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It’s just-”
“Just what?! Are you trying to say I’m lazy?” Pebble asked, the fury evident in her voice. She would never admit it, but seeing the other cat cower before her was quite funny.
“No, no. That's not what I'm saying, I'm just saying you're… well fed. Yeah, that's the word I was looking for.” The cat lifted his head again, almost meeting Pebble’s eyes.
Pebble looked at him with clear annoyance in her eyes. “Well, I’m hungry, so how about you tell me your name and then we look for some food?”
“Uh, alright, my name is A-” Suddenly, the cat stopped mid sentence.
“What? Okay, nice to meet you, ‘A’,” Pebble joked.
“Shh! Do you smell something?” The cat hissed under his breath. Pebble sniffed carefully. At first, she could only smell the usual, decaying leaves and fresh air. But then she smelled something odd. It was the same musky scent from before, when she was trying to find Jessy.
“Huh. Yeah, I guess I smell something weird. Why?” Pebble questioned, her voice lowered from the urgency of the other cat’s.
“Run, and don't look back.” “A” whispered in a low, serious voice.
“Wait, what? Why? Is something wrong?” Pebble meowed at her normal volume, now slightly panicked at the cat’s tone.
“Foxes!” he said, and ran off. Pebble didn't know what else to do but run after him. So she did. At first she started off slowish, but the scent got stronger and she started running faster and faster until her whole body felt like it was being bitten by ten thousand fire ants. She kept running and running, the adrenaline keeping her going.
Eventually she caught up with “A,” nearly running into him as he stared at something.
“Hey! Why’d you stop?” Pebble gasped out in between breaths. Then she looked down.
Right in front of her paws was loud, rushing water. Pebble yelped in surprise and scrambled to get away from the edge. “Whoa!” She exclaimed. The reason the other cat had stopped was because there was a river blocking their path.
“Don’t move,” he said, warningly. Not listening, Pebble turned around and saw a small, dog-like creature with red-orange fur, growling and staring back at her menacingly.