#FRU33

[tallstars-rewrite]

Chapter 33

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Fading in and out of consciousness with no wits about him was a dreadful experience. Being awake and dreaming were difficult for Talltail to tell apart. Is this what dying felt like? There was some great shadow towering above, moving and prodding him. He thought dying would be more peaceful than this. His consciousness faded in and out. His ears were ringing. Bright lights. He wanted to fight, to strike out, whatever these things were he didn’t want to go with them. A sharp prick in his back, and his consciousness faded completely and was replaced with blurry dreams of phantom elongated paws grabbing and smothering him.

 Suddenly he was squinting up at the moor sky. It felt like something was weighing him down. But when he looked up, he saw Briarpaw, smiling sheepishly at him.

 “Sorry, Shrew was stacking sticks on top of you when you were asleep.”

“And I almost got ten.” Shrewclaw’s voice, kit-like and friendly, was somewhere behind him.” 

Talltail chuckled weakly. That tom was such a pain.

 Briarpaw purred,  “you’d better get up if you want to come with us. We’re going to watch the deer herd.” 

Talltail wanted to join them, but he couldn’t move. He watched Briarpaw walk away with Shrewclaw, going ahead to join Fallowspring and Fawnleap and Ryewhisker who waited at the entrance. Wait for me, I'll be there soon.  He thought. There was a longing in his chest so painful it made him want to yowl. It felt like he was sinking into the ground, his vision slowly being blacked out by the earth below him piling up as he watched his friends pad away. Wait! In his head he yowled it, but he couldn’t open his mouth.

Talltail woke up on a soft musty smelling floor with a scratchy moss-like texture. 

A familiar fluffy orange kittypet was sitting by his head, dozing lazily in a shaft of sunlight that spilled into the cramped room. Right. He was here. Why did he feel so foggy? And why did it hurt so much? He pawed at head and felt a sore bump. When did that get there?

“What happened?” was all Talltail could manage to rasp.

Jake opened his eyes and purred, “well, you threw up in my yard and passed out.”

Oh. Great. Talltail felt his pelt grow hot with embarrassment.

“And then I went and got my housefolk’s help, I assume he took you to the vet, and now you’re here. Then you knocked some stuff off the walls, got scared of your reflection, also jumped into the window glass, and then passed out again. I hope you didn’t hurt your head too bad.” 

“Ok I-I get the idea...” Talltail grumbled. His head still felt like it was swimming with minnows. What had those twolegs done to him? Not being able to remember made him thoroughly uncomfortable. “I wonder if that sticky sweet water I drank was poisoned after all…?”

“It probably was! I don’t know what you got into, but you should know one of the first things my friend Nutmeg taught me when I moved here is don’t eat or drink anything you don’t recognize, or else you might die. She’s grumpy, but she’s really smart.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

“It’s good to see you again Tallpaw.” Jake chirped happily, “even if under strange circumstances.”

“Talltail,” he corrected automatically.

“Oh! Right! That makes a lot more sense you know, I don’t understand how a cat could have tall paws.”

Talltail wobbled to his feet, and Jake stood as well in case he needed to be steadied.

“So what are you doing here? I can’t believe you found your way! I have no idea how far those big fields are, are you on a secret clan mission?” Jake’s enthusiasm was the same as always, but Talltail felt a bit awkward.

“I’m…” Talltail paused. What should he say? “I’m...I'm not a WindClan cat anymore. I had to leave.”

“You left?” Jake gasped, “really? But...you seemed so proud of your home. Why would you ever want to leave?”

“It’s complicated. My place wasn’t there. And it’s not here either. Is your twoleg holding me captive?” Shaking his head to clear it, Talltail began inspecting his surroundings more clearly. He vaguely remembered waking up in a fright at the sight of such an unfamiliar and cramped closed off area that all he could do was scramble around trying to look for an exit, find a scent of fresh air, but only finding himself trapped amongst a bunch of strange rubbish. Now that his thoughts were less cloudy, he could control his panic, but it didn’t make him less uncomfortable. The walls around him looked incredibly dense. 

“You're not captive, he just wants to make sure you’re well!” Jake said, “This is my home.”

Talltail wasn’t reassured. “You live here? It’s so stuffy, I can’t smell the breeze at all!” 

It was worse than the thick woods. At least there a breeze still blew, and he could smell the grass and the plants. Here he could hardly smell anything that he recognized and the sky wasn’t even there. He saw a high up opening in the room where the sunlight came in. Jake must have seen his eyes fix on it

“You shouldn’t try that jump again, you might pull something. Plus, you’ve got bandages on. I wouldn’t chew them if I were you, they taste awful.” Jake added quickly as Talltail craned his neck to sniff disdainfully at the strange sharp smelling soft thing on his foreleg. 

“Besides,” Jake continued, “I know another way. I’ll show you around! This door is broken and it opens if I get my paw under it.”

Jake started clawing at a tall rectangular white wooden slab, and with a creak, it opened up. He gestured for him to follow. Talltail was sure he could jump to that opening if he really wanted to, but for now while he was trapped, he should probably trust Jake. He had no reason to be suspicious of the kittypet after all.

“Is this another way out?” Talltail asked as he cautiously poked his head out and looked around. The twoleg den had narrow solid passageways, and Jake trotted down it confidently. Talltail tried to pretend he was confident as well.

“Well...eventually, but you should rest here for a bit. It’s nice, really!” Jake trilled.

“Maybe nice for you, but...this place smells wrong.” 

“You get used to it pretty quick. Come on, we’ll go downstairs!” 

Talltail followed Jake down the steep steps and tried not to cringe at the weird softness under his paws that was definitely not moss. He tried to pay attention and not bristle as Jake walked him around. The bright orange tom really did seem so excited about Talltail being here, and he didn’t want to be rude to the cat that had probably just saved his life.

“This is the food room, this is the litter box. Oh! This is the best room. Sometimes there's a fire, and it's wonderful.” Jake went on as they entered a wider open space with soft structures up against the walls, but Talltail was distracted by another opening. Bright light came through the hard walls, showing a garden outside. He was immeasurably relieved to see that outside wasn’t far away after all, and immediately ran to it. He barely heard Jake’s warning call when he smacked panfully into a cold, hard service.

“That’s--! Oof, yeah, that’s glass. Sorry, I should have warned you sooner.” Jake winced while his guest hissed in pain and pawed his sore muzzle.

Talltail couldn’t believe it. Outside was right there, it was so easy to see, but this ice-like glass was a barrier. 

“This is just sick,” Talltail hissed. “Do twolegs devise these just to taunt you with what you can’t get to?”

“I think it’s just to look outside without letting cold in,” Jake said.

Before Talltail could reply, he heard very heavy paw steps somewhere above him. His fur bristled. “Hold on, Jake,” he whispered “What is--?”

“Oh! I think you woke up Dusty.” Jake said casually. 

Talltail stared at him with alarmed eyes. “I woke up who?”

The stench reached him then, a stench he somehow only just realized was on nearly everything but he’d been so overwhelmed by the unnatural scent of the whole place he hadn’t been able to focus on it. The musky smell of dog choked him now and those heavy lumbering paws barreled down the stairs like an approaching monster rumbling down the Thunderpath.

It was the biggest beast Talltail had ever seen, three times the size of any fox. Messy curled rusty fur, massive teeth, and a lolling tongue dripping with drool. Talltail screeched in terror

“Run!” he yowled at Jake. 

The beast was coming right for him. Where could he go? He couldn’t run in this space! Fear instincts took over and he shot into the next room, slipping on slick hard floor and barely aware of the pain in his limbs as he jumped onto a high ledge. But the beast was so big, he wasn’t sure it would be tall enough, and there was already hot breath at his feet. Talltail clambered into a cubby higher up the wall and tucked himself into a corner. The dog had its massive paws, bigger than Talltails head, up on the lower surface. It barked at him, and the sound vibrated in Talltail’s sensitive ears. He was cornered. Where had Jake gone?

Terror struck through him when he spotted the kittypet, still on the floor, tail lengths from the dog.

“Run away! It’s distracted!” Talltail hissed desperately “I’ll think of something! I’ll-I’ll--Great StarClan, what are you doing!?”

Jake pressed his body against the dog's massive furry leg. Was he purring?

 “I’m so sorry, Talltail!” he called up. “He usually never wakes up from his naps. It’s alright, Dusty is my friend! We live together. He likes cats.”

Talltail was dumbstruck. “What do you mean he likes cats!?” he yowled. “Likes them for what?”

“He’s a good dog, really. Right Dusty?” 

Jake purred and weaved through the dog's legs when it dropped to the floor. His back didn’t even reach the beast's shaggy belly. Talltail stared in horror as the dog leaned down to sniff him, its’ stupid tail wagging like mad, and Jake butted his head against its muzzle in response. The dog looked back up at Talltail and whined.

“He wants to say hello to you, that's all.” Jake mewed “He’s not good with manners. I try to teach him, but when he gets excited about meeting anyone new he doesn’t know what to do with himself. He hasn’t quite got that dogs and cats say hello differently.”

“I am not saying hello--” Talltail sucked in a breath. “No, no, I can’t do this, you are completely out of your mind! You live like this? This is normal for you? With a dog in your home!?”

“Yep!” Jake chirped and leapt up onto the surface below Talltail. The dog, this “Dusty”, was big enough to rest the tip of its drooling maw on the edge of the counter. Jake laid down and rubbed his cheek against the dog's snout, so close to its big teeth that Talltail shuddered. His fluffy ginger cheek was wet with dog spit when he pulled away, and Talltail wrinkled his nose though Jake didn’t seem to notice.

“Dusty, we’ve talked about you doing this when new friends come to the house,” Jake scolded the dog gently like a warrior might a young apprentice. “This same thing happened when Cris’s neighbor came over, you jumped up on her with mud all over your paws and she got angry and left! You know how hard it is for Cris to make friends, nevermind me! I never have guests over anymore since you stepped on Nutmeg and she clawed your nose. Do you remember that? She still doesn’t forgive you! We’ve got to work on your social skills.”

Dusty blinked at him and whined. Jake butted his nose with his head again “I understand your excitement. I forgive you.” He looked up at Talltail sheepishly, “I’m sorry about him. You can come out of the cabinets now, he won’t jump up again.”

“I’m fine, thanks.” Talltail's voice was weak. How had he ended up in this mess?

“I understand, he scares a lot of the neighbors. But he really won’t chase you if you don’t run, and then he’ll probably go back to sleep.”

“I’m not--” he was about to say he wasn’t scared, but even he knew how ridiculous that was. Jake looked so calm, and Talltail was a bit self conscious. The kittypet could lay there next to a massive dog's teeth like it was nothing. No clan cat was brave enough to do that. At last, he relented and cautiously jumped down from the cabinet, staying as close to the wall as he could. The dog barked, a low much more quiet boof, that slurred messy words

“Cat.” it barked. “Cat. New cat. Cat friend.”

Talltail looked at Jake, who nodded in encouragement. “He still doesn’t know a lot of cat words, but he tries.”

Talltail stepped forward and stretched out his muzzle, recoiling a bit at the dog's terrible breath, and touched it lightly to the wet black snout. Dusty licked him and Talltail hissed, rubbing the spit off his muzzle. Jake leapt down on the floor, and after some coaxing, Talltail did the same. He stood stalk still, fur bristling as the dog walked around him, sniffing him all over, and it took everything in Talltail to stay there without cringing away. Jake’s loud purr was a bit reassuring as he weaved through the dog’s legs. How could this really be normal for him? And yet Jake looked as content as ever. Eventually Dusty got bored of Talltail and plodded back to the sitting room, wagging its furry tail as it went. It was so heavy that Talltail could feel the vibrations in the hard shiny floor with each step.

 He couldn’t get his fur to flatten. Never did he imagine being so close to a dog's teeth and living to tell the tale. Jake bumped his head against him.

“You did better than most of the neighbor cats. You really are brave.”

“Less than you, apparently,” Talltail said with a sigh, “I’ve never felt less brave.” “You're somewhere new. I know how that feels. When I was lost, you helped me. Now I can return the favor. I promise, you're safe here. You can trust me, right?”

Talltail looked into his deep green eyes. “...Yes. Alright, I trust you.”

“Great! I can’t help feeling like it was fate to meet again, y’know? out of every cat there is in the world and you come into my yard! What are the odds?”

Talltail couldn’t imagine what a kittypet could know of fate. But then...he didn’t really know what they knew. There was a lot he didn’t know, and he was never more aware of that than now. But he could at least trust his old friend. Not that I would have a choice, he thought.

Jake led him back to the sitting room, where the dog had already plopped down and curled up with a heavy contented sigh. Whatever mad burst of energy it had when it tumbled down the stairs had quickly left it and it panted hard like it had been running for ages. The fact that it tired itself out so quickly made Talltail feel a bit better, if only so he knew it could be easily outrun.

Talltail padded around the dog at a short distance, studying it. It turned its head to him and wagged, but it thankfully didn’t approach again. It had breath worse than any elder and seemed to be missing a few teeth. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean the rest aren’t still sharp, he thought suspiciously. It’s fur was mostly a messy mixture of rusty and muddy browns, but its muzzle was gray and scraggly, and it panted heavily until its awful breath was all Talltail could smell in the room. I can’t imagine living with such a smelly thing!

Jake was unbothered, and rubbed along the dog's side before plopping down next to it, kneading his paws into the long shaggy coat.

Talltail shook his head, and Jake purred with laughter at his expression, “I did tell you I hung out with dogs on the farm back then, didn’t I?”

“I knew you might be near dogs, I didn’t know you meant this close. You are an incredibly bizarre cat, you know that?”

“Maybe I am. But Dusty is soft, and he’s always been like a big brother. I mean it! I can’t remember my littermates or mother’s faces very well anymore. I remember being small and wandering by myself, and then this big dog comes up from the field and lays down with me. He was so covered in dust it made me sneeze, so that’s what I called him. He came with my housefolk. There used to be two, a nice lady who would let me curl up on her lap. When we moved here she mostly stayed in bed, and then one day she wasn’t here anymore.” Jake actually looked a bit sad. “You know, I think Cris might be lonely. It’s been quieter after the other housefolk went away, wherever she went. Maybe that’s why he’s happy to take in lost animals. There’s been at least two other dogs and one cat before you, but they only visited for a while before someone else came and took them. But mostly it’s just been the three of us living here. We’re family.”

“But you can’t even really talk to them,” Talltail pointed out “How can you be family with completely different creatures that barely understand you? You don't even know their real names, you just make up some up for them.” 

“Well…” Jake paused for a moment in thought. “They probably both have a made up name for me to. You don’t always need a lot of words to know how someone feels. I think when you know someone well enough, you just...start understanding in different ways. We talk to each other a lot actually, even if I only sort of know what some sounds mean. We can’t speak each other's words very well, but we’ve gotten good at knowing what the other means anyway. Even Cris tries to speak to me, and really his accent is just awful but I appreciate the thought. You know...You might start understanding them too if you give them a chance.”

Before Talltail could argue that that was never going to happen, there was a loud rumble from outside. Talltail recognized the growl of a twoleg monster.

Jake perked up “Oh! He’s home!”

“What now?” Talltail wasn’t sure how much more he could take in.

“My housefolk.” Jake responded.

“Oh. Great.”

“I know how you feel about housefolk, but I promise, he’s not like you heard. Just pretend to act friendly and you can make them do almost anything.”

‘Pretend to act friendly’ to one of the greatest enemies of cats he knew of. Easier said than done. And when the twoleg entered, and was clearly shocked to see Talltail out of the room he’d trapped him in, Talltail bristled and felt a growl rising in his throat.

“We’ll have to show him that we’re friends,” Jake said, “and he doesn’t have to worry about you, since he probably didn’t want you to leave the carrier upstairs. But that should be easy enough, all we--Talltail? Where did you go?”

Jake looked around for him but as soon as the twoleg took a step inside, Talltail turned tail and darted into the first dark space he could find. A cat could only take so much in a day.

***

According to Jake, it was a “couch” he was hiding under, and he was not planning on coming out anytime soon. Talltail had a limit, and he’d used up all his remaining courage on Dusty. The twoleg had gotten down on the floor to peer at him. It had scraggly patches of silver gray hair around its face, and the rest of it was pale and hairless and wrinkled around its glassy blue eyes. Twolegs were even uglier up close. It’s freakishly long hind limbs creaked when they bent. It made strange high pitched noises at him, which Talltail pointedly ignored. After he sat under there long enough that it started growing dark, which he could only barely tell from the light fading in the far glass window, the twoleg pushed a small hard dish of strange smelling pellets towards him. Talltail smacked the dish and the dog came along and ate it instead. Dusty was on his belly staring at him now, and Talltail fought the urge to claw his nose. Evidently Jake, for whatever unfathomable reason, liked this dog a lot and would probably be upset if he did so.

“What do you want, dog?” Talltail hissed at it. The dog wagged and whined in response. Talltail glared, and it stared back at him with curious watery brown eyes. What was it about twolegs that made creatures in their dens act so strangely? Something this size with teeth like that shouldn’t see him as anything other than prey, but Dusty seemed to have lost all hunting instincts. That wasn’t true of other dogs he’d heard of, they pulled away from their twolegs and chased down anything that ran. Perhaps what the dog did depended on what their twoleg wanted, but who knew what any given twoleg was thinking. Nothing here worked in ways he could predict. He’d never so badly wanted to be back on the familiar moor, but he chased the thought away as soon as it surfaced. This was his life now, and all this confusing misery along with it.

Jake squeezed his way under the couch, with more difficulty as he was a much heftier cat then Talltail, and crouched beside him. He carried something in his jaws that smelled a bit like meat.

“I took this off his plate. He didn’t even notice. Try it! It’s good, better than the kibble.”

Talltail sniffed it and wrinkled his nose. What animal did this even belong to? He couldn’t recognize it.

“You gotta eat something,” Jake prompted, and Talltail eventually gave in and ate, trying not to gag at the sharp herb-y taste that coated the outside. Jake purred as watched him, and Talltail couldn’t help but be embarrassed at how much he needed to be comforted. He’d never felt so helpless.

“How long will he keep me in here?” Talltail asked.

“I promise he doesn’t want to keep you prisoner. He just wants to make sure you're feeling ok.”

“How do you know he actually wants to help me? Why would he? What does he get out of it?” 

“He wanted to help because you needed it, that’s all. That can’t really be so hard to believe, right?” Talltail didn’t look convinced so Jake continued. “He already saved your life. I’ve heard of cats dying fast when they eat poisoned human things. It’s not the first time we’ve taken in a stray. The last one was a lot less friendly, but Cris kept trying no matter how much he got clawed.”

“And you're really sure your twoleg isn’t going to trap me? Even though I was already kidnapped once and taken to this...this...I don’t know, awful bright place I can barely remember it! They did something to me though, and I hate that I can't remember!”

“I’m sure it was just the vet. You were really sick, you know. Nutmeg told me that’s what the vet is for. You’re not the only one that hates it, but it never lasts long. Dusty has been going there a lot lately and sometimes he comes back with fur missing, but never anything worse than that! I’m not really sure why he goes, he has been really tired lately, but I trust Cris knows better than I do with these sorts of things. The point is, I doubt you’ll be taken there again, you only go when you really need something.”

An elder dog, at least Talltail thought it must be an elder dog based on its grizzled appearance and bad teeth, could have lots of things wrong with it like any cat that got old, but that didn’t mean he should be ok with just getting whisked away and knocked out in some strange bright place with no medicine cat to explain what was happening or why! Even Jake didn’t fully understand it.

  “I don’t think this will be so easy for me,” Talltail said. He felt a bit bad knowing how much Jake seemed to want him to like his…family. “I won’t stay here for long. I can’t.”

“What are you in such a hurry for?” Jake asked.

“It’s complicated I…” Talltail hesitated, “I need to track down that group of traveling rogues that visited WindClan.”

“You mean Reena?”

“No, not Reena. Well, one of her companions. Mainly Sparrow.” He couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice.

Jake must have heard it, and blinked in worried confusion, “What for? Weren’t they just visiting friends?”

“Not exactly.” He didn’t really want to give all the details to Jake. No sense in pouring on him the last moons of strife and death in his clan. They wouldn’t be together long, and it was more likely to make him worry if he knew how Talltail really felt. Jake, thankfully, decided not to press him. He probably could sense Talltail’s distress about the topic.

“Well whatever the reason, you won’t get far if you don’t get a bit stronger first.” Jake pointed out. “You know, when I got a bad cut from a sharp fence, I got some fur taken off on my leg and Cris covered it with bandages and smeared gooey stuff on it. It felt gross, but I think it helped. The nicer you are to him, the faster all this will go.” Jake nudged him. “Won’t you come out just for a moment? You can’t stay under the dusty old couch forever.” 

Talltail shuddered at the thought of that strange elongated paw touching his fur.  But Jake’s voice was so pleading he eventually gave a heavy sigh, gathered his courage, and slowly crept out. If he had to put up an act for this mouse-brained twoleg to get out, then he would do what he had to do.

 The twoleg pushed back Dusty when Talltail emerged and slowly reached his hairless paw towards him.

Jake whispered “That's how they touch noses.”

 Talltail gave a heavy sigh and touched the mostly hairless outstretched paw tentatively with his nose, and suffered through the strange feeling of it stroking his head. He couldn’t suppress his growl. This twoleg was awfully bold.

 Jake invited him up on a different chair. Talltail sat on it and glared at the terrible tall creature on the other side of the room. 

“You won't hold me hostage here forever. I would claw you if I could,” he hissed quietly.

The twoleg just blinked at him pleasantly as he meowed, the corners of its muzzle-less mouth turned up and wrinkled at the corners. StarClan, twoleg faces were truly more ugly than anything he could imagine. This was going to be an insufferably long recovery.

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