Sabbath

Sabbath jumped from rock to rock as he followed Underfoot and Cali. His night-piercing yellow luminaries kept an eye on his new members. Couldn’t let them get hurt, now could he. He would never forgive himself if they got hurt. It was easy for him, walking along the rocky edges. Sabbath nodded to Nava’s statement. "I have seen some places similar to this, though none of them were as dangerous and amazing as this place. Listen to Underfoot and stay close." He jumped onto the other side of Nava and her siblings, making him in between them and the ridge to the river below. "I can see why two-legs and canines don’t come here. It is too steep and dangerous for them to traverse."

Squeaker kept jumping from rock to rock to rock. She smiled at this place. It was fun and she had to be stealthy when on it. She jumped in front of them, over them and around them. It was just so fun!!! "I like this place Sabbath. All we have to do is keep an eye on kits to make sure they don’t hurt themselves. Right? I think this is perfect." Sabbath glanced towards his sister. "I will see. Though you are right. Let me think. Maybe we’ll stay here for a bit, and if it is good, then we shall permanently stay. Cali, Underfoot. Any other places around here. This is a bit out in the open, don’t you think. Something for cover would be nice. A hole, some woods, a cave?"

Underfoot, Cali, & Others

Nava and her siblings were use to parading around the relatively flat landscape of the farm house and it's few dozen acres. The most difficult terrain she'd ever traversed had been a shallow dirt ravine, and perhaps one of the two lazy creeks that wound their way through the woodlands near the house. This... this was very exciting for the young tabby. "You have? You must have done a lot of exploring." Nava said back to Sabbath. She followed his words of advice by springing forward and traveling more closely behind Underfoot. Cloey and Cata, too much in awe by all these new sights and sounds, didn't stay a word. They were busy looking around, swiveling their ears this way and that, and twitching their noses at this scent and that.

"I have to say, it's much more engaging than the human town. Plus, there's none of those clunky noise-makers to watch out for." Cali remarked with a sniff of disdain, speaking of vehicles. She'd almost gotten run over by them before, and she'd seen plenty of carcasses on the road of unfortunate creatures who hadn't been so lucky during their venture across the road. "Oh! You know what?" Cali was every bit as energetic as Squeaker, and was bouncing from one rock to the next with the enthusiasm of a kitten, and her voice was just as quirky and excitable, "Back when we lived at the Ruins, our brother told us about a cave in the area. I don't know where it is... but I bet we can find it if we search enough, or we can go ask him."

Sabbath & Squeaker

As Sabbath traversed along the edge of the ridge and had said that he had seen some places like this, the little kit, Nava, had spoken back to his statement. He nodded to her question. "Me and my sister have been multiple places. More than most cats. We were rogues, traveling from place to place. We have seen more than you could imagine." The tom had noticed how in awe the three siblings were, sniffing the air around them and swiveling their audits in every direction. He couldn’t help but smile at that. Squeaker smiled at her brother’s statement. "Yes it was quite the adventure." But then she made a bit of a hiss at what Cali said. Sabbath did the same thing and gave his own opinions on it. "The twolegplace is no place to live. I don’t understand how kittypets deal with it. Especially those monsters. Flying by on the thunderpaths with the twolegs in their bellies and their beady eyes locked in one direction. They killed one of my clanmates one time. Any smart cat should know to not go near the thunderpaths."

Squeaker nodded to her brother. ”That clanmate was a close friend of mine. The thunderpath was one of the reasons why we left the clan. It was to close and Sabbath was worried for both of our safety.” Both the siblings were happy to change the subject when Cali mentioned that their brother had mentioned a cave that was around here. Stalking beside the three kits, Sabbath spoke once again. "We will not go to ask him. We have travelled enough. We will try to find this cave on our own. It shouldn’t be that hard. A cave can’t just hind, usually there is a sign that it is there, like a clearing in the bushes or trees. Lead the way."

Underfoot, Cali, & Others

Nava was so captivated by thoughts of exploring, and imagining all the places Sabbath might have been, that she didn't see the small sapling directly in her path. Thawk! The young tabby collided with the plant with a small yowl of surprise. She scrambled back quickly, shook her head, and turned an indignant glare at the two siblings of her that were now snickering at her. Her tail lashed sharply behind her in annoyance, but as she started forward again, side-stepping around the offending plant, Nava quickly forgot about that embarrassment and turned her attentive auds back to Sabbath and Squeaker.

"What's a thunderpath?" "Monsters?" Cloey and Catac murmured these questions in mild fear, and stuck a little bit closer to the tomcat now. They were well use to vehicles, but the only roadway that they'd ever encountered was the gravel drive that lead down to the ranch house where they lived. Unlike Underfoot and Cali, the youngster had never explored far enough to come across a true paved road, nor had they discovered the horrors of squashed animals run down by cars. Cali lowered her dainty head a little, and Underfoot remained silently - both of them did know what Sabbath spoke about, and out of respect for the clanmate that was lost, neither said anything. It wasn't until the subject was changed that Cali broke the silence and gladly moved the subject onto lighter things, "He did mention that it made a very strange noise - an echo, but a different echo than what you hear around these cliffs." The tabby pointed out, "And it has a distinct smell to it; kind of musty, and old."

Sabbath & Squeaker

Sabbath noticed that Nava was crashed into a sapling and when she stumbled, he put his paw near her, pushing against her bodice softly to keep her from falling and rolling off the cliff. "Careful. Don’t want you to fall off the cliff." When he and Squeaker mentioned the thunderpaths and monsters, the black tomcat’s ears twitched as he heard the kits murmur questions. He could hear the down tone of fear in their lyrics. Squeaker looked at them also, thinking about how to answer their questions. His lyrics broke the air to answer the questions. "Thunderpaths are...trails. Accept they smell horrible and the surface is hard and can cut open your paw pads and give them burns. They are warm to the touch and feel like a ton of rocks under yours paws. They cut through the forest, and twolegplace so that the Monsters can run on them." Before he could continue, Squeaker lyrics piped up to answer the next question. "The Monsters are huge big... I think I can say creatures. They breathe this nasty smoke and their eyes are beady and bright. They run on these round…things that spin so quickly and carry them over the thunderpath. The two-legs climb into their bellies a lot and seem to stay there until they get somewhere else, where they climb out. They seem to never leave the Thunderpaths, though I do not know why." Sabbath nodded to his sister.

The siblings both noticed that Cali and Underfoot had remained quiet, probably in respect for their lost clanmate. But the subject was soon changed when Sabbath asked about the cave. Cali said that it emanated a strong noise and had a unique smell. "Good. Then breath in the scents around you and try to sort out a unique scent. And also swivel your ears in every direction to try and listen for a strange sound." Once he said that, the tomcat closed his eyes, slowing down so he can feel his way around the rocks. Squeaker did the same. The siblings both opened their maws slowly and breathed in the scents around them, letting the air flow over the scent glands in their mouth. They also swiveled their ears in every direction, though they made sure not to fall off the canyon.

Underfoot, Cali, & Others

Once Nava had gotten her balance back, if not her bruised pride, she looked sheepishly to Sabbath and murmured quietly to him, "Thanks." Without his vigilance and quick thinking, she might have fallen, and Clan's first day would have been marked with the unfortunate death of one of their members and heavy hearts for all. The young tabby remained quiet after that, which allowed Cloey and Catac to speak up and learn about these new terms. Catac was the first to catch on to what Sabbath and then Squeaker explained about the 'Monsters'. "Ooooh, I think I know what those are! The monsters, anyway. Our human had some of them that lived at the house with us, and they slept all the time. They were loud when they woke up though, and the growled and shook and made a lot of bad odors." The adolescent tom frowned in thought, thinking of the truck that Martha often drove, and all the tiny critters plastered in the vehicle's grill - including a number of feathers, one time. "I think they eat bugs and little animals." Cloey nodded, "And Timber told us that they are the quickest creatures in the world, but I've never seen them go really fast." "That's because you've never seen them on a Thunderpath. I bet they go fast on those." Catac cut back in, even though he still wasn't sure what a 'thunderpath' was.

Underfoot and Cali knew how fast the Monsters could go, but they remained silent on that issue still, and didn't speak up again until Sabbath directed them all to put their senses to good use and locate the hidden cave. Spotting a low tree limb hanging over the path, Underfoot jumped up onto it, and scaled the cedar tree, climbing higher up along the trunk so that she'd have a better vantage point of the land around her. Not that she knew what she was looking for exactly, but her new position did give her a pretty good view of the land around. Cali moved more slowly, auds perked and swiveling like radars, while she opened her mouth now and then to better analyze the scents drifting on the breeze.

"Oh, oh! I... think I smell something." Nava exclaimed, her eyes going wide with anticipation. "It's kind of musty." The tabby turned away from the trail, leaving Sabbath's side to dart up through a narrow crevice in the rocks and scramble further up along the steep ridge. "This way!"

Sabbath & Squeaker

The tom-cat simply nodded as Nava thanked him. He had to say. Out of all the siblings, he liked her the best. Both the siblings listened when the two other siblings caught onto what they were both saying. Seemed like they had seen a monster before. Sabbath nodded at them but they also learned more about the monsters. They did not know that they slept most of the time. That was new information. It’s sometimes a good thing to learn new things. Squeaker nodded. "Yes. They go very fast on the thunderpath. And they may eat bugs and small animals, but I’ve seen them maul and attack and trample other animals, some as big as the deer that wolves hunt." Sabbath thought back to his and his sister’s traveling, having to cross many big thunderpaths and had seen quite a couple of animals hit. He added his own insight. "They are even sometimes aggressive towards each other. They sometimes lunge and attack and wound each other . But it seems they both get injured very badly when they do, so they try to avoid it." He was speaking of the crashes that he and Squeaker had seen between the vehicles.

But once they were all trying to find the cave, the two siblings focused on that then those horrible memories. Squeaker watched as Underfoot climbed a tree and the other cats slow down and pay attention to their surroundings more. Pure silence enveloped the Clan as they tried to pick up anything useful. It was when Nava spoke up did the silence end, her voice piercing it like an arrow. As soon as her lyrics feel, she bolted through a narrow crevice and raced up the ridge. Sabbath hissed a bit. "Careful!!" He tried running through the crevice but was too large to do that. "Damn it!" Squeaker bounded up next to him and rubbed against her siblings. ”Follow along the rocks. I’ll follow her. Show everyone the way carefully.” With that, she squeezed through the crevice and bolted after Nava, following her the way she went. Sabbath made a sound between a hiss and a meow. The equivalent to a growl for a cat. He turned to the Clan. "Follow me. Be careful and make sure you don’t fall." Walking to Catac, he picked up the kit and jumped onto a boulder, following Squeaker along the boulder’s since he couldn’t follow through the crevice.

Underfoot, Cali, & Others

Catac was envisioning it now - the grill of the truck opening up to reveal rows upon rows of giant teeth, and expelling a noxious breath of smoke and oil from its gaping maw as it ran down deer, cats, and even other monsters. The very thought was terrifying to Catac, and a source of nightmare fuel that would likely keep him up for most of the rest of the day, when he should otherwise be taking light naps here and there. Cloey didn't have quite the vivid imagination as her brother, but the tabby's eyes were still wide as she tried to envision two monsters engaged in a fight, "I'm glad there's no thunderpaths around here. I mean... there's not any... right?" She turned a furtive look around, and was joined by her brother, both of whom expected to see the glaring headlights of a monster peeking out at them from around the next rock or tree. Nava was the one to murmur back at them distractedly, "I haven't seen any, and besides, they're kind of like the cows - they can't climb rocky places like this."

As things grew quiet following the end of that discussion, Underfoot used her new vantage point to continue inspecting the land around them. Try as she might, the cat couldn't pick up anything unusual amongst the bland colored rocks and the green shrubs and vegetation that dominated the area. Just when she was about to climb back down and search for a new perch, Nava had bolted with an enthusiastic cry about smelling something musty. By the time Underfoot had scaled down the tree, Sabbath already had Catac in his jaws and was finding his way around the side of the rocks, while Squeaker was squeezing her smaller frame into the crevice to follow the younger tabby. "Cali, go with Squeeker, I'll take Cloey." Following their leader's actions, Underfoot scooped Cloey up by the scruff and bolted after Sabbath.

A few minutes later of scrambling and running through the rocks, and Nava had found it. The youngster stood at the mouth of the cave, whose enterance was almost obscured by hanging ferns and a dense cluster of young spruce trees. "Wow... can you hear that?" She whipsered in awe, auds perked towards the cave mouth, where her sensitive ears could hear the echoing 'plop' of tiny water droplets dripping deeper in the cavern.