The morning sunlight trickled through the trees. City noises faintly drifted up the hillside, while Cally and Emma pounced through the meadow. But, the sounds didn’t intrude on the two young gray tabby’s mission of collecting flowers for the get-well crown they wanted to make for their mom.
“Do you think mommy will like it?” Cally asked partly to her big sister and partly to the faint breeze.
“Yes, I do , and it is supposed to help her get better,” Emma reminded her little sister.
“Kittens, come quick, the doctor says there isn't much time,” said Joanne, one of mom’s friends from the city. She was fighting back tears and trying to keep a worried look from her face.
Dropping the blooms they had collected in their paws, the kittens quickly went to the old crate they called home, with tears of their own threatening to spill down their faces. The doctor stood outside the crate with a downcast face and a grave expression. The kittens timidly entered the crate with dread, mad at themselves for not making the get-well crown and giving it to her for her to get better.
The kittens started packing their favorite feathers and other toys they had made while living in the forest.
“Hurry up, kittens. We need to get to the city before rush hour,” Joanne said.
“You can play with propper toys in the city as well. There is a ball with a bell inside that tinkles every time you bat at it that I am sure you’ll love to play with in the kitchen.” the doctor said. A kitchen? Rush hour? What were these things, the kittens wondered. Even though they didn’t know what these things were, they didn’t want to live in the city.
“And you'll have more fun in the city than the light side of the forest or the dark side of the forest.’ joanne added
“Do you think mommy wouldn’t have died if we had given her the crown?” Cally asked after a while
“Yeah, I do. Do you?”
“Yes, but we didn't and I think we should've looked for flowers faster than we did.”
“Well, at least we had a chance to say goodbye, right?” Emma said, hugging her sister.
“I just wish mommy never got sick, I wish we could’ve waited until daddy got here this summer and we could live together
“I don't wanna live in the city, I wanna live with dad,” Cally said, putting her last item in the make do carrying bag they were using.
“I do too but we don't know where he lives,” Emma replied.
“He lives on the dark side of the forest and probably lives near the river.”
“How will we get there though?” Emma asked, closing the make do carrying bag.
“We can sneak away when Joanne isn't looking”
“but-” Emma stopped short as Cally was already following joanne.
As the group of cats left to go to the city, the kittens quietly snuck into the bushes. On their quiet paws the two kittens snuck very quietly further into the bushes slowly. Joanne realized the kittens weren’t following her anymore and started looking frantically, shouting, “Kittens?! Where are you?!”
Joanne’s cries got fainter and fainter and more panicked the farther the kittens went into the woods. Cally and Emma quietly slipped farther into the forest until they couldn't hear Joanne’s frantic cries, and then started sprinting as fast as they could. When they were out of breath, they stopped to rest. They looked around and saw they were in a cluster of bushes and trees. They felt many fallen leaves beneath them but only in small piles. They guessed the piles were made by other animals who had passed by before them.
The leaves of the trees overhead were rustling loudly, and as they calmed down they could faintly hear a river bubbling farther ahead. When they had caught their breath, they got up and went quietly to the river. They drank some of the cold water since they didn't have any water of their own and were thirsty after running off. As they sat on the bank of the river they began to wonder how they would get across.
“Let’s try swinging across,” Cally suggested, pointing to vines.
“Okay, I'll go first,” Emma replied. Carefully, with the help of her sister, Emma climbed onto the first vines and swung until there were no more vines.
“There aren’t enough vines,” she said, coming back after seeing there weren't enough vines to swing all the way across. The vines stopped halfway across the river and they couldn't jump halfway across because there was no ground or anything they could get onto to jump.
“Okay , hmmm,” Cally said, as she spotted a log, “maybe we could jump.”
“Let’s try it.” So, once they had couched and wiggled their tails and back legs, they leaped. But they slipped on the log since it was wet and fell into the cold and rushing water.
“Aaaahhhh!” they cried. They struggled to swim to the closest bank of the river. Then Emma grabbed a branch that was on the closet side of the river and held out a paw to Cally who was tumbling passed and took hold of her paw. With some struggling, pushing and pulling each other they finally made it on to the bank tired and wet. They curled up next to each other a safe distance away from the river so they wouldn't fall in and fell asleep.
When they came to, they sensed something in the brush. The kittens shaked with fear. What was in the brush, they wondered, will it hurt us? Will it kill us? What will it do?. It slowly started walking toward the kittens and the two kittens screamed and hissed at the creature who let out a hiss of its own. Its back was arched and its hair on end. While it walked , its back softened and the creature came out of the shadows showing glinting eyes and sharp claws.it revealed whiskers and big ea
“Cally? Emma? Is that you?” the cat asked as he came further into the light.
“Dad?“ The kittens said with a small squeak. The kittens were a sight. Their fur was matted together, they were really wet, they had sticks and other bits and pieces were stuck in their fur. Their dad, seeing they were messy, started licking them, cleaning them and getting the sticks and other bits of things out of their fur.
“What were you two doing?” their daddy asked.
“We were trying to cross the river,” Emma said.
“Where’s your mom?”
“Oh…” Emma said.
“She was sick,” Cally finished for Emma.
“Bad sick,” Emma said.
“She’s…” Cally said trying to finish but couldn’t.
“Oh ok. I see now” their daddy said knowing then what the two kittens had been through and drew them closer, comforting them.
“We were going to be adopted by city-cats and we weren’t gonna see you again, so we had to sneak away” cried Emma.
“Well, you are here now” as he got up and he picked the kittens up and carried them towards the large, red brick, oven with smoke coming out of the chimney.Just then, wind blew and the kittens, still wet from falling in the river, got colder and shivered. The oven had many spaces for the three cats to sleep and play. Most importantly, though, it was warm. The kittens knew the old crate where they grew up, would rot away. But, this new home was permanent and couldn't rot away. It brought a promise of security and family.
“Come by the fire and get dry and warm,” their daddy said as he set them down near the oven and the fire. They all sat staring at the dancing flames of the fire. The kittens truly cried now, for they hadn't gotten enough time to really cry before the two kittens had to pack and leave to go to the city. Their dad didn't hear or notice they were crying at first but soon he heard whimpers and sobs and he turned his head and looked at Cally and Emma. He saw tears running down their faces like rovers running towards oceans or seas. He brushed the tear from their faces and hugged the kittens, telling them it's ok though he didn't speak.
“Dad, how did you and mom meet?” Emma asked after she had managed to stop crying for a little bit.
Their daddy sighed a deep sigh before answering “Your mom and I met while we were both wandering in the forest on the other side of the river. I was hunting and your mom was trying to get back to the city but she was being chased by a hawk. She had managed to dodge it two times already but I realized it was going to dive at her again. I snuck up quietly and as it dived, I jumped up and scratched it, startling it so it flew off with a screech, looking for easier prey. She had wandered too far on her morning prowle and was lost so I decided to help her find the city. We wandered for a while trying to find the city when we crossed the river. We walked and walked until I spotted something made of brick. As we came closer your mom thought it was an oven. We realized that after the hawk and while we were trying to find the city we had fallen in love. We decided to live here together since it made a perfect home for two cats in love.”
The two kittens could picture in their mind what their parents looked like as their dad told them how he and their mom met.
“But before we started living in it, your mom wanted to say goodbye to her friends and family in the city so we crossed the river again and finally found the city. it was there we found out she was pregnant. We needed to get back to our home so another animal wouldn't move into it but the river was getting higher and was too dangerous to cross with newborn kittens. So we found a crate for you and your mom to live in until you could cross the river. After that, your mom said I needed to go back to the house soon. I waited as long as I could, so that i could see you before i left, then I went back to the house. And every week since, I have checked the river to see if it was low enough. Had I known your mother was sick, I would have crossed the river another way. I wish I could have done something to help her.”
“We tried to make a crown out of flowers to make her illness go away. But we didn't move fast enough and even if we made the crown, it would have been too late” the kittens said thinking it was their fault their mom had died.
“Making that crown wouldn’t have made her illness go away but I am sure she is happy knowing you were making that crown. She’d be proud of how much courage you showed getting here.”
After this the kittens cried again, missing their mom now more than before. They hugged their daddy for comfort, gripping tight to him for fear of losing him as well.
“Cally, Emma, please-” then he stopped to save his breath and hugged his kittens close.