TFA Warriors:
Chapter 9


“Wow,” Sari breathed, gazing around the yard with red eyes filled with wonder and amazement. “I never knew the world was so big!”

For many moments, the little tan and red kit could only stand on the porch of her home and stare around at the all the sights that the outside world offered.  Everything looked so different out here! Instead of a fuzzy red carpet, there was strange green stuff covering the entire ground-Sari believed that her father called it grass. There were also two big, towering trees that were even bigger than August, growing in the yard.

“Maybe I can climb them!” Sari thought. Though as she looked up at high the oak tree went, she quickly thought better of it. She wouldn’t want to get stuck up there. Sumdac would never let her leave the house then!

“I wonder if dad’s ever climbed a tree.” Sari wondered as she began to carefully chamber down the wooden steps of the porch. All thoughts of chasing after Sparkplug were gone. Exploring a whole new world was tens times better than chasing after a toy mouse!

“Maybe I can catch a real mouse!”  She excitedly wriggled her behind at the prospect. Her father had told her that there were wild cats that didn’t have housefolk to take care of them and they actually hunted and caught mice to eat.  Sari liked the food that August gave her and couldn’t imagine what a mouse would taste like. Would they taste like Sparkplug with his metallic taste? She had asked her father, but he had never caught any mice before, but her mother had.

Sari leapt from the last step and landed on the white, stone path that lead from the porch to the fence surrounding the house. The young kitten took a moment to gaze up the clear blue sky and blinked her ruby eyes in confusion.

Where was her mother? Her father had never told her anything about her. Was she a housecat too? Or maybe she was one of those wildcats he mentioned that lived and hunted on their own. Maybe she had been able to climb tall trees and not get stuck, and hunted and knew what mice tasted like. Sari bet that she probably explored the whole world and knew everything there was to know!

“I bet I can be a wildcat.” Sari said. She brought he tiny paw up and extended her claws. “I have claws and teeth! I bet I can hunt!” She crouched low to the ground, wriggled her behind, and growled. “That’s it! I’m going to be the most dangerous wildcat of all!” Dad and August would surely be impressed with her then! Maybe her mother would even come back and be amazed at how wild she’d become!

Pleased with her decision, Sari straightened up and began to pad onward, following the white, stone path. If she was going to be a wildcat, then she needed to explore her territory.

Birds chirped and twittered from the treetops as Sari came to a halt in front of the fence. The fence was made up a bunch of wires intertwining among one another; through the woven wires Sari could see the sidewalk that bordered a long, wide black road. Beyond the road was another sidewalk and then more houses like her own; many each had fences, bushes, and trees surrounding them.  Sari longed to explore the other houses, but the fence was blocking her path.

She stood up on her hind paws and placed her front paws on the fence and tried to push it open. The fence shook, letting out a jiggling sound, but didn’t budge any further.

“There has to be a way out!” Sari huffed, dropping down to all four paws. She looked down and noticed that there was a small gap underneath the fence. Warily, Sari crouched low to the ground and inched forwards, toward the gap. Slowly, she slid her nose through the gap, and worked her way until her head was through as well.  With a feeling triumph rising inside her, she worked her way forward until all of her tiny, fuzzy body had slipped through the gap.

Sari let out a squeal of excitement as she gave a single bounce away from the fence. Not even a giant fence could stop her from her fun! Feeling very smart and pleased with herself, Sari began to pad down the sidewalk, wondering where it led or how far it went.

After many, many pawsteps, Sari realized that she had just passed several households. As soon as this realization hit, a jolt of fear went through her. How would she be able to remember which household was hers?

“Uhhh…” Sari turned around, rose back on her hind legs and tried to see over the top of the fences, trying to figure out which one had been hers. Most of the houses were different colors and were built in slightly different manners, but Sari couldn’t tell remember what her house looked like from the outside. She only knew what it looked like inside.

“There it is!” Sari remembered the two oak trees in the front yard. Squinting her eyes, she was able to make out of the tops of the same oaks sticking out by a yellow house.

“Don’t move.” Sari chirped, happily fixing the two trees into her memory. At least she now knew what to look for when she wanted to go home. Until then, she wanted to keep exploring.

A soft breeze blew by and Sari felt something tickle the tip of her ear. She flickered her eyes and tilted her head upward. A small, red butterfly was fluttering right above her; it floated down and momentarily landed on the tip of pink nose before fluttering off again.

Sari let out a squeal of delight and batted it with her clumsy paws. The butterfly dodged and began to flutter away, down the sidewalk.

“Hey, don’t go!” Sari cried, running after it. “I want to play some more!” She didn’t want the pretty creature to go away.  She had never seen anything so beautiful before with its lovely ruby red wings.

The red butterfly kept going, fluttering down the street, but it always stay within Sari’s sight. Sari continued to follow it until something appeared in her way and stopped her progress. It was a creature, one much bigger than her, curled up and apparently sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk. It took Sari only a moment to realize that this creature was actually a dog.

Sari paused from her chase with the butterfly and gazed at the dog, fascinated. Her dad had told her about dogs and how dangerous they were, but this one didn’t look dangerous at all. He had a long body and short legs and wasn’t much bigger than her daddy. The dog also had tons of wrinkles and a big funny droopy face. Sari wondered if its skin was too big for its body. Why else would it look so weird and funny?

The dog’s nose twitched and it let out a sudden sneeze that surprised Sari. The dog then opened one droopy, watery eye and fixed it on Sari.

The kitten tried to look as cute and polite as possible. “Hello!” She meowed. “You’re a dog right? I don’t know what else you’d be, though you kind of all wrinkly. Are all dogs wrinkly like that?”

The dog responded to her rapid flow of questions with a long stare and silence. He opened the other eye and let out a grunt, which could have been an answer to one of her questions.

Sari tilted her head to one side and stared at him, puzzled. Why wasn’t he speaking? “Don’t you speak cat, mister dog?” she asked.

The hound blinked as if considering her, sniffed the air, and then, to her surprise, spoke in a deep, low voice.

“Cats…two cats.”

Two cats? Sari looked behind her and then swung her head from side to side; she saw no other cats besides herself. Confused, she told the dog, “No, I’m the only cat here.”

The dog raised his head as the red butterfly fluttered up above. He took a deep breath and shook his head, flopping his large ears around. “Two cats.” He repeated in a set, confirmed voice. Without another word, the dog laid his head back on his paws and closed his eyes, falling back into a slumber.

Once again, Sari looked all around her, trying to find the invisible cat that the dog had somehow detected, and once again saw no one.

“He must be seeing…er...smelling things.” Sari concluded, trying to reassure herself. The dog did look very old. He must have just been sleepy and made a mistake. There was no other cat around here but her.

The butterfly fluttered over her head and gently brushed by her patch of red fur. Sari instantly forgot about the old dog and padded past him to continue following the butterfly. It felt as if it were leading her somewhere- why else hadn’t it flown off by now? Sari was determined to follow it no matter how far it took her.

At last, the stretch of sidewalk which she was walking on came to an end, stopping at the edge of a black-top road. Sari came to a quick halt and stared at the menacing black stretch with wide, frightened eyes. Out of all the many rules her father had taught her, number one had been to never, ever cross the road. On the road, you were in danger of being hit by a horrible monster with round black paws that spurned smoke. August and Sumdac called the monster a “car”.

Sari looked longingly at the beautiful red butterfly as if effortlessly flew across the road and hovered in sight at the other side. A monster zoomed by, blocking her view for a split second before disappearing, leaving only a harsh, burning smell behind.

“I can’t go that way!” Sari called out. She knew that it was silly of her to talk to the bug, but for some reason, she felt as if it could understand her. “I’m not allowed to.”

The butterfly continued to flutter around, as if coaxing her to cross.

“A monster might come!” she cried, unable to hide the fear in her voice. “I’ll die if I get hit!”

“I’m waiting,” the butterfly seemed to be saying.  Despite her fear of the road, Sari felt as if something was tugging at her fur, urging her to go on. Something was waiting for her across the street…something hidden….something new…

Sari lashed her tail and made up her mind before fear could change it. “Okay, okay, I’m coming!” the little brown and red kit took a couple of moments to twist her head left and right, making sure that there were no monsters in view. She then pricked her eyes and warily listened. Was that just the wind…or the distant rumble of an oncoming monster?

She gulped. Suddenly, this adventure wasn’t that fun anymore. Sari looked over her shoulder and wondered whether August or her dad were home by now and were looking for her. Maybe she should head back. As tempting as the thought was, something inside Sari kept her from going back.

“I’m not a scaredy cat.” Sari meowed, fixing her red gaze ahead, across the road. “I’m a wildcat and wildcats aren’t afraid of anything!”

Saying those words gave her enough courage to step off the sidewalk and onto the black pavement. She froze, half afraid that a monster would suddenly spring out of nowhere. When everything remained calm, she slowly and warily began to pad across the black surface

When she had reached the middle of the road, the ground beneath her began to shake and then came an echoing roar in the direction, coming steadily closer with each passing moment. Fear filled Sari, freezing her limbs and making her fur fluff out in terror. A monster was coming!

Her mouth opened, ready to unleash a yowl of fright, but nothing came out. The ground under her paws were trembling violently now and her ears with pounding with the roar of the oncoming monster. Sari tried to move when she saw its black paws and metal, red pelt, but her body wouldn’t obey her- she remained crouched in the middle of the road, waiting for the monster to strike.

“Go little one!” a voice shouted in her head. It sounded like a female’s.  “Move, now!” it ordered, through the rumbling of the monster.

Sari blinked, surprised by the voice she heard, but instantly obeyed. Letting out high-pitched screech, Sari finally regained use of her legs and scrambled to try and get to the other side before monster could reach her.  She could hear it behind her- its roar drowned out everything else in the world and its smoke burned and stung her eyes.

Then it past, missing Sari by mere inches. It sprayed grit and pebbles and knocked her to the sidewalk with a gust of wind. Then it disappeared down the road, leaving only its burning fumes behind.

For many moments, Sari just laid on the sidewalk, exhausted and her entire body trembling with terror from the experience. She curled her tail around her and continued to quiver. Would the terrible monster going to turn around and come back after her? A hundred rapid heartbeats past and nothing happened. Finally, her heartbeat slowed and she was able to stand and gaze back at the road.

Despite the fear that had consumed her, a new feeling had begun to take over- pride. She had faced off the monster and survived! Despite the dangers, she had done what many housecats had never down before. That was something she could be proud of.

“Wait until I tell Dad and August about this!” she meowed, her tiny chest puffing out with pride. She then remembered about the strange voice that had urged her to move while on the road. Sari looked around but saw no one.

“Whoever was there,” Sari meowed, lifting her voice to the sky. “Thank you for helping me.”  

She waited for an answer, but only felt something brush her ear tips. She twitched her whiskers with happiness as she tilted her head back to see the red butterfly.

“Hello you!” she joyfully purred. She batted the air with one pale paw. “Thank you for waiting. Where to now?”

The red butterfly hovered above her for a moment more before fluttering away a couple of feet. Sari followed it on its path as it led her to the broken gates of a large, rather gloomy looking house.

Sari gazed up at the house with red eyes wide with curiosity and fascination. The house looked very old and was much larger than the one that she, Dad, and August lived in, though their house was in much better condition than this one. This house had jagged holes where the wooden boards had broken and the windows were all cracked. There was also a large hole in the roof.

“The housefolk that live here aren’t very tidy.” Sari remarked. She sniffed the air and didn’t smell the scent of any humans. This house had to be abandoned.

The red butterfly fluttered through the broken, iron gates and Sari followed it into the yard. Unlike August’s yard, with was well cut and had only a few pieces of plant life, this place was full of overgrown plants. She spotted a gnarled, old tree that even bigger than the two oaks in her yard. Its branches had even grown into one of the windows of the house! Sari sniffed the air again and was rewarded by the overwhelming smells of flowers and small creatures scurrying around the garden and house.

“Maybe I could try to hunt around here.” Sari thought out loud. This seemed like a great place to explore, though she would have to cross the street again to reach it. If she did it once, then could do it again.

Sari continued to follow the butterfly as it lead her inside the house. The butterfly had flown through a crack in the window, but Sari slipped in through a broken board next to the door. Inside the house, Sari saw that even though the house was empty and abandoned, there was still some furniture left, though it was covered with white sheets. The wooden floors that Sari padded on where covered with layers upon layers of dust collected over the years. Sari made a face as it stuck to her fur and let out a sneeze.

“Where are you?” Sari meowed, looking for the butterfly in the dark, empty place. She spotted it hovering near the staircase.

With her tiny, short legs, it took her a while to make it up the tall flight of stairs, but the tugging feeling in her fur got stronger with each pawstep. She was sure of it now that something trying to reach her.

“I’m almost there.” She told it. Perhaps whatever was calling her had been the voice that had saved her life?

This only made her even more determined as she finally finished her climb and reached the last step.  Before her was a long hallway, lined with several doors. Sari wanted to explore and see what was behind all these doors, but the butterfly led her forward until she had reached one of the last two doors at the end of the hallway. The one on the left was cracked open and behind it was another flight of stairs.

This one was much shorter than the first one, so Sari had no trouble climbing up. When she reached the top, she took a moment to catch her breath. Never had she felt more exhausted before. Of course, this was also the first time she had ever had to walk such a long distance.

But she had made it. Once again, the feeling of pride swelled up inside her, sending a feeling of warmth from ear to tail tip. Whatever had been calling her was here- she could feel it.

She looked up and searched the air. “Where are you?” she cried out to the butterfly but didn’t see it anywhere. Looking around, Sari realized that it had led her to a small, dusty room filled with lots of boxes. On the far side of the room was a large, round window that let in a warm glow of light.

Sari felt a breeze ruffle through her fur and, after taking a quick glance towards the ceiling, realized that the window wasn’t the only thing letting in light. There was a large hole puncturing the ceiling as if something had fallen through and broke it.

And, after looking down below the hole, Sari saw and realized what the butterfly had led her too- what had been calling to her this whole time, tugging at her fur and urging her to find it.

Below the hole, bathed in a halo of golden light, was a black stone that seemed to whisper voices and shine with every color under the sky…

It was the fallen star.