First Love

When she joined the Clan, it had mostly been for him.

Yes, there was the allure of living like the wildcats - free to run and hunt and do whatever she liked. But her housecat life was quite comfortable, too. Why would she leave that behind, when her housefolk loved her dearly and she loved them back the same?

The only thing that has tipped the scale was him.

Soft, shiny fur, eyes full of light... he'd seemed perfect when she'd spotted him crossing zigzagged fences, tail erect and eyes alert for... something. She hadn't bothered to wonder at the time, too drawn in with intrigue. She'd known most of the neighborhood cats, and he certainly wasn't one of them.

He'd landed in her yard, eyes scanning the garden before they'd fallen on her. And the look in his eyes... nobody had ever looked at her that way before. She wondered if she was making the same expression towards him.

They struck up a conservation while his claws grazed different leaves, and half the day passed her by without even realizing. He'd left in a rush, a mouthful of plants in his jaws. She was sure her housefolk wouldn't be happy about that; she probably should have stopped it. But her mind was too fuzzy with thoughts about him.

A few days later, he returned. And then a few days after that. And the next day after that, and the next day, and the next day until that strange tom was visiting her each and every day (which quickly turned into each night, for reasons she hadn't yet understood). It was a very exciting change in her daily routine, one that quickly made her old life seem boring, when she looked back at it. But she still loved her housefolk, and this cat was just another addition to that. Someone else she could love.

When she found out she was expecting, he invited her to run away with him.

Her first reaction was shock. Run away with him and leave her housefolk, her whole life behind? How could he ask her to do that?

But as the days stretched on, and as she watched out the window for him from where she hid inside her home, her heart ached more and more and her mind only became more curious. What would it be like to run away with him, to live in the forest and hunt and run and play? To sleep cuddled next to his side every night, to raise her kits herself rather than letting her housefolk take them away?

He looked surprised to see her when he showed up that night. She was sitting on the edge of the fence, waiting for him. Very few words were spoken as the two of them slipped off into the night; she was afraid if she said too much she'd change her mind and go home.

His leader accepted her into his Clan, but she looked wary. Most cats did, she thought. Some of them even looked hostile. But she took the reassurance she could from their entwined tails, and when they went to sleep that night, cuddled into one nest, everything felt like it would be okay.

He was colder after the kits were born.

Not at first - at first he thought they were beautiful. He praised them, he cuddled them, he even showed them off to the rest of the Clan, bragging about how his kits would be the best the stars had ever seen.

But as they grew, it became clear that they were different. They couldn't do what the rest of the Clan could do; they were just regular cats. They were just normal. Like her.

And he hated them for it. Their own children.

That was just something she couldn't forgive.