Chapter Twelve
The Band

Flowerkit's fur bristled along his shoulders as he crouched at the edge of the stone monster-path, and he cringed back warily as two huge metal beasts sped past, buffeting him with hot air. On either side of him, his guides Romeo and Ham Sandwich barely blinked. They were at ease in this terrifying, unnatural, maze-like environment, and Flowerkit couldn't help but envy them.

Romeo's ears twitched, and a moment later his tail flickered, gesturing for them to cross. The now-familiar dread and apprehension of crossing gripped Flowerkit's chest, but he had no choice other than to trust Romeo's orders, so he followed as the pair of toms sprinted across the dangerous path. He always closed his eyes as he ran, certain that a monster would bear down on him at any moment, but only heartbeats later the ground under his paws changed and they were safe once again. Stepping onto a swathe of grass in front of a twoleg house, the kitten flopped over to try and catch his breath.

"It's not long now," Romeo told him encouragingly. "And I promise there are no more roads between here and the band."

Flowerkit just twitched his ears in acknowledgement. After a few minutes he got back to his paws and the three resumed their journey through the twolegplace.

They made their way past countless twoleg structures, navigating the twisting streets and shadowed alleyways with barely a pause. Flowerkit had a feeling that there was some sort of pattern to the area's layout, but he was unable to understand it.

"Hey Ham, Romeo," an unfamiliar voice called from above them as they turned down yet another alleyway. "What's with the kitten?"

Flowerkit looked up to see a short, pudgy she-cat resting at the top of the stone wall beside them. Her short fur was mostly white with small patches of ginger, and she had clear blue eyes that showed little to no interest in knowing the answer to her question. Her tail dangled over the edge of the wall, twitching lazily.

"Hello, Munchie," Romeo greeted cheerfully. He gestured to Flowerkit. "This young tom is lost. We were hoping someone in the band could help him."

The she-cat, Munchie, didn't seem impressed. She narrowed her eyes at Flowerkit. "He's kind of a squirt. M.C. might attack him."

"I'm sure we'll be fine," Romeo said with his ever-constant appeasing smile. He didn't seem at all fazed by the thought of his little protege being attacked. Flowerkit, on the other paw, was bristling.

"Suit yourself," Munchie meowed with a dismissive flick of her tail.

The three continued on, leaving the apathetic she-cat to her perch. Romeo seemed to notice Flowerkit's uneasiness and gave him an encouraging look. "Don't worry, my young friend. Everything will turn out just fine." Flowerkit couldn't decide if the blue tom was fearless or simply too stupid to care about danger. He was thinking probably the latter.

They took one more turn around the corner and were faced with a gaping hole in the side of a building. A whole section of the wall had crumbled away, giving way to a foreboding tunnel of darkness. The bricks on either side of the gap stuck out slightly, looking like the fangs of some nameless monster, waiting to gobble Flowerkit up. The kitten's fur rose along his spine. Though he could see nothing through the hole, he could sense movement inside, and it smelled of cats.

"Well, come on," Romeo prompted, and Flowerkit blinked in surprise to realize that his two guides had already slipped through the hole and Romeo had poked his head back out to check if the kitten was coming. Shaking off the shivers that had been sneaking up his spine, Flowerkit cautiously followed. He picked his way over the crumbling stone and mortar. The cat-scent was growing stronger. Finally they emerged into a large, dim room, lit only by weak sunlight filtering through dirty window panes. Boxes were piled precariously up against the walls, most of them blanketed in a thick layer of dust. And everywhere, in the middle of various activities, were cats.

Flowerkit gaped. There must have been at least twenty cats scattered around the dusty room. It was like a little clan of its own, deep in the heart of the twolegplace.

A few felines gradually became aware of the newcomers' presences, and one or two padded over to greet Ham Sandwich and Romeo, who they seemed to know well. Others simply called out greetings from where they were, while the rest ignored them completely.

"Well, my young friend, welcome to the band," Romeo meowed, beaming in Flowerkit's direction. "What do you think?"

Before Flowerkit could reply, however, heavy paws slammed into his side and barreled him over. He was jarred against the hard wooden floor. Flowerkit yowled protest, wincing as his old somewhat-healed shoulder injury sent a lance of pain through his foreleg. He glared up into the face of a small brown and lilac tom with gleaming amber eyes. The offender grinned down at the kitten.

"What's this? It seems our kittypet friends have brought a stranger into our midst." The tom's grin turned into a more menacing expression of bared teeth. "Who are you?"

Thankfully, Romeo came to the rescue. The blue tom simply pressed Flowerkit's attacker back with a paw. "That's not necessary, M.C. This young tom is just looking for help."

The brown and lilac tom (M.C.?) immediately sat back and assumed an air of importance. "Aha! Is that so? Well, we'll just have to see. Hello, small kitten. I'm M.C. Catnip. I'm the leader of this motley group of felines."

"No you're not," a new cat spoke up. By this time Flowerkit and company had attracted quite a bit of attention, and most of the cats had drifted closer to see what was going on. Now some were calling out their own opinions.

"Yeah, Catnip. The whole reason we joined this band was so that we wouldn't have a leader," another meowed irritably, swishing her tail.

A large, friendly-looking orange tom mrrr-owed with stifled laughter. "Why, if we wanted to get ordered around all the time, we'd just get ourselves a living!" This brought on a chorus of yowled agreement.

"Yeah, a living!"

"Haha! Who would want that?"

"Stupid furball."

M.C. Catnip's ears flattened back in irritation. "Well, someone had to greet our new guest," he snapped at the onlookers. More than a few of them rolled their eyes. M.C. gave his chest fur a quick lick to hide his embarrassment, then fixed Flowerkit with a narrowed gaze. "Well, little tom? Why are you here?"

Flowerkit's tail twitched anxiously. "I... I need help getting home," he stammered. All of the attention was making him nervous.

"And where would that home be?" M.C. questioned. "You don't look like you live with humans. Your fur is too messy."

"I'm from the forest," Flowerkit answered, ignoring the slight.

A murmur of surprise rippled through the gathered alley cats. M.C.'s ears pricked forward with renewed interest in his young visitor.

"The forest, you say?" The brown tom repeated, his eyes glimmering. "Well, well, well. We could get you back there easily enough, I suppose."

"Really?" Flowerkit asked, his eyes widening.

"Of course," M.C. Catnip said with a flip of his tail.

"Hang on," another voice called out. It belonged to an old gray she-cat with long, matted fur, and a white tail and paws. Her eyes were a shade of red similar to Ham Sandwich's, except that one eye was squashed down in what appeared to be a permanent half-wink. Flowerkit immediately compared her to Mothwhisker, a grizzled but kind elderly she-cat from ThunderClan. The new cat was lying with her paws under her, and although her age was evident, her eyes were still bright and alert. "Returning you home to the forest is no big deal... However, if I were you, I wouldn't leave just yet."

Flowerkit's ears flattened back. "Why not?"

"Because the snow season is coming," the she-cat replied simply.

This brought on another wave of mumbling from the crowd. Cats started calling out "yeah, that's right!" and "stay here for snow season!"

M.C. Catnip nodded towards the elderly gray she-cat. "Quite right, Wink, so it is," he meowed, then turned back to look at Flowerkit with the same frustrating air of superiority. "My young friend, I do believe it would be best if you stayed here, with us, until the sun season comes again," he said matter-of-factly. "The forest can be harsh during the snow season."

"Stay... here?" Flowerkit echoed. He looked around at all of the cats gathered around him. Most were smiling at him, looking friendly and welcoming, save a few--Ham Sandwich, for one, still had that unreadable wide-eyed expression. Romeo was smiling encouragingly, and Wink (the she-cat who had first mentioned snow season) had a knowing glimmer in her eyes.

Maybe these cats could be his home for a while.

"Okay," Flowerkit said slowly. "I'll stay... for snow season."

M.C. Catnip grinned. "Excellent. Welcome to the band."