Chapter 2 (Part 3)

Talia and Kyii lay beside the small pool in their cave, watching the little fish Kyii collected and put inside and waiting out the rain. Kyii had named each one, and marked them with any colorful scrap she could find. If it were up to Talia, these fish would be her meal... she was starting to get pretty hungry. Her stomach gave an indignant growl at the thought of food. She looked guiltily over at Kyii, who had an amused expression on her face.

"Hungry?" Kyii asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Talia sheepishly nodded and glanced over at the empty prey area.

"We don't have anything, you're gonna hafta wait until the rain stops." Kyii gave her an apologetic smile.

"Why? It's just water, you catch these in water all the time." She pointed her tail towards the pool.

"I just don't like being drenched, and we agreed to stick together, remember?" Kyii lashed her tail once in annoyance.

"So I won't go very far. I'm leaving, and I'm gonna bring back food for you, and then you're gonna trust me to go outside alone next time!" She briskly trotted out of the cave with a flick of her tail.

"Talia, wait! It isn't that I don't trust you, I..."

The sound of her voice was drowned out by the rain as Talia ran, ignoring the bitingly cold wind that nipped at her ears and nose. She slowed to a prance and raised her muzzle, opening her mouth a crack to taste the air for the scent of prey; a mouse, or perhaps a plump rabbit. She smelled no fresh animal, only pine and rain smells. She started to regret her rash decision as the cold began to penetrate through to her skin. She wasn't lost but she didn't want to go back to Kyii empty-pawed. She had to catch *something.* *A cold, perhaps.* she thought with an annoyed huff. She found a small dry area under a tree root and shoved herself under the root and into the space, her head poking out the other side. She closed her eyes in a blink but when she opened them what she saw made no sense. She saw a thousand reflections of a wolf she didn't know yet felt like she *was* this wolf. She felt her stomach drop as she realized he was falling. The wolf, not her. But... was she the wolf? She furrowed his brow and blinked in confusion... and the vision was gone. She was back in the dreary, prey-less forest, and there was a strange cat watching her.

"Ah, so you finally see me. I was starting to think you were deaf and blind," the cat boomed.

Talia blinked.

"What? Who are you?" she spat out, flustered.

The cat, a black and white cat with sun yellow eyes, smiled and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I am Bartolemeow, but you will call me Bart." He paused, his lip drew back into a thin smile. "As for you, dear maiden?"

Talia blinked, opening and closing her jaw soundlessly.

"I.. I'm Talia," she managed to spit out. This cat... he made dear Kyii look like mere pond scum. She decided it was a good thing she had left the cave after all.

"Talia. What a fittingly elegant name for a cat such as you. Why don't you come out of there and I'll get you a proper nest and a meal."

Talia wordlessly nodded and tugged herself out from under the root. She violently shook to rid her pelt of the wooden splinters and stray fur. The second she stopped, the rain started to collect in her fur once more, and she sighed. The water seemed to slip off of Bartolemeow's pelt with ease, and she grew self-conscious about her own clumpy, sodden fur as she followed his thin, white-tipped tail. He led her to a hollow in a massive, ancient tree, and the smell of meat and dry moss hit her tongue. She halted, amazed as she took in this incredible place the cat had taken her to. He turned around and smiled, his eyes unreadable slits, as he saw the look on her face.

"I have a nest all set up for you already. Don't worry about a thing, except resting and eating a good meal. Perhaps a nice, fat rabbit?" He grinned wider and widened his eyes slightly as he pushed one towards her, then whipped around and padded to a wall of the tree, climbing up into a higher level of his home.

Talia watched the last flick of his tail disappear above her, and padded over to eat the rabbit he somehow knew she had wanted.