You certainly cannot lead the way, Cat said. I'll carry you.
Mother carries me by the back of my neck.
I know how to carry kits. Cat's tone was dry. He took several trial nips and, finding the proper hold, picked up the kit and carried him easily.
The kit directed him past two large trees into a rabbit trail which they followed for some time, the kit muttering from time to time when he saw something he remembered. The sun had begun its downward descent when Cat sensed something ahead. He stopped and dropped the kit under a bush, covering it with leaves as he said, Stay here. I want to investigate ahead. I will be back for you in a little while, and I'll try to find us something to eat.
Mother said she was coming back, the kit said in a tiny voice.
I am not your mother. If I say I will come back, I will come back.
I'll be here, the kit snuggled down in the leaves, already warm and growing sleepy.
Cat moved with caution through the tall grass until he found what he feared. Under a trap of the type called "deadfall" he found a gray and white female cat. He could not see for a moment what had triggered the trap that she would allow herself to be caught so. When he came close he heard the squeak of live mice and as he stepped over the log which had broken the back of the female, he found a small box woven of green willow and something he had not seen before, a silvery colored vine and very strong. In the box were three live field mice.
A few bites told Cat he could not chew through the silvery vine any more than the mice could. They were there for the eating, but he could not get to them. What a waste. They would probably starve before the traps were run.
The one thing the tragedy told him was that they were on the right track. The kit had been uncertain in a few turns and crossroads, but when it made a decision it was correct. This had to be the mother cat. He leapt the log again, landing lightly beside her crumpled form. Her head was under the log and when he looked closely, he saw something else.
A small leg extended stiffly from under the log. She must have returned to the birthing place and was bringing a little sister to join her brother. While he sniffed the remains of the kit's family, Cat was alert to the forest around him.
A tree-climbing rodent was chattering angrily at him, running up and down a nearby tree, its tail switching furiously. Cat watched it dispassionately. He had caught one in his youth, but of late, he had not tried for one of the swift rodents. Saliva flooded his tongue, making him swallow. As he remembered, they were delicious.
The rodent grew bolder when Cat lay down beside the dead one. Cat did not look at the rodent directly but faced the trail away from it. He heard the creature make a short run on the ground, then turn and leap for its tree.
Cat did not move an ear.
He heard the creature land on the leafy ground and begin a short run toward the log where he lay.
Cat did not quiver a whisker.
The creature's claws scrabbled up on the log which had smashed the kit's mother as it came forward to see if Cat also was dead.
Cat was not dead. From his prone position, he came up in a leap that took him over the log, almost over the curious creature, but Cat had not intended to pass over it. He grasped it with tooth and claw, carrying it off the log onto the ground on the other side. He was the heavier and, though the creature tried to bite him and did claw him seriously several times, he kept shifting his mouth hold until he reached the position he wanted. In a few moments the creature was as dead as the kit's mother.
Cat dragged the creature across the log and up the trail to the kit. Wake up, Shado, for Cat had begun to call the kit by name in his mind. I have something for us to eat.
After they feasted, they curled up together and slept.
The edge of the sky was light when they woke. Without mentioning his mother, Cat picked up the kit and carried him around the clearing where the mother lay. He followed the kit's instructions with more assurance now that he knew they were reasonably accurate. Before he had time to tire of carrying the kit in his mouth, they had come to the river. A short way upstream brought them to the rocks the kit had described.
He had been here before. He and the yellow-eyed hound had come this far to find the camp of the magician. That camp lay on the other side of the river. He remembered the shallow crossing, glad this day that he would not have to go to the other side. The birthing place was on this side of the river.
There, the kit said. Up the hillside is a small cavern. My sisters should be in there. Perhaps Mother, too.
Cat carried him up the hillside, placing him on the ground just outside the cavern. I must tell you, Shado, you will not find your mother here. Perhaps not either of the sisters. Far back on the trail, while you were sleeping, I found your mother and one of the sisters in a deadfall trap.
They were-the kit hesitated, dead?
Both, Cat said. He did not know what he expected from the kit. Whatever it was, he didn't get it. The kit made no expression of sorrow or regret. Instead he got to his feet and walked as steadily as he could into the cavern. In a few moments Shado came into the morning light followed by a beautiful black kit with a bit of white at her throat and both ears outlined in white as if edged in frost.
Cat felt an inward tug at the beauty of the sister. For the first time, he stopped grousing to himself and was glad they had come the long distance to find Shado's sister. White Cat would certainly be pleased to have this pair to raise.
When Cat began to wash his whiskers without saying anything, Shado sat down in front of him. My sister has not eaten for two daylights. Could you find something? I'm hungry, too.
No doubt you could eat a mastiff if I were strong enough to kill one for you, Cat said. Stay here. I'll see what I can find.
Before the sun had moved very far in the sky, Cat was back, dragging a rabbit almost as large as himself. He chewed the head off and showed the kits how to reach the meatier parts without swallowing too much fur. He sat back and watched as they attacked the dead creature, "killing" it for themselves several times before they settled down to eat.
I suppose it is the way they learn to kill for themselves, Cat thought as he watched from the top of a nearby rock. The kits were out in the open and he watched the area around them for movement. He did not want them to be endangered by some animal he did not know was coming.
Before they had finished eating, he heard dogs. The voices were those of hunting dogs on a trail and the sound was coming from the direction they had taken. The dogs might have been trailing them and where there were hunting dogs, there were men with weapons.
At the first distant sound Cat was down off the rock and beside the kits. Quickly now, I will have to try to carry both of you at once, and I am going to move fast. He took Shado into his mouth first and then pulled him close to the black and white kit. She had been carried before because she allowed herself to go limp to make it easier for him to carry her.
He set off upstream to where he knew there was a shallow ford. Of course, when they reached it, it was not as shallow as he remembered. Although he held the kits as high as he could, they were all soaking wet when he came out of the river on the other side. Both kits mewled miserably and Cat growled, Silence! We are all wet. We will dry shortly, but you must be silent. The dogs can hear as well as smell.
The kits fell silent, and Cat turned downstream and began to run. He leapt a log and Shado fell to the ground with an audible thud. Cat turned and tried to grasp both of the kits again. The sound of the hounds was almost directly across the river from them and he was anxious to get far down the river before they followed to the crossing.