Ashes

Chapter Four

Ashley sighed, shaking her head.
Fox was a strange cat, that's for sure. And to top it all off, she knew next to nothing about him! Letting out an exasperated groan, the grey shecat stepped around a hedge to enter the line of Housefolk dens in which her own Housefolk resided. As she neared the den, she caught a foul scent.
Stopping in her tracks, Ashley sniffed the air.
What she scented made her eyes widen.
It was fire.

Ashley ran faster than she'd ever run before.
But she was too late. Her House folk's den was burned to the ground. Unable to support her own weight, the kitttypet sunk to the ground, her jaw hanging open. As she fell, she wailed loudly, her sorrowful sounds lost in the blaring noise of the large, flashing monsters. As her mental pain subsided, the broken shecat dragged herself up and started limping down the street, her ears drooping.
By now it was already dark, and Ashley could hear the chattering and hissing of the alley rats. She knew they were coming closer, and that thought scared her. A lone kitttypet was no match for an entire horde of rats. Then she saw them; millions of tiny black shapes rushing towards her like a flood. Rats.
Ashley raised her paw and batted the first few away, but she was soon overwhelmed. The mass of wriggling black bodies was stifling and blocking her airway, not to mention they were also clawing and biting her, tugging on her once sleek pelt. Yowling in desperation, the young shecat knew no help was coming, so she slolwy stopped fighting, accepting her fate. Just as her eyes closed, she thought she heard voices coming towards her.