Vengeance

This is a fanfiction by Eevee. Enjoy~

Prolouge
The slender silver she-cat yowled in pain as a spasm shook her. ''I can't be kitting! Not now! ''She crouched and moaned in pain, her ears flat to her head from the rain that pounded down on them. She knelt over and called out weakly, "Bracken!"

Her mate, a large bracken-colored tom, rushed to her side and licked her ear. "You're... kitting!?" His fur bristled. "Not now! We have to move! To avoid them! Can't you go any farther, Cinder?" He crouched beside her, anxiety in his large brown eyes. "Please?"

The she-cat blinked and growled as yet another spasm took her. "I won't - can't - go on until this dang kit is born." She glanced around fearfully, hoping the dogs wouldn't catch up in her moment of weakness, when she couldn't run.

"It'll be over soon. Don't worry." Bracken stiffened in horror as he heard the snarl of the creature pursuing them. He took Cinder's scruff in his jaws and dragged her over to a small spot between a Twoleg trash bin and a Twoleg nest, making sure the dogs couldn't reach them. He'd barely gotten them into the spot when the dogs ran up to them and scratched eagerly at the two cats, whimpering excitedly.

Cinder cried out. Bracken hissed and clawed at the smaller brown dog's nose. It flinched and yelped as blood leaked out of the wound. At the same time, Cinder wailed as a kit fell onto the concrete. Moments later, after Bracken had clawed nearly all the fur off of the brown dog's face, another kit slid out. Bracken slashed at the bigger black dog, and another wail came from Cinder as the final kit was born.

Bracken looked back as a shrill wail erupted from the last kit. It had a blue-grey pelt. Bracken lashed his tail angrily as he slashed at the other dog's nose. He raked their muzzles and near their eyes, and soon they were running away, tails between their legs.

Bracken stood, defiant. He looked back at Cinder and touched his nose to her forehead. "You okay?" he whispered hoarsely, as if he'd been yelling for hours. He stared at his three kits; One was a jet-black she-cat, who wasn't breathing - she was a still-born. The other was a ginger tom, like Bracken. Its breathing was shallow and fast. Seconds later, its breathing stopped. The last was a blue-grey tom.

Cinder nodded as she watched her living kit scornfully. She pushed it away, leaving it blind and deaf, wailing in agony and hunger. It crawled toward her again, and she shoved it again.

"Give it milk. It won't shut up until you do." Bracken pointed out, already hating his son.

Cinder, reluctantly, let the kit nurse, sweeping her feathery tail across the floor. "What should we name it?"

"Name it? As far as I'm concerned, it's not my kit." Bracken mewed coldly, his eyes darting toward the tiny kit.

"What do we do with it? Let it die of hunger?" Cinder's eyes sparkled maliciously, as if she wanted the kit's death to be slow and painful. "It looks like the mythical cursed cat that my grandfather had always talked about... It might explain why his littermates are dead!"

Bracken snarled, "Then leave it to die! It can be swallowed by those dogs for all I care!" His fur fluffed up, and his eyes held a cold fire as he stared at the kit in malice.

It curled up as a raindrop the length of its tail dropped onto its head. It whimpered.

Bracken took the dead kits in his jaws and buried them in a patch of dirt a tail-length away from the hiding spot.

Cinder got to her paws. "We should go."

Bracken nodded, and the mates set off, leaving the blue-grey kit wailing as he realized the warmth had gone.

The kit wailed loudly, and then went quiet. I'm alone... he thought, scared and afraid.

Meanwhile, a brown tom trotted through the alleyway, his ears perked for the wailing he'd heard. "Sounds like a kit..." he mumbled. He scented the air, and smelled the kit, even through the pounding rain. He padded up to a hiding spot; A small blue-grey kit lay wailing, his parents not with him. "Who would do this!?" the brown tom exclaimed, and picked up the kit by the scruff.

The kit stopped crying as he felt himself lifted off of the ground. ''Is it another cat? ''

"Don't worry, I'll take care of you..." The brown tom thought a moment. "Blue."