[open] A Little Digging

A moon had passed since Amberdawn had left the forest; a quarter moon ago, Marmalade joined twolegplace and found Sue and Sharon. Cocoa had told Marmalade their names, and the golden tabby had done her best to be attentive and try to determine which was which. No matter how many times she said one name, or the other, both twolegs, or either, would respond to her with the same delight and gentleness and offer her a hand to scratch under her chin or around her ears. While their enthusiasm was all well and good, it was even worse than trying to get a kit to sit still to check their ears. Listening to the twolegs - or hindwalkers or upwalkers, as some of Marmalade's neighbors called them - she deduced that the taller twoleg with the short, dull curtain of fur atop her head was Sharon, and if so the other with the more pale and shorter hair must be Sue.

Marmalade had grown much more comfortable in twolegplace, especially now that she knew that yarding through others' clearings was quite welcome in her neighborhood and allowed her to stay reasonably far from any Thunderpaths. She had discovered through talk of her neighbors that the great tree-wall that separated the twolegplace from the forest was only two houses away, straight out the exit of the bignest. She could follow it toward the river, or towards SkyClan's forest if she so chose.

She did not so choose.

Instead, Marmalade spent her time meeting neighbors from the safety of the top of the wall. She had already met Cocoa, of course, and she learned that Fifty-One was a former kittypet; he now wandered wherever he pleased. She wasn't certain where Jerry resided, but she had found a whole family of cats whose lean, powerful bodies positively yowled "WindClan". Marmalade didn't recognize them, but still, she chose not to draw too much attention to her heritage. She simply introduced herself as a new kittypet and learned the names of the gray-and-white siblings, Kindle and Rye, and the she-cat's mate Atticus.

She learned where some dogs often were in her travels, and where some twolegs kept herbs - familiar and valuable as well as strange. She thought wistfully of her days as a medicine cat in SkyClan, but she passed them by whenever she found them. There was no point taking them if she wouldn't be using them. It would be a waste. Imagine if a Clan needed it... and I just let it rot in my nest.

This warm afternoon, Marmalade wandered atop the wooden tree-well, looking down curiously from side to side. The soft tinkling of her pale blue ruffled collar's charms still hadn't grown on her. They were quite distracting, especially when she was just trying to readjust in her sleep and they chimed her awake.