Chapter Five: A Strike of Lightening...

Thistle sighed as she walked down the street. The sun was annoying. It wasn’t that it was blinding her, nor was it too hot. Maybe it had something to do with the feeling that today should have been overcast. She felt like a pit had opened up and she had fallen into it. She felt as if she had lost everything again, only this time it was worse. It was like she’d lost apart of her soul…

She didn’t realise she was going past the old Kensington place until she was looking up at its high rafters. Slightly surprised she stopped and looked up at it. If she remembered rightly, this place was suppose to be haunted. At that she smiled, the people around here were so superstitious.

Thistle was watching the very top most room when she saw the flash of bright light. Her eyes widened in surprise but she convinced herself it was just a random spark of electricity. Later, when she’d thought about it more, Thistle would realise that that spark actually looked like a lightening strike…

Later Thistle found herself in a bad part of the neighborhood, the best place in the world to find a Scatter Cat. She prodded easily in and out of the dark alleyways, she had done it many times. Thistle had always seemed to find herself in bad parts of towns, as if she were drawn to them. Maybe this was where she belonged, she mused.

Sighing grumpily she slipped into another alley. No body was anywhere when Thistle went looking for them.

"Why hello," Thistle didn’t even bother to lift her head. She knew who it was.

"You wouldn’t believe just how hard a cat you are to find." Thistle sat regally and looked up to Scatter Cat. Now that she had calmed down Thistle got her first proper look at him. He was stretched out on a lounge chair that someone had put into the alley. His chin rested on one arm, the other dangling off the side. His long tail swished back and forth lazily and Thistle could see a fine scar run up his back leg to the base of his tail. He was looking at her with amused but watchful golden eyes.

"Am I?" He asked simply, standing and stretching. He yawned. Thistle watched his movements through hooded green eyes. His every movement was graceful and precise and Thistle’s appreciative eye could see that he was a born fighter, like she was.

"Yes," she answered simply in return. She watched as he dropped to the floor, watched as he circled her twice. He stopped in front of her so he was staring right into her face.

"So I assume you’ve made you decision then…" he continued to stare into her bright green eyes.

"I have," she whispered. They both knew, without words, what that decision was…

Mistoffelees didn’t realise that he’d walked right past her until she was halfway down the street from him. His mind had been so full of thoughts about Thistle that he had walked straight passed her. When he finally realised that he had he stopped in the middle of the pavement. He was surprised, it was quite a feat not to notice. He turned so he was facing her and raced up to her. "Where were you last night?"

Star Blazer, or Blaze as the Jellicals knew her, glanced up at Mistoffelees. She was beautiful, a small Queen, and looked like a strawberry milkshake. She was almost completely pink, with the exception of her white face, chest and tip of her tail. Her eyes were a sparkling blue that narrowed as she looked at him. There was a silver lightening bolt shaped birthmark that ran over her right eye and down her cheek. "I was late," she purred in her husky tone. "When I got there no one, and I mean no one, was there." She looked away from him, her small pink noes screwing up prettily. "Must’ve been a pretty boring Jellical Ball."

"Oh, you couldn’t be further from the truth." She looked at him in surprise and Mistoffelees smiled tiredly down at Blaze. "You haven’t met Thistle, have you? No of course you wouldn’t have. You weren’t here back when she was." He lost his smile, "she’s smaller then you, you know?"

Blaze snorted, "that’s hard to believe." She looked up at Mistoffelees grave face, "you’re serious? This I gotta see." He opened his mouth to protest but Blaze bowled on. "Oh no you don’t Misto! You’ve now told me about her you have to introduce us. Where is she?"

It was slightly amusing but Mistoffelees couldn’t bring himself to smile. "If you’d just give me a moment my dear Blaze I was going to tell you that nobody knows where she’s gone. But we all have ideas."

"This just keeps getting better and better. First we have a cat who I’ve never met but you obviously know her. And now she’s missing? Nothing interesting ever happens around here and now this? Anything else I should know?" Blaze smiled at him.

"Well, we all assume that she’s joined up with the new ‘mob boss’ in town," Mistoffelees muttered absently.

Blaze face paled beneath her fur and she looked ghostly, "Scatter Cat??" she hissed softly.

Mistoffelees nodded and fought not to look surprised. "You know him?"

"Of him," she corrected softly, "we’ve had a few ‘run ins’. He’s not one to be messed with."

"Then why would he go after Thistle?" Mistoffelees pondered.

Blaze shrugged but muttered, "she has to be someone special, or with a special power. That’s why he came after me…"

Chapter 6

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