Teddycats Page 3

  Marisol sighed. “Many years ago, Teddycats and Olingos lived together in a place called Horizon Cove,” she said.

  “I know all of this, Mom,” Bill said. “The story of Horizon Cove is, like, the first thing they teach us in lessons.”

  While Bill knew about this shared history between his kind and Luke’s, the reality of it was hard to imagine. Teddycats and Olingos had been at odds for ages, since well before Bill was born, and he knew the troubles went back much further than that. But he never felt awkward when he was with Luke. There was something natural and easy about their time together. When Bill overheard other Teddycats speak about Olingos, saying they were lazy, stupid, weak, dirty, and distrustful, he didn’t recognize his friend in their belittlements.

  “Well, you’re going to listen to this anyway,” Marisol said. Her tone was gentle, but stern enough to make Bill sit up a little straighter. “Horizon Cove was a beautiful place, protected from the elements by a deep, secret ravine. But when the fierce predators closed in, the Teddycats had to make a decision: Stay and fight, or leave and find a new place to call home and raise our kittens. The Elders sent scouts, who climbed until they found Cloud Kingdom. We left the very next night.”

  “But I still don’t understand why the Olingos didn’t come along, too.”

  “They couldn’t mobilize as quickly,” Marisol said. “Or climb as high.”

  “So we just left them there in the Cove? They could’ve been wiped out!”

  “The Elders have one responsibility, Bill. Survival of our kind.” A hint of grief slipped into Marisol’s voice now. “I know how cold that sounds, but it’s just a fact of life. Cloud Kingdom has to remain a secret. There’s too much at risk. We’re lucky that the hunters who drove us out haven’t found us here. Hopefully, they never will.”

  Bill’s heart was beating wildly. His vision blurred. How could he have made such a horrible mistake? Had he really just put the Teddycats in danger by bringing one little Olingo up to visit?

  “I don’t know if hiding is the answer,” said Bill. “Think of everything we sacrifice and everything we’ve left behind.”

  Marisol gave Bill a sad smile. “You’re sweet, kiddo,” she said. “Just promise me you’ll behave. And no more talk about Sebastian. That’s something for grown Teddycats to worry about.”

  “Fine,” Bill said with a sigh.

  “Now finish your breakfast.”

  4

  BILL AND MAIA sat together in their meeting place in the Crook. The Crook was once just another dead branch, but it had been rescued by a network of green offshoots, which crossed and fused together, creating a thick, smooth webbing, a natural hammock overlooking a far corner of the Kingdom. But instead of the usual conversation that flowed between them—about lessons and friends and funny things their instructors and families did and said—there was only strained silence and the weight of Bill’s growing guilt.

  Bill took a deep breath. “I need to say something.”

  “Okay,” Maia said, slowly.

  “And I think I can say it only to you.”

  “Hey, you can tell me anything,” Maia said. “You know that.”

  “Every decision I make is the wrong one, Maia.”

  “You’re always moving at a million klicks an hour, in a million different directions, Bill,” Maia said. “I can see how you might get twisted up now and then. My mom says we’re just at that age.”

  Bill and Maia were born mere moments apart. Big Bill, who rarely reminisced, liked to tell the story of that night, the way the newborns’ bleats blended together beneath a spectacular moon, waking everybody up.

  “No, Maia. I might have really done it this time,” Bill said.

  A shiver hit him as he said it aloud.

  “Bill, just tell me what’s going on already,” Maia said. “Nothing is going to get any easier until you do.”

  “Okay,” Bill said. “Well, remember Luke?”

  “How could I forget?”

  “Well, you might have noticed that he’s not a Teddycat. And I know you noticed that he wasn’t sick. And, well, according to my mom, bringing him up here was a banishable offense.”

  “You already knew that, Bill!” Maia said.

  Bill stood up and began to pace the Crook. “Sure, I knew it was frowned upon! And hey, you know I like to have fun and everything, but I don’t know what I would do if somebody actually got hurt because of me.”

  “Slow down,” Maia said. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Who’s hurt?”

  “No one! Not yet, that is. But when I brought up the topic of visitors in Cloud Kingdom, my mom got very serious very quickly,” Bill said, wringing his paws. “And I wasn’t exactly honest and forthcoming about why I was asking her about it.”

  “Marisol is an extremely smart Teddycat,” said Maia. “I’m sure she knows more than you think she does. And by the way, you’re not the only one around here who sometimes feels stifled by the Elders and their rules. Or by Cloud Kingdom in general.”

  “That’s good to know,” Bill said, taking genuine comfort from her words.

  “I mean, we’re not all as obnoxious about it as you are, maybe . . .”

  “Thanks a lot,” Bill said, laughing.

  “Just remember, you’re not in this alone,” Maia said. She patted the space beside her on the smooth bough, and Bill slumped down again. “But next time you want to break a major regulation, you might want to think twice. I don’t know what I’d do if you really did get banished. For starters, Elena would absolutely lose it.”

  Bill nuzzled against Maia’s shoulder. He felt better, as he always did after talking with his friend. “Where is Elena anyways?”

  “Oof, I needed a break,” Maia said, stretching her arms out and yawning. Bill noticed, not for the first time, the striking streaks of color in her fur. “I left her with a little friend to play, but I know she’s around here somewhere.”

  “Bill!”

  The shrill call echoed from somewhere below. Both Maia’s and Bill’s ears perked up, and they locked eyes.

  Then the call came again.

  “Bill Garra!”

  Bill’s heart sank. “That sounds like Luke,” he said.

  “Is he in trouble?” Maia asked. “What’s he doing here?”

  Bill shot Maia a worried look, then bolted out of the Crook. He hustled to a little-used pathway down to the jungle. This was the express route, a straight drop. He swooped and zipped through the canopy so fast the friction shredded the vines.

  Bill panted, taking in his surroundings as he rested on a low limb just above the forest floor. There was Luke, but he didn’t appear to be in any danger. On the contrary, he was surrounded by a gang of fluffy, expectant Olingo faces. These must be Luke’s cousins. He had often mentioned them—they seemed to be Luke’s only other friends besides Bill—but Bill had yet to be formally introduced.

  “Luke!” Bill shouted, confused and still dizzy from the drop. “What are you doing here?”

  “Bill!” Luke said. “I had such a great time yesterday! I just had to bring my cousins back to see it all.”

  “Luke, what are you thinking? You know I broke a huge rule by bringing you up, right? I could’ve gotten into real trouble yesterday. Still might!”

  “Sorry, Bill,” Luke said, embarrassed. “We weren’t meeting today, and I didn’t know how else to get in touch with you.”

  “You shouldn’t have gotten in touch at all! From now on, I’ll see you when I see you, okay?” Bill reminded himself of his father. It was a strange feeling. Still, he kept going. “I thought you were in trouble! Why else would you come back here? So I double-timed it down, and now I find that not only are you perfectly fine, you’ve gone and blabbed about Cloud—ahem, my home—after sitting on the secret for not even one day!”

  Luke sank back on his haunches, and B
ill immediately felt sorry. But he couldn’t just forgive and forget, right? It was better to double down and scare everyone off his scent for good.

  Still, it seemed to Bill that whenever he had the chance to do the right thing for Cloud Kingdom, it didn’t really feel like the right thing. After all, this was Luke, his partner in crime! If not for him, Bill could have been a goner, living out his last days as a lump inside of a viper. And the fort was almost done! Maybe the two of them could bring the Teddycats and the Olingos together again . . .

  Bill’s grim expression softened. “Listen,” he said. “I’m sorry. It’s just—”

  A terrible, sickening whoosh interrupted him and rustled his fur. Bill turned just in time to see Elena slipping through the canopy and falling, fast and hard. She landed with a thud on the forest floor, then rose, clearly dazed, and looked up. Her already wide eyes stretched further with fear and welling tears.

  “Elena!” Bill hollered. “Hold on! I’m coming to get you!”

  He leapt off the limb, leaving Luke and his cousins to shake and fret, and dug his claws into the tree trunk. Just as he began to scamper his way down, he heard a loud, snapping click. He snapped his gaze over to Elena. It was a trap. A human one.

  And Elena had fallen directly into it.

  All on its own, the large metal cage fastened shut and locked into place.

  Elena gripped the wires with her tiny paws. “Bill!” she cried out. “Help me!”

  Panic surged through Bill. For a moment, he couldn’t even move. He was frozen, stuck on the trunk, but his thoughts were racing. This is all my fault, Maia will never forgive me, I’ll be banished, our lives are over. Bill’s heart was clenched like a fist. Then, all of a sudden, it burst open and he scrambled down to the ground.

  “I’ve got you, Elena,” Bill said, making his voice as soothing as he could manage. “Just a second here. Nothing to worry about.”

  Bill fumbled with the trap. He tried to fit his claw into the contraption that had clicked, thinking that was the thing keeping the entrance shut, but it wouldn’t fit. He began to saw and gnaw at the wires.

  “Bill” Elena whispered. “There’s something coming. Behind you.”

  A long shadow fell over Bill and Elena. Bill watched it stretch and swell as its source crept closer. Anything with a shadow that size couldn’t be entirely friendly. Even if it was a leaf-chomping herbivore, there would still be serious trouble if it came stampeding through with the two of them caught underfoot. Worst of all, maybe it was Joe, with his stolen snakeskins and furs.

  Bill wanted his mother. He would even be grateful to see Big Bill Garra at his meanest, swooping down to free Elena, vanquish the shadow, and lead them back home.

  The dense vegetation rustled as the presence approached. Soon it would break through the brush and it would be too late. Elena whimpered. Bill wondered how much she understood. If he stayed to fight, it was possible he could fend off the shadow and eventually unlock the cage, but it was far more likely that he would wind up wounded or worse, with nobody left to tell the Elders who had taken Elena. Just as he’d come to the conclusion that there were no good options, a vine dropped down and dangled before him.

  “Hey, Bill!” hissed Luke. “Grab on!”

  Bill brushed the vine aside. He knew what he had to do. He gulped, dug in, and got ready to pounce.

  “Come on, Bill!” Luke whispered urgently. “What are you doing? Hurry up! That thing is headed straight for the clearing!”

  “I can’t do that!” Bill said. “I can’t leave her down here all alone.”

  The brush broke open. It wasn’t a stampeding herbivore. It wasn’t a hungry carnivore, either. Bill had never seen it before, but he was absolutely certain what it was.

  It was Joe.

  Joe was the true threat to Cloud Kingdom, not Luke, not even his own big mouth. The humans were the reason for the Elders’ fears and strict laws, their insistence on secrecy, the heavy cloak of silence every Teddycat was expected to wear.

  Bill felt faint. He heard Elena’s cries behind him. The world was quickly slipping away. Joe’s face was obscured by the brim of an object perched atop its head. It began to tilt its head toward the cage, and Bill’s vision began to narrow to a panicked slit.

  He was about to make a desperate lunge, when Luke swooped down on the vine, knocking Bill into the brush and landing on top of him. Bill looked up just in time to watch the vile human snatch up the cage. Elena huddled in one corner, tiny and helpless.

  Bill tried to call out, but Luke gripped his snout shut. His strength was surprising. Bill managed to get out a wild croaking sound, and the human froze for a moment, surveying the clearing. Bill’s breath caught in his lungs. He waited, hoping he’d managed to spook it. But then the human turned back around and carried Elena off into the jungle.

  Once the coast was clear, Luke released his grip on Bill, who then pushed himself away from his friend as violently as he could muster. Together they emerged from the dark brush and into a ghostly shaft of sunlight.

  “I’m so sorry, Bill,” Luke said, his eyes downcast.

  “Don’t apologize to me,” Bill snarled, pushing him away. “Apologize to Elena. When we get her back.”

  “I will,” Luke said. “I swear.”

  “You’d better believe it,” Bill said.

  Luke tried to console his friend, but they both knew there was nothing he could say. Elena was gone.

  5

  “STOP BLURTING NONSENSE and just tell me what’s wrong!” Maia said.

  But the more Bill said, the less Maia understood.

  He was out of breath and borderline hysterical, and all he could do was break the news into small, single words and let her connect them.

  “Elena. Jungle. Cage. Human.”

  “Oh no,” Maia said. She began to shake.

  “I’m so, so sorry,” Bill said.

  “How could this happen, Bill?” she wailed. “What did you do?”

  It was the exact response he had been dreading. Maia looked like she might be sick.

  “I didn’t realize she had followed me down from the Crook. I didn’t see her. I didn’t know.”

  His mind buzzed with guilt and fear. He honestly couldn’t recall his life before Elena fell out of the tree, that surreal moment when she slipped through his grasp and into a whole new, terrifying world. Until that moment, real disasters had been only hypothetical. Boring history lessons, gloomy warnings from Elders.

  “Maia, I promise I’ll do whatever it takes to get your sister back.”

  “You can’t do anything now!” Maia said fiercely. “You’ve done more than enough already. We are going straight to the Elders. I’m not covering for you anymore, Bill. Don’t you dare ask me to. I can’t believe I’ve let you slide all this time. I let you put my family in danger!”

  But then the anger in Maia’s voice fell away, and she broke down and started crying.

  “Oh no,” she said. “This is all my fault.”

  The idea that Maia could blame herself for Elena’s fate made Bill wince. “Please don’t say that,” Bill said. “It was me. I couldn’t save her. There wasn’t enough time. It just . . . happened.”

  But Maia didn’t want to—or couldn’t—listen. She took off running toward the Fountain, most definitely to go find an Elder.

  As he watched her go, Bill let out a holler to clear his head. He had to focus on the next steps. He had to figure out a way to get Elena back.

  But even if he could find a way to do that, Joe and his gang of humans had seen the Teddycats. How long would it take for them to discover Cloud Kingdom? What would they learn from Elena, and how?

  Bill felt squished and helpless. A warm, dry wind blew across the Kingdom. He went to wipe his tears, but found that they had already been swept away.

  A CROWD OF angry Teddycats gathered at th
e Fountain and formed a circle around Maia’s family. Her mother, already frail, was stunned with panic and lingering disbelief. Her father was a coiled mess, pacing and darting with a barely contained fury.

  Marisol and Big Bill were huddled with the Elders, nodding solemnly, while Bill was under strict orders to sit down and stay quiet. Everyone was staring at him, but nobody would meet his eye. The day still did not feel completely real. He really didn’t want to cry again. Every few minutes a numbness crept into his mind, and he had to chase it away over and over again. He felt like he deserved the pain, like it was the least he could do.

  Bill’s biggest fear was that Elena was gone for good. His second was that the Elders wouldn’t give him permission to help with the rescue mission. Rumors about what had happened, and what would happen because of it, were already whipping through the crowd, and with each one there were renewed calls for Bill’s banishment.

  Not that banishment meant much anymore if the humans were already onto them.

  Bill tried not to be defensive. The truth was that he had knowingly pushed the boundaries of Cloud Kingdom. He had been a bad influence on younger, more impressionable Teddycats. He knew deep down that he didn’t mean for Elena to get hurt, but he had to admit that she wouldn’t have been captured had it not been for him.

  He needed to get Elena back. He would do anything to get Elena back. Of course, he couldn’t say any of this aloud. He could only sit off to the side, on the edge of a mob, feeling very alone. A memory came to him, from a long time ago, when he had just been a little kitten. Bill had accidentally snapped a branch that swatted Maia right in her snout. While she ran around the Kingdom screaming, Bill zipped off into some deep brush behind his den and hid there the rest of the afternoon. Finally, his mother found him. She explained that Maia was fine, she was just scared and a little bit hurt, but now everything was back to normal. He apologized to Maia, who even apologized to him, and they shared a hug and a snack.