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Chapter Six
Felix was again woken up by Mel.  He didn't know how long he had slept, but it didn't feel like enough.  He groaned and stood up without much more complaint.  His muscles ached from crossing the river the day before.  Mel motioned with her tail for Felix to follow.  The sun was bright, and it shone on their pelts.
"It's a lovely day," Felix commented.
"Which means more humans will be out.  Come on, we've got a lot of ground to cover," replied Mel.
Felix sighed. "I feel like you say that every day.  Do you even know where this place is?"
"Of course!" she snorted, "I warned you a softpad such as yourself wouldn't be able to handle it, but you wanted to press forward."
Roused by Mel's challenge, he walked a little faster.  "Are you kidding me?  I could go for miles."
They reached a huge, wide open field.  Butterflies flitted about in the air, and it was quite a blissful atmosphere.  It didn't last long, however.  A shadow passed over the meadows, and Mel immediately froze.
"What's wrong?" Felix asked, confused.
"Run!" she said, haring between the tall grasses, Felix struggling to keep up.  They reached some picnic grounds, and they dove beneath one of the tables.
"I don't think we were spotted," Mel said after several moments of silence.
"By what?"
"The hawk!  Didn't you see it?"
"Well, yeah, but I didn't think they were dangerous."
Mel sighed.  "That's the trouble with you softpads, Kitty.  You always think everything was put on Earth to rub your belly and feed you fish treats."
"But hey, this proves that even big tough alleycats are afraid of some things."
"I suppose so," she replied with a light chuckle.  Once Mel was reassured that the hawk would not come back, they were on their way once more.  Soon they reached the city, though the area where Loon lived was still far.
Felix had been wondering something for a while.  "You think Whiskers was right?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, can we trust him?"
Mel stopped, like she hadn't really thought of that before.  "Well, it's worth a shot, right?  You said you'd travel for miles to rescue your friend, even if there's only a chance we're heading in the right direction."
"I suppose." Felix looked to the distance.
"Looks like we have to cross a schoolyard," he observed.
"A what?"
"It's where human kittens go during the day."  He thought of Emily, and felt a pang of homesickness.
"Hm.  Guess we'll have to go around it."
"But it'll be quicker if we go through," insisted Felix.  Mel sighed and nodded, obviously not wanting to seem like a coward, especially not with the hawk incident.
Several of the kittens were throwing a ball into a circle held up by a post, while others were hopping around with a piece of think string.  All were filling the air with their chatter.
"Humans are so weird," muttered Mel, stalking across the pavement, trying not be seen. Unfortunately, she was not as stealthy as she thought, and a group of them noticed the two.
"Aw!  Kitties!" one exclaimed.  Mel looked like she was about to bolt off, but Felix wouldn't let her.
"Relax.  I've got it under control."   He purred and rubbed up against their legs.   Felix jumped into the lap of one who was sitting down alone, mewing and looking up at them with huge eyes.  They crossed over like this, the kittens waving goodbye as they crawled through the fence, which acted like a barrier to the humans.
"Never thought I'd say this to a softpad, but that was pretty brave," purred Mel.   Felix just smiled and held his head a little higher, happy to have proved himself to his companion.