Mathian was perched on the tire next to Bartholomew. All of the Jellicles in the tribe were seated on the ground in front of the tire. The shouting that Deuteronomy had heard was coming from Mathian.

“As most of you know, my youngest son Korven is missing,” announced Mathian. “My other kittens went searching for him last night, but were unsuccessful. I hope that today we will be more successful. I will now organize three groups…”

Deuteronomy froze where he was standing. The events of last night came flooding back into his memory. For a moment he felt so ashamed that he considered hiding from his father. But then he shook his head to himself, and walked over to where he saw Jorynamo sitting. Jorynamo glanced curiously at his older brother. Deuteronomy gave him a look that said, ‘Don’t talk to me, I’m not in the best mood right now’. Jorynamo nodded, and turned his head to face their father. Deuteronomy did the same.

“Geode,” said Mathian, “You will head group one.” Geode stood up. “Other Jellicles in group one…” Mathian squinted into the crowd of Jellicles. “Hopewell, Rendezvous, Destine, and Anmora. You will search London in the north.” The four Jellicles stood and joined Geode.

“Shall we go now?” asked Geode.

“Yes,” answered Mathian. “Meet back here by late afternoon at the latest. Good luck.”

Geode grinned and saluted Mathian. Then the five Jellicles turned and went on their way.

“Group two will be led by Dimeon,” continued Mathian. “The others in group two are: Adrelene, Jacor, Timino, and Artisia. Try your best to search in the east and west.”

The Jellicles in group two stood up and left also.

“Group three will be: Stilone, Jedora, Camalor, and Jestalin. I will lead group three. We will travel the south. Any questions?”

“Yes,” said Seliana. She appeared behind Mathian. “Why can’t I come on the search? I would like to help find my own child too!”

Mathian turned and held Seliana gently by the shoulders. “Seliana, my love, you simply can’t go with us in your condition,” he whispered.

“Mathian, I don’t care. I need to help find my lost son,” begged Seliana.

“Who will take care of our other little ones?” asked Mathian.

“Bartholomew can. And anyway, they aren’t so little anymore. They’re growing up. Plus, Adrelene is pregnant too and she’s going…”

“Adrelene is pregnant?” Mathian’s eyebrows shot up.

“A few days after me. I just found out today.” Seliana smiled.

Mathian sighed, then laughed. “You always know how to make me change my mind! Very well. You can come along in group three.”

* * *

Korven awoke to find himself lying in a dumpster. He looked around at his surroundings. “How did I get here?” he wondered aloud. Then he remembered: he had run away, shortly after he found out that he wasn’t the chosen leader… Deuteronomy was.

But he didn’t remember coming this far. The area didn’t look familiar to him at all… but yet, that was expected, because he had never been outside the junkyard boundaries before.

He shook himself, then tried to walk out of the dumpster. Instead, he tripped and fell out, landing in a puddle. Unexplainable anger swelled in his chest. He cried out and splashed the water madly. “Aaargh!”

“Well, well, what have we here?”

Korven suddenly stopped. A deep voice was coming from behind him. He didn’t dare to turn around.

“Looks to me like we found ourselves a nice, little kitten,” said another voice.

“Come here, little kitty. We ain’t gonna hurt ya.”

Korven didn’t move. His heart thudded loudly in his chest. A droplet of muddy water trickled down his face and landed back in the puddle.

“It ain’t listenin’ to ya.”

“Well, I’m gonna make it listen! Turn around and talk, cat!” the angry voice spat.

Korven’s chest went up and down as he breathed heavily. “TURN AROUND!” roared the voice again. Against his own will, Korven slowly turned his head. He had just enough time to see the two rough-looking toms, one a deep orange and one a dark golden. The golden tom brought a fist up, and crashed it down on Korven’s head.

All went black.

* * *

It was late evening by the time the last search group returned to the junkyard. Mathian wearily questioned each member, but none of them had found Korven. None of the groups had. Dimeon, the leader of the last returning group, went up to Mathian. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “We did our best.” Then the five Jellicles all went their own way.

Mathian didn’t move. He stood, almost frozen with disbelief. One of his own children was missing, and nobody could find even a clue as to where he was. “What am I going to do?” he whispered. He couldn’t help feeling that it was his own fault. Seliana had been right; it was too early in the kittens’ lives to know the truth of the next leader.

“Mathian,” said a voice behind him.

He turned around. Seliana stood a few feet away, worry tinted in her eyes. Mathian could see some tears trying to force their way out. “What are we going to do?” she said, her voice quivering a bit.

“I’m going,” he said. “I’m going to search some more. I will not give up until we find our son.”

“It’s much too late, you can’t,” protested Seliana. “It will soon be dark. You, searching the city of London at night, alone?”

“I have to.”

“No, you don’t!”

“Seliana, dear, he was our child. A parent is responsible for their children,” said Mathian softly.

“Oh, I get it. You feel guilty, don’t you?”

“And you don’t?” asked Mathian.

“Of course I do,” answered Seliana. She took a step toward her mate. “But we’ve done all we could do…”

“No we haven’t,” interrupted Mathian. “There’s more possible places we could have looked, and I’m going to search them all.”

“Not alone you’re not! Mathian, please, if you are going out, and I guess you are, take a few other Jellicles with you,” begged Seliana.

Mathian fell quiet. The two cats stood in silence, just looking at one another. Then Mathian said, “You’re right. I… I really should listen to you more often. The reason this all happened was because I didn’t listen to you…”

“That’s not true,” said Seliana. “We don’t really know why this all happened… the only cat we can blame is Korven himself. We’ll find him… he’ll come running back to the junkyard when he’s hungry.” She smiled, then sighed when she saw the non-believing look on the tom’s face. “Let’s just go to sleep. It’s been a long day.”

* * *

Deuteronomy lay on his back in the lair, batting at a dangling piece of string. Jorynamo was already fast asleep at his side, and every now and then would start to mumble in his sleep. Colittia was reading silently from a tattered book that she had discovered that day.

“The butter is in the bubble,” muttered Jorynamo in his sleep.

Colittia looked up from her book and giggled. “What’s that ‘sposed to mean, huh Jory?”

“Oven… the oven is in the bubble.” Jorynamo turned over.

Colittia raised her eyebrows in Deuteronomy’s direction. “He can fit a lotta things in that bubble of his, huh?” she joked.

“Oven butter needs yelp!” Jorynamo’s paws started making subconscious motions, as if he was trying to run in his sleep. “We need to yelp oven.”

Colittia rolled her eyes and giggled. Deuteronomy smiled. It was a family joke that Jorynamo always talked in his sleep. “Should we wake him and tell him what he’s been saying about butter and ovens?” asked Colittia with a sly grin.

“Danger! Danger! Oven in danger!” Jorynamo furrowed his brow in his sleep, as if he was worried. His paws moved faster.

Now Colittia burst out laughing. “Oven in danger?” she echoed. “Jory, you’ve said some pretty strange things in your sleep… but nothing as weird as this!”

“Korven. Oven danger.”

“Wait a minue!” Deuteronomy jerked his head in Jorynamo’s direction.

Colittia cocked her head. “What’s wrong, Deut?”

“Didn’t what Jory just said kinda sound like ‘Korven’?” asked Deuteronomy.

“Korven is in the bubble. Oven danger,” whimpered Jorynamo.

“He’s having a nightmare about Korven!” realized Colittia.

“Quiet! Let’s see if we can understand what he’s saying better,” said Deuteronomy.

The two cats leaned in closer on their brother. Jorynamo had stopped moving his paws, but was still talking. “Korven in danger,” he whispered, “but I couldn’t save him.”

Chills went up Deuteronomy’s back. He and Colittia exchanged wide-eyed glances. “Couldn’t save him,” repeated Jorynamo. “Couldn’t save him.”

* * *,p> “I don’t know, guys, I don’t remember a thing about the dream I had last night,” confessed Jorynamo.

It was the next day. Deuteronomy and Colittia had woken up their brother early in the morning and retreated to the sanctuary of the tire. They huddled in the middle, safe from anyone hearing their hushed conversation.

“You have to remember!” insisted Colittia. She started pacing. “It must have been a very vivid dream… are you sure you don’t remember ANY dreams at all?”

“Nothing about Korven,” said Jorynamo. “But I… I do remember another dream of me running through a field of yellow flowers with a very lovely queen… none of the Jellicles, of course,” he said quickly. His ears turned slightly pink at the tips.

“I don’t care about your tom fantasies! I want to know your dream about Korven that you had last night.”

“I don’t remember it,” repeated Jorynamo.

“It’ll come to you,” assured Deuteronomy.

“Why is it so important anyway?” questioned Jorynamo. “It’s just a dream. It’s not like my dream will tell you where Korven is right now…” His voice trailed off. His eyes grew wide. “Wait! It’s coming back to me…” He squinted at some unseen, faraway object in the sky.

Colittia leaned forward a little. “Tell me everything you remember,” she said eagerly.

“I… I was walking around next to the exit of the junkyard. Just kind of pacing back and forth, pretty much for no reason. Then I stopped. I saw Korven running towards the junkyard. I dashed outside myself, and started chasing after him. But we never got any closer to each other. Then all of a sudden two huge alley cats came up behind Korven and dragged him away from me. I followed them. They led me to an old warehouse in the outskirts of London. They threw Korven in there, through a small door. Then the biggest one turned to me. He gave no orders, but everyone seemed to know what he wanted. They formed a circle around me, and slowly began to close in on me… and then I woke up.” Jorynamo took a deep breath. The three of them were silent for a while. Then Jorynamo broke his seriousness trance and said, “But what truth is there in a dream? It’s only logical that I dreamed about my brother because I’m worrying my guts out about the poor kid…”

“Time will tell, I guess,” said Deuteronomy softly. He sighed. “Let’s go back, mom and dad are probably awake and worrying that we’ve run off too.”

Colittia and Jorynamo murmured agreements, and they climbed out of the tire. The trio didn’t get very far when a sleepy Deuteronomy bumped headfirst into Mathian. He looked up and gulped. “G-Good morning, dad.”

Mathian shot a look at Jorynamo and Colittia. “Could you two give me a moment alone with your brother?” he requested. The two left without another word, and slunk into their lair.

Now alone with his father, Deuteronomy felt extremely nervous.This is it, he thought glumly. Now he’s gonna tell me that he’s picked Jorynamo to be the next leader instead of me. He closed his eyes and prayed Mathian wouldn’t be too hard on him about it.

He heard his father sigh. “I’m sorry,” he finally said.

Deuteronomy’s mouth almost dropped open. He couldn’t believe his own ears. His father was apologizing to him? Since when did they switch roles? Deuteronomy looked up at Mathian. “I don’t understand,” he said.

Mathian smiled. “I keep forgetting that you’re still a kitten,” he confessed. “And part of growing up is making mistakes. You can bet that I made my own share of mistakes when I was your age.” He winked. “Ask Old Bartholomew any time.”

“I still don’t see what you’re saying…”

“What I’m saying is that I owe you a second chance,” interrupted Mathian. He raised his eyebrows at his son. “Do you regret what you did?” Deuteronomy looked down and nodded. “When you make a mistake that you sorely regret, then you are most sure to never do it again. As a wise Jellicle once said, ‘A good leader doesn’t make mistakes. But good mistakes make the leader.’”

Deuteronomy looked up. “Who said that?” he inquired.

Mathian laughed. “I did. Shortly after my own father, Bartholomew, told me of the leadership honor.” He gazed at Deuteronomy, shook his head, and smiled. “You’ll make a fine leader someday, Deut. The greatest of them all.”

Deuteronomy beamed. “Thanks. I hope I’ll be good, but I’ll never be as good as you,” he said. “And even if you turn out to be a horrible leader- which I’m sure you won’t!” he added quickly, “but even if you do, you’ll still be the best dad around.”

Mathian pulled Deuteronomy towards him and wrapped him up in an enormous hug. “You don’t know how great it is to hear that from you,” he said softly. Then he pulled away and bopped his son softly on the head, saying, “Now run off, your mother is probably worried about you.”

With a final grin at his dad, young Deuteronomy skipped into his lair, feeling the best he’d felt since his brother disappeared.

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