Finally, the sun started to rise, even though it was still a bit dark. But Max didn’t wake up to prey all around, butterflies, kittens screaming and cats talking. He woke up to a whole lot of hissing. And a bunch of cats chanting “King Monet!” or “Get her! She is nothing compared to you!”

Max’s ears twisted all around, and then pinned to his head. That must be our king. What is happening?

Max peeked from his hut, and his eyes widened. There were a bunch of stray cats and their kittens surrounding the big cottage, where two cats were brawling.One was a big fluffy, brown cat with a bright golden crown, probably from the mines. He had a ruby placed nicely in the middle. 

He has a white diamond shape pattern on his chest. There was another cat with a smooth, silky pattern. She was a Savannah cat.

Why are they fighting? Maybe I should see.

Max peeked his head from a short munchkin cat, and saw King Monet in front of the cottage. His back arched. The savannah cat was in the opposite direction, and hissed. King Monet pounced at the cat, but she slid away, and scratched King Monet’s tail from behind. The crowned cat spun around, and ended up scratching the air when the other cat jumped over his head, and scratched at his crown. In response to the king's hissing, the two started fighting with two feet on the ground. 

Max crouched down from the crowd of cheering cats. The mushy lavender slid down Max’s paw. He looked down at the grass, and his paw just had a little scratch now. At least it sort of got healed.

“Hey! I want one more fair round!” A cat’s voice shouted. Max shuffled through the cat crowd, many clawing at his paw. He saw the Savannah cat at her last whisker. 

King Monet laughed. “I saw you…trying to steal my kingdom’s food.”

“I didn’t…I promise! I’m a fair guard to you.”

“Well then. We are going to have to ask the C.A.T. Detectives about this.”

Amber suddenly leaped out from the hut, and sprinted on  the tall grass. She pawed Max’s shoulder. He sprang up, and sighed in relief to see it was Amber. 

“Hey. The other detectives are coming. This is your moment to be a leader,” Amber whispered. Her bright blue eyes shone by the rising sun.

Amber took lead through the rest of the crowd, and Max followed slowly, unwillingly. They finally made it into the Savannah cat and the king’s area. King Monet smiled at Amber. “I’m glad to see you here. But why did you bring this random street cat here? Not to mention the scratch on his paw.”

“He is our new leader. He said he is up for the job.”

The Savannah cat hissed and circled around Max. The crowd watched closely, quiet for once. The cat continued to stretch out her hiss. “I know you detectives. Well, all of you cats are like this. You are going to look at the evidence and say that I did steal the food, and I’m not going to!” Max just swallowed hard, and didn’t move a muscle. 

King Monet pulled the cat back by the scruff, and hissed. 

“Until we find evidence, Huntress is staying inside the kingdom’s jail.”

Hunntress hissed, and swatted her paws, but they were no match for King Monet.

The king and his loyal guards walked into the abandoned cottage, which seemed to be their castle. The crowd of cats walked away. Some go out into the city, some going back into their homes. The prey was back out, the sun was out, and everything just seemed to be normal again. Even though many kittens were running around giggling rumors about what just happened. 

Amber and Max stood by the entrance of the kingdom, two guards taking watch.

“This kingdom doesn’t seem all too friendly,” Max whispered in fear. 

“It’s okay! This happens all the time. Our king is like this. Do one thing wrong, it’s jail for you. Or death sometimes…”

Max couldn’t even giggle. “That cat who’s name is Huntress, she was mad at me. They think she stole the food. What if–what if she does something? I don’t want to be proven guilty for anything.”

Amber stood still, letting the cool breeze flash on her fur. “Max, don’t worry. We are all used to it. And it’s time you start making some cat friends.”

“I-”

As Max walked behind Amber, Amber swatted Max with her tail, which caused him to sneeze.

“Hey! The pollen is already bad here,” Max said, laying flat on the tall grass. Amber laughed. “That’s my way of saying to get used to it!”

Max sneezed again. And then he thought. Wait. I can’t forget again. My father, I need to remind them.

Max jumped up and shouted, “We need to find my father! We can’t forget this time! Not again.”

“Stop worrying like Socks, we will get to that. Get used to the Duchess Kingdom first.”

Suddenly, the little black munchkin cat hopped on Max’s head and purred. “I’m here so father doesn’t make me do boring stuff like bathing myself.”

Cobalt rushed in front of Max and Amber. Pebbles huffed. Cobalt grabbed Pebbles from her scruff, and brought her down to the floor, bathing her ear.

“Ah! Come on..” Pebbles said.

“Let me get Angel. Then we met up with Socks.”

Amber ran from the group of cats. Max lay back down on the grass, and looked at Cobalt who was still bathing Pebbles.

“Cobalt…your bandana. I’m not surprised it’s still so clean since you're like that. But where did you get it? Did one of those sphynxwalkers give you that?”

“Basically, Maxwell,” Cobalt said in a low tone, “but it’s way more complex than that.”

“I’m trying to get used to you cats. Maybe you could tell me?”

“Oh..he doesn’t like to,” Pebbles blurted out, trying to escape from his paws. Cobalt lay on the grass, and then put his paws around Pebbles, still bathing her.

Cobalt sighed. “I suppose that’s right. Maybe I could tell you.”

Max leaned his head forward, and his tail swished back and forth.

“Well, when I was a kitten, still a stray, my parents got caught by the animal shelter. I was too dumb to understand how things worked. So the next time I saw the shelter truck, I thought it was a fun place to take cats. So I let them take me…”

Cobalt started to tear up. Pebbles’ looked at Cobalt and frowned.

“...and I saw my parents get put to sleep.”

Max’s ears pinned to his head and whispered, “I’m so sorry Cobalt. I know what it’s like to lose a parent.”

“So…these farmers adopted me, and I became a farm cat. I kept the crows and birds, mice and creatures from crops. I met a cat named Luna, and before you knew it, we were together. Everything seemed fine. We had kittens. That was my happiest moment in a long time. But one night, coyotes attacked the farm, with our kittens. I ran after them into the woods, and I saw them…get eaten. I didn’t want to go back to the farm because everyone would get mad at me, so I ran away.”

Max was frozen again. He looked at Cobalt and said, “I’m really sorry that happened to you. I can’t imagine having to see that.”
“And this bandana I have reminds me of my kittens, because my owners gave me this to wear. I found Pebbles, so I adopted her.”

Amber just came running to the cats, with Angel by her side.

“Hey detectives, just had an amazing tasty salmon this morning, not to brag,” Angel said, her head high.

“Uh-huh,” Cobalt whispered.

“Socks will be excited to see you. Anyway, let’s go now. I promised you that we would find Max’s father today,” Amber said.

The cats walked out of the kingdom, and sprinted out of the woods. When they made it to the city, they stopped at a tall alley, where they heard someone shout, “Hi! It’s you guys.”

Socks jumped from on top of the alley wall, and purred. The cats sat down and waved a paw.

Socks walked next to Angel, and Angel just rolled her eyes. 

“And..hi Angel!”

Angel waved her paw. “I’m pretty sure you were saying “hi” you were addressing all of us.”

The group of cats all lay in a circle around the ally, except for Max, who was in the middle. Pebbles just sat on Cobalt’s back.

“We are going to have to ask you questions if we are going to find your father,” Amber said.

Max shook his head. “Well, the last time I saw him, he was sleeping in an alley somewhere across from Max. “I went to chase prey, and when I came back, I didn’t see him.”

“And that’s where we popped in,” Angel said, who was lying next to Amber and Socks.

“Wait a second…” Cobalt said, “you kinda look like our old leader.” He narrowed his eyes at Max, and sniffed him.

Max turned around to Socks and Angel and gasped. He quickly asked, “Well, what was their name?”

“I don’t remember…Cobalt was the only one in the group at the time! Some of us weren’t even born!” Socks shouted in awe, "But when we joined, he was just about to leave us.”

“Well, I guess I should just say the names of all my family members I know—that aren’t kittens—so then we could find out.”

“It was Rose, my mother, who is unfortunately dead. My three siblings. Who are missing somewhere? And my father, Martin who–”

“Whiskers and claws,” Cobalt shook, and his eyes widened. Pebbles stared at him in an odd manner. Cobalt shook his head sheepishly. “That..that was his name. Martin.”

“My father…was the old leader of the detectives group? But how? He has been with me ever since I was born.”

Amber tilted her head for a moment, and jumped up, her eyes brightened. “Your father may actually have been the leader! Didn’t you guys remember why he left the group?”

“Yeah. Because he met a cat and they were having kittens so he left so he could be with them forever..wait,” Cobalt looked at Amber in the eyes. They both understood.

“Your father, Martin, was our leader! He left the group so he could stay with you since you were being born! Now we are left here with no leader. Well, not anymore, we have Max!”Amber shouted as she peeked her head over.

Max was frozen. He didn’t know how to feel. Happy because he is following in his father’s paw steps, or disappointed because he never told him.

“Wow. I don’t really know what to say. I'm speechless. But why didn’t he tell me? Why didn’t my mother tell me?”

“Not all things can be answered,” Cobalt said who rolled on his back, Pebbles jumping off next to Max.

Pebbles purred and rubbed her head against Max’s paw, since it was the highest she could reach him.

Max smiled.

“At least we know one thing, right?” Amber asked, nodding her head.

As Max opened his mouth, a loud screech of an enraged cat screamed, “Get out of my territory, cats!”

The detectives jumped up and raised their backs. But Max didn’t let this cat boss the group around. “Don’t run away, let’s jump on the alley wall, maybe we can sort this out,” Max said, shivering. The detectives, except for Max,  hesitantly jumped on the alley, Pebbles staying behind Cobalt and Angel’s back. 

A random gray Scottish Fold cat walked out from the corner, hissing. “I said…get out of my territory. My alley. My home.”

“I didn’t see you in it,” Max said, lowering his body. Both of the cats stared at each other in the middle of the alley. Max was hoping that they could talk it out. But that cat looked rather in a bad mood.

I don’t want to start anything, but I’m not letting a cat tell me what to do. We are a group and we were working here. 

Max jumped over the Scottish fold cat, and he spun around, raising a claw at Max’s paw. But the gray and white cat quickly scratched the cat’s tail, and jumped on the alley wall next to the detectives.

The Scottish Fold hissed. “Ow…I regret not living in the kingdom. Now I have to find some cheap healer. Not like the kingdom one is any good–ow.” The Scottish Fold hissed quietly and walked away.

“Max…that was amazing! I thought that cat would be after our tails. That is, if I didn’t get it already,” Angel said looking at her claws.

“When I finally think you're going to say a compliment, you add some twist at the end,” Amber said, swishing her tail at Angel’s face.

“Well, I’ll take that as a compliment. I should definitely make a movie,” Angel said, using a paw to push Amber’s bushy tail away.

Socks was shivering at the end of the alley.

“Socks, I haven’t heard from you. Are you okay?” Max asked.

“I’m fine. I just don’t like cats with bad intentions. I thought he would attack you, Max. Please never do that again. You made me so worried, I thought I was going to fall off the alley. I–”

“Calm down, everything is fine. That cat was just demanding. Seen it. Anyway, we need clues to find my father. Let’s not get off topic now.”

“We should ask cats for clues. It’s common detective stuff. Father told me that,” Pebbles said, walking out from the back and next to Amber, Angel, and Max.

“I still need to get you more professional training,” Cobalt said, licking a paw.

“Great idea, Pebbles! Let’s just hope the cats we ask are nicer.”

The detectives walked out of the alley, and ran on the city sidewalks. Many pigeons flew in their vision, and heavy winds. Many sphinxwalkers walked by, staring at the cats. A sphinxwalker ran by the cats saying, “Awww, cats! A whole cloud. That’s something you don't see!”

What are they talking about? We have a whole kingdom of cats, like that isn’t normal.

Max looked behind his shoulder and watched the sphinxwalker walk away.

Amber nudged her head at Max’s ear, which caused him to turn around.

“Don’t look away like that. Something on your mind?”

 Max shook his head.

The detectives have been walking for almost an hour. Taking small breaks to rest, or for Socks to calm down from his worries of suddenly being attacked. But they always calmed him down with a squirrel.

Max and the detectives could see the sun start to set in the city. They were on the sidewalk, lights slowly taking turns to turn on. The restaurant's signs suddenly had bursts of lights, and hotdog stands were packing up for the night. The only thing not shining right now was the moon and the allies. 

“We should get some sleep. Cats may be nocturnal, but we need to be ready for the rest of the mission,” Max said, turning to the detectives. They all shook their heads, and laid outside a bakery store, the only store in the neighborhood that wasn’t open twenty-four hours, and had shut down for the night.

 Cobalt was laying on his side, Pebbles sleeping between his front paws. Angel, Amber, and Socks were all curled separately. Max? He didn’t sleep, despite being the one telling them to sleep.

He was laying down, but his head was looking up. I can’t sleep. What if my father  runs by and he doesn’t know? What is this is also another cat’s territory already? Father was right when I was younger, not everyone in this world is good and trust-worthy. A random cat or dog or some other creature could try to attack us.

Max sighed, and then looked at the road. Taxis and trucks rolled by, making dust fly by the cats. Max finally had his head down to get some sleep.