Jarret frowned. The fact that he found himself walking to school in Phoenixbrook was not so unusual. However, since he appeared to be making the journey alone and in the middle of the night, it was unsurprisingly triggering alarm bells in his head.

The five year old snowkitten also couldn't shake off the worrying feeling that there was imminent danger nearby, even though there didn't appear to be anybody in sight. Turning the corner of Milton Street, he was puzzled to see that the cobbled path led through an ancient metal gate, into a small square park surrounded by tall trees. It seemed rather surreal when Jarret knew this park simply did not exist.

And yet here it was, with the stone path leading through the centre, and out through an identical gate on the opposite side. Jarret shrugged, heading into the park. As he did so, he heard a metallic squeal, and the gate clanged shut behind him. He turned to stare at it momentarily, wondering who was playing stupid games with him, but when he turned back round again, his way was blocked by several figures, dressed in black, with hoods up to obscure their features.

The snowkitten whirled round to face the gate he had entered by, only to find himself totally surrounded by twelve of the sinister figures, all identical and each one clutching a long, light blue, jagged piece of glass. Not one of them moved. They just stood silently and - Jarret assumed, since he couldn't see their eyes - stared at him. Jarret rapidly summoned a fireball and flung it at the nearest figure. The fireball harmlessly passed through its intended target, and an inner voice seemed to tell Jarret that only one of the figures was real. The one he had tried to strike was nothing more than an illusion. As Jarret twirled round intending to run, he realised too late that one of the other figures was lunging forward in a stabbing motion, plunging the glass towards Jarret's chest and...

The black furred snowkitten sat bolt upright in bed, a strangled yell trapped in his throat. Just a dream, he thought frantically. That's all it was. Eventually he settled back into bed, knowing it would be a while before he felt brave enough to go back to sleep again.

The problem, however, was that Jarret knew from experience that it wasn't as simple as "just a dream." A few months ago, he'd dreamt of a woman lying face down in the road, one arm outstretched, one finger missing on the paw. To the side, in the nearby park, were row upon row of blue tulips.

It was just a week later that he and Ailee's mother had been overheard talking to a neighbour. Mrs Serenfield - a middle aged rabbit - had been knocked down by a bus near the town hall. She had just left the nearby flower shop, carrying a bunch of blue tulips for her garden. Jarret had gone cold. As if to complete the picture, he knew that Mrs Serenfield had lost a finger in a machine accident when she was fifteen...

It hadn't been the first time. Similar dreams, over roughly a year, had predicted a range of events, though the hints within the dreams were often so cryptic and obtuse that a grown adult would have found it almost impossible to interpret them. A young child stood no chance. The predictions weren't always sinister - last October, Jarret had successfully predicted the gift his parents had brought him for the December Aredrian festival of Soleine. His dreams forecast many things, but they were rarely things that he wanted to see. Whatever the case, Jarret kept it all to himself, for any number of reasons.

The following morning, Jarret wandered downstairs into the spacious, blue tinted kitchen where his father, Iskari, was preparing sandwiches for Jarret's lunchbox. Ailee had decided she wanted potato salad this time, so the twin's mother, Levriana, was busy making it while humming an unknown tune to herself, still dressed in a long, dark blue dressing gown.

Ailee peered over the counter, watching her mother handling the food for a while, before she asked, "Mama? How do they kill potatoes before they go to the shops?"

Jarret snorted and shook his head. Iskari, dressed head to foot in black, turned to face him and looked over his black rimmed glasses. He told his son, "Less of that." He was a snowkitten of few words, but he made sure every word counted. Iskari was a tall, dark brown furred cat, who rarely dressed in anything other than black, and had shiny black hair that trailed halfway down his muscular back. With his arms covered in studded wristbands, he looked to all the world as though he should be in a heavy metal band, rather than the art teacher he really was, at Phoenixbrook College.

Ailee looked over at Jarret and stuck her tongue out. "Yes, Jarret. You thought flans were grown on trees in a flannery. So nyah!"

Jarret sat at a small wooden table in the middle of the room, digging with intent at his bowl of cornflakes. "Did not. I was just testing you."

"Hah!" His mother let out an exaggerated laugh. Iskari, meanwhile, stuffed Jarret's sandwiches into a brown paper bag, twirling the top of the bag round, and he handed it to Jarret, who promptly untwirled the bag and admired the cheese and ham biased contents.

Shortly after, as Jarret reached for the biscuit tin, Iskari snapped, "Leave it!" He was not a cat to be argued with. Once Ailee had shoved her lunch into her black backpack, Jarret collected his matching backpack from a small cupboard under the stairs, and then, armed with their winter coats, they headed to school. Iskari followed a few steps behind.

About halfway there, Jarret recognised the street they headed along as the cobbled street from his dream, albeit this time in daylight. As they turned round the corner at Milton Street, Jarret held his breath and, to his relief, there was just another street. No park. No cowled, murderous, menacing figures.

He looked back at his father. "Dad?"

"Hmmm?"

"Was there a park here? A square one?"

Iskari, his long, black leather jacket flowing behind him like a cape, looked slightly baffled. "Years ago there was. Before you were born. But the city replaced it with that grassy island up ahead, that they use as a traffic roundabout. Not much of a swap, but I ain't gonna argue with the city..."

"Why?" Ailee asked. "Stinky traffic island."

"Never you mind," Iskari told her, mildly amused. "Jarret, how did you know about the old Milton Park?"

Jarret thought quickly. "Oh, just a kid told me." Not the best answer he'd ever thought of.

"Hmmm..." Iskari murmured. As they turned round another corner, he looked down the street and noticed a short, beige coloured cat in the distance, reading something in a shop window. Iskari walked forward quickly, putting his paws on Jarret and Ailee's shoulders, telling them, "Let's go another way for a change this time." As they headed down Steven Avenue, Iskari kept looking back over his shoulder, something that didn't escape Jarret's attention, even if he didn't mention it.

Once they arrived at Phoenixbrook East Primary School, Iskari hugged Ailee, ruffled Jarret's hair, and waved at them with a rare smile as they ambled down the winding path to the playground. He then headed off on the ten minute walk to his job at the college. As Ailee wandered off to join a small group of friends from her class, Jarret did a quick scan of the playground. At the far end was the other snowkitten from his class, Andrina, who was playing a game of her own invention, called "Leaf Frog." She picked up a stray leaf at random, flung it in the air, and used her powers to blast it as high in the air as possible. The ultimate goal was to get it onto the school roof. Failing that, she just revelled in watching it float down again. Everyone else in the playground simply ignored her.

Or rather, almost everyone ignored her. Not too far away, the canine class bully, Ben, was heading in her direction, flanked appropriately enough by his two sheep followers. That was often the morning's tradition - Andrina had been singled out as Ben's target. This time, Jarret was pleased that his dad's impromptu shortcut had resulted in him arriving earlier than usual, so he decided it was time to spoil Ben's fun.

As the dog approached Andrina, Jarret hurtled towards him in a wide arc, pretending to be a plane, arms out to the side, and he bowled Ben over. He then turned round in a tighter arc, using both paws to send out two small, but potent, energy bolts that shoved Ben's 'friends' onto the floor. Turning to Andrina, the snowkitten bowed just before an enraged Ben launched himself at Jarret, grabbing him round the face and chest, dragging him to the ground.

Moments later, the fight was broken up when they were both lifted by the scruff of their necks, as an angry Mr Johnson, a black and white furred wolf, separated them forcibly.

"For goodness sake, the bell hasn't even rung for the first lesson and you two are already at each other's throats!" As they were both marched into the school, the beige coloured cat, who Iskari had avoided, watched from the wall at the top of the playground, with slightly more than a passing interest.

"You, Ben Staunton, are a bloody nightmare!"

The headmaster, a rather overweight grey bear, known to all as Mr Ferris, glared as Ben hung his head in shame. Perhaps not in shame from what he had done, rather than shame at having been caught out yet again.

Jarret, in comparison, just glared back stubbornly every time Mr Ferris tried to get through to him. He just couldn't seem to get the better of Jarret no matter what he said. A battle of wits he never seemed to win, and with a five year old at that...

The headmaster glared again at the dog and shouted, "Get out of my sight, Ben. You'll be on detention for the next week, and I'll be contacting your parents about this. Again!" The dog slunk out the office, while Jarret nonchalantly looked around. Due to the bear's size, he'd had one of the larger rooms converted into his office when he had been promoted to headmaster. Several large filing cabinets lined one wall, above which was an aerial photo of the school, and a number of trophies. Jarret could never quite read what they were for, but he liked to imagine they had been awarded for exciting things, such as the first school to send a pupil into space, or the first pupil to discover how to time travel,

On the desk lay an old, battered laptop, and across the room opposite the filing cabinets were two large wooden bookcases, either side of an old fashioned fire place, logs burning cosily within. In the corner, near the window, Jarret could see a tall cupboard, and barely visible on the top was a large bottle of whiskey.

The bear harrumphed to get the snowkitten's attention. Jarret folded his arms and glared again as Mr Ferris began, "And as for you, young snowkitten..."

"I was helping Andrina!"

Mr Ferris raised an eyebrow. "Really..."

"I was! You lot never do. Ben was gonna hurt her, like he tries to every day, and it's not fair. I tried to stop him." Jarret looked exasperated.

The headmaster interlaced his fingers on the desk, looking at Jarret sternly, or as best he could when those dark green eyes were staring back at him intensely. "I know."

"What?"

"I know what Ben has been doing. I'm no fool, Jarret. He has been in trouble for it, despite what you may think. You've been in here in trouble many times over the last six months, but so has he. You can't just start fights though. That's wrong, Jarret. That's not how to make things okay, right?" The snowkitten made no attempt to reply. "Right?!"

Jarret made a vague movement that, if someone felt generous, could have been regarded as a nod. Inwardly though, Jarret was thinking of turning Ben's head back to front, and was fairly sure it would make things okay, as well as being fun into the bargain.

The head master told him unexpectedly, "So this is why I have a job for you..."

After school, Jarret and Ailee sat with their parents in the local Gurgle Burgers. They'd been taken there as a treat, only possible because Iskari did just a half day on Fridays, and Levriana only worked mornings on the Midnight Fashions stall at the Phoenixbrook market. Not that either parent much liked the burger place, partly due to the ludicrous name, but also the tacky design of the place and the 'plastic' food. And Levriana in particular did not like being seen in "such a cheap establishment." But Jarret seemed to love the place and the food, and Ailee liked the little toys given away with the meals.

While Jarret gnawed his way through a huge cheeseburger, making exaggerated "Nomfff!!" sounds, Ailee divided her precious time between picking at a large plate of fries, and playing about with a small plastic snowleopard - her reward for having brought a specific meal. She looked somewhat haughty when Jarret deliberately opened his mouth wide to show her his half chewed food.

"That's enough of that, "Iskari muttered.

"Huuuuuuuuurrrrp!" Jarret unintentionally burped, clapping a paw to his mouth, looking wide eyed for a moment.

"I spoke to your head master before we left the school," Levriana commented, looking over at Jarret. He didn't say a word, too wrapped up in chewing the rubbery burger. She continued. "It seems you were fighting with that Staunton kid again." She looked across at Iskari, but his frowning expression was difficult to decipher.

"Ben was..." Jarret began, but Iskari lifted a paw to indicate silence.

"It looks like Mr Ferris has made you a guardian of that other snowkitten," Levriana told him. "So you'll be looking out for her in case there is any more trouble. Now that should be interesting." She didn't add that she was unimpressed with the fact that it was hardly up to Jarret to 'police' the playground, when it should have been the school's job.

"Yeah," Jarret replied. "And if there is trouble, I'll pummel that Ben's head and then I'll turn him inside out."

Levriana just shook her head, while Iskari let out a loud and sudden laugh. Whatever the twin's mother may have planned to say next was lost when Ailee suddenly sang, "Jarret's got a girlfriend!"

The next thing she knew, the remains of the bun from Jarret's burger bounced off her head. Ailee grabbed a handful of fries, flinging them back at her brother. Behind the counter, the assistant manager sighed. Every time this family were here, he thought, the meal always seemed to end in a food fight. He went into the back room to fetch a mop, wondering if a riot shield might be more appropriate.