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 Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:03 pm
 Chap. 1 --- Night's Greetings
The night looked as if a pen had run it's point through the sky, inky black with clouds almost invisible to the eye. Stars were speckled across it's mighty flank, and seemed to breathe as motion bustled about the galaxy beyond. Two stars sat close together in the sky, shining brightly, as if boasting of their specialness to the world. Together, they made one great, golden eye, the eye of Poison. Poison, the cat of the sky, the stars, the Earth. Poison, the great cat goddess.
Below the mighty pelt, in an abandoned alley trashed with junkyard items, a miracle had taken forth. Rubbage had been cleared away from a small corner of the dark alley and had been lined with a moss wall to assure the position. Within were soft spring leaves plucked from an Ember Tree. The leaves filled space up to the wall, and seemed fresh enough to have been replaced day after day. And within this was a box. Words were printed up the side of the box. "Turn this way", it said, and had an arrow pointing to the top. Inside, two golden eyes looked up to the night sky. They seemed to sparkle more than any star. The pools of gold stayed there for a long moment, as if they were sailing among the clouds. Gratitude filled them, as they were thanking a world unseen. The white cat whispered a few words, then turned back to her purpose in life. Three kittens lay in a blanket of moss and leaves. Each was new, it's ears pressed against it's head, and eyes sealed shut. One was almost identical to its mother. It was silky and white, with brown stripes running down its tail. Flow, the mother cat, sent her soft, pink tounge down its head and back. This was her eldest kitten in the litter, so he was named first. "Pine", the mother cat whispered to the kitten, "is your name. You shall learn this name and treasure it as your own, for you are Pine, one of the trees and spiritual as they", she said softly. She looked at the next kitten, pressed against his brother's fur for warmth. It was gray and white, with a soft pink nose. Flow repeated her speech before as if were a ritual to her. "Moss is your name. You shall learn this name and treasure it as your own, for you are Moss, to treasure warmth and love, protector of the alley", said Flow. She looked to her youngest kitten, and the name came easy. It was almost identical to Moss, only her fur color was white and brown. Like Moss, she had a white chest, belly, paws, and muzzle. The rest of her was brown tabby, stripes almost speckled across her body. Despite her unique markings, she was very small, and looked very fragile. She was the runt. "Seed is your name. You shall learn this name and treasure it as your own, for you are Seed, to grow and triumph over all the rest", said Flow, and studied each kitten carefully before going in for a few more loving licks to each of her kits. She nudged each one to her flank, and they feasted on their mother's warm milk. After their bellies bulged, they buried their heads into their mother's soft, white fur.
Flow had created their home. The moss wall was protection from the toms of the alley, aggressive and hungry for power. The plentiful leaves across the barrier were the soft carpet she had made her kittens. The box was their bed, and the kits' nursery. It was always to be fluffed and taken care of so that she and the kits could sleep well. She had created their home nicely, and had chosen a good location, too. Humans would toss food out of their vehicles into the alley, which made perfect snacks for the cats. But the mother load was the amount of mice that lived in the alley. Hunting them would be so much fun. The mice lived in cans and other rubbage. Their smell would be hidden, but Flow's eyes were as good as her nose, and so she would spot them. She couldn't wait until the day she could teach her kittens to hunt as her mother had taught her.
Day after day came and went, and Flow realized with excitement that the kits were beginning to grow. As they grew, the sun seemed to shine brighter and brighter, as if welcoming the kittens into a new world. One bright and sunny spring day, Pine opened his eyes. Flow had fussed over him the whole day, telling her something was wrong with the kit. He had seemed unhappy and was stressing his face. To Flow's happiness; he had begun to open his eyes, and was happy to see the world, nothing more. Soon Moss and Seed opened their eyes, too. Oh, how wonderful the world was to them! Each one stumbled about the box, examining corners, moss, and leaves, but most of all, the great blue sky above. To them, this was the world. Little did they know, there was so much more.
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There was a shaking, a tumble, and a thump. The sound of cardboard smacking onto the ground rang through fragile ears, yet excitement did not escape their eyes. Flow shrieked and spun out of her sleep, claws slashing everywhere and teeth exposed. The kittens yelped, wide eyed, looking at their mother. Flow's eyes scanned the landscape and realized that it had only been a late spring wind that had tipped the box over. She sighed and let her fur lay down on her back. Slowly, she scanned the scared faces of Pine, Moss, and Seed. A smile broke about her figure, and the kittens began to relax. "Would you like to see the alley?" she asked them. Seed's eyes grew very large. "The alley?" she asked before her brothers could respond. Her mother nodded gracefully and said, "You are now old enough to leave the box. We may wait for the afternoon winds to leave the alley, then we shall return. Do you wish to do so?" The kittens' mouths were like crescent moons, heads bobbing up and down as if there were no question to what their mother had proposed. The kittens forgot about the scare of the tumbling box and their mother's reaction, they pranced happily about the box and mewed with excitement.
One by one, they took their first steps into the gravel, into the world. Seed was last, as she was the youngest. Her eyes grew larger than they had at the idea of the alley, but now they were so large that they looked like balloons that you could bend over and pop. The ground was brown like the bottom of the box, below the moss and leaves, but had a texture that was bumpy and gritty. Leaves hung from the largest thing Seed had ever seen in her life, a tree, as her mother called it. A huge trunk led branches flying every which way, and small, green leaves fell upon them. Rubbage was piled neatly around the moss wall and beyond. Seed had never seen so many things in her life. Bottle caps, soda cans, cottons, papers, plastic silverware, ripped slippers, broken pencils, old clothing, eraser buds, withering blankets, and tons and tons of food were among the piles. The alley was a candy land! But the most breathtaking sight was the sky. Seed turned to her mother, bewilderment clearly pasted across not only her face, her whole body, shaking with excitement. "The sky ... it goes on forever?" said asked her mother. Flow nodded her head and gave her a sweet smile.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:23 pm
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:28 pm
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:33 pm
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:36 pm
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:49 pm
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:58 pm
Chap. 7 --- Lost Cat
By the eighth night of living by the Oak tree, Seed had a large collection of skinny, meatless bones. But it had not just been paw outs from Fig and Nut, but a fair amount of sympathetic, as you might say, felines, and even a few humans. Seed grew skinnier by the day. One night, Seed rose to her paws and came out of her hiding place like she always did near dawn. This time she would attempt to hunt again, although her chances were likely that she would not even find a mouse dropping. The winds blew to the north where all chances of prey were, and it would surely carry her scent to the critters before she found them. She stalked lazily about, holding her nose up and taking in any warm blood scent. Her ears stood erect. There was a feint shuffle in the breeze. What was that? she thought. She slowly crept forward, slinking low to ground in the hunting crouch. It looked like a large, white snowflake. �Pa � pa � papra? Papru � paper!� she whispered to herself. Yes, indeed, it was paper, just like the paper floating in the breeze when she lived in the alley. It was covered in dirt, somewhat buried in the Earth. She pulled it out with her teeth to look at it. She gently rubbed her claws across the light surface to spread the dirt away. She could only see it faintly, but it seemed like this paper was special. Indeed, it had a cat on it! A real, live cat, she was sure! Seed yowled and jumped into the air, her fur bristled like a porcupine. She landed back on the ground with a thud, a look of terror pasted across her delicate brown and white bicolor face. Her green eyes grew huge as she stared at the cat. �H-h-hello�, she whispered. She paused and waited for it to respond, but it made not a peep. She held her breathe for a moment while waiting, but then, as she realized it was not moving or speaking, it must not be real after all, and so she let out a long exhale. She approached it again. She batted the cat�s head a few times until she was sure it would not come out. It was a pretty paper. It had a large picture of a cat on it, and squiggles everywhere. There were even some large red squiggles at the bottom.
It read:
Quote: LOST CATOur dear CINNAMON left last Monday She is a purebred chocolate Ocicat. We think she is between Corba and Oxeforn St. Please help us find our darling cat! !!!REWARD!!!
The paper was interesting and peculiar at the same time. Seed leaned forward to get a better look at the cat. She could barely see it�s coat and face through the dents and dirt on the paper, but she could make a little bit out. It looked pure brown, a chocolate swirl of color. Its chest was a light cream. It�s eyes were a deep, pretty orange. It had the sharp face of a Siamese and yet it was not. The cat looked very kind in the picture. Maybe someone is looking for her, Seed thought, like someone should be looking for me.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:06 pm
Chap. 8 --- The Heart of Monsters
Luckily, that night Seed had managed to catch a small mouse. She ate it quickly and purred in satisfaction, as she had not eaten full kill in a long while. But I�m still hungry! she thought. This was not new. She had been hungry for weeks, and longed to feel full. The kitten grew sad and enraged at the thought of her mother. In her fury, she thought, Seed! Oh, now I get it! My name was meant for my destiny, to eat nothing but bones and never grow. I am nothing but a small, pathetic Seed! Maybe she favors Pine and Moss. Maybe mother planned this! She shook her head and scratched at the ground a few times to feel better. No. Mother loves me. Somewhere out there � she�s looking for me. The night was long. Seed could not fall asleep. She kept on thinking about her name, and how Housekitties had better ones. Housekitties' names were presented to them by their pets, humans. By naming a cat, it meant that a human had decided to feed and house it. All of a sudden, the thought of a human house didn�t seem so bad. She�d heard bad stories about humans, but also good ones. She heard of fireplaces, which now sounded so amazing that she could not help but let the flames burn inside her heart for someone to love her. Heat, shelter, food, and water; all of these things she needed now. She didn't need to stay with the humans forever, just stay long enough until her mother came for her. She had made up her mind. Despite her mother�s warnings of humans, she needed food and shelter, and so she would go to the Long Black Road in the morning to find a human.
The night turned to day, and birds began to sing their morning songs. The melodies drifted in the wind and reached Seed�s ears. Her eyes fluttered open. "It�s morning", she said to herself. She stumbled to her paws and let out a large yawn. She looked out towards the bone pile and bunched up her nose in disgust. �Good-bye bones. I said I was no dog, and that is true. Tomorrow I will eat only caviar�, and with that, she trotted away with her chin up in pride as if she had just scolded an enemy.
Her pride did not last long. Soon she lost her way and became frightened. She was coming closer and closer to the road. Now she could see it from above a small hill, covered in winter�s dried grasses. She padded slowly towards the Long Black Road that she had been warned of as a small kitten. She had to cross. Seed gulped and stared at it for a moment. All of a sudden, a large, red monster came out of the shadows and trailed along the road. It had a shiny red pelt that glistened in the sun, and large bared teeth in the front. Its paws did not pick up from the ground; in fact, the paws were angular and rolled around the ground like a fallen acorn. As it strode away, it left a horrible smell drifting in the air. It was like a cloud, but an unpleasant one at that. If clouds smelled like this, they were not as pretty as Seed had thought. Luckily, this cloud was different. It was like the smog over the lake�s waters, but no water drifted in it. Seed coughed as the scent grew near her, her eyes closed and her face scrunched up in disgust. The monster had been horrible, and she didn�t want to see or smell another.
Slowly, she slipped down the hill and daintily approached the road�s edge. How could she cross the heart of monsters? She swallowed hard and closed her eyes. Slowly, the paw touched the road. Her eyes widened when it hit the black asphalt. She gasped and pulled it back to her. It�s slick, black surface was both smooth and rugged. It was cold and smelled like monster exhaust. �Eww!� she exclaimed. Something across the road snickered. Had it been a bird, a squirrel? �Hello?� she called. No one answered. Curiosity, in her eyes, rarely got the better of her, for she thought of herself as a defined, fair feline, and tried to resist those urges of wonder. But no kitten, even one her age of young adulthood could resist curiosity, however much she tried to tame herself. Surely something had made that noise, and she would find it. She looked down at the road in disgust. A noise came from the distance, up the long, black tongue. It was another monster, this one with a large belly. Seed panicked. It came closer and closer. An instinct uncontrollable raced through Seed�s mind, and before she could think she was half way across the road, the monster�s teeth glaring at her from behind. It skidded to a halt and growled at her. Monsters could growl? Who knew! It sounded like a goose. Honk honk! It growled. Seed stood stunned for a moment, staring at the shiny teeth. The two eyes in front of the monster glowed yellow light straight into hers, and she felt blinded and held prisoner by the monster�s powerful glare. Honk honk! �Get out of the road!�, a voice called out. Seed ran straight for the road�s edge and leaped onto the white paved sidewalk. She stood there, gasping for breath as she watched the monster pull away and disappear out of sight.
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:12 pm
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Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:15 pm
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