Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat
The little tabby kitten panted as he looked back at the huge steel monster chasing him. It was getting closer every second! He mustered all of his might and kept sprinting, losing speed every jagged breath he took. He heard a piercingly loud sounding whistle before he was scooped up by a colossal…thing.
"Oh, look at the little thing! He's sooo cute!!" The frightened tom looked up into the terrifying face of a giggling human. He felt himself being carried away.
The large train whooshed past, causing the kitten to hiss and put his ears back at the enemy he so narrowly escaped from.
The human laughed at his "cute" antics. She carried him into a small building filled with people sitting in chairs, laden with luggage. Some were asleep, others talking to those sitting nearest. There was a long line in front of a ticket window, everyone waiting to get their travel passes. The person selling the tickets looked up from what he was doing when they walked in.
"Look who I found, Lawrence," the one holding the tom crooned, "It seems we have a little railway cat here!" The tabby looked around wildly, searching for a way to escape.
"Are you going to keep it?" the one named Lawrence called back.
"Oh, I don't know. He doesn't have a collar, so I guess he's stray. But, in any case, he'll need somewhere to stay in the meantime. I'll get him some food," she responded as she passed through a door marked 'employee's only'.
The kitten was plopped in a chair in a room full of papers, train equipment, and other strange looking objects. He had so much to look at, he wasn't sure if it would be wise to run off or not.
The human was rummaging through a tiny refrigerator, pulling out milk and some old milk and some old chicken that looked suspiciously like it was about to sprout fur.
Though the food offered seemed iffy, the little tabby was starving, and hardly gave it a second thought before devouring it down to the last crumb.
"There, was that good, kitty? Oh, we can't just keep calling you kitty! You need a name!" by this time the kitten had darted off to hide under a table where he hoped he couldn't be found.
"You're just as skinny as a rail, aren't you? Well, we'll have to call you Skimbleshanks!" Skimbleshanks, he thought. It was a name, at least. Embarrassing, long, hard to remember, and made up by a human (not to mention, kind of randomly), but a name, none the less.
He'd never had a name, that he could remember. Not that he really wanted to remember too much of before.
He had once lived with a tribe of cats. But he didn't remember any of them. He was too young. But he did know one stormy night, a pack of pollicles came running through their territory. All of the felines fled. But the recently born Skimble was left behind, whimpering quietly, not knowing quite what to do.
The noisy brutes that called themselves dogs (it was hard to believe they even had brains) eventually left, and the tiny kitten crawled out of hiding. He stumbled along, looking for anyone who might have come back for him.
But no one came. The tom finally was forced to give up hope as he grew near the point of starvation. He wandered around looking for something to eat. He found a discarded banana peel and choked it down.
Having regained some strength, he started off to find somewhere he could go. He spent most of his valuable kitten-hood eating out of trash bins. He saw many a human, but never got up close to any.
One scalding afternoon when he thought he could bear the hunger no longer, he made the decision to follow a mysterious wooden track he had discovered. Anything made out of cut wood was a sure trademark of humans, and was sure to lead to something to eat.
He started along, when a horrible whistle shot through his ears. The tom turned around and hissed at the great freighter whizzing closer and closer to him. He turned and ran, as fast as he could.
A stitch grabbed at his side. He winced at the pain, but didn't let himself slow his pace. He forced himself to keep going for what seemed like eternity before he was spared by the station master's grasp.
The human was lying on her stomach, trying to coax the frightened kitten out from his hiding place. She sighed as she gave up and lifted herself up with minor difficulty.
"Well, Skimble, I've gotta go to work. I'll leave the door open so that you can explore!" And with that she left. Skimble slowly creeped out from under the table.
He peered cautiously back out into the room full of traveling humans. The tom gathered his breath and made a dash out to the other side of the room.
The tabby kitten wondered to himself whether or not he should run away. He wasn't sure what these humans would do to him, but they did give him food and shelter, something he hadn't known for a long time.
He decided it would be best to just investigate these unfamiliar settings. He trotted back outside. One of the metal monsters was sitting stationary on the track, apparently asleep. Several humans were emerging from inside of it. Someone must have slayed it and set its victims free!
But wait! Some idiot humans were going back inside of it, luggage and all! Why were they doing that? He started to chase after them, but then it dawned on him. This was no evil monster! This was a man made machine! He let all of the fear escape from his little tabby body.
He crept up to it, still a little unsure of things. When it was about three feet away from him, it let out a great hiss, and started chugging away. Skimble hissed back at it, but curiosity got the better of him, and he made a fantastic leap through the open door to the passenger car.
All of the comfortably seated travelers jumped up with shock when the little orange ball of fluff came flying into their car.
The tom regained his footing and looked around. About ten humans were sitting on padded red benches, all staring at him with wide eyes. He stared right back at them. (Hey, two could play this game!)
The attendant abruptly walked in through a door leading to the rest of the train. When he spotted the ginger colored kitten, he lunged for him, attempting to profusely apologize to the passengers while doing so. It resulted in quite a comical scene.
Most of the passengers seemed to have recovered from their scare and were heartily laughing as the attendant and the little tom battled it out.
There were shouts, hisses, clawing and lunging. Finally Skimble jumped out of the still open car door. He sighed with relief as his feet touched stationary ground. He could see the attendant struggling to regain composure in the car and chuckled to himself.
The stationmaster, aroused by the shouts, had come running. She scooped up the frazzled looking kitten, murmuring to it.
"What happened, Skimble?" she asked.
"The attendant attacked me and scared me off the big machine, which I had simply been investigating. You said I could explore, and I was doing so. I think it was extremely inconsiderate."
She giggled in response. The tom glared at her in annoyance for being so inconsiderate of his problems. But he sighed and let it go. After all, she was only a human.
He silently vowed to make this his home. It was a bit crazy and confusing, but it was fun, exciting, and there was plenty of food. It sounded good to the tabby who hadn't had a home in so long.
With that, he wandered off to watch the travelers.