Prologue
I ran through the forest, feeling the wind in my face. So much has my home changed in the past few days. Moving from the countryside to the city is pretty hard, because everything changes. Now, all I smell in my new home is smoke and gasoline. I yearn to be in the forest, to smell the fresh flowers blooming in early spring, or the smell of rain on the fresh, crisp, grass.
Oh yeah, sorry to be rude. My name is Violet Kathleen. Pretty cool name, huh? My mother gave that name to me since a bluish purplish cat played with me all the time. But she's gone now. Not dead, but she vanished without a sight.
The only way to go back are in my dreams: remembering the rich memories stored away in my mind of the past forever. I've lived in a farm my whole life, where the scents of animals wafted throughout the area, and have never experienced the feeling of having people and noise everywhere. It feels like I'm deaf, since all the noise attacks me with full force. My brothers enjoy being in the city, since they're like "Oh! Technology! Yay! Easier life!" They're so boring, it's like they don't know what it is like to do things for themselves anymore since moving to the city. They seemed to have been brainwashed. I almost wish I could go back, but my dad got a better job offer here in the urban area.
School here is okay, I guess. Unless feeling out of place is normal, then yes, I'm fine. I haven't made any real friends yet, but I'm trying. No one seems to share my interests. They're just like my brothers, brainwashed. I've met some girls, but they're all into boys, which is totally not like me. I just want a friend, a true friend. The only companion I have is books. Especially the Warriors books. They are my favorite book series. They open up a whole new chapter in my life. Of course, back in the countryside, we didn't have a library. There was only one, miles away, and it only had history books about wars and disasters. Boring. I still read them because it was all we had. But, I learned something from them. I learned that you can't give up. You have to keep trying. Wow. Too cheesy, but seriously, that was the moral of every single short story.
I arrived at a lake, one that I and my dad loved to swim in the most. Lake Meadow Crest, one of the most beautiful and cleanest lakes that we lived near. Not many people knew about the lake, so it wasn't very crowded. The only crowd there was were birds noisily chirping, and lake creatures hiding from us. We were the only ones who dared to walk in since it was covered by pine trees and the dense undergrowth. Once you walk in, there is nothing to be afraid of. Many people here don't like to adventure or take risks. It's still very difficult to walk through. The petit town thought that there were beasts living inside near the lake, but those are all false rumors. Like those ghost stories my family enjoyed to tell each other when we were little, like the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot. I can't believe people actually believe those childish stories. I did when I was little, but that is another story for another time. Although it scared the crap out of my brothers, I listened, and carefully. Listening to my parents as they listed what to do if you bump into one or whatnot.
Tired from all the running, I cupped a handful of cool water and slurped it all up, enjoying the feel of it moisturizing my dry throat. I was a mess. I was caked with dirt and had water dripping down my chin; there was sweat dripping down my face as hair stuck to my neck like a leech to an elbow. I stared down at my reflection with disgust. How did I get this dirty?
I spooned another handful of water and just dumped it over my head, again enjoying the feel of the cool water. As I turned my head back down, instead of the face of a tired girl, the face of an orange cat with piercing blue eyes stared right back at me. I shrieked, stumbling back into one of the near trees growing on the edge of the lake. That couldn't just have happened. Could it?
I glanced around. Everything seemed much taller than it was supposed to be. I could smell the tiniest detail of the forest; my eyes took in everything I couldn't see before. I looked down at myself only to realize that my skin turned into fur, my hands into paws and there was a tail! I quickly stood up only to fall back down. My tail twitched in irritation. Okay, that was pretty cool.
"Hey, who are you?" A voice asked. I whirled my head around to see four cats, all standing with their hackles raised, fur bristling at me. Well, isn't this great?