Chapter 10
I knew the moment I met him that my life would be changed forever. He wasn't like the other cats in the forest. He wasn't like any cat I had ever met before in my entire life. Well, I've only been alive one season-cycle, but still...this cat was going to change my life. I knew that. I was certain of it.
It was in the dead on the snow time. The air was still and cold, the river a sheet of ice, the ground covered in a thick blanket of snow. I wondered if this snow time was even colder than the last time. Of course, the last time of snow I had a nest. I had shelter. I had a home. This time I had no nest or place to shelter from the bitter cold. I slept in trees, digging my claws in the branches so I wouldn't slide off in the night. There was no prey to eat, either. The last time of snow, I was still suckling. This time I had to catch my own prey, and everything was hiding. I lost a lot of weight. My fur lost its shine. I was a bag of bones. I was the exact opposite of him.
He had the longest, silkiest, shiniest fur I'd ever seen. It was thick and soft-looking, but shone like the sun on a hot day, which was odd, considering his fur was black. He was all black, save for a fluffy white chest and one white front paw- the left one. He had brilliant amber eyes that shone like stars and twinkled mischievously. He was large, well-fed and muscular. His muscles rippled beneath his glowing black pelt. He was certainly not hard to look at.
I had to know him. There was no other cat like him in the entire forest. Most of them were thin, like me. Most of them were bony and not so muscular. Most of them had eyes sunken in their head and they only had a dull glow. It was the time of snow, so it wasn't only them that looked like that. That's what I looked like, too. My ginger pelt hung loosely on my bones. My fur didn't shine. My eyes didn't glow.
He was sitting on the bank of the riverbank the first time I saw him. He wasn't fishing. He couldn't- the river was solid ice. This puzzled me. Why would a cat just sit and watch a frozen river? He should be trying to find food! Not that it looked like he had been missing any meals...
After days of loneliness, I was desperate for company. He was sitting all alone, and I wondered if he was lonely, too. I padded over to him, a nervous feeling growing in my heart. I asked him why he was just sitting there, swallowing my fear.
I guess I surprised him. He hadn't heard me approach and looked a bit taken aback by my question. Then he just shrugged and said he like looking at the river. It was so still and silent, frozen in time. He said he liked watching the snow fall quietly onto the river and the forest floor. It was cold, but beautiful. Nature is beautiful, he said. Nothing is more peaceful than just sitting and watching nature on a cold, leaf-bare day. It made him think, and he liked to think. Nature did that to him, he said.
It was my turn to be surprised. His answer shocked me and only made me want to ask more questions. What's leaf-bare? What did he think about? He laughed at my questions, but it was a friendly laugh. He explained that leaf-bare is the season where the trees are bare. There are no leaves in them.
Oh. I guess I should have figured that one out on my own. It was kind of self-explanatory. I looked down at the ground, embarrassed. I studied my paws self-consciously, knowing he was staring at me, wondering who this dumb cat was and why she didn't understand what leaf-bare was.
He didn't answer my question about what he thinks about. Instead, he asked me if I was cold. He didn't have to ask that, and I didn't have to answer. He could plainly see the answer himself. I was shaking violently, freezing beneath my thin, ragged-looking pelt. He said my paws must be solid ice by now. He said I should get out of the snow and go back to my nest for shelter.
I explained that I did not have any shelter. I didn't have a nest. I didn't have a home at all. The cat looked shocked and said that I absolutely must go with him back to his nest. I was too tired, too hungry, too cold to resist. He muttered something under his breath that I couldn't quite catch, and then he nudged me to my paws.
Silently, I padded after him. The tom didn't seem cold at all. His fur was so long and thick he probably couldn't feel the pierce of the wind. He kept looking back at me, making sure I was still following him. I trailed slowly, using every once of energy I had. The tom stopped and had to wait for me to catch up a few times. Finally he just shook his head worriedly and grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me. Considering how big and muscular he was, it must have been like carrying a kit. I wasn't much bigger than one.
After what seemed like moons, the tom stopped walking and dropped me gently on the snow. We had stopped at what appeared to be an abandoned rabbit warren, a deep sandy mound with an entrance that led deep into the ground. He said this was his home and where I would be staying from now on. Just happy to get out of the cold for a while, I didn't protest. He pushed me slowly into the den.
It was dark inside, but I could just make out the sight of a nest made of feathers in the center. The tom nodded at the nest, indicating that I should lay down. I did. It was the softest nest I could have ever imagined. I wondered if this was like what clouds felt like- it was so soft. The tom laid down next to me, pressing up against me. I asked him why he had brought me here. He shrugged and said he couldn't watch any cat freeze or starve.
I wasn't sure what to make of this cat, but I was glad to have somewhere warm to sleep. Feeling drowsy, my eyelids suddenly became very heavy. The tom noticed and mewed that I should sleep. I was safe now. Everything would be fine now. That's what he said, and I believed him. Warm and happy for the first time, I closed my eyes, content to curl up and go to sleep. It wasn't until I was almost out before I realized I hadn't even asked his name.