[Chapter Eight- Awaken]

A word with four letters—the only thing reverberating in my mind again and again and again. It cried out for attention, screamed against the walls it was contained in until it was so contrite that I could scarcely remember what I was crying out for. Help. The soft prick of a needle turned into a harsh pierce of a sharp point that left me crying out for mercy. There were mutterings above me—tacit sounds of words that sounded like cold sweetness and callous reassurance. There was so much pain everywhere that it all became one numbed world of begging for help.

Then, like I had suddenly run into a brick wall, there was nothing.

~0~0~

Fragments of lights danced around my vision. My limbs were spread out in an unnatural position that was somehow comfortable at the same time. I blinked a few times, bringing focus back into my eyes. The sun felt too bright and the ground too…sandy.

I tried to push off the ground with my hands, but my body position was too odd. I ended up rolling to my side and lying flat on my stomach staring straight at Crystal Pool. Despite the fading migraine and the phantom pain all over my body I could still form coherent thoughts. They fell along the lines of Mom and Dad are totally going to kill me for sneaking out and What the heck were in those pills that Abington gave me?

Groaning, I stood up on all fours, shaking the phantom pain off. Abington probably gave me the wrong bottle if one pill could make me have such a bad reaction to it. Once I got back, I would give the bottle right back and demand that if the pills were an experiment on an unknowing subject then he could have used someone else.

The afternoon sun shone down on the pool, making it glitter in the sun. I crawled over, wanting to fix my appearance before I got home. The crazy hallucination I had last night made me feel uncomfortable to walk on my legs. For some reason, the thought of that sounded unbalanced and crazy even though it should have been crazy to think that.

When I was able to catch a reflection of myself in the glimmering pool, I almost screamed.

My eyes were still the same green shade that it had always been, but they were no longer my eyes. My hair was still that same white-blonde colour, but it wasn't even hair anymore. And the crescent moon charm that had been faithfully tied around my left wrist last night wasn't a necklace anymore—it was a golden print on my left forepaw.

Green cat-slit eyes gazed up at me fearfully, and silver fur was puffed up in fright. I blinked a few times, my jaw moving wordlessly as I fixed my eyes upon my predicament all while hoping desperately that this was still Abington's pills.

Some part of me knew differently. I tore my eyes away from the reflection, my heart thumping quickly against the walls of my chest. This couldn't be happening. This was absurd. It couldn't even be real. There was no way—

Overnight, I had somehow turned into a cat.

I let out a frustrated curse word escape to permeate the air. At least I could still speak English. Or was I actually meowing furiously at the sky?

That thought sent a shudder through me, and I no longer wanted to imagine it. It was best to get home first to my family. Dee would be all over me, and Mom and Dad would probably be in denial like I was, but we would figure it out. We always did.

I tried not to let any negative thoughts invade and destroy that wonderful idea.

Putting one foot—paw in front of another, I headed south in direction of the moorlands. Though it was quicker to take the path through the woods, I knew it was going to be a hundred times bigger and scarier in Sadler Woods. I did not want to go through that experience again now that I was actually cat-sized and prey to the predator.

Following the stream, I quickly made my way down. My heart beat still pounded incredibly fast, and I almost felt like it could explode out of my chest if I didn't get home any faster. I hoped that I wouldn't encounter any wild animals on my way home. Unfortunately, I was too caught up in the sound of myself panicking to realize that someone was calling me out.

"You there! Trespasser!" I could understand the gruff voice perfectly well, though I hadn't heard it anywhere before. Maybe one of the groundskeeper had come to Littlepine Reserve while I was out cold by Crystal Pool.

I turned around, a plea for help on my lips—mouth. If I could understand English, then I would be able to speak it too my logic said. That was until my gaze landed on the menacing ginger cat heading straight towards me with a determined glean in those yellow eyes.

Oh God.

"I—I'm just passing through," I squeaked, shrinking away back to Crystal Pool. "I don't mean to harm—or trespass."

Apparently those words did nothing to mitigate the suspicion that still lingered in the ginger cat's eyes. God, I couldn't even believe I was having a coherent conversation with a cat. Then did that mean I wasn't really speaking English anymore? That thought made me utterly nauseous.

There was a smaller light amber cat behind the ginger one. "Fangclaw…," the cat began hesitantly, giving me an apologetic look. I was so put off that I was reading the emotions behind those cat eyes. Repulsed, I took another step backwards, trying to ignore the fact that I could tell that both cats were male by just looking at them.

"Breezepaw, you have to learn not to be lenient with rogue cats. This one probably got kicked out of her Clan by the looks of it," Fangclaw sneered, giving me a hostile glare. For the hundredth time that day, I wished that I was either dreaming or a human-sized being again.

"But—," Breezepaw began before he was cut off by a growl from Fangclaw. It was a classic portrayal of an unfair power play. Breezepaw was kinder and he would let me pass by without problems, but Fangclaw was the one in charge. I had to appeal to him before I could get through.

Did I even want to go back to the cottage now? I had figured out that I wasn't actually speaking English. How would I even get my family to believe me when I could barely even communicate to them? I was better off holing up somewhere until I figured out how to reverse this…thing.

"I'm not a rogue," I began slowly, locking eyes with Fangclaw and trying to calm my racing heartbeat. "I'm not from any freaking clans you're talking about, and I would really like to pass through. Please," I added as an afterthought.

Fangclaw took another threatening step forward while unsheathing his slightly bloodstained claws; every part of me screamed for me to run.

Instinct triumphed over reason in this form, and I'm not ashamed to say that I turned my tail and ran like never before. I did not want to die in the form of a cat. I did not want to die without ever seeing my family ever again. And most of all, I did not want to die because of a freaking cat on a freaking nature reserve!

I didn't even think about putting one foot in front of another. I just ran, letting instinct and scenery wash over me until everything was just splashes of green, gold, and blue. Somewhere along the way, the gold and blue colours flickered, and brown became a more dominant part of the panorama. The reasoning part of my brain told me that I was now in the forest—not quite Sadler Woods yet.

That part of my brain also told me to stop running. This was all wrong. I was in more danger of running into something. I wasn't familiar with the landscape. Everything was wrong. I needed to stop right this instant before I hurt myself.

I agreed with that part, but I couldn't stop. That fear that propelled me to run away from Fangclaw had now transformed itself into adrenaline and passion. I never loved running, but now the wind that ruffled my silver fur felt energizing. The soft dirt ground beneath the pads of my foot—paws were perfect.

That was until I burst straight through sharp thorns, hissing when some of them scratched away at my fur. Before I could slow down, I reached the other side of the thorn barrier, and the ground disappeared.

I let out a yelp while literally and metaphorically coming off my high as I plunged straight down to the cold, hard stone.

So I'm really sorry for being a horrible person and not even writing this in the summer because I wanted to watch my TV shows and cry over my favourite characters. BUT! It's over now! Kind of... I mean I'm caught up... The next Season starts in October...and I'm not as addicted to the other TV shows I'm currently watching...

Hopefully you guys are still reading this story and author's note. I really apologize for spending too much time reading higher rated fanfictions and too little time writing lower rated fanfictions. A plus from that is that most higher rated fanfictions I read seems to be written by adults and mature teens rather than cliche teens and tweens, which may have given me better writing material to siphon my own writing style off of, so this chapter may (or may not) be better written that the previous ones. If is is indefinitely better, please tell me in reviews or PMs.

Another reason to blame my slow updates is because of school. Freakin' University layout courses. :( In fact, I wrote this in the two hours I could have been using towards my large pile of homework...so who knows when I'm going to update again.