She was terrified, blindsided everywhere as she tried to run and run, soon finding herself in an old, abandoned lot, hiding under a strange metal vehicle in rust and remains, panting as she stared at the huge buildings, noisy vehicles, and so many lights that almost looked like daylight in the middle of the night.
Hurt, scrapped, exhausted, Jasmine was overwhelmed, memories of the biggest punishment Jafar gave her rushing through her mind, trying to relax before she finally broke down and cried...She cried for Agrabah, Genie and Abu, for failing her father, for her dreams washing away like a waterfall, for the loss of her eggs, never to be children...
She cried all that night in her sleep, bad dreams of her father and Aladdin looking disappointed in her, Jafar stripping away her virginity, and more...
Her hungry belly woke her up late the first morning, and Jasmine was confused and scared as she tried to understand the rules and regulations of the humans in this strange world, but being a kitty cat, she was overlooked like a termite, something she never, ever imagined...
Even the cats in this world is sneering and leering at her as she tried to talk with them, but apparently, they chased her away from any remains of scraps, hearing the same foreign sounds like from the humans.
And so, she struggled to survive, managing to observe many tricks that cats did, along with the kinds of humans who could feed stray cats or not, for maybe two weeks, and in those weeks, she barely started to understand one popular foreign language, saying no to any tom cats who dared to come close to her as from what she gathered, she was coming into heat.
Part of her just wanted to give up, to give in those tom cats, as she wanted to just feel nothing, but every night, she grieved for the loss of her eggs, and realized that she's fertile thanks to her intact womb and virginity, but another part of her wished that Jafar should have killed her in the first place instead of...being tortured...
Jasmine, while it was reluctant to do, she had little of a choice, managed to get her paws on a rat and was feeding on it. It was that or starve at this point in time. She had at least managed to find herself a bit of shelter from the elements in these strange underground tunnels where all the other people were going to at times. Few paid mind to her except for some young children that called out to her before their parents pulled them away; probably thinking she was some sort of diseased feral cat.
Jasmine took a deep breath, as best as could in this form as one of those metal beasts that zoomed through the tunnels came through again, scaring her once more but at least she was starting to get used to it.
She then sniffed a delicious smell, a familiar one from Agrabah...Fish...She knew she was rather a long distance from the nearest spot of the ocean, and she was suspicious for a moment as she followed it carefully, sniffing and walking cautiously.
Despite the rat in her belly, she is still hungry, and the fish smells tantalizing, getting closer and closer before seeing a familiar metal trap. She had seen other cats go into some of those things, and get trapped, panicking and all.
She, in the best of English she can gather, has heard rumors and gossip from other cats, saying those traps take the cats to either the bad place or the good place, depending on the gossip.
Jasmine sighed deeply, smelling the faint scent of humans, humans with cat, dog scents lingering in the mix, and she was nervous if the bad place was full of torturing humans or worse, yet if it's the good place, maybe she would have a better place to eat and sleep...Honestly, she is tired of living in this strange shelter of the underground tunnel with the metal beasts...
She sighed, walking cautiously into the trap, sniffing the fish smell, finding it in a few clumps of food, and went to eat it, stepping into the mechanism, and her ears flicked in alert, along with her tail, but didn't panic as she was hungry, eating the rest of the fish clumps.
Jasmine heard human voices coming closer, looking excited, curious, and surprised, and she glanced to see humans in clothes that look official, with one of the humans putting a blanket over the trap as it was picked up.
"Weird. Did see that? She be a house cat or something. Let's go.", Jasmine heard the voices talking, with the best English she could understand in the dialogue, knowing that she still needs time to fully understand English, and she hoped that her gut feeling is right...
"Poor girl looks like she's been through a lot lately...", One of the men said as they were carrying her away. "Must have had her owner die or something and just snuck out of the apartment looking for something to eat... normally these cats are a little harder to catch.", the second man commented.
"Can't be a stray then... but without the collar...", the first man sighed. "Look, we'll find her a home then, from the looks of things, I'm not sure anyone's looking for her.", the second man replied.
The first man nodded, "She would appreciate that. Of course, we gotta do the routine first before putting her up for adoption. Giving her a bath, some medicine for fleas and ticks, and probably some shots if she wasn't already vaccinated, and of course, spay her. We got too many cats in this city alone.".
The second man replied, "It is hard to tell with the long fur and all, but I think something happened to her as I think she wasn't spayed properly...Probably need to scan her with the x-ray machine.".
The first man replied, "Well, she had enough stress today, best to go with the bath and a place to eat and sleep before we check on her tomorrow.".
When they finally reached their destination, Jasmine at least felt somewhat relieved after a few hours when these people actually took care of her. In some ways, it felt like she was a princess again with her servants treating her hand and foot. And she certainly felt much safer than she had been out on the streets.
"Yeah, something's a bit off with this one... it doesn't look it, but I think she's already been spayed.", one of the guys said as he looked her over; she was resisting the urge to lash out despite where they were looking. She just knew she had to play the role of a cat.
The other guy replied, "We can check her more thoroughly tomorrow, Ricky.", and Ricky nodded, "Yeah, turns out that she's a beautiful one, Chad...You know, I would have mistaken her for a purebred if it wasn't for the pelt...Looks like her parents must have been an Arabian Mau and Maine Coon.".
Chad chuckled, "I swear you're the best fact spouter about cats, Ricky.", and Ricky chuckled, "Well, you know that I grew up with cats, despite being a dog person later in life. Turns out reading books about cats helped out.".
"If you're right, she's definitely a unique one. At least she will live good with that long fur, especially with winter coming around. So, what shall we name her?", Chad asked.
"I don't know... I'd rather not name her.", Ricky admitted. "Rather save that for her new owners, you know?", with a shrug as he pets Jasmine on the back.
"Fair enough, but it might be easier for her to be picked out if she's given one for anyone that wants to get a new cat.", Chad said.
Ricky hummed, "Good point. You know, she didn't put up a fuss about being in water or even being picked up by hands...It's like she's behaved better than most cats, acting like a princess.", and Jasmine's ears flicked, meowed, looking up at Ricky.
"What, you going to suggest something like Princess?", Chad teased his coworker as Ricky took a deep breath and looked closely at her.
"Yeah... I think I will call her that. She certainly gives off the air of a princess, my guess is that she was pretty well pampered.", Ricky said. Jasmine was quite surprised how almost close to the truth he was there.
Jasmine mewed, purring, and Ricky chuckled, "Let's get you settled in, Princess.", and Jasmine mewed louder at that, and Ricky smiled, "I think she likes that name, or that she was already called that.", as he carried her to one of the hospital cages, as Chad followed along, flattening the blanket, checking the bowls of food and water, and adjusting the litter box.
Ricky gently put her in, smiling, "See ya tomorrow, Princess. Don't keep up the other cats with your chatting, eh?", and Jasmine purred, meowing before she went to settle down, lapping up some water and a bit of food before curling up on the blanket, watching the two good men leave and shut off the lights.
Jasmine blinked, adjusting to the view of the darkness as it almost felt like daylight to her in a way, glad for the gift of seeing in the darkness way better than humans, and sighed deeply before hearing a cat next door, "So, what you in for, youngster?".
"Eh, I don't know what you mean, elder?", Jasmine replied, smelling that the cat is a senior male, and his voice replied, "Ah, I hear an accent. I will speak slower...Is that better?".
"A bit...", Jasmine admitted. "Sorry, not used to this language.", she said. "English?", The older cat sounded a bit confused. "How could you not know English in New York? Where exactly are you from?".
Jasmine widened her eyes, "That's the name of this place? Strange, Jafar spoke it differently...Sorry, elder, I...I came over a long way here...from overseas...".
The older cat replied, "Oh, by my whiskers! That's something I never imagined...What happened to your owner?".
"O-owner?", Jasmine asked, and the older cat replied, "You know, a human? Is that why you smell like you're in heat yet taken by the cutter?".
Jasmine blinked before exhaling, "Yes, I'm in heat, but I don't understand cutter?", and the older cat replied, "You know, spay, the word humans say for female cats?".
"No, sorry...", Jasmine replied, and the older cat replied, "You're peculiarly strange, but I'll explain. Cutter is the name for the human who spays female cats and neuters male cats, making them unviable to have kittens, or impregnate queens either way.".
"I see...", Jasmine whispered as the elder continued, "Yes... something about curbing the pet population... that's how humans see us if you didn't know... or at least how they see us now. They used to worship us as gods long ago in a faraway land.".
Jasmine replied, "That part, I know...And are they going to spay me properly?", fearing to be stripped of her womb...She already lost her eggs, she can't lose her womb!
The elder cat responded, "I don't know, but you seem like a very good prospect to be adopted. Clean and well-behaved. Those good humans, Ricky and Chad, they save cats like you, and give them homes to people who wants a companion...".
"But I don't want to be owned!", Jasmine scowled, and the elder cat replied, "You must be if you want food, water, shelter, and a perfectly good span of nine lives to spare. And besides, from what I heard from the few cats who come here from the adoption center when they are sick, young humans love kittens and youngsters like you.".
Jasmine sighed as she just hated this. Jafar just twisted the knife further with things despite not even being probably remotely close to her anymore. The older cat could tell that she was frustrated, "If you don't mind me asking at least... where were you before? You act as if you haven't been a cat for all your life.".
"To tell you the truth, you're right... I'm not a cat... well, I wasn't before. You might think me crazy but... I was recently human in a place far from this city... cursed by a twisted monster of a man that I once thought was loyal to me and my father...", Jasmine told him.
"Really?", the elder cat had heard a lot in his years, but certainly not a tale like this... but he knew she was telling the truth; what would she gain from making all of this up? He thought.
Jasmine nodded with a snarl, "Yes. He loved to make my life miserable, punishing me to the stables, to the dungeons, anything he can think of when I refused his offer to be queen practically every day...He...He cursed me to never age for a long time, and he...he tortured me by ripping my eggs out of me, in public, in front of my only friend who was imprisoned like me, right after he attempted to r-rape me without even consideration of the pain I'd be in, bringing me in the nude without no human layers, in humiliation where everybody can see..", tears falling down her face as she grieved, her claws clenching into her blanket.
"I-I'm sorry...", the elder said as Jasmine sighed, "I know... not your fault... just... he took everything away from me... killed my father and the man I had fallen in love with... and then his last act was to turn me into a cat and sent me to this place... it's been two weeks now, I think since that happened...".
"I'm surprised you survived for so long.", the elder replied in amazement. Jasmine sighed, "Believe me, it wasn't easy, and I wanted to die so many times, grieving for them, wanting to just wane away, but I didn't want to give Jafar the satisfaction if he somehow had a way to know...So, I just...".
"You were just feeling empty without caring about taking life by the whiskers, just moseying on...", the elder cat replied softly, and Jasmine nodded, "Yeah...Today was the first day of feeling something again after those men got me out of that strange underground tunnel place...".
"The subway...that is called the subway. They got many different underground tunnels everywhere, transporting humans and pets, but only if those pets are reserved to be service or emotional support animals...", the elder replied.
"Oh, that explains the harnesses and all I saw on several dogs and cats...", Jasmine said, and the elder cat replies, "Indeed. And oh, another thing you must know. Pets with owners have collars and tags.".
"Collars and tags?", Jasmine asked in shock and confusion, and the elder responded, "It's like a symbol that you are a pet to the public, and that you are immediately saved from the pound or staying longer in this place either way, and the tags has the human's territory and your name.".
"And if not?", Jasmine asked as the elder sighed, "Well, the humans consider them to be 'feral' and often round them up... what they do with them, sometimes they try to domesticate them... and others, they just put down.".
Jasmine widened her eyes, "By Allah...", and the elder cat replied, "Yeah...It's mainly the dangerously sick ones and the too feral ones who gets put down...Other than that, the cats are lucky to have humans treating them better than everyone else...And of course, feral cats have to deal with cars in this city. Parking is insane...".
"Cars?", Jasmine asked, and the elder cat explained, "The small metal beasts, and there's trucks, bikes, which feral cats call by monster beasts and human rider beasts...".
"I saw them...Is this city really that dangerous?", Jasmine whispered, and the elder cat sighed, "In some respects, yes, but it's important to find the beauty in the ugly side of things. Trust me, there's things that can surprise you for the better, if you want to be free of this place yet safe in a warm, cozy place.".
Jasmine sighed deeply, realizing that the elder is right...She doesn't want to stay like this, being a prisoner, even though the humans here are good and mean well...Heck, if she heard right, her pet name is Princess, which is not really bad, considering that she's used to the title...
"Okay, elder, I'll consider your advice, and get adopted by a human...I just hope that everything turns out better than this for me...", Jasmine sighed. The elder cat purred, "Don't worry, youngster, you'll see that there are more good humans than what you had experienced. Oh, where is my manners? I'm Gordon.".
"Pleased to meet you, Gordon... I really appreciate it.", Jasmine said as Gordan gave a light chuckle, "More than happy to help, after the hell you said you've been through. Of course, I'll probably not have too much left to do, especially with this place... few want an older cat like me, and I'm nearing the end of my lives.".
Jasmine frowned, "But you're so nice!", and Gordon purred, "Glad to hear that, youngster, but don't despair for me. I had a very good life, nine lives, that is, and besides, I am here because I got a sprained leg. But you, you have nine lives to look forward to, and being a cat, it isn't so bad.".
"Oh...I guess...how long am I gonna be here?", Jasmine replied, and Gordon replied, "Probably a day or two, just to make sure that you're healthy and all, and then it's off to the adoption center.".
Jasmine nodded, "That's not too bad...By the way, what's the metal box of funky rocks?", and Gordon chuckled, "That's your litter box aka making dirt, or humans call it a bathroom, going potty.".