Chapter 1 Savior
It was the worst day of my life, but even that day paled to the coming decade along side my savior, friend, and protector. I had barely managed to grasp the edge of the embankment, the river relentlessly dragging my small and feeble body in it’s cold and unforgiving grasp. My shaking legs pull me up and as much as I would love to just lay still and catch my breath, my racing heart compels me to move forward and seek some place dry. As I walk in my hazy search for a bush or tree or anything that I could hide under, I try to shake the water from my legs and my ears.
I do find a nice dry place under a bush. The night has grown dark and I begin to shiver from the cold. I try licking myself to get any excess water out of my fur. I’m no where near dry enough and the shivers are becoming painful, but my little body feels exhausted and desiring of sleep. I feared this was the end of my small and insignificant life.
I can’t recall ever falling asleep that night, but my eyes soon caught the first rays of day rising over the horizon. In that moment of seeing the new day dawn, I felt my stomach growl. It was most painful and I hadn’t a clue where to find food. Despite feeling cold and hungry, I pull myself onto all four and shakily begin looking for something to eat.
Every rustle I see in the grass before me, I crouch down, beginning the hunt. As I close in on the spot, I leap and soon find whatever was there was no longer to be found. Mother made it look so simple catching small rodents.
The sun has risen high in the sky now and the warmth of it is quickly seeping into my fur. I feel dry and the cold has long passed. Yet this has brought another problem. The hot sun is only reminding me of how thirsty I was. I look toward the river that was to my right... but it’s long gone from view now.
I lay down under a tree trying to ignore the pressing hunger and thirst I was feeling. How easily this pain could have been prevented if I had listened then to my mother warning me of the river. But it was too mesmerizing to watch. I would watch other cats fish and it was amazing to watch them make a catch. How the fish would fight against their claws and mighty jaws.
There was also the kitten who would stare back at me whenever I peered of the edge of the bankment. At first it scared me, but then I began to like the little guy as he copied everything I did. I called him Temo. Yesterday I figured I had enough of just looking at Temo and decided I would pounce him. He seemed to have the same idea because as soon as I jumped of the edge I saw him coming closer to me!
As I landed on Temo, he disappeared and the water was there to greet me instead. I began to cry out for my mother, hoping she or at least someone in earshot would hear my plea for help. Instead the river pulled me along and began to move more rapidly. I haven’t a clue how long that river carried me, trying to drown me the entire time, but as I look around for anything remotely familiar, nothing comes to sight.
I keep walking in the direction I assume to be up stream after my little break. The sun begins to hang low in the sky when in the distance I can see something that looks like a house. I couldn’t be sure since I was very weary from a full day in the sun with no water or food. I lay down once more with the thought that tonight could quite possibly be my last.
It was another cold night, though not as cold as the previous when I was wet. The sun already feels cooler than the day before as it rises over the horizon. I regain my feet and pursue after the building like image I see some distance off.
I can’t tell if it’s getting closer, but the day is drastically turning out to be hotter than yesterday as the sun continues to climb higher. I take many breaks under bushes and trees as I strive to get to the building. Buildings for what I know mean people, and people mean food and water.
However during one of my rests, my little body truly feels incapable of moving any further. The cool of the shade felt much better on my dehydrated and starved body than the blazing run that has sent heat waves on the horizon. Again, the house doesn’t appear to be that much closer. I decide if I wake by nightfall, I would try and walk then in the cool of the night than by the heat of the day. And of course if my mind can will my body to do so.
It is here though that I am saved. Unable to react appropriately to the sudden sound, I could feel a pair of hands scoop me up. They weren’t the most careful of hands, but it was nice to know something has found me and how I hope they are here to save me.
My eyes focus in on a face. I have no idea what folk years are, but this little girl had bright blue eyes and mess of tight ringlets all about her face. She smiled a big smile, her right front tooth missing. Then as she really looked at me her face turned to worry.
“Oh kitty! Aw ya thusty?” she asked. If I could answer, I would. But even a meow was impossible with my dry mouth.
“Okay, I’m going to take you home with me, but if I do kitty, you have to be supa quiet oh I will get in big twuble!” She eyes me real good and my exhausted body hangs helplessly in her arms. I close my eyes out of tiredness and I feel her place a cloth around me. She’s running from what I can tell and from how I bounced around against her body.
I hear her slow to a stop. Her movements are very slow now. I can tell she’s trying to be sneaky. I can sense her nervousness and can’t help beginning to feel nervous myself. I don’t want to be unwelcomed by someone even if the girl is helping me. If that was one thing my mother taught me, it was to read people, sense their energy and those around them to get a reading as to whether they were safe to be with or not. I tried struggling but the firm grasp of the child and my weak body was a hopeless attempt.
I hear a door creak open and through the cloth smell a wood stove burning. I could also hear water boiling and some laughter far off. The girl hesitated, I’m sure looking around and assessing if the coast was really clear.
“Shh,” she says and then quietly, yet calmly, begins moving into the place. There are creaks every other step and I can feel her heart racing despite how evenly she walked. We went up a flight of stairs and soon found myself being placed on a blanket.
My body collapses on the smooth fabric. The room seems to spin slightly but I’m weighed down once more when the little girl puts her hand on me and gets close to my face.
“I’ll be wight back with some milk. Stay heeya and wemembah! No meowing!” and with that she walks out of the room. I can hear the creaking stairs as she moves down them. I also hear more echo’s of a woman’s laughter. There’s a man with her, but it’s more of a hum I pick up on with no distinct words. It seemed like I found me a happy family.
Yet an eerie silence overcame the house when something, I assumed at the time, fell in the kitchen. It last 2 seconds passed before heavy steps were heard. They stopped.
“Yrid (Ay-id)! You better not be getting into the food before supper!” a male voice barks. I was startled by the fierceness of the voice. Why would anyone talk in such a way to something so pretty and kind as that little girl... or was he quite possibly talking to some other being or creature?
“Oh pay no mind the her! Come on back here before you know who gets home,” a feminine voice beckoned. The man resumed stomping back the way he came. My friend seems to take advantage of the noise and quickly moves up the squeaky stairs.
I see her walk into the room, her eyes wide and her face pale. She puts on a smile as she looks at me. It was obvious she was feeling clever for outsmarting the man down stairs and making off with a plate of something. It was then I assumed that her name must be Yrid.
I inhaled deeply, trying to catch a hint of what it was she brought. Everything in the room bombarded my nose. Sour, moldy, floral, smokey, musky, chicken, and a few others that my foggy head couldn’t put a paw on. As she placed the plate in front of me I can see milk! My hungry and weak body suddenly had a shock of energy enough to prop myself up and begin lapping up the needed sustenance my body desired.
Thankfully I was as starved as I was. The sour smell had to have been the milk. It wasn’t fresh and it wasn’t so sour that I felt I was drinking death into my body, but enough that if I wasn’t as hungry as I was, I would have refused. But my head overrided the disgust as my stomach delighted in something to digest.
After a long moment of lapping up the sour milk, I noticed Yrid handing me some kind of meat. I sniffed it up close, the scant piece of it, and immediately knew the chicken I smelled was this. How delicious that tiny morsel was! I licked her fingers looking for more. I see her hand me the chicken foot she somehow managed to pry some meat from. It’s rough eating, but I lick and gnaw at the foot for a little bit, getting a few more morsels off of it before returning to the easier food source, the milk.
My belly was beginning to hurt some, though my brain told me I should keep eating, when I decided to lay down on the bed and curl into a ball. I noticed then that the girl had been petting me the whole time. Despite not feeling fully satisfied with my meal, I couldn’t help but purr because it was very comforting to have had someone help me in my time of need.
Yrid leaned in toward me and I can feel her breath on my ear.
“Wemembah, this is aw little secwet. Don’t let daddy find you! Stay whe I say you stay and he will nevah know. I pwomise to pwotect you and feed you and play with you! I just weally want another fwend.”
I let her babble on about all the things she wanted to do with me. I was further impressed with how aware she was that I wasn’t feeling well and thankful she hadn’t whisked me off to go wherever she wanted. She was actually petting me nicely and letting me rest. With those first few hours under her care I figured she may very well be worthwhile staying around for a long time and let her be my person.
In fact, it was very apparent by nightfall that I wasn’t the one who needed long term taking care of. I wasn’t the only one who was desperate for a savior. No. It wasn’t me who deserved it.
This poor child was in the care of a monster.
