On The Passage of Time

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It was a beautiful day. The sun shone brightly in the cloudless blue sky, birds chirped in joyous harmony, and a playful breeze danced through the luscious, healthy trees.

It was an absolutely miserable day.

The afternoon sun was its usual irritating ball of heat stroke-inducing fire, the birds were tirelessly croaking out their dissonant imitations of music, and the breeze was more heartless than playful as it flung Chloe's long, black hair into her glum face.

Chloe Liu, 17 years old (or so they say), of a height that she liked to call average and others liked to call short, was trudging down the busy street. Her shoulders slumped under the weight of her dull grey backpack, and the silver bell that swung from it chimed in a muffled way, resembling the mournful tolls of a funeral bell.

A pair of pale green earbuds were plugged into her ears, emitting lighthearted instrumental music that was an utter contrast to the girl's downcast expression. Chloe rubbed her slightly puffy eyes wearily and opened her mouth to yawn.

Halfway through her yawn, though, Chloe froze. With her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide, her expression bore an uncanny resemblance to the gaping dead fish at the grocery store. She half shuffled, half ran to a narrow alleyway where a little black cat playing with a discarded chip bag had caught her eye. As soon as she crouched down to pet the cat's soft fur, it jumped up and padded away down the alley.

Chloe stood up, too, pulling her phone out of her pocket to check the time.

"I have a few minutes," she muttered happily to herself, then joyously bounced after the cat. "Come here kitty...don't go away..."

The cat glanced over its shoulder at the strange human stalking it, then whisked around the corner and vanished.

Undeterred, the cat-stalker darted after it, turned the corner, and then staggered and came to an abrupt halt. Before her now wide-awake eyes stretched a vast expanse of grassy fields and colorful wildflowers dancing in tandem with butterflies whose wings shimmered like water on a moonlit night. All along the horizon, great mountains loomed over the plains, their snow-capped peaks fading into misty swirls of cloud. Bewildered, Chloe glanced over her shoulder, only to see that the dim alley she had just been walking along had disappeared, replaced only by more knee-high grass swaying soothingly in the wind.

"Brreow?"

A muffled purr came from the ground near Chloe's feet. She looked down, startled, to see the black cat standing beside her. Its small body was almost entirely obscured by the tall blades of grass.

"Toto," Chloe said to the cat, her voice shaking slightly with the vain effort of masking her confusion with sarcasm. "I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

The cat seemed to nod its small head, then shivered all over. Before Chloe could unleash any more sarcastic remarks, the cat stretched, its body growing longer. And longer. And—get this—even longer.

Thankfully, before the cat morphed entirely into some kind of cat-snake mutant, the rest of its body started to catch up. It expanded, much like a balloon except furry and breathing, while Chloe looked on in shock. With this introduction of Balloon-Cat, her abundant store of sarcasm had abruptly disappeared. And along with it went any remaining hope for her sanity.

Poof.

The cat gave one last shudder, then bared its newly-grown fangs. Its head, which Chloe distinctly remembered having to crouch down to pet before, now reached her waist. Chloe looked at the massive, magically-enhanced cat in silence. Ah yes, optimum petting height, she thought hazily, swaying slightly like one of the many blades of grass in the wind.