The Dreamer

Chapter 3 - Trapped

 Mwotaji woke with the sunset just like usual. He gave his fur a quick wash and, after a stretch, left his alley to find some food.

 For a moment it felt weird being on his own, until he turned the corner out of his alley. He was greeted by one of the queens from a colony of females who lived across the street in an abandoned off-leash dog park, the dogs were so scared of going there because of how fierce the clowder was that the humans stopped bringing them.

 Her tail twitched slightly and she tilted her head to look past Mwotaji.

 Mwotaji stepped back to let her pass, then turned to continue down the sidewalk. He could smell some form of raw food the humans sometimes put out for him and the other strays.

 He hadn't realised how much he would miss being able to talk to other cats, but it was nice being able to show that he was friendly with just his tail instead of a couple of meows. He did prefer the sound of the birds in the forest over the cars in the city but the lack of meowing and hissing was nice.

 He followed the scent to an alley. Glancing around to make sure it was safe, he followed it to its source. The food bowl was inside something metal, with lots of holes in it almost like the fence around the dog park.

 As he started eating he heard a snap from behind him. His fur spiked and he spun to see what it was. The gap he had gone through to get inside the metal thing was gone, and a pair of humans were running toward him. A trap!

 He arched his back and growled, and the world suddenly went dark. Coloured light filtered through something on top of the trap. The floor jerked beneath him and light started coming in through the bottom as well.

 The humans made some indistinct noises on the other side of the darkness. The floor kept wobbling, it paused for a moment and light stopped coming in from the bottom of the trap. Mwotaji smelled other cats, all angry or scared by the sounds of the hissing. He missed being able to talk even more than before, their hisses didn't mean anything more than "I'm angry", "I'm so scared", and "Go away". He should've been able to comfort them or ask whether this had happened to any of them before.

 The ground started vibrating again and a low grumbling sound seemed to come from everywhere.

 The other cats slowly calmed down. Mwotaji was still angry about being stuck but there was nothing he could do, he tried clawing and biting at the metal bits but nothing worked. The rest of the time he was awake passed as a blur. The humans took him somewhere, he didn't fight as they pulled him out of the trap, one of them commented on it, and the next thing he knew he was Soñador again.

 Soñador opened his eyes sleepily, what was he doing here already? It was still dusk.

 Serena had been staring at him, her muzzle only inches from his. "Did I wake you?" She asked.

 "No, something else did." Soñador replied, not realising how he sounded.

 "Mhm, and what would that be?" Serena asked skeptically.

 "I don't know." Soñador couldn't think how to describe it even if he did reveal to her that when he slept he woke as a different cat instead of dreaming. Some sort of clear thing was put on his face and the smell of the air changed, then suddenly he was Soñador instead of Mwotaji.

 "Well now you seem lost in thought. Hm." Serena turned away, her tail twitching. "Well if it wasn't me that woke you up I'll have to find out what did. Maybe one of my plants was crushed by something and the smell it makes wakes cats up? I have one of those I think." She buried herself in her piles of leaves, still meowing to herself.

 While Mwotaji was asleep, Soñador figured he might as well watch the end of the sunset with Espíritu. He crept out of the den, unsure whether Serena would want him to stay for closer examination instead if he announced he was leaving.

 "You weren't asleep for very long." Espíritu called. "Come watch the rest of the sunset."

 "I'll go back to sleep after." Soñador meowed as he sat down next to her.

 Espíritu purred, leaning against him. "But you're here now, the future doesn't matter until the sun is down."