The Dreamer

Chapter 4 - Wondering and Wandering

 Soñador headed back to Serena's den just after the sun finished setting. He didn't fall asleep for a while, and when he did it was gradual. Gradually falling asleep instead of suddenly was unusual for Soñador.

 Mwotaji was still in the same place he had been when he fell asleep. He still felt drowsy and one of his ears felt weird. He licked his paw and drew it over his ear. The tip was cut.

 After a moment, he was put back in the trap. As the floor vibrated again, he thought about what he had learned from the day's unusual experiences. Espíritu had said humans were extinct. Then a bunch of humans took him to some strange, brightly lit place and he woke with a clipped ear tip.

 If humans still existed in Mwotaji's world, but were extinct in Soñador's, was Soñador a flash-forward? Or Mwotaji one of Soñador's memories? Which world was the present?

 It was confusing to think about his magic. When he was a kitten he had always thought the other world was just a dream, but it was too consistent to be a dream. It felt too real to be a dream.

 What if Mwotaji's life was nothing more than a memory of a past life that Soñador was remembering every time he fell asleep? No, it couldn't be. Soñador's wakefulness depended on Mwotaji being asleep.

 Mwotaji hardly noticed that the humans had now set the trap back on the ground. Absent-mindedly, he slipped out when he was sure it was safe.

 He followed the path back to the alley he and the other toms lived in. His scent in the box he slept in was still fresh. It made him notice the strange scent stuck to his fur. Luckily he could just roll in the box to get his own scent back. The other cats in his group wouldn't like if his scent suddenly changed. It would be as if he was a whole new cat.

 He went about the next few hours as usual, wandering and wondering, hunting and marking his territory, rubbing his cheeks against walls, kneading the ground. Until he realised it was midnight.

Being abducted and put to sleep had thrown off his internal clock, Mwotaji usually slept at midday and midnight, waking only at dusk and dawn. Tail flicking in frustration, he turned back to his alley.

 Ears pricked, he passed cautiously by the alley where he'd been caught. The smell of food still lingered, though the trap seemed to have been moved. No sign that the humans had been there recently.

 He sniffed around. Why had the humans put a trap here? He didn't smell anything unusual besides the odd scent that had been stuck to his pelt.

 No there was something unusual, he had been wrong, the odd scent didn't only follow his tracks.

 He tracked the scents. They all lead to places where the other toms in his colony slept, where they had rolled in their own scents to get them back as he had.

 Finally the sun was rising, Mwotaji caught a mouse for himself and headed back to his alley. He cleaned his whiskers and watched the sun set before going to sleep.

 Was Soñador a dream? Mwotaji had never actually had a dream, unless Soñador was one. Were dreams like this for other cats? If only he could ask.

 Whatever Soñador's life was, it was certainly more interesting than Mwotaji's.

 In no time, Mwotaji was asleep again.