It was the same dream again.
Being a kitten again. A cat grabbing her in her jaws. Her mother. Running. Her feet dragging on the rough pebbles, bleeding.
Mother.
Violet woke up with a jerk. She shook herself to wake herself up and the fur on the back of her neck felt free again. She felt Kiara and Autumn stirring behind her. Quickly, she started licking her paw and waited for them to get up.
"Good morning," Violet purred. Autumn responded by pinning Violet down in a playfight. "Hey, I wasn't ready!" Violet objected. Autumn was pinning her down with her best strength. Thinking fast, Violet went limp. Autumn's grip on her relaxed and instantly, Violet threw her off.
"Easy there!" Kiara laughed. Violet went over to her and gave the cat who had raised her a lick on the cheek. Kiara had found Violet under a dumpster and had taken care of her, along with Autumn, ever since.
"I'm hungry!" Autumn complained as she bounded over to her mother and her adopted sister. Her short tail waved from left to right impatiently.
Violet sighed. Autumn had a really big appetite. But that season, many of the humans went away from their homes for a period of time. So there was less food being thrown out for them to eat.
"Come on. Let's go for a walk. It'd be good to stretch our legs and paws for a bit. We could hunt too, if we're lucky," Kiara exclaimed, waving her tail. Violet and Autumn looked at each other in excitement and bounded after Kiara.
Violet sniffed the air suspiciously. "The air smells different today." she mumbled. Autumn turned to look at her. "What was that?" Violet shook her head. "Nothing, nothing."
She continued sniffing the air for a while. The smell slowly became familiar and she relaxed.
The three she-cats wandered around the streets they called home. Finally, in the afternoon, they headed back to the alley where their cardboard box lay.
There was a strong smell of meat. Autumn's mouth began to water. She followed the smell and it was like the luckiest day of their lives.
Fresh meat! They actually found meat that was fresh not far from their den. Kiara carried the piece of meat back to their den, and there they sat, sharing the piece of meat.
Violet yawned. Her stomach had never felt that full in days. Strangely, she felt tired. It was not even evening. She then turned to look at Kiara and Autumn. Autumn was already asleep, her golden brown fur fluffed up in a tight ball. Kiara had also fallen asleep.
Violet felt as if something was wrong. That strange smell in the air that morning, fresh meat mysteriously laying around, feeling tired even though it was not even evening.. She suspected that there was something strange in the meat they ate.
Violet's eyelids were heavy. She tried to fight the sleep coming. As her eyes closed, she saw a pair of human feet walk over to their den.
Then darkness engulfed her.
-
Autumn woke up and yawned, still feeling tired after a long sleep. It was dark. She stood up to stretch her stiff body. Her back touched cold metal. She didn't remember going anywhere near metal. Her ears pricked up in surprise. Where was she? She sniffed the air curiously. Scents of different cats filled the air.
Blinking, Autumn scanned her surroundings. She lifted a paw, and touched cold metal again. Realisation struck her. She was in a cage! How in the world did she end up in there?
The cage was very small, with a bowl of pellets and another bowl of water. She sniffed at the pellets and ate them with disgust. The pellets tasted horrible! She closed her eyes and forced herself to eat because she was hungry.
Autumn got up and tried to wash herself. The cage was too small for her to even stand. She grunted and just sat patiently in the tight, small cage.
Suddenly, the place she was in lit up. Autumn hissed softly in shock, closing her eyes and a human walked in. He must have switched the lights on. Autumn took that moment to look around. It was a room, and shelves were everywhere. Cages. Cages with cats inside sat on the shelves.
The other cats were asleep. Except for one. He was a dark gray tomcat with bright green eyes. He was not looking in Autumn's direction and she wanted to call him. She looked for the human and saw that he had already left.
"Excuse me!" she meowed softly. The tomcat's ears pricked up and he turned to look at her. His eyes widened and he gave a light cough before speaking.
"How did they catch you?" he asked, his blunt tail twitching. "All I did was eat a piece of meat and I fell asleep. And I woke up in this horrible place!"
"Meat?" Autumn asked, remembering the meal she shared with Kiara and Violet. The meat! Of course.
"Why? Did they catch you with the meat too?"
"They didn't exactly catch me. I don't remember anything after eating that meat.."
Autumn's voice trailed off. The humans must have added a medicine to make Kiara, Violet and herself fall asleep. Autumn growled softly. How could they have been so foolish?
"Hey, are you-"
The tomcat was interrupted by the sound of clanging metal. His eyes darted to a cage on the same shelf as Autumn's. Autumn craned her neck to see what was going on. A cat was trying to push its cage off the shelf!
Autumn held her breath. As the cage got pushed more and more over the edge of the shelf, she saw a familiar ginger pelt in the cage. She opened her mouth to call to the cat but her breath got caught in her throat as the cage toppled to the ground.
"Violet!"
