Random Stories

Short 7- The Eighth and Ninth

The storm grew fiercer as I starred out the stained glass window of my house. I waltzed back to the living room where my human sat quietly, she was an elder of her kind, a sweet soul nonetheless. I mewed at her, nothing happened, I let out a loud wail and she did not move. My cries became louder as I wailed at my unmoving human. I stopped, my seven lives flashed before me,

'No!'

I, with the last of my dying energy, climb onto my human and purr. I pour all my feelings I have ever felt for my human into the purr. It slowly fades until it is a slow rumble in my throat, finally I snuggle close to her and fall from this reality and realize I have one more life, but with all of my trying I choose out of spite, I wished to be a tiger; strong, fast, cunning and most of all, my sweet owners favourite animal. I growl as a newborn, unable to see. In a few weeks I had opened my eyes and dedicated myself to becoming as strong as I could, I hunted whatever I could whenever I could. I was out on a hunt, I was many months old, old enough that mother left us. I had found shelter in some abandoned jungle ruins, many other predators had tried to claim it but I fought them off. As I settled to sleep on an openly star-splattered night, I felt like I was missing something, I couldn't quite reach it, I didn't know what 'it' was! I couldn't sleep that night, nor had I slept that week, I started to grow brittle, unable to hunt in my condition, it would take a miracle now. One night I hunkered down for rest, though I knew I wouldn't be getting any, as my heart slowed to a resting even beat, I heard something in the back of my mind, not the instinct to hunt, not a fight or flight, it was something more, a memory, my last life, flashes of happier times played in my head suddenly, sadness crashed over me like a wave, in the first of the morning light I finally had something to mourn, the loss of a loved one. Everything had changed since then, I had traveled far and saw so much. I was old now and had settled near a small jungle wood, a graveyard sat beside my home, I didn't know how or why I knew the word graveyard but it felt right, for it was a place where I have seen many humans with their heads bowed and a large box in a hole with a stone in front of it. I heard talk of the dead honoured there, six feet below, is something else I picked up on, sad it always was, the mourning place is what I called it. I never had company before as a lone tiger, but one day I was trying very hard to remember, remember all that had happened before my old. My head dipped and my walking shakily slowed, I was dying, I sat myself next to a grave with a thump, I looked over it, someone had really cared for this person, the stone was engraved and covered in royal blue gemstones, the engraving spoke of a sweet elder passing with her cat in her arms, I realized it was me I was the cat, my mourning of loss when I was young made sense, I lost her, she, my beloved owner, I purred with what I had in me, and fell into a pure slumber of kind memories, a woman appeared before me, it was her, I ran forward and was returned to my cat life. I was held in her ghostly arms and taken home, I was to rest in peace there for all eternity, and I couldn't be happier.