Jade

Jade - First Look

When she woke up, Jade didn't know what had happened until she saw how far down she was. She was at the very bottom of the hill, lucky to even be alive after falling that height. Or maybe she rolled? She couldn't seem to remember anything that happened in the past 15 minutes. Her siblings were nowhere in sight. Had they forgotten about her? No, they couldn't have, Jade thought, they couldn't have forgotten me. Maybe they left me down here because they were jealous that I got more treats than them? She didn't have many options or ideas, so she hesitantly walked into the deep forest.

Jade expected the woods to be big, but she wasn't expecting it to be this big. She was walking for what felt like hours, but she still wasn't anywhere near the other end. Her legs were getting tired, and she was starting to lose hope. Then, she heard a leaf crunch. She looked under her paw, but nothing was there. Probably just hearing things, she thought. The small cat continued her long walk through the forest.

About 10 minutes later, Jade came across a small cabin. It didn't look like anyone was home, and it was almost dark. She thought for a second, and then walked in. As soon as she stepped her first paw in, she heard a voice. "We're going to see storms tomorrow in the morning." It was coming from a strange box sitting on a table. Was someone stuck inside? She tried to open the box, but it wouldn't budge. Jade pushed it off the table as the voice was talking about construction, and it fell apart. The kitten looked inside, only to find a bunch of wires and a speaker. Disappointed, Jade began to grow tired. She found an animal bed on the floor that was much bigger than her, but it was her best choice. Despite strange noises she heard outside, the green cat fell asleep.

Jade was dozing away in the animal bed when she woke up to a large boom. She assumed it was thunder, as the box was talking about storms the day before, but it wasn't cloudy at all. She heard another one, this time closer, followed by a dog barking. The frightened kitty didn't understand dog, but it sounded angry. There was one more boom, the dog barked a little more, and then it stopped. Did the boom kill the dog? Jade slowly climbed onto the windowsill, only to find an animal sleeping by a tree. The cat approached the animal, meowing softly to wake it up. Upon investigating closer, she found a hole in the animal's side. The animal was dead. And it wasn't a dog.

The animal Jade had found was a deer. She didn't know this, as she had never been in the wilderness before, but she knew it wasn't a dog. That meant whatever had made the booms was still out there. The terrified cat hastily whirled her head around, trying to find the source of the strange noises. Then another boom rang out from the darkness, this time right next to her, and she took off.

Jade ran faster than she ever had in her life. She looked over her shoulder to see a man with a hunting rifle running after her. BANG! Each shot was loud enough to make the kitten's ears ring, and she was lucky the man had a bad aim. Then, the barking came. The dog was chasing after her now, so she needed to evade it somehow. Jade climbed up a tall tree as fast as her little claws could go. She crawled slowly to the top, camouflaging with the leaves. The man fired a few shots at the tree and left. That was close, she thought. She waited a few more minutes before finally climbing down.