Sanctuary

[Tyapa]

The snowflakes spiralled gently down to Earth, blanketing the world in reflective white and lighting up the forest like an ice rink. The ever-watchful trees were dormant, their arboreal creatures asleep within them, decorating their boughs like ornaments. There was an old willow tree there, its cascading curtains sheltering the ground below it, like an umbrella. It was hollow, and inside, was a precious secret. She lay curled up like a fawn, smaller than a squirrel, and was as quiet as a mouse. She had to be, because while midwinter crippled the forest animals, it was the wolf's finest hour.

All she had ever known was blackness, and now, in the heart of the December night, her eyes opened for the very first time. Lifting her head tenderly, she observed the hollow trunk in which she lay, and saw something. Something strange. It was, alive. A ladybird, crawling purposefully up the bark. There were other souls too, like the ants, caterpillars, beetles, creeping around. She had not ever seen these colours or creatures before, and she sat in her willow tree world, immersed in wonder.

And as she took her first steps into the snow globe woods, she felt her heart beating in her chest, and the frosty flakes brushed her velvet fur on their way down, and the winter moths, looking for company, swirled around her like housecats. She played, chasing the aurora, until her toes got cold and she returned to her hollow. The ladybird was gone. Her mewls echoed across the hushed forest, and after hours of calling, she fell softly, and suddenly into her dreams. She was alone.

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Cloud stopped briefly at a small mew. She started to walk towards the sound realizing it was just a kit. As she turned around a few pine trees she spotted a small velvety colored kit. Cloud took a few steps closer until she heard a loud snap. She looked down at her paws and saw she had snapped a large stick with her paw. The kit suddenly started to shift and she realized she had woken the small kit. 

[Tyapa]

The small kitten tilted her head, her ears swirling delicately as they picked up a sound, and her heart began to beat like a rabbit's. It could be a clever fox, with a plush amber coat and hungry, watering jaws. Or a cuddly brown bear, except not so cuddly anymore, waking from his winter sleep and looking for a snack. Or, a wolf. She was unsure and did not know what to do with herself, and in her panic, she bolted from her tree den and collided straight into another cat. Batting her raven-coloured lashes, she looked up, and her heart beat faster. Say hello. So, she did.

"Hello," she whispered gently, for that was all she knew how to say.

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"Hello..where are your parents?" She said with concern. Cloud looked down at the small kit and realized how thin she was.

[Tyapa]

The mouse is an unlucky spirit. It gets preyed upon, by almost everything; the owls, the weasels, the foxes, and worst of all, the cats, with their silent steps and their curved claws. And the poor mouse must watch himself every waking moment, for his heartbeat alone can give him away.

The snowflakes drifted, resting on her ears and her eyelashes and she sneezed, her fine silvery hairs tipped with white. "...by-y...myself" she replied with a breaking voice, and her watery eyes reflected the starlight like distant moons. Her stomach rumbled and she shook, her coat fluffing up against the midnight wind. Her life was new and unguarded and she, with her tender skin and her tantalising scent, was in more danger than a mouse.

[Deleted]

"A-are you okay?" Cloud said with concern for the small kit. She took a few steps closer but the kit seamed to jerk away.