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Life had been just peachy two weeks ago - back at home. There was always good food to eat and siblings to play and snooze with, and a loving mother whose wise eyes would survey the kittens while they roughhoused. Oh, how lovely it'd been.
Until the children and their parents had started coming, and would pick up and relentlessly dote on the kittens. Well, not her. She would run off into the bushes and cower until they left. And one by one her siblings were taken away, wrapped in the arms of some squealing child. And she would hide all the more, terrified of what had befallen her friends.
Until one day a human picked her up by the scruff and gingerly placed her in a smelly cardboard box, and the next thing she knew she was someplace entirely unfamiliar and terribly scary, and worst of all - she was completely and wholly alone.
For the first two days she didn't receive any help, and she was left trembling in her box, peering at the forest looming just paces away.
Her throat felt raw. Her tongue was swollen with thirst, her stomach shredding itself out of hunger. Her bones ached from the cold.
Until...
She had just awoken from a fitful night's sleep when she noticed something prowling in the wild grasses nearby - a cat!
The cat was a pale gold with slight striping, with sleek fur that shone like snow in the feeble morning sun. She could see the slightest protrusion of ribs on her sides.
The kitten mewed suddenly, desperately. The stranger whipped its head around to fix its gaze on her - a hard yellow stare that immediately softened at the sight of such a gentle creature. It crept over.
"Hello, love. No no, come out of that box - don't be frightened, my dear." Her voice was sweet like the bluebells that lined their old garden, light like the cool lake breeze. The kitten stirred, rising to its trembling feet, peering at her with wide green eyes that were alight with curiousity. Somehow, she was not afraid of this newcomer.
"Oh, poor thing. What's happened to you?"
The kitten described her story best she could, head dropped, mumbling into her chest.
"You poor dear..." Said the she-cat, swishing her tail thoughtfully. Then, "Come along, then. You must be hungry and tired. I will show you the best places to hunt and scavenge for food, and the safest and warmest places for you to slumber." With that she gave a kind smile and set off towards the woods nearest the road, which still shuddered with occasional traffic.
"But I am not your kin," mewed the kitten loudly, starting after the stranger. "You have no obligation to help me."
"I do not," she replied. "But that shouldn't matter. You will learn this, in time. Now, hasten your pace!"
She scrambled after the stranger, casting one last look at the road behind and that dreadful box.
