Heather wrote:✽✽~.:Background:.~✽✽
“Oh, you’re back. What could you possibly want from me now? More personal information, hm? My ‘backstory’ you say? You younger kias are truly strange. Why should I humor you at all? You are bored to tears when I start talking. Yes, just like that. Thank you for that example. Now, stop playing with your claws. If you want me to speak you had better listen. I’m going to begin now, are you quite finished staring past my shoulder?
My mother was a house pet so, naturally, I was born in a human’s house. She had made her nest in the kitchen underneath the china cabinet, a nice and out of the way location. I was an only child and my birth was a secret. When I grew old enough to want to run around and play my mother would scurry over and wrap me deeper into the old blankets that made up the nest so that I wouldn’t get myself discovered. Of course, the mistress of the house became worried when my mother disappeared for hours at time. She feared that the kiamara had run off while, in reality, she was only trying to feed me. My mother must have known that she couldn’t keep me cooped up forever, but that didn’t stop her from trying.
When I became the age where most young kias would be running about with tireless energy I was still underneath the china cabinet, staring at the rough wood above my head, filled with restlessness. My mother was being watched more closely, so I didn’t see her often anymore and when I did see her the visits were brief and stressful.
On a foolish whim I decided to venture out into the house while night covered it in silence. I can still remember the tension in my body as I crept out for that dreadful cabinet, fearing I would be caught, but one I felt the open space the worries evaporated. My claws clicked on the pale kitchen tiles as I trotted around with more freedom than I’d ever had in my entire life. Soon, the kitchen grew old as I had had plenty of time to view it from my prison. I shoved my way through the swinging door leading to a long carpeted hall. There were so many doors branching off into different rooms and some into different halls with more doors. I was stunned. I had thought that the house was barely more than a kitchen. I was even more shocked to find that the house had stairs that led up to an equally large maze of corridors. As I paced through the hall I became fearful that I would get lost. I decided to return to the kitchen, but I had already chosen several doors to go through and was now lost in the dark house.
Since you’re obviously hanging on to my every word, young kia, I’ll spare you the suspense and tell you that I did, in fact, find my way back to the kitchen with the help on my mother, whom I found in a large dining room. Now, will you put whatever you have in your claws that is so dreadfully noisy on the floor, away from your grabby paws.
After my mother had returned me to my rightful place she fell into a fit of worry. She feared that I would finally be discovered and she was right. The mistress of the house had found some prints I had left in an empty fireplace and believed rats were trying to take over the home. She now marched up and down the halls, barricading them with traps and poison. Unfortunately, this meant that I was no longer safe in the home. My mother did the only thing she could think of and took me outside the home.
I was thrilled to be out as the world was bright and colorful compared to the dim house, but my mother’s attitude put a damper on my excitement. I couldn’t imagine what was making her head droop and her paws drag so.
She led me away from the house into the forest that bundled against the backside of it. I remember being stunned to see trees even taller than the house and new, strange animals everywhere. I was so enveloped with this new world I couldn’t see my mother slip away, unnoticed and broken. I continued waking alone shouting out things I found interesting for my mother to hear. I wandered deeper and deeper until the trees broke away and an open field lay before me. I was terribly excited to see such a large space, but I was getting tired. She had taken me out very early in the morning and now the sun was setting. I had probably covered miles of land by myself. It was at that point, when I turned to ask my mother to take me back, I realized she was gone. A shock filled my heart and I jumped into the air out of a sudden burst of fear, but then I tried to reason, perhaps she was a length behind resting her sore paws. I called out, but no one answered me. I yowled as loudly as I could, being too fearful to move my paws from the spot. I realized the light had vanished from the sky and I was filled with sadness, knowing there was no way I could make it back to the house. I curled up on the hard ground and cried myself to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up and turned my back to the woods. I had to cope with the fact that there was no going back and I knew it, but I wasn’t ready and while I tried to stand strong my eye blurred with tears. I forced myself forwards, trying to ignore my wobbling knees and hold back sobs, and, that day, left the forest, the house, my mother, and my old life behind.
It was a terrible journey. I had to find my own food, which, most of the time, was something a human had dropped at one point in time and there was always the nagging depression on my mother. I knew I had to leave the thoughts behind, but it was hard. For months I wandered aimlessly, growing better at surviving in the wilderness. After two years of being alone I was quite used to the harsh world. I learned how to hunt and scavenge, terrible practices but, I had to survive somehow. Somewhere along the line I must have gotten turned around, because one day I broke through a thick line of trees to find a large house and the recondition clicked instantly. I somehow had made it back to the old house. The building stood at an angle now, abandoned, just as I was.
So, I moved back into the place and it’s now where I live, as you know. You, in fact, young kia, are sitting in the very fireplace where the mistress of the house found those troublesome paw prints of mine. I hope you have enjoyed the story of my life. I know it isn’t much, but it’s all I have to tell, now, please, leave me alone with my memories, child."
“How absurd it was that in all seven kingdoms,
the weakest and most vulnerable of
people - girls, women - went unarmed
and were taught nothing of fighting,
while the strong were trained to the
highest reaches of their skill.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling
“If you build the guts to do something, anything,
then you better save enough to face the
consequences.”
― Criss Jami
She's happy,too!
