[NR] small claws, fluffy tail, fluffy fur, snail friend (animal companion), chubby (weight)
The branches of the douglas fir trees wobbled lightly to the movement of the wind.
The streams will probably be crowded with salmon and other delectables for him to eat today.
Not that it mattered, he can’t even get hungry anymore. He’s almost fully transparent now, one or so years away from becoming a ghost cursed to this land forever. It’s just the persistent thought of “
get out of here” playing in his head like a mantra nowadays. He’s been trapped in this forest for eons now, he saw the barn humans come and go as they please, but he’s never gotten the chance to do the same.
He had been told by Starclan when he died, that the only way out of this curse is to pass it onto another cat. They had figured that this would teach him a lesson, and cause him to be empathetic to the next spirit in line. Alas, all he wanted to do was find a cat, pass it on and leave as soon as he could. It didn’t matter who they were.
A twig snapped a few trees beside him and he whipped his head in the direction. He crouched down out of instinct.
A squirrel? An injured bird perhaps? As he crawled over to where he heard the branch crack, he started to hear mumbling that made him uneasy. “
Maybe I really am going insane.” he humored himself in his head. As he snuck closer, he looked through the bushes and had to hold back a gasp.
Another cat? He felt the urge to laugh. From here he could barely see their pelt, it looked like a kitty pet, too fluffy and well taken care of.
No, this- this is Starclan playing a joke on me. He looked up as if Starclan could see him now and he mouthed quite a few words to them that his mother would not have approved of. He focused back on the cat only to find them gone. “
Oh Starclan, I took my eyes off them for one seco-”
“
Hello!”
A loud and surprisingly squeaky voice rang through his head as he jumped out of the bush and into the best defense pose he could manage. He tried his best at a hiss, but all that came out was a stubborn meow.
The other cat’s eyes widened.
“
Oh no, do you not speak?”
He thought for a moment. What’s the point in wasting breath on a cat that he was going to kill anyway?
He shook his head.
The fluffy cat narrowed their eyes and jutted its bottom lip, almost
too dramatic for a normal thinking expression.
“
Well, I’m not sure how to communicate with you then, but I’m Teddy!”
Teddy put on a huge toothy smile as if that made them look friendlier.
He deadpanned. This is going to be harder than he thought.
Looking over at the clearing, he meowed, and looked back to Teddy, and meowed again.
Teddy’s eyes theatrically widened again and they nodded slowly.
“
Ohhh, are you trying to say that your name is Tree?”
He mentally face-palmed.
No, I want you to go OVER there so I can kill you, dumb cat.Giving up, he got up from where he was still in a tense pose and started to walk off. Teddy followed, unsure of what to do.
“
Y’know, next time you try and hide from somebody, maybe give those weird glowy antlers of yours a trim?”
He held back a growl. Fine, he’d play into this. A social cat like this “
Teddy” needs socialization. As soon as he can get close enough, he could end this nightmare.
----
Within a few months, the seasons had changed and he had gone against his original plan and had gotten slightly attached to Teddy, though he would
never admit it. Every time he had a chance to take the pounce, Teddy would come up with something new to distract him. It was exhausting, but it was nice to have company.
He had learned that Teddy was indeed a kitty pet, but they had also been in a clan. Teddy never told him why they had been thrown out, but it would only give him more of an excuse to become attached to the cat, so he never asked.
Teddy, on the other hand, had learned nearly nothing about this spirit that they've nicknamed "
Tree". He would carve words in the dirt occasionally to answer small questions, but questions as to who he is and what he’s doing here were left unanswered. Teddy doesn’t mind though, a lot of their past clanmates weren’t big on sharing either. It was nice to have a friend who wouldn’t judge them for their bubbly and oblivious personality.
Teddy assumed they were both happy, two lone cats in a huge forest with even bigger possibilities.
When two more cats came around, things started to change. One with a cinnamon coat, dawning a sunflower on her head, and another with blue fur and piercing green eyes.
Teddy was absolutely
ecstatic to meet them, even if the blue-furred cat,
Frosty, had been a bit hostile to them at first. The other cat,
Tasha, was almost as bubbly as Teddy was, which made for the greatest (
and most annoying) conversations one could ever have.
Tree on the other hand, felt a mixture of furiousness and relief. Relief for the fact that he had two more cats to chose from, and that he didn’t have to kill Teddy.
Furious, though, when after a few weeks had passed, the three of them had grown incredibly close, closer than him and Teddy.
He wasn’t jealous, he simply
couldn’t be. He just hated when he saw his new friend walking outside the boundaries of the forest with the two other cats, boundaries he couldn't leave.
He used this private time of his to practice. One of them had to go, and it couldn't be Teddy. He wouldn't be able to take the shame. If he moved quickly, he could trade one of the other two's life with his curse and escape, leaving Teddy and whoever was leftover having no one to blame but a bear in the forest or a stray wolf.
He could get out of this forsaken forest, and live his life the way he felt he
deserved. And he would do it
today.
----
I wonder where they went? Teddy scouted around the forest, trying to find their friends.
“
Tree?” they called out, hoping their spirit friend would appear like he always did.
Teddy hadn’t seen Tree in a while after Frosty and Tasha got here.
Admittedly it was their own fault for hanging out with the two cats all the time, but who could blame them? They reminded Teddy of their old clan, that even now, they held close to their heart.
After a few moments of eerie silence in the forest, there wasn’t a single movement, not a single gust of wind.
That’s when Teddy heard it.
Crows flew from their spots on the tree branches in all directions as Teddy sprinted towards the spot they had heard distressed meowing and aggressive hissing.
There they were, surrounded by the tall barely fields, Frosty on the ground, clearly injured. Tasha was behind Frosty, hissing at the attacker, but ultimately not making a move out of fear.
Teddy was shocked when they saw the forest spirit, ready to attack their newly found friends.
“
Tree! What are you doing?”
Tree paused, visibly disturbed that Teddy had arrived, but blatantly disregarded their presence and started stalking closer to the two cats.
Within the blink of an eye, Teddy was positioned in front of the two cats.
No communication was needed between the two of them. Teddy knew that Tree had a mission to fulfill, and Tree knew that Teddy would
fight to guarantee their friend’s safety.
Tree started to stalk towards Teddy, only to pause, a sick look on his face.
Teddy stayed alert. Tree was a tricky cat, full of surprises. But there were no surprises this time. Tree looked down at his paws as he started to become more and more transparent.
Teddy cautiously stalked up to Tree as he collapsed to the ground.
He circled through many emotions at that moment. Fear, anger, gratefulness.
He and Teddy made eye contact.
Letting out a small sigh, he closed his eyes as he fully disappeared.
“
Is he dead?” Frosty asked, feeling a bit more confident after Tasha had partially healed her.
Teddy looked back to the spot Tree was, still lightly feeling his presence among them.
“
No. But I have a feeling we won’t be seeing him again.” She stood there for a few minutes, lost in thought until a distraught meow reached her ears.
She scolded herself for being so inconsiderate and rushed over to her friends.
Frosty rolled her eyes at Teddy’s overly concerned expression.
“
I’m fine you puffball, just a little scratched up.”
Teddy glanced towards Tasha for confirmation, seeing her eye twitch a little.
“
Just a little scratched up? A little? Do you know how many herbs I’ve had to use on you to-”
As Tasha continued to rant about herbs and injuries, Frosty sighed and leaned over to Teddy, trying to ignore the one-sided
squabbling.
“
So, do you think you’ll end up with antlers like Tree?”
Teddy gasped, thinking Frosty was serious.
“
Do you think I will? Oh my goodness that would be so cool-”
Teddy started to rave about how cool it would be to have antlers, going on and on about the anatomy, structure, pros, and cons of having such
features.
Frosty covered her ears with her paws, wishing she was anywhere but here.
Tree, she thought,
please come back, you can take my place, I swear, I’d rather be a tree spirit than have to listen to this daily... As they slowly helped Frost back into a safer place in the forest, Teddy paused.
“
I’ll catch up to you guys!”
They murmured their agreeance and continued to argue about Frosty's injuries.
Teddy looked around the forest, hoping to spot something. Or someone.
As she turned around, she froze.
A white deer stared at her from among the trees, not out of fear, but
curiosity. Its antlers were bright and magnificent. If Teddy could squint hard enough, they could barely make out the
transparent tips of the antlers.
The deer eventually huffed and tore off into the distance.
Teddy thought for a moment, then shook their head with a small smile, running off to join her friends in this big wide forest that they could call their own.