Username: Baobabel
Cat Name: Pinnipedpelt
Gender: Female
Rank: tbd
Clan: SecludedGladeAge: 2yr
Prompt:Most of her early memories of filled with biting cold and loneliness. Born to a loner, she briefly knew love and warmth but that was soon snatched away. During a fierce snowstorm she was separated from her mom. She would never see her again. The young kit wandered across the endless white land. Her idea was that the movement would keep her warmer than sitting still. So, she continued to stumble, half blind, looking for somewhere to shelter or someone to warm her. Mostly senseless, she didn't realize when she had wandered on to the ice. Small as she might be, she eventually hit a patch that had barely iced over and fell through!
She was shocked awake by the icy water surrounding her small body. It assaulted her senses and she couldn't think over her panic and shock. If felt like hours but only seconds had passed when she realized four things. 1.She didn't know which way was up 2.She was running out of air 3.The cold snatched what little strength was left in her limbs and they were going numb 4.She wasn't going to make it out of the water alive. Her last thought was a flash of a pale blur against the dark water before she passed out.
When she next awoke she thought the last few days must've been a nightmare. She was warm again, curled against a warm body. "Funny, I remember mom having longer fur" she thought before realizing, indeed, this was not her mom's body wrapped around her. She found she was too exhausted to care and slipped back into a recovery sleep. When she awoke a second time, she felt hungry but more awake. As she opened her eye and adjusted, she became confused. She wasn't quite sure was this warm creature was next to her. It was soft like her mom but the fur was much shorter. And its front paws were flat? It didn't even have back legs! Just an extra thick tail? She found she couldn't stay alarmed for long because she was so cozy and the creature pushed over a slice of fish for her to eat. The kit spent the next few days just eating, resting, and recovering while studying this creature who had saved her.
From bouncing across the land to gracefully sliding into her sleek body through the water, she was mesmerizing to watch. The two animals eventually began to communicate and bond beyond just rescuer/savior. Eventually the kit, name called Pinnipedpelt after the one who saved her, became strong enough to join her new friend, no, family, on the ice and in the water. Eating fish all the time started to give her coat an oily, water-resistance texture that allowed her to stay warmer in the frigid waters. She learned how to walk without slipping on the slick surface. She learned how to swim. How to orient herself in the dark waters and get in and out of the water through air holes. How to hunt the quick flashy fish. How stay warm once getting back on land. She never realized how unusual it was for a cat to do all these things, she was just grateful to her friend for showing her.
There have been a few who have stumbled across the odd pairing, the cat running circles around the seal on land and the seal zipping around the cat in the water. An odd pair but one impossible to separate.