Silver
Silver woke with a start, fresh morning light pouring onto her from the dew-dropped trees, still groggy. Her dreams swirled in her mind, making the world around her sway as she curled around in her nest made out of cotton and moss. She was once again surrounded by the walls of the shed, turning the light into a dazzle of a spectacle such like a kaleidoscope beaming into the floor scattered with feathers from yesterday's hunting. A warm breeze drifted through the tiny cracks from weathering and ruffled her fur. The fresh scent of rabbit hit her nose as she drew in a deep breath, savoring the taste of its thick chewy muscles and how the bones could be chewed into a pulp to replenish blood. A stack of them were in the back of the shed, for jaw training as well as emergencies.
Silver thought briefly that her left ear probably had a giant tick on it before she bounded out of her home. It seemed like forever until she had found the scent of prey. A plump squirrel was nibbling on some acorns, freshly up dug from the winter. Why did it hurt to remember? When she was born— no, she couldn't think that way. The dream had befuddled her, confused her. It was just a dream. She couldn't even remember what it was about, only a pair of amber eyes, the color of fire. Improvement perhaps.
All she knew was that it had been a year since she had came here and that she was hungry. The squirrel was still there, unbeknownst of her presence.
Too hungry to resist, she pounced, claws sliding out onto its thick maroon fur and sinking down into the soft flesh. This squirrel had eaten so much that normally there was more fur than meat, but this had a small coat of its pelt and she could see the skin through the individual hairs. With a killing bite, she picked up the corpse with her jaws and carried it back to the shed. The forest always had good hunting, for humans no longer wandered the trees, instead retreated back into the places with their tall structures that could probably fit a hundred of her barns in one block.
She has never seen a human, though she had some remembrance of something to do with them. Her mind was blank, though as she dropped the still warm hare into her nest and cantered out again, paws barely skimming the grass and leaves of the clearing. The trees blurred around her as she sprinted through them, searching for prey while feeling the wind blow against her whiskers. Freedom was something nothing could ever take away from her. Besides her past, there was nothing to worry about and usually she could push all of that to the back of her head and be done with it.
She hooked a starling with her left claw and pulled the warm body into her mouth, not bothering to spit out feathers. A giant oak tree loomed in front of her, blocking her path. Unbothered to swerve, she simply stretched out her legs and started slithering up the tree, much like a snake. Her claws carved out footholds as she managed to scramble up. Tail wildly thrashing and collapsed onto one of the lowest branches, panting with the starling still in her mouth. The branch creaked under her weight as four or five squirrels poked their heads out from a crevice slightly higher than her head, then retreated, sensing the danger at last. This was out of the ordinary too, as the squirrels usually were full and would be easy prey. Their nest was also so high up the tree-maybe her perspective had changed when she had saw the hole from the ground as now she realized how truly big the oak was.
Finally, she had made it up the tree. Her cabin looked like an ant from this far away, and for a moment her vision shimmered, as if there was something illusive about her sight. She blinked again and the shimmering light disappeared. Maybe the morning fog was confusing her. It certainly was early enough for some of it to still be hanging in the undergrowth. That didn't make sense though, she was in a tree, high up compared to a dozen more starlings chirping happily while the biggest that looked like the head of the group pulled out a wriggling earthworm. The juveniles happily started pulling at the earthworm, while the first looked up to stare directly at silver. She hoped it didn't see her. Birds usually did not do this after one of their fellow kind was killed; they simply cried out warning calls to others as they soared away, far from her sight until their equals had died off in the distance.
The branch overhead must have blocked her with its branches full of leaves as the bird just swerved its gaze right over her, then called once and flew towards a mass of branches nearby on a smaller tree, likely its home. Silver jumped down lightly onto the dried leaves under the tree and padded back, wondering what was on with that bird. She has always considered she was part of this world, as she has resided here for countless days. None of the other prey noticed her as she trotted back, and she didn't bother to kill any more as two pieces would sustain her for the morning and afternoon. For dinner she would catch fresh fish in a nearby pond because she hated eating nocturnal animals such as owls. Their heads sometimes rotated even at death which she found creepy. Did other owls in other places do this? She did not want to leave, of course as the forest was a thriving ecosystem and sustained her completely, but sometimes she wondered what the world was like outside. The only memory that did not bring pain was the thousands of human structures far away from this place, with pieces of material that reflected what she looked like.. or was it another one, another image of her? She never understood the advances. The humans thought that beings like cats were 'simple minded' in a way, to say the least. The cats understood that the humans were a small part in a cat's life and they could usually see them on a street or somewhere else, trying to pet a random kit just searching ina dumpster for food. They also had a doctor, called a vet that treated them if they were hurt or diseased.
Whatever they wanted, she did not want to see them again, so she padded back into the shed and settled down in her nest, warming her as she tucked her grey spotted tail under her front paws. A good nap worthy for a good climber.
The prey nestled under her were still warm from basking in the sun and she drifted softly into unconsciousness, like the endless sunshine resting for the night to send the moon.
When she woke up again, the sun before was just rising in the east, however now it had risen up to the highest point right on top of her, hot waves of heat slowly drifting from the trees onto her dappled grey pelt. The clouds moved sluggishly in small waves across the sky as some long tailed tits chased each other through the foliage.
The grass had become significantly warmer and it burned her paws as she gingerly trotted to the forest. Pain shot through her pads like bolts of lightning as each step took her closer to the dense undergrowth where the plants soaked up all the sunshine and left the dirt quite cool compared to the clearing.
At last, the sun became too scorchingly hot for her paws and she bounded the last few feet into a bush. Thorns pricked her pelt as she fell into the small Hollis and blood appeared on her fur, making the wound look dark in comparison to her silvery pelt. She thrashed and struggled, unable to go out because she had fallen from the top. Masses of small prickly leaves blocked her view and she smelled the tangy scent as her fur was being ripped into shreds. Desperate now, she thrusted her head through the mass of thorns and blood and finally pushed out of the mess, thorns scratching along her flanks. She laid there, panting and furiously licking her paws. How stupid was she, to get herself in danger when the foe was only some sunshine! 'Stupid furball' she thought to herself as she yanked out a particularly long thorn as sharp as her claw from her left hind leg. As time passed, each thorn taken out was like the pain of twisting her leg a few days ago, the skin around swollen with internal bleeding. If she ran too fast or exerted herself too much it could not heal properly so she had to only stay within a few minutes within the clearing.
A heap of thorns lay near the holly bush after all of them were removed. Trickles of blood dripped down her legs but she could stand properly. As she was about to turn back to the shed in hopes of eating rabbit bones, a lizard scuttled down from a tree, patterned and scaly skin nearly matching like it was a part the tree. She had only noticed this because its tail hat turned reddish as it saw the pile beside her. Too injured to pounce properly, she dragged a thorn that was sharp enough to pierce through scales using her teeth. Swiftly, she spat the base at the lizard. Too stunned to move, it simply watched as the tip pierced its neck and nearly went through. Blood was already pooling around the half-dead prey as silver went to pick it up from the thick roots spreading in no pattern from the oak.
When she got back, she limped toward the pile and took an especially big bone, she put the thorn far away, and tucked away the prey along with the other carcasses. She settled down on the makeshift bed and curled up again. Later, as she chewed the bones thoughtfully her wounds buzzed and the blood finally dried. Her fur was clumping off in places but the wounds were not deep. After licking each a few times she sat up in her nest and tried to clean the blood now staining the feathers red in places. Her leg was not giving way and she found that thought comforting as she rose stiffly to her paws and started flexing her muscles, testing out which parts hurt the most. As she swished her tail, sudden pain told her that a large and deep cut was affecting the movement. She could only move it to the left and right to a certain distance before it cramped and she had to stop. Indeed, there was a huge red stain on the base where a thorn had been deep inside and now laid on the ground.
After trying to jump a few times, her vision was laced with dark splotches and she had to stumble to her nest so she didn't pass out on the cold ground. Her tail was bleeding again with the cut opened from excursion and it was probably connected to her muscle movement because her body definitely hurt like hell. She could feel her hind legs dripping with blood as she fainted on the cushion of a nest for not the first time for the year living in the forest.