Calm before a Storm

The sad story of a cat and her brother

A black cat sat looking over the hills. Her fur blew in the wind, and the icy rain fell in sheets onto her back, but still she didn’t move. For how long she sat there on the hill, she didn’t know. She moved only when a silver tom cat joined her.

“Serenity, you can’t stay here forever.” He spoke softly to her, his fur slicked down and whiskers dripping, he nudged her.

“I know.” Her voice was raspy from a cough, her eyes flooded with tears. She stood silently and walked down to where her kin waited. She smiled at the smallest kit. His fur was white, just like his father’s. Blue eyes looked up at her in wonder.  “You know, when I was your age, I was the smallest of all my littermates.”

“Really?” he squeaked, his eyes widening in amazement.

“Would you like to hear a story?”  The kit nodded and his brother and sister gathered around.

“Well, many moons ago my brother and I were born. At the time we had two sisters.

                The sun shone over a small barn. The cries of newborn kits filled the air. The warm, musty scent of hay wafted through the air. A mother lay on her side, nursing four healthy kits. A father stood proudly beside his mate.  His sister sat lapping at the kits, humming close to them. “Sky, don’t disturb them.” The father pushed his sister away lightly.

“What are you going to name them?” Sky sat near Dove’s head, her eyes gleaming at the mother and her kits.

“Well, the gray one looks like thunder clouds.” She said pointing to the little bundle of cloudy gray fur.

“How about Storm?” Pine questioned, looking at his son.

“Storm, that’s perfect. The white she-cat can be Hail, and her sister can be Owl.” She said pointing first to the white she-cat, than to the gray one.

“You didn’t name the black one.” Sky said nodding to the smallest black she-cat. She lay still in the fresh hay, her chest rising and falling with her deep breaths. She looked so calm.

“Serenity.”

                Three moons later, the kits were all healthy. They wrestled around and hunted each other’s tails. They loved the barn, chasing mice in the hay, and climbing up the ladder to the loft. The kits were getting stronger, as their mother became weaker.

“Sky? Can you gather the kits and bring them to me?” Dove’s eyes were dull and lifeless. Her chest heaved with the effort of breathing. She had grown skinny as her pelt became matted and thin.

The small white cat nodded before calling the kits and their father into the barn. They followed silently. The kits pounced and ran, while Pine walked slowly with his head done, his eyes clouded.

“Mommy,” Hail squeaked, “I almost caught a mouse, but then Owl scared it away.”

“Nu-uh! It was Storm!” the gray kit protested and poked her brother with a paw.

“Shh, my darlings, you mustn’t fight.” Her eyes shone as she watched her kits. She knew she would be leaving them soon.

“Dove, why did you call us here?” her mate’s voice choked as he spoke. He knew she didn’t have long, he could see in her eyes that she knew it too.

“I’m afraid I have to leave,” she continued through the wails of complaint, “I’m going to join my mother in the stars. She must be lonely; I don’t want her to be lonely. I won’t be gone forever. You’ll always remember me, and when it’s your time to pass on, you’ll see me again.” Tears clouded her eyes as she put her head down.

“Don’t leave us.”

“Please stay here mommy.”

“We promise we’ll be good.”

“I won’t try to hunt your tail anymore.”

Pine stayed silent, his tail wrapped around his sister’s shoulders.

“My darling kits, I can’t choose to stay. I would stay with you if I could, but I must go,” she waited as her kits cuddled close to her stomach, then turned to face Pine and Sky, “I love you all.” Before morning, Dove had died. Her kits clung to her cold body as Pine and Sky tried to move her.

“No,” Storm cried, “She’s just sleeping!”

Owl joined in his wails, “She’ll come back!”

“Don’t take her awaaaay!” Hail screamed in pain as she fell of her mother’s body and hit the ground. Serenity sat silently, eyes dripping tears. She didn’t cry out, didn’t whine or fight her father. She just spoke to herself quietly.

“I hope you won’t be lonely mommy. I’ll see you soon.”

 

                Two moons later, a fox raided the barn. It destroyed the nests, ripped apart a day’s worth of hunting, and took Sky’s life as she fought for the kits. Pine buried her. He stayed quiet during the day, but at night Serenity heard him cursing at the stars. She knew he was grieving, but was scared when she saw him like that. The anger, burning in his eyes, his yowls of pain, she could never look at him when he got like that.

Eventually he stopped hunting for himself. He fed his kits but never ate a thing. The winter came, prey became scarce. He became thinner, as did the kits. Owl was coughing, Hail got a head cold, and Serenity gave all her meals away. They got weaker and weaker.

Owl joined her mother halfway through the cold season, Hail a moon after that. By spring, Pine was insane. He cursed at everything, snapped at Storm and Serenity, and got thinner and thinner.

“You guys need to learn to fend for yourself,” he shouted one day at Serenity, who put her ears back and narrowed her eyes, “Today I teach you two how to hunt, then in a moon you’re on your own.” Fear shone in Serenity’s eyes, but she nodded. I will make my mother proud. I’ll be better than Pine ever was.

                Hunting went well. Storm was amazing, though Serenity wasn’t very good. “You don’t need to be good,” he whispered to her one night, “I’ll hunt for you. I’ll never leave you.” She wished it were true. She knew that someday he would leave. True to his word, Pine left later that moon. He didn’t say goodbye. Didn’t hunt first, didn’t say he loved them. He just left.

Life went on in the barn. Storm hunted, Serenity made nests and cleaned up. One night, a strong, choking scent filled Serenity’s nose.

“Serenity!” a voice called through the smoke in alarm.

“Storm!” she called back. Running toward the exit, she bumped into her brother who had run back to grab her.

“We need to get out! Come on!” he coughed as smoke filled his mouth. The fire spread through the dry hay as the cats streaked out of the barn. They sat, tails intertwined as the barn was turned to nothing but ash.

“What do we do now? We can’t stay here.”  Serenity sighed as the last of the barn fell over.

“We leave. We go far away from here and start a new life. We go, and never turn back.” Storm cuddled closer to his sister, comforting her as she shivered in the cold of the night.

That day they left. They walked over the bridge that connected the farm to the rest of the world, and they didn’t turn back.

                “But then what happened?” the small gray kit whined. His eyes wide, his brother and sister nodded their heads in agreement. “Grandma, tell us!”

“Well, if you insist.”

 

                “After walking over that bridge they realized the world was a lot bigger than it first appeared.

The sky poured that night. Serenity and her brother took shelter under a small bench in a park. Humans walked by, but not a single one stopped to look at them. A dog ran by and growled, but didn’t come close. Other cats padded by, laughing at the soaking wet cats under the bench. They shivered as droplets of water dripped off their whiskers.

“Serenity? Are you hungry?”

She nodded shakily, “But can you hunt in the rain?”

“Watch me.”

They stayed under that bench for days after that. Finally, Serenity snapped.

“We need to find a real place to stay!” she whipped her tail back and forth. She was sick of cats yowling at her at night, sick of them making fun of her brother, sick of the cold, damp bench.

                Storm went hunting, and so did Serenity. But she was hunting for a place to live. She found empty barns, old human places, and tons of other places. Most of them had cats or dogs living in them already. One was infested with large rats.

“This is hopeless!” she wailed at the sky. She jumped a tail-length when she heard a voice behind her.

“Do you need some help? How can I be of assistance?” a large, brown tabby cat stood behind her, his green eyes shining through the darkness. His smile was friendly as he walked towards her. “I’m Wood. Who are you?”

“Serenity.” She sighed.

“A pretty little thing like you shouldn’t be down here. It’s a dangerous area. You don’t want to be alone down her.” He meowed softly then gestured with his head to lead her away from the dark alley.

“Thank you. Do you know of a safer area? Or possibly a place my brother and I could stay?” she asked as they padded back towards the park.

“You two can come stay with me.”

That night they left for Wood’s home. It turned out to be a good sized place. On the edge of the city it sat, small and red in the setting sun. A field stretched out behind it, the smell of prey drifted through the air. This was beautiful.

                They stayed for a few days and Serenity found herself falling for Wood. His eyes, his kindness, she couldn’t get him out of her mind. After a two moons in the new barn, she was expecting his kits.

“Serenity! That’s wonderful!” Storm cried after she had told him, his eyes gleaming.

“I promise to give them a better life than we ever had.” Serenity promised not only herself and Storm this, but also her unborn kits.

                Rain came down in buckets. The roads were slippery as they made their way into the city. Serenity’s swollen belly swayed as she walked behind Wood. His tail swooped back and forth as he walked. Their fur was plastered to their sides as rain poured down. The rain blurred their vision, and everything was very dark.

“Serenity, are you okay?” her mate said, stopping to look back.

“I’m fine. I’ve dealt with worse,” She smiled softly, and closed her eyes as rain dripped into them, “I’m just a little wet.” As she opened her eyes, she saw lights. Two lights speeding down the road, towards where Wood was standing. “Wood! Move! You need to move!” she screeched as he turned towards the lights that were very close now. He ran, but not quick enough. The car caught his back legs, crippling him, if not killing him.

“Help me! Help us!” she screeched long through the night. Holding Wood close as he breathing began to slow. Nobody came. Before morning, Wood had died, never getting to see his kits be born.

                Serenity delivered one healthy little kit. She was beautiful, with big blue eyes and light brown fur. They stayed in the barn for a long time after that.

“Grandma is that it?”

“What happened to Serenity?”

“And her kit?”

“What about Storm? Did he ever find a mate?” The kits asked as their grandmother paused, her graying fur still sticking to her sides.

“The kit grew up to be your mother,” she smiled at her daughter Sky, who sat just behind her kits, “Storm found a mate, yes. She lived a happy life, and did not die unhappy. She had two kits, a tom and a she-cat.”

Storm looked at his sister, his eyes lit up at the mention of his mate, “Dove is the she-cat, and the tom is Wood.” His kits sat next to Sky, though they were no longer kits. The two had grown up to be great hunters like their father, and loving like the mother they were named after.

“And then,” Serenity continued, “Wood found a mate. The beautiful Melody,” the ginger cat looked up from where she was placed behind her frosty white mate, “Then came Hawk. He was brave enough to help his mate Dove nurse her kits, and help her brother’s mate do the same.” She looked around at her family, how happy they looked, and how happy the kits looked to have heard the end of the story.

“You three are the results of two cats, who never gave up hope.” She smiled at her kin before turning away from the city. “Shall we go?”

With that the large family left for the hills, leaving the small red barn behind.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoy! I love to read the warriors books so i figured i'd write about cats. Of course it came out a bit depressing. But the grammer isn't all right, so just ignore it.

Reviews

[Wolfwind]

This was a wonderful tale of hope and courage. It's true that it had some sorrow mixed in, but with out it, the true vision of the storyline would have been harder to portray. This reminds me of the types of stories my mother would tell me at bed time when I was young. A story to inspire young folk to keep going and stay strong, no matter the hardships and to understand that the mountains we traverse only make us stronger and build us into the adults we become.

Fantastic Craftsmanship!
Aaron