Mourning the last memory she had of the time before she lived under fear of her own kin, the gray tabby whimpered in pain on the cold, black path that laid just outside her mother’s den. For a brief moment she wondered about what had become of her five missing siblings. She knew her mother had a litter of five as well as a previous litter of two before her and yet only her and her sister remained. ‘Had they died?’ She asked herself, ‘or did they escape?’ She winced at her knew thought, ‘Had they died to escape?’ She attempted to shove the terrible thought out of her head but failed.

“Get up.” A sleek silver she cat spat. She was beautiful under the crisp moonlight mixed with the fake light the nofurs used in their dens. “Please.. Prim..” Stripes whispered, her beloved elder sister stepped closer.

“Please what?” she spat, not waiting for a response, "Answer me weakling!" an angry hiss escaped her curled lips.

With a throbbing head and hurting heart, Stripes turned to Prim. She drew a shaky breath, forcing herself to her paws, "Kill me." her blood dripping onto the bits of snow surrounding her, Stripes stood surely, attempting not to lose her balance. She forced out a small smile to comfort Prim, hoping that the Prim who she saw in front of her was not the same one she knew from kithood.

Prim's face stayed as stern as a stone. She looked back over to her mother's home that laid underneath a stinky nofur den. Queen, the two kitten's mother let out a slight hiss as she stood in the entrance way of the den, "Do it." she commanded, and without a second thought, Prim turned and struck out an unsheathed paw.

Then there was a noise, the sounds of an unnatural entrance. A two legged creature gasped at the sight of the two kittens. She'd apparently walked out of the den only to see an injured kitten and her attacker. Prim shot up in alarm and quickly darted back to the hole under the nofur’s den as her mother told her to do if she ever saw a nofur. Stripes didn't move. She couldn't move.

Every bristle of fur on her body stood up in fear but she didn't move.

The nofur moved closer causing Stripes’ heart to pound, but she suddenly stopped, only a moment passed when a shadow appeared over Stripes. She didn't dare look up, ‘Oh Prim why didn't you just end it for me?’ She winced, fearing that another nofur behind her was going to take her to one of their awful ‘shelters.’ To her surprise, Stripes felt fur lightly caress her head. She shot her eyes up, 'A dog?' She thought, It certainly looked like one, 'No. It can't be.' It did look of a dog but it did not smell of one. It smelt of terrifying fire, of wilderness - of freedom. Oh how Stripes longed for that freedom. The freedom of living as a normal cat, not under the control of her mother.

After a long moment, the nofur slowly stepped backwards, hiding in her nofur den without a word. The dog-like-thing slowly stepped off her. It reached down so it's muzzle was at the nape of her neck. It breathed harsh, hot breathes and then rapped its teeth around the bloodied cat's scruff. It picked her up and dashed into the dark forest across the nofur's metal beasts’ trail. 'She must think I'm dead.' Stripes silently cried. Fearing she would be eaten alive by this thing.

Although she could’ve, she didn’t fight or squirm to escape, it was too painful. She only waited, putting all her energy into keeping her eyes open. Maybe she’d live and have a chance to escape, though the odds were obviously unlikely.

They traveled for what felt like half a moon, Stipes feared the creature was only taking her to a remote place where no forest prey could hear her screams. She passed to many trees to count and despite seeming to be going in a straight line, Stripes felt like she had lost all sense of direction.

At last the beast stopped, stooped down to a crouch and crawled into and extremely large, snow covered bush. It caused her to wince and close her eyes when they met the leafy barrier but when she opened her eyes, Stripes saw a small clearing. Plenty of shrubs surrounded the clearing and trees covered it, giving it a natural roof that seems too perfect to have just grown in the forest. The dog-beast gently set Stripes onto a patch of moss. She breathed heavily, she didn’t feel threatened yet she couldn’t help but wonder if this was her final resting place.

“Oh Nightpire!” Another dog-beast exclaimed, rushing over to the weak kitten. His pelt was much darker than the other, but his fur was covered in star like white spots.

“Where’d you find her?” A third voice asked, “She looks horrible!” Stripes attempted to turn her head toward the words but failed, weakly resting her head on the moss.

“I found her at the human’s land.” The dog-beast who carried her explained. Her voice was much softer than Stripes expected it to be, she finally got a proper look at her. “She was attacked by another cat across the closest road.” Her toned muscles showed threw her thick fur. She was a pale gray and looked to be colored like the moon itself. She was definitely not a dog, she was much stronger, she looked like she was groomed by the wilderness into a truly stunning creature.

“Did any nofurs see you?” The unknown voice barked with concern as it stepped into Stripes view, it was a beautiful animal. She wasn’t a cat, but not a dog either, but something in between. Sleek red fur covered her body, pure black painted her paws, tail and ear. Stripes’ eyes went back to the ear. That was it, just one. The other was reduced to such a small scrap of skin that it couldn’t even be considered a second ear. Stripes’ stared at her as she curiously asked the gray dog-beast questions. She was missing a hind leg, and Stripes soon realized the red creature was covered in battle scars, yet it did not affect the beauty that she was blessed with.

Stripes painfully turned her head up slightly, the darker gray dog-beast was hovering over her. “Alright,” he sighed, “This is going to sting.” he reached down behind her, putting something in his mouth and started vigorously chewing. Stripes opened her mouth to protest but not even a mew came out.

“Poor thing..” The red creature spoke, stepping close to Stripes.

“What is that?” Yet another unknown voice meowed - another cat! Stripes sniffed hard, even opening her mouth to breath in the air, “It reeks of blood.” The unknown cat’s voice took the words right from her, for Stripes couldn’t smell anything but her own injuries.

“I hope no one’s hurt.” A different voice barked. They strolled in front of Stripes together, gasping at the sight of her. The cat was a calico - a male calico. Stripes had never seen one before, all the calicos near the nofurs were female. Although, it was hard to consider him a calico, he was mostly black, with little bits of red and white shining through in addition to his completely white underbelly. The other belonged to a much larger creature - a dog. Stripes wanted to hiss at the sight of the black and white husky, but pain and fear kept her still.

“Flame said she found her near Nofur’s land..” The red creature replied, answering the question that neither asked but clearly wanted to know. “Where is Shine?” she asked.

But before either could reply, “Burnpaw.” the dark dog-beast’s voice harshly called out. The cat perked up, before slouching and muttering something under his breath. He headed closer to Stripes almost-lifeless body. “Lick her fur out of her wound.” The dog-beast commanded, Stripes expected him to protest due to the edginess in his voice, and perhaps he did, but he did it silently enough that she couldn’t notice it. He bent his head down and squinted his eyes at the taste of fellow cat blood.

Stripes’ fur was quite long, longer than average at least. She drew a shaky breath, wincing through the pain as Burnpaw groomed the fur away from the gash in her side. The dog-beast pressed his large paw into Stripes wound. She yelped at the pain instinctively, unsheathing her claws in reflex. The red creature turned quickly at the sound of her distress and ran out the other side of the bush with no explanation.

The calico - Burn and the dog-beast continued working on her wounds, turning her to reach her stomach. The red creature soon came back with a yellow furball following her. Stripes squinted and saw it was another cat! She relaxed a bit, ‘These beasts get along with these cats, perhaps they won’t hurt me!’ she thought for a moment but she stood corrected as the dog-beast pressed on the scratch on her stomach. Screaming out, she looked and realized he was putting some green goop in her wound, ‘Are they poisoning me?’ she worried, eyeing the wound that stained the cream-gray fur of her belly to a bright red. The yellow cat rushed up to her and started licking the top off her head to comfort her. It took a moment but Stripes eventually let herself relax, they wouldn’t try to calm a cat they were going to kill. Or at least that’s what Stripes hoped. Her relaxing allowed her to realize just how exhausted she was.

Her eyes closed and although she still felt the undeniable pain from her injuries, she could not voice it anymore. Her mind went to her sister, Prim.. ‘Princess,’ Stripes remembered, Princess was her sister’s true name. When they were young, the two were very close but they had grown apart by the will of their mother. Stripes would give anything and everything for her sister, she knew the cruelness was all her mother’s doing. For whatever reason, when Queen ordered something, no creature could do anything but her word. Queen was a once beautiful, long furred tabby. Orange like the setting sun and eyes brighter than a wild flower’s leaf. But she was evil, the cruelest creature in all of the nofur’s land, Stripes was sure of it.

Sweet memories of her sister flooded back to her. Sorrow pained her heart, knowing she would never see her sister, ‘Perhaps’ Stripes spoke only in her mind for she was to tired to speak aloud, ‘If I had died then, Prim would’ve snapped out of it and remembered herself.’ She was sure her sister loved her back equally if not more than Stripes. ‘If I ever see mother again,’ Stripes thought, ‘I will not let her live unharmed.’ Her promise was made only to herself, but she put everything she cared about into it, ‘I swear by Prim’s life. I will stop her, if Prim doesn’t first.’