Chapter Text
Pebble was awakened by her housefolks rambling about something in the kitchen. Their garbled speech always mystified Pebble, how could any creature communicate like that? She stumbled out of her soft, velvety bed made of cotton, stretched and shook out her snowy white pelt with black and gray speckles, and wobbled to the kitchen to see what was going on. Her housefolks were making small yips and squeaks at something placed on the countertop. She jumped onto one of the housefolks’ chairs to get a higher view. After scrabbling to get a hold on the painted wood, she was finally able to get a better look at what they were excited about. She saw that what they were interested in was Jenny, her housefolk's new kitten, who fit perfectly in a bowl. Pebble was annoyed at them. They could be easily astonished, so much so that all the attention shifted to Jenny. But Pebble wasn’t impressed. When Pebble was a kitten, she could fit in a shot glass.
Pebble jumped off of the chair, walked slowly over to their feet, and meowed, then glanced at her food bowl and back at them. When she looked back at them, they didn't even notice her. She lifted her two front paws and gently batted at the legs of one of her housefolk. Her housefolk swatted her away with their long, furless paws and went back to Jenny. Pebble’s stomach growled. If her housefolk weren’t going to feed her, she would have to get her food herself. She plodded to the container where her housefolk kept her dry food pellets, and started scratching at the lid. Her housefolk made an annoyed peep before briskly walking over to her and grabbing Pebble by her floral collar. They dragged her across the kitchen floor, her claws instinctively unsheathing and catching on the stone tiles. Her housefolk momentarily stopped pulling her to open the sliding door, then they roughly shoved her outside and into the backyard.
Pebble lifts her front right paw to take a step, but then realizes in the process she can bang at the glass door until she is let inside. When her paw finally touched the ground it made a loud crunch . She looks down at her paws and sees she has stepped on autumn leaves. So that's why Jessy loves leaves… Pebble thought to herself. Jessy was her best friend, a kind, loyal cat with a gray and black pelt. They were always there for Pebble when she was sad, or lonely.
Pebble started jumping around in the leaves, sending them flying into the light wind currents that always came around this time of year. She enjoyed the moment, watching the beautiful yellow, orange, and red colors swirl around her. She reached up and tried to catch a few of them with her claws, batting at them playfully. The cool, fresh air tasted wonderful on her tongue, much better than the stuffy air in her housefolk's den.
After a few more minutes of playing in the crackling leaves, Pebble got a hold of herself and straightened her tail in a serious manner. She had a decision to make: keep trying to get her mouse-brained housefolk to let her inside, or go find her own food. Pebble decided to forget about trying to get back inside. Outside was better anyway. She pranced towards the trees, with her collar jingling along with a tune her housefolks had gotten stuck in her head. The leaves thickened as she continued walking, hopping over a small stone here and there. The sunlight shone through the leaves that were still attached to their branches, some of them going to join their fallen siblings on the forest floor. Pebble continued walking. The leaves felt good on her paw pads. She didn't think of her housefolk even once.
* * *
A few hours had passed since Pebble had left home. She wasn't really trying to keep track of time. She was much happier outside than inside. The soft leaf mulch beneath her pads felt much better than the hard, rough flooring in her housefolk's den. Pebble kneaded the ground with her claws to focus herself. She wasn't going to think of them anymore, they didn't need her.
Earlier, she had wandered closer to the housefolk dens near her own, taking some scraps of food from bowls they left out for cats. After filling her belly, Pebble had walked to where Jessy normally stayed, in a hollow log a little ways into the forest. Jessy wasn't there, but after sniffing carefully, Pebble had picked up a scent trail. She decided to follow it, wondering what they could be doing. After a little while, Jessy's scent trail had crossed over with another one. The other scent was strong and foul. It was unpleasant to be around, so Pebble had given up on trying to find Jessy and went another direction. She didn't realize she had no intention of going back home until she was too far away to even try retracing her steps. If the world wasn't going to give her a choice, then she would follow the path it had set out for her.
Pebble walked until the sun was getting low in the sky. She would need to find shelter for the night, before it got dark. She found a nook in between a few boulders. She tried squeezing in, but she could not find a comfortable fit. She noticed it was getting darker than usual. Pebble looked up at the sky. Storm clouds. The wind had blown them in while she was walking. They were heavy and dark, nearly blotting out the sun completely. She started walking quicker, with more urgency. Now, she would need to find a rain-proof shelter. A little while later she found a hollow tree stump. But after trying to hook her claws in the splintery wood, it crumbled beneath her paws.
Eventually, after trying and failing to find a suitable shelter many times, the sky started to weep. Pebble almost felt like crying with it. It started as a few drips here and there.
Plip!
Plop!
Plop!
Drip!
Drop!
Plip plop plip drip plop dripdripdropplip-
Soon enough, it was pouring rain. Thunder cracked, and lightning dazzled the sky in light. The chorus of droplets hit her pelt, soaking her down to the bone. Pebble ran as fast as she could, frantically glancing around for any place that blocked out the rain. The leaves that were once comforting were now slippery. Finally, lightning cut the sky in two, covering the ground in light. In that split second, she noticed a pile of rocks a little bit ahead of her. She continued running towards it, her paws pounding on the ground, sounding almost like the thunder shaking the sky. She couldn't hear it anymore, for her heart was beating too loudly in her ears.
Right as she was about to run into the rocks, she stopped running, putting her paws in front of her and unsheathing her claws. She expected to come skidding to a stop, but the slippery leaves made her keep sliding forward. She panicked, digging her claws into the ground. She noticed that the rocks weren't too high, she could probably jump over them if she was fast enough. She continued running, gaining speed.
She was so focused on the rocks that she didn't notice the root until her front paw caught on it. She went tumbling forward, over a few of the rocks, and right towards the middle of them. As she flew in the air, it seemed time slowed down. She couldn't breathe, it seemed that the air was stuck in her lungs and it didn't want to come out. She got dizzy as the world spun around her. I'm going to die, Pebble thought. It seemed as though her thoughts were far away from her body. She landed with a sickening thud on the ground as the black void enveloped her, taking her into the comforting embrace of darkness.