Work Text:
She couldn’t remember much before now, but what she could remember was the strong feeling of fear and the feeling of what she knows now, called hands touching her. She hated every second of it, but from what she overheard from the people who watched her were talking about how they captured her 5 months ago. She also heard them say she was mutated about 1 month ago (whatever that means). She didn’t really know where she was, but she knew this room was blindingly white; it hurt her eyes. She continued to walk around the room, making sure she didn’t miss anything. She’s certain she didn’t because she has walked around this room about a hundred times now, but there wasn’t much to do in this room, so she walked and walked until she heard something. Her ear swiveled back, tail twitching. She froze, waiting. A door behind swings open, and somehow she stills even more. She heard them mumble a few words behind her before she felt something hit the back of her neck. She finally moved. She turned to face whoever before she hit the ground. Her world didn’t go black, but it got blurry. She watched as people moved around the room, the sound of metal tapping the ground made her let a weak growl out. It was no use, though. She sat there for what felt like forever, but was probably only a couple of minutes, before they left the room grumbling and bickering among themselves. She got up after a couple of hours, as she groaned, her limbs felt stiff, and she felt gross, but that’s also when she smelt something. She lifted her snout into the air and inhaled… food. She turned her head and saw a metal plate of sorts on the ground, with a lump of meat on top. She trotted over to it and crouched; she sniffed it a couple of times, making sure it wasn’t bad, before eating it.
Her tail lazily swayed behind her as she lay by the back wall. She believed it had been a couple of days since she was last fed, but either way, she felt bored; there really wasn’t anything to do. She hated how stuffy this room was. The next time she saw those people, she was gonna bite their heads off! She let out a low growl just thinking about them. They played dirty, using that weird stick that shot her and made her sluggish. She flopped onto her side, stretching out, her maw opened into a long yawn. She lay her head down and huffed.
Another day had passed, and still no food. It wasn’t bothering her too much, but her stomach had started to protest, and she was really wondering where the people had gone; had they forgotten about her? With that thought, she had started to panic a little, but at that moment the door opened, and she jumped up, letting out a long hiss, her tail swishing behind her, and her ears pinned back. “Whoa, there, girl, it’s alright,” a woman’s voice huffed out. The woman stood there for a few moments watching to see if the large cat would make a move, but it didn’t, and so she huffed again and turned around to grab a plate with a meat lump on it and walked over to where the other plate was, picked it up, and replaced it with the new one. She walked back to the door and paused, “My name is Kali, and I will be your caretaker from now on.” The large cat let out a low, deep growl, and the woman left.
She waited a couple of seconds to see if the woman would walk back in, but she didn’t, so her stance loosened, and she turned and walked to the meat, and ate it hungrily. She finished the food with a contented sigh, and then she walked over to a corner and curled up before falling asleep. She woke up slowly, stretching out her paws and grasping the air, her maw stretching into a yawn and letting out a squeak before getting onto her paws and shaking herself out. she started to pace around the room again, waiting for anything interesting to happen, but nothing did, so she lied back down facing the door so she can attack first if anything happens and let her eyes fall shut. She thinks it had only been a couple of minutes or maybe an hour at most until she heard the door unlocking and opening. Her eyes flew open, and she let out a loud hiss before she quickly got up and crouched defensively.
Kali looked at the large cat and sighed, “It’s just me from before, remember? if your as smart as the doctors say, then surely you would remember me.” The large cat hissing petered off to a short growl before stopping completely. That cat’s stance didn’t change, but it was now looking at Kali with an interested gaze. She took this as a sign that she could walk in without being completely mauled. she pulled a cart along with her that had some enrichment stuff to make the cat more comfortable with her, like toys and puzzles and what ever else that doctor’s stuffed onto the cart, it also had bit of meat that could be used as a reward for good behavior because the doctors wanted it to be trained, specifically trained not to attack humans and only attack mutants that have been popping up around New York recently. Essentially, they wanted a hunting dog, but instead of a dog, it was a giant cat. “Alright, girl,” she addressed the cat. “Would you like to play a little?” she said, pulling out a tire dog toy and tossing it towards the cat. The cat surged forward, jumping a little to catch the toy out of the air before crouching down and chewing on it. She tossed a meat chunk at the cat, and it lifted its snout towards the food before getting up and hesitantly eating it while looking at Kali out of the corner of its eye. It let out a low churr before churning back to the tire.
She chewed on the rubbery circle that “Kali,” as the women dubbed herself, had given her; it was fun, way more than just pacing this room over and over. She was then tossed a bit of meat, which she, of course, took cautiously, not knowing if Kali would get a jump on her. But Kali didn’t, so she let out a low, thankful churr towards her way and went back to chewing on the circle. Kali made a low noise after a bit, beckoning the cat over. She lifted her head and looked towards the women, tail tip twitching, before she got up slowly and walked over with the circle hanging out of her jaws and sat a bit in front of Kali and let out a questioning chirp while tilting her head. Kali gave her a bit of meat, and she happily dropped the circle and ate the meat. “Good girl!” Kali huffed out, and the cat looked back up at her and let out a little chirp again. She sat back down and continued to watch Kali, her tail twitching every once in a while behind her. Kali was patting her leg and asking the cat to come over, the cat watched for a few moments before getting up and cautiously walking over and sitting back down directly in front of her a couple inches away. Kali holds out a piece of meat for the cat to take and the cat looks down at her hand letting her eyes drift over her hand before landing on the meat, licking her maw and then carefully taking the meat. Kali reached out with her other hand to pet the cat behind the ear and the cat looked at her other hand and snapping her teeth near the hand with a growl as a warning before she got up still growling trotting back by the corner, turning back towards Kali watching her, tail angrily lashing behind her. Kali let out a shaky huff her hand clutched close to her body before turning back to the cart grabbing it and leaving.