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She shivered.
The wind howled.
The world was alive with danger, and dead with life.
Or at least, dead with life that would help her.
All that existed for miles and miles was wasteland filled with bandits and mercenaries, all of whom wouldn’t hesitate to end her life.
Nothing would save her now.
Maybe nothing ever could.
But she hadn’t thought it would end like this. With her, alone and lost and scared, and not even one final kindness to greet her before death came. She felt her soul crying out, begging for a savior, but nothing would come.
She could only save herself.
There was no one else who could.
Everything was so dark, so terrifying, and she wanted home, but there was no home, not for her, not anymore. Maybe there never had been. But she had always had something, a place to stay, at the very least, and some form of safety.
The world was nothing but hostile now.
A pitiful whimper echoed through the cold night air.
She froze.
What was that?
A young monster trying to attract its parents? A bandit seeking to lure in sympathetic travelers? Something else? Something worse? She shouldn’t go to it. It was probably a trick, a trap, something that would get her killed.
But she heard the lonely, desperate cry again, and knew she had to. Whatever it was, it seemed genuine. And she couldn’t lie that she felt much the same as the crying voice. It seemed so afraid, and she could easily sympathize with that.
So she did the exact opposite of what all her common sense was telling her to do, and went to investigate it. It was only over a few dunes. It wasn’t that far from her campsite. She could always retreat for her supplies if it turned out that it was something dangerous. It would be fine.
It wasn’t like it could get much worse.
That, she was sure of.
She looked around.
There didn’t seem to be anything here.
Where was the voice? Was it really a trap? Was she in danger? Quickly, she began taking steps back, praying that whatever it was wouldn’t kill her just for moving within its line of sight, wishing she could go faster, but running might be a sign of aggression, depending on if it was human or not. She had to get away, she had to get back, she had to —
It was a kitten.
She’d been scared of a kitten.
It was a tiny, pathetic black whelp of a thing, and it looked pitifully up at her,
“Mew?” it asked, looking pleadingly up at her.
Oh, and that was a heart-melting sight.
She probably couldn’t take care of it. She didn’t have a way to feed herself, for Beyond’s sake, why would she even try to take care of this tiny little baby thing that she had no idea how to take care of? It was a horrible idea! What made her think she was even qualified for this kind of thing? Why would she even try? She was just a teenager, she didn’t know anything about parenting! She wasn’t supposed to, that was the point of being a teenager! To be irresponsible while you still could! She couldn’t do this, not alone, not even for a pet! This was a baby, one that needed milk and sleep and all sorts of stuff that she had no idea how to handle!
There was no way she was taking this baby with her.
“Mew?” it repeated.
But…
She was alone. She needed someone to keep her sane. Nothing to talk to, nothing to hold, nothing to love, made you go mad faster than the desert would kill you. Loneliness was the worst thing this desert had to offer, because without someone to speak to, how would you know you had a voice? Without someone to hold, how would you know the world was even real? Without someone to love, how would you know you could?
And she looked at the kitten, and she understood.
Desert cats weren’t supposed to be that color. They were born sandy and sleek, with fur that matched the swirling sandstorms of their home. But this cat … it was different. It was black. It wouldn’t blend it. It wouldn’t survive. If you were different, if you weren’t born the right way, if you were wrong in all the ways they thought mattered, they would leave you to die.
It was smaller than most desert cat kittens too, a runt, most likely. It didn’t look too starved, so it probably wasn’t underfed, just born a little too small.
She almost didn’t want to know what happened to leave something so small and young so alone.
Had its mother been forced to abandon it when fleeing danger, because it was too small to keep up and too obvious to their foe, to save her other kittens?
Had it simply wandered astray and couldn’t find its way home, and now its family had left, thinking it dead, while it cried for them to come back and find it?
Had it been abandoned for its small size and midnight fur, because the Beyond was no place for weakness, and to save herself pain and avoid potentially risking the other, healthier, normal cubs, had the mother left it to die?
Was it just too different for them?
The kitten looked up at her with wide, pleading eyes.
She made her choice.
Because she was this kitten. Alone, left behind for reasons that seemed impossible to know, and with no way to survive in this place that had killed hundreds, no, thousands, with greater knowledge of it. Just because she was different.
Just because she wasn’t enough for their impossible standards.
The world was determined to kill them.
But she refused to die.
And so did this kitten.
They were still looking for a way to survive, in this place that didn’t want them to, this world not meant for them. Still crying for a kindred soul to find them and prove they weren't alone.
She didn’t know how they would survive.
But they had to try.
“You’re cute,” she smiled, picking up the mewling kitten. “I’m going to get into so much trouble and so many problems trying to feed you,”
“Mew?” it said innocently.
“You’re going to need a name, I can’t just leave you all nameless and all that. And I’ve got to check if you're a boy or girl. Can’t keep calling you an it in my head, that’s dehumanizing. Well, technically, you aren’t a human, but you deserve to not be called an it. You have feelings, You’re valid. I love you. We’re not going to let them kill us, okay?”
“Mew!”
“Damn right,”
“Well, we can’t stay here standing in the sand, let’s get back to camp. Oh, you haven’t seen camp yet, right. You probably don’t know what a camp is, actually. Well, baby, camp is where we’ll be living for the next while. It’ll be moving around, but all the stuff’ll stay the same. Well, at least until we can reach a proper city. There’s probably plenty of oasis outposts around here, so we’ll have to get on that for supplies, but I’ll handle it, okay? Maybe you can help me charm people or something. You’re cute enough for that, definitely. Is it weird to talk to a cat? Oh, whatever. I just need to not go insane, and you’re not going to betray me like everyone else. You literally can’t do that. You don’t have any sort of concept of that. You’re just a kitten, and kittens don’t leave you to die in the desert with no way home. If you tried to leave me, I could just pick you up, gently scold you, and we’d go back to our daily lives. You wouldn’t care,”
“Mew!”
“Yes, I talk a lot, get used to it. I’m not about to stop now that I have someone to talk to. You better be ready to get your little kitty ears chattered off. Speaking of your little kitty bits, let’s check what gender you are…girl! Yes, I knew I liked you! Good for you, that’s amazing! I’ve never had a friend, so it’s nice that my first one is a girl too. You’re just so cute, argh, I want to spend the rest of my life booping that cute little snoot! I love you so much and I’ve only known you like five minutes! That’s crazy! I’m probably crazy! Not as much as I would be without you, but ah well. You’re stuck with me,”
She grinned.
She hadn't realized how much she'd missed having someone to talk to. Sure, all she had was a cat, but it was something. It was far more than she’d ever hoped for before. Someone to be with, someone to care for.
Someone who she was the same as.
Because they were the same, no matter how you put it.
Neither of them even had names! That much matching couldn’t be a coincidence! Well, technically she couldn’t rule out the possibility of the kitten having her own name in her head from her mom, and she had the one they’d given her, but that didn’t count. That wasn’t her. That was theirs. She was hers, not theirs, not anymore, never again. They’d never have her again.
Not after what they’d done.
She decided the name thing would have to wait.
It wouldn’t be fair for one of them to have a name while the other was still some empty words that applied to millions of other people. There were plenty of shes, plenty of kittens, plenty of hers, but the two of them wouldn’t be equals if only one had a name.
They were equals.
She had lived a life where she was unequal to the ones above her, and it had been the worst kind of life that you could live, if you could even call it a life.
She’d have to wait for them to come.
For now…
It would just be the two of them.
From this moment, it would be them or nothing.
That was all she could ever want. She had always wanted a friend, and now she had one. She had something, something for herself. She wasn’t alone, not anymore.
She wasn’t alone!
She laughed.
The kitten glanced up quizzically. She gave it a reassuring smile and pet on the head, and grinned even brighter. Because she’d been alone for so long, and now…
Now she finally had a friend.
It would have reduced he to tears, but she knew better than to waste precious water like that. She’d cry about it once she had a stable water supply or just knew a place to get it in general. Water was a precious commodity out here, and she wasn’t one to waste it, especially now that she had to provide for her little kitten friend.
But this…
This was enough.
A friend was enough.
Maybe being lost in a desert with no way home nor any home at all, actually, with the whole world out to kill you and nothing in your favour wasn’t so bad when you had a friend. Well, it was still being lost in a desert with no way home not any home at all with the whole world out to kill you and nothing in your favour, but she’d never had a real friend before, and it was just such a wonderful feeling, knowing that there was a living thing in the world that genuinely cared about you and all that was just something that had always seemed impossible to achieve, but she had that now, and it was the most amazing thing she’d ever experienced. She wondered if the kitten felt the same way. She might. She might now. There was just no way to know with animals, especially cats.
It was dangerous to go alone.
But they weren’t.
Not anymore.