Lost Kitten
by Kalliroscope
A/N: This story is based on a song, Figlio Perduto (Lost Son), by Beethoven. Also, the narrator is Jellylorum. Just so you know.
The night is so cold… so dark and so empty…
I’m walking through it, huddled into my own fur, trying to step from patch of lamplight to patch of lamplight, avoiding the darkest shadows…
Beside me, my kitten, my little Jemima, shivers uncontrollably. I would pick her up and carry her… but my mouth is full of the mouse I'm carrying, the dinner for my other kittens back at home.
The darkness is so intense... and I think there are cats in the shadows... street cats, ferals, strays, the kind who might attack me and Jemima for the mouse I'm carrying, despite the creature's skinny, wretched, meatless bones.
A cat slides through the shadows... lamplight glints on the sharp silvery spike of the collar he wears. I've often wondered why that gang of street cats wear collars if they're so against human-owned cats...
But no time to wonder that now. I must get through this darkness quickly, away from the intense shadows, bring food for my kits...
Suddenly, Jemima stops. I can't ask her why, the mouse is in my mouth, but I nudge at her and try to push her along. She shivers, but it's not the cold this time...
"Mother," she whispers in an infeline voice, "Can't you see it? the Everlasting Cat... there she is, look mother, look!"
I am worried. She doesn't usually prattle on about such things as the Jellicle Goddess. I spit the mouse out and say, "Jemima, come, hurry! There are many cats here who would steal our food..."
Jemima simply stares, lost in her trance, at the space in front of her where she imagines the goddess is. "But mother, she's so beautiful... so lovely, so cold... icy cold... but so beautiful..."
I try to pick up the mouse and Jemima at the same time, but it doesn't work. "Jemima, come!" I tell her sternly, but frightened, too. The street cats are getting closer... and the shadows are, too.
Suddenly Jemima yelps. "Oh, mother, the Everlasting Cat! Did you see her? She touched my paw... oh, mother, it hurt! The sting..."
I glance at my kittens paw. There is no mark, but she's holding it to her as though she cut it. "Jemima, now, there is no time for fantasy..."
Jemima shakes her head, slowly, like a snake being charmed by music. "Mother... oh mother... the Everlasting Cat is... there...
"...there before me... she touches my paw... takes my paw... it hurts, mother, it hurts! but oh... she is so beautiful..."
A street cat has just grabbed my mouse and darted away. I don't care, I'm more concerned with my entranced kitten now. I shake her, bite into her ear. "Jemima, come along! Now!"
But it's too late...
...she's already lost.
