The Bright Light of a Torch





Authors note: This is rated PG for mild violence and very mild suggestiveness. More violence in the next ones than the first. I suggest you read these in order. Enjoy!!


Crawling, hobbling, limping. The road draws to an end. A black and white figure appeared out of the darkness. Aileen had approached from the shadows. Here pure eyes turned white in the moonlight. The small kitten had learned the hard way to be unseen. She had learned to be serious, and meek. She had learned to be clever, and witty. All this was not easy to learn. She could not run from a pollicle. She soon learned to out wit it instead. She could not play. Her hobbles never ended. Her left foot remained hidden in the shadows, but when seen it was twisted and weak. It turned inward more than a normal paw should be turned, and it refused to lie flat on the ground (note: If you put the side of your foot on the ground, turned in, and try to walk, you'll probably fall down. That's how her foot was.). When she walked, she walked on the side of her foot, unreliably. This made her limp pitifully. This disability was her's from birth. She was ungracefully hobbling all the time, and yet she was a distant and unnatural beauty.

She had been traveling for days now. She was born a stray and her mother was murdered before her eyes. It was a stormy night on her mother's death. She and her mother had cuddled up on someone's porch snuggly. When Aileen's eyes opened she was watching her mother being dragged from her by a large ginger cat. She tried to get to her mother but her foot prevented her. Though unable to see her, she had heard her mother's piercing screams. In timing with a single, brilliant bolt of lightning the screaming stopped, and the gasps of pain with it. The ginger cat then had come upon Aileen. He looked as though he was planning on killing her as well, but he looked at her and seemed to decide that she would suffer more if he simply left her to strive on her own, and he left her.

The lightning bolt declaring her mother's death had always haunted her. The light, the ferocity, the deathly glare, the thundering laughter of the cat. All this was enough to poison her very reason of life. But she had made it out. She had outsmarted the pollicles whom tried to pursue her with simple plans. Standing in front of a wall when a pollicle is following, and than diving out of the way at the last moment, for example (Pollicles are well known for their stupidity.).

But once, she could not escape a coming danger. A large calico tom began to slowly follow her every footstep. She at first did not notice him. Then he became extremely noticeable. She tried to pick up her hobbling pace, very unsuccessfully. She ended up falling over, which gave the calico tom a golden opportunity to attack and began to claw at her for no good reason. She refused to be helpless. She retracted her claws and hissed. But the calico tom was much bigger than she was. His claws streaked across her face and left a large scar on her face. She came close to blacking out, but she forced herself to look up. What she saw made her eyes widen.

A small group of young cats had come up behind the calico. One had a large patch over his left eye. Another had a small strike of brown across his nose and right eye. Another had beautiful big eyes with black and red fur. One was a totally white kitten who stood out the most. Another was a white, black, and a somewhat orange striped kitty who looked excited. And the last one was a black tom with a white face and three white paws. They looked about her age. Aileen's eyes pleaded with them to help her. The six glanced at each other and finally the toms pounced on the calico, while the queens dragged Aileen behind a trashcan. As this happened, she looked up at the young toms. The patched one proved to be strong and fast. The brown striped tom seemed to be jumping all over, never stopping. The black tom proved to be extremely slick when he needed to be. The three kept pursuing the calico until he had given up and left, giving Aileen one last glare.

The young queens rushed over to the toms making sure that they weren't seriously hurt. After the inspection was done they all turned to Aileen. The excited looking striped kitten was blunt. "Hello! I'm Etcetera!"

"Jemima." The large eyed kitten stated.

"I am Victoria." The white kitten had said this. Before any of the toms could say anything Etcetera Began: "This is Tumblebrutus," she pointed to the patched one, "Pouncival," the jumpy one with a brown strip across his nose, "and Mistoffelees." “Quaxo for my friends.” The black and white cat interrupted, glaring at Etcetera. “Oh yes, Quaxo, right! His name is Quaxo too.” Etcetera mumbled a bit as she declared this.

Now here she was. Crawling slowly out of the darkness. In all of the commotion they had not noticed her leg, and she kept it closely behind her to keep it out of sight. She smiled a bit, in a bittersweet way. "My... name... is Aileen. " she managed. This was the moment when her eyes had turned to a pale white in the moonlight (the beginning), quite alike to copies of the moon itself.

Jemima reached out a kind paw to help her up. Aileen at first ducked away from it. "Are you injured?" Jemima asked in a concerned way. "No, I am not... injured per say." Aileen answered carefully. She looked at Jemima's caring face, and decided she could keep nothing from her. Unsurely she took her soft paw and she made an attempt to stand. With the help she managed, and now they could all see her foot clearly. Unwilling to raise her head, she noticed a few of their eyes widen in surprise. Jemima put a pitying paw on her back and muttered a small "I'm sorry." "Why?" This had made her head lift a bit. "You have done nothing to me. In fact, I owe perhaps my life to all of you." Aileen looked up at them as she said so, and noticed that Quaxo's head was cocked a bit, and his eyes were full of emotion. He finally spoke. "We were just on our way to the junkyard. We are going to have the Jellicle ball tomorrow night, would you like to come?" Aileen gave him a questioning look, and Pouncival spoke up, "It is a gathering of rejoicing of which we have once each year. Please say you'll come." Aileen smiled at the slightly younger tom. "I'm going no where else, why not?" And the seven gathered themselves up and left.

*******




Light Main

HOME