Aria stumbled down the cobblestoned streets in exhaustion. She'd had a long
day of walking in. Of couse, she hadn't the slightest idea where she was
going. To any humans who happened to notice her, they would see a small,
dirty russian blue kitten. To any other cats, she was just a Feral. A
horse-drawn carriage passed by, splattering mud up into her face, and nearly
making her a kitty pancake. She wiped the mud out of her eyes as tears of
fright began to form. She stopped herself. "Aria, you silly thing! You're
nearly a grown cat and you're crying because of a little mud," she told
herself in her own language. Nothing that any human would recognize. She
started down a path that had less traffic, though. She wouldn't want to take
any risks. The path was a dirt one, made by horses and carriages passing into
the center of the small town. The year was 1899. Aria would be a full grown
cat on exactly new years 1900. She smiled to herself. It was a strange
birthdate to have, but according to her brother, it was lucky. Her
brother...she shoved away the thought. All of her family had been murdered by
a huge pollicle dog three months ago. That was why she was leaving. To try
and find one of the notorious Jellicle tribes. They were known for their
kindness to strangers, especially kittens. Her looking small for her age
would work in that favor. With that thought in mind, she trotted merrily down
the path, hoping it led to a place humans called "London". It was here that
the Jellicles lived. She felt strangely out of place in this country, though,
with her Russian/American mixed accent. She had smuggled herself aboard a
boat to England from New York. She lived half of her life in Russia, half in
America. Aria was snapped rudely out of her thoughts as she heard a familiar,
terrible vocal sound behind her. Barking. She didn't take time to turn and
look. Her paws took her, almost out of reflex, off the path and into the
woods. The pollicle was getting closer. Aria jumped high up into the air and
grabbed a tree branch. "Please," she thought to herself "Don't break, Mr.
branch.." The branch swayed under her weight, but didn't break. In fact, it
felt to aria as if it strengthened at her plea. " Oh, pollicle? Could you
please leave me be? I'm not very fat, there is a nice plump cat down at that
library on 3rd," she begged. The pollicle didn't seem to hear her. Defiantly,
she said "Go away, you pollicle!" To her surprise and elation, the dog turned
and walked off. That was two lucky breaks in 5 minutes. "How..oh, I won't
ask. I wish I knew a way out of here.." she said, gazing at the maze that lay
befoer her. With a "pop" a small, silver, swirling circle appeared at the
base of the tree. It was "standing up" you might say. In other words, it
wasn't lying flat againt the ground. She leapt nimbly out of the tree to
examine it. Carefully, Aria stuck her paw out to touch it. With a gasp of
surprise and amazement, her paw went straight through, not coming out the
other side. She quickly pulled it out, revealing some of the silver sutff had
stuck to her fur. It was liquid, and yet it was solid. She hesitantly licked
some of it off, only to spit it out several seconds later. It tasted cold,
and metallic. Aria glanced at the circle, which was wavering now, as if to
dissapear any moment. "I don't have much choice here, either," she told
herself, and jumped in, just before it disappeared with another faint popping
noise, identical to the first. Aria was in a long, narrow hallway. Everything
was white, and hundreds of doorways lined the walls. Each doorway had
something in a strange language marked above it, and was more of that silvery
stuf below. Aria looked around. She felt dizzy. The world was wavign aorund
in front of her. She stumbled forward, and tried to grab the frame of a
doorway. She must have been too late, because the last thing she felt was the
same cool feeling she had gotten when she went through the first circle. She
felt her mind spinning ,and was flying past colors and objects there was no
name for. Finally, she passed out.
Chapter 2:What the heck was that?!
Aria woke up slowly. Pain rippled through her body with every movement
she made. She first opened one eye, then the other. She was lying on a
sidewalk, only not the kind she was used to. This one was gray and smooth,
not a bunch of rocks put together. She looked around her, getting slowly to
her feet. Near her there was a road of some sort. It was black as a raven's
feather, and had two yellow lines going down the middle. Was it solid? It was
hard to tell from where she was. She slowly put one foot onto it, finding it
WAS solid. Hesitantly, she walked onto it. What was this? Where was she? What
had happened? She asked herself over and over. The pain had left quickly.
" Hey, kit, lookout!" shouted a voice. Aria turned in that direction.
There was a large black and leopard-spotted Tom, peeking out from an alley.
Was this the one that had yelled? Most probably.
"Didn't you hear me? Are you deaf? LOOK OUT!" he yelled again, this time
coming out of the alley. What was he yelling about? All of a sudden, she
heard a frightening noise behind her. Like a foghorn. She turned just in time
to see a huge monster, with bright yellow eyes, about to trample her! It had
lots of big wheels for feet, and big steel teeth. Aria screamed. Loud. Then
the yellow eyes, the big teeth, the entire moster dissapeared. And everything
went black.
When Aria woke up, she didn't know it was possible to be in more pain
than what had happened with the liquid doorways. Apparently, it was. She
immediately groaned and shut her eyes.
"Oh, no you don't, little kitten! We need to figure out where you come
from. It looks as if you have a collar, but no tag.." Aria looked up and saw
a furry leopard-spotted and tiger-striped cat sitting in front of her. She
had a look on her face as if she had been worried, but was now hiding it with
a playfully scolding face.
"I....I...I am Aria.." said Aria, blushing and trying to hide her accent
as much as possible. "I come from Russia and the United States of America,
Ma'am. I hope I wasn't any trouble...I was walking on this strange black road
and I was attacked by a big metal monster!" she finished, her eyes going wide.
The Tom she had seen earlier stepped out from the shadows.
"See, Jenny...she acted as if she couldn't hear me, either.." he said,
smirking. He obviously thought it was funny."Jenny" gave him a death glare.
"How old are you, Aria?" She asked kindly, in a voice one would use with
little kittens. Aria hid a smile. She knew her size would deceive some cats.
"I'll be a full-grown cat on exactly New Years 1900," she said proudly.
Jenny got a look of shock and dismay on her face. What had she said wrong?
Was she being impolite?
"Um, Aria?" said the other cat, who she had mentally nicknamed "the
demon-cat" because of his strange, wild appearance "It's almost the year 2000
right now. If you were a full-grown cat in 1900, you're dead now." He was
smirking again! What was so funny?! Then what he said hit her. 2000? that had
to be some kind of sick joke. She as most definetly NOT 100 years old. Then
it all came back. The silver stuff, the way things had been so lucky. And she
fainted, out of utter pain, exhaustion, and shock.
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