Burning pain flooded my head. It filled every nook and cranny of my mind, leaving no empty space. It felt horrible.

I could only remember pain. Whenever I tried holding on to slippery memories, they would be washed away with pain. Something burning them away. It was taking part of me away.

There was a moment when the pain receded for a moment. I was able to breathe again and see clearly. I was in a forest, up to my knees in snow. Dark evergreen trees were blanketed with snow. It was the epitome of a winter wonderland.

Why was I there? I could hear a river in the distance and the crisp screech of a jovial bird. I could feel the cold of the snow against my paws. I could taste something horrible . . . something that seemed familiar but I couldn't remember . . .

I quickly spat it out. It was a red, half-chewed blob of berries. I spat and spat till it was all gone . . . but the aftertaste never left.

The pain ebbed away slowly and I began noticing more. It felt like ashes were settling in my mind, leaving it feeling mucky.

It was snowing. There were trees around. There was a cliff to my right. There was a scarf around my neck . . . It was choking me!

I pulled the green and white scarf off quickly, struggling to get it untangled from my neck. It popped away with half a dozen, brightly colored balls and three small knives. I could breathe once it was gone. How did all the balls and knives fit in the scarf?

Then there were voices. They called a word over and over again. "Kota! Kota!" What was Kota?

They were getting closer. I looked around for a way to escape. There were trees all around, blocking my way, but the cliff to the right of me was wide open. I hastily threw myself over.

I very quickly regretted it. The fall was several hundred meters downward. There was nothing to hold on to. I flailed wildly through the air, unable to breathe as the wind blew past me so fast. It was horribly exhilarating. The air was so icy and cold. The bottom was getting closer and closer; once I hit it I would be dead. I had been so foolish!

Suddenly I was stopped. I hit something very hard with my legs, then with my stomach. Pain rang through my whole body. The rushing wind stopped abruptly. What had happened?

I had stopped falling and was dangling several meters in the air. The bottom was about a tree length or two away. The air wasn't throwing itself at me anymore, but it howled through the ravine loudly and teased my fur. My heart pounded very fast, but an overwhelming sense of relief came over me, bringing me almost to tears.

I looked to see what had stopped my fall. A twisty little tree that had grown from a ledge and had been poking out a little too far, searching for sunlight, had been crushed by my weight. It was splintering and complaining in the wind.

Suddenly it snapped under me. Before I could fall, I dug my claws in its damp bark. The little tree smacked into the wall of the ravine with a screech, The bare branches clattering on impact.

Before the tree could break anymore I crawled up it, perching myself on the ledge, breathing heavily.

The voice from up above was calling the still calling the same word. It sounded feminine and very familiar. I sat there for a minute, trying hard to remember. I gave up once the owner of the voice had turned around and walked away.

Besides the roaring of the wind, I felt a smaller, brisker current. It bounced on my whiskers like a sharp note. The little breeze came from my left, deeper in the wall.

As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I noticed there was a little cave, barely big enough for me to crawl through.

Peering into it, I searched for any movement or light. There was nothing. It smelled like earth and mildew. I heard a soft roaring, like the rush of blood when you cover your ears.

Without much thought, I crawled into the tunnel. There was no light once my body blocked the entrance. There was barely enough room to shuffle through, keeping my paws tight against my chest.

What was I doing? I would suffocate! If there was danger up ahead, I would never see it! I could only visualize the dark tunnel with my whiskers. Even if I could see, it would be impossible to turn around and get away quickly. But besides the tunnel, there was no other exit. I couldn't climb back up the ravine, and I didn't want to find out if there was another tree waiting for me on the way down.

So I crawled on. It wasn't long until I felt terribly claustrophobic and my legs were cramping. I kept scraping my head on the roof, scattering dirt all around. All I could hear was my heavy breathing.

Faintly on my whiskers, I could feel a change in the wind. It felt cold and fresh. Maybe the tunnel opened up farther ahead.

But as I crawled on, I realized it wasn't anywhere close. I progressed very slowly.

My mind had slowed down enough to think clearly. Where was I? Why had I been on that cliff? What was that stuff in my mouth? Why was I wearing that scarf? Why couldn't I remember anything?

It was all confusing. It was terrible not having someone to talk to; someone who could give me answers.

Who had been calling out? What did she want?

I tried to piece everything together, but there wasn't much to build from. I always felt like I was close to remembering, almost enough to grab a little part, but it dashed away. It was very frustrating; I was almost to tears often.

After what felt like years, the tunnel opened up. I could breathe and stretch once more! It felt good being able to stand comfortably without the ceiling squishing my ears.

A tiny bit of light glowed from little green-blue stones near the base of the walls. I could see a little in the dim light; there were six tunnels to choose from, including the one I had just crawled from. The room felt surprisingly drafty and was tall enough that I couldn't see the ceiling.

I wondered if I should continue or stay in the cave for a bit. I didn't know what was down those other tunnels, but I wasn't making any progress just sitting there. Anything or anyone could have easily ran through one of the six tunnels to assault me.

What if something is in there, watching me, waiting to attack? I wondered. The idea frightened me and I felt very fond of the center of the room.

I didn't want to move until I heard pattering come from a tunnel to my right. Someone- no, there were many of them, were moving quickly through the darkness, slithering in the tunnel like a snake through dry leaves.

My fur rose and my claws snapped out instinctively. The noise was horrible. As it got closer and louder, I could hear many high-pitched squeals, like those of mice. There would have to be hundreds of them to make such a loud noise, but it sounded like there were only a few.

Six white mice the size of foxes came bursting through the tunnel. The leader was nearly halfway across the room when he noticed me and skidded to a stop. The remaining five were unprepared and rammed into him, piling up like fallen dominoes.

"Hold it!" The leader called. His voice had the same pitch and tone of the squeaking.

They quickly dusted and licked themselves off, then stood straight in a line.

"There's a monster in our midst!" The lead mouse squealed, pointing at me. "How'd he find our tunnel? How'd he get down here? I thought we had the best security of all the underground tunnels!"

One of the bigger mice piped up. "We do, sir!"

The leader mouse smacked him. "Then why do we have a tiger in our tunnels!" They didn't respond.

"Where did you come from? How did you get past the guards?" The mouse said, pointing and looking at me.

"Uh, um, I don't know," I said, somewhat surprised by the sound of my own voice; I couldn't remember what it sounded like until I spoke. It was very Scandinavian. "I came through that tunnel .  . ." I said, pointing to the tunnel I had come through.

"Oh yeah!" One of the little mice said. "We don't guard that tunnel because it drops off on the face of a cliff!"

"What? How did you get in it? Why are you here?" The mouse took a few steps closer to me. His giant teeth were a few centimeters from my face.

"I-I fell from the clib-cliff," I said, stuttering. "a tree caught my fall."

"A TREE!" The mouse wailed to no one in particular. I was very confused by him and it was making me uncomfortable. "No tree shall let intruders pass by us! Let's throw him back outside, so he can fall the rest of the way!"

Within a heartbeat, all of the mice had rushed from their spot to lift me on their shoulders. The little ones moaned and trembled under my weight. I tried kicking them away, but they compensated for my movement. I rolled, hissed and squirmed, but they didn't care. I couldn't touch them as long as my back was parallel to the ground.

"Go! Take him away!" The lead mouse cried, pointing down the tunnel.

"Wait!" A little one yelled shrilly by my ear.

The mice stopped quickly; the ones in the front buckled under my swaying weight.

"Look at his blue eyes! He's an eraser!"

"Do you mean a chaser?" One whispered quietly.

"A chaser! Bring him back in here! Back here!" The lead mouse barked, beckoning the group back eagerly. His movements were always sharp, quick and frantic.

As soon as they got back into the little room they threw me on the floor like a dumbbell.

"Is he truly a chaser?" A bigger mouse inquired.

The lead mouse paced around me, scratching his chin quickly. "I see it now! Of course! His blue eyes and his thick fur! But where is his scarf? Why is he here?"

I didn't understand what he was talking about. What was a chaser? Had I thrown off the scarf he was talking about?

"You! Tiger! Are you a chaser? Where is your scarf? You have little value without your scarf!"

"What?" I mumbled, propping my head up a little. "I took the scarf off on top of the cliff, but why . . . what does it have to do with my value? What's a chaser?"

Some of the mice gasped. The lead mouse clasped his heart.

Oh, they were so weird! So confusing! It was terribly difficult to understand their high-pitched, fast-paced speaking!

"The profit! The profit has gone down!" I little mouse cried out.

"But wait!" Another mouse piped up. "Will the consumers be able to distinguish if the tiger is a chaser or not?"

The mice all let out a satisfied ah, as if this was the solution to all their problems.

"Oh yes! But normal consumers won't accept him." The lead mouse said.

"You two!" He said, pointing to two random mice. "Get some rope, enough to bind him! We'll sell him to the more quiet consumers. The black market will pay well for him, even if they discover he's a chaser before we depart."

The two mice ran down a tunnel. As they were gone, the rest of the mice chattered with excitement, fantasizing of the bountiful rewards they would receive. Most spoke of moldy cheese, which didn't seem as appealing as they declared it to be.

The mice came back quickly with enough ropes to knit a sock or two for Sasquatch. Quickly, each of the mice took a bit of rope and bundled my limbs together. I tried kicking out, squirming, even biting, but as before they dodged and used my attacks against me. Everything I did was futile.

They tied all four of my legs together, I had a thickly weaved corset of ropes to limit my movement and mouth was gagged and muzzled. They even wrapped my tail against my hind legs.

Again, they struggled to put me on their backs, but now that I was all tied up I couldn't do anything.

"Let's go, mice!" The lead mouse called from behind me.

They began to run deep into the tunnel. There wasn't a part of me that didn't scrape the walls. I had a difficult time breathing; what air I could get was stuffy, hot and filled with dirt. All the ropes tied around me hurt and were cutting off my circulation. I felt dizzy and sick after only a few minutes of running.

I may have gone unconscious at one point; everything kind of slurred together and time passed without me noticing it. Or I may have fallen asleep. Either way, I did not feel good at all. I was finally awaken from my stupor when I caught the scent of fresh air. It was cold, dry and crisp, like jumping into a bank of snow after you've been couped up inside all day.

My brain began to push away the sickness and pain I was feeling; I felt hopeful and alive again. I could think clearly.

I then realized the danger I was in. The mice were planning on selling me to the black market. I couldn't remember much, but I was able to recall what a black market was and why one should stay away from it.

Within a few minutes I could see light again. The tunnel ended at the base of a tree's roots guarded by a mouse. We were in a snowy forest again, but the trees were different; they were tall and skinny.

"Break time!" The lead mouse yelled as he crawled from the roots of the tree, gasping for air.

The other mice, trembling, threw me to the ground with their last bit of strength. Most of them flopped over in the snow as if they were dead.

I'm not that fat! I thought.

The lead mouse leaned on the tree. "Don't sleep on me now!" He squeaked.

While he wasn't looking, I carefully began to slither away, centimeter by centimeter. One time I moved too much and a resting mouse glanced my way. I had to stay still for a long time.

I was wondering how I would cut the ropes when I noticed a sharp slate of stone growing from the ground. Perfect.

"Let's go! Get up! Get the - wait, where did he go?" The lead mouse yelled, but by then I was on my feet running, shaking the ropes from my legs. I really hoped I was quicker than them; I couldn't remember how fast I was.