I waited patiently at the door. It had been snowing a lot lately in the the new winter season. Of course it never snowed heavily here, it was really just white mush. My paws were wet and left muddy trails as I scratched once more at the heavy wooden door.

It opened up and I padded inside gratefully. My human mumbled words of praise to me as she filled my food bowl. I wasn't particularly hungry, but it was a kind gesture. I wanted to sleep a bit, maybe curl up on a blanket.

If I was lucky maybe I would see the tiger again.

I knew what tigers were because she told me, and I had seen several on pictures. My human liked to read me stories and folklore about different things and the giant cats had come up a few times. But I personally like the tales of heroes finding lost family. Some part of me felt something missing from my life. Like if fate had played out differently I might have some family of my own to share kind words with.

I shook my head and stretched, hopping up onto the couch and curling up next to my human. She was old, very sweet and loved me to death.

"Hey there Jelu, my little glacier." She laughed and gestured to the bound paper in hands. "Do you want to know what I'm reading?"

I purred softly, but I began to feel drowsy and zoned out halfway-through her reading. She continued to trail her finger along the soft bumps in the paper and stared off with unseeing eyes.

I opened my eyes again, yawned, and glanced around. I was now in a snowy meadow, with a heavy mist hanging over it. It was a beautiful place, and the cold didn't bother me as I walked knowingly to a sitting figure on a small hill. She was large, and stared off into the distance almost like my human did. But I knew she could see, unlike my human, who was blind. She turned her head towards me and rumbled softly.

"How are you?"

"Good, winter has been kind the the two of us." I answered cheerfully.

She smiled. "The one thing I love about you is your unfailing kindness. Remember that, for these are dark times and I need more claws like you."

I never understood why she always called me a claw. I had claws, a whole bunch of them.

"Anything new since your fourteenth birthday?" She inquired again, watching me close.

"Not really, I have been having some strange dreams lately though. About winged cats, how crazy is that?" I chuckled, not thinking too much about it.

"What happens in these dreams?" She asked curiously.

"I'm talking to these two cats, with wings, they tell me stories. It's almost like the mother and father I never had." I sighed, feeling nostalgic.

"I don't have long to go anyway. I read somewhere that cats usually only live till they're fourteen. I figured I must be old and going crazy." I chuckled weakly.

"You're not a cat Jelu. You're only at the beginning of your life, remember how many times I've told you this." She warned. "You're an Ice-claw."

I woke with a start. It was still dark outside, I shivered. My human had gone to sleep, I was all alone. There was something off about the air in the house. I jumped off and launched myself up to the windowsill. It was snowing again, turning the trees into mounds of white fluff. It was a lot of snow for Washington.

I didn't see it, I never saw it. But my shadow had a pair of wings on it's back. It slowly grew, and grew, consuming the room as I stared into the outside world.

Then my shadow blinked it's huge red eyes and smiled.

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I was writing this in the car and a guy drives past with a flipping caribou head or something in the bed of his truck and a grill.

I'm still not sure if it were real or not.