- ♛ -

The night was young, the pale moon flirting with the darkened clouds caressing it's silvery hued light. It sent only a soft, curved shadow onto the ground of a sleeping forest. An owl swooped low over the trees, a muted rustle hardly heard, before disappearing into the night, leaving not a trace it was there before.

The forest was dead silent. Not a mouse stirred. The moonlight glanced off the leaves of the densely growing foliage. The leaves - turned a darkened mute green by the night - waved beckoningly, a gleam dancing on it's surface, perhaps hoping to catch the eye of a curious raven.

The air was cool and the ground was damp, spongey moss coating the trails that went this-way-and-that. It was the definition of peace, and the forest was slipping into an easy rest.

But suddenly, in the stillness, a screech wrenched the air. A pale silhouette staggered into the forest path, leaving inky splatters of blood on the ground. They lurched unsteadily forward, white pelt illuminated in the moon's muted light.

Tension roiled like a thundercloud in the air. The stench of fear accompanied it like lightning, strong and panicked.

As the first cat half-stumbled, half-ran across the path, a second figure appeared out of the bushes. The figure appeared more calm than the other, bristling slightly but not making any noise. The shadows hid their pelt, and they used it to their advantage, hugging the edge of the path and gaining on the weakened white cat.

With a sharp flash of claws, the first cat went down. Metallic blood-scent flooded the clearing. In just a blink, the second shadowed cat was gone, melting into the dark trees like a crow into the night.

The ghostly white cat lay on the ground, choking on their own rasping breath. Blood pooled around their body, but they made no move to get up and just lay there amidst the inky-black splatters on the ground.

It wasn't long before the ragged breath, of a cat holding desperately on to life, became fainter and fainter until it finally vanished.

So it was as the moons lengthened, blood fading away from the ground, that all that was left of the cat was their bones, sunken into the ground and hidden forever, to never be seen again by living eyes.