Not in Kansas anymore[OPEN]

For the seventh day in a row, a thin-pelted cat woke up in a panic. There was something missing. He opened his eyes and thrashed about, finding himself pinned. He began to yowl in fear. He was trapped, soon a predator would come along and eat him. He was a sitting duck. Yowling increasing in pitch, he unsheathed his claws and began to shred the soft material smothering him. Suddenly, a tired-looking creature appeared in the corner of his eye. A twoleg, the tom vaguely remembered. Here to take him away. Here to hurt him. He hissed and spat at her to no avail, as she continued to approach. Ignoring his displays, she gently unwrapped him. Bewildered, he blinked at her for a moment before jumping to his feet. He managed to stay standing for a good 2 seconds before crumpling to the ground, or rather the soft surface he'd previously been lying on. The twoleg let out a strange noise, baring her teeth. He flattened his ears against his head, but she paid him no heed and began scratching his head. Despite himself, he let his fur relax although his eyes remained focused on her movements. "Silly Dennis. Come on, I'll help you." The tom didn't understand, but he recognised the word Dennis. She used it a lot. 

While he contemplated the noises she'd made, she gently scooped him up under his chest. Taken by surprise, he flailed his legs around in an effort to escape. Just like before, though, the twoleg wasn't fazed. She placed him onto his three remaining feet, keeping her hands around him until he stopped swaying on the spot. He looked around at her, blinked once, and carefully hobbled off to the big clear thing on the other side of the room. In his week here, he'd discovered that while it looked like there was nothing there, it was in fact solid. Like ice, his mind chimed in helpfully. Yes, he conceded, like ice. There was another bit of vertical ice inside the bigger one, and this one moved. The twoleg showed him on his first day. I just have to push against it, he thought as he hesitantly nudged it with his head. He crawled out through the hole, almost falling over in the process, and stepped out onto the grass. He was calmer out here. It was enclosed by tall wooden walls, ones he wasn't able to climb anymore, and it felt more like home than the inside did. Plus, sometimes there were other cats here. They could climb the walls, a fact Dennis(that was probably his name, right? He couldn't quite recall) was only slightly jealous of. Pottering about slowly, he started sniffing at the odd plants growing among the grass and tried to remember what they were called.

Moving with the direction of the lightly flowing breeze, Elsa padded along the alleys of the twolegplace, making her daily rounds through the area and whatnot. The bigger cats had started to bully her less and were instead hiding inside from the cooling weather, which was much to the molly's delight. Of course, she did come across the occasional alleycat, but she paid no attention to them. She instead just went walking past them, ignoring their threats.

Jumping onto a fence and then up to the rooftops, she looked down at the view below, relishing the gusts of cool wind blowing through her pelt. Something about the cold appealed to her, she never seemed bothered by it. "The cold never bothered me anyway..." The words escaped her maw, but she couldn't tell why or what they meant. They just seemed.... natural.

Shaking out her pristine pelt, she continued along the rooftop, admiring the views and counting all of the cats she saw. While making her daily rounds through the twolegplace, she had developed the habit of watching the cats and making sure they were all accounted for. It made her feel important, in a way, as if she were looking after the cats. Soon enough, a certain pelt caught her gaze. One that was foreign to her eyes. 'A newbie?'

Jumping down, she stood on the fence, looking down at at the tom. "Are you new around here? I don't recognize you?" A puzzled expression crossed her face before being quickly replaced with with a welcoming and friendly one. "Well, i'm Elsa, nice to meet you!"

The thin black tom sniffed at a particularly interesting clump of leaves. It had a very strong scent, almost familiar. It reminded him of- of blood, and sickness, and death. Reaching out a paw to investigate further, he suddenly stopped as a voice broke the silence. In fact, he jumped a full foot into the air and landed sprawled on his back. He rolled over onto his side, struggling for a little while to get back up but finding his efforts fruitless. He looked up at the strange cat, fear ebbing away as he saw that her face hid no ill intent. "Uh, h-hi. I'm... Dennis? I think? That's what she calls me, anyway." He motioned with his tail towards the huge den he now called home. "Are you- do you have a twoleg?" The last word felt odd on his tongue. Just like with the odd-smelling plants, there was something foreign yet comforting about it. "Um, hey, E-elsa, could you maybe..." He gestured at himself, unable to stand up without help. He felt a lot more comfortable asking another cat to help him, rather than the odd creature that lived inside and called him Dennis.

When the tom jumped in surprise, Elsa found herself struggling to keep herself balanced on the fence as a result of the other cat's sudden movement. Once she had steadied herself she immediately apologized. "Oh stars, sorry about that, i really didn't mean to scare you! I should have called out from the rooftops first..." It was then when the she-cat realized that the tom only had three legs. As the tom began speaking, she jumped down to meet him. "Dennis... That's a nice name." A smile spread across her face as she sat down across from Dennis. She couldn't help but wonder who she was, but her question was quickly answered when Dennis gestured toward the house.

Focusing her gaze on the open window, she tried to see if she saw anything inside. Her luck seemed to be good, because the inside seemed quite empty. From her experience with housefolk, they seemed to dislike it when cats escaped from their dens. "Oh, i used to live with Housefolk- er, Twolegs. But living inside everyday soon got boring to me, and i began to wonder what was beyond the treeline." The she-cat answered his question with a cheerful mew.

Elsa didn't even notice that Dennis was unable to get up until the tom asked her for help. "Oh- of course!" In an almost panicked fashion, she walked behind the tom and pushed on his shoulder with her head, propping him up enough for him to regain his balance. "Again, sorry about scaring you. I just saw someone new and wanted to say hi, y'know?" Sitting back down, she looked at Dennis with curios eyes. "So, if you don't mind me asking, how did you lose your leg? There's nothing wrong with it of course, it's just that i've never seen a cat with only three legs before."

Dennis smiled apologetically. "Oh, it's okay. I should've been paying attention. Just, you know, you get jumpy when you're this small." He nodded at her response to his question. He wasn't sure how he was gonna do it, but once his leg healed, escaping would be first on his to-do list. "Must be nice. I've never been outside of here." He frowned. It felt like a lie, but it was true; Dennis really couldn't remember being anywhere but here. For all he knew, he was born in this den.

He pushed against the ground, the added support of Elsa's head allowing him to get to his feet once again. He kept forgetting about his leg, kept trying to put weight on a limb that was no longer there. It was frustrating. He smiled at Elsa again. "Thank you. I'm glad you came to say hi. It gets lonely here, y'know?" There it was again. That feeling of deja vu. Why did it seem like he'd said that before? The feeling only got worse at her question. He could say he didn't remember, but that wasn't quite true. He remembered something- blurry visions of a massive beast, of a forest, of a little broken body drenched with blood. His fault his fault his fault hisfault...

"Uh, m-monster ran it over. Don't really remember it." He made a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Oh, it is nice. I've met so many nice cats, and there's the groups of cats called clans, they're really interesting." Her eyes sparkled at the thought of possibly being able to see Daisybloom and Mermurr again. They were so kind to her- but then there were the cats who attacked her on site, like that one Riverclan cat. She was never able to learn his name, but she was sure that she didn't want to. "Even so, there's some cats who will attack you no matter how friendly your intentions are, unfortunately." She sighed and looked back to a scar on her flank, remembering her run-in with that Riverclan tom.

Switching her attitude to something more positive, she looked at her surroundings and made mental compliments to the pretty flowers of the garden. The flowers were beginning to wild, but their pretty colors hadn't yet completely been overtaken by the brown rot that came with the cold weather. At the sound of Dennis's words, she turned back around with a small smile. "Oh, of course! Thank you for allowing me to stay a bit. Believe it or not, i actually spend most days along. I used to live with another cat... but it's been quite a while since i last saw her. I'm sure she's okay, she likes to stick to a different part of the twolegplace now." Thinking about Willow always re-opened a wound in her heart. The she-cat had been her first friend outside of the Housefolk's den, and from that point they had lived like sisters. Starting to be overtaken with a feeling of melancholy, she wrapped her tail around her paws reassuringly. It didn't take long for her happy mood to return though, as Dennis had began talking again.

"Oh, a monster ran over you? I'm so sorry, it must have hurt very bad. As much as i think cats would be better without twolegs, i have to admit, they can heal a cat like magic. I... i've seen quite a few cats who have lost two the Thunderpaths, i'm glad to know that you made it out alright, even if you're having a bit of trouble adjusting." Despite how Dennis gave her a smile, it didn't quite seem true to his mood. ut of pure instinct, she spoke without thinking. "Hey... are you alright?"

Dennis nodded. "Yeah, the twolegs sure have us beat for healing. Back home, I could hardly..." He stopped and frowned. Home? He didn't even remember what he was going to finish that sentence with. This was home, had always been. He shook his head to clear his whirling thoughts, just in time to catch the tail end of Elsa's question. "Huh? oh, y-yeah I'm okay. It's just," he looked around, as if to ensure nobody was watching.

"Sometimes I feel like- like I don't belong here. Which is absurd, because I've always been here. Maybe not here here, but I've always been living like this. For as long as I can remember." He leaned in closer. "See, but that's the thing. I can't remember. It feels like I was born a week ago, like I never existed until I lost my leg. I don't remember having four. I don't remember being called anything but Dennis, but I know that's not what my mother named me. As far as I know, I might as well not have a mother at all."

He was panting now, far from the concise lie he was initially going to tell. Realising that he was rambling, he blushed and looked away. "Sorry, oversharing. Um, I get it if I ruined the moment and you want to leave."

A soft smile formed on her face when the tom responded to her question, relieved to hear that he was alright- even if it didn't seem genuine. She waited in silence for a moment as she waited for Dennis to continue. When the tom did, she focused on his expression with intent eyes. As he explained to her how he couldn't remember most of his life, her gaze turned from observant to curious. This cat was truly something else- like no cat she had met before. It was intriguing, she was glad that she was able to meet this cat. Listening as he continued, she opened her mouth to speak once he had finished. "Oh.. that's odd, to say the least. Maybe something happened when you lost your leg that took your memories? I hope there's a way for you to get them back one day. I'm sure it's frustrating, not being able to remember important things about yourself, for most of your life to be a mystery." She sympathized with Dennis, resting her tail on his shoulder. "Ah, you didn't ruin anything at all, honestly I think you're a fun cat to be around, even if you have trouble remembering your past." She matched the words with a warm smile and kind eyes.