When I open my eyes, the first thing I see is the short, dull green grass that stretches out before me. Right away, I scramble up to a sitting position. This is definitely not my territory, or even my type of territory.

Overall, the sight of where I am is really boring. The sky is a plain gray. There's no clouds and no sun or moon, as far as I can see. The ground is flat and covered with short grass. The land seems-well, or even is- endless! There isn't even a tree in sight! Where did this Name take me? This place is making me feel so tiny compared to all this empty space. I hate it!

     "I see you have woken up," a sudden deep voice growls. I whip my head around, only to see Name standing right behind me. How did I not notice him this entire time? I try to look at him for an explanation, but his eyes are expressionless. For the first time, I notice something strange. A swirly pattern is in the iris of his eyes. It's pretty noticeable, since the swirls are a much darker blue than his eye color; it's dark enough to be considered indigo. What is that supposed to stand for? A chill runs down my back just thinking about it.

        Name commands, "Follow me," as he backs away.

        "Why?" I stand firmly in my place and glare at him, a hot surge of annoyance rising in my chest. "You're not my boss."

        At this, Name narrows his eyes. He sneers, "Yes, I am. This is not Earth; this is Gardinia. You can run all you want, but I know every inch of this land, and I will find you. As you can see here, there is no place to hide, so you will be well exposed. Do you understand?"

       Wow, that's the longest string of words that I've heard from him. I stop myself right before I retort that out loud. There is a dangerous glint in his eyes. Right away, I know it's not a good idea to try to run or to challenge him. I don't know how to actually fight since I had no need for it back home, but it's pretty obvious that this cat, however old he looks, knows more than enough about it. I just sigh and groan, "Fine." Name nods, quickly giving his chest a satisfied lick, and turns around. He stalks away to my left and gestures me to follow him. The surge of annoyance rises in my chest again, but this time, I just follow Name. Fighting definitely won't help right now.

        For a while, we walk in silence. I have no idea where we're going; it doesn't even look like there's any place to go. Seriously, all I see here is the endless, short-grassed ground and the dull gray sky! Oh yeah, and it's also freezing. My paws are starting to feel really numb. I'm even hoping for some rain to come right now, just so I can find something interesting to think about. But apparently, when I actually want rain, which is pretty rare, it won't come.

        Finally, I can't take the boredom and silence anymore. I shiver and blurt out, "Where in the world are you taking me?! There isn't anything in this place, not even a tree! And I feel like I'm going to freeze to death!" Name didn't answer. He's just acting like I never said anything and walking at a quicker pace than before. I pant as I try to keep up with his pace. At least I feel a bit warmer, since we're moving more. It's not that warmer, though.

        After several more minutes, I finally see something; it's a hole in the ground. Name wordlessly just slips into the small, dark opening. My body forces me to a stop. Fear pulses through my veins when I realize that I actually have to go in there. Just thinking of squeezing into that tight space with barely any air makes my fur prickle with dread.

Noticing that I was not following him, Name slips back out and looks at me with a questioning look. I question, "Do I really need to go in there? I hate tight spaces!"

"Yes," Name growls, "you need to go in. It's the easiest way to get to the camp." With that, he slips back in. I shiver helplessly, knowing there's no choice but to follow him, and squeeze myself in the hole. Immediately, I feel dirt smear itself on my fur.

For a terrifying moment, I think I'm blind. Everything is completely dark, so I have to guide myself by feeling the walls around me.

I was definitely right about the little air in tight spaces like this. I can barely breathe. I need more air. My chest heaves with the effort of sucking in the stuffy air that I can find. Panic clutches my racing heart as I crawl in a very low position to go down the slope of the hole. After a while, my legs start to ache, begging to straighten. Soon, they start to demand it, hurting and trembling more with every step, and I have to grit my teeth to put up with it. Even though my teeth are tightly shut, a barely controlled whimper still slips out of my mouth. Name doesn't respond. I can't see him, but by the way he acted earlier, I'm guessing he just keeps crawling as if he's not noticing my agony.

The worst part is that there seems to be no end of this narrow path. For a moment, I think that I'm going to be stuck here for the rest of my life, but I dismiss that thought with a quiet chuckle. Even if I do get stuck here, I know I will find a way out. I have no idea where Name is, since I obviously can't see him, and I can't hear him either, even though I can hear myself panting and walking pretty well.

But again, I really hate Name. I don't care if he's gone; I just want out.

Suddenly, there's more room around me. We have come to a wide space. Well, the place we have arrived at feels kind of small; after exploring around and bumping into walls, it probably could only fit about eight cats. But after all of this traveling through extremely narrow underground pathways, this seems like heaven to me! I have no idea how long we've been traveling, but it felt like centuries! I thought I was going to die there! It's still extremely dark, though, so other than the approximate size, I can't see anything else.

        I jump as I hear Name's voice. "Stay here. I will be right back." For the first time, I can hear his quiet paw-steps as he slips away to another narrow pathway supposedly across from me. I can feel the cool relief of my legs as they can finally straighten from that darn crouched position I had to hold. Some more air comes to my nose, but it's still stuffy.

        Wait a minute, why am I observing the air? This is a chance to escape! I look behind me, dreading that long path again, and easily rule it out. When Name comes back, he'll probably hunt me down easily there, anyway. I feel for a dirt wall and slowly walk around the space to search for another possible pathway other than the other two- one that we arrived from and one from which Name left through. However, to my disappointment, those were the only two pathways that were there.

        Name came back right when I went back to the pathway I arrived through. He looked at me suspiciously, but he didn't comment. Instead, he gestured with his tail for me to follow again, something I barely noticed because of the darkness. As he disappeared again, I took one last deep breath and followed him, starting that torture again.

       I hate tunnels.