I stand there, immobilized with the fear and shock of what I've become. Ash and Ice crane their heads up to gape at me.

        What have I done?

        "I already regret my decision!" I cry out to them. "Is there a way to undo this?"

        I don't receive a clear response. Ash and Ice are meowing to each other. They are literally meowing to each other; even though I can still hear them perfectly, all I can understand from their chatter is a variety of cat noises.

        Oh, no. It then hits me that humans speak a different language than cats. If they didn't, then I would have been able to understand them back at Earth. I'm such an idiot. Why did I try to talk to them? And most of all, why did I agree to let Ash do this to me?

        No. I can grieve over my stupidity later. There has to be a way to change back somehow. I just have to figure out how to do it.

Warily staring at the weird material that is on my legs- wait. Those are pants. I quietly gasp, taken aback by surprise. How do I even know that word?

And gasping? What a strange sound. Humans bewilder me. Why do I have to be one of them?

Looking down, there is something heavy in the right pocket of my pants. Feeling even more puzzled than I already am, I slowly take it out.

It feels sleek and smooth in my...what is the word humans use to describe their front paws? It comes to my brain as quickly and silently as the last three terms: hands. The object is a rather circular, silver metal with a sparkly red stone slightly bulging from the middle of it. Right, the stone is a ruby. It does nothing to clarify what exactly I'm holding, but whatever.

As I gingerly hold the object in my hands, I finally know what it is when I notice a thin chain attached to the back of it. It's called a locket. Even though the word still sounds foreign to me, something in my brain tells me that it can open.

Without thinking, I close my fist around the locket. That's when it happens again. My head and heart burn with pain, and before I know it, I'm back to normal. Ash and Ice are taller than me again. I glance down at my paws, dizzy with relief and exhaustion.

Nobody says anything for a long moment. My body heaves as I pant heavily from the transformations that occurred. I'm too much in shock to even look at the two cats, but I'm sure they both look very ruffled by now. Trying to regain my composure, I stare at the ground and attempt to steady my wobbly legs and racing heart.

        Finally, Ash breaks the long silence. "That was a peculiar creature."

        "Yeah." My voice sounds hoarse and weak. I try to make my voice louder in my next sentence, but it hurts so much to speak that it sounds exactly the same, if not worse. "I was human."

      I raise my head to glance at Ash and Ice. Both of them are tilting their heads and staring at me as if I've lost my mind.

        Giving up on speaking in a normal tone, I drop my voice to a quiet rasp. "Humans." Ash and Ice step closer to me as I continue, "They lived among the cats back where I used to live, Earth."

        "Ah," Ash breathes. He shares a glance with his twin before gazing back at me. "Are humans dangerous?"

        "No," I reply in the same volume as before, "not dangerous, as far as I know. Just like what you said: peculiar. They're weird. They lived with cats in their giant dens, most of the time keeping them hostage in there. I was lucky that I was let outside."

Ash twitches his tail and pins his ears back at what I said, but he doesn't press any further about it.

I explain, "I still don't know how to get in my human form, but I found out how to get out of it. There was a.."

My voice trails off. What was it called again? I dig through my memory. It was a shiny object with a red thing in the middle of it. That's all I know. There's an irritating blankness somewhere in the back of my mind that I knew about it before when I was in my human form.

        "Yes," Ash meows after I've been silent for several seconds. I blink at him in relief of being released from the awkward moment as he continues, "I saw you holding something before you came back to your cat form."

        "Right." I feel like an idiot. How do I not remember what that thing was called? Most of all, I think I actually forgot every human term that I learned. For example, what was that thing that I took the object out of? I was somehow wearing it. Seriously, I swear I knew what it was just a while ago.

Finally, I give up and exhale in frustration. Lashing my tail, I say, "Look, it's getting late. We can sort this out later. Why don't we just all forget about it for now and-"

I don't even finish my sentence before I get tackled to the ground by Ice. The moment is so swift that I didn't even see it coming; a blur passes the side of my vision, a strong force bursting in my side makes me lose my balance, and suddenly, I am now pinned to the ground by Ice. His claws are painfully stabbing into my back.

"I will not let you leave unscathed," Ice growls. "The choice still stands: join me or die."

        "I take neither," I spit, trying to twist out of his tight grip. "All cats are equal. Just because you think having powers is cool doesn't mean you get to rule over Gardinia. Let go of me." I try to yowl the last sentence, but my stupid voice is too hoarse.

        The weight on top of me gets knocked off. I quickly force myself onto my paws and see Ash swiping his claws at Ice. As the two cats resume their original fight, an idea slips in my mind. Why not alert the other rebels about Ice? After all, he is an invader. Trying not to cringe at the tunnel, I bolt towards it and leap inside.

        "Invader alert, invader alert! Go through the exit behind me!" I repeatably whisper-shout as loudly as I can as I crawl through the passages of the tunnel. Cat after cat wakes up as I pass each of them, repeating the same message. Soon enough, everyone is rushing to the exit of the tunnel and releasing panicked yowls.

        Once I notify all of the rebels about what is happening on the outside, I crawl out of the tunnel on the other side and collapse to the grass. I don't even want to go see the chaos that I can hear happening a fair distance away from me. Every muscle in my body feels so exhausted that I don't even want to stand back up. When is the last time I slept?

        A couple moments later, my eyes flutter closed. My body shuts down as my surroundings fade to black.