I mewled softly as the creature picked me up and set me in the arms of a smaller version of her, though I knew it wasn't her kitten.

It spoke in that odd tongue, I could barely tell what she meant, though it was something along the lines of 'it's okay'.

I sniffed the smaller creature and mewled again, snuggling as I yawned. I'd been woken up, probably on accident, and decided the smaller creature was safe enough to sleep in the hold of.

Once I woke, I wouldn't leave the creature's lap the whole ride, though I didn't know where we were going, I just knew the creature was excited.

Years passed, we grew together.

I couldn't understand much of what the creatures said, just a few things - like the name I was given, Catlyn - but, at some point, they considered me to be too much of an elder. I would have clawed then for suggesting that if they weren't part of my family, if only though the creature - a girl, apparently - though I suppose it was odd that I still hadn't died, but isn't it the job of the pet to stay with her owner?

Eventually, things changed.

My girl didn't move one sunrise.

I tried everything to help.

Nothing worked.

Eventually, she was taken away.

I was left alone, I never saw her again, but wasn't I supposed to die before her?

No one entered the den from that moon onwards, except for a few mean boys and some scared girls.
And the few times I left, the stares I got from people who saw me... I was not welcome... and, eventually, I just stopped leaving. I stopped hunting, I didn't move, I barely even breathed. Until, one day... nothing... was it finally my time? Would I see her again?

Or... was this some cruel fate the stars had forced on me..?

I remembered nothing for so long that, when I could remember, there was... nothing.

Dens were destroyed, paths broken, creatures missing.

I coughed, wondering if this was a cruel dream, wondering if I would wake up with my owner in a few hours, asking for food and then trying to get in her sack.

I don't know how long I laid there after that. But, eventually, I began walking, shakily at first, but I eventually got my legs back. Still, I heard almost nothing.

Almost nothing.

My ears twitched.

A creature's kitten mewling!

I ran towards the sound, only to freeze.

My girl! My owner! My creature!

Almost...

It mewled again.

I called out to it as I started into the fire-dust filled hole, soon trying to knock the dust off of the lookalike of my girl, barely taking notice of the fact that my one tail was now two.

My owner, though tiny, was back.

I guess everything, even my supposed curse, had a reason.