Angry Cat's Arc

Chapter 1 of 8

Angry Cat sat outside the cabin in the hills because Mother Cat had asked him to come, and he was already annoyed about it. The sunlight hit his orange and white fur at exactly the wrong angle. His tail twitched three times before she even opened her mouth. Mother Cat stood in front of the whimsical cat house with its bright colors and playful towers. She held a smooth stone wrapped in a faded pink ribbon. Her paws shook as she unwrapped it. Inside the ribbon were papers, yellow and creased from years of being folded. She set them on the ground between them. The words at the top were in fancy script: Legal Adoption Papers. His name was written there. So was hers. The date was the day after he was born. Angry Cat stared at the papers. His fur stood up along his spine. He wanted to ask what this meant, but his throat felt tight and his claws dug into the dirt. Mother Cat said she had promised herself she would never tell him. She said the ribbon around the stone was the promise. She said she broke it today because he deserved to know why he came into the world already hissing. His birth mother had been angry too. It ran in the blood. He turned and walked away before she could say another word. The truth sat in his chest like a rock, heavy and cold. He did not want it. He did not ask for it. But now he carried it anyway, and the anger that had always been his alone suddenly belonged to someone else first.