Hitam stared into the dark waters below her, the black, still liquid filled with dead bugs and leaves that had fallen from the twisted trees.
Her eyes darted back and forth, her tail lashing left and right, waiting for the big yet nimble prey with she yearned to have in her mouth, sinking her teeth deep into it.
She would curl up in a corner of a market and gobble it up like it was the last piece of prey in Jakarta.
After a few heartbeats, Hitam had heard a scuffling sound from the sewer below.
She placed her paw above the water, casting a dark shadow across the filthy liquid. Her eyes narrowed into tiny slits.
Squeak, squeak.
Hitam's heart raced, and she reached into the water, her black paw waving back and forth in front of the gray rat. The prey made a squeaking, high-pitched sound, and with scuffling, turned and began to race back into its hole.
With panic, Hitam jumped up, leaned over the sewer to look for the rat, her paws at the very edge of the sewer, her head in the shadow of the unbalanced, twisted tree.
SPLATTER.
Hitam's paws was all over the place, her mind unaware of the situation as she tipped over, her ears flattening, and splashing into the water.
Hitam yearned for air. The sewer was only as deep until HItam's head, but with confusion and her leaping heart, it seemed to Hitam that it was an bottomless ocean, its depths filled with unimaginable creatures that could drag her into the deep end.
After a time that felt like nine lifetimes, Hitam waded onto the street. Her paws had been flailing, her eyes clouded with panic, her fur drenched, coated with dead insects and leaves. It must have been quite hilarious to watch from above, she thought.
She shook her fur wildly, her eyes darting around for clean water where she could get rid of the foreign objects hidden in her pelt.
She noticed the other cats bounding out of behind tables and chairs, staring curiously and yet mockingly at her. Hitam even noticed a few cats stifling a purr of amusement.
Hitam tried to keep her head straight, and her paws quickened as she saw the cars dashing by. She leaped over to the side of the street, her tail up high in the air unlike how she was feeling.
*timeskip*
After a quite a long time, Hitam had finished grooming herself.
She stood up, grooming her paw and drawing it over her head a final time, she looked around, ready to search for a new place to hunt. She imagined herself sitting on a table, ripping the meat of a juicy mouse.
She had padded for what felt like hours, her urge to keep going slowly fading. She had met more people with the paper on them, some of the people's paper just hanging by their chin, while they were blowing a cigarette.
Hitam ignored the sudden change, and kept walking. She kept seeing woman with hijabs gently putting on the paper on her kid's face. The small human seemed uncomfortable and incredibly irritated.
She realized that the warm sun was shining on Hitam's back, like a hot gaze burning into her back.
The black cat did not dare to stare back at the blinding light. Her soaked fur were beginning to dry, and she needed a place to curl up and relax.
Her eyes spotted a dark shade, with sturdy wood pillars drawing over the shadow, a red roof attached to the top of it.
She walked busily away, curling up next to a pillar, purring lightly as she swished her short and black stump tail (more like a rabbit's than a cat's) on the ground.
Hitam watched the glowing sunset, the air a balmy temperature. The sun was always bright and beautiful. Hitam didn't think every spark of flame of every cigarette in the world couldn't match half the sun's rays. (I mean, this is obvious, but it's in a cat's perspective :D )
She was being soothed into sleep by the blazing yet calming light, with the breeze that was light but not weak, by the shade that was cool but not cold.
With a deep breath, inhaling the air around her that strangely did not smell of smoke, she closed her eyes.
As she slowly slipped into sleep into the level where she was not aware of her stomach growling with hunger, she slept.
By the time she had opened up her eyes, the sky had become blue. In Jakarta, Hitam had noticed that the sky always became a dark royal blue before nightfall's dark curtain drew over it.
The number of the roaring cars were still about as equal as in broad daylight. The cars were still running, their black feet still rolling wildly, their eyes becoming brighter by the heartbeat, now that the moon was beginning to gleam.
Hitam looked around. Several humans were sitting behind her, lying on an old bench with rusty nails and a rough surface. They laughed and talked with each other, their sandals wildly shaking on their feet whenever one of them roared with a booming laughter.
The only thing Hitam found weird, was that they were wearing the cat-protector paper. She growled lightly under her breath. Every moment in her life, she knew that most of the humans adored cats. Now, it changed. They all wore paper in their faces, protecting themselves from the sharp claws of cats.
It was a plague.
A plague of the wrinkled paper, where just in a few days almost everyone started wearing it. Hitam hissed to herself. How will she get food from the humans if they start hating cats?
Soon, the threatening thoughts around her dissolved into thin air, like a shipwreck submerging under the water, never to be seen again.
Hitam desired food, her belly empty. She was used to this, of course, but tonight, hunger came with pain.
With a scrunched-up face, Hitam lulled herself back to sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Stray Cats
Adventure"Beyond those waters, there's freedom. Nothing can hold you back. So why stay here?" The only land Putih had known was the island. The only land Hitam had known was the city. Stepping out of the familiar grounds was heartbreaking, but they had done...
