A Change in Perspective
By Chaos Blackwing
This story was inspired by my encounter with a lost kitten I recently found. Though my intentions were only to help it, the kitten surely had no way of knowing this, an unfortunately spent most of it's time crying. Something about this got me thinking: what must it be like to be in the kitten's place? And thus, this story was born.
***
5-year old James was lost. The young boy had snuck out of his house through a negligently opened door just earlier, headed off to the nearby woods to look for adventure. At first things had gone great, with his imagination supplying more than enough to keep his young mind occupied, and childish laughter rang through the air from the excitement he was feeling. Things began to go bad fairly quickly though, when he realized that it would soon be dark, and he didn't know the way back to his house.
By that time, it had started to get dark, and what had been an exciting adventure quickly turned frightening. So, being only five, and knowing only one thing to do in this situation, he started crying for his mommy.
He had no way of knowing just how long he spent wandering about the dark woods, crying out for his mommy, but eventually he noticed through his tears something even more frightening than being lost. All sorts of loud noises, like the crunch of tree branches and dry leaves underfoot. It sounded like some huge monster was coming right towards him!
Quickly he turned and ran as fast as he could away from the monster, but after only a few moments he heard it coming through the woods after him! Even worse, he thought he could hear more crashing noises coming from elsewhere nearby, as though there were more than one of the monsters after him!
Finally he thought he saw a way to get away. Just in front of him he saw what appeared to be a fallen tree, propped up in such a way by the nearby vegetation that there was a small space underneath it. Looking closer, he thought it would be just big enough for him to squeeze into, but too small for the monsters to come in and get him. Now he just had to get to it before the monsters got to him...
Thought he was sure he'd never make it, it was with a great sigh of relief that James managed to all but throw himself underneath the tree. Quickly, he crawled as far back as he could, though unfortunately this was only a few feet, before turning around and peering out of his impromptu shelter. And in but a few moments of waiting, he got to see what it was that was chasing him.
Covered in fur except for what looked like a loose pair of pants and a shirt, the monster was huge. Standing on two legs, it must have been twice his size at least, maybe even larger. In build is was similar to a human, in that it had two arms, two legs, a head, and two eyes, though it was there that the similarities ended. Instead of hands, it had what looked more like paws of some sort, though the fingers were much more slender than the pads he'd seen on most animals. It was also as he'd noticed before covered in hair, though from this distance and with the little light coming through the trees he couldn't tell exactly what it looked like. It was when he looked up at it's face that he got the biggest surprise of all. It's face looked like that of a cat's!
Looking at it, he could see the same muzzle shape, the same triangular ears on the side, even the same whiskers, all things he was more than familiar with from playing with the cat at home. None of this though was very comforting. After all, monsters probably looked like friendly animals so they could lure children close enough to eat them
Then things got even worse when two more of them appeared out of the trees nearby. And as if that wasn't bad enough, they started growling and making weird noises at each other! It was during this that the first one pointed out the little hollow space that James was hiding under, causing him to duck down even farther underneath it, and the other two monsters to peer in at the place where he was hiding.
Finally they seemed to come to a decision. While two of them disappeared somewhere, the first one slowly approached the place that James was hiding in, lowering itself down so it was crouching, almost like it was trying to make itself look smaller. Then it started to growl at him!
Something was different about what it was doing now from what it had been doing with the other two monsters though. When it had been growling at them, it had been kinda loud, with lots of scary noises. What it was doing now though didn't seem to have any of that though. It was quiet, without any of the scary noises at all. It was almost as if it was trying to talk to him!
Then it slowly reached towards him with one of it's hands, and James shrank back into the hollow. Seeing this, the monster stopped it's hand, though it continued to growl softly at him. Then it did something completely surprising. It started purring.
The purring threw James completely off. It was so similar to the cat's at home that he began to wonder if maybe these were /nice/ monsters. He was so distracted that he didn't even notice as the hand came closer and closer, until it was less than a foot away from him. As soon as he realized this, he tried to back away, but by that point it was too late.
Before he had time to realize it, the monster's arm had wrapped itself partially around his middle, and he felt himself being pulled out from under the tree. Though he cried out for his mommy, and thrashed about trying to get free, the alien just kept pulling him out until he was finally in the open. Before he could try and get down, the alien moved it's arm up so that it was around his shoulders, with it's other arm supporting his legs. James now found himself in a sort of curled up position, with his face inches away from the alien's chest. It's chest was bumpy like his mom's, so he assumed that it was a girl monster.
Still crying out and trying to get away, it took him a few seconds to realize that the monster wasn't doing anything else. It was just holding him there, still purring like before. It had even moved up one of it's hands to scratch him behind his ears, an action that James found more confusing than anything. Gradually, James stopped fighting to get away and just sat there, looking up at the monster and trying to figure out what it wanted.
For the moment at least, it seemed to be content to just stand there purring at him, slowly scratching the skin behind his ears while looking down at him. James couldn't tell for sure, but he thought it might even be smiling.
Once the monster was sure that he had calmed down, it shifted the arm behind his shoulder so that a watch-like thing on it's wrist was near it's mouth. With no warning, it suddenly made a series of growling noises at the thing, startling James again and causing him to jump. Quickly it looked back down at him in an almost apologetic manner, purring again to try and calm him back down.
By this point James had mostly lost his fear of the monster holding him. After all, it didn't seem to be very threatening, and it acted so much like the cat at home, even purring! He just wished he knew what it was going to do it him.
Soon after the monster holding him had growled at it's watch thing, the other two monsters came walking up to them. Seeing them, James tried to burrow even farther into the arms of the monster holding him, causing what almost sounded like laughter to erupt from the three monsters. Laughter or no, it still sounded like they were all growling right next to him, so it wasn't really a surprise that he was soon shaking with fear again.
As though they noticed this, the monsters all quieted down again, and the one holding him once more started purring. Gradually, James' fear subsided with the purring reverberating through his body, and he slowly brought his head back up to look around. Looking up he saw that the three monsters where clustered together in a circle, with the one holding him looking down at him and purring, and the other two softly growling at each other. 'I wonder what they're doing?' James thought.
He didn't have long to think on it though, as a short while later it seemed that the monsters had come to some sort of decision, nodding to each other before they set out through the woods, where he didn't know.
Though he couldn't see more than ten feet in the darkness surrounding them, it seemed the monsters didn't have any problems with their vision, as they wandered this way and that, going around trees, stepping around rocks sticking up, and avoiding tricky pieces of ground festooned with rampant greenery. Soon enough though it seemed as though they were almost to wherever they were heading, as they slowed down a bit before stopping completely at the edge of a small grassy field.
All three of the monsters looked about for a bit, though what they were looking for James couldn't figure out. Finally they relaxed a bit and one of them brought it's wrist up, showing that it too had one of those funny watch things. James watched as the monster fiddled with the watch-thingy for a few seconds, before his attention was drawn to something even more amazing. Where before there had just been an empty field, now it had a huge ship thing in it! The thing was bigger than any car he'd ever seen, larger even than the really big buses he sometimes saw when he was in town with his parents!
While he was busy staring at the new thing, the three monsters had slowly walked over to what looked like a door of some sort on the side of the machine. Reaching up, one of them tapped on a few buttons next to the door, and it quickly snapped open. Thankfully the interior of the craft was well lit, as the situation was unnerving enough.
As the three monsters stepped inside, James craned his neck about to check out his new surroundings. The hallway he was in was fairly small, about four feet across. The floors were a dark green in color, and looked to be fairly smooth, while the walls were a more light blue in coloration. He didn't get much time to examine his surroundings though, as the monster holding him took a few steps down the hallway and then ducked into another room. This one looked more like a bedroom or something, with a pile of what looked like pillows and a blanket in one corner, and a desk and some other stuff against one of the walls.
Looking about the room for a few seconds, the monster turned about and did something to the door, and then slowly lowered James to the floor, all the while looking down at him with what he assumed was a concerned expression.
As soon as he was released, James quickly put a few feet between himself and the monster. It may have looked and acted harmless enough so far, but James was still wary of it regardless. Right now it wasn't really doing anything though, just watching him, almost like it was waiting to see what he would do. What he was doing at the moment was checking out the room he was now in, seeing if there was any way of getting out of it besides the door he was brought through. Unfortunately nothing was visible; no windows, no other door, nothing.
With that out of the way he set about exploring the room he was now in. It was a little bigger than the room he had at home, and a lot less messy too. Besides the bed and desk that he'd noticed earlier, there really wasn't anything in the room at all. The pillows and blankets that he'd noticed before turned out to be piled on top of what looked like a bed without legs. As he was looking at the weird desk-thing his stomach suddenly gave a loud growl, telling the world just how hungry he was. The last time he'd eaten had been sometime around lunch, and it was past dinnertime now, so this wasn't really surprising.
All the while that James had explored the room, the monster had merely stood near the door, just watching him. Once his stomach 'spoke up' though it perked it's ears up and almost looked to be smiling. Giving him a happy look it walked back over to the door, tapped a few buttons on a nearby keypad, and then left. Just as he was about to see if he could follow, he felt the whole room rumble for a bit, shaking around. And then, before he could wonder what was causing it, it stopped.
Looking around for a few seconds, he waited until he was pretty sure that the room had stopped shaking around before he walked over to the door. Looking up he saw that it appeared to be perfectly smooth, no handles or anything. Next to it at about head height for him was a weird looking bunch of buttons, with funny squigglies next to them. He was tempted to try pushing one, but he remembered how his mom had always told him not to touch something if he didn't know what it was, so reluctantly he left the buttons alone.
Looking around the room again, he decided to get a closer look at the desk-thing that he'd seen earlier, and was almost to it when he heard the door open behind him. Quickly turning around he saw the monster that had left just a bit ago return, this time with a tray or plate thing held in one of it's hands, and a cup of something in the other.
As the monster got close to him it slowed down and carefully stepped around him to place the plate and cup on top of the desk he was standing by. Instead of sitting down itself though it made motions with it's hands and nodded it's head towards the food contained on the plate, almost as if it wanted him to eat instead of it. James was a little leery of trying the stuff on the plate and in the cup; after all, who knows what the stuff was, but his stomach overruled him and let out another growl of hunger. With the decision thus made, he slowly sat down on the oddly shaped chair in front of the desk and reached towards the weird looking fork next to the plate before hesitantly stabbing some of the weird looking stuff on the plate and bringing it to his mouth. Not having any idea of what to expect, he was surprised when he found that the food wasn't that bad. It was some sort of meat or something, though it certainly tasted different from anything he was familiar with.
Swallowing what he had, he put down the fork and reached towards the oddly shaped cup. Instead of being round like he was used to, it was more narrow at one part, like someone had squashed one side of it. Looking inside the cup, he could see a dark colored liquid inside. Again hesitantly, he slowly brought the cup up to his lips and took a small sip of what was inside, only to be pleasantly surprised again. It tasted like some sort of fruit juice! Like the meat, he couldn't really place it, though it was something like a weird tasting grape juice.
No longer worried about the food, James dug in, and in a short amount of time had finished the small meal before him. Taking a last sip from the juice, he looked up to see that the monster had apparently been busy re-arranging the pillows and blankets on the bed while he had been eating. Now instead of one big pile there were two of them, one quite a bit smaller than the other. Right at that moment, with a full tummy and what with his rather exhausting day, that smaller pile of cushions looked quite inviting. However, another part of him was demanding that he focus on something a wee bit more urgent. But how do you ask a monster where the bathroom is?
Thankfully it seemed that the monster understood the universal sign of discomfort combined with a sort of tenseness of the body, and leading him by the hand exited the room he was in and led him a short distance down the hallway to another door. Once that doorway opened James saw that it was, thankfully, a bathroom from the looks of it. Most important, at least at the moment, he could see what seemed to be a toilet off in the corner. With a helpful nudge from his guide, he bravely set forth to see about doing something about his current problem.
A few minutes later James came back out, feeling much better. Though the designs were unfamiliar to him, they were similar enough to what he was used to that he didn't have any problems. As soon as he was back in the hallway, he was once more guided gently back to the room he had been in before, though not without a number of stumbles and yawns on his part. It was quite a bit past his bed-time after all. As soon as the door opened, he sleepily walked over to the smaller pile of blankets and snuggled down into them, pulling one of them over him.
What with his long, stressful day, it wasn't really any surprise that James was asleep in a matter of moments.
**
When he next woke up, James found himself in unfamiliar surroundings. Rising up from his nest of pillows and blankets, he found himself in an entirely new room, completely different from the one he'd fallen asleep in. Instead of the somewhat small room he'd been in last night, he now was in a rather spacious room, almost as big as the living room at his house.
Scooting over to the edge of the pile of pillows and blankets, he slowly eased himself onto the floor, standing up all the while he examined his surroundings. Besides the bed/nest thingy that he'd just gotten off of, the room was surprisingly bare. There was a desk with what looked like a screen or something along one wall, a couple of picture frames with what appeared to be nature scenes in them placed around the room on the walls... but that was pretty much it.
Looking around he spotted two doors, and indulging his curiosity, he went over to see what was behind the closest one. Reaching it, he was somewhat perplexed at the lack of a doorknob, though before he could really take note of this the door quietly slid open. Jumping back a bit in surprise, it took him a few seconds to realize that it must be like the doors at the supermarket, the ones that opened when you got near. Cautiously he peered into the room on the other side, only to be disappointed when it turned out to just be a bathroom. Slowly walking in, he figured he'd see about taking care of his morning tasks.
A couple minutes later, James came back out from the bathroom, feeling better, though a little confused. No matter how much he looked he couldn't seem to find a toothbrush, so he hadn't been able to brush his teeth like his mom always told him to do in the mornings.
Having solved the mystery of what was behind the first door, James was headed over to the second one when it opened on its own, and what looked like the same creature from before walked in (It was kinda hard to think of the thing as a monster anymore; after all, it hadn't been mean to him at all, and even though it looked weird, it wasn't really that scary looking). It looked around for a second or so before spotting him, and then smiled before walking over towards him. Reaching down, it extended one of it's hands to him, which he took after a few seconds of thought.
As the door opened in front of them, James got his first look at what was outside the little room he'd woken up in. Disappointingly enough, there wasn't really much to see. It was just a hallway stretching to his left and right, with intersections every so often and doors spaced fairly regularly along the walls. The walls themselves were a light blue, with the floor being a darker green.
Gently the creature drew him along the hallway, sometimes nodding or making some sort of funny noise at the other strange creatures like it walking the halls. All of them it seemed found him as interesting to look at as he found them, as they always seemed to pause for a few seconds to look at him before continuing on.
Soon though, they stopped in front of one of the many doors spaced along the hallway, and after his guide did something to the keyboard looking thing next to the door, it slid open to admit them. And what James saw inside had him utterly in shock.
It was a playground. Or something like it anyway. There were slides, what looked like a jungle-gym made of rope, balls rolling around... James could only stare in awe at all the toys in front of him. Something was off though, and it took him a few seconds to realize what it was. Instead of kids like him climbing and running around, there was a lot of the cat creatures, only these ones were more his size.
Suddenly, a pair of them that had been chasing each other around noticed him, and stopped to look him over. Slowly they approached, causing James to duck behind his guide. He may not think they were scary anymore, but he was still a little nervous around so many new things.
As though sensing his hesitancy, the two cats froze in place, looking towards his guide for instruction. Smiling in what he took to be a reassuring fashion, the feline gently nudged him towards the other two creatures trying, it seemed, to convey that he had nothing to fear from the other two.
Gradually gathering his courage, James slowly approached the pair, and by the time he'd reached them, he was mostly jitter free. This turned out to be quite fortunate too, as the second he got within range, one of them grabbed his arm and dragged him into the middle of the playroom, right into the chaotic mix of movement and the weird noised that passed as laughter among the feline young. James only had time for a fleeting glance back towards the older cat before he was swallowed up in the noise.
Much like children at the playground, the first thing they did was introduce him around. That he couldn't understand a thing they said didn't really matter; the motions were familiar all the same. And just as he found the fact that they all looked a lot like cats that walked on two feet to be quite interesting, the felines all seemed to be fascinated with him as well. They must have spent a good three minutes just looking him over, lifting his hands up to look at his fingers, and running their fingers over his bare arms.
That over with, he was quickly grabbed by the hands and shown some of the toys that were being played with. Along with the familiar balls bouncing around, there were a number of strange things the likes of which James had never even imagined.
A strange clear pyramid-like object that projected various shapes and sounds depending on the motions of those nearby claimed his attention for quite a while, as he and a few of the other kids had fun moving around and seeing the thing react with sound and color.
After a while of that, they raced over to the jungle-gym looking thing and had fun climbing over and under each other, sometimes jumping from one strand of rope to grab another, making noises of enjoyment all the while.
With all the fun things to do and new things to see, James completely forgot for a time just where he was and who was around him, and all he could think about was having fun playing around with his new friends.
**
It was quite a bit later in the day before James saw the larger feline that had been taking care of him again. He was in the middle of a tag-like game when he felt a hand land on his shoulder and gently lead him to the edge of the room. Looking up, he saw a sad looking face instead of the happier one he was used to seeing, and briefly James was worried that he'd done something wrong. He couldn't think of anything that would have made the other sad though, so he assumed it was just one of those things grown-ups seemed to go through every now and then.
Once again James found himself being led through the hallways, this time farther down until they came to a place with more of the cat creatures walking about. Resolutely his guide wound it's way through them though, eventually coming to stop in front of yet another door, this one opening silently as they approached. Gently he was led inside a room that was absolutely filled with all sorts of electronic stuff, with screens and keyboards and all sort of other stuff he couldn't identify covering every available surface it seemed.
Gradually though James found his attention wandering more towards a large table looking thing sitting in the middle of the room, and those standing around it. There were three of them, and they all seemed to be staring right at him, quickly changing the sense of curiosity he'd had into one of trepidation. While James was pretty sure he hadn't done anything wrong, he couldn't think of any other reason why they would all be staring at him, so he approached the trio with a bit of caution.
As soon as he got next to the table thing, one of the creatures turned to another and let loose a string of weird sounding noises, probably telling it to do something. A few seconds later, the table next to him lit up, and a picture appeared in it. Even more amazing, the picture seemed to slowly expand upwards, until it was hanging in the air above the table, no longer flat but looking as though the things in the picture were actually right there. James could do nothing but stare in wonder at this; it was just too neat. A few seconds later James was staring at the picture for an entirely different reason. He recognized that place!
Though it had taken him a few seconds to realize it, due to the fact that the picture was from a more aerial perspective, what was being shown was the town he lived in! Looking up he saw that all four of the felines near him were looking intently down at him, with the one that had brought him here gesturing back to the image in front of him. Obediently he turned back to watch it.
Over the next half-hour or so it seemed that he gradually went over his entire hometown, pausing a few seconds every time a new building came into sight. Although he made little exclamations of interest and surprise at a few of them (his favorite toy store and the park being two of them), it wasn't until the view shifted to his own neighborhood that he really perked up. Finally his own house came into view, and he couldn't help but let out a loud shout of joy at seeing it.
Almost as soon as he did, the trio that had been standing nearby started fiddling with buttons and other things next to them, and a more map-like image appeared, with his house lit up, all the while making those funny noises back and forth to each other. He only had a few seconds to stare though, as the same cat creature that had led him here in the first place soon was leading him back out the way they'd came. He only had time to wave goodbye to the other three before the door shut behind them.
Once more James found himself being led through the hallways, and soon enough he found himself once more in the 'playroom' as he thought of it. Stepping inside, he saw that there wasn't nearly as much noise and running about, and it was only when he saw that everyone there was eating that he realized that it must be lunch time. With a light farewell pat on the head from his caretaker, James quickly ran over to get some food himself. He hadn't realized it until just now, but he was hungry!
The rest of the day went by in a blur for James. When he wasn't playing with the younger felines, he was watching them all sit still and listen to one of the older ones make all sorts of noises. He guessed that it was telling a story, though he had no way of really knowing.
As the day went by, James had a whole lot of fun, running around and playing with the others. Later on they even had a snacktime, and James got to try some more of that funny tasting fruit juice, as well as a few other weird looking but tasty foods. Afterwards everyone seemed to calm down, and first one, then many of them started to yawn. James was no different, so after finding a good spot to lay down, he proceeded to drift off into dreamland.
An unknown time later, James was jolted out of his sleep by a great big thumping sound, and slowly getting up he saw that he was in the bedroom that he'd originally fell asleep in, right after he'd been found in the woods. Blinking his eyes slowly to try and wake up more, he was suddenly blinded by the lights overhead coming on, accompanied by the sound of the door opening. Squinting through his mostly closed eyes, he saw the familiar face of the one who'd been taking care of him.
Slowly his eyes adjusted to the new light, and as he did he noticed that his caretaker seemed to be in a sadder mood than usual. Instead of the ready smile he'd grown used to, it instead had a more sad look on it's face. Concerned, he reached out to try and comfort it, and when his hand reached it's cheek it gave a soft sigh and seemed to brighten up a bit.
Reaching down, the feline scooped James up and once more carried him to wherever it was going. As they emerged from the vehicle, James was surprised to see the same woods that he'd been wandering in when this whole thing had first started. He didn't get much time to look around though, as the cat carrying him quickly set out into the woods, with two others close by.
Dark as it was, James couldn't see much around him, but he was able to get the impression of great speed, as the trees practically zipped by. Soon enough though they slowed down, and gradually came to a stop. James glanced about for a few seconds, trying to figure out why they'd stopped here before it clicked. This was the edge of the woods right next to his house! Just through the trees he could see the back porch lights on.
Gently he was lowered down, until he was standing on the ground once more. Looking around him, he saw that the three creatures were all close by, though the two that he didn't know appeared to be gazing intently at the surrounding area. The third one on the other hand was looking right at him, but before he could wonder why he found himself being taken into a hug, with the feline wrapping it's arms about him tightly.
Slowly it released him, and giving him one last look, one with equal parts sadness and happiness, it turned him about so he was facing his house and gave him a gentle nudge. James took a few steps, then remembering the manners him mom was always trying to teach him, turned back to wave goodbye before running as fast as he could towards home, shouting all the while, "Mommy! Daddy!"
In less time that it took to blink, the back door was almost torn off it's hinges as both of his parents rushed out, and upon seeing him they gave out cries of amazement before running towards him as fast as they could. Meeting up at the edge of the lawn, James found himself surrounded by both his parents, as they both tried to hug as close as they could, crying with relief all the while.
How long they spent like that he didn't know, but after a long time his parents gradually loosened their grip, allowing him to look around for a few seconds before he found himself being carried by his daddy back to their house. Looking over his dad's shoulder, he could just make out the outlines of the three cat creatures, and he waved goodbye to them just before they disappeared back into the trees.
Seeing this, his mom looked back towards the trees to try and see what he was waving at, and upon spotting nothing, asked him who he was waving at. Not having any good way of explaining, James could only tell her that he was waving goodbye to a friend. By that point they were at the back door though, so James could only manage a single more wave before the door closed.
