LOVE AND LOST: YEAR ONE.
#1 of Snowdrift Tales
LOVE AND LOST ©
YEAR 1.
Before you can begin to understand anything about me, let me tell you where I came from, and how I came to be. I was not born, I was created. All I remember about my early years was that I was raise in a cell with electric force fields and human guards that spoke Russian; this was what I was told, after my rescue.
I had the Federation to thank for that. But that is another story for another time. Now, I will tell you about my upbringing, and how I am the way I am.
I was created on the 16thof April 2340, along with my twin brother, Sandstorm. Yes, that is correct, I had a twin brother, and I emphasize the word HAD. That is the reason for this tale.
So, I shall begin...
The cold cell floor was freezing, after being in the bio gel container for 5 years, that was how long I was in there for, growing from a one cell organism.
As I opened my eyes, I looked around and noticed that I was not alone, facing away from me lying on the floor, was a cub with orange and black stripes. Looking at my own fur, I saw that I was white with black stripes.
The cub also started to stir, he opened his eyes and looked around, and then he saw me and we just stared. I know I had to say something, so, I spoke.
"Hello." I said, he just blinked, opened his mouth and made a mewling noise.
I was confused, why could I not understand him, he surely must have understood me.
Then I noticed that he had a collar around his neck and I had not. Maybe this was the reason for our communication problems. I just looked him over, he was like a cat, but he had an upper torso and little arms ending in 5 digits. He came over and hugged me, then licked my face. It felt good. I licked him back, and he made a strange sound, then I realized that I was making it as well. I think, is this, purring. Yes, that's what it is.
He curled himself around me and fell asleep, and so did I, loving the warmth of his fur and body. My thoughts were only of him. I don't know why, but, I seem to have a connection or bond with him that I can't explain. His tail and mine curled around each other, as our hands held and caress each other, our purring grew louder. We like that.
We were awoken by voices, strange unintelligible language. We both sat up and looked around. The owners of the voices were huge bipedal beings, with funny fur and pale skin. I later learn that they were called humans. They seem to be excited about something.
The barrier that was in front of me disappeared, and a huge hand picked me up by the scruff of the neck, then I was held and fitted with the same collar that my feline companion was wearing. All of a sudden, the excited voices were saying words that I could understand.
"There, now she can understand us. What name will we give her?" one human asked.
"I like the name Snowdrift." Another human replied.
"And the other one?"
"Ummm Sandstorm, I like that name." another human replied, the one who was holding me. Then he placed me in back next to my friend. Who immediately placed his arms around me, and growled at the giants.
"Ohh look at that, big brother is protecting his sister." Then they were laughing, and then the barrier returned. It was red and fuzzy, going over, I touched it, and boy did I make a mistake. I was flung back against my feline friend as pain and a sudden jolt went through my body.
More laughter. "Luckily it was only 150 volts, any more an it would have killed you Snowy." The one that had picked me up cackled. I took a long whiff of his scent. I wanted to remember that scent, he was bad, and I don't like him.
Then the humans walked away, talking about things I didn't understand. Sandstorm came up and began licking my sore spots. I purred and licked him back. He smiled and replied. "Hello"
"Hello" I answered back and he responded with, of course "Hello"
Great, we can talk, but we only knew one word between us. This is going to get old real fast. So, I was just content with holding him. My big brother was what the giant said. Maybe that's what we were, brother and sister.
We settled down together, and fell asleep. My brother, Sandstorm, kept his tail around me, his head resting on my chest. I laid my head on his stomach and we purred together.
We were awoken with a need; our stomachs were making growling noises. I was hungry, and so was my brother. Then the lights came on, and one of the humans came over and deactivated the barrier. Then he laid down 2 bowls of food and a large bowl of water. As we were eating, he was watching us. He didn't seem to have the same malicious feel about him like the others of his kind. He seemed sweet, speaking to us in a soothing voice. I smelled his scent. I like him.
When he reached down and stroked my fur, I was nervous, then relaxed. His hand was gentle, and I couldn't help but purr, even my brother liked him, coz he came over and licked his hand when it was his turn to be patted.
When we had finished our meal, he retrieved the food bowls but left the water bowl behind, then he reactivate the barrier again. I watched him leave. We snuggled again and licked and groomed ourselves.
Later, another need arose. This was a bodily function. Looking around, I found a spot and urinated. Sandstorm did like wise, but he did his business in the other corner.
Well, what happened next came as quite a shock, literally. Both of us received a small jolt of electricity from the collars around our necks. Not enough to kill, but enough to knock us out.
When we came too, we found ourselves in a new holding pen, with facilities for urine and faeces. I guess the giants didn't like us messing up their cells.
A few hours later, another human came in, this one was different from the rest, it was female, and she had medium size breasts and smelled nice. She also spoke with a nice voice. Sandstorm was acting silly, like he wanted to lick her all over. He started bounding around, tail up high.
She deactivated the barrier and picked him up, he started rubbing all over her, purring louder than I thought he could. She took him away and reactivated the barrier again.
I was alone, and I felt sad. I walked back and forth, tail twitching. Looking for my brother. What are they doing to him? Finally, I just lay down and fell asleep.
I was awoken by the female human returning my brother; I leapt up and almost ran to the barrier. The woman deactivated the barrier and returned Sandstorm, I leapt on him and gave him licks and hugs, and he did the same. Then, 5 minutes later, the nice male human turned up and took me away. I was scared, what are they doing to us?
I soon found myself in a room, with tables and all manner of coloured objects, and flat rectangular objects that had thin white sheets of paper. There were black things on the paper. These were words. The human sat me down at a table and came over with one of the books. He opened it up and started reading from it.
Then he handed the book to me, and indicated for me to read it as well. As I was reading, the man helped with the pronunciation of the words. But, he taught me to say my name instead of "Spot".
Through his teaching, I started to learn how to speak. I was told that I was a cat, my name was Snowdrift. I also learnt to recognize word with images.
I also learnt words with feelings.
"How are you feeling now?" asked the human.
I felt tired, so I said. "Snowdrift sleep."
"Ahhh good good, not long to go." The human said, giving me a scratch.
I started purring, he then asked me, "Do you like that?"
I didn't know how to say yes, so I just nod my head. He smiled and said. "Nod head means 'Yes', can you say that?"
"es" I replied.
"Ok, ok. That's good for your first try." He said, wrote something down on his pad.
I watched him for a while. Then I asked a question.
"Name?" I asked.
"Ah, it's Kevin." He said.
"Hello Kevin, you nice, I lick." I said, smiling.
"Lick?" he said, puzzled.
"Yes, lick. I lick you lots." Smiling again.
"Umm lick with tongue? He asked, more confused.
I shook my head. "No, lick you in here." Tapping my chest.
"I'm sorry Snowdrift, I still don't quite understand." He said.
I was frustrated, how do I tell him that I care for him greatly. Getting up, I slowly approached him, afraid of getting shocked again for coming close. I stopped and waited. Nothing. Realizing that nothing was going to happen, I move up to him and hugged him, and whispered "Lick" as I was nuzzling his chin.
Suddenly, it dawned on him what I was trying to say. "Ahhh Like, the word is like. Can you say like?" he said, also returning the hug.
"Li..ke." I replied, smiling and purring softly.
The session went on like that for hours, with Kevin teaching me words through pictures and mime.
Eventually, I had to go back to the cold cage with the burning bars, and to my brother.
For days and weeks we are taught the human language, and got to know our handlers very well, by sight and smell. On some occasions, we had different handlers, and we learnt that Kevin and Kylie were sick on those days, or had days off.
One day, we were woken by other humans, they were dressed differently, green clothing with pretty stars and ribbons and a hat. They had other humans dressed the same, with weapons and shock sticks. We were taken to a large room with sand, and walls, and ropes and swings.
Then we were told to get from one end of the room to the other, by using the objects lay out before us. We ran, fast, I fell in the sand, face first. My brother giggled and climbed the wall using his claws.
I finally got to the end, but not before my brother. As we were panting from exhaustion, the humans wrote something on paper. Then we were told to do it again, only to get to the other side faster.
This time, we both arrived at the other side nearly the same time. After we had a rest, and something to eat, we were told to go again. This time, I beat my brother. The fourth time I beat him even faster.
Finally, then returned us back to our cages, the exercise was so exhausting, we just slept, cuddling with each other until the next day.
The following day, was the same routine, running to the other side of the room. But this time, there were other things in our path. A large pond, barbed wire, electrified fences. Poor Sandstorm was knocked unconscious when he got zapped. So the humans lowered the voltage. That day was harder and more tedious. It took us longer to get to other side, as we had to think before running, choosing our paths carefully.
For weeks we were trained to talk and to do the obstacle courses. Then one day we were taken to a different room, with 6 isles and a cardboard cut-out of a human. On the table before us were a manner of weapons, like what the humans possessed. There was one human and 2 guards. The guards were armed as well. The human was a weapons instructor, and he taught us about the different kinds of weapons.
Now, I know what you were thinking. Prisoners being given weapons, by their captures. Why not use them to escape. Well, Sandstorm had that very same idea, he tried to use the weapon on the guards once it was loaded, but the humans weren't stupid. They had built sensors in the weapons to prevent them from working if they were pointing anywhere but down the isles.
He got punished for doing so, and so did I, even though I did nothing wrong. I guess it was a lesson for me to not try the same thing he did. We both awoke in our cells again, once we recovered from the colar shocks.