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Leaf Chaser

Somewhere outside Cheyenne, WY, USA

Earth

It wasn't the pain that Leaf Chaser noticed first. No, that came later, after what seemed an eternity. What she noticed first was the sound. It wasn't something natural, it wasn't something that was made in her forest. It was metal grating on metal and then the hard, loud clunk of the trap springing shut. The sound after it was something much more natural, something she'd heard many times in her years here in this forest. It was the sharp snap of bone breaking. Her bone.

It was only then that she noticed the pain. Her panicked mind told her to run, and she did, bolting for the trees on her three good legs, trying to outrun the pain and the agony that was just coming on. She didn't make it far before the chain on the trap hit its limit and pulled her to a stop. A feral scream of fear and pain ripped free from her throat and birds in nearby trees took flight, startled from their sleep. She let out another roar, this one born more of frustration. Those birds could have been her dinner, and now because of this stupid human trap, she was stuck here.

The human side of her mind kicked back in and she looked down her tawny furred body at the trap clamped around her hind leg. It was almost impossible to separate the human side of herself from the bexookee, the cougar. She'd been a mountain cat for so long, living as one whenever she was outside the People's village, that she didn't really think of herself as anything other than the cat. Until something like this happened.

The fog of pain clouded even the human mind, and the panic was universal. She was stuck. Trapped here and unable to move far from the tree to which the trap was chained. All she could think was that she had to get it off. There were other predators in the forest that generally left her alone, but none of them would hesitate to take advantage of her current situation, trapped and helpless.

Even through the pain, her human mind started to look at the trap and the way that it was attached to her leg. There was no way that shifting to her helpless human form would free her from the trap as it had freed her legs in the past from being caught in rocks or branches. This was different. It was locked on her leg tight in such a way that shifting would only have it close further and perhaps further injure her. The only thing she could hope to do was to pry it open with her front paws and her teeth.

Trying to block out the pain, she set about doing just that. Front paws on either side of the jaws, she heaved all her weight on the metal and she felt it budge just a little bit. Not enough that she could get free, but enough that she could almost move her leg. The pain flared back to life again when her strength gave out and the strong spring pressed the sharp teeth back into her already injured leg. The cat surged to the front of her mind once again and took control back, thrusting her body forward in the hope that with enough force, she could throw herself free.

The pain was enough to blacken her vision when the chain came taut again with the renewed pull, and the panic spread between both the cat and the human. Neither had experienced pain like this before, and all both wanted to do was to get away. When she felt she could stand again, she readied herself for another charge, all rationality forced from her by the pain and the panic.

A rustling in the bushes nearby stopped her renewed charge and she turned to face it, ears laid flat against her head, tail held out behind her, every hair on her body stood on end while she bared her teeth. If something was coming to finish her off, they would find more than their match. She'd not survived this long without being able to fight for herself.

The rustling came closer and she could see the tree branches and tall grass move. Where she was expecting a bear, something quite different emerged. One lone man, looking quite large to the trapped cat, though standing only a little taller than her father stood, or at least as tall as she remembered him. His shirt and pants made him look vaguely like a walking tree. It was something she had seen the people in her village do on occasion, but what they did with the branches and leaves of the natural surroundings, this man seemed to have painted on his clothes. One hand held some sort of electronic device while the other held the sling of a rifle tightly over his shoulder.

Leaf Chaser pulled back her lips and hissed, the sound a primal response buried deep inside her, and for a moment, she thought she might have made at least a little impression on the man for he drew up short and his eyes lifted from the device in his hand to her eyes. He didn't move back, though, only stood his ground while his face broke into a smile.

"You're quite the pretty one," he said, his eyes looking into hers. "You'll make me quite a bit of money when I'm done with you."

The words meant something to her human side, but even so, the cat wouldn't let go of control. She knew how to deal with the threat better than the human. The human knew only running away and hiding. It was the cat that kept them alive through threats such as this man. Her back raised and she let out a roaring scream that almost always managed to scare away most threats.

"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm saying, pussy," the man said quietly. He moved slowly, unslinging the rifle from his shoulder. "I don't want to have to put you down."

He knows, the human side thought.

The cat paid no attention and readied herself to charge. Her forepaws dug into the ground just as hard as her uninjured back paw and without warning, she flung herself from the ground in a leap that she knew would bring her muzzle to the man's throat. He had no intention of freeing her, that much was clear, and he had a weapon, something that her human side understood quite clearly.

The man didn't move an inch, and when she was almost a foot away, the chain stopped her leap short, crashing her to the ground panting and screaming in pain and frustration. She clawed the dirt, trying with all her might to reach the man. The cat wanted to bite and rend and feel his blood flowing over her muzzle as the life seeped from him, but she was held tight, unable to close the distance.

There was a sudden movement and she looked up in time to see the man lift the rifle up near his head. She roared again, just as he brought the butt of the weapon down on her head. The world exploded in pain and then as abruptly as it started, there was nothing but blackness.

---

When she next opened her eyes, the light clawed at her, as if it was trying to pierce its way through the back of her skull. She moaned and brought her hands up to her face. Feeling the bare skin of her human form and not the furry muzzle of the bexookee, she pulled them away and sat upright, fighting the urge to throw up as the world lurched. She could feel her heart beating hard and fast in her chest and she flexed her fingers, trying to unsheathe claws that were no longer there.

Little by little her vision cleared and she started to see what surrounded her. Heavy silver bars in every direction she looked was the first thing that she saw, and as her hands lowered from her face, she found a heavy metal collar around her neck. Just as she felt that around her neck, she realized that she could feel everything against her bare human skin. The nudity didn't bother her, but there had been many times that the cat's fur had stopped her from freezing to death, and being a naked human girl in this unfamiliar place was enough to set her back on the edge of panic.

The floor beneath her was cold metal, very slightly sloped towards the center where a small drain sat, inset into the floor, barely three inches across, not even enough to get her hand inside should she manage to get the grille off. In one corner of the cage, there was a large tray full of some sort of sand, and a bowl of water sitting opposite the box.

Her vision cleared more and she looked beyond the bars. The room was just as featureless as the cage in which she sat. The walls were a pure and unblemished white. The floor matched, though it was cold, clinical tile instead of paint. A set of fluorescent lights lit the room in a cold, harsh light, sending hard shadows across the floor and illuminating everything even brighter and harder than the sun. There were no windows, though on either side of her and around the perimeter of the room, she could see many more cages, each large enough to fit a full grown grizzly.

Though some of the cages were empty, most of them held other girls, each appearing to be about her age, and every one with a collar around her neck. Some were laying in the corners of their cages, perhaps sleeping, while others merely looked morosely at the door. The exception was the girl next to her. She was staring at Leaf Chaser with a mix of sadness and curiosity on her face.

"Who are you?" the girl asked quietly, keeping her voice just barely above a whisper. "Where did he find you?"

Leaf Chaser shook her head, trying to find the part of her that knows the language. She hadn't spoken in weeks, and the cat had no use for the language of humans. The language of nature was all that she needed and it takes her some time to remember how to say what she needed.

"Leaf," she said, her voice just as quiet as the girl's. "Leaf Chaser. I'm Leaf Chaser."

"I'm Katie," the girl answered, scooting closer to the bars on her own cage. "Are you from the city?"

Leaf Chaser shook her head, wondering how she was going to explain her past to this new girl.

"I'm from Cheyenne," Katie said. Leaf Chaser got the idea from the look in her eyes that she was speaking more to cover the silence than for any other reason.

"If you're not from the city, where are you from?"

Leaf Chaser hugged her knees to her chest and shivered, her mind full of the thoughts of her forest. There, the trees shaded her from the sun and she could smell the other creatures, feel the cold water on her tongue and the cool night air in her fur. Here, the light was artificial and it smelled sour and harsh. Beneath the smell of the chemicals, though, she could smell something very familiar. Blood. Some of it was fresher and some was older, but the scent was there.

"I live in the forest," she finally answered, not knowing how else to say it.

"Really? What about your family?" Katie asked.

"Don't have one. Just the people in the village."

"What village?"

"The village in the forest," Leaf Chaser answered with a shrug.

"It doesn't have a name?"

Again, Leaf Chaser shrugged. "Never knew a name. Just the village, and the people. Grandfather and Grandmother. My den was near."

"Your den? You live in a den?"

"The bexookee, she likes it better. We can watch the river outside and the leaves."

"Besh okay?" Katie asked, trying to sound out the unfamiliar word.

"Bexookee. Mountain Cat. Grandfather taught me the word."

"You're a cougar? I've never seen one here before."

"You are Cese'eihii?" Leaf Chaser asked as her heart skipped a beat.

"If that means a shifter? Yes. I'm a fox."

Leaf Chaser crawled to the bars and reached up to take hold. She heard Katie begin to say something, but before she could finish, Leaf Chaser's hands touched the metal. Pain flared in her palms as if she was touching hot coals and she screeched and pulled her hands back, holding them up to look. In the center of each palm, there was a burn mark where the metal had touched her skin.

"Don't touch the bars, Leaf. They're silver, they'll burn you."

Leaf Chaser nodded, rubbing her hands against the cold metal under her, trying to cool the burn as she would in the forest. Little by little the pain ebbed away, though there was still an echo left. She lifted her hands again and the burn was still there. She frowned and grunted in frustration, rubbing some more on the metal. She usually healed so fast, but this wasn't going away.

"The man, he likes silver," Katie said. She held out her own hands to show fresh slashes across her palms. "He cuts you if you don't behave."

"Why does he keep us here?" Leaf Chaser asked.

"He's a collector. He keeps shifters like us as playthings."

"How long?" Leaf Chaser asked.

"I don't know. He never turns off the lights, and I haven't seen the sun since he took me. I tried to keep track, but nothing changes here. There's no day and no night, so there's no way to keep track."

Leaf Chaser nodded, looking towards the only door in the room. It was thick and heavy and had a small window in the upper half, covered by the same bars as the cages. Small wire was stretched across in a diamond pattern behind the bars as well, Leaf Chaser guessed to keep the smaller Cese'ehiiho' from escaping. Her palms still burning, she looked around even more for a window or something that would give her a view of the sky. She found nothing, and after a while, she stopped looking.

A lump in her throat grew and tears welled in her eyes. Not wanting Katie to see her, she crawled back to a corner of the cage and curled up as tightly as she could. She tried to bring the cat to the fore, so that she could feel the familiar fur surrounding her. With that, she wouldn't be so cold and so frightened. The bexookee was used to being alone, and it didn't bother her in the slightest.

No matter how hard she tried, though, she could not summon the cat. She could feel her there in the back of her mind, a warm and comforting presence, but there was no way she could shift her skin as she could in the forest. Still, having the cat's mind there next to hers soothed her tears somewhat, for the human girl knew that the cat was always alert and would always be planning ways that they could survive. That was what the cat was good at, keeping them both alive no matter the odds, and it was the only thing that it knew to do well. They'd get out of this and back to their forest, she was sure of it.