The next morning, Mia awoke with a jolt as a miserable cry of anguish broke into her dreams. She suddenly realized it was Christmas morning, and her family would be celebrating without her. But at this very moment, Mia hardly cared. She shot to her paws, quickly licked her shoulder fur down, and walked out of the den to see what had happened. Across the clearing was a lump of striped orange fur curled around a limp figure. It was a female tiger. From where she was, Mia couldn’t tell what she was mourning over, but she guessed that it obviously wasn’t good. Several other cats, including other tigers, lions, cheetahs, small cats, leopards, and many others, were already crowded around the tiger.
As Mia swiftly reached the group, she saw their stricken and sad faces, and realized that the tiger was curled around her cub. Mia dared to go even closer and suddenly a bolt of shock raced through her.
No! Could it be?!
But she knew it was. It had to be. No other tiger cub looked exactly like that. His fiery orange fur, the dark stripes that looked like strips of the blackest night, and the lean, strong young body could only be one tiger cub.
Flame.
Mia felt grief wash over her. The tiger cub had been so enthusiastic, so happy whenever she saw him. She knew his mother’s name was Midnight, for her equally dark stripes, but right now she didn’t care. All she cared about was that Flame was dead. She could hardly imagine the terrible sadness that Midnight must have for her lost son.
“I-I’m sorry…” Mia choked in a whisper. “How did he-how did he… you know… die…?” she asked, hoping that saying that one word, “die”, wouldn’t make her furious and start rejecting that he was dead. Mia knew how people could get like that; mostly from reading the books she did.
“He got very sick last night, and no one could help him. He died just a little while ago....”
The strong voice spoke beside her, only it didn’t sound near as strong as it normally did anymore. Mia could feel a warm body touching hers. She knew it was Lark. She looked at her paws, blinking back tears.
“But how could he die so quickly? Don’t you have anything that would’ve helped him? What was the sickness he had?”
Mia had so many more questions that she wanted answered, but she could only choke out the ones that were the most important to her. Why did he have to die on Christmas? Why did he even have to die at all?
Midnight looked at her for a moment, not answering. Then she lowered her head again, her eyes dull and cloudy gray. Lark twitched his ears.
“We don’t know how he died that fast, and no, we have nothing that could have helped him. It’s very rare that anyone gets that illness… we don’t have a name for it, actually, but it causes the victim to become extremely weak and thin, then cough a lot, and then eventually they die and join the stars, as we say…”
Lark blinked once, then turned to her. “You do know about what happens when we die, right? Has anyone told you yet?”
Mia shook her head, curious. She hoped that Flame would be going to a good place now that he was gone, and that he would have a good afterlife. She hoped with all of her heart that the Kin had a heavenlike place to join when they died and not end up as a ghost or something. She pricked her ears up a bit, intent on listening to what he was going to say.
“Well, the place where we spend our afterlife when we leave this earth is called Elysium. All animals go there after death unless they have unfit souls and end up becoming wandering spirits on the Earth. It has no leader, and every animal is treated just like the others, even if they were more respected or less respected then others when they were alive. It’s where we receive prophetic messages from. We worship them and believe everything they say.
“If any of us are found to not believe in Elysium, they are cast out to be loners, and if they are found in the Kin’s territory, we can kill them.”
Mia’s eyes widened. “That sounds dreadful! Being killed just because you don’t believe in Elysium?”
Lark nodded. “I know. Unfortunately, I can’t choose the rules for the Kin.”
Mia nodded. “Yeah…” her gaze traveled back to Flame. He seemed smaller than ever, there against the ground, eyes clouded and gray. His mother was sitting and staring at his body, her own eyes dull with grief. She didn’t make a sound now, and she didn’t move a single muscle.
Mia felt terrible for her. What would she feel like if she lost her own child? Of course, Mia didn’t have any children. But if she ever did and one of them died, Mia was positive that she would be just the same as poor Midnight. She hung her head and got up to leave.
“Mia, wait!” Lark meowed as she started to walk away. “Where are you going?”
Mia turned around to look at him, her gaze sober. “I don’t know… why?”
“We have to send his soul to Elysium. We have a ceremonial song that we must sing so that we show we allow his soul to rise to join the others that left their bodies behind. Won’t you join us?” He cocked his head slightly in question, and Mia nodded.
“I suppose…”
“Great,” Lark purred, a tone of sadness in the quiet rumbling sound that vibrated from him.
Mia stood next to him. All of the cats began to rise to their paws. Midnight shakily got up, too, and blinked away a tear as she looked down at her son’s limp body.
Soon a soft song started, and Mia didn’t know nor care who had begun it. The song was beautiful and spun itself around the mourning tribe as they sung, and as the song went on, a soft breeze rustled their pelts. Mia felt ice-cold air go through her for a split second, and she shivered, wondering if Flame’s spirit had passed through her.
Oh, cats among the stars
Take this soul
That lies before our paws
Make sure that he has everything
That he ever needs
Comfort him
For the loss of his life
Let us know
That he is alright
Let every ounce of pain he’s endured
Pass away
Let his memories not haunt him, but remind him
Of his days with us
Let this soul
That joins your ranks
Realize all that he’s been given
Allow him among you now
Let his star glimmer above
Reminding us of his life
Allow his star to shine with others
Never alone
Never abandoned
Thank you
For letting him live
And surrounding him in love
And let his life
With you
Be even better
YOU ARE READING
Fomidae
Fantasy[This is extremely old and a huge mess of a story. Proceed with caution.] Miana Mortea is a normal teenage girl - or so she thinks. But one day, her life is about to change. What would you do if you had a strange dream after passing out about a l...
