The crispness of autumn soon faded away and the chills of winter arrived, bringing along with it leafless, dark trees, frosty air, and unfortunately, sickness as well. Mia knew that in four short days, her family and many others would be celebrating Christmas and other wintery holidays—without her. Christmas had always been her favorite holiday—full of happiness, bright decorations, giving, and gifts. This was the first time Mia had not looked forward to the holiday of Christmas, as she would be spending it with a bunch of animals that had no clue whatsoever it existed instead of her parents, friends, and sister.
Worst of all, they probably thought she was dead for sure by now and wouldn’t have any hope left. Mia spent the entire week sulking, and no one could figure out what was wrong. This was the worst she ever felt about being away from her family besides the day she first turned into a cat, especially for the holidays.
When Christmas Eve finally came, Mia could hold it back no longer. She raced out of camp and all the way through the forest to her human home, where she looked through the windows and caught a glance of a thorny green Christmas tree with sparkly and shiny ornaments dangling from the delicate branches, and perched on the top of the tree was a big gold star.
Mia looked closer and saw her mother sitting on the couch alone, not blinking or moving a muscle. Then her sister came in and said something, and her mother didn’t reply, so Rina left the room. Mia wondered where her father was. It was Christmas Eve and a Saturday after all, so he probably wouldn’t be at work.
Mia crept up to her house and stood on her two front paws, leaning her upper body against the house so that she could see the inside better. There was presents around the Christmas tree, and when Mia looked harder, she could see one that was labeled:
To: Mia
From: Mom & Dad.
Mia didn’t want to be a human again so she could get Christmas presents—that was the least of her problems. But seeing this gift for her—when she wasn’t even there and hadn’t been for a long time now—made her want to burst into tears. Mia let out a loud meow to get her mother’s attention. She wanted her to see her and take her in, even, so that she could at least live with her family for the rest of her short feline life, even though they had no idea that this small stray cat was their daughter in a different body.
Mia pawed feebly at the glass, and meowed again, this time louder. Her mother still didn’t look over. Mia let out an earsplitting yowl, and her mother jumped a little and looked over. Her eyebrows furrowed as Mia continued to paw and meow loudly. Her mother shook her head a little and got up, then went to the door. Next to her, the door swung open, and her mother wore an angry look.
“Meow?” Mia said pitifully, hoping her mother would know.
But instead her mom yelled out, “Get out of here, stupid cat! You’re not welcome here! Get! Go on!”
When Mia stood her ground and didn’t do so much as blink, her mother grabbed a patio chair and swung it at her. Mia jumped out of the way with a screech of pure shock. She crouched, trembling, determined to not run away. She couldn’t remember the last time her mother was this mean to her in human form.
Her mom walked up to her, taking large, stomping steps, and swung a foot at her head. Mia ducked quickly and hissed instinctively. Then her mother kicked her again, this time hitting her hindquarters. Mia yelped and jumped up, then ran to her mother’s legs and rubbed against them, trying to get on her good side. Instead her mother shrieked and jumped away. “Go away!” she yelled, and grabbed another chair. Prepared, Mia leapt away just as she swung it, and let out another meow.
“W-why won’t you go away?” her mother stuttered loudly. She ran forward. “Get! Go! Shoo!”
Mia shook her head, trying to act as human as possible. “No, Mom, it’s me! Mia!” she tried to say, but all that came out was a meow of protest. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t talk in English anymore, and only in cat language. Mia held out a paw as if wanting to shake hands. Her mother looked perplexed.
“Just get!” she yelled. “I don’t want you around, cat! You don’t need to be here! Go find someone else to bother!” She kicked again, this time hitting Mia’s right shoulder.
She flinched and yelped. Her shoulder throbbed, and she got to her wobbling paws and backed away a step. “Fine!” she yowled shakily. “If you don’t want me, then I’ll go! Go find some other daughter!” With that, Mia turned around and, trembling, limped away, wincing from the pain in her shoulder.
Tears running down her cheeks, through her gray tabby fur and dripping off of her whispers uncontrollably, she looked back once to see her mother closing the door behind her. Then she continued on, occasionally stopping to lick her shoulder. Mia could not hold back the shaking sobs of anger and hurt that vibrated out of her body, of the salty wet tears that ran steadily down her face. She finally sat down and started to lick her shoulder, hoping maybe her rasping tongue might help soothe the pain. But it didn’t.
Mia eventually found a leafy area and she curled up, still licking her shoulder. She winced at the pain, and finally closed her eyes, wanting to sleep.
“Mia? Mia? Are you okay?”
Mia opened her eyes to see a gray tabby standing over her.
“Grace?” she murmured, blinking in the crisp light. “Is that you? Am I dead?” She blinked again, and sat up quickly, immediately wishing she hadn’t when horrible pain radiated off of her injured shoulder. She winced and started to lick her shoulder again instinctively.
“No, don’t worry, Mia, you’re still alive. And yes, it is me,” Grace meowed. “Are you okay? How did you hurt your shoulder? Why are you laying here? Did something come and hurt you? What happened?”
Mia moaned and flopped back down into the grass, annoyed by the constant flow of questions. “I’m fine. I don’t know why I’m lying here, and I’d rather not tell you what happened.” She closed her eyes again.
“You don’t look okay,” said Grace worriedly, peering at Mia’s bruised shoulder. “You need to have that fixed. Did a dog come and get you?”
Mia shook her head. “No, it wasn’t a dog. And I don’t want to tell you or anyone else what happened. And I’m fine!” she added, figuring Grace was about to ask if she was okay for what seemed like the hundredth time again.
“Well, we’ve better get back to camp. Everyone’s been wondering where you are. Come on, I’ll help you,” Grace meowed. She nudged Mia with her nose and helped her up. Mia leaned against her friend a little as they padded back to camp.
Soon they arrived and entered once again, Mia feeling a little bad for acting a bit rude to Grace before, but her friend didn’t seem shaken by it at all. Grace helped her toward Shard and Kia’s den, and they went into the dark cave slowly and silently.
“Kia?” Grace called when they were fully in. “Are you there?”
Instead, dark eyes popped open ahead, gleaming in the blackness of the cave. Mia groaned inwardly.
No, not Shard, she thought desperately. Why him?
Shard growled belligerently. “Who’s there?” he asked in a rumbling roar. Mia shivered.
“It’s Grace and Miana, King Shard,” Grace replied, and Mia could tell she was trying not to let her voice shake.
“What do you want?” Shard asked snappishly, and the glimmering black eyes rose to a greater height, indicating that he was standing up.
“We wanted to talk to Kia, Your Highness. Where is she?” Grace asked, shuddering beside Mia.
“She is leading a hunting group right now, Grace. But you are welcome to talk to me…” He narrowed his eyes menacingly. Mia spoke up, then.
“No, sir, we would like to talk to Queen Kia, please. Do you know when she’ll be back?” She winced as her shoulder stung a bit.
“No, I do not,” Shard hissed. “Tell me what it is. I’ll help just as much as her, if not more!” He growled again, and Mia could hear a quiet scratching on the stony ground. She guessed it was his claws scoring the rock.
“Okay,” Grace said quickly. “Well, er, Mia here”—she glanced at Mia—“she hurt her shoulder. We, er, needed someone to fix it, and the reason we wanted to talk to Kia is because she knows more about herbs than… well… you.”
Mia immediately realized Grace had said the wrong thing. Shard growled loudly and stalked up to them, his large, strong muscles flexing in his shoulders.
“I know just as much about herbs as Kia does!” he roared. “Now let me fix it!”
Mia pressed her lips together as Grace meowed, “Er… okay, then,” and backed away ungainly. Mia shook as she slowly padded up to the king. He swished his tail. “Let me look at it,” he growled. Mia stuck her shoulder out nervously, and Shard peered at it for a moment.
“I know what this needs,” he hissed in her ear, making Mia jump a little. Then Shard stalked back into the darkness and soon returned with a large, plump leaf in his jaws. He set it down in front of Mia, and, with his paw, pawed open the folded leaf to reveal several spiny green seeds.
“What are those?” Mia asked curiously. She remembered them from somewhere before, she was sure of it, but the name of the seeds would not come to her mind.
“They are nettle seeds,” Shard replied with an evil twinkle in his charcoal-black eyes. “I’m going to put them on your wound. They will help.”
Grace gasped. “Won’t those make it worse? They have thorns all over them! That would only make it bleed!”
Shard shook his head. “No, it does help. Here, let me show you.” He administered the nettle seeds carefully to Mia’s injured shoulder, pouring them on with the leaf. A few stuck to the leaf because of their thorny surface. Shard cautiously claws them out. Mia winced as they landed on her bruise and attached themselves to her fur and skin.
“It stings,” Mia whimpered. “Are you sure this is supposed to work? Because it’s only making it hurt more.” She resisted the feline urge to lick her shoulder, because she knew that if she did she would get nettles stuck in her delicate tongue. Grace looked worriedly at Mia’s shoulder, then up at Shard.
“It will subside in a little while,” Shard rumbled. He gave a horrible smile to them. “Now get going!” Grace jumped up and Mia followed her quickly out of the den.
When they were safely outside, Grace looked at Mia’s wound once, then at her and said, “You know, I don’t really think that nettles will help your wound. Do you want me to take them out?”
Mia nodded. “Yes, please do.” Then she sat and Grace got to work plucking the spiny nettle seeds painfully out of Mia’s shoulder. She flinched every time, and a couple of times whimpered pitifully. Soon they had made a small pile of nettles, and Mia was nettle-free. Her wound was now bleeding a bit.
“We should wait for Kia,” Grace said, and so they did. When the group of cats returned from hunting, Kia in the lead, Grace helped Mia stumble over to her quickly. “Kia!” she cried. The lioness turned around and looked at them, then came over swiftly when she caught a glance at Mia’s injury.
“What happened?” she gasped. “Mia, are you okay, dear?”
Grace sighed. “She won’t tell anyone what happened. We went to your den but only Shard was there, and he made us let him put nettle seeds on it. He said they would help, but they only made it worse, so I took them out of her fur.”
Kia muttered something under her breath, then said, “Okay, then let’s go. I know what to do.” She led them back to her den, and when they entered, Shard was luckily gone. The lioness flicked her tail in irritation as she pawed through a pile of plants.
“Aha!” she exclaimed when she got out a pawful of some sort of leaves. “Dock leaves will help the scratches. I’m afraid I don’t have anything for bruises, though.”
Kia then got to work chewing out the healing juices of the plant and then gently administered it onto Mia’s painful wound. It immediately started to feel better. “Thanks so much,” Mia said gratefully. “That helped a lot more then nettles!”
“I’m glad I could help,” Kia said kindly as she gathered the remaining leaves and put them back with her stock of healing plants. Grace nudged Mia’s side impatiently.
“Come on, Mia, let’s go!” she said. “Thanks, Kia!” Grace also yowled as she raced out quickly. Mia nodded and followed quickly.