Aubern fur

Shino trudged along the speckled emerald forest floor. Light filtered threw the canopy of trees filling the forest with a dim grayish glow. She kicked a small rock and it skidded far off. Angry thoughts filled her head as she walked steadily forward. She lived in the West Forks Maine. Here the forest went for miles, though the town was mostly barren. There was only one store around here, a small everything store called Berry’s. She and her parents had gone there earlier. Here they started to fight. Again. Ever since her younger sister died it seemed like the smallest things would set them off. Her mother despised the Forks now, blaming the death on it, and wished to move, while her father had lived here all his life and cherished this place. Shino was sick of the fighting. She came here for a little piece of serenity, when her life was so filled with turmoil.
Her thoughts drifted as she continued her pace. She didn’t know how long she had been walking, but she was not yet ready to return. If her parents where worrying by now, all the better. It would keep them from thinking about themselves for once. This thought gave her some hope.
She looked around her and was surprised to see she had come up to a marsh. She didn’t remember coming here ever before. She had wandered pretty far. Now she was scared, she had forgotten the way she had come. Spinning around she looked for anything that looked familiar at all. There was nothing. The trees loomed above her seeming to close in around her. Their long gangly branches swept eerily back and forth. It seemed like they where reaching toward her, trying to reach her. The back of her neck prickled and she found herself running. Faster and faster she ran, threw thorns and bushes. She didn’t even know why she ran; her fear just pushed her farther and farther away. If she had known then, how this random burst of speed had driven her farther away from home, she would have cursed her folly. But as it was, the running kept her occupied, so no despairing thoughts could creep in. She new in the back of her head that getting lost in Maine was no small thing. Many people never came back.
Presently her limbs betrayed their weariness. She crumpled to the leaf riddled floor breathing hard. She couldn’t run anymore even if she tried. Besides the air was cooling and darkness was setting in. A shroud of inky black swept across the forest and she fell asleep to the slight murmurings of wind threw the trees.

She awakened to rustling branches. Sitting up she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. It was still dark out but it was the dark of dawn. The slight glimmer of morning hung about the air. The rustling sound came again and she whipped her head around to see where it was coming from. Bright yellow eyes burned into her face from the bushes behind her. She started to back up as the hairs on her neck stood up on end. Visions of bears and coyotes filled her head. Thoughts of monsters with long sharp teeth and sharp nailed feet filled her head. The thing jumped.
Shino yelped and fell backward. What landed on her was defiantly not what she expected. An auburn cat sat on her chest staring at her. Its tail twitched back and forth with uncontrolled impatience. ‘What is a cat doing here?’she wondered.
She sat up and the cat fell on her lap. She began to pet him and he purred affectionately. She hoped this meant that civilization wasn’t far off. A cat just couldn’t wander the woods alone. A coyote would snap it up within a day.
The cat lithely jumped off and began to walk in a single direction, looking back often. When she didn’t immediately follow he meowed softly. She had no where else to go, and the cat might lead her to its home, so she decided to follow it. The forest floor was flecked with dew and her body ached from sleeping on the ground. The going was slow, and she had no idea where she was. It was a long walk with many rests but eventually the cat stopped.
They where in a small opening, surrounded on all sides by tall gray trees. Long breezy grass grew beside a small brook that ran swiftly down. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until now, with the babble of the brook filling her ears like sweet delicious music.
She knelt beside and drank gratefully from the clean running water. After she washed her dirty sweat stained face and lay on her back. The sun had just risen above the clouds and the sound of summer could be heard throughout the forest. Life yawned and rose, seeming to only wake from its slumber now. Day creatures took the night creatures place. Warmth seeped into the small meadow-like opening and trees whispered amongst themselves of long lost dreams.
Her thirst was quenched but now the gnawing hunger crept into her belly. She was too tired now to find anything so she drifted off, the cat beside her, into a warm and happy slumber.
The sun drifted in the sky and noon took the place of morning. Time seemed like it was at a standstill here in the meadow. And maybe it was. The trees and animals where the only thing that lived here, and she had been the first person to see this wonderful place. The meadow had no need to track the time. It was a place of comfort, a place of sleep. It had been here for many years, and would remain undetected for many years. When Shino finally woke up here, she felt as though she had been here for many years. Its timelessness was a rare thing, and it seemed to have changed her. Made her appreciate things more, for here she saw nature at its best, without the interference of humans. This appreciation would stay with her forever.
Now fully rested, Shino sat up. She pet the cat lovingly. He opened his eyes lazily and gave her a great big kitty smile. The cat stood and loped off her. He waited until she had gotten one last drink and got up and started walking away from the meadow. She looked from the cat and back to the meadow. This place was the best place she’d ever been. It even had the security of a spring. But the cat was leaving and so, she guessed she would too. She yearned for the company of the cat in this soulless wilderness, so she followed.
The cat continued to walk for hours while Shino lagged behind. Shino was a mess, her hair struck out like straw and her face had a layer of grime. She wondered idly if her parents had sent out a search party yet. The thought gave her a little hope in this dismal place.
Ever since Shino had left the meadow the colors of the forest had seemed to be brightened. Her senses seemed to have grown better. This was because it was one of the last magical places left. A place you always searched for after seeing it, but could never truly remember. Most of the places like this have been swallowed up by people, gone forever. There where still some left in Maine though, for it was largely unpopulated.
After a few hours of this walking the cat stopped again. Before them was an apple tree. Large red and yellow juicy apples hung from nearly every branch. Shino bit into its juicy flesh. She didn’t know how this tree had gotten here, but its apples where the best she had ever eaten. Later on, she developed a loving appetite of apples and fruit. None where as good as this though. She fell asleep for the night bellow the apple tree with a full belly at last.
In the morning she took three apples with her and continued on with her journey, the cat in the lead. If she had looked back she would have seen the tree shimmer and disappear in a green and red fog.
After many days of this continual walking and sleeping, where some random fruit tree appeared when she was on the brink of starvation, and disappearing when she’d left, the cat turned and looked to her. The trees had thinned out and now they seemed to be at the very edge of the forest. Nearly a month had gone by. The cat seemed to wink at her. Than its shimmered and there standing in its place was her dead sister. She waved slightly, her golden hair drifting in the breeze. And then she was gone, disappeared in a silvery flash. And Shino was happy for the first time since here sister had died.
***********************************************************************
Shino had left the trees far behind her within minutes of this apparition. She found the nearest person, told her story and was driven down to the police where she met her bewildered and disbelieving parents. They moved to New Hampshire, both wild enough for her father and civilized for her mother. Shino lived to be a happy old lady who appreciated a good walk in the woods every once in a while. She never fully saw that ‘cat’ again but every once in a while she would see a glimpse of yellow eyes and auburn fur. But when she went to get a better look it was always gone. Once, her daughter had come home saying that she had seen a cat. It was a cat with yellow eyes and it had saved her from falling in the river. Shino lived to 89 and died of heart failure. It is said that a yellow eyed cat and a small girl who looks uncharacteristically like Shino can be seen romping around the woods.