...lost...

I felt something breathing down my back as something went by my right ear.
I jumped, throwing my arms up to protect my face, landing awkwardly on my left foot; I stumbled, falling backwards, the back of my right hip connected with a sharp corner.
“Aaah! Jesu... Urgh!” I was uttering quietly under my breath, but stopped when a light came on reducing the darkness to the shadows of corners.
I stood gawking upwards.
“Wow...” I said without even knowing.
We were in a sort of run down passageway, nothing special, although it was a bit on the gloomy side, but the ceiling... I mean I have never seen anything like it.! There was an intricate pattern carved into it, though it really didn’t look as though anything could’ve carved it because the pattern wasn’t actually in the ceiling in fact it was hovering about three Centimetres below the ceiling and seemed to be emitting an eerie yet curious light.
“What is that?” I whispered so quietly I was surprised when Mindreader answered.
“That? I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell you what that is.” Mindreader continued, “And even if I did you wouldn’t believe nor want to have known the answer.”
“How would you know?!” I snapped angrily.
“Because, I know.” He replied mockingly, smirking at the look of injustice and anger that appeared on my face.
“Look, I’m not some-”
“Paws! Where are you, stupid creature?!” He cut me off, as he shoved passed me, to yell down the passageway.
“Hmph.” I pouted, unhappy with his treatment of me, as though I was nothing more than a bug, ‘What happened to the you’re more important, bit?’.
“Paws!” Mindreader shouted angrily, “there you are, finally.”
Paws, I soon found out, is a cat, a short haired cat that had many shades of browns, greys, blacks and whites, what I mean by had is that that’s what he used to have.
Paws stood on his hind legs, growing taller until he was at the height of a boy in his tens, he wore blue pants that were a bit small and had holes around the knees, he was also wearing an olden day baggy, white shirt and a bag that had straps crossing his chest, his hair didn't stay one colour for long it seemed to shift through the colours of the cat, but his eyes were still a luminous green with slits, like that of a cats.
“Where were you Paws?” Mindreader asked, with a smile that said he already knew where Paws had been.
“I well... there...” Paws stuttered, trying to avoid both our eyes.
“Not letting your cat part get the better of you again.”
Paws smiled uncertainly.
Mindreader turning to me said, “The last time paws, couldn’t control his feline side, we ended up having to get rid of twenty dead mice and rats and also had to figure out what to do with two litters of kittens.”
Paws glanced down at the floor, trying to find something to stare at, blushing.
“Paws this is Ara Nickle.” Mindreader said pointing towards me, “As captivating as her name.” He smiled handsomely.
I blushed, looking down at the floor, big mistake.
The picture in the carpet was of a battle, there were bodies of dead and injured people lying around the battle field as the ones who could fight fought with the last of their energy, there was also some writing on it but I couldn’t understand what it said because it was in some foreign language.
“Ara this is Paws.” Mindreader said looking at me and then realising what I was looking at said, “Would you like me to tell you what it says?”
I nodded almost imperceptibly.
Mindreader saw the movement.
“Well it does say quite a bit but the gist of it is: A battle fought well and won loses more than if it had been lost.” Mindreader goes on to explain, “It means that if you go into battle to win you must be prepared to lose everything in it.”
I nodded again to show I understood, ‘That is very sad.’ I thought to myself, after that I was lost a bit in my emotions, I felt pain where a bruise was starting to show on my hip and I felt pain in my heart, plus the anger at not being told about the pattern hovering below the ceiling, above me and then there was my mom, I still didn’t know why she hadn’t picked me up and there were so many emotions I felt trapped and lost at the same time.

wings©2007