Chapter 8

After a few minutes of walking, she led me to a tree, with a lot of branches and leaves at the top. "So, this is my den," she explained, gazing up at the large tree. There were a few claw marks on the trunk, more appearing as I scanned higher up. "What do you mean?" I asked, confused. How could a tree be her den? It's not a hole in the ground, and it isn't a carved-out tree, so how does she live in it? How would she stay protected from the weather?

"Follow me, I'll show you." She jumped, digging her claws into the bark, and started to climb up the tree. As she got higher and higher, I noticed even more claw marks. It's probably just from her climbing up all the time, I thought. When she reached a tall branch, she looked down, her tail straight up in the air. "Well, are you coming?" She meowed down to me, trotting back and forth across the branch a few times. I had climbed trees a few times before... I'll be fine.

I jumped and sank my claws into the bark, carefully climbing up with my claws feeling like they were about to fall out of my paws. Eventually, I made it to the branch she was on, panting heavily. I jerked my head up and looked around, feeling proud of myself for making it up. I looked down, seeing how far up I was. 𝘞𝘰𝘢𝘩. I felt the thin layer of skin on my paws scraped off from the bark, but I didn't care that much, it didn't even hurt. I sat up and gazed around, noticing Sphynxia had already begun climbing up more branches.

There was one resting up a bit farther from the one Oreo was on, and a higher one right above it, which was the one she was crouching on. She leaped to another branch, and I could now only see her tail behind all the branches. I quickly got up and continued to follow her, my paws wobbling as I jumped up to the second branch, the bark scraping my paws more. She sat down on a large limb up a few feet from me, watching me catch up with her. Once I jumped onto her tree branch, I settled down next to her, tired.

I looked around, seeing the other trees and vines around us. For a moment, we both sat there, enjoying the sound of chirping birds and the wind blowing through the trees. I took a deep breath of the air as it blew through my whiskers, grateful for the feeling of the wind blowing in my fur. I glanced at her again and smiled, my tail sticking straight up in the air, just like Sphynxia.

"So - Sphynxia. Why did you bring me here?" She turned and looked at me, her yellow eyes blooming with curiosity as she gazed into mine. "You looked so... intrigued." I tilted my head, staring into her bright, brilliant yellow eyes. "When you were thinking. You looked so... interested. What were you thinking about?" Ohh. The memory of that dream came back to me.

How would I explain that I had a dream about her? And, what if the dream wasn't really about her and it really meant nothing?

"Well... it's sort of hard to explain," I started, my tail shaking. "Yeah?" "If I were to describe it...

I had this dream of a silhouette of two cats playing in the sand as the sun set. But, then a sandstorm came and swept them up... and they both yowled a lot. I think I might've seen one of them fleeing away, but I'm not sure. But one of the cats... looked so much like you. I mean, the shape, the skin, almost everything with the little color I could see them in. I don't know if I was just seeing things, but... I think I had a dream about you. I don't know why I had it, but it was so vivid and I just can't get it out of my head."

The she-cat stared at me in shock, silent for a few moments. What? I thought. Did I really have a dream about her after all? Eventually, she spoke again. "You know... I used to live in Egypt with my sister. If you don't know what that is, it's a country somewhere... along the Mediterranean Sea, I think it was called. It has lots of pyramids and the Sphinx statue, which is part of what my mom named me after. It's mostly really hot there, and the whole ground is just hot sand, no dirt.

But, anyway... We snuck out from one of the humans' celebrations they were doing and just decided to fool around outside, even though we weren't supposed to. It was my idea. It didn't seem like we were out there playing for that long, but... we didn't see the duststorm coming. We tried to run from it, but the wind and sand made it too difficult to run. Azziza couldn't catch up. I was way ahead of her, and she couldn't follow me at the same speed.

I stopped and waited for her, and she yelled for me to just go without her. She said to run, and never stop...

I've still never forgiven myself for not staying. Running just led me here. Across the sea, to this place, where I can't trust anyone, and everyone judges me for not having fur." I felt a wave of sadness wash over me. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘩𝘦-𝘤𝘢𝘵. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩... I wanted to tell her everything was going to be alright, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. Instead, I laid my tail in her direction and said, "I'm... sorry."

We remained silent for a few minutes. This means.. I did dream about her, and it was the same down to the detail. So... was I really meant to meet her? She'd never believe me... My mind was made up to say something. "I know it probably seems impossible for me to say that I had a vision of what happened to you and your sister. I wouldn't expect you to believe me, and that's fine. I'm not even sure if I believe mysel-"

"I trust you," she interrupted. I blinked, taken aback. She believed me? "You do?" I asked, my tail swishing as happiness started to spread over me. "I do.

I do because I've had visions as well. And... I think I had a dream about you too." I blinked, shocked. I wasn't the only one?

Sphynxia had visions of me too? "I had this a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure you were with this black and white striped she-cat, and you were a tiny kitten crouching in the grass while the striped she-cat fought off this... black.. blob.. monster thingy? You probably don't believe me now," she laughed. "She was fighting it with this magical blue stuff coming out of her paw-" "How did you know?!" I gasped. I was taken aback, my heart pounding. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧... 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘺.. 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘦.. 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨.. 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘐'𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥.

I was so scared and shocked that I wanted to run away, but I stayed. Looking into Sphynxia's eyes helped stop the urge to run off. I slowly let my fear go. I let the idea of destiny sink in. I finally understood why I was here: I was meant to be with Sphynxia. It was the only thing I could think of. I panted, letting go of my worry as we stared into each other's eyes. I felt a connection, a spark, a bond form between us that could never be broken. For a moment, I got lost in her sandy, golden eyes, and I'm pretty sure she got lost in my green eyes, too.

I shook myself off, excitement bursting from me. "Say no more, Sphynxia, we're friends!" I declared, beginning to purr. "Uh - u- Okay!" She meowed, shock and happiness in her expression. I leaped off the tree, landing on a fern. I turned around and began to run away, hoping that I would get to see her again soon. I sped through the trees, the branches and leaves rustling around me. I ran faster and faster, my heart pounding, and the wind in my fur. I felt so alive, so free. I felt the connection between Sphynxia and me growing stronger and stronger at that moment... it was wonderful. We had so much in common.

I smiled, feeling like I could take on anything. I ran until I reached our den, panting as I crawled in. My denmates were all sleeping in their beds. Sally and Zach were sleeping together, their beds combined with each other. 𝘈𝘸𝘸. I carefully crawled into my own bed and eventually fell asleep, dreaming of Sphynxia... the one I love most in the world.