and it was a trick - open; left kitten

[rhosmari]

YOU ARE MY FAVORITE ''WHAT IF''
YOU ARE MY BEST ''I'LL NEVER KNOW''

''Mom, where are we going?'' A very small raspy voice called out, small ears perked up as if expecting an answer that did not come. She was confused and more so she couldn't see. But she knew that her mother was carrying her somewhere but she didn't seem to have brought her siblings along. At least she couldn't hear them walking nor had they said anything to indicate their presences. But she was tired and she wanted to lay down and sleep for a little while. Being carried was fine but it was also tiring with the constant movement and motions of her mother's body. After a while when there was still no talking or her being put down so she could be answered she spoke up again, coughing for a moment before her wheezing voice found a pathway. ''Mom....I'm tired. I wanna take a nap, please.'' Again her words were met with silence and she frowned a bit and for a time that was all she got. The sound of walking paws across various terrain before suddenly they stopped. She tilted her head up and her body was slowly lowered to the ground. It took her a moment to realize there was sand underneath her paws.

She was confused to say the least as she had never thought about where they were going. Her tiny maw opened to ask about where they were when she heard retreating pawsteps. Someone was walking away from them. Wait...was her mom leaving and going somewhere without her? ''Mom wait! I can't s-,'' Her calling calling voice broke off into a loud fit of coughing that rattled her small frame. She lowered her head against the ground, a soft whimper leaving her before she struggled to lift herself up once more. But by then she couldn't hear the pawsteps anymore. All she heard was the whisper of hot wind against her face. Her eyes had been glued shut by mucus from her sickness, nose dripping and she sniffled a bit before taking a tentative step forward. The small kitten got a sense that her mother had left her on purpose...that she wasn't coming back. But there was a small hope that she would come back. So she waited there. She waited for a long time, till the sun was high overhead and the heat was making her gently pant against the dry air.

Maybe she was wrong to think that she was coming back. After all she was..a burden right? Her mom had said that once before. She wasn't supposed to have heard her but she did. She was always sick, always frail, always suffering.... Her ears pulled back as she lifted a paw to press it against her muzzle to stop the coughing that was trying to come, instead sneezing hard enough to pop her eardrums. Shivering she didn't feel like moving anymore, so she laid down in the sand.

— Reggan