Part of me expects her to roll her eyes at how dramatic I am, but this is a child that’s grown up in the After. She knows when to be playful and when to be serious. Rabbit nods and hugs me tightly, watching me head out the repaired front door and into the bright morning sunlight.

Everything is quiet. Peaceful. Birds are twittering in a tree at the front of the parking lot, and the grasses growing up through the cracks in the pavement sway in a gentle breeze. Nothing looks alarming, but that doesn’t mean anything at all. I pull back the tension on my crossbow, checking the bolt again to make sure that it’s loaded properly, and then head into the parking lot.

There’s a cluster of buildings here, all clumped together to share parking, which means there’s also a lot for me to check. Rabbit had mentioned the old sporting goods store, which I’ve been meaning to check out anyhow. I’ll get there eventually. I move to the first store, which looks like an old dental clinic. It’s totally collapsed, so I move on to the next business, a nail salon.

On and on I go, taking the time to pick through the wreckage, looking for anything that might be of use. I’m wearing a backpack and filling it up with things I find—scissors, toothpaste tubes, an old box knife. Bigger things can be scavenged later, provided this area is safe. My stomach growls, but I ignore it. Our food supplies are thin, and we can’t hunt or set traps until we know this area is secure. I’d rather save what little we have left for Rabbit. I can miss a meal or two.

I check over a smoothie store, disappointed when I don’t even find sugar packets or napkins. It’s been completely picked over, which means someone’s been in this area before. Not surprising, given that we’re in the city. Everything easy to take was scavenged long ago.

When I exit out of the store, I hear the sound of a kitten crying. I turn, looking for the source of the sound. Rabbit had said there were a lot of cats around, but so far I haven’t seen any. I head for the sporting goods store, and as I do, the sound of the crying gets louder. It’s plaintive and reedy and tugs at my heart.

“Pspspsps. Here, little baby.” I move through the tall grass, heading toward an abandoned car with four flat tires. It’s just barely off the ground, but sure enough, I see movement underneath it. I snap my fingers, crouching low. “Come here, kitten.”

After another cry, the baby stumbles out. It’s a kitten all right, maybe a month old or so. He’s tiny with orange stripes and a cream-colored belly, and as he stumbles toward me, I see his eyes are covered in gunk. No wonder he’s lost. I set down my crossbow and scoop him up, cuddling him. With the corner of my t-shirt, I wipe at the crust on his eyes, but he needs medicine and water to clean them off. He cries and squirms while I clean him up, and then tries to snuggle in against my neck.

“I can’t take you with me,” I protest, my heart squeezing. “I wish I could, buddy. Let’s find your mom, okay?”

Picking up my crossbow with one hand and cradling the kitten in my other, I head toward the sporting goods store. As I approach, I see a few cats hiding in shadows or lurking nearby. It matches with what Rabbit had described. I don’t see signs of a human around, though. If someone was living here, there’d probably be trash piled up somewhere nearby—empty food cans or wrappers, broken gear, anything along those lines. There’s nothing that I can see and perhaps that’s a good sign. Perhaps there’s just a few random cats nearby.

“Do you see your mama?” I whisper to the kitten in my hand. I watch the other cats. One pretty calico approaches me and rubs against my legs, purring, but none of them seem interested in the kitten in my hands.

I move to the front of the store, peering inside. The interior is dark, the doors destroyed. More cats lounge in the front of the store, watching me as I climb over a shopping cart on its side. Leaves and detritus are scattered everywhere, crunching under my work boots.

No mama cat comes out to snatch her baby from my arms. “Pspspsps,” I try again. To my chagrin, another kitten emerges, this one a little black ball of fluff. He’s got the same gunk in his eyes, and my heart drops. They need medicine.

There’s got to be a pharmacy or a vet’s office around here somewhere. My dog had a medicated eye paste but that was years ago⁠—

Something moves in the back of the store. Something big. A shelf crashes and metal groans.

I clutch the kitten to my chest harder, raising my crossbow. “Hello?”

Another shelf knocks over. I watch as it tumbles to the ground, and as it does, a massive, clawed, reptilian foot emerges. Gold scales gleam even in the darkness, and I start to pant with fear.

Dragon.

There’s a fucking dragon here.

A large, triangular horned head suddenly appears from the shadows. I scream, blood running cold, and turn and race out of the store, back towards Rabbit.

We have to fucking get out of here!

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CHAPTER 3

MURR

That human female just stole my cat.

I stare after the female, her scent drifting through the air, mixed with fear and sweat. I hadn’t noticed a human had come close to my nest today. Sometimes they wander close, but they’re easily scared off. This one scooped up one of my cats—one of the little ones—and I watched her hold it close, cuddling it. She’d made such soft noises at it that I was entranced, as fascinated by her strange, gentle sounds as the kitten was.

But then the kitten cried, and my protective instincts awoke.

It’s easy enough to slip into a killing rage. It’s the state I have lived in ever since I appeared on this side of the Rift and my mind went wild. I don’t know how long I was completely and utterly feral. I only know that one day I awoke and…my mind was itself again. I remembered my name…most of it. I remembered another world, different from this one.

And I remembered speaking to others in my mind, but when I reached out for the others, all was quiet.

That silence nearly drove me wild again. I met others of my kind, and even standing next to them, I was unable to communicate. Unable to share my thoughts and feelings. Unable to share my name, my being. It was worse than being alone.

The only thing that’s saved my sanity is my cats.

I found one when I was sunning after a meal, sated and replete in the warmth of the day. The sun here is not nearly as warm as the one back home, but when I’m in my two-legged form, it feels pleasant. So I transform and nap on a large stone near the carcass of what was left of my kill. I’d heard a sound—a “mrorwr” of sorts. I’d rolled over and watched my surroundings, and saw a small creature with triangular ears and a long, skinny tail. Its fur was pitch black, its eyes a friendly, familiar yellow, and it smelled like a meat eater. It licked its chops, made the mrow sound up at me again, and then began to eat.

Fascinated, I’d watched it. Once it was done eating, it cleaned its paws with dainty movements and then approached me, fearless. It lay in the sun on the rock next to me, rumbling with pleasure, and it let me touch it. Its fur was soft and wondrous, and it rubbed its head against my fingers, desperate for ear scratches.

I complied, of course. There is nothing worse than an itch behind your ears.

The next day I’d returned to the same spot and brought a smaller kill, hoping to see my strange little friend again. The black cat returned, rubbing up against me and purring with pleasure. It wasn’t afraid of my battle-form, but my two-legged form is the one that gives it the most pleasure. Perhaps it thinks I am one of the two-legged humans that crawl all over this world.