Something had happened. To be honest, he didn’t fully understand what was going on. But his parents were upset.

It wasn’t violent. His dad didn’t pull out his claws, his mom didn’t cry. But they both spoke with a tone Acorn had never heard before, and what’s worse was that they were talking about him.

Did they even know he was there? Was he invisible? He felt unwelcome, scared.

So, while the both of them were waving their paws at each other, he slipped out from behind them and left the den.

He was too young to be left unattended, they insisted. But they didn’t really pay attention to him while he was there, so it wasn’t hard for him to just leave. This wouldn’t be the first time that he had left.

But he was going to go a little farther this time.

So he left the forest, went to the plain they would take him to sometimes to play in. It was a big, wide-open field, with not a lot to do except run around and make up pretend games.

In the middle of it, there was a hill he had always admired, but never climbed before. It felt huge to his small kitten body, and he already had a hard time walking long distances, but the adrenaline pumping through his limbs was making him feel adventurous. This was the day he would climb it.

In the time that it took him to think about how hard it would be to climb, he had already reached the top.

“What?” He looked down at his paws. “Did I teleport?” His brain wasn’t making any sense. The thoughts didn’t seem to flow together. He was thinking responses to statements he had heard an hour ago.

His front-left paw was cold. Why was it cold?

He lifted it. Underneath his paw was a little round silver thing that he could see his own face in.