Chapter 2

She only stopped running when she finally felt her knees giving up, her lungs inhaled sharp breaths as she was rubbed off of the air.

Feeling agitated she screamed her frustrations out, her grief for her mom, her pain every time she was bullied by her classmates, her pity for herself. She was now officially an orphan, no one is there for her now, she was now alone.

Feeling weak she slowly let herself kneel on the muddy street, hugging herself.

"No, this isn't right. My mom's still alive, she's not dead, she's not dead." She desperately convinced herself with a lie as she slowly walked her way back to the hotel.

But seeing that she was in a not familiar kind of place she stopped in her tracks. Feeling lost, she decided to look for a place where she could shelter herself. Coincidentally she had stopped walking right in front of a large old tree.

So she looked around to see if there were a large root enough for her to take shelter.

After a minute or so, she had finally found a cave-like hole in the roots of the tree, she excused herself first, just in case there was some spirit or sort of inside, then she slowly let herself in.

Unbeknownst to Sera, there was something inside. As Sera was about to seat on the ground she heard a soft cry of a puppy on her side. Her eyes quickly sparkled as she saw a little white ball of fur.

"OMYGHAS-" she quickly held her mouth shut as she was about to shout in excitement, she didn't want to scare the puppy away.

She slowly extended her hand in the puppy's direction, trying to touch its favorite spots. When the puppy let her touch her she quickly, yet gently picked it up from the ground.

"Aww, you're so cute~" she rubbed her fingers on its jaw making the puppy lean on her fingers.

"Please excuse me for what I'm about to do," she then slowly lifts the puppy enough for her to see if it's a male or female.

"What a handsome little puppy," she said as she put the puppy back on the ground, she was happy yet sad that she can't hold the puppy in her arms, it was because she was dripping wet because of the rain.

Before she could stop herself, she had opened her mouth to talk, she had nothing to talk to, and it was just a puppy so she let herself be vulnerable. She let herself cry again, exhausted from crying she let herself sleep on the cold wet ground.

Later on, when the rain had stopped falling some rescue team was seen looking for her, she hurriedly opened her already wet phone and saw that it was already 8:00 a.m.

Feeling heavy, she tried to get up to catch the rescuer's attention, but she keep on falling unto the muddy ground.

She heard the soft cry of the puppy again, making her turn her head to her side, the puppy's soft cry became a loud howl, catching the rescuer's attention.

They quickly run towards the howling sound and finally saw Sera, beside her was a little white puppy its icy blue eyes staring at them.

"We found her!" One of the rescuers shouted, which Naja heard, she quickly sprinted her way to the tree to see Sera lying on the cold muddy ground, a puppy sitting right beside her face as if protecting her friend.

"Sera! " she quickly went to her side to hold her hand when she felt it burning hot.

"She has a fever! Quickly take her out of here!" The rescuers nodded and were about to carry Sera out of the ground when the little furball angrily growled at them.

The rescue team had a problematic look on their face as the pup keep on growling at them.

Then Seras hand slowly lift to touch the pup's head calming it down.

"There, there, they'll just carry me out off the ground and bring me somewhere there is no need to be angry." She said. The pup just simply cried softly as if worried about Sera.

Before the rescuers carried her out of the ground, the pup jumped on her stomach as if saying that it doesn't want to be left alone in that place, Sera just smiled weakly at the pup which was licking her hand that was resting on its back.

That's when she decided to close her eyes and let the heavyweight draw her to slumber.

Naja who was with their professor followed  Sera to the ambulance, the events that had happened last night circulated in her mind. Minutes after Sera run through the heavy rain, she received a call from her mom who was close to Sera, telling her that Seras Mom, Aunt Nat met an accident. She rescued a cat that was about to be hit by a truck. Since Sera was an only child she is now an Orphan, her dad died because of an illness as to what Aunt Nat had told Sera.

Even for her, it was hard to accept that a good woman like Aunt Nat would leave her daughter alone at a young age.

Naja never left Seras side as she was admitted to the hospital, and neither did the little pup leave the room where Sera was staying.

They stayed in the hospital for a day, after Sera was discharged they quickly went back to Seras house where her mother's casket had greeted her, her moms' picture came face to face with her, and the smiling face of her mom made her welled up in tears.

Naja who was by her side hugged her as she felt helpless and lonely. Naja just kept on whispering reassuring words to her, making her feel less sad.

As Sera went near her mothers' casket she saw something underneath making her stop for a moment.

The sleeping jet-black cat felt a stare causing it to wake up, its eyes having different colors green and blue, the cat slowly walked its way to Sera, but before it could reach her, a growling sound came from her side.

It was Cloud.

Yes Cloud, she named him Cloud because of its fluffy white fur and its icy eyes that reminds her of the sky.

The black cat violently wriggled its tail as Cloud continued to growl.

Before the two get into a fight Sera bent on her knees and rubbed the cat's head making it purr in pleasure. For a moment she had forgotten the pain she was feeling.

She looked at her mothers' casket.

' I'll take care of him, mom, I promise you that.' Finally, she smiled, before carrying the cat in her arms.

The cat rubbed its head on her neck making her laugh because it tickles her.

"You should name him," Naja said beside her, she rubbed the cats' jaw, making it purr.

She looked at the cat, feeling her gaze. The cat also looked back at her. She smiled as she had a perfect name in mind.

"Sylvester," she said smiling, her eyes held softness and care.

"His name's Sylvester."