Chapter Three

Cierra sprang up, ready to fight, body pumping adrenaline. She looked around only to find herself in her own room, alarm clock blinking 4:57am.

What had just happened? She tossed a pillow to the opposite end of the bed in frustration. Was any of that real?

Something hissed at her and from her peripheral vision she saw tiny ball of orange fur pounce on her arm, digging its claws in.

"Ow!" Cierra half-whispered, trying to keep her voice down so she didn't wake up her family. It took her a minute to realize what she was seeing. In her bed, trying desperately to tear up her arm, was an orange kitten with some of the longest fur she had ever seen on a cat. It was almost comical in how it resembled an overgrown ball of fluff.

When the kitten finally calmed down, it sat in front of her, gazing up with two half hidden blue eyes.

"There's no way…" Cierra, gasped, looking around for any sign of Bringer of Nightmares or the tiger. This kitten was the same striking orange color of the tiger cub from before. How could it be here? And why did it look like a regular kitten now?

She couldn't go back to sleep when she had all these unanswered questions on her mind, at least not yet. She looked around the dark room, again, half expecting the mysterious man from the bog to be in her room dripping with mud in a dark corner. She bit her lip, what would he look like outside of the fog? How did he even get there? And most importantly, how would she ever find out? Now more than ever Cierra wanted answers to her questions.

Getting up, she turned on her bedroom light and walked to the vanity mirror on her wall above the dresser. She looked just about as tired as she felt, with the beginning of bags under her dark eyes and her long raven hair in a tangled mess around her head. Cierra sighed and picked up her hairbrush so she could tie it up in a ponytail.

There was only one thing that ever helped her sort out her thoughts when she was confused: running. Running had always helped her clear her thoughts and concentrate at the task at hand. Finishing with her hair, she sifted through her dresser for her jogging clothes. Grabbing the matching light green shorts & shirt and quickly putting them on, she went downstairs, the kitten following.

When she reached the kitchen, the kitten hissed at her and launched itself at her feet.

"Shhhhh!" Cierra held her finger to her lips in the universal sign of 'be quiet.' "Are you hungry? What do you eat?" She asked more to herself than the kitten, knowing better than to expect an answer. Though now that she thought about it, could this cat also talk to her mind like the other had? None of the other tigers had tried to do so, maybe that one tiger had been special.

She rummaged through the cabinets until she came across an unopened tin of tuna. Hopefully no one would miss it and the kitten would like it.

She put it down in a small bowl and placed it on the floor.

"It's all I got at the moment," she shrugged, "Sorry. I'll have to go out and buy you cat food later."

Luckily, the kitten didn't seem to mind, and dove in clearing the bowl out and making a mess of its fur.

"If I wash you, are you going to claw me to death?" Cierra asked, wetting a napkin to run through its fur. The cat took off, a fluff ball running around the kitchen until her uncle surprised them both.

"Cierra," His voice was groggy, "Who is this?" He gestured at the kitten and the kitten hissed back at him.

"I," Cierra stumbled over her words. How was she going to explain this cat from her dreams being in their house? "I opened up the front door to go for a run and there he was!"

"Does it have a collar or a name?" Her uncle went to pet the kitten and it turned away from him. "Doesn't seem very friendly."

Cierra picked the kitten up before he could cause any problems. What had the Menace called these cats? Skogkatt? What was an appropriate name for supposed 'heavenly' cat?

"I was thinking we could call him," she wracked her brain for a name on the fly, "Cid."

"Cid?" Her uncle looked dubious. "You want to name a cat like a person? What about Orange or Grumpy?"

The cat hissed at him in disapproval, her uncle's eyes went wide, and he feigned shock, "Alright, alright. Cid it is."

"But you know you'll need to get you aunt's approval." He went to start making coffee, yawning. "Maybe you can convince her by promising to get up that calculus grade."

"Yeah, I probably could be convinced," Aunt Ernǚ stood in the doorway. "He's kind of cute, in a 'you better make sure he doesn't shed all over my furniture' kind of way."

I looked down at Cid. The little furball had trapped me and he didn't even know it.

***

It was seven by the time Cierra left for her run, headphones in. The sun was out, but the clouds overhead left the world in a gray stupor. It was clear that it had rained overnight, with everything still slightly wet.

She ran the sidewalks till she reached the old park that was her main objective. Not many people came here anymore except the elderly, and the grass was occasionally forgotten about by the city, leaving it slightly overgrown. It offered beautiful scenery that so many people seemed to overlook. In one side of the park was a small pond with a white marble bridge arching over the top. The other side housed a small, wooden gazebo with the remains of quite a few bird nests in its wooden planking. It was the one place Cierra actively avoided. The last time she had gone in, it had been overgrown with daddy long legs.

Reaching her favorite view, she stopped, catching her breath. She was standing on the bridge, just a few feet over the pond. From here she could watch the minnows in the water dart around, stop, and continue. Directly behind her was a faux forest. It was too small to be a real forest, and the trees were artificially spread out so there was no chance of anyone getting lost in the few yards worth of trees. Framing the pond on both sides were purple and white flowers that were flourishing for now, but would wither away by winter. A few turtles sat on the bank just next to the water resting.

She had spent her jog here trying to unravel everything that had happened last night but found it impossible to make sense of anything. She knew she needed someone to talk to, and that there was at least one person who might be able to answer her questions. There was no other choice, she had to try to find the person who had disappeared in the fog.