Origin Story

Life was a cage. 

Or at least, that's how it had felt as of late. Wisp stared out through the cold metal bars of the cage she had been kept in as of late. Her crystalline eyes made contact with those of a two-leg who oftentimes would hold her and let her wander about the open space that was the shelter. There was no more wandering. Instead, gentle caresses of affection were replaced with the forlorn gazes. Something was wrong. Something had changed from the day she had arrived at the shelter, what seemed like moons ago, and today. 

'Did I do something wrong?' Wisp thought to herself, sitting on her haunches and watching her surroundings very carefully. 'Surely, not.'

Mewling quietly as another one of the gentle volunteers passed by her cage, she pawed lightly at the barred door that was keeping her from trailing around their legs and garnering attention. "Oh, Wisp..." the Volunteer leaned down to look her in the eyes, shaking his head. Wisp eyed him carefully. She had always liked him...his head was missed hair aside from a long strip that went down the middle of his head and stuck straight up. His arms had weird colored patterns that Wisp thought were strange, but nonetheless, he was one of her favorites. "I truly hope you won't have to go too..." he blinked a few times, his eyes seeming to glisten in the low office light. Wisp blinked a few times and then looked at him, mewling again before he turned away from her to go and talk to the group that had congregated to the middle of the room. 

'Go? Go where?' she thought to herself, allowing her body to relax forward and laying on her stomach, eyes never leaving the group of volunteers.

She had fond memory of these two-legs. They had been taking care of Wisp for as long as she could remember. The best she could tell, she wasn't wanted. She vaguely recalled being left in a box on the side of a road, alone. Wisp couldn't tell you how long she had been in that box...she could only remember crying out for days, until the man with the missing hair and funny skin came and found her one day. He had comforted her since that day, barely letting her go until she had gotten a bit older. He had taken her to the shelter, Peace and Paws, she thought he had called it--where she was instantly welcomed by the other volunteers. They named her Wisp, after exclaiming over her piercing blue eyes and creamy snow bengal fur reminded them of something ethereal spirit from the Otherworld. And that is where she had made her home from that forward.

Wisp had been so lost in her own head, it wasn't until the door slammed against one of the sterile counters that she was broken from her thought sequence. Looking back toward the group, alert, she saw new people entering the shelter. But these people weren't like the other volunteers. They had bandanas over their faces, and were holding the volunteers at gunpoint. Or at least, that's what some of them were doing. Others were going around the holding room and surveying the animals in the place. One, a girl with a purple and blue tye-dye bandana stopped in front of her cage, peering in.

"Don't worry, little one. We're here to save you. Think of us as your guardian angels." she smiled at her, though Wisp got the distinct feeling to lurch backwards. Guardian angels. These people were no angels. The man with the tattoos was her guardian angel. The one who had literally saved her from the street. She looked over at the group where he was now talking to the people with the bandanas.

"We don't want any trouble." he was saying, holding up his hands to show that he was unarmed and had no intentions of harming the intruder. "Why are you here?" There was an air of familiarity in the mans voice as he spoke calmly to the man.

The man with gun lowered it slowly, pulling the green bandana away from his face. "We got word that these animals were being euthanized. We're not going to let that happen." he said, slipping the gun into his pants before sidling over to one of the cages and opening the latch. "It is true, isn't it Tyler?" 

Tyler, the funny skinned man, closed his eyes and looked at the ground. "Peace and Paws doesn't have enough funding to keep going." he explained. "We're trying our best to get all of these animals to safe homes, but even that's proving to be difficult. If we don't do something soon, yes, they will be euthanized." 

"Unacceptable!" the green bandana man roared. "These animals have done nothing to deserve to be put down like that." He opened more latches, as he returned to the group of volunteers. Pulling the gun out and holding brandishing it once again. "Now, here's what's going to happen. You lot are going to stay right where you are and not make a sound. Not one word." he explained. Tyler nodded, looking around his group of volunteers to make sure they all understood very clearly that they weren't to do anything. "Good. Thank you for your cooperation. The Animal Liberation Front will take it from here." he said with a smile, tucking the gun away. He turned to the girl in the blue bandana. "Let them out."

Wisp watched as the group worked their way around the entire holding room, opening each latch and setting the animals free. She felt herself trembling slightly, out of fear, as the man in the green bandana stopped on front of her cage. "My, aren't you a pretty thing." he said,  unlatching her cage and reaching in. When she recoiled toward the back of the cage, he reached in and wrapped a strong hand around her roughly, tugging her forward. "Come here, I'm trying to help!" he grunted. His hand had found one of her legs and tugged all too roughly. He managed to her out of the cage, but not before she swiped her unclipped paw across the hand that was holding her. "Son of a--" he dropped her, but she landed gracefully on her feet. Running for the door, she took one last look behind her, at Tyler and the others...at the life she was leaving behind.

Wisp ran, along with several other animals that had managed to get out of the shelter. Except, she didn't run into the city. Instead, she had veered off...heading directly for the vast cover of the woods that surrounded the back and sides of the shelter. She ran and ran, not looking back for what seemed like ages, until she had to catch her breath. She padded slowly through the woods until she happened upon a small stream, pausing to quench her thirst. Wisp sat and looked around. Now what was she to do? She had no where to go, no family. She got the strong urge to cry out, but resisted. Breathing in deeply, she collected her bearings before taking off at a walk again.

This was the start of a new life. A life of being feral. Wisp had heard it before. Cats had been brought into the shelter who had never had a home, not human contact. Surely one domesticated such as herself could make it if the situation were reversed. Determination setting in, she began her new life in those woods. She didn't need anyone. She had the rocks and trees to talk too. And though she knew they weren't, she could have sworn that they would whisper back to her. Her "friends" and the stars to guide her, there was nothing Wisp couldn't do.


Wisp ran blindly. No real direction except away from the flames. The very same flames that seemed to pervade every corner of the forest. Running as fast as he lithe legs would carry her, Wisp eventually happened upon a clearing that was untouched by the carnage of fire. She sat, chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath. Her paws aches from the sheer force of the group scraping against them. She had never run that fast before, for that long amount of time. To others, she must have looked like some sort of spirit running through the forest. A flash of white fur. She lay down and rested, rewarding herself for her escape, but still remaining very alert.

A twig snap is what woke up, standing up wildly, she braced herself in a pouncing stance until she saw another cat padding towards her. Wisp relaxed her body, looking close at the auburn tom, he was smaller than other toms she had seen. His fur was red and tan, and he seemed to have freckles dappling his face. "Hi there!" he said with a smile.

"H-Hello." she said slowly. The two began to exchange a few words. They introduced themselves. His name was Hiccupfoot, and he was a Clan cat. Though Wisp wasn't quite sure what that meant.

"Where are you from?" he asked cheerily.

Wisp turned her gaze away from his, looking at the ground. "I don't have a home. It was...was taken from me." she said disdainfully. Not completely a lie. While it was true that she had ran, she never would have had to had it not been for the so called "guardian angels."

Hiccupfoot looked saddened at this thought. "Oh, I'm sorry." he replied. "Neither do we. Me and the other Clan cats, I mean." he said looking at her. "The fire claimed our home. So we're on a Journey to find a new one." he smiled softly at her. "I guess it's not so bad, StarClan just make these things happen sometimes." he thought for a moment and nodded. "You could come with us, if you'd like?" he asked. Wisp thought for a moment, reluctantly nodding. There was something calming about Hiccupfoot. Something that said she could trust him. She may not have known where he was going, and she may not know exactly who this "we" he was referring to was. But she had nothing to lose. 

And a premonition told her that she had just made a friend.

Following the auburn tom, she walked through the clearing until they joined a large group of cats. A caravan, really. Wisp fell in with the group, sticking close and talking to Hiccupfoot, joining them on a journey to a new life.