The sun was setting afar, and something inside me knew that night was coming.
My fellow colony took refuge in a cavern near a forest for the time being, far from our captors and human civilization.
"Remember everyone, fly back if you sense danger. Watch out for any humans. Avoid them at all costs," our leader instructed.
Once it was night, we all took flight into the dark forest to find fresh blood. With freedom came a price: the responsibility to fend for ourselves, to feed ourselves, and to survive.
I tried my best to fly with my colony, staying close behind. The moon happened to be waning, but the cloudless night made the moon shine brightly. I could see that our colony was smaller than before, more scattered, but still strong and united.
We all flew through the trees, looking for food. As each bat detected moving prey, they darted out of our formation towards the ground. Our colony got even smaller, with each of us claiming a meal. I listened carefully to the night for any sign, the bristling of grass or twigs, a call of another animal, but nothing.
I suddenly realized that I was alone. All my peers must have found their prey but me.
I flew into the night, the necessity of food in my mind. How can I live for tomorrow if I do not eat tonight? I could hear nothing, and if I did, it lasted for only a second before being taken by one of us. Was this forest or close to barren?
Then, as if I was jolted by primal instinct, my stomach growled and my fur stood up. I couldn't hear it, but I could smell it, sense it. There was food nearby, and my hunger could wait no longer.
I zoomed past the trees, following this instinct of mine. It was as if there was a force drawing me to my living prey, stoking my hunger and purpose.
A few flaps of my wings, and my prey was already in view. A white rabit, defenseless and alone, stood on the ground, unaware of my approach. "This is mine!" If my body could put this feeling into words, it would be to capture my prey and indulge in its life. With one last flap, I launched myself forward, bearing my fangs, ready to sink into my first capture of the night...
YANK!
"Hey, what are you doing??"
My right wing was yanked backwards, knocking me out of flight. I didn't even realize what happened, but when my senses came back to me, I found myself hanging from my wing from above ground, staring down at the white rabbit. The rabbit looked at me meekly, then shifted its eyes to my side.
I looked up, and to my horror, a human caught me!!
"Well, isn't that rude." The human was a girl, smaller and younger than our captors. But for some reason, she didn't smell human. In fact, if she were human, I would be able to detect her before I even drew close...but why?
While pinching me by the wing, she walked to the rabbit and picked it up with her other hand. "Oh Buncardi! You really should stop running from me. You wouldn't been dead just now if it wasn't for me...you ought to thank me!"
The human giggled, but as she smiled, I saw sharp teeth in her mouth, just like mine. Fangs, very sharp ones, quite like mine. As she kept holding me, I smelled her scent, and for some reason, it smelled so familiar. It reminded me...of my colony. My friends. Even my mom.
It was as if she was a bat too. But she looked so human! Is there such thing as a bat-human?
She seemed to be talking to the rabbit as she walked. We were heading into a big, dark building that I didn't even know was in the forest. I was nervous, because I felt like a prisoner again, but to a different captor that I knew nothing about. One that was different from the humans. |
The bat-human girl walked through the building's long hallways. The big building seemed very quiet, her footsteps echoing as she walked. This place would be fitting for my family and friends to live in: dark, quiet, devoid of almost all humans if it weren't for her.
We entered a room with dark purple walls and shiny things inside. The room was somewhat small, but it seemed like the little girl was fond of it, as her smile grew when she got inside.
"Okay, Buncardi, don't run away this time." The girl put the white rabbit on what humans would call a bed. The rabbit sat there, as still as it was when it was outside. I wondered if the rabbit was capable of doing anything else. It would have definitely been dead if any of my brothers or sisters found it, if the girl didn't intervene.
"And you," she said, raising me up to her eye level. "Thankfully, I have a bird cage to put you in, so you don't end up flying around the mansion. It would be bad if you escaped...Papa would ground me if we took up another pet!"
She approached a dark metal dome-shaped cage, opened the door, and put me inside. It was similar to the box cages my previous captors put me in before. It had enough space for me to spread my wings, but the bars were too close together to slip through.
I watched her as she hummed to herself, walking to what seemed to be a big box with a lock on it. "Ahh, what should you wear today?" She opened it and bent down, rummaging inside for something I couldn't see. "Ah, I found you a vest to wear, Buncardi!"
She took out what seemed to be clothing, similar to human fashion but too small for a human to wear. "I even got a a bowtie!" She walked to the bed, where the rabbit sat still, and the put the clothes on it. "Ahh, what a good bunny! You look so adorable!" When she backed away, the rabbit was wearing some sort of black suit-like clothing and a bowtie, like how an uptight human would dress. "A suitable outfit for a gentleman like yourself, Buncardi!"
The girl returned to the box and dug around again. "I need to find something good for you to wear, Mr. Batty..." She seemed to take a bit longer than she did to find the rabbit's garment. "I don't have anything your size...just a lot of girly things--oh! You'd look good in dresses, right Mr. Batty?"
She stood up from the box holding what seemed to be a light pink garment that had small glittery gems and pieces from it. As she walked towards me, her face seemed to glow with delight, making me nervous in my small cell of a cage. "It has glitter and ribbons and lace! You'll look cute!"
She opened the cage, took me out, and placed me on the bed. She then pinched one of my wings and put the clothing over me, trying to slip me through. The cloth was scratchy and unnatural and the texture felt like a cross between dead leaves and spider webs, and I tried to wiggle free from her grasp.
"Mr. Batty, why can't you behave like Buncardi?" the girl said with exasperation. However, her hold on me didn't weaken, and my wing slipped through one of the holes of the garment. "That's one arm down. Now for the other one!" She pinched my other wing, and with more force, slipped it through another hole in the garment. "Ah, stop wiggling! You might rip the dress!" She pressed on my stomach, pulled at my head and legs, and rubbed the garment on me multiple times. My head popped out of another hold in the garment, and I found myself wearing the pink clothing, my wings awkwardly sticking out.
"Whew, that was tough!" The girl held me with a bit of a grip and tugged a bit more on the clothing around me. "You look so pretty, Mr. Batty! Or should I call you Miss Batty? Dresses are totally your style."
Nyaa~
A sound came from outside a nearby window. "Oh, Rose is here!" The girl stuffed me back in the metal cage and went to the window to open it. "Just in time too! How do you know when to drop by?"
A black cat hopped onto the windowsill. It seemed very agile, and it also looked well groomed. Its fur looked sleeker and shinier, unlike mine and my colony's, due to flying around and hardly caring for our appearances. The cat wore a big, blue bow, similar to the one that the girl put on the rabbit, around its neck.
The cat rubbed its head against the girl's hand when the girl went to pet her. "Would you like a new bow for the tea party, Rose?" the girl seemed to ask the cat. The cat meowed in reply, and the girl, as if she recognized it as an answer, walked to the box with all the garments and rummaged around some more. "I recently bought a pretty red ribbon! It'll probably look good on you!"
The girl took out a long, red, silky-looking thing. The cat hopped from the windowsill onto a dresser next to the girl. It sat, seemingly obedient, on the dresser as the girl pulled the blue bow off of her and tied the red one in its place. The cat seemed to enjoy it, and the girl seemed to be very gentle as she put the red thing around her neck. If it were me, I would scared that the girl would choke me to death, but by the looks of things, the girl seemed to know what she was doing, fixing up the red thing to be a well-folded bow.
Once the girl was done tying the bow on the cat, the cat meowed and turned around to look at the mirror on the dresser, admiring the bow. "Be right back everyone, don't move!" the girl chirped, skipping out of the room and humming to herself again.
I tried to move my wings in the scruffy dress I was wearing. It was very uncomfortable, but even worse, I could hardly move my head down to bite it off, or use my wings to take it off because of how tight and inconveniently put on me. I gave up trying to get out of the garment, and started rattling the door of my cage, trying to get it open. I didn't have any luck, and even ramming myself against the cage door didn't help.
The rabbit on the bed didn't seem to care, being as still as a sitting duck, while the cat licked its paws and stretched out its limbs. The cat seemed to look in my direction, meeting my eyes as I banged against the cage.
"Hello, can you hear me?" I tried to communicate. "Can you understand me? Help me get out of here!"
"Nyaa~" Unfortunately, it seemed like my plea fell on deaf ears, as the cat went back to grooming itself, even fixing its bow instead of looking back at me. It was hopeless. I slumped against the cage, looking out the open window. If I could get out of this dress thing, maybe I could fly away. Or I could fly out of the room deeper into the mansion and find another way out if the girl closes the window.
The girl came back with what seemed to be a tray. She put it on a table in the middle of the room. She put the plates and cups on the table. "Okay, it's time for the tea party, and you're all invited!"
She went to the bed first and picked up the rabbit. "Come on Buncardi, I got you some carrots! Rabbits like carrots, right?" She plopped the clothed rabbit onto the table next to a plate. There were orange circular slices on the plate, but the rabbit sat still, its head on the plate but not eating the food.
The cat leapt down from the dresser and up onto the table. "Here you go, a bowl of milk for you!" The plate next to the cat had a bowl of milk, and the cat lapped it slowly, like it was enjoying the drink.
The girl then came to the cage and took me out to bring me to the table. "I didn't forget about you, Miss Batty! And I figure that you'd like blood, right? We have lots of that here, for you and for me!"
She plopped me down on the table, the rabbit on my left side and the cat on my right. In front of me was a plate with a cup, but it was empty. The girl picked up a bigger container, a sort of pot with a spout from it, and tilted it into my cup. A red liquid trickled from the spout into my cup, and it smelled familiar, but dull.
I recognized it as blood, but for some reason, it looked duller than the usual blood I drink from other living creatures. The smell wasn't fresh either. I was suspicious about the blood, as the girl poured it into another cup, probably for herself to drink, maybe because she really is a bat like me.
I looked at the two exits I had, the window and the doorway. I tried to move my wings in a slow flapping motion, to test if I could fly in the dress. Sadly, it was hard to do so, as the dress impeded my wings to flap as fast as they usually could. If only I could get the dress off!
"Miss Batty, why aren't you drinking your tea?" the girl said, pouting. She probably was referring to me. "Oh, it's probably because you can't move properly right? I'm sorry!"
Maybe there was hope for me! She could take off this dress thing and I'll make my escape then!
Instead, she grabbed me by my body and the cup with her other hand, and nudged the cup into my mouth. She tilted the cup slightly, guiding the blood into my mouth. The blood spilled unevenly, down my mouth and onto the dress, and once the girl saw this, she immediately put the cup down and reached for a napkin, almost smothering me with the napkin. "Oh no! I ruined your dress! Now I can't use it anymore...it fit you nicely too..."
I gulped the blood that got in my mouth. The taste was definitely worse. The taste was inexplicable, but I could tell that it was old. It didn't taste anything like blood that I drank before, as if it was missing the energy of the creature it came from. It actually tasted like the blood I drank in my old prison, a taste that I never wanted to experience again. Sterile and stale, things that blood and my life shouldn't be.
The girl dabbed all over me with the napkin until it was dyed red with the spilled blood. "Oh, I need more napkins," she mumbled to herself. She left me on the table and went out into the hallway.
Now was the time to make my escape, somehow. I didn't wish to drink that stuff in that cup again.
First, I tried wriggling my wings in the dress. The holes where my wings stuck out ripped slightly with practically each movement I made. I widened the holes enough so I could at least flap my wings sufficiently.
Nyaaa~
I looked to my left and right. While the rabbit was complacently laying its head on the carrots, the cat lapped at her bowl, seeming to have a smile on its face. I flapped around my arms more to get used to the movements.
As I did, I accidentally swung my wing against the bowl. The bowl rattled on the plate, the stale blood sloshing inside and spilling a bit of it onto my wing. I waddled away slightly to avoid the bowl.
Then I noticed that the table was silent. The cat stopped lapping at her bowl of milk.
She was staring at me, her eyes gleaming with intent. Her tail wagged side to side in slow curves, almost like a slithering snake that was on the prowl.
It didn't dawn on me until now that the cat might want to eat me.
"If the milk you drank was as bad as the blood I drank, I wouldn't blame you to eat me," I squeaked quietly, which was probably nothing but squeaks to a cat that didn't understand bat-speak. "But I'd really appreciate it if you didn't eat me...in fact, I'd love it if you could help me escape -- I have a family to go back to!"
"...Nyaa!" The cat got up and walked across the table, avoiding the silverware with her paws, towards me. I saw a giant paw come at me, and it shoved me backwards, pinning me down on the table.
"Oh, oh no! Let me go!" I squeaked. Things took a turn for the worse as the cat examined me, her eyes scanning my body. I thought I felt sharp claws through the dress, poking at my belly as her paw applied force down on me. While she didn't move to eat me, her gaze seemed to say that I would be an easy snack.
"Rose! Mr. Batty! What are you guys doing?"
I looked at the doorway and saw the girl there, holding more napkins and having a bewildered look. Now I lost my chance to escape. I sighed, and laid my head back, flat against the table.
I was thinking of my cloud. I wondered if they're all full from hunting tonight. If they got enough blood to last another migration to another place. Or if we'd stay here in the forest if it's easy to find food for all of us. I wondered if my mom got back to the cave, and if she noticed I didn't come back yet. What time was it? What does it matter, I'm dead meat for this cat. I should've asked one of my friends or hunted closely with my mom...
"Nyaa~!" Suddenly, I was rolled onto my stomach and hoisted into the air. I looked up, and I was staring out at the ground and off the table. I could feel the dress tug backwards, and I was whipped back and forth with quick movements.
I realized the cat picked me up by the dress, and then its head turned to the open window. Before I knew it, the cat leaped forward off of the table, dashing up to the windowsill. "Waah!" I squeaked, flopping around, the wind hitting me in the face. The cat's speed took me by surprise, but once we got to the windowsill, I could see the outside of the mansion, into the forest. We were two stories up, and the moon was still in the sky.
"Rose, no!!" The cat turned back, and so did I, to glance at the girl. The girl dropped the napkins on the table and ran to the window, but the cat turned around quickly and jumped.
On the walls of the mansion were small ridges, big enough for the cat to walk on, and the cat jumped from ridge to ridge, making her way down to the ground. The ride was bumpy and turbulent as I was swinging sharply back and forth, slung around in the dress. By the time we got to the ground, I was dizzy; even my flying was smoother than the cat's trip!
The cat dashed through the metal bars of the fence surrounding the big building we came from. "Rose! Come back!!" the girl shouted from behind us. My wings bobbed up and down as the cat ran deeper into the darker forest, multiple trees passing by my vision.
After a few minutes of running, the cat gradually slowed her pace to a stop. I was lowered down on the ground, then the cat let go of me. Without my wings to catch my fall because of the dress, I fell face-first onto the ground.
"Oof." I tried to move my wings to push myself off the ground, but it was still hard to do so. I turned my head to the side, only to see the cat's face looming over me, her sharp eyes looking down at me.
I suddenly felt a weight on my back, most likely the cat's paw. Then a sharp, sleeker thing poked at my back. 'This cat is going to kill me!' I thought, panicked for a moment. The sharp thing, the cat's claw, poked through the dress and at my back, and I flailed my wings around to get away.
"Nyaah!" Another paw stomped down on one of my wings, pressing it into the ground. "Mmmyaa!"
RIIIIIP.
The weights from her paws were suddenly lifted. I gasped for air and sprung back immediately from the ground. I found myself able to flap my wings again, making a few flaps to get in midair again. Looking down, I saw the dress I wore unraveled on the ground, practically a husk with a single rip down the middle of the back.
I turned behind me to see the black cat sitting obediently. "Nyaa!" She seemed to stick her tongue at me at first, then licked her paw casually.
"Oh, you tore the dress so I could get free," I said, making the connection. "Rose, was it? Th-thank you very much, Rose! I'm sorry for moving too much at first, I thought you were going to eat me..."
"Nyaa~" The cat seemed to make a cheerful face, tilting her head with a smile.
"Rooose~!" A girlish voice called from behind us. It was the same captor that put me in the dress and made me drink the bad blood, and I couldn't wait to fly away, far from her and back to familiar territory.
"Goodbye Rose!" I said to the cat. "Thank you for helping me escape tonight." I still wasn't sure if she could understand me. They were probably all squeaks to her, the same way her meows were only meows to me.
"Nyaa~!" she seemed to reply, waving a paw at me. I took it as her goodbye as well.
I took off into the night sky above. When I looked back, Rose waved to me again, then dove back into the forest. I hoped that she wouldn't get in trouble with the bat-human I saw before, but I'm sure that they were in good terms.
"My son!" I could hear my mother's voice in the distance. "My son, where are you?"
"Mother, I'm here!" I called out, and I flew straight towards her, back to my own home, back to my natural freedom once more. |
