The Wonder Cat

“The Wonder Cat” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Jayden Jetrin Ford, Chiang Rai International Christian School, Thailand.

The Wonder Cat

Miya is a 12-year-old girl who loves cats. She has dark brown hair, blue eyes, and is always cheerful. One day Miya’s mom and dad went on a vacation so they got Miya a babysitter. Miya never liked having a babysitter, because she was 12 and thought she could take care of herself. Since there was nothing to do, Miya asked her babysitter if she could go out and get some fresh air. While Miya was sitting in her yard she heard a familiar noise near the trashcans, she went over for a look. Miya was very curious about the noise but she was kind of scared too, then Miya heard what sounded like a meoow coming from behind the trashcans. It was tough for her but she knew it was worth it because she Loves cats. She finally found it, an adorable cat. She took the cat back home and up to her room so she could take a closer look at it. When she got a good look at the cat she saw what looked like strange markings, which to Miya looked like pictures.

Miya had thought of a few languages that used pictures as letters but the one that matched the cat's markings best was hieroglyphics she knew about it because once in social studies she had to study hieroglyphics. The first letter Miya recognized was a strange looking circle thing, which must have been a W, and then she saw an apple on a string (that's what Miya always thought it looked like), which probably was an O. The third letter she saw was a very wiggly line, which had to be an N. But that was all she could see because there was no more room on the cat’s back and there were no letters on its sides. But Miya didn’t understand what WON could be. Then it finally made sense to her it was Wonder! So Miya named the cat Wonder. But why that would be written on a cat’s back? It could possibly be the cat’s name she didn’t know so she looked at the collar to see whom the cat belonged to. What Miya saw amazed her; there was nothing on the collar except for a date “3200 BC”. There was only one thing that Miya could think about “how could you live so long?” Then something extremely strange happened Wonder started speaking! What Wonder said was strange to Miya but she understood a few words. “Follow south star, Find us in the forest, and help us.” Well, that was great for Miya, more cats! But she hated going into the forest.

All of those small twigs poking at her and howling wolves, Miya hated wolves. But she knew she had to help the other cats. So Miya went downstairs to her babysitter and said she would go take a walk. Her babysitter didn’t know what to say she just nodded her head and Miya went out the door with Wonder. It was a pretty easy trip following the South Star but when Miya came to the forest, it became very hard for her. She had to dodge branches, watch out for bats, and try not to step on all the little animals. Wonder was growing tired so he climbed up on Miya’s shoulders but that was when Miya heard tons and tons of meowing up ahead. Wonder immediately woke up and Miya knew they had arrived at the Cat Camp. Miya didn’t understand why they needed her help since there were like 1,000 cats. So Wonder answered, “Names give gifts, we don’t get gifts, we give gifts to humans, protect us against wolves, they kill us one by one.” Miya wanted to help because she also hated wolves but didn’t know what she could do. Then for some reason all of the cats started screaming their names, and Miya felt super strong and fast and received a lot of other gifts from the cats. Miya understood now, the cats’ names are powers! The next thing Miya knewa very large pack of wolves was heading straight toward her and it was led by a ferocious looking wolf with one red eye, who suddenly called out “Attack!”

The cats and the wolves all charged at each other, Miya jumped in and uppercut 2 wolves knocking them away easily, then turned around to help Frost, a cat who was surrounded by wolves. Miya kicked the first wolf, which fell to the ground, and then another and another and so on until all the wolves were on the ground squealing. Then Miya and Frost went to the Cat Camp to protect the cats there but the cats were outnumbered so it was hard to protect them.

From the corner of Miya’s eye she saw the wolf leader heading straight for Wonder, Miya wanted to help but she and Frost couldn't beat the leader by themselves and the other cats were busy fighting their own battles, Frost was now pinned down by wolves so it was just her. She went to help Wonder running faster than ever (probably because of a gift from the cat named flash) and sliding at the wolf, who tripped and Miya pinned him to the ground but Miya should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. The leader kicked at her hand and Miya fell down, now the leader had her pinned. Right as the wolf leader was about to bite Miya, Wonder came out of nowhere and bit the leader's ear and held on until the wolf yelped and ran away with Wonder still holding on to his ear but finally letting go when the leader called out “Retreat!” All of the cats called out “VICTORY IS OURS!” and Miya and all the cats partied and partied. Then Miya announced, “We have won the first battle. There will be more. But the wolves will stay away from us for a long time!” All the cats cheered but when Miya had to go home the cats told her it’s not safe, she didn’t understand why but it just didn’t feel right to stay.