Dera's POV:

I remember the afternoon well—a hallucinatory afternoonspace in our YABOOD PACK home threatening to tear asunder the tranquility of everyday life. I was distracted with the remaining moments of our ordinary habits when a strange spectacle caught my eye: a flattened cardboard box firmly positioned on the gargantuan dining table, its presence unyielding. I approached, my heart racing as I saw the delicate shapes cradled within. Kittens—small, shivering, and strangely belligerent—clustered together under the protective gaze of their exhausted mother, whom we had come to call Ghost Kitty. The mother cat rested on her side, her grey coat sullied only by patches of soot, a quiet witness to...