"You will meet, without fail, on the Midnight Mail — the Cat of the Railway Train!" "C'mon, let's play!" his sister yelled. Flash reluctantly followed her outside their little cottage. He would rather be inside reading than out in the frosty winter air. But he wanted to make her happy, so he came anyway. They built a large snow fort, and he stopped to admire it. That was the first mistake. His sister threw a snowball at him from behind. "You wanna fight? Let's fight!" he yelled back, his tail sparking with excitement. That was the second mistake. Those sparks caught on a patch of dry grass, and lit it on fire. The dry air and the strong wind meant that they spread quickly, and soon more grass was on fire, and then the little wooden cabins that the cats of the village lived in. And it burned and burned, and he couldn't do anything about it. His fire magic only made it worse. A few hours later, the fire was out, but the whole village was in scorched ruins. The leaders decided that it wasn't his fault, so no cat could really blame him, but nonetheless, he knew that he wasn't wanted there. The next night, he packed up all of his things and left. He caught the first train he saw and didn't look back. He never stayed in one place for too long, afraid of repeating the disaster. Over and over he told himself that he wasn't running away from his past, he was running toward his future. But he had no idea what that future was going to be.
Skimbleshanks from the musical Cats, by Robbie Fairchild and Steven McRae. Character designed by @yellyfishh217. Art by me.
