Caged by Charlotte Rothgeb

Chapter 1

I cower in the corner of my small, dirty cage.  I ask myself how I got here, but I don’t want to access the memory.   I have waited for death since my birth, but have not gotten it yet, and I wonder why.

            It’s just a normal day, I don’t keep track any more, and it bores me.  A young girl enters the room, with a slightly older boy by her side.

“Mala, I want that doggie over there,” She points a finger at me.  I look at her, trying to understand her reasoning, but find nothing.

“Ola, if that is what you want, then that is what you will get,” The boy says.

            The cage keeper takes my cage and brings it to the boy, Mala.  He takes my cage and looks in, “You shall be very happy in your new home, I hope we may be friends.”  He says it, almost saying it to himself, for he thinks I cannot understand him, but I can understand him all too well.  He doesn’t want me; he is only obeying the wishes of Ola, the girl.

“We could’ve gone to a better location to find you a pet,” Mala says with disapproval.

“You cannot disagree with me, for if you do, I can sue you,” She says threateningly, which doesn’t suite her, for she acts like a princess.  “Here I can do some good, at other places I just take in the well and perfect, but mom won’t let me.”  She obviously doesn’t want this either, but she looks at me like I am the most perfect thing in the world.

            The cage keeper starts talking to Ola and Mala.  Talking about me, how to take care of me, yadda, yadda, yadda.  The cage keeper says how I’m nameless, female, and how I’m not classified in the ‘dog’ category.

“We have a male just like her, and he needs a friend, so SHUT UP!” Ola yells sending me farther down my cage.  The cage keeper leads us out, and I am enclosed in a very long, black 4-wheeled vehicle.

“First, I’m going to dye your fur pink! And get you into a bath.  Your brown, I can’t stand brown.  We will have to start with the bath to get the filth out, and then we’ll see what we can do with your fur,” Ola says into my cage.  I spring up, to attention.  Even though I am only a pup, I know I could do damage to these two if I wanted to, but there is a smell on them I want to explore, one that is calling for me, that can’t make me stay away.

            Ola opens my cage, and holds out a basket with a pillow in it.  What does she expect from me, does she honestly expect me to hop in?  She is very impatient and after a minute she reaches in the cage and attempts to grab me.  She pulls her hands out, complaining her nails will get dirty if she touches me yet, so Mala grabs me.  He doesn’t squeeze me, and I do not resist.  If I am to survive in this world, than I must allow myself to trust some human abomination.

            He puts me in the basket and pets me with his white gloves, which automatically get filthy.  He holds a bit of my fur, and brushes it, trying to see my real color, but failing.

            We reach a monstrous mansion, where we walk in.  Am I going to be forced to live in this hell of a home?  Relax, and go with the flow.  We first enter into a patch of tile leading to a staircase.  We walk up it.  Onto the second floor, only to walk up another flight, onto the third floor, which is where the stairs end, but of course we keep walking.  We go down a wooden floor hallway, into a room which smells of cleanser.

            Ola leaves the room, while Mala stays, holding me in my basket.  I look down to see another pup.  He is gray, white and black, with expectant eyes looking up at me.  Mala sets me down and takes of his gloves.  I finally see him, he is middle teen at most, and young teen at least.  He has light blue, stormy eyes, expecting something but not getting it.

“I am Nekzen, what is your name?” The pup asks me.

“I have no name,” I reply, not knowing how he would respond.

“What is your name?” Nekzen repeats.

“I have no name,” I repeat.

“What is your name little one?” Mala asks.  He looks at me and says, “I think you look like a Jaila,” He says smiling.  “My name…is…Lona.”  I say to myself.  Mala looks at Nekzen, and he spells ‘LONA’ on the floor.  “Lona it is,” he says, a true smile, one that is able to reflect in one’s eyes.

            He plops me in the tub, the shine still there as he chants my name.  “Lona, Lona, Lona…”  Mala sings.  Nekzen chimes in.  He jumps in the tub with me when the water came gushing out of a tube.  I try to avoid the water, but Nekzen takes the chance and takes all the water for himself.  He sees me not enjoying myself and he bounds over, and chases me.  I am much faster, stronger, and courageous that him, but in my week state I collapse.

            Mala brings the tube over and pours water all over me.  He gets another tube and it produced a shiny blob on his hand.  He sloshes it together with his other hand and rubs me all over with it.  I look at the water, and Nekzen is standing right in it.  The water has turned brown, but Nekzen still does not move.  I roll over, and Mala does everywhere he couldn’t get before.

            He rinses me, and gasps when he’s done.  “You’re beautiful,” Nekzen and Mala say at almost the exact same time.

            I look at myself in the mirror Mala takes over.  I see a mature pup, a little skinny, but beautiful.  I am pure white, long white fur.  I have a black patch like a scar over my left eye.  My paws are black, and the tip of my tail is black.  I look much like Nekzen, with long fur and a tip at my tail, but other than that, I am new, and I realize this is the real Lona, the one to show the world.  I know I will only live to trust Nekzen and Mala, and if I ever get the chance, I will escape with Nekzen, after attacking, and hopefully killing Ola, but not Mala, he will have the pleasure of not being eaten alive.