018: Beam

Beam led the way through the territory: a giant golden tiger of a cat plowing through the overgrowth into a  land where the earth itself was ashen and left Brush's paws blackened from soot. There were little pockets of weeds sprouting here and there, but most of the land consisted of long black claws of hollowed out trees that had burned to cinders. Did they really live here? Curiosity drove him to pad after Beam, even as the grass got tall enough to get lost in. "Almost there," Beam'...

"Anyway," Beam squared up, staring down at him with her soft, golden eyes. If Cinders was the hottest, sharpest bite of a fire, Beam was the warmth of a radiator in a human's home. "Tell me about yourself, spark. What brought you here? Where is your family?" He was taken aback by the question, but Beam's question seemed earnest enough. "I was born under a human's house," he answered, nervously shifting his weight on his paws. He thought about his mother's sweet milk-smell and the squir...