Petra was born into the clan, like most copycats. Her neighbourhood was full of other cats - all her friends, everyone she knew. On top of school and play, Petra was occasionally tasked with little missions - bring this here, tell this person that, don't ask any questions. Her parents were often busy, though they did love her very much. She didn't think much of it - it was normal to her, since it was all she'd known - but she did notice that some of the kids at school didn't seem to have half the problems she did. And whenever things got tense - which they often did - she couldn't help but feel envious.
As she got older, her tasks got more numerous and more dangerous. She was fifteen years old, slinking through the streets with a bag of drugs, heart hammering a million miles a minute. She wasn't sure how much more she could take, when it happened - coming home to her parent's dead bodies. Ice filled her veins as she realized that could easily be her. She wasn't ready to leave the world so soon. She was only fifteen! Before she could think clearly, she was packing her backpack with all the essentials, stopping by a store to buy some survival manuals, and taking off into the woods.
Having fled the clan, she knew there was a target on her back. Deflection meant death. Fortunately, her father had always been a big fan of camping, and she had spent countless summers out in this forest, camping and learning how to hunt. Coming to their usual camping site, she began setting herself up. The city was overrated, anyways. Everything she needed was here, right? It was a lot trickier without her dad around to help, but - she eventually got the hang of it, living comfortably in her new forest home, crafting tools and building new structures using nothing but her ingenuity and her survival books. This life suited her a lot more, once she got into it - the peace and quiet, the serenity of the trees surrounding her, the self reliance... she was doing just fine.
After several years alone in the woods, she began to yearn for some more modern creature comforts, and maybe - just maybe - some actual human interaction. Caving into the temptation, she snuck back into the city, staying far away from clan territory. Coming back to the streets after years away felt strange - her anxiety was peaked the entire time, but she stole some chocolate, stammered something at a cashier, and ran back to the woods. The next year she visited again, until once every month or so she would visit the city, completely on edge the entire time, but taking what she needed and making about five minutes of conversation before leaving back to her home in the forest. It seemed like for the first time ever, her life was together.
That was until one day, on her way back, on the outskirts of the city, she got grabbed.
Thrashing around in a car trunk, she was convinced the Copy Cats had found her, despite her best efforts. She screamed, kicking and yelling and desperately trying to escape. However, when the trunk finally opened, it wasn't a Clan leader - it was a tall, round, mysterious cow woman with a smirk. Some dog stood behind her, hand on the hood. The woman scooped her up like it was nothing, carrying her towards a giant mansion. Petra's head spun as the cow explained - her name was Esme, she'd noticed Petra's monthly escapades, and she had decided she was deeply in love with the cat. Thinking it was some strange sort of joke, Petra played along until it was late at night, slipping out and fleeing back towards the woods. She didn't get far before she was surrounded by cars, Esme getting out of the one parked behind her.
"Darling, where do you think you're going?"
It seemed not only had she, a fugitive who had been in hiding for 9 years, somehow caught the eye of a rich woman, but rather, the most powerful woman on the Western seaboard. A girl who had barely been in public and struggled to speak with the years of silence she'd gone through. Esme brought her back and she stayed in the mansion, feeling both terrified and safer than she had in years. Esme was the scariest, nicest person alive. The overstimulation was immediate and overwhelming. After almost ten years of being completely alone, to go from a wanted woman to being showered in love and affection - it was too much for her poor heart. She felt like she was going to die!! Every night she stared out the window. Does she stay or leave? How does something like this even happen to her? She's the biggest nobody of all time! Help!
