JasKatze Origins

It was a seemingly normal gray, sunny day. Like every day within the forest of black and white trees which stretched high into the empty sky above. Well, almost empty. Birds of many shades would occasionally fly by and fill the skies with their laughter. Sometimes the wind brought white puffy clouds to say hello. And finally, when the sun hid its light from the world, the stars would fill the darkness. 

That long, seemingly empty, abyss is where Katz, a small barn cat with a beautifully shaded coat of grays, blacks and whites, wanted to be. The thought of flight inspired her and filled her mind with ideas of different inventions she could construct which would allow her to enter that abyss of a sky. Ever since she was a kitten she would draw out plans and blueprints of contraptions, wings, gliders, anything that would allow her to fly like the birds. As she grew older, she began to bring these ideas to life. Creating, testing, and starting over until finally, she found something that worked. 

“Katz!” a voice filled the cat’s right ear. “Katz! Wake up! It’s time!” Katz shook her head and then shot a questioning glance at the gray insect fluttering by her ear. 

“What? What’s happening?” she asked, trying to remember if there was something she had forgotten. She then glanced at the contraption to her left. A large, triangular shaped wooden frame with a canvas stretched across the top. “Oh! Oh my goodness I almost forgot!” Katz suddenly said and jumped to her feet. 

Today would be the first real test of her project. She would be taking it to the cliffside just beyond the shores of the beach, and jumping. 

“This is it!” Said Katz, holding her paw out and allowing the butterfly to land on it. “This is the day I get to fly like you!”

“Yes! And I can’t wait. I will meet you at the jump cite! I want to scout the place out one last time before you actually make the jump.” The butterfly said, lifting herself off the paw of katz and fluttering away. 

“Please be careful!” Katz called after her friend. “Don’t forget what water can do to your wings. It could be really dangerous!” she then turned and began the long process of lifting the wooden frame onto her cart. 

“Well, this is it.” The cat said to herself, looking around at her small, gray house and the trees around her. “The first real test of my best invention yet! I think I will call it a glider.” She then lifted the handles of her gray, wooden cart, and began dragging it down the long path to the cliffside. 

Her eyes drifted around the forest as fear began to sink in. She decided to distract herself by taking a deeper look into the gray world around her, starting with the trees. The leaves of the trees swished in the wind. They were her favorite to look at. A beautiful shade of rich gray. Of all the grays in the world, the tree leaves were her favorite. She then let her eyes drift to the bark of the trees, which was a darker shade of gray than the leaves. 

“Sometimes, the gray world just starts to get boring to me. I wonder if there is anything more than this out there.” She thought aloud, then glanced at the flowers in the grass next to the path she was taking. Everything was a different shade of gray. Just another shade in the endless expanse of darkness and light. Finally, she shifted her gaze to the trail in front of her, only to see the mountainous cliffside in front of her. Her thoughts had distracted her enough to hide the fact the forest had come to an end and the slope of the ground had started to increase.
Suddenly, her butterfly friend swooped down and landed on her shoulder. “Geez Katz! You were really slow!” she laughed and fluttered her wings.
“Hey! This glider is heavy! I could barely lift it into the cart and drag it up the hill!” she smiled and jokingly said: “Couldn’t you have at least helped?”

The butterfly shook her head, dismissing the cat’s joke. “The ground below is a bit jagged but if your invention works, you should be able to avoid it and glide over the ocean. Also, is that what you called your contraption? A glider? I think that’s a perfect name!” 

“Yes. And it is just about time to test it.” Katz said nervously and pulled the glider off of her wagon, positioning it several feet from the edge of the cliff. She glanced at the ocean below and felt her fur stand on end. “Is it too late to back away now? Maybe flying isn’t all that great.”
“Come on! You’ve been working on this for years! You can’t back down now!” The butterfly said. “We’ve put it through every other test we can think of. It’s time for the final jump. I don’t think anything can go wrong!”
“Well yeah. You are right, we’ve put it through as many safe tests as we could come up with. Who knew it’d make such a good kite with enough wind!” Katz then turned and put on her harness which was built to work with the glider. The back clipped to the main supporting beam which stretched down the center of the wing. This held her in place in case she could not hold on to the steering bar. “I think I’m ready.” Katz said and looked around one last time. She then grasped the glider's bar and took in a deep breath. “Ready?”
The butterfly nodded her tiny head and fluttered back a wase, watching and clapping her small legs together in excitement. “I’ve been waiting forever to see you fly! I can’t wait!” She squeaked.
“Well, it’s time to go then!” Without thinking, she lifted the glider and pushed forward with all her strength, running as fast as she could toward the side of the cliff. She could feel the wind catching the wing above her head and suddenly, she was off the edge of the cliff. She could no longer feel the ground beneath her paws. It was exactly what she dreamed it would be. Soaring like a bird, feeling as though she could touch the clouds. Katz was in amazement and she began to pull herself forward, reaching out towards the clouds with one of her paws.
Suddenly, she felt the nose of the glider go down and her speed increase.
“Oh no- this is bad. This is very bad!” She said in a panic, trying to figure out what suddenly caused her glider to change altitude. The glider fell into a nose dive towards the ocean below, causing Katz to lose full control. She screamed as she watched the ocean waves grow closer, and she closed her eyes. Everything went dark. 

A few animals watched from the shoreline. They had seen the cat jump and glide for a few seconds before plummeting towards the ocean. Before the cat had reached the water, a cloud formed below it and engulfed the creature and the glider. Nothing came through the other side for several seconds. 

Katz opened her eyes and looked around, panic still in her system. She did not feel the impact with the water, but she also did not feel the feeling of falling. Instead, she was floating, being pulled forwards into an unknown abyss of swirling gray clouds. As she moved forward, she spotted another cat in the distance. This cat was very different from what she had ever seen. It had a beautiful coat made up of visual effects she had never known to exist. She would soon learn to call these colors.
Katz and the other cat met and made eye contact for only seconds before she was pulled away. Suddenly, she fell through the clouds and into the ocean beneath her. Everything went black. 

When Katz came back, she could feel sand beneath her. She had somehow made it to the beach. Slowly she opened her eyes and found herself face to face with the weirdest thing she had ever seen. The sky was no longer gray. It presented itself to her in a strange shade of some sort. Katz slowly sat up and looked around. The world around her was completely different but at the same time, it was the same. The trees were no longer black and white. They had new shades of their own, undescribable to her. The ocean was a shade similar to the sky and the grass had the shade of the tree leaves.
This wonderful new world had filled Katz’s mind with curiosity as she slowly stood up and began to walk through the forest, admiring all of the new things to look at. After a few minutes of wandering, she heard the small voice of her butterfly friend. She turned to make eye contact with a beautiful fluttering creature of many new shades.
“KATZ!” It screamed in shock. “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!”

This was just the beginning of Katz’s new life in this new world of color. She would move on to find new adventures and make new friends. Though, she will always be a wonder to this new world. 

No one has ever seen a creature without a speck color on its body. Not until they’ve seen Katz, that is.