Cativation

In a big high class house in Hiroshima, a young boy is circling around his house while holding a bag of dried fish, widely opened to let out a tasty fragrant, apparently trying to lure something out. He looked at every corners of the house, not willing to leave out even a smallest spot unchecked.

" STONE! STONE! Where are you? I specially asked mum for your favorite snacks : dried fishes in soy sauce, so come out." Shout the boy. Nobody answered him, not even a sound.

After an hour of searching without any trace of Stone, the boy dejectedly comes back to the kitchen.

"He will probably come back later, cats are like that, they just venture out for sometime but will surely back home. Don't worry." Said the boy's mother who is cleaning the kitchen. She then pulled out a small ladder, preparing to clean the top of the kitchen cabinets, the surface is super sticky and covered by a fat layer, extremely disgusting.

"Oh look, I found Stone, this naughty boy is just sleeping on top of the kitchen cabinets." She laughed and tried to pull Stone to her.

Her smile then abruptly disappeared. The cat body on her hand is ice cold and smelly, his muscles are like jelly, without any resistance, he is not breathing, his eyes are closed. Stone is dead.

"Where is he? Where is he? Can I see him?" Said the boy excitedly.

"Oh it's nothing, I was seeing thing, Stone isn't here. Anyway, if you have nothing to do, maybe go to your father and let's him tell you some stories? He just came back from Egypt and it's wonderful there." Don't her son to be depressed, she forced a smile and urged him to go see his dad.

"What an unlucky day, luckily I had my plastic gloves on. What do I do with this thing now?" Completely disgusted with the cat corpse, she thought for a moment and pull out a black trash bag under the sink. She opened the trash bag wide and with a broom in hand, she swiped Stone's corpse into the trash bag. The she disposed both the bag and the broom in a big plastic trash container in front of her house.

"I will just buy my sons another cat, he will forget about this one in a few days anyway." Pleased with her plan, she headed back to the house like nothing happened.

In a few days, the boy got another cat and he is extremely happy.

Just like that, Stone's existence fade away from Earth. An animal life is that insignificant.

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"Man, I didn't have another choice, someone had to die. Since you are so cautious about me, I will touch the green paw symbol to show my good will." Asked Old Ginger.

Bluetail said nothing and coldly stand back, placing himself so he is not next to the pit but Old Ginger is.

Bluetail is extremely cautious about Old Ginger after the first trap. The Old Ginger he knows does not know how to scheme, easy going, shameless but not without morale, care about other and most importantly, he is quite close to Stone. Now? He seems to have a completely different personality, readily to sacrifice his friend to protect himself and scheming. Was he always like this and everything was a facade or it changed the moment he was forced into corner? It is hard to say, however Bluetail has a feeling it is the former proposition, Old Ginger reacted so fast his personality couldn't had changed that fast. But why?

Old Ginger approached the symbol and touched it. Just like the first trap, carving and draws began to form messages: "Congratulation again! This path is free of trap, but only one soul can pass." The trap then moved just a bit to the side, revealing a small and narrow passage, fit right enough for one soul to pass.

Bluetail look at Old Ginger just to see him smiled back. He said: "you go ahead, don't worry about me. I will take another path or try another symbol."

Bluetail has been prepared to fight with him to death, but he is now shocked. Absolutely shocked. Is this the same cat as the one who didn't hesitated to sacrifice his friends? What happened? And he said he will take another path or try another symbol? Questions after questions appeared in Bluetail's head.

"Why would you kill Stone if we can just take another path or touch another symbol?" Bluetail didn't move but asked.

"You will understand when the time come. If you don't go then I will go, your choice." Said Old Ginger while moved farther from Bluetail and the narrow passage.

"Something fishy. Why would he give up his chance to escape, he isn't intelligent enough to escape on his own. Furthermore, he said I will understand, so he must know something that I and Stone were not aware of. Crossing this passage is exactly what he wants, but I have no other choice either, I can't risk wandering around or trying to gamble on questions" Bluetail thought for a few second and ultimately decided to cross the passage.

He stepped on the passage and then immediately turned back to keep Old Ginger on his sight, he walked backward till he crossed the trap and the passage moved itself into the wall again. Old Ginger is standing there the whole time, smiling. After Bluetail went through, he turned his back, his tail held high and walk away.

They were three happy cats going on an adventure together, but just a twist of fate and he is all alone now, one dead, another betrayed. But everyone for his own right? Bluetail pushed all the negative feeling a side and continued to walk through the maze.

Two weeks passed, Bluetail passed another four traps, all of them are the same as the first trap the trio encountered. However even the hard question isn't difficult but just a little tricky, it feels like the maze doesn't have intention to kill him and consciously picked easiest questions to let's him through.

Today he arrived in front of a big stone door, made with the same material as the wall, about six meters high and three meters wide. Unlike the wall, this stone door surface is smooth and there aren't any draws or carving, only a small hole. A beam of green light comes out from that hole and pierced the fog till it touched the wall. Apparently every green symbols in this maze are powered by this green light beam. Under this hole is another hole, but there isn't any light beam come out of it, it is instead filled with a transparent sticky liquid.

As if someone forced his body without him knowing, Bluetail subconsciously raised his paw and inserted it into the hole with sticky liquid.