Ch.1 The Distress Signal

[Atom’s POV]

It hadn’t been long since we arrived on Awan, the cold air greeting us as we exited the ship. I turned to look at the other two as they looked at me, still baffled at how I could withstand the cold air so easily. This is what living in and out of the cold does to you I guess. I remember when they first found me, terrified and even intimidated by me, however one can’t fault them for it, they are smaller than me after all, so it's no surprise that a spacecat would be afraid of a cirrocanius. I was not hoping to come back to this cold planet, however they insisted that I come with them to keep them safe and out of harm's way, especially given my knowledge on the planet. “What are you two waiting for? The sooner this is done the sooner we can get back.” I asked the two, who were still standing there like deer caught in headlights while I walked through the snow. “W-we’re coming, d-don’t worry about it” Spectre stuttered slightly as he placed a paw in the snow, a look of terror on his face. Phantom just looked at us both before she casually walked in the snow, strolling past me as she had a look around at our surroundings. “Don’t go too far ahead please, if you get lost then it's not going to be my fault” I shouted after her, agitation rising in my voice as I walked back to pick up Spectre by the scruff. “H-hey, i can walk by myself you know!” Is all that he could say before I dropped him into the snow. “You were taking too long to come out, I thought you’d appreciate the help” was all i said to him as he shook off the excess snow from his fur.

Phantom came running back to us as Spectre picked himself up from the ground. “I think I found something, I'm not too sure what it is, but I’ve found something!” Her tails were swaying in a back and forth manner as she spoke, her ears also twitching slightly. “Let’s get a move on then” I said before she led us to whatever it was that she found. As we approached the object that she found…. It appeared to be part of a broken monitor… shattered glass and broken metal lay there in the snow. I don’t think it was the exact monitor or device that was sending the distress signal, or else we wouldn’t still be receiving the distress signal that was sent out. However something else caught my interest from within the vicinity. There was something else around here, but I could see something that resembled paw prints. They were small, small enough to not belong to any of the other species that resided in Port Borialise, that was definitely certain. Chances of it belonging to the wildlife living on Awan were slim, but not impossible. “What are you looking at, Atom?” Spectre asked as he placed his paw on my shoulder, trying to grab my attention. “There’s paw prints in the snow, I’m uncertain about what they belong to, however I don’t think it’s linked to the local wildlife here. 

I felt really uneasy suddenly, as if there was something I was forgetting about. This uneasiness caused the storm surrounding my body to grow a little bit wilder than what it usually did, but not wild enough to indicate that my sanity was voided, for now at least…. “Hey are you ok? Your storm.. it’s growing a bit… you aren’t on the edge of losing your sanity… are you?” Phantom’s soft voice put me a bit at ease as she pressed her body against my front legs. Her willingness to do such a thing proved that she was willing to keep me sane enough throughout this whole mission, and it was something I owed her for. The two were aware of what happened when I was a pup, albeit the memories became fragmented as time went by. But I couldn’t help but feel like I was forgetting something important. “I’m fine, I can assure you, but I feel like I'm forgetting something important… something really important to my own past, and whatever these paw prints may belong to, might be something that can help me to remember” my words of reassurance didn’t do much to put her at ease, however Spectre felt relieved to know that it was nothing major that was affecting me. 

These two… I feel like they care for me a bit too much sometimes… I'm undeserving of such care and kindness. If whatever it is that I’m forgetting is linked to this distress signal, I think I’ll laugh and then cry, dig a hole somewhere and hide for days. After standing around with my own thoughts, I moved forward, pushing myself to get this whole thing over and done with, the sooner the better for my sanity and body. And with that, we continued following the trail, as I suspected it could lead to more clues or some kind of lead to what we were looking for. The further we followed the trail, the colder it got as both the night and a snowstorm approached, however we were fortunate enough for the trail to lead towards a cave, even entering the cave as well. At least we knew where the trail leads to. That is if we didn’t lose it immediately afterwards. The trail of paw prints did go into the cave, however the minor issues lied with them ending a bit inside of the cave with a small snow trail pouring in at the entrance. As long as we were all out of the storm then that’s all that mattered to me, I'd rather have Phantom and Spectre be safe and somewhat warmer than freezing to death in the cold. Their bodies weren’t built for a place like this. “You two were in the right to bring me with you after all, I’m sorry for being so stubborn about it at first” I muttered as I found a small space that wasn’t near the mouth of the cave, and I then curled up on the cold hard ground like what I used to in the past. “We forgive you for the stubbornness, we could see why you didn’t want to come here in the first place” Spectre responded with a soft voice as he curled up next to me with Phantom. “But that makes me wonder… Why didn’t you want to come back here? You can ignore my question or even say that you don’t want to give me any response, but just know that we won't hold it against you.”

I pondered the question that Spectre had asked me, until I was ready to give an answer “this place… it harbors terrible memories for me, some are remnants of when I was a small pup, and some are remnants of two people who cared for me at one point, however we got separated I think… After that I was on my own again, that’s all I'll say for now…” surviving a place like this on your own can be challenging, but I just hope that whoever sent the distress signal was ok. “Once the sun rises we will venture further into the cave and look for the signal. Because we know that it’s somewhere here, however we don’t know how far into this cave it is…” I muttered as I lay my head down against my paws, the other two huddled up next to me.