Milagro Goes Missing
It had been a strange, quiet day. The air had felt heavy, like a storm was coming, but the sky remained clear. Milagro, as always, had wandered off into the woods, his curiosity leading him on his usual adventures. But hours passed, and there was no sign of him.
Ivy Mae, Jas, and Roman searched the perimeter of the cabin and the nearby woods, calling his name, but there was no response. The silence of the forest felt oppressive, like it was hiding something.
By late afternoon, panic began to set in. Milagro had never stayed away this long. Ivy Mae was starting to get desperate, her calls turning frantic. “Milagro! Where are you?!” she cried out into the growing dusk.
Roman tried to stay calm, but the worry in his eyes was unmistakable. “He’s been gone too long. He knows better than this.”
Jas kept looking around, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling in their gut. “What if something happened to him? What if—”
Before they could say more, a sudden rustling came from the treeline. They all froze. A shape emerged from the shadows, and to their relief, it was Milagro, his fur matted with leaves and dirt. He walked slowly, almost as if he was carrying something, his mouth clutched tightly around whatever it was.
But the moment of relief quickly turned to confusion as Milagro dropped the small bundle at their feet. The object was tiny and trembling, barely breathing, its fur a wet, frozen mess.
“What the hell…?” Roman whispered, bending down to get a better look.
It was a kitten. Barely a few weeks old, shivering from the cold, its tiny body almost too fragile to hold on. Ivy Mae kneeled beside the kitten, her hands trembling as she gently scooped it up.
“It’s freezing,” she said, her voice breaking as she wrapped it in her jacket.
Jas looked at Milagro, their eyes wide with disbelief. “Did… did he bring this to us?”
Ivy Mae, still kneeling on the ground, stared at the kitten, her face a mix of awe and concern. “He must have found it out there… alone… I don’t understand. But thank God he brought it back.”
The group huddled together, the weight of the moment pressing down on them. They weren’t just dealing with their own survival anymore; they had a tiny life in their hands. And for the first time in days, the tension and fear that had been gnawing at them melted away, if only for a moment.