Quietly and furtively Otu moved in between the tree-trunks and bushes. He passed through thickets and glades, pausing to listen every now and then. Nevertheless he always tried to be as near the trees as possible so that he could jump up in any danger; also whilst going through open places he still tried to keep near single trees or the edge of the glade with the trees still close at hand.

In this manner Otu walked for a long time. The forest was full of mysterious noises, which Otu did not know. Somewhere a few nocturnal birds made mournful noises, elsewhere tiny animals squeaked and occasionally one could even hear a rather harsh rumbling noise, which Otu listened to with great fear—he did not know that it was an old buck, who was just then in a bad mood, quarreling with others of his kind.

Stopping somewhere near a large mossy stone Otu heard something make a scrabbling noise right in front of him. Otu forced his lazy eyes open more attentively and saw a woodmouse who, without noticing Otu, was busy chewing some kind of an insect. It was strange, but the hunting passion was awakened in Otu. Did it come from hunger or because Otu had become a wild animal like his distant forebears; anyhow, his paws stretched out, his body made a jump—and the mouse was in between his paws. Otu would never have believed before that this snack could taste so well. But hunger is the best chef—and that for a cat, too. Otu felt as if he had never eaten anything quite like it before.

He licked his chops and suddenly felt better. He was less frightened and realised that this forest wasn't so terrible after all, just as his own position seemed to appear a little more hopeful. Indeed, this adventure started already to be of some interest and even pleasure to him—this large mysterious silent forest, those noises of the night, those events that might lie in wait for him.

Creeping stealthily on, Otu now started consciously to hunt for mice. In the forest there are even more mice than in the fields, yet they don't taste quite as good as in the fields. But Otu did not know that and those mice tasted extremely well to a hungry cat. He caught a further three until finally he felt that his stomach was full.

Now it would be quite nice to get some water to follow these mice, felt Otu. The day's events had been rather wearing, now he had eaten and a drink seemed even more desirable than food. It also was necessary to find a peaceful place to stretch out, where one wouldn't have to fear a fox or who knows what. After such a day Otu had thoroughly earned his sleep.

And Otu wandered on. He passed through some more thickets, open places, marshy low brushwood, yet keeping all the time near the trees. Finally he reached a meadow and could smell the water and hear the bubble of the river from the distance.

Having quenched his thirst from the river Otu prowled on along the riverbank. The river gurgled, the moon was shining on the water and fish were leaping out and falling back with a slopping noise—this all was a totally new world for Otu. But he wasn't interested in this now, he was looking for a place where one could curl up and where the fox—or whoever else—could not reach. After all he couldn't sleep on top of a tree. Once he came to a hayrick stand and tried to hide himself in there underneath the faggots, but this place did not seem secure enough for him either.

Finally he noticed some kind of a building on the edge of the forest. This was a big surprise! Could it be home? a thought went through his head. But sniffing the air, he didn't sense the smell of home coming from that building. Actually no other smell came from there than that of the forest and the meadow. Nevertheless Otu approached the building very carefully. After all there could have been strangers, dogs—who knows what and who...

However, when reaching the building Otu became convinced that it was empty—at least from living beings. That was good. Otu walked once or twice round the building. It was a barn from where the hay had been taken away in the winter. Its door was closed, but Otu noticed an opening higher up, into which the hay was crammed in summer, and he quickly scrabbled up. Stopping in the opening, Otu eyed carefully if there could perhaps be somebody in the shed after all. But apart from a few mice and a toad he saw no-one. On the floor of the shed there was still a little bit of hay, perhaps it had been left there for the haymakers to sleep on during the new haymaking season. However, Otu too knew how to appreciate it. He descended into the shed, explored still if there weren't any holes large enough for the fox to get in—and then lay down to rest in the hay. His day had started miserably, but due to his own initiative and pains he had managed to keep himself alive, had found food and drink and now also a good sleeping place. Feeling content he put his head onto his tail, and had he been a human being, he would even have been proud of himself. Perhaps there even was something similar in his mind, as he was no longer unhappy and sullen, despairing and full of panic.

He lifted his head for a while and listened. All was quiet. Besides he also knew that he could always climb up the wall in the event of the sort of surprise that would force him to escape. One could lie down rather comfortably on top of the barn wall underneath the eaves, should the fox somehow get in.

And he fell rather peacefully asleep and his sleep was well deserved.

Having woken up in the morning, he climbed up to the opening in the wall through which he had entered the previous night and from there surveyed the meadow stretching away below him to the river. The sun was warm, the grass was growing profusely in the meadow and the alder-bushes on the riverbank had recently burst into leaf. High up in the sky there rose splendid white clouds.

It wasn't bad at all for Otu to gaze over such a beautiful view and even on him it had a better effect than a muddy place would have had, above which a grey sky hangs heavily and from which cold rain pours constantly. The sun and the warmth and the beautiful waving meadow—even Otu appreciated them. However, overnight his stomach had become empty again and this was still more important for him than the lovely view below him. Concern for his stomach again demanded an effort to be made, it could not be helped, and Otu looked down into the shed to see whether there might be a mouse moving round. At night they had been making frequent noises around him, yet Otu couldn't be bothered to interrupt his sleep. Besides he hadn't been hungry. But now, during the day, the mice had crept into their hiding places—and why should Otu have to go hungry all day because of that?

Suddenly he caught sight of something rather interesting at the riverside that pricked up his ears as if by magic. Even his eyes lit up—eyes that up to now had almost always been without shine and sleepy. Otu stretched himself and then slipped quickly down into the grass from the wall of the barn, lowered himself and started to slink slowly towards the river. If anyone had seen Otu now and compared him to what he used to be like at home, he wouldn't have believed his eyes. Where had he left his laziness, grumpiness, slothful manner? As if a different cat, not Otu, was crawling through the meadow towards the river.

What then had he seen there at the riverside?

It had been a brood of young ducklings led by the old duck. This brood was swimming and diving in the water, occasionally coming rather near the shore and bustling around back and forth. Those tiny brown bundles of feathers appeared unimaginably tasty to Otu. Seeing them his mouth started to water and he didn't spare any trouble approaching them unnoticed. Near the river he crawled on his stomach for a long time to get unseen to the alder-bush behind which the brood was splashing.

He did manage to get behind the alder-bush without the old duck, who from time to time looked carefully around, noticing him.

But unfortunately the ducklings were in deep water, although rather near to Otu. He didn't trust diving into deep water and also realized correctly that he wouldn't be able to compete with ducks swimming in such water.

Nevertheless he remained hidden and tried to stay near the ducks, slinking along the riverbank whilst the ducks were swimming along on the river. Perhaps there'll be a more convenient moment further on, Otu hoped.

And that moment came. Deep water ended, the ducks reached a shallow place. Otu took a run and jumped in the midst of the brood, so that water splashed high up. But apart from a cold bath he didn't get anything. He hadn't had time—in one day—to become such a skilful hunter, so as to catch a bird, particularly in water. He had only been sleeping for the most part of his life, his joints were stiff and rigid, his muscles flabby, he did not manage to catch a bird; it was good enough that he managed a mouse.

His mood sank rather after this. Besides he got totally wet and his stomach was still empty. However even this was good progress that he had altogether undertaken something like that.

He lay down on the riverbank to dry his coat in the sunshine. After that he intended to go into the forest to hunt for mice. That was a more certain catch. He knew that.

However, after having lain down for a long time, he noticed that in the river in front of him in the shallow places one could once again notice some living creatures. This time they were fish. Otu had seen fish only as much as he had been able to steal them from behind his master, when he sometimes brought them from the sea. But Otu also recognized them alive.

Well of course, the fish were even quicker than the ducks, that Otu realized at once when he saw them swimming in front of him. But what if one could act with guile?

Otu noticed that from time to time the fish swam along a narrow channel from the river to a rather shallow puddle surrounded on all sides by ridges of sand, so that the only way there and back was via this channel.

Otu lowered himself to such an extent that it was almost impossible to see him in the grass. Thus he sneaked quite close to the riverbank and stayed there waiting for an opportune moment.

That moment arrived: a shoal of rather large fish swam along the inlet into the pond and started to circle there playfully. At a stroke Otu was in the channel and grabbed with his paw as many as he could. Most of the fish escaped from between his paws into the river, but nevertheless three or four of them were injured and became Otu's catch. In shallow water it was easy to catch them just with the teeth. In doing so he got rather wet again, but he was already used to it. So he ate with relish fresh fish, fresher than those he had earlier filched from behind his master's back—those had been a few days old. One after another he brought the fish out of the puddle, not all at once, this didn't occur to him; he only went for the next fish when he had eaten the previous one. Because of this he had a small adventure with a water-rat. The water-rat is a beast living in the banksides of rivers and lakes in little holes above the water level from where it is very easy to jump into the water. They catch smaller fish that happen to come near them, but they don't reject dead fish either, especially when still rather fresh like, for example, those who died between Otu's paws and teeth. Actually they weren't quite dead yet, just dazed and floundered occasionally in the puddle where Otu had left them.

Just when Otu was eating one of the fish on the shore, he saw with surprise that some peculiar creature was swimming along the inlet towards the puddle—definitely a rat, yet not exactly so. This rat had a smaller head than the usual ones and seemed to have no ears; yet he was rather big and because of his size he also reminded Otu of a real rat.

Otu stopped eating and watched closely what the rat was doing. The fact that the rat was obviously at ease swimming and bustling around in the water, was particularly surprising for Otu. Cats are no lovers of water, they are instead afraid of it and go into water only in case of absolute necessity or dire emergency, just as Otu did when forced by his hungry stomach.

But this rat looked as if he was enjoying himself in the water and was a real master in swimming.

The fish had tasted good and Otu's stomach was already just about full, this is why he didn't even think of starting to hunt the rat, moreover as he knew instinctively that the rat's meat wasn't very tasty. He himself had of course never caught rats, but he had a strange feeling that he naturally understood how much a rat-steak was worth.

Therefore Otu merely kept his eyes on the rat, without wanting to go into the river on his account.

Yet suddenly Otu noticed that the rat took up one of his, Otu's fish, put it between his teeth and started to swim along the channel towards the river.

This saga no longer pleased Otu. That was sheer theft, and Otu, himself having stolen rather a lot in his time, now found that considerable injustice was done to him.

He jumped quickly down to close off the rat's route but he saw with surprise how swift this creature was in swimming; he disappeared into the river like a blur of grey unbelievably quickly, like a fish. Otu hadn't even managed to reach out his paws towards him, when he had already disappeared into the depths, Otu's fish in his mouth.

But Otu had still one fish in store in the river, he ate this one too and felt then that his appetite was reasonably well satisfied. He stretched out comfortably at full length in the grass and thought with relish that he had every right to rest: he had taken trouble to obtain his own food. And this was rather a different feeling from filling one's stomach with pieces stolen from behind the back of the master or mistress.

Otu started to live in this manner now. With every day he settled more into the life of the forest, the meadow and the riverside, spending his time hunting. Of course he didn't have a good catch every day. At times it was necessary to go hungry for a day or even two. If he didn't succeed in catching a fish in the river or a mouse in the forest—then he had a fast. But Otu had already become used to it. His muscles had got tougher by the day, the fat that had made him heavy and clumsy disappeared from underneath his skin and his entire body became more slender and supple, his coat smooth and shiny, and his eyes, that at home had always been half-closed and sleepy, sparkled vividly. This was quite a different animal now, this Otu, and if Master Aado or Mistress Anu had seen him now, they wouldn't have recognized him or would have taken him for a strange cat, but also a proud and splendid one.

No, this agile, slender animal bore little resemblance to the previous lazy, clumsy Otu.

And it was brought about by the fact that Otu didn't loaf around day in and day out like a sleepy fool any more, instead he exercised his entire body and mind so as to maintain his own livelihood, went to considerable trouble and worked his muscles and joints hard.

The shed remained his sleeping place as before, but during the daytime he didn't stay much in his new home, prowling round ceaselessly, looking for food and getting to know his spacious surroundings, resting occasionally now and again, yet always near a tree, as he never forgot the first day in the forest, when he almost fell victim to the fox.

Now sometimes he also had dangerous adventures, yet he always managed to get up the nearest tree. Once a lynx troubled him, who is also a kind of feline and therefore can climb up trees like the cat. However, the lynx is much bigger and heavier than the cat, this is why he couldn't catch Otu, although he climbed up the tree to follow Otu. Otu climbed higher and higher towards the top of the tree, until it became so thin and frail and the branches so supple that the lynx didn't dare follow him any more. The lynx then descended a bit lower and remained sitting on a thicker bough. Thus they sat for several hours in the same tree—the cat on the higher storey and the lynx on the lower one, and the cat's situation was once again the worse one just as it had been when the fox besieged him. It was more comfortable for the lynx to sit on the lower bough than it was for the cat on the higher thin branch; besides the lynx made the tree shake by moving himself from time to time and then the cat had real trouble to hold on with his claws, as falling down threatened any moment. And should you fall from such heights—then naturally you would be finished; and whatever would be left of you, the lynx would polish off. Otu realized that and his situation was truly horrible. He could thank his lucky stars that he had already obtained strong muscles and much sharper claws than before, at home, or when the fox had besieged him. However, now too the situation became ever more ghastly as time wore on, because to hold on with claws in one place, clinging all the time on to a thin branch was still, even for a strong beast, very tiring.

Fortunately for Otu the lynx is an impatient and nervous animal. Having sat on the bough for some time, the lynx became fed up, gave such a blow with his paw to the tree that Otu trembled on his branch like an apple in a storm, when shaken by the wind, and climbed then down from the tree shrieking angrily. There weren't many lynxes in the forest, occasionally a few appeared from somewhere and then disappeared again. Thus this one, who had besieged Otu, disappeared too. He went away from the tree, still shrieking angrily and retreated into the forest, until his shrieking sounded more and more faintly and finally died out altogether.

Lynxes usually hunted rabbits and roedeer; a cat in the forest was, so to say, just a rarity for that lynx who besieged Otu. And when he saw that one needed to take considerable pains to obtain this rarity, he got fed up and abandoned this feline steak, which he hadn't probably tasted before. Anyway, had he caught this steak, he would have been greatly disappointed, as a cat and roedeer will most likely taste very differently. But it is possible, too, that the lynx's understanding of those matters is different from that of humans.

Another similar, but rather peculiar encounter Otu had with a big snake. Otu had never seen snakes back home. Lynx and fox had at least four legs, like for example dogs; Otu knew how to protect himself from them and even take measures against them. But a snake? What kind of an oddity this long, living sausage could exactly be was a rather hazy thing for Otu. When he caught sight of a snake for the first time curled up on a tussock, he indeed took him from the distance to be a hearty black pudding, the like of which the mistress sometimes used to make and put into the oven. Several times Otu had gone to the oven to taste such sausage when the oven had cooled down. Yet once in doing so he burnt himself badly and since then didn't dare to go to the oven any more, instead he waited until the mistress left the sausage on the table and forgot about it.

Otu was very pleasantly surprised now at seeing in the forest such an agreeable sausage, such an appetising rarity, one that could only seldom be snaffled from the table at home. This was a really welcome change to fresh mice, fish and birds.

Yet approaching the sausage Otu noticed with surprise that this sausage lived and moved! And even hissed like the cat himself. And this sausage had a head! Oh, this sausage had even shiny eyes, small and black, yet full of such spite and evil that a cold shiver ran over Otu's back. Apart from that, the sausage had even teeth—not at all bad ones at that and rather sharp.

Otu eyed the hissing live sausage and walked around it as if it really were a hot sausage. When Otu tried to stretch his paw towards it, the sausage snapped with his teeth in his direction and a small forked tongue appeared. There was not much to spare between the sausage's teeth and Otu's paw and had he been bitten, his situation would not have looked at all good.

And from somewhere came a notion to Otu as if a dim presentiment just what kind of a strange beast was hissing here in front of him. The experiences of Otu's forebears stirred in his body and mind—and. Otu became cautious. He didn't quite understand why, but he felt that the sausage here in front of him was a highly disgusting, dangerous and poisonous being, with which one had to deal with considerable care.

However Otu had already settled down in the forest, had become strong and courageous to the extent that he nevertheless had a strong desire to taste this sausage. Be it dangerous or be it poisonous, it is meat—and, who knows, perhaps there are some rather tasty contents beneath this rather revolting exterior.

Otu didn't even understand himself where he suddenly obtained this skill, yet perhaps he inherited this too as a primeval legacy from his forebears; snap! he grabbed hold of the snake's neck with such a quick move that the poisonous reptile couldn't bite again. What followed now was a great and terrible surprise for Otu.

The "sausage" threw himself round Otu like a steel coil. He squeezed Otu so hard that Otu gasped for breath. Poor Otu had real trouble trying not to open his mouth, as he knew instinctively that should he do so, the snake's neck would get loose from between his teeth and immediately thereafter the snake would bite him. That had to be avoided at all costs.

So they struggled for a long time. Otu held on to the snake's neck, the latter wrapped himself more and more strongly round him and squeezed so that Otu wheezed. A terrible experience! Much more so than the fear of the fox's or the lynx's teeth!

Otu felt that he wasn't going to be able to keep his teeth in the snake's neck for all that much longer. It was so hard to breathe through his nostrils that it almost forced his mouth open. And that would have been Otu's end. Quite probably his forebears had also known of medicine for snakebite, possibly the poison didn't even kill them. Yet it was questionable whether Otu had those powers any more. In any case he could become seriously ill after snakebite and die of hunger.

Otu as if sensed all this and kept his teeth in the snake's neck, panting and groaning as if suffocating.

Suddenly an instinct arose in him: if he could sink his teeth deeper into the snake's neck, then perhaps the snake would die.

Finally, in despair Otu decided to act: he slackened his teeth slightly and then with another move he pressed them deeper into the snake's neck.

A shudder went through the snake's body and Otu sensed that he was the winner. Soon the snake's body went limp and the iron embrace weakened. The cat could breathe better once again. For quite a while still he kept the snake's head in his mouth, then gnawed several times deeper and finally released the neck of his enemy. The snake's head flopped loosely, although his eyes still shone with endless spite and evil, and his black tongue shot out like a poisonous spear, but the cat had bitten through his spine and his head wasn't responsive any more, it no longer turned where necessary.

Otu freed himself with great difficulty from the snake's grasp, for despite having his spine severed the snake was not quite dead yet, his body wriggled here and there and squeezed Otu from time to time still rather strongly.

Otu fumed angrily when he finally managed to free himself. No, he will never want to touch this sausage again! he felt. And despite being hungry he left the snake there and went to the river where he caught some nice roach for himself.

And from then onwards he kept away from snakes.

Once in a midsummer morning, after a night's hunting when Otu was still asleep in his abode, the shed, he heard the rumble of a waggon and human voices.

What a surprise! Otu knew the waggon's clatter very well—he had heard enough of this in his earlier life—and hearing this sound he pictured vividly everything connected with it: the horse, the waggon itself and people in the waggon.

Otu had seen people here only very seldom, perhaps two or three times during the entire time spent in the forest. No-one had much reason to come here into the deep forest; maybe only the game-keeper walked here and some men came to look at their meadows. There weren't any mushrooms and berries in the forest yet, for that it was too early, so that the gatherers of those couldn't be seen yet either.

However, that there should be people with a waggon and judging by the voices quite a few of them, was indeed a novelty for Otu.

After all he hadn't forgotten people and his previous life spent in their midst. He also remembered very well his old home, the master and the mistress, but as he had started to like his new life here in the forest and meadows, he didn't feel homesick. However, he didn't hold anything against his master and mistress because of that.

Hearing now people talk nearby, he thought perhaps the master and the mistress would be among them too. He listened carefully. Yet the voice of neither—either of the master or of the mistress—could be heard.

The voices belonged to strangers. Otu in his flat thought that he had nothing to do with those people, they wouldn't catch him, let them disappear like the others. And he intended to carry on sleeping.

However, judging by the clatter, the waggon was coming nearer the shed and the voices came closer as well.

This troubled Otu. He sprang to his feet. And by the time somebody started to rattle at the door, opening it, Otu was already up at the open hatch, came through it and scrabbled down along the wall and slipped into the forest.

"Hi!" shrieked a female voice. "Look, look, which animal was that?!"

"A squirrel!" somebody called.

"No, no," another one answered. "A weasel! A polecat!"

Yet an old man explained:

"It wasn't a weasel or a polecat. Those are not grey. And the squirrel is red. But this beast was grey. A cat—that's what it was! A real domestic cat."

"Perhaps a wild cat?" a child's voice asked.

"There aren't any wild cats living in the forest now!" was the old man's reply. "This was indeed a real domestic cat. But why on earth does he live in the forest, eh? In all likelihood he has run away from home, or perhaps has been brought here."

Yet the child's voice guessed dreamingly:

"Perhaps it wasn't after all a polecat or a cat. Perhaps it was something of a kind... of a kind... "

And the child didn't probably know himself whom he would have wanted to see in place of the cat. But certainly somebody unusual, who would have nothing in common with the domestic cat. One could see plenty of cats at home—to see them in the forest too wasn't at all interesting or special.

However, had this child known that the domestic cat was leading rather a strange and interesting life here in the forest, then he probably would have wanted to learn more about this cat and his life.

Otu was already deep in the forest, when the people were still discussing his origins. He realized that those people had come to the shed and that they were going to stay there now; that this shed belonged to them. Maybe they were going to stay there for a long time. And this troubled Otu. He was used to the shed, it provided good shelter from the fox, the rain and the lynx. The shed had become Otu's home. But now he had to leave it. And this was quite unpleasant.

To be continued in Part 2...