"The Little Kit Who Dreamed”
Character Colors:
Jack
The Two-leg Children
Shade/The Little Kit
On one bright sunny day, a little kitten played by himself. He batted his paws at a shiny metal object, pushing the cylinder away until gravity slowly rolled it back to him. Watching it with wide, curious green-yellow eyes, the black and white kitten didn’t noticed a trio of two-leg children wander into the little rocky strip of land between two two-leg fences where he played.
“I wanna catch it,” a small two-leg boy spoke up first when they noticed the little kitten.
“No I want to,” whined the little girl.
“Shut up Annie, I’m doing it!” a blonde two-leg boy yelled at the girl. The girl narrowed her eyes at him and started to yell at him, leaving the two children fighting while the other tried to calm them down.
Despite the racket they were making yapping away like a gaggle of angry geese, the little kit still didn’t seem notice them. He was too busy watching the can shining little rays, the glossy coat of the cylinder reflecting the sun. The tiny tom’s tail twitched back and forth as he reached out a paw and moved the can slightly to the side, enraptured by the shift of the warm, bright glint in time with his movement of the object.
Wondering if he could catch the little rays coming from the can, the kit fell into a crouch. After a few seconds to make sure the light didn’t know he was there anymore, the tiny tom pounced, squeaking with delight when the can slightly dented under his paws.
The two-leg children stopped squabbling when they heard the kit’s little noise.
“Awwww,” the little girl cooed,
“She’s so cute!” “He.” The blonde boy retorted.
She frowned.
“No, she!” “He,” The boy continued, glaring at her.
Her face turned red with anger.
“No! She!” “It’s a he!” The boy continued.
“I’m older so I’m right.” “No you’re not!” She yelled loudly, making a few bird perched in the two-leg garden on one side of a fence fly away with fright.
The birds weren’t the only ones who noticed the two-leg children’s fights. The kit’s eyes snapped away from the can to the more immediate threat, his fur standing on edge with fright. Not knowing what else to do, the kit darted into a trashcan that was only a few fox-lengths away.
“Hey,” The smaller two-leg interrupted the other two children’s fight and pointed at the trashcan.
“I think he ran away in there.” The two-leg children ran up to the can to investigate. They peered down the edge into the container to see the kitten hissing and spitting, glaring up at them with feral, green-tinted yellow eyes. The little tom bunched up his haunches, ready to attack if necessary.
It turned out the kit didn’t need to. At the end of the rocky path, 4 adult cats lined up in an intimidating row stalked towards the foolish two-leg children, having smelled the kit’s fear-filled scent a few fox-lengths away from the path. Their lips curled menacingly at the creatures that dared to bother this kit.
“Run!” The small two-leg boy yelled, turning around and bolting away. The blonde boy and the girl were smart enough to know that it wasn’t good to tempt the 4 full-grown stray cats into a fight. Running as fast as their legs could take them, they opened the fence at a certain juncture and ran into the two-leg den beyond, slamming the door into their dwelling shut in their haste to get away from the scary cats.
The kit didn’t feel any safer with the two-leg children gone.
“Little kit.” A huge tom painted with dark brown stripes stepped forward from the line and stared down at him coldly.
“Make the mistake of running away again, and you will never see the sun rise.”
The kit cowered. The tom’s auburn eyes had haunted him in the worst of his nightmares. His heart thumped in his ears, paws itching to take him far, far away from here. He wanted to leave.
“What do you say?” The cold tom’s eyes glinted dangerously. The little kit’s heart jolted at that, eyes dropping instinctively. He had forgotten to reply- his mentor hated when he did that.
“Yes Jack,” the kit mumbled.
His eyes widened with terror when he felt the cold jab of a claw as long as his whiskers snag the fur under his chin and yank his head up to be level with Jack’s. He couldn’t escape.
“Keep your eyes forward.” Jack’s face showed nothing.
“Only cowards bow their heads.” The kit nodded quickly, willing to do anything to get Jack’s claw away from being so close to his neck.
“Good.” Jack finally let go, turning away.
“We’ll resume training at sun-high. Don’t be late.” He started padding the way he had came, the other three cats with him doing the same with a sneer or two in the kit's direction for troubling their esteemed leader so much. Jack didn't look back once to see if the little kit was following.
The little tom followed them obediently back to the base of Jack’s violent organization, not looking forward to the horrible training sessions he would have to endure tomorrow from sun-high till late into the night. He didn’t think about the two-leg children playing in the two-leg den. It didn’t even cross his mind what life would be like if Jack hadn’t shown up, if the three children had taken him back to their home and given him a quiet, comfortable life. He would never know what it was like to lie by the fire while the smaller two-leg boy built two-leg contraptions, or the joy of batting at a fuzzy stick held up by the girl while the blonde two-leg boy yelled at the girl to stop making him look silly. That just wasn’t how it turned out for the little kit.
But, if there was one thing the kit dreamed of once he found himself back under Jack’s clutches, it was to play with the shiny little can that gleamed in the sun- for as long as he wished.
