December 11, 2013

If there was one thing that confused Cookie, it was the weirdness of humans.

She sat in the room with the really big windows watching them jump about like … well, she had never seen her littermates act so strangely, so she could only assume they were acting like humans.

Whatever the purpose was to their strange bouncing and spinning and crouching, she had no idea. Were they hunting? Cookie's black ear twitched. She couldn't hear any mice. The only scent in the room was of the water they ended up covered in whenever they started running around. She didn't understand that either; the way they just started watering. It was weird enough they didn't have much fur!

Really, their paws were long and spindly like spider legs, and their arms and legs like tails the sizes of tree branches. She'd glimpsed them out the window and in flat-worlds (comics) she'd found herself pressing her feet into, confused about how they could have tiny forests in their pages.

Were they trying to intimidate their twin-kits? Cookie blinked her bright green eyes at the walls of ice surrounding them, tipping her head in bewilderment. Every move they made, the reflections copied.

Cookie meowed loud, worried about her littermates. Whenever she went to investigate the strange twin-kits, she found her cheek brushing against a cold, shiny surface. And it wasn't even something she could collect! It wasn't like the strange drops of ice that they sometimes tagged their ears with, or the long silvery worm she had once stolen when it had been put down – and really, why did the humans decorate themselves with such odd things?

When she brushed her whiskers against the ice, it didn't move or melt. It was like a wall. Whenever she stepped out, another kitten followed her. It was scentless, dumb, wide-eyed and annoying. It copied all the moves she made. And when she got far enough across the room, she was gently ushered away and back towards the territory they didn't want her leaving.

She knew why. The last time she had, they'd ended up nearly flattening her with their oversized feet, and after that Papa-cat hadn't put her down even with the others yowling at him.

Papa-cat cast her a glance as he dropped into a hunting crouch, but none of the others paid her any mind. She meowed again and sprang across the room, working her tiny paws until she reached Papa-cat.

The weird kitten was back, and the twin-kit-Papa-cat picked her up just like Tao did Cookie.

“You're weird,” she told him matter-of-factly.

“Awww.” Tao patted her head gently.

Cookie would have rolled her eyes if she were human. As it were, she was a kitten. “I want to play!”

Papa-cat stared at her for a moment, then turned to his littermates. “I think she's hungry.”

“You ing moron.”

She'd heard them say it a few times and picked up on it. She still wondered what it meant. It sounded funny, though.

“Keep her out of the way,” said one of the others sternly.

“Come on, Cookie,” Papa-cat hummed comfortingly, “let's go get something to eat.”

Cookie swiped her paw over his face. Since when did playing a game translate to meal time?

She wriggled, meowing in protest, struggling against the hands that gripped her. Maybe she could get her point across another way.

When she dropped onto the floor, she shot over it. At the same time, her twin-kit – the black kitten in the reflection – came charging towards her.

No, not her. Papa-cat! It was after Papa-cat!

Cookie launched herself at the ice wall. This was her time to shine. This was her time to protect Papa-cat!

She knew how it would go down. She would jump over its head and jump onto its back just like she had done before with her littermates. When it squealed, she would swat at its head until it surrendered and then sit on its back while the others watched in awe of her amazing battle skills. It was the perfect plan!

Or it was, until twin-kit had the same idea. They crashed into each other in mid-air and Cookie mewed as she hit the ground with a splat.

Pain exploded across her face like a spider web. Papa-cat scooped her up, cooing gently, rubbing her tiny nose.

Okay, she had to admit.

Twin-kit was good.

They took a break from the ice wall room after her act of bravery, and Cookie was satisfied when she earned herself snuggle time with Papa-cat for the next hour. They even played a game with the sparkly string stuck to the walls!

He kept calling her Silly Kitty, whatever that meant. Cookie bet it was a name only given to brave cats, like her!

But when they returned, and Papa-cat set her down back in her patch of territory, Cookie found herself looking back at the cat in the ice.

Neither of them moved. They stared at each other for a long time. Was it going to attack her again? Was it going to back away?

Cookie wasn't sure she wanted to fight the cat again. They were evenly matched, both coming up with the same plan at the same time. Papa-cat had seemed very worried.

The kitten's ear turned warily. Cookie flicked her tail, and then relented.

It looked like it had learned its lesson. It was thinking twice about doing anything. It glanced towards Papa-cat and his littermates and made no move to attack.

They were back to bouncing about. The humans didn't seem worried. Papa-cat didn't seem worried either, except when she'd bumped her head.

Cookie fluffed up her chest fur proudly. Respect had been earned.

Cookie had saved Papa-cat and friends!