The Tall Tails of Catwood

Chapter Fur

Mirri sits on her brother’s bed and pokes his side, ”Hey, wake up, bro. Time for breakfast.” The sleeping form stirs and opens his eyes, his mouth feeling dry and sore, ”Huh? Wha? Already?”

Mirri nods, grabs his cloth from the floor and throws it on his blanket, ”Yeah, move it.”

Tika shakes his head a few times and yawns while rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. He sits back and exhales slowly, thinking back on yesterday with mixed feelings.

”Hey dad, you taking us out in the woods soon to teach us that sneaking stuff?” Mirri smiles hopeful up at her dad, who merely chuckles and fuzzles her between her ears, ”Mirri, don’t you think you have enough to do with your magic studies now? I promised Tika I’d take him out there soon.” He turns to his son, greedily swallowing his breakfast and whatever crumbs he can find around the table.

”What do you say, son? Think you’re ready anytime soon to come with me?”

Tika nodnods, ”Yeah, how ‘bout tonight? I was hoping I could invite a friend over this weekend..?”

Perihelion and Mika exchange looks, ”What kind of friend?”

”He’s a lion, lives in the city. He’s really cool.”

Mika nods and smiles, ”Okay, I think we can handle a lion.”

Perihelion finishes his breakfast and gets up to go to work, ”Okay Tika, you come out to the east part of the jungle tonight, I’ll meet you there.” He steps into the elevator and is on his way down.

Mirri and Tika finish their breakfast quickly and are soon on their way to school.

”So whatcha gonna do today, Mirri?”

She watches a lizard run ahead of the two and hide as they stroll along on the path of grass and dead leaves, ”Well, I have this big test I’ve been studying for for months, thanks for noticing, I won’t be home until tonight, but then hopefully I’ll have graduated Basic Magic too. The test is *after* school for some twisted reason.”

Tika blinks, ”Wow.. so soon? Have we really been here that long?”

”No, I’m just fast,” Mirri snorts and *thwaps* his shoulder. Tika giggles and yanks his sister’s tail.

”Oow! Stop that!”

Tika yanks it again and runs off, laughing with Mirri right on his heels. They reach the school a bit faster than usually and Tika hugs Mirri, ”Good luck, sis.”

She smiles and blinks her eyes gently, ”Thanks. See you tomorrow I guess? Last day of school and then we’ll have all weekend together.”

Tika smiles a bit nervously and scritches his neck with a paw, ”Well, Kes.. the lion is going to stay with us for the weekend, so..”

Mirri nods and shrugs, feigning unconcern, ”S’okay, I suppose we’ll get a few moments to pound each other senseless in our usual sibling way?”

Tika grins and winks, ”Yeah, think we will.. see ya.”

Kesonam and Tika have a somewhat ordinary day of wildball, the last one actually since after every weekend they will start some new form of training. They both think wildball is more fun than anything else the teachers could come up with and after some begging and pleading they are both allowed to stay after school to play on with a few of the others.

The twelve furs who stayed behind play a few games with different teams, but eventually most of them have to go home and everyfur calls it a day. Kesonam and Tika fool around a bit longer and are the last ones to enter the locker room again. Tika is quickly in the shower, Kesonam following a while after.

”Uh.. so, you gonna stay with us for the weekend, or..?”

Kesonam cleans under his muscular arms a bit extra today, ”Yeah, sure. Sounds like a lot of fun. What do you want me to bring?”

Tika thinks as he soaps his ears in, ”Well.. just a toothbrush.. extra clothes.. a million credits..”

”Har har, very funny.”

”Naw, just the first two then, we have everything else.”

Kesonam nodnods and starts rinsing. They both finish washing off and go to their respective lockers. Tika stands with his head in the locker, searching through the few books and various souvenirs he has in there. They notice that everyfur else has long finished and have left the locker room.

”Maybe we should get out of here before the janitor shows up or something?” Tika finally suggests.

Kesonam nods and looks around, ”Yeah. You’re probably right.”

They both get ready to leave as soon as they can and only as they part does Tika remember he was supposed to have been home right after school. He runs as fast as his feet will carry him home, barely in time to have dinner and then run back out in the jungle to hunt with his dad for a few hours as he promised.

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