The Tall Tails of Catwood

Chapter Mix

*Beep..beep..beep..beep..beep..beep..beep..SMACK!*

Tika mrfs? And rubs his eyes. He finds himself staring up at a pink ceiling and he remembers where he is. Mirri, who just turned off the alarm clock, falls back on her bed with a groan and lays her arm over her forehead.

Tika sits up and tilts his head at her, ”Sleep well, sis?”

Mirri chuckles, but does not change her position, ”Oh yeah.. had a great dream.”

Tika was afraid she might, ”Wanna tell me about it?”

”Naw.. my dreams are just for me.”

Tika nods, ”Alright. You wanna jump in the shower first?” This is usually not a matter of discussion since Mirri always gets up first in the morning, but today the same alarm woke them.

”Yeah, okay.”

Tika lies back down and thinks about all the things he had been planning last night to tell Kesonam about his sister before she gets a chance to talk with him herself today. He is not sure if she is on to him already, but she does seem very suspicious, ”Uhm.. tell ya what, why don’t you go first today. I’m always first.”

Tika closes his eyes and tries to shove a bit indifference into his voice, ”Yeah, so why tamper with the winning system?”

”Um.. yeah but.. you know, I really didn’t sleep that good at all. You go ahead and I’ll be a bit more awake when you’re done.”

Tika decides not to be too firm on this supposedly little detail so he will not give away his plan. Hopefully she will not talk to Kesonam while Tika is in the shower, ”Okay, sis.” He gets up and hurries into the bathroom.

When he is out, Mirri sighs and moves her blanket away. This is her chance to finally get a few moments alone with the lion, without having Tika censor their conversation.

Suddenly Kesonam steps into the room just as Mirri is standing there in her nigh tie, more as a sort of reflex than rational thinking she *eeeps* and wraps herself in the blanket, ”Don’t you know you’re supposed to *knock* on a teenager’s door before you enter!?”

Kesonam gulps, ”Uh, I’m sorry.. the door was open.”

Mirri is about to say, ”It’s okay.” But she catches herself at the last moment, ”Well, just remember it till next time. I’m next in the shower.”

The lion nods, ”Oh, okay. I’ll just wait then.”

Mirri smiles and tilts her head at him, deciding to lash out the big one for the possibly only moment she will have away from Tika today, ”Y’know.. you’re kinda cute in a way.”

Kesonam gulps and blushes a bit, ”Uh.. heh.. thanks.. I guess.” He takes the opportunity of a finished sentence to scoot to the side and flee into Tika’s room again.

Mirri sighs and slaps her forehead, ”Good one, Mirri... purrfect.”

Soon they are all three newly washed and shining and on their way downstairs for breakfast. Mika has prepared some great Yurovian soup to start the day with. She greets them good morning and then just generally runs around and makes sure everyfur is fed, ”So what are you all doing today?”

Tika hmms, ”Well, we could go hunting in the woods?” He looks around at the others.

Kesonam shrugs, ”Whatever you wanna do. I’m just following around.”

Mirri sips her soup, ”Sounds like a good idea Tika. Maybe we could train a bit afterwards..?”

Everyone seems to agree to that idea and the rest of the breakfast is finished in relative silence. Mirri is the first to go to her room and get her stuff. Kesonam waits for Tika to finish devouring his micro waved, skinned Xolara fruit and then follows him to his room. Tika gets a bag out of his closet and puts it on the bed, he walks around the room thinking and pulling stuff out of his drawers while Kesonam is looking through his duffel bag.

”Okay, lessee.. we need knives of course. A special knife for skinning the animals if you wanna see how that’s done too. Umm.. we might take a longbow and arrows with us too. And maybe we could bring a--”

*ntchiing.. clack*

”What in the name of Zagra’s whiskers is that??”

Kesonam’s smirk almost reaches from ear to ear, ”That’s my dad’s hunting rifle. I figured you’d wanna go hunting with me so I borrowed it. It’s called a Qugrara 62X. Here, try holding it.”

Tika is handed what looks like a long, black stick, wider in the back than the front. It probably weighs less than half a pound, and as he grips around the trigger the material sort of molds around his paw and lets it move into the rifle until he has a comfortable grasp around it. It actually feels like the handhold is made of black goo, right until the grip is right and it hardens into a solid matter again.

Tika grins, ”Coool.”

Kesonam takes it back again with a smile, ”You said it. It’s got the obligatory scope with zoom, laser sight, night-vision, range measuring, vital part highlights, estimated health of the target, wind velocity and direction, fog eliminator--”

”..and a partridge in a pear tree?” Tika suggests.

”I was gonna say, the works.” He grabs under the front and pulls off half of the rifle, leaving just about an inch of the tip where the shots come out and empty space all the way to the trigger part, ”This is the clip. Holds 40 rounds of SP-23 ammo. You know the kind?”

Tika who has only seen a rifle when he has been with his dad to work shakes his head.

”It’s a really huge cartridge, and the ammo is especially designed for hunting. It’s supposed to pierce through the target so it doesn’t leave a bullet inside or anything, but the moment it comes out on the other side it slows down considerably so you don’t shoot everything behind the prey too. Don’t ask me how it works in detail, I think when it hits something these little ‘flaps’ come out to slow it down or something. That’s probably why they have to make the bullets so case so big.”

Tika just nodnods and smiles politely, ”Okay, so you wanna try my longbow?”

Kesonam nods, ”Sure, but we’re not trading if that’s what you think.”

Tika giggles and gets his longbow out of the closet, ”Don’t worry, my dad won’t allow guns in the house. Which reminds me that you better hide that thing again.”

All three meet at the elevator where Mirri is standing, impatiently tapping her foot, ”What took you guys so long?”

”Weapons.” Tika casually says to her, ”Let’s go.”

The party heads west after getting out at the base of the tree and after a bit of walking, move off the path there and quietly make their way through the jungle, searching for prey.

Tika keeps telling Kesonam to be quieter as he seems to step on every noisy twig in the whole jungle.

”Sorry.” Kesonam bows his head.

”Don’t be sorry, be quiet.”

*snap*

”Sorry.”

”Gah..” Tika slaps his forehead.

Mirri gasps and signals with her paw to the others to fall down. Everyfur ducks and lift their heads up very slowly to see the little rabbit in the clearing just ahead. Mirri whispers, ”Okay, who wants a shot at it?”

Kesonam pokes Mirri on her shoulder, ”I do, move aside.”

The tigress makes one step to the left and ducks down a bit more, ”Just aim for the chest or the neck. That way it won’t suffer.”

Kesonam snickers, ”Girl, I could shoot out any part of the spine from here. Besides, I’ve got a fix on the heart.” He calibrates the scope on the side until a rapidly beating heart shows up in red inside the green framework that makes out the rabbit, ”Ookay..” he whispers, ”Almost there.” He reaches to the side of the clip and presses the down arrow a few times, adjusting the size of the impact until the number in the upper corner of the scope reads 2 and the size of the crosshair about matches the size of the heart. No need to shoot out the whole belly or anything.

The rabbit wiggles its nose a bit as it seems to catch a strange scent. It looks up nervously from the plant it was chewing on and looks around. Nope, everything is fine here.

*Thom*

A barely audible, hollow puff follows the instant death of the rabbit as a vital part of its blood circulation is blown out its back.

Mirri blinks, rises to her feet and walks over to it, ”You vaporized the heart!?”

Kesonam looks down, ”So I did. Think you guys can beat that with your arrows and knives?”

Tika grins and picks up the rabbit by the ears, putting it in the special bag, ”Sure we can, let’s try finding something bigger.”

No sooner said than done the three are laying in ambush of two deer, Mirri whispers, ”Okay, Tika you get the one on the right.”

”Gotcha, sis.”

Tika readies his longbow, puts an arrow beside it and draws the cord back. Mirri gets a hunting knife out of her belt, big nasty thing. She moves her arm back and looks at the deer, ”Alright Tika, ready? One.. two--”

*swiiish..chunk*

”Three!”

Tika’s deer finds an arrow suddenly stuck in its side and for some reason starts feeling very dizzy, falling to its side as everything slowly blackens. Mirri’s deer on the other paw is scurrying away, only feeling the pain of a big knife that hit its belly as it was warned by a sound coming from Tika’s arrow.

”Tika, you brainless Waguu! You started on two! Who ever heard of *anyfur* starting *anything* on two!?!” Mirri quickly scrambles to her backpack beside her.

”It’s you who were too slow, I shoot the moment you said three!”

Mirri pulls up a thick, long, black, metal plate, holds it out in front of her and pushes a button on the side.

*CLANK*

It springs out instantly to form a black longbow made of a titanium alloy. On the bow is an electronic sight for aiming and a computer system for enhancing the force of the shot through the synthetic cords that would make Rambo green with envy.

Kesonam and Tika blink, ”Uh.. I thought dad told you to get rid of that thing..?”

”Shut up Tika.” She grabs a metal arrow from the bag, puts it beside the bow and draws back quickly.

”Give it up, sis. We can’t even see it anymore.”

Mirri has one eye closed and keeps aiming through the scope, the green light reflecting on her face, ”I see it...”

*swiish*

Mirri jumps to her feet and looks after the arrow that disappeared into the jungle, ”C’mon, let’s go.”

All three follow her lead through all the bushes and big leaves until they come to a clearing where a deer lies very, very still, part of the head missing where her arrow went through. Kesonam looks at a tree at the other side of the clearing where the arrow went straight through and sits buried three inches deep inside the one behind it.

”Woow...”

Mirri looks pretty pleased with herself, ”I think I got it, bro.”

Tika blahs, ”You’re in a lot of trouble, missy. Just wait till dad finds out.”

Mirri snorts, ”Well, if it weren’t for me, his hunting knife would have ran away.”

Tika just shakes his head. Mirri gulps and looks at him with pleading eyes, ”Oh please don’t tell him.”

Kesonam lets the two settle their discussion and walks over to the arrow. He grabs it a few times in different ways to get the best grip on it and then concentrates enough to tear it out, fracturing the tree as the barb of the arrow pulls a lot of the insides out of it. He comes back to the clearing where the two have stopped yelling at each other, Tika looks very happy and Mirri does not seem afraid anymore, he probably made her promise him a big favor or something. Kesonam hands her the arrow with a smile, ”Here, think you lost this.”

Mirri smiles, ”Hey, how’d you get it back?”

Kesonam shrugs, ”Just pulled it out.” He looks down at the ground and *eeews*, ”There’s little bits of its brain all over the place.”

The others notice it too, ”Yeah, I usually make less of a mess when I don’t have to hit a prey that’s running for its life.”

”Don’t look at me, I fired when you said three.”

Kesonam kneels down, grabs the deer by its six legs, throws it over his neck and gets to his feet again, ”Alright, let’s get the other one and go back.”

The three are on their way back to Catwood, Tika and Kesonam each carrying a deer and Mirri taking care of the rabbit. Kesonam thinks it is awfully quiet, ”So.. umm.. what’s your dad do?”

”He works with this company that processes meat and sells it. Problem is that most of the rarer animals they sell the meat off won’t breed in captivity at all. So they need furs to monitor them in the jungle, shoot them full of hormones with darts and finally kill them and bring them in once they are ready. My dad leads one of the hunting teams that do this sort of thing. The animals are pretty rare and very elusive, so teams like that are really expensive. But you should see the prices that rich furs from all over the solar system pay for that stuff. Wow!” Mirri shifts the bag with the rabbit to the other shoulder, ”He doesn’t like modern weapons at all, if it was up to him they’d be hunting with bow and arrows still. He’s real cool at it too, but most of the others he works with aren’t good at hunting, really. So the company gives them rifles and stuff to make the group more efficient.”

Kesonam nods, ”Sounds like a great job. Both keeping your old traditions of hunting alive and making money for it too. What about your mom?”

Mirri frowns, ”Mika? Well.. not much to say I think. She just takes care of everything at home, makes the meals, fixes things around the house, spends her time watching TV and meditating. She grew up in a primitive tribe I think. Dunno how they met each other.”

Tika pants and is not paying much attention to Mirri, he is just trying not to collapse under the weight of his bounty. Kesonam does not seem to have problems with his deer, ”I see.. and your tiger, what’s his name?”

”Sen. My dad found him in the jungle as a cub, trying to nurse from his dead mother. I think my dad said she had been in a fight with an especially vicious Pwaru. Sen had probably run away and hid himself, but his mom didn’t live through it. My dad says the cub came right up and rubbed himself against him, no fears at all. So he kept the cub, fed him and stuff and now he’s just part of the family. We don’t let him out as much as we used to. He gets into fights with all the tigers he meets.” Mirri points, ”Hey, we’re almost there.”

The party steps into the hidden elevator in the tree trunk and makes their way up. Mika smiles and greets them from the kitchen, and helps them put all the animals in the huge freezer, ”Tika, could you do me a favor?”

Tika looks at the other two and then back at his mom, ”Uh.. I guess so, what?”

”I need you to run into the city and get these things.” She hands him a list. Tika’s ears droop down and he sighs, ”Alright. You gonna be okay, Kes?”

”Yeah, I can take care of myself.” He grins and winks.

Mirri sees her opportunity, ”Yeah, we’ll just go upstairs and start staff fighting and you can join later.”

Tika gets the shopping bag and is soon out the door. The other two go upstairs and Mirri closes the hatch, ”Okay.. what do you wanna start with?”

Kesonam looks around at all the equipment, ”Well.. umm.. staff fighting doesn’t sound like a bad idea.”

After a few stances, twirling and showing off, they actually start fighting and both are getting increasingly impressed about the other’s skills. Mirri does her usual leaping around and occasional rapid bursts of blows, which Kesonam does his best to parry. Unlike his regular staff training, he is now constantly on the defense, blocking and parrying Mirri’s strikes, but not trying to retaliate. However, after a few hard pokes in the chest and one blow to the knee, he starts caring less about Mirri being a female and begins returning strikes.

Mirri is more audible about being hit and not too happy about it either. She gets careless, blocking offensively and just trying to get through to the lion’s skin as quickly as possible. Naturally, she pays the price.

Kesonam blocks her furious jabs while backing away until he has his back against the wall, which only makes her lunge harder, two quick parries and he can predict the next strike. He sidesteps her knock into the empty air and even has enough time to shift his grip lower onto the staff and use it similar to a bat as he *THWAPS* the side of Mirri’s head as hard as he can.

The tigress howls in pain and flies back over the middle of the room, tumbling all the way to the opposite wall. Kesonam stands panting with battle frenzy, then blinks as he realized what he just did, ”Oops...”

Mirri sets her staff to the ground and uses it as a walking stick to raise herself to her knees and then to her feet. She pants and looks at the floor, her orange hair falling down to hide her face as she shakes her head, ”Aww, man.. I deserved that.” She grabs her jaw and cracks it back in place, moaning softly as her soothing healing magic takes over.

Kesonam just stands still, nervously twitching his tail back and forth, ”Umm.. you okay?”

Mirri nods and looks up, moving her hair back in place with a paw, ”Yeah, I’m fine. Just got a little carried away.” She grins and shakes her head again, ”Ready?”

Kesonam quirks a brow, but takes a defensive stand, ”Yeah, go ahead.”

Mirri leaps at him, more thoughtful this time. He is once again on the defense, backing away from her assault, barely having time see her spin around herself, parrying his few cautious knock and slapping back twice as fast. She sidesteps one of his more eager strikes, spins around and punches him straight in the belly with the end of her staff, knocking the air out of his lungs for a moment. Kesonam falters and throws himself backwards to recompose himself, but Mirri mercilessly keeps smacking at him, feeling how his blocks come slower and less resistant, right until he stumbles and falls on his back. Mirri whirls her staff to gain enough force and knocks the staff out of his paw, she pirouettes around to his side, falls to one knee facing him and slams her staff as hard as she can down over his chest.

Kesonam has used the few seconds after being disarmed to take a deep breath and concentrate, and smiles up at Mirri as she hurls her staff at his body. He closes his eyes, hearing how the wooden quarterstaff splinters into scrap as it impacts with his ribcage.

Mirri is kneeling, panting by his side and just blinks, ”What the...?”

Kesonam exhales with a gasp and starts breathing again, ”Just a little trick I know.” He snickers up at her and blinkblinks innocently.

Mirri cannot help giggling in amazement and looks at her fractured staff, she can see the bright wood inside it where it cracked, ”I think you better teach me how to do that.”

Kesonam waits until he has somewhat caught his breath again before rolling to the side, grabbing his own staff and jumping to his feet again, ”Later.. right now I have a tigress to cream.”

Mirri *eeeks* and jumps to her feet, looking around frantically for a weapon. Kesonam charges and suddenly finds himself facing a wall of flames, blazing from the floor right where Mirri was, ”WHOA!!” He skids to a halt and throws himself to the side. He looks up to find the flames gone, but Mirri stands at the other side of the room with a new staff in her paws.

”Dang.”

Mirri laughs mockingly at him from across the room, ”Tee-hee.. gotcha!”

Kesonam growls and jumps to his feet, running after her. Mirri stands ready to receive him warmly, tail swishing anxiously.

The lion starts with a blow from above, which Mirri withstands, swiftly blocking and concentrating enough to make him move slower. She parries two rather slow jabs with relative easy, evades a strike and knocks at his staff to get him off guard. Kesonam steps back, ducking a swirling staff and then gets up ready to crack her head as she ducks down. Unfortunately she had not anticipated he would get up, so her staff, which was supposed to smack his chin as he was crouching, instead flies backwards and up, smashing directly into his crotch.

The lion wails in pain and falls to his side. Mirri blinks and gulps, ”Uh oh. A little too low perhaps..”

She watches him roll on the floor and quiver in agony, and drops her staff kneeling down to calm him, ”I’m so sorry, Kes. Let me help.”

Kesonam merely growls at her and returns to whining, clutching himself. Mirri has to wait a few moments until he is less likely to bite her, and then puts her paws on his chest. The lion writhes in pain and does not even notice her beside him, and suddenly this unthinkably warm feeling spreads inside him as she works her magic.

Kesonam gasps and finds himself staring at the ceiling, all the pain has disappeared by magic and he is merely left with a tingling sensation everywhere under his fur that slowly decreases in strength until it is gone again.

Mirri draws her paw back, grinning, ”Feel better now?”

Kesonam just noddles quickly and lays his head back, ”Oh yeah.. This is much nicer than any other healing magic I know.”

Mirri thinks this is her chance to make up for lost time and she leans a bit further over his chest to smile down at his face. The lion looks a bit uncomfortable with their muzzles this close, ”Uhh.. Mirri?”

She just blinks her bright blue eyes very slowly. He is not sure if that sparkling inside them is magic or her real eyes, but they are enticing enough to make him speechless, ”What, Kes..?” She whispers with a chiming voice that sends shivers down his spine.

”I.. uhh.. forgot what I wanted to say.”

Mirri giggles and blinks her eyes astonishingly, her yellow ears flickering as she gazes down at him, ”Good..” She leans down over him, both closing their eyes as their muzzles meet. Mirri prepares herself to kiss him deeply, but is just met with his flat muzzle, nudging her nose. She draws back and blinks at him, he does not look disappointed, though.

”Uh, Kes.. when was the last time you kissed a female?”

Kesonam instantly feels like he did something wrong, so he might as well tell her, ”Umm.. 4th grade, I think..”

Mirri laughs merrily and shakes her head, ”Let me show you how it’s done now.” She leans down again, kisses his muzzle once more, but this time also forces his lips aside with her tongue. He watches her with wide eyes and is a bit stunned at the unfamiliar feeling of the additional tongue inside his mouth, but it is warm, pleasant and infinitely playful. A rumbling purr emits somewhere deep down in his throat as they tongue wrestle, and he gets a chance to feel along the backside of all her sharp teeth. He had no idea mouths were this warm inside.

All too soon, Mirri draws her head back a bit, her eyes closed and begins licking at his head like the feline she is. Kesonam closes his eyes and *murrrs* as her grooming turns to affectionate strokes, licking over his muzzle and nibbling at his fur. He puts his paws around her back and pulls her down to lie beside him, occasionally opening his eyes a bit as their tongues accidentally lick across each other.

Mirri *mrrrrrrs* and licks over his furry chin, she grabs his whiskers and playfully tugs a bit before locking muzzles with him again in another intimate kiss. He then feels her rough sandpaper tongue moving down his face and starting to rasp over his throatfur too.

Mirri blinks and shakes her head as she realizes what she is doing, ”Darn grooming instinct,” she mumbles and moves her head back up next to his. She snuggles up to him and lays an arm over his chest. Her eyes close and a soft moan escapes her black lips as she cuddles into his furry side, ”That was nice..”

Kesonam immediately wraps his paws around her and holds her closer to his warm body, purring affectionately to her. He smiles happily and just stares at her for a few long moments before finally speaking, ”So.. How was that?”

Mirri giggles and squirms closer to him, taking great comfort in his warm and powerful hug, ”Not bad. I think I could get used to that.”

Kesonam wonders idly for a moment if Tika will be back anytime soon, but the gentle tongue action suddenly applied to his muzzle vaporizes all would-be thoughts in his mind and just leaves both of them purring for some time still...

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