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Stories by: Mirri |
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Stories by: Mirri |
Chapter Delve
Tika opens an eye reluctantly to awaken to the world
again. The sight that greets him does not really register at first, but eventually he
finds out that he is looking at the small tipped over table in the corner. The model he
was working on there is gone and all the little cans of paint lie scattered all around,
but for some reason, there is no paint on the floor.
“Oh no.. not again...”
A paw strokes over Kesonam’s ears for the third time
and he grunts again, only this time the sensation is enough to wake him up. He blinks his
eyes a few times and tries to keep them open even if it stings terribly the first few
times. Mirri lies beside him, still fully asleep it seems, her arm over his head and her
paw twitching and fondling his left ear. The lion smiles and gently licks at her cheek
while pushing her side gently, ”Mirri.. wakey, wakey...”
Mirri *mrrrfs* and opens one of her eyes just a bit before
closing it again and baring her teeth a bit as her headache seems to wake too. Kesonam
keeps shaking her side gently, ”C’mon sleepyhead, time to get up.”
Her response is a very cross growl, telling anyone and
everyone to keep back, ”Lea’me ‘lone.” She rolls to her belly and
buries her face in the pillow.
”Aww, is that any way to greet your mate in the
morning?” He cannot help grinning and keeps pushing and shaking her despite her
growls and furious bats at his paws to make him stop.
Eventually Mirri gives in and sits up in bed, her elbows
to her knees and holding her head in place. She still has not opened her eyes,
”Gods... my head feels like there’s a hundred little Geweas hammering inside and
trying to crack my skull open.”
Kesonam grabs her head and pulls her close to kiss her
between the ears, ”Are they gone now?”
She smiles faintly, ”No. Now they’re all
screaming to get back at the big lion for shaking them around like that.”
He pulls the blanket covering them aside and gasps,
”By Zagra’s whiskers...” Hidden in the other end of the bed lies a very big
and very colorful tiger. Senajit looks like an oversized multicolored carpet, his stripes
barely visible between the splashes of white, gray, red, green, blue, purple, turquoise
and other indeterminable hues. Worst of all, however, is that all the colors of the clumsy
beast are smeared all over the blanket, sheets and the legs and feet of the two mates as
well. Kesonam’s eyes widen, ”How are we gonna get all this clean??”
Mirri just groans and holds her head in her paws at
spotting the ordeal.
Tika rushes in through the door, following the trail of
wet painted paw-prints, and sees the saboteur, “SEN!!!”
The tigress growls and throws a pillow at her brother,
“Shut up.”
Her brother growls as well, but for a different reason
than a headache, “I bet my new model is stuck to his back too. He prob’ly rolled
around in it all night.”
Kesonam just looks a bit lost, “So.. what d’we
do? I bet your parents aren’t gonna be too thrilled when they see this.”
Tika ponders for a few moments, ”Well, first of all I
think we should clean you all. We can take turns showering and I’ll go with Sen
first.” He rips the blanket off the sleepy and protesting tiger, grabs him by the
neckscruff and pulls him out of the bed and onto the floor.
*Thump. Rawr!*
“Shut up, Sen.
Get up. You’re in so much trouble when I get you cleaned up. Stupid animal.”
*Murf?*
“Yeah, you heard me. Stupid animal!
C’mere!” At that, the two are already out of the room and on their way into the
shower.
”Alright, we’ll wait here and wake up a bit
more.” Kesonam’s words fall on the empty doorway mostly. He turns to his mate
again, this time in a bit more concerned tone of voice, ”You okay Mirri?”
She shakes her head and grips it tighter in an attempt to
stop the swirling feeling, ”No. I need something for my headache. Second closet to
the right of the sink in the bathroom. A little purple glass.” Her mate nods and
moves into the bathroom right after Tika, to get her the pills. Once Kesonam enters the
room, he spots Tika scrubbing away at the fighting tiger’s coat, lathering Senajit
all up with soap and various shampoos.
”You trouble-maker, Sen. I ought to... No, why
don’t I?!!?” Tika growls at Senajit. Almost immediately, Tika’s paw flashes
out and snaps the tiger a few times on the rump, teaching the beast a lesson.
”Easy, Tika. He won’t learn if you just beat him
around...” Kesonam says in a harmful tone, mainly directed to Tika. After the light
scolding, Kesonam moves further into the bathroom to rummage around for the pills Mirri
had asked him. ”Found ‘em.” He says to himself and quickly walks out the
door.
Mirri swallows three in one mouthful and lies down on her
back again to relax and wait until they take effect. The worried lion beside her strokes
her cheek gently with a paw while they both wait for Tika to finish with Senajit. After a
few more minutes, and a bit of thumping around in the shower, her brother comes back
again, looking a bit fluffy after the quick drying off, ”Okay, who’s next?”
Kesonam tosses the blanket aside, flings his feet out of
the bed, and gets up to go clean his fur. Tika glances over Mirri for a moment and blinks.
”You okay?”
The tigress looks up to her brother and growls, waving her
paw in a dismissal, ”When you leave, yeah.” With a snorty-grunt, Tika leaves
Mirri alone and goes downstairs to look for some instructions on the washing machine. It
would be best that they fix this mess before certain parental units find out what Senajit
has been doing with Tika’s colors.
Almost the minute Tika finds the
instructions and returns upstairs – which is about the same time as Kesonam exits the
bathroom – Mirri is sitting up in bed and looking better, at least as good as she can
look in her current messy state. She takes her shower while the other two bundle the
sheets, along with anything else that is sticky, and drag it all downstairs to the washing machine. Tika and Kesonam have a
bit of trouble forcing the giant lump of sheets through the door of the machine, but
eventually succeed. Tika adds various soaps in different slots of the washing machine,
while his friend helps him read the instructions very carefully. Kesonam mulls over the
instructions at least five times so they are absolutely certain that everything is done
correctly, and that none of the paw-crafted sheets will come out with odd patterns, or
splotches on them.
Senajit lies in his place under the stairs with an aching
rump, watching Tika and Kesonam fumble their way through the washing instructions. Even
though one of the two furs in front of him is the one who yelled and slapped him, the
tiger joins the two, sniffing around their legs before looking curiously into the washing
machine at the other striped things in there. He *mrowls* at them to check if it is
another tiger.
Tika smirks impishly and then opens the door, ”Aww..
you wanna join your friend in there..?”
The tiger looks up at him and tries to figure out if this
is some kind of trick, but Kesonam quickly slams the door shut again, ”Don’t you
dare Tika.”
The leopard smiles, ”C’mon, it’s just a
little tumbling around amongst other striped and smelly things. He’d feel right at
home.”
Kesonam glares.
*Sigh* ”Alright, alright... spoil sport.” Tika
presses the red pad, which begins to glow and the washing machine gives off a roaring
noise of approval as it starts the program.
Senajit *mrums* and presses his nose against the glass.
Tika pets his four-legged friend, ”Y’know, he
should actually have been neutered.”
The lion frowns, ”Why’s that?”
”There’s already too many tigers on the planet,
we’re supposed to keep the population down so by law all pet tigers have to be
neutered. But laws aren’t really enforced way out here in the jungle, and we’re
so close to nature that we wouldn’t think of doing such a thing. Isn’t that
right Sen?”
Senajit purrs and rubs against Tika’s legs
thankfully.
The stairs creek and both look up to see Mirri coming
down, smiling all over. She grins and walks past them into the kitchen, her tail swinging
behind her, ”Now, who’s up for some breakfast?”
After breakfast and having prepared lunch at the same
time; so they do not have to worry about that later, they all take the washed, rinsed and
dried sheets upstairs again and put them on neatly. Mirri and Kesonam retreat to the
confines of the large bedroom once again to talk and just be together, and they leave Tika
on his own. He plays around with Senajit a bit, fixes a few things around the house,
cleans the mess in the living room after last night and just generally mucks about doing
odd chores.
The other two individuals spend
most of their time walking around Catwood both inside and outside, training with each
other in the exercise room, gawking at their tail rings and quite obviously having fun on
their own. This is when Tika decides to go hunting with Senajit on the last day of the
weekend.
The theory of ‘Time flies
when you are having fun’ is indeed correct. Before they know it, Perihelion and Mika
return from their trip to find the house in great shape, everything clean and neat. They
find Mirri and Kesonam sitting in her room, studying physics together, and Tika watching TV
in his own room with Senajit on his lap. Kesonam only stays for dinner before saying
goodbye to everyone and returning home to get ready for school the next day.
Mirri sees a flock of furs stand in a circle outside her
classroom, obviously talking to someone. As she realizes who it is, she pushes one of the
furs aside and addresses the little, scared fox in the middle, ”Hey Boogwa!
You’re late for your class, get going!” She points to the door while the five
other furs are distracted and still a bit puzzled about what is going on. Boogwa quickly
squeezes in between two of them and escapes into the classroom. Mirri rolls her eyes at
the group, ”New kids.. sheesh...”
Boogwa continues to shake a bit while he pulls his books
out of the backpack, stacking them neatly at the top of his table, parallel with the
edges. He looks up as Mirri sits down at her spot by the table in front of him, ”Um.
I thank you for your most-needed assistance outside the classroom a moment ago.”
Mirri shrugs, ”Yeah, whatever.”
”I’m sorry, did I say anything to agitate
you?”
”Naw, s’not you. Just don’t feel like
starting school again after the most wonderful weekend of my life.”
”Oh. I understand. Is it anything you would feel happier with if
it were to be portrayed to someone else, or would it merely curtail the experience to
share it?”
”I think I better keep this to myself, Boogwa.”
”Mirri, pay attention.” Mr. Ubishan says curtly.
He has already started the lesson it seems. Repulsor physics. The most important subject
at the moment.
*Yawn*
Boogwa closes his physics book reluctantly. To him, this
class is an answer to a scream of opportunity. Even if he does know the entire curriculum
by heart. Mirri does not seem to have the same troubles as Boogwa, however. The tigress
quickly snaps her book shut with a loud *smack*. ”Done! Geez...”
”Um. Mirri?”
She turns to Boogwa and perks her ears, ”What?”
”I was merely wondering.. are you good at math and
physics?” He tilts his head in a curious sort of way and blinks his big eyes.
”Uhh.. good as in.. what? I get top grades in my
class and I don’t consider it a problem to me, if that’s what you mean?”
”Well. Um. I merely wanted to question you if it was
possible that you would consider studying with me. It is most probable that I could teach
you miscellaneous techniques to make the subject even less of a task for you.”
Mirri quirks a brow, ”And in return..?”
Boogwa wipes his paws against each other nervously,
”Well. Um. You appear to be quite proficient at dealing with the thugs constantly
wanting to harm me...”
She can already tell where this is leading, ”Sorry
Boogwa, I don’t wanna be your bodyguard or anything. I have ‘nuff to worry about
both in and outside school. Furs are picking on me too y’know.”
Boogwa just sighs and looks concerned, ”I told my
parents this would never amount to a successful arrangement.”
The tigress tries a reassuring smile, ”Aw c’mon,
things aren’t that bad. You just have to get used to a new school.”
”It is not the school I am referring to.”
Mirri blinks, ”Then what?”
Boogwa grumbles and starts putting his books away,
”The planet.”
”What’s wrong with the planet?”
”I have not lived here for the entirety of my
existence.”
Mirri blinks again, ”You’re from another
planet??”
Boogwa nods and shrugs, ”Yes.”
”That is so cool! I’ve only met one other fur
beside you from a different planet. Where are you from? What’s it like? Do they have
the same time system?”
The black fox cants his head slightly at her, ”If I
tell you all about it, will you protect me?”
Mirri glares at him with half-lidded eyes and puts her
paws to her hips.
”Okay, I understand. I originally hail from the planet of
Dra’weem. It is not that distant from here. It is very serene and agreeable, although
there have been massive strikes in the mining associations, which is one of the reason for
my family moving here. And they do not have the same time system. That is, I believe they
do not. What is it like here?”
Mirri grins, ”Well, all of the public systems and
generally the whole planet use the standard galactic hour. There’s 30 hours to one
day, eight days to one week, five weeks to one month and 10 months to a year. Pretty
simple. But how do you figure out how old you are?”
”We utilize both systems at my domicile. On my birth
planet I am as of this day exactly 16 years and 6 weeks. So therefore I must be nine
years, six months and three weeks on this planet.”
Mirri sits and stares at the black fox in disbelief for a
few long moments, ”PLEASE tell me that you’ve been calculating on this before
you left your house this morning?”
Boogwa blinks, ”Why would I do such a thing?”
”You mean you just calculated all that in your
head?”
”Evidently. So how old are you?”
Mirri shakes her head a bit to clear her thoughts,
”Uhh.. almost 12.”
”I meant, how many days and such.”
”I dunno.”
Now it is the fox’s turn to stare at her in
disbelief, ”You do not know? I would have thought a smart fur as yourself would know
such a trivial fact.”
”Yeah? Maybe I think it’s a bit too trivial. I
have better things to do than go around all the time remembering how many hours old I am
y’know.”
Boogwa smiles, ”I am 115,920 hours old.”
The tigress grins and points at the clock, ”115,921.
We just passed the first lesson.”
”As a matter of fact the time would have to be at
least 14 minutes into the next lesson before an additional hour is added.”
Mirri gahs, ”Never mind, all this is making my head
spin already. See ya around Boogwa.” She pats him on the head with a grin and heads
for her next class.
The next couple of lessons are specialized math concerning
a project they are supposed to be working on. However, she looked everything up herself
and pestered her dad a lot about it, so she is almost done with the project and figures
she can allow herself two hours of just sitting around doing nothing and thinking to
herself. She waits a few minutes till everyone has settled down and the teacher has
launched himself into a long and tedious explanation about a certain math arithmitic,
which looks like he will not be distracted from in the near future.
The tigress sighs softly to herself and looks out the
window. The purple birds are chirping and bouncing around in the trees outside in the
schoolyard, apparently chasing each other among the leaf-dappled branches.
One exceptionally bright one, with a black stripe, catches
her eye. She follows it among the various trees as it hophops around merrily, completely oblivious to the spring of knowledge
being poured out everywhere inside the huge building beside it. Mirri sets her paw to her
cheek, supporting herself with her elbow against the table, and smiles at the peculiar
bird as it turns around in circles on a branch, as if it suddenly forgot where it was. She
rolls her eyes at it and tries just for fun, to send an image of a juice apple at the top
of the tree to it. Mirri has only managed to send a very simple image of a pencil to
someone else in magic class so far, and that was while concentrating enormously and
touching the other fur.
The bird lifts off the branch and flies straight to the
top of the tree where it starts hopping around again.
Mirri blinks and lifts her head out of her paw. “No..
it couldn’t be...” She thinks to herself and sends a suspicious gaze at the
bird. “Must have been a coincidence.”
She chuckles to herself at a sudden idea, and decides to
prove herself wrong. Mirri barely concentrates, and tries to send an image of the
schoolyard to her winged purple friend outside, only flipping it upside down.
The tigress nearly falls off her chair in surprise as the
bird flaps its wings suddenly and falls straight to the ground on its back. Mirri loses
sight of it, and just sits staring out the window at nothing in particular, “Oh
my..” Is her best response to this.
The teacher abruptly slams his pointing rod at
Mirri’s table, making the black metal sing. This does not at all help Mirri’s
concentration on what has happened outside. He continues in the same sort of monotone
voice where you can never quite tell when each sentence ends or begins. “..otherwise
we won’t be able to calculate this kind of problem Mirri is this course of advanced
Equilateral Hygerpitation boring you?”
“Uhh.. no. Not as such.”
“I see, then maybe you would like to explain to
everyone how to solve the equation on the blackboard without the use of a computer?”
Mirri moves her a bit to the side so she can see what the
teacher has written in white on the blackboard. It is a bit unclear from her point of
view, but she can see three of the numbers clearly, “Um. The 7.65?”
The teachers sighs and *thwaps* at her desk again, making
her jump. “No, no, no, no, NO! Pay attention Mirri!” He makes one of those
conceding sort of sighs that makes everyone else in the classroom glad they are not Mirri
right now. “447.6971251/3 is not possible to calculate in your head,
unless of course you’re a Perturian living in at the roof of a skyscraper.”
A spreading chuckle resonates throughout the classroom.
“First we have to look at each part of the- yes what
is it Beruvi?”
A brownish dog with round black spots places his paw back
along the table after being called upon. His spot is in the exact middle of the room. He
clears his throat and fumbles with his calculator, “The answer to the problem is
actually 7.65.”
The teacher waves his pointing rod proudly,
“Nonsense, it’s not possible to see the answer out of this number, first we have
to utilize the method of Equilateral Hygerpitation on the problem and *then* we can start
putting the answer together.”
“But she was right.”
“Alright, give me that.” The teacher advances to
the dog’s table, grabs his pocket computer and starts pounding in numbers.
“First of all I told you to put this thing away you’re supposed to learn this
without the use of a computer what if you were stranded on a deserted island and a
mythical Sphinx came by and offered to bring you home if you could tell it what
10,866.832384811/4 is within ten minutes.” He spins around,
“Mirri!”
“Um.. 10.21?”
The classroom holds its breath while the teacher pounces
in numbers.
“That’s... right...”
Everyone stares at Mirri, not least of all the teacher,
“And might I inquire exactly *how* you figure that out?”
Mirri just smiles nervously, “I’m.. not really
sure. It just seemed right..” But the tigress is no fool, she knows how to cover her
tracks and has managed to fumble her own calculator out of her bag without anyone
noticing, “..to my calculator, that is!”
The class seems to breathe a sigh of relief, and the
teacher just snorts offended, “So that was how, hm?” All the attention Mirri
received previously slowly begins to fade away before she realizes it ever existed. The
lesson is back on track, but she has problems explaining it to herself. All she did was
look at the blackboard and the three numbers looked different from the others. And when
the teacher spoke, he seemed to raise his voice just a little when he said those other
four numbers.
Mirri shrugs the eerie feeling off by a characteristic
feline shake and settles back in her previous position of gazing thoughtlessly out the
window. Her thoughts fall on Kesonam right away, she smiles at the picture of him in her
mind. She barely manages to suppress one of those love-stricken sighs, but her tail begins
swishing back and forth behind the chair. Mirri looks around the room and almost feels
sorry for all the other furs in there who are just staring mindlessly at the blackboard
and not experiencing that fuzzy feeling swirling around deep inside her.
The two lessons pass quickly after this. The teacher does
not address her again at all, and she soon finds herself pawing through her locker in the
hallway. The warmth inside her slowly fading as she has other things to think about now. A
strange buzzing sort of sound that has been there all day becomes louder as Mirri notices
it again. She figured it was just a sort of headache, but now that she thinks about it, it
actually sounds more like a pulsing echo deep inside her head.
Mirri closes her locker quickly and starts tracking the
sound with her senses. The minute she closes the metallic door on her locker, the echo and
vibration passes through her fingertips, reaching into her mind. Her head wheels to the
left, finding a person brushing her arm on the way past. A harmless gesture, but to Mirri,
the smell and texture of the person’s fur is caught within her nose and fingertips.
She can hear an echoing pulse, ringing in her skull. This pulse is soon found out that it
increases with each fur that walks past her. “Uh oh..” She jumps up at the
nearest fur, “Excuse me!”
The fox blinks at the tigress, “Yeh?”
She puts a paw to his chest, hoping the fox does not mind
what she is doing. It is just as she thought. The pulsing echo is synchronous to his
heartbeat. Mirri can feel the heartbeat of almost everyone nearby, but to the fox, all
that happened was that a gorgeous tigress just went up and touched his chest. Mirri barely
notices the yearning stare from him. The more pressing question is at paw, and she races
down the hallway, only one thought on her mind: Get out of this crazy place in a hurry!
Mirri rushes towards the
Teacher’s Lounge, in hopes to find the one person who can answer her question. The secretary at the teacher’s lounge thinks
it is a bit odd how a panicky student rushes up to her, demands to know which class her
magic teacher is in right now and then bolts away again like she had a hungry Ywura hot on
her tail. But before the secretary can ask the question, Mirri rushes out the door, to the
destination given to her.
“Okay, now what is this?”
“Uhm.. a landscape.. blue grass.. two moons in the
sky.. nighttime.. a forest at the right horizon and a flock of Ikigian cattle in the
middle.” The panthress smiles cheerfully as her teacher nods enthusiastically at her
very accurate description of the cloaked picture.
“That’s very good!”
The door sounds as if it is kicked open and a panting
tigress falls into the room, “Mrs. Prymila! I need help!”
The panthress keeps seated and stares in surprise at the
other two.
“Mirri? What’s wrong?” Mrs. Prymila asks.
“Something’s going on, I.. I can solve
impossible math problems without trying, I can make birds fall off trees, I can hear the
heartbeats of everyone in the whole school!”
“Oh my. Come in and sit down.”
The classroom is completely empty except for the teacher
and the panthress; it must be a special private lesson of some sort.
“Okay, relax Mirri. Tell me what happened step by
step. Don’t leave anything out.”
“Well, it all started when I didn’t pay
attention in class I was looking out the window and there was a purple bird and it was
hopping around the trees and there was one with a big stripe. I tried to turn him upside
down but he fell down and then the teacher smacked my table with a stick and asked me if I
was bored and I told him the answer was 7.65 and he said I couldn’t do that but it
was right and then I had to say I had cheated and when I was in the hallway I could feel
everyone’s heart and I touched a fox’ chest to see if I could and it worked and
I got so scared and--”
“Mirri.. please calm down, I can’t understand a
word you’re saying.” The teacher looks to her other student for help, who merely
shrugs and focuses on the next upside-down picture in the pile.
“Don’t look at me, she lost me after
‘Well’.”
Mirri is panting and squeezing her teacher’s paw. Her
brain is racing with questions, trying to figure the answers out herself. Oddly enough,
when touching the teacher’s paw, she is unable to feel, nor hear her heartbeat.
“I’m sorry, Mirri this is Tiro, my special
student.”
The panthress smiles comforting to the jumpy tigress and
extends a paw, her spherical ears perking up, “Nice to meet you, despite the
circumstances.”
Mirri shakes her paw and smiles back half-heartedly.
The teacher smiles as well, “Well, what do you think
of all this Tiro?”
A smile curls across the black fur’s muzzle,
“I’d say she’s my victim for today.”
The other two stares wide-eyed at the panthress, who
merely leans back in her chair with a smirk, “Yeah, you heard me. I decided to fool
around with someone’s senses today, and here’s the result.”
Mirri is not sure if she should be thankful it is all over
and solved, or if she should beat her up. Unfortunately, her genetic heritage is not
something that will surrender to rational thought that easy.
“You WHAT!?!”
The distinctive sound of ten, nearly two inch, claws
breaking the through the skin of Mirri’s paw adds tension to the atmosphere in there.
“Now, now Mirri. We’ve talked about this before,
remember what I said? Don’t use violence as the first option.”
Mirri’s haggles rise as she bares her sharp fangs,
ears laid back and snarling deep in her throat.
Tiro merely waves her paw in a semi-circle in front of her
with a smile, “Relaaax...”
The tigress’ features turn a bit more friendly, her
claws move back in and her face looks somewhat normal again, “Yeah, you’re
right.” She murmurs to herself and flops down on a chair. The panthress rises to her
feet and walks over to the window, letting the other two talk alone for a bit. Mirri looks
up at Tiro through the random strands of orange hair blocking her vision. It’s then
she gets to look at her thoroughly for the first time.
Tiro is rather beautiful actually, but not in the way of
many other furs on the school with their makeup and coloring and jewelry and other
accessories. She has a natural grace and beauty, and quite a bushy tail for a panthress.
Fox heritage maybe.
Her body is a bit thin and the only thing protruding in
any way are her athletic muscles. There are certainly no excess fat on that skeleton, and
most tell her she should try to eat more. Mirri is enticed at the way she moves with an
elegance only found commonly in dancers, smoothly making her way to where her whim brings
her as if trying not to step too hard on the ground. Her fur is ebony black all the way
through, dark as midnight, and only the sharp sunlight through the window reveals a few
blurry places in her fur that are slightly darker than everywhere else, forming large
rosettes all over her body. It is amazing how something that black can shine so
brilliantly.
As she turns around again, her eyes gleam a deep green,
like emerald but varying with the ambient light. The spherical ears planted on top of her
head are a bit gray-browner on the inside, and have a few very long hairs sticking out at
the top, making sort of funny tufts that bounce and sway with each movement of her head.
The only thing not obscure as deep space on her seems to
be found around the face, including her eyes, her whiskers and the inside of her ears. The
nose is also black and even her furry chin is dark.
Mirri wonders what it will be like to be just one color
all over, like her. She has always thought of herself as a very singular colored fur, but
compared to Tiro she herself appears very colorful indeed. Mirri is different shades of
orange, but she also has her white furry front and all her stripes. Must be boring to be
just one color.
Her gaze falls to Tiro’s nether parts, where a skirt
keeps her private parts private, not unlike Mirri’s own. The difference, however, is
that Mirri’s is indeed paw-crafted by materials found in the jungle while Tiro’s
has been produced by machines and only made to resemble ‘the real thing’. Only a
native like Mirri could tell the difference, however.
The only other
thing she is wearing is a metallic white, short-sleeved shirt with an inscription in
marine blue letters: “Better to understand a little than to misunderstand a
lot.”
Mirri can do
nothing but agree with that statement. It is not hard for her to imagine why it would be
nice to wear as little as possible on a spring day like this when you have fur that
actively attracts heat. Tiro seems to be noticing how Mirri is staring at her.
“Uhm.. I like
your shirt.”
Tiro looks down,
“Yah. Pretty neat, no? So, are you done with all your classes now or what?”
“Yeah. I
think I’m gonna go home now. I don’t feel so good after all this.”
“Great. Sorry
about that prank I pulled.”
”Bah, no big
deal, I guess. I probably had it coming to me anyways.” Mirri chides.
”Can I walk
Mirri home, Mrs. Prymila?” Tiro asks, turning to the tigress the second after,
“You don’t mind, do you?”
The teacher smiles
and secretly chuckles inside at the thought of her two most promising students hitting off
this well, “I guess it would be okay for you both to leave early today. Just
don’t make it a habit. I’m sure you will feel better tomorrow Mirri.” She
watches them gather their stuff and head out the door silently.
The two begin to walk down the
school hall, passing very few furs. School has yet to be dismissed and the two are leaving
quite early. Only one teacher manages to stop them in the hall, asking why they are not in
class. Tiro gives her best explanation/excuse to why they are leaving early. The tale, of
course, is not entirely true. ”I’m sorry, but my dear friend here needs to be
escorted home. I’ve been assigned to do that by Mrs. Prymila.” Tiro says fluidly
before leaning over to the teacher, whispering, “But she’s not exactly right in
the head to get there on her own.”
Mirri picks up the faint
whisper, and tries to act as insulted as she can. An elbow flies out from somewhere and
thumps Tiro harshly in the ribs.
”Well, alright. Make sure
she gets home safely,” the teacher manages to say.
Tiro grins, ”Don’t
worry, I’ll make sure she gets home without stumbling into traffic this time.”
All too soon, the two find
their way out of the school, giggling the very moment they are out of hearing distance of
the teacher.
Mirri looks Tiro over once
more and bites her lip, ”So, I haven’t seen you in any of my Magic Classes. What
gives?” Her head turns back around to the school, in the general direction of the
classroom they left.
Tiro sighs lightly,
”Well... Mrs. Prymila’s the only qualified teacher to help me in my studies
n’ such. There aren’t any other teachers around this area that can help me with
my Magic skills.” The panthress lowers her head slightly, looking along the path
outside to the gates. ”Mrs. Prymila does studies with me, to see how much skill I
have. A year or two ago, Magic came to me like swimming did. And I’m an excellent
swimmer,” she beams.
Mirri perks her brows upward,
”That easy, huh? Y’mind doing my homework in magic class?” She grins
lightly at this, being sarcastic obviously. ”Well, anyways, does this kind of thing
happen very often?”
They pass the school gates.
“No, just to a few. About maybe one out of a billion furs. I’ve read about it in
the diaries of the High Mages.”
“What’s
that?”
“You
don’t know the High Mages?”
Mirri shakes her
head and watches Tiro attentively.
“The High
Mages is the term for the pawful of known furs throughout this planet’s history who
have reached a mastery of magic more extensive than any scholar would think possible.
According to science there’s a definite limit as to how much magic it is possible to
learn and remember, based on the complexity and years of needed experience to become
proficient at the various circles.”
Mirri nods and
perks her ears up high with interest.
“But these
High Mages broke all the boundaries and learned almost all kinds of known magic, including
the ancient and arcane ones that have no real practical use, and there’s even legends
of ones who simply made up new kinds of magic that were completely unheard of.”
“I see.. so..
you’re a High Mage?”
Tiro laughs and
puts a paw on Mirri’s shoulder, “Hardly! I just know that this kind of thing
happened to some of the High Mages. It also happened to some of the mentally deranged furs
who got locked in our asylums, so I wouldn’t be too enthusiastic just yet.”
Mirri gulps.
“Yeah. The
line between enlightenment and insanity is thin indeed...”
“Where do you know all this from?”
“I’ve studied, read the ancient texts. I know a
lot about the history and legends of this planet. I can read three of the so-called
‘arcane languages’ of our ancient times. They’re all dead languages, tho,
and they’re only useful for reading dusty old books that haven’t been translated
because everyone seems to think it would be a waste of time.”
Mirri looks straight ahead and notices they are already
well on their way into the jungle. “This is your way home too?”
Tiro looks around and has been very engulfed in explaining
all this on the way, “Oh. Uh, no I was actually supposed to have been the other way.
Where do you live anyway?”
The tigress smiles, feeling a bit better now that there is
only one heartbeat nearby, “I live way into the jungle. In a big treehouse with my
parents and my brother.”
“Sounds cool. So you’re all primitive like and
stuff?” She nods at Mirri’s outfit.
“Oh no, I just enjoy this a lot more than all those
itchy clothes from the city. Ick.”
Tiro grins, “Yah, tell me about it. Luckily this
skirt ain’t so bad.”
Her ears lay back against her head as Mirri growls back at
the city in a sarcastic manner, “Keep your tight clothes to yerself!”
The panthress giggles and lays her ears back as well,
“Yeah, and your squeaky shoes too!”
The two smile and look at each other for a few moments
before Mirri breaks the silence, “Hey, you’re pretty okay for a
citystalker.”
Tiro bows exaggeratedly, “My humblest thanks for your
overwhelmingly approval of my dismal heritage.”
“Wanna see my home?”
The panthress looks around where they stand at the edge of
the jungle and the city. She shrugs and smiles, “Yah, why not? It’s been too
long since I’ve been out in the wilderness anyway.”
Mirri smiles happily and guides her newfound friend
towards Catwood.
The elevator chimes gleefully as the two furs step out of
it, and Mirri introduces Tiro to her mom briefly before giving her the whole tour of
Catwood just as she did with Kesonam, and the panthress is no less amazed.
“This place is a paradise!”
Mirri giggles and shows Tiro back to her own room,
“Nah.. but we’re working on it.”
“So when can I move out here?”
Mirri laughs and sits down on her bed beside Tiro,
“As soon as civilization ends.”
Tiro puts a paw to her chin in thought and rubs it back
and forth, “Hmmmm.. that could be arranged, yes. Just need to find that big red
button somewhere.”
“What red button?” Mirri smiles.
“*The* red button. I’ve always held the opinion
that civilization just evolves faster and faster and some day it will simply outgrow
itself. Y’know, like you kill Femmlurian weed by giving it growth hormones so it will
grow so fast all the cells burst? We develop more and more stuff and find out more and
more about this place we live in and why we live here. And just when things look like they could
actually work out, that is, when there is peace between all living creatures and we all
realize how we must be in balance with our surroundings, I bet some moron will press *the*
big red button and everything will be destroyed.”
“That’s a bit pessimistic, isn’t it?”
Tiro shrugs, “Against stupidity, even the Gods fight
in vain.”
“So you’re actually saying that stupidity will
be our downfall?”
“Naw, I’m saying that of all the sentient
creatures produced, a way too big percentage are just excess material and the race would
be better off without them.”
Mirri looks at her sternly, “You just want to kill
every other newborn cub in the world, is that it? Who will judge whether someone is good
enough to live? You?”
“Of course not. I’m just as bad a judge as the
next fur. It’d have to be a god of some sort, which already represents the first
problem with this solution. I’m just thinking that maybe as a temporary solution we
could take all the morons of the world, stuff them all onto one planet and just leave them
alone. Would be interesting to see how far they could evolve without all the smart people
to fix everything for them, no?”
Mirri cannot help giggling at the thought,
“They’d probably start evolving backwards.”
“Yeah, or become extinct because they’re either
too dumb to hunt, too arrogant to do it themselves or too aggressive to cooperate.”
“That’s the kind of furs you think we should get
rid of?”
“Definitely. All the stupid ones who just drag their
way through a meaningless life, never seeking answers to anything, never defining things
for themselves and always blindly trusting what others think. If you can’t be
bothered to control your own existence, then why exist at all? And the arrogant ones need
to be rooted out as well. Maybe that will happen automatically when only all the smart
ones are left and they’re all equal. And don’t you want to get rid of the
aggressive ones too?”
“Well, I don’t exactly--”
“Me too. Just think of how much nicer your life would
have been without all the bullies hitting on you, all the furs sneering at you because
they think you’re better than them. Which you usually are. And all the furs yelling
and screaming and being mean to each other.”
“Have you had a rough cubhood or something,
Tiro?”
She shrugs quickly, too excited with her explaining to
stop and answer such a trivial question, “Just think, if everyone was more or less
equal, you wouldn’t need all the competition with school tests and grades and
everything.”
Mirri smirks, “You don’t like competition?”
“No. I always beat everyone when I’m finally
*in* the competition, but up to that point I don’t like it one lil’ bit.”
The tigress frowns, “That sounds very odd.”
“Yeah, well, I’m odd.” Her emerald eyes
catch sight of Mirri’s alarm clock. “And late! I have to get home in a
hurry.”
Mirri looks at the clock as well, “Oh. Okay, lemme
walk you out.” They follow each other all the way to bottom of the tree and Mirri
smiles, “Are you sure you can find your way out of here?”
Tiro looks over her shoulder and then back at Mirri,
“Yeah, just follow the path thingy, no problem. Well, it was nice meetin’
ya.”
Mirri grins and shakes paws with her again,
“Likewise. I’m not sure if I like your view points, but it was refreshing to
hear something different than the usual hypocritical nonsense from others about how we
should cut down on pollution, after which they take the car home.”
“Yeah, hope to see you around school sometime.”
“Count on it. I’ll be looking for you.”
They wave goodbye and Mirri stands watching her friend
silently until she is completely out of sight. She shakes her head with a smile and goes
back up to her room. She sits and tries to concentrate on homework for a while, but
eventually has to abandon it in favor of the pressing questions in her mind.
Senajit lies on his belly in the living room, rolling a
little red ball from one forepaw to the other in front of him and looking just plain
bored. Mika is watching TV with volume way up and her entire attention is directed towards
the big 3D screen.
Mirri slinks down the stairs, tail gently swaying behind
her, and proceeds behind her mother’s chair to watch the show for a few moments.
“So is the TV working like it should?”
Mika does not move her head one little bit, but keeps
watching the screen, “Sure, sweetie.”
The tiger rolls to his back in boredom and paws up at the
unreachable ceiling with a sort of kitty-grumbling.
“Mom, I’m gonna go take Sen for a walk,
okay?”
“Sure, sweetie.”
Mirri crosses her arms and stares at the ears of her
mother, visible over the top of the chair. “We’ll just go outside for a while
and then I’ll teach him how to set fire to our tree, okay?”
“Sure, sweetie.”
Mirri holds out her arms and looks skywards with a
conceding expression, “Oy..” She grabs a surprised tiger by the neckscruff and
drags him towards the elevator, looking back over her shoulder. “Alright, if
we’re not back in two years we’ve probably been kidnapped by the natives hiding
in the jungle, in which case I want you to torch the planet and burn everything down so
you can find us again, okay?”
“Sure, sweetie.”
A stick flies mightily into the air describing an arch
between a few trees and finally ending its combined ascent/descent in a bump against the
moist grass, bouncing just once before falling silent, drained off the kinetic energy just
applied to it by the paws of a tigress. The stick lies lonesome, close to the root of a
tree and about 300 yards from the bewildered beast that was supposed to have fetched it.
“Sen! C’mon! Fetch the stick.”
The tiger just stares back at her blankly and seems
surprised she would even think she could ever get him to play that stupid game. He lies
down, first letting his rear fall to the ground and then the rest as he rolls onto his
side and lies flat against the grass.
Mirri sighs, “Lazy furball.” She remembers why
she went out here in the first place and sits down with her legs crossed while putting a
paw onto the tiger’s head, disguising her touch as just a friendly scratching between
his ears.
>A flower. A pretty one.<
>They’re for eating when my tummy hurts from too
much meat.<
>A Mrawi?<
>Avoid. Those things aren’t worth wasting my
breath on.<
>A deer? No. It’s a rabbit. Its back is turned.
Hunting opportunity.<
Sen jumps to his paws and stalks the rabbit, crouching low
in the grass, keeping in the shady places and controlling the otherwise rapid random
movements of his tail.
The rabbit has still not seen him, it is unknowingly
chewing away at the grass. Senajit’s whiskers twitch and his nose flares once. He can
even tell it is a particularly tasty rabbit.
The hapless creature notices nothing before the tiger is
too close and comes pouncing from the tall grasses with a growl. Fortunately it cannot
have felt much pain as Senajit flies over it, pinning it to the ground with a paw and
breaking its neck with his teeth in one swift movement. His paws pull it with him, holding
it against his stomach as he curls up and rolls forward while biting down on the dark
green rabbit’s neck just to make sure.
Mirri purrchuckles as Senajit proudly returns with his
kill, his tail wagging behind him as he drops the stick on the grass in front of her. The
tigress scritches him behind the ears, seemingly just as proud as he is, “Good
boy.”
Senajit blinks once and sniffs the place where his bounty
ought to lie, but finds only part of a branch. However, the striped being does not seem to
take any overly note of the fact that his trophy just mysteriously disappeared and was
replaced by the stick he did not bother to fetch a few minutes ago.
What is there to do about it anyway..?
