"The Litter" -- A Feli Story

[Ryuukokoro]

Disclaimers: The Feli are designed and colored by Leet. The Feli in the story are my own, with the following exceptions: Donut and Jeanne belong to red_uni and Keilin Alyr respectively. Kido, our antagonist, is used with permission from YourLoveOnly.

Mango is so far the only character who isn't a real Feli, but hopefully she will be when I have something to bribe Leet with. ^_^

~ ~ ~

Chapter 1: The Litter

Kohaku had had a lot of shocks in his life. Even his earliest memories were not of a warm protective body curled around him, but the giant roar of the monsters that ran on the hard black roads, inches from eating him before he was scooped up by one of the Upright Walkers. Since then he had been shuffled from one territory to another, each time having to learn the new sights and smells and try to anticipate what he would have to face.

He had faced down one of the large barking creatures the Uprights lived with, four times his own size, and came away without a scratch and only a few lost tufts of hair. He had been lost for two days amongst trees and rocks, finally finding his way home through luck and trusting his instincts. He had even been stuck in a tiny space in the lap of his own Upright Walker, where the air smelled cold and stale, and the next thing he saw was the top of the clouds out the window as if somehow he had grown the wings of a bird.

None of those things compared to the shock of kittens, though.


"B-but... kittens!?" he sputtered, ears pinned back in shock as he stared at the beautiful female tabby sitting on the fence post. "You never told me anything about kittens before!"

Temptation's striped tail swung back and forth against the wooden post like an Upright's timekeeper. Even from where he crouched on the ground at the base of the fence he could hear her purr of amusement. "You haven't been around in quite a while, or I would have," she pointed out gently.

Embarrassed, Kohaku looked down at his paws. "Yes, well," he coughed. "My Upright kept me inside for a long time when I stayed out overnight. She was pretty mad." He looked back up at her so she could see the earnest look in his green eyes. "I didn't want to stay away from you for so long, you know."

The pale ginger and pink tabby stretched her front legs and then gracefully leaped from the fencepost, landing lightly beside the male Feli in the grass. "I was happy to see you again," she told him, touching her pale pink nose to his. "I had a feeling you would be back."

Temptation was a good name for her, Kohaku couldn't help but think, as he watched the pretty female and felt as dazed as if he had been staring at the sun. She had narrow arched shoulders and delightful slim ears. A long tail that seemed to never stop playfully moving. Her tabby fur was marbled with pale ginger, almost cream, and rosy pink like certain summer flowers. And even when her mint green eyes sparkled like she was laughing at him with her gaze, it only made him more fascinated with her.

"Um, sorry? What?" Kohaku blinked several times as he realized the tabby girl had said something and he had completely missed it.

"I said," she mewed, "would you like to see them?"

Kohaku's jaw fell open at this abrupt reminder of the current situation. "O-oh, I... uh..." The black-and-white male shifted from one paw to the other as he stuttered, fighting down the feeling of panic that made him want to flee. It was one thing to hear about kittens, but to SEE them? HIS kittens? What would they look like? What was he supposed to do with them? Could they talk? Would they ask him awkward things? How close could he get? What if he touched one and it got hurt? "W-well, your Upright Walkers wouldn't want me in their Den...." he said evasively.

She jabbed him in his round belly with her paw. "They're not home. Come on." And she nimbly leaped through the fence posts into her yard.

Kohaku swallowed hard as the tip of her ginger tail disappeared between the wooden posts. He should just turn around and run home... He was supposed to stay in his own yard anyway! No more kittens. No more panicky worries. But... then, no more Temptation...

Kohaku drew in a deep breath and squared his shoulders. He pushed his way through the fence posts, scraping his fur a little as he was a bit more round than Temptation and didn't fit through as well as she did. He picked up his paws and quickly followed the female across the sun-warmed grass of her yard.

Upright Dens that were not his own made Kohaku nervous. He couldn't help but fill his mind with the possibilities of what could be found here: dangerous barking creatures, other Feli who didn't welcome trespassers, Upright Walkers who would chase him off, snakes or big rats that sometimes made nests in the ground under Upright Dens. So many dangers! At home he was more confident, knowing the sights and smells there, and also knowing his Upright Walker would defend him against anything trying to hurt him.

Temptation's Den was bigger than his, a large dwelling of pale yellow walls, as opposed to the spring green color of his own. There were no monsters crouched on the hard black ground next to the Den, so he guessed Temptation was correct when she said the home was empty. Still, he made sure to catch up to the tabby before they finished crossing the grass and together they stopped in the shadow of the towering Den.

"This way," she told him, touching his shoulder with her tailtip. She darted along the edge of the Den, crouched almost to the ground, and Kohaku hurried to keep in stride. He was surprised to see they weren't entering the Den itself, but instead Temptation was heading for a smaller den standing right next to it.

Temptation stopped for a moment in the dark doorway cut into the side of the little dwelling. She turned to look back over her shoulder at the black-and-white Feli, giving him an encouraging smile, before she disappeared into the dark interior.

Kohaku cautiously stepped up to the doorway and peered within. His ears flattened back at the heavy smell of the Uprights' monsters that wafted out at him. He waited for his eyes to adjust to the gloom and then, before he lost any more of his nerve, he followed Temptation inside.

His anxiety made his heartbeat flutter in his ears. The ground under his paws was cold and hard like the black roads, but at least the den was empty. Before he could get worried about where Temptation went, he saw a flash of movement against the back wall. The female leaped over the edge of a small object and disappeared.

With a gulp Kohaku forced his paws to take him across the open space up to the place where Temptation had vanished. He wasn't worried--well, not TOO worried--because he could still smell her faint spicy scent under the powerful stench of the Uprights' monsters. And, as he got closer, he could hear something strange. Tiny little squeaks, like but unlike the telltale sounds of mice in the walls of his Den. Did Temptation have mice in there?

"Come on, Kohaku, don't be afraid," came the voice of the other Feli. "Come look."

Kohaku took the last few steps necessary to approach Temptation's nest. It looked to be something made by Uprights, with four perfectly smooth walls that were just about as high as his ears and an open top. It smelled musty and old, but Temptation's scent was strong, as if she spent a lot of time here. Kohaku lifted his chin and looked over the wall of the nest down into the bottom of it.

There was Temptation, a perfectly calm expression on her face, curled up inside the nest with her body making a protective C around a big pile of scrappy fur in the middle. It was the pile that was making the mouse-squeaks. At first it just looked like a jumble of colored fur with bits and pieces moving at odd places. Kohaku's eyes grew wide as the individual moving bits resolved themselves into tiny little Feli.

There were four of them. A dark brown kitten with white on its face and feet was curled up in a little ball against the pale fur of Temptation's stomach, unmoving save for the tiny flutter of its sides as it breathed. A tabby kitten with patched fur of black and rust seemed to be trying to get its paws under its body, but they kept flopping around out of control. A second tabby was golden cream, white on his face and chest and two little paws. It was pressing its nose against the fur of Temptation's belly, as if searching for something. The last one had patches of black like Kohaku and pale pink like Temptation. It was trying to climb over Temptation's legs and escape the other kittens, but she just shifted her hind paw and the adventurous kitten tumbled back against its siblings.

Kohaku felt like he had been trapped staring for a long time. "Wow," he said finally.

Temptation looked pleased. "They don't do very much now, but they get stronger every day. Soon they'll be walking better and they'll even climb out of the nest after their eyes open. By then they'll be talking, too."

"They're amazing," Kohaku said quietly. He had never seen anything like these tiny living things. They looked so helpless and fragile he was glad Temptation was in there curled around them.

Before long all four of them had moved close to the female Feli, pressing their little faces against her stomach. Temptation put her head down and closed her eyes. "I can't leave now, they're eating. You'll have to walk home by yourself."

"Can I come back?" he blurted out immediately.

She purred in amusement. "Of course you can."

~ ~ ~

Chapter Two: Home

Footsteps and the front door opening woke Kohaku from his sun-nap on the Den front steps. He climbed to his feet and slipped into the cool indoors as his Upright Walker held the door open for him.

"And where were you all morning, young man?" the Upright chittered in her usual voice. The Uprights always sounded harsh and loud to Feli ears, like an angry squirrel calling down from a tree branch. But he knew she couldn't help how she sounded, and her tone was always one of fond exasperation.

She went back to the wall-bowl she had filled with warm water to play in. (Kohaku seriously wished she wouldn't do that so often, because the crashing and clinking of the things she put in the water and swished around were awfully hard on his ears.)

"You're not supposed to go out of the yard," the Upright continued to chitter. "What if something happened to you? I wouldn't even know. Don't make me regret making you an outdoor Feli, Kohaku."

He ignored her, knowing the Uprights couldn't understand Feli speech anyway. Kohaku crossed the food-smelling-room to the metal dish in the corner, bending his head to lap at the water inside. The outdoor water of rain puddles tasted far better, but it was often warmed by the sun. The indoor water in the bowl was always refreshingly cool.

"She's not fair!" a young voice piped up from above. "Why do you get to be an outdoor Feli and I don't?"

Kohaku finished his drink and sat up, licking drops from his whiskers. He barely glanced at the table (which he knew the word for being of his Upright's constant cry of "Off the table!") where another Feli crouched.

She was a spotted tabby, her mouse brown fur tinged with auburn around her muzzle, ears and shoulders, and paler brown--almost cream--on her chin and belly. Her spots were faded brown on her sides but darker solid stripes on her legs and tail. One day should would be beautiful and graceful. Right now her limbs were awkwardly long and her rump wiggled all the time as she went to pounce on unsuspecting prey--which included Kohaku and their Upright Walker.

"You're too young, Mango," Kohaku informed her, scratching behind his ear with a hind foot. His words to the female were often a bit short. Bad enough she was not long out of kittenhood herself, but she had come into his Den that he shared with his Upright, when it had been just her and him since he was a little one himself. Although they had traveled to a lot of different territories over the years, it had always been the two of them against the world. Now all of a sudden this upstart young girl was living in his territory and taking the attention of his Upright, and she was annoying to boot!

In the beginning Kohaku had wanted nothing to do with the energetic female. Over time he had decided she was harmless, and his dislike had faded to grudging acceptance (and sometimes, when she wasn't being too annoying, to a big brotherly type of affection).

In response to his announcement, Mango rolled her amber eyes and leaped down to the food-room floor. Slowly she began to edge closer to the water bowl.

Kohaku saw the spark in her eyes and quickly strolled out of the room before she could get ready to pounce. His Upright wouldn't let him out again right away. It was one of her strange rules, something about his "constant in and out" ruffling her affront. She also wouldn't be done playing in the water for a while. A nap was in order.

The black-and-white Feli wandered into the loud-box-room, though it was quiet in there now, the Box sitting black and silent with no Uprights for it to talk to. Kohaku jumped up on the plush Upright nest where it was very comfortable to nap. He curled up with his tail covering his nose and easily went to sleep.

~ ~ ~

Mango pouted for a while after Kohaku left. He was such a spoilsport! And jealous too. It was obviously better to be an indoor Feli. It made you special. After all, all the Feli she saw through the window were outdoor Feli, so that made her the rare one! Yes, that was surely what made Kohaku so jealous.

Still, it would have been nice if he was more willing to play. Instead of being fat and lazy and spending the whole day sleeping if no one bothered him about it!

That wasn't the life for Mango. She wanted to see new things, smell new smells! If only she could get outside... Being rare was very boring.

To take her mind off the unfairness of life, Mango padded down to the underground, her favorite part of the Den. The floor down here was cold and hard as stone on the pads of her paws. She couldn't help but remember the prison that had trapped her for several long days before she was rescued and brought here to this new Upright Walker and the new Den. But this underground didn't scare her; she knew the doorway was always open and she could run back upstairs whenever she chose.

The underground smelled of mushrooms and spiderwebs. It was home to several colonies of mice, and now Mango set about tracking through the dust, trying to find the least stale scent. Let Kohaku sleep all day! She'd catch all the mice in the Den and become their Upright's favorite Feli!

After a while, though, Mango gave up. She remembered now that the mice usually didn't come out until night. Flicking her tail in disappointment, the young female climbed the stairs of the Den and then went into the loud-box-room to see if Kohaku was still asleep.

He was.

"Fatso," muttered Mango, just because she could. She arched her back proudly and stalked right past the nest with her dark pink nose in the air. The window by the quiet loud Box was open, letting in the hot outside air, and with a brief wiggle of her rump she readied herself and leaped up onto the window ledge.

The brown tabby curled her tail around her paws and watched the world of green outside. Her round eyes grew even bigger as she watched. Every blade of individual grass moved in the wind. Tree branches created a chorus as they rustled against each other in the trees.

Suddenly Mango's ears and tails went straight up. Her eyes zeroed in straight to the shadowy, dappled lawn under the big tree in the front yard. There, blending in with the shadows, a strange Feli stalked across the grass.

"Hey!" she called out the window, leaning forward until the tiny metal squares pressed against her nose. "Hey! Who're you?!"

It was a large male, his glossy fur dark brown with thick black stripes, almost invisible in the shade. He stopped and turned dark orange eyes up at her, a smirk on his muzzle, but he didn't answer. He stopped his stalking across the yard and took a seat under her windowsill.

"Hey, hey! This is our territory, you can't be here! Get out!" Mango yelled down at the strange male. She could feel the fur on her neck and shoulders sticking straight up, but even knowing she was safe up in the window, she felt small in comparison. The stranger was at least as big as Kohaku, but he looked like he was all ropey muscle, not plump butterball-ness.

"Mango, what in the world are you hissing at?"

Mango couldn't look away from the male's orange eyes, but her ears swiveled back as she heard her Upright walk into the loud-box-room and come stand at the window behind her. "You see? You see him?" Mango mewed. "He's in our territory! Do something!" Unlike Kohaku, Mango didn't mind talking to the Upright, no matter how many times he told her that she wouldn't be able to understand.

"Oh well now, look at him," she murmured. She didn't sound angry at all. "He's pretty, isn't he? Are you looking for a boyfriend?"

Mango snorted to herself. The Upright was dumb sometimes.

She pressed herself against the window's protective screen and hissed down more threats at the strange Feli. Territory was very important to all Feli, and just because she didn't go outside didn't mean she would let strangers walk around in land that belonged to her and Kohaku. "You'd better get lost or we'll make you get! We outnumber you! Our Upright is dangerous! We'll make you sorry!"

The dark brown tabby chuckled in response to the energetic words. "Well that would be interesting to see," he said, his voice very deep and broad. It wasn't a nice voice, it sounded too cool and like it could easily turn cruel. "I'm Kido. Maybe I'll come back and see all that for myself." He stretched his back and then ambled across the yard again, his pace calm and slow.

Mango turned and leaped down from the window, racing out of the room. She slid around the corner of the food-smell-room and leaped up into the window there, where she could watch the stranger stroll around the corner of the Den, cross the lawn, and disappear into the trees.

"What is going on?" a sleepy voice said behind her. Kohaku had finally woken up and followed her into the food-room to watch her strange actions.

Mango waited a moment, staring intently, but the brown tabby was gone. She turned quickly and snapped at the other Feli, "If you could stay awake for more than five heartbeats at a time maybe you'd know we've been invaded!"

Kohaku blinked at her in confusion.

~ ~ ~

Chapter 3: Storytime

Time now passed quickly for Kohaku, who had never before had anything to mark the passage of days. Each one had seemed much like the other, save for the gradual changing of the seasons.

Now, every day he managed to get away to Temptation's Den to see the kittens, it seemed that they had grown in some way. In the beginning they were just tiny worms of fur, limbs twitching in jerky, random movements, ears folded against their round little heads and eyes squeezes closed.

Soon they were gaining control of their legs, learning to crawl around the little nest and Temptation's paws (and each other). Before long their ears began to stand up straight on their heads and their eyes opened to view the world. Kohaku expressed surprise that all four kittens had eyes like the sky, when neither he nor Temptation did. She told him the color would change as they grew older, knowing this with some mysterious motherly knowledge he didn't understand.

Every time he could, he would go to see them. But, it wasn't often Kohaku could get away, with the protective eye of his Upright on him and Mango bugging him to help her escape the Den, and the scent of Kido in their yard. The dark stranger hadn't appeared again, but several times when Kohaku went outside he smelled the scent of a strange Feli all over the yard and the trunks of the trees. Then he had to put up with Mango mewing at him from the window, "See? See? I told you!" as he set about rolling in the grass or scratching the tree trunks, replacing the wild Feli's smell with his own.

So Temptation was left with her paws full, taking care of four growing kittens by herself most of the time. As it was today.

"Hungry! Hungry, mama! Hungry!" The four little mouths all took up the cry as soon as one started it.

Temptation sighed. "I know you are, but you'll all have to wait." She had run out of milk when they finished their afternoon meal, and her Uprights only set out food for her before they went to their nests for the night. With a glance out the window the female tabby could tell it was still a while before the sun would be dropping behind the trees.

The little mews turned pitiful and more insistent, but Temptation had been listening to them for many days now and wasn't as moved as she had been at the start. She calmed them all with a few quick licks, nudging them closer to her body with her nose and one front paw. With some mumbled protests they settled down, tucked their little legs under their plump bodies. She curled her tail around them to keep them warm and purred to sooth them.

Sleepily the little black and pink kitten, whom her Uprights had been calling Jeanne, lifted up her head. "Mama, tell a story," she said plaintively.

"Story! Story!" peeped up her siblings, quickly copying her idea.

Temptation chuckled. She had gotten used to the never-ending demands of the litter. "All right, shhh." She licked Jeanne between the ears until the kitten put her head back down.

"Hmm. A story. Let's see." Temptation thought for a few moments. This was an opportunity to share with her children the stories that her mother had told her when she was just a kitten in the nest herself. All Feli legends were passed down in this fashion, told as stories from parent to kitten, or shared as entertainment when friends got together to enjoy pleasant weather and good company. Idly Temptation wondered if Kohaku knew any such stories, but quickly turned her attention back to her task when her litter began to stir.

"All our stories start with the first two Feli," she began, hoping to settle them down again quickly before they made a fuss. "They were a male and female, a mated pair who walked this world long, long ago. Before even the Uprights were around, the first Feli made their homes here."

"Then who put out food for them?" Jeanne, who was the cleverest and the most talkative of the kittens so far, piped up.

"They caught their own food," Temptation replied. "They looked much different than you or I. They were much bigger, as big as an Upright almost, with thick fur to keep out the cold wind. Their legs were heavy with muscle and their paws big and broad, claws sharp as thorns. Instead of our delicate ears they had short round ears close to their heads, and instead of our long tails they had short stumps so no enemy could grab them there. And, most impressively, they had two giant fangs that grew out of their mouths and hung past their chins, and with those they could catch any creature for their meal."

The kittens were all looking up at her now with wide, unbelieving eyes. Temptation thought that perhaps an exciting story wasn't the best way to get them to sleep, but at least they were not crying now.

"How come they looked so different?" the little yellow tabby, Butterrum, asked.

"The land back then was cold and harsh," Temptation said. "The white-cold fell from the sky all year round, and the sun was never strong enough to melt it. There were no Upright Dens to offer shelter to a Feli. They needed to be strong to survive."

The kittens were silent as they tried to picture this world their mother painted for them, and Temptation continued on before they could ask more questions. "The first two Feli were named Darkpaw and Brighteye. Darkpaw was a large male with fur as black as the night sky between the stars, and his mate Brighteye had shining white fur like the sun on its hottest day.

"Darkpaw and Brighteye lived full lives in this harsh land and had many, many children over the years. Eventually they grew old and passed on to the next life, while their descendants lived on and spread over the entire land. However, Darkpaw and Brighteye continued to watch over their many descendants from the land beyond the stars."

"What's that place?" yawned the brown and white male kitten, whom the youngest Upright in the home had named Donut.

"That's where we go when we no longer live here," Temptation explained. "Now, listen. This is an important part. Darkpaw and Brighteye watched the Feli with motherly and fatherly pride, just like I watch over you. And one day they saw their children were going hungry. All the Feli in the world had coats of fur just like the first two Feli: either dark as night or pale as cloud. But the prey of the world was getting smarter, and knew to hide when they saw the Feli coming.

"Brighteye was saddened when she saw the Feli going hungry. She went to the Golden Eye, the sun that watches all the living and growing things in the world, and beseeched him to give her people a way to blend into the world so they could hunt once again. The Golden Eye saw the creatures of hoof and fur and wing growing out of control and agreed to help her."

"Why did he care?" Butterrum asked. "He's way up high in the sky, it doesn't matter to him."

Temptation explained patiently, "The Golden Eye sees everything from up there. He sees the balance of hunter and hunted, of growing things and running creatures. He is very wise.

"So after Brighteye asked, the Golden Eye reached his warm paws down and touched every Feli--"

"Every one!?" interrupted Jeanne. "How'd he do that!?"

"How many Feli were there? Did it take a long time?" added Amberspice, the little black and orange tabby girl.

The mother Feli held in a sigh. "There were not as many Feli then as there are now, and the Golden Eye is very powerful. When he touched them, all their fur instantly sucked up the colors of their territories. The forest Feli turned green and brown. The ones by the sea turned blue and violet. The Feli of the fields took on the yellows and tans of the dry grasses. Soon all the Feli of the world were every color in existence.

"The Feli marveled at their new gift and began to play like kittens. Some ran through the tall grasses, and some of their color rubbed away on each stalk, leaving stripes and spots on their bodies. Some ran through puddles and stopped to drink, and color stuck to their legs and faces and tails. Others rolled in the dirt and left big patches of different colors on their bodies. Now all the Feli were beautiful and different, just like each of you."

The four little kittens looked at each other as if for the first time, seeing the colors and patterns in their fur.

"Did the gift work?" Amberspice wondered. "Did it help them catch food?"

"That's right," agreed Temptation. "Now that the Feli could hunt, the balance returned to normal. Darkpaw and Brighteye were very happy, and the Golden Eye was content." She nudged her family close to her belly and curled her tail around them. "Now let's all take a nap, now that you know about the first two Feli and their gift to us, all their children."

The kittens mewed sleepy objections a few times, but the story had tired them out. Soon all four of them closed their eyes and drifted off. Only when she saw the little rise and fall of their chests in deep dreams did Temptation put her own head down close to theirs and go to sleep.

~ ~ ~

[red_uni387]

awwwwww sooooo sweet!! by the time i finished reading there was a big grin on my face xD

and now i'm determined to get mimics of my baby and my brother's kitty and make them have little Feli babies >:]

[Keilin Alyr]

Aww, Kohaku is just so adorably innocent, I can't help but get this goofy grin on my face whenever I read his dialogue. I just want to give him a huge snuggle. He actually reminds me a bit of my Isaac, who I also tend to see in a perpetually confused but lovable light.

I can't wait to read more, I want to see how my little Jeanne interacts with her parents and siblings. Also, will Kohaku, Donut, and Jeanne have wild names as well, or does that naming pattern only go for wild and feral cats?

[springacres]

Aww, so sweet...I now officially need mimics of Tigger and Katrina so I can breed them and give them little Feli kittens xD

[TheLeet]

Aww, I loved reading your story

[Ryuukokoro]

I can't wait to read more, I want to see how my little Jeanne interacts with her parents and siblings. Also, will Kohaku, Donut, and Jeanne have wild names as well, or does that naming pattern only go for wild and feral cats?

I didn't think I'd writer chapter 2 the next day, but I got inspired! lol. The kittens have to grow a little, so they are absent from this chapter, but they will be featured soon.

Since the Feli in my story are all owned by people, they all use the names that they have been given. If some feral Feli come into the story they'll have more natural names.

[TheLeet]

Mango sounds like a real cutie

[Ryuukokoro]

Chapter 3, after some delay, is now up. Disclaimer: I'm making up my own legends and culture for the Feli in this story, but it's just a fan work and doesn't reflect anything The Leet may come up with for the Feli at a later date.