WARNING: This story may contain content of an adult nature. If you are easily offended or are under the legal age to view adult content in your area, please exit now. This text is intended for adults only and may include scenes of sexual content or graphic violence. Reader discretion is advised.

Zavarka
by IndigoNeko, Cormenthor, and TaintedThylacine

Chapter 2

Monday, August 24th, 2015

Raenne’s ear twitched as she heard the sound of a key sliding into the lock of the living room door, and the tigress stuck the bookmark between the pages of her novel, waiting for the door to open. It was just about the time she had expected her daughter Alex to get home, a little before four in the afternoon. 

The door swung open as Alex pushed hir way into the empty living room. The young hermaphrodite quickly shucked hir backpack, letting it fall to the floor just inside the living room with a heavy thud before bending over and plucking at the laces on hir open-toed athletic shoes.

The older tigress set down her book on the dining room table, standing up and walking into the kitchen as she waited for Alex to stand up again. As the young tigress picked up hir backpack and stood up again, Raenne called out: “Hey kiddo. Want a snack?”

“Yes, please,” Alex replied instantly, walking a few steps and setting hir backpack on the stairs before continuing past them and the wood-burning stove into the kitchen. “I’m absolutely starving. Lunch was at eleven or something,” the young tigress added, walking up to hir mom and giving her a long hug.

Raenne smiled and returned the hug, waiting until Alex let go. The cub had been pretty depressed over the past week, and extended hugs had become standard operating procedure. “Quesadilla okay?” she asked, turning around and opening the refrigerator, pulling out a bag of tortillas and another of shredded cheese. 

“Sure,” Alex replied, stepping around the kitchen island and over to the table in the dining room, pulling out a chair and sitting down with a sigh.

The older tigress pulled a skillet down from the rack over the kitchen island and set it on the stove, turning the heat on. “How was your first day at school? Meet anyone?”

“Umm... I met a few people at the bus stop this morning. Azalea sat next to me on the bus both on the way to and from school. She’s a purple and orange furred squirrel of some kind. We’ve got Art and Theater together,” Alex said, propping hir head against hir arm and thinking a moment before continuing. “The school’s okay. It’s new. Not a lot of windows, though.”

“Yeah, I saw that when we were registering you for school,” Raenne noted, sprinkling shredded cheese onto the tortilla in the skillet. “What about your classes?”

“Umm... Social studies looks like it’s going to be pretty cool. The teacher said we’ll be covering maps first week, then we’ll be learning about early civilizations and how they developed over time. Science and english seem okay I guess. Math... I think math is going to be hard. So is that technology class. They were talking about a bunch of computer stuff that I didn’t understand,” Alex complained.

“You didn’t have any problems with Math when your dad was teaching you and Lizzy last month, and he definitely knows computers. Just ask him for help,” the older tigress suggested, putting the cheese and tortillas back into the fridge.

Alex nodded. Shi had been afraid shi had missed something important, skipping fifth-grade. Dad would explain it all though; he knew everything. “Anyway, art looks like it’ll be fun. I like Mrs. Stanton. Theater class looks like it’ll be fun too. We’ll be watching a lot of plays and making our own.”

“That does sound like fun,” Raenne said, tapping the buttons on the microwave over the range, setting a timer. The older tigress walked over to the dining room table and sat down across from her daughter.

“Yeah. Only... it’s really weird being in middle school. Like, I’m two years younger than everyone else and everyone is bigger than me. Even the birds and rodents and stuff. Azalea’s as tall as I am and she’s a squirrel. There’s a colt in theater class that’s over a foot taller than I am. Nobody seems to have noticed it though. I was thinking people would call me names or something and make fun of me for being little.”

“Well, hopefully they won’t. Just don’t be a show-off. Try to be nice to people and you should get along fine. Now... it’s been three months since you broke your leg; it should be mostly healed by now. So, if you want to go play sports or go hiking or whatever, you can, as long as you don’t go jumping off anything. If you land hard on that leg you could still break it again,” the tigress warned.

The tiger cub’s eyes went wide at that, and shi smiled, momentarily forgetting hir sorrows at the idea that shi could finally go exploring out in the woods.

“Also, we’re going to start you on a basic exercise routine,” Raenne continued. “So, once you’ve got your homework done and finish your snack, we’ll head down to the garage and I’ll start showing you how to use the exercise equipment.”

Alex frowned; shi had been hoping shi could go outside. “Could I go exploring first while the sun’s still out? You and dad always do your exercise stuff later, don’t you?”

The older tigress also frowned, but nodded. Her daughter did have a point. “Fair enough. But homework comes first. The sooner you finish your homework, the sooner you can go play. Deal?”

The younger tigress grinned. “Deal.”

__________________________________________________

“Mom One, mom A, I’m home,” Azalea declared as she stepped through the front door of the apartment, kicking her shoes off into the little pile by the door.

“Have a good day, sweetie?” a slender jerboa asked, peeked out from the kitchen and smiling warmly at her daughter. “I made you a little snack.”

“It was pretty good. We have a new girl from out of state. She was asking about the uniforms and stuff,” the jerboa-squirrel hybrid answered as she walked into the kitchen, looking at the plate of chopped fruits that her mother Cora had made.

“If she’s new here, of course she’s going to ask about them. It doesn’t mean anything special,” a female voice spoke up from the living room as the front door clicked closed. Another jerboa-squirrel hybrid walked into the kitchen along with an older malabar squirrel dressed in a pant-suit. The two sat down at the table.

“Be nice, Jenny,” the older squirrel chastised as she pulled her suit jacket off, setting it in her lap.

“I know that, but... don’t they tell you about the uniforms before you start school? So she should have known about it. It’s more the way that she was asking about the uniforms, like she might have been hinting at something,” Azalea explained with a frown, then shrugged as she started snacking. Cora brought her other daughter and her wife Beth some of the snacks too.

“And you want to find out what, so you can go all big sister on her and protect her?” Jenny asked with an amused snort as she dug into the fruits that her mom had made. 

“And there’s nothing wrong with her wanting to help or protect her new friend,” Beth interjected, shaking her head and smiling warmly.

“I mean, wasn’t it you who was hell bent on being the first person to help and give your sister a makeover when she came out? You practically demanded that Beth and I give you money to take her shopping,” Cora stated, leaning in and kissing Beth on the cheek before sitting down with her family.

“And wasn’t it you who gave that kid a black eye cause he called me a fag?” Azalea pointed out, leaning over and nudging her sister, smiling.

“I mean, he had it coming,” Jenny huffed, “and you don’t mess with my family. He was lucky that teacher was there and stopped me from giving him another black eye to match.”

“I love you, sis,” Azalea said happily, knowing that despite her sister’s teasing, her sister loved her. “But I don’t know if she is trans, a tomboy, gender-queer, or a hermaphrodite. She did mention something about herms when she was asking about the uniform.”

“Honey, just make sure you are polite and selective with your words,” Beth advised, looking up from her fruit plate. “Remember that people can be scared, or worried about admitting or coming out about something like being trans.”

“I know, mom. I don’t think she has to worry about her family. I think something happened in her past,” Azalea noted as she pushed her plate out of the way. “I really hope nothing bad happened to her, she seems super nice,” the hybrid added as she stood up, stretching.

“Just be careful and try to keep your foot out of your muzzle,” Jenny teased. Then she giggled as her sister made a ‘who me?’ face at the comment.

“Yes, mom three,” Azalea joked as she pushed her chair in. “I’m going to go take a shower and relax. I earned it, unlike Jenny,” she teased as she headed off, going down the hall to her bedroom to gather up the things that she would need for the shower.

Once Azalea was in her room, the younger hybrid tossed her school bag next to her desk before heading over to her dresser and gathering up her night clothes. She picked out a pair of panties, some shorts, and a t-shirt. That wasn’t all that she wanted, though, and she cautiously glanced over at her door frame and the beaded curtain that acted as her door. Azalea put her clothes on her desk chair and dropped to her knees, pulling the bottom drawer out from her dresser. She reached way into the back of the hollow and pulled out a drawstring pouch and hid it in her clothing that was sitting on the chair before sliding the drawer back into place.

Once she had everything, Azalea quickly slipped to the bathroom, holding the bundle of clothes close and locking the door behind her. She sighed happily and sat her clothes on the counter before setting the pouch on the closed toilet lid and reached into the shower to turn the water on. As she was waiting for the water to heat up, she started stripping out of her school clothes. The first thing that came off and found its way into the hamper was her shirt and then her training bra. The squirrel-jerboa hybrid chittered as her paws moved up her belly, scratching a few places where her bra had been digging into her fur and skin. 

The happy sounds that she was making grew louder as she continued scratching, working her paws through her fur. She shivered as she rubbed her chest, letting her paws play across the sensitive skin under her fur. Azalea didn’t let her paws linger long before moving them down to her jeans, tugging on her belt and getting it out of the way before undoing the button and zipper. A moment later, her jeans were on the floor.

“I hate pants,” the rodent muttered, picking up her jeans and pulling her belt through the loops. She set it to the side, then tossed her pants into the hamper. One of her thumbs hooked into the waistband of her panties, moving along the simple white elastic band, stopping at the front. She let out a soft moan as she rubbed her paw lightly over the fabric and the bulge that was hidden behind it.

Azalea closed her eyes as her paw rubbed and teased her fabric covered sheath and boy bits. She could feel herself becoming stiff, her flesh peeking out of her sheath. She stopped there, knowing that if she kept going, the water would be cold by the time that she made it into the shower. With a wiggle of her hips and tail she slipped out of the cotton confines of her panties and tossed them into the hamper.

Finally free of her clothes, Azalea reached into the shower and adjusted the water just a little before getting in and letting the water wash over her, slicking down fur and hair alike. Once she was soaked enough, she reached for the shampoo that was sitting on the shelf, and squirted a large glob into her paw before lathering up her hair. After she was done with her hair, she ran her paws across other parts of her body, working up a lather on her shoulders, chest, and belly, before moving her paws along her legs and down to her to her foot-paws. By the time she was done, she looked like an anthropomorphic marshmallow.

Azalea reached for the shower head, feeling around for it before taking it down and rinsing her hair and head fur. She closed her eyes as the water went down her fur and into the drain, taking the suds with it. Once she was done, Azalea aimed the stream of water lower, taking her time to rinse her chest, arms, hips, legs, and finally her paws. She hung the shower head back up before reaching for the shampoo again, though this time she started working on her long, furry tail. With the size of it and the amount of fur that was on it, it was nearly like having to wash another person. In late fall, she could probably have knit a sweater from the fur she shed. She giggled at the thought, reaching to take the shower head down and using it to rinse the soap from her soggy tail.

It took a little bit of work to make sure that the soap was rinsed from her tail. Then came the conditioning. Working the fur softening conditioner through her hair and the fur on her body wasn’t the hard part, it was having to work with the massive quantity of fur on her tail. She had to work quickly if she had any hope of having any fun; the shower going cold in the middle of sexy time wasn’t fun at all.

Once the jerboa-squirrel hybrid was done getting the conditioner rinsed out of her fur, she shook off some of the excess water, then opened the shower curtain just enough to reach out and scoop up the little drawstring pouch and opening. Azalea smiled at the sight of the toy that she pulled out of the bag. It wasn’t anything fancy compared to the other ones that she’d seen; then again she wasn’t looking for something with all the bells and whistles.

One late and horny evening, she had been looking around on the internet and found a website selling toys of all sizes and shapes, and they just happened to have one on sale that caught her attention. The toy was made to look and mostly feel like a feral squirrel’s naughty bits, only larger. From the comparison that she had done with the real deal, it was pretty spot on.

The hybrid reached into the bag one last time, pulling out a small container of coconut oil and settled into the one spot in the shower where the water wouldn’t wash away the lube as she scooped it out. Carefully she let it melt in her paw before rubbing it around on the toy and then her tail hole. As she did, she let one of her fingers slip inside.

Azalea slowly worked her digit into her hole, feeling the ring of muscle stretching around it as she would wiggle it as deep as she could get it. One finger became two, and she started pumping in and out a little faster; the sensation quickly caused her shaft to slip all of the way out of her sheath, standing hard and ready.

Once she was warmed up, it was time to move onto the real fun. She carefully lined the tip of the toy up with her tail hole and started pushing it in, feeling the silicone tip popping in and starting to fill her up. She bit her lower lip as more of the long, thin toy worked its way into her depths. She held still, with the toy balls deep inside her, getting used to it before she would pull it out and pump it back in.

It didn’t take long for her to get a good rhythm going; one paw working the toy in and out as her other paw was stroking her shaft in time with it. She had planned on taking her time, enjoying the feeling of the toy working her and letting her imagination run wild. She started thrusting the toy in and out at a fast pace, feeling the soft silicon balls of the toy slapping against her butt.

Her mind had wondered to some of the boys in her class and just boys in general. Thinking about what it would be like or what it would feel like if the toy that she was using was a male thrusting into her, working her up before dumping a nice load of cum into her. The fantasy shattered around her as she felt her cock twitching, letting out her own load onto the shower floor.

She didn’t move for several seconds, squatting on the shower floor, panting and enjoying the feeling of her post orgasm high. Though it was all too short lived as she pulled the toy from herself and started getting it cleaned up. Unfortunately, she had other things to do, homework being one of them. 

__________________________________________________

By the time the young tigress got home from exploring the nearby wooded areas, shi was panting with exertion and hir new hiking boots had a thick layer of mud on them. Figuring mom would probably kill hir for tracking mud over the living room carpet, shi took hir boots off before pulling hir key out, unlocking the door, and stepping inside.

“Hey kiddo,” David yelled from the kitchen where he and Raenne were finishing preparing dinner. “Have a nice hike?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied, still panting as shi jogged across the empty living room to the dining room table. Shi was about to sit down when hir mother interrupted hir.

“Go wash your hands first, Alex,” Raenne ordered, carrying a large bowl full of mixed salad to the table. 

Alex sighed and turned around, walking past the kitchen and down the hallway to the bathroom. A minute later shi returned, sitting back down at the kitchen table, where hir dad was setting out plates and bowls. “So, what’s for dinner?”

The white tiger peered over the table, looking into the larger bowls in the center. “Looks like chicken, some kind of rice, and some kind of soup and salad,” he muttered.

Raenne sat down as well, answering them both. “A taste of Africa: kachumbari salad, egusi soup, jollof rice, and piri piri chicken,” she explained, picking up a ladle and the soup bowl in front of her.

“This chicken smells amazing,” Alex said approvingly, breathing deeply. “Lemon, garlic, ginger, and... some kind of spices?”

“Smoked paprika and cayenne, plus a dash of a few other things. There’s spices in the rice too; it’s like a jambalaya. Actually, everything’s a bit spicy except the salad.”

“Oooh, yum,” Alex said excitedly, reaching for the ladle in the rice. Shi liked spicy food.

Dinner was just as delicious and spicy as Raenne had said. The three of them didn’t say much during dinner, except that Alex had to recount hir day again for Dad, just like she had after getting home earlier.

Thirty minutes later, Alex and David finished putting away the dirty dishes. “Okay, kiddo. Your mom said we were going to start teaching you some exercises tonight. Let’s head downstairs.”

Alex sighed and followed hir father downstairs into the garage. Shi hadn’t known until the move just how much stuff there was in the basement of their old house. All that shi remembered was the wide-open room with mats on the floor and a bunch of swords and spears and stuff on the walls. Those were now stored in plastic cases in the back of their new garage. Hir parents had been discussing selling them, but Mom wanted to keep them for a bit.

Now all of the exercise equipment was sitting near the front of the garage. There were quite a number of exercise machines, like a real gym. Mom was already down there, doing warm up exercises on the big blue mats in the middle of the garage. 

“Okay. The first thing to exercise is to make sure it’s enjoyable. A lot of people listen to music while they exercise,” David explained pointing at the radio sitting on the shelf next to the stairs, currently playing rock music. “The second thing to exercise is that you need to do a warm up. Get your blood flowing so you don’t injure your muscles. No stretches, no weight lifting, nothing, until after you’ve done at least a few minutes of cardio exercise. That could be something like fast walking or jogging, maybe bicycling, stair climbing, or rowing,” he continued, pointing out the various machines sitting at the front of the garage.

“Once you’ve got your blood flowing, you can get to the real stuff. I recommend alternating each day, doing cardio or karate one day and yoga or resistance training the next, and always end with stretches and a light cooldown. For cardio, you can use any of those machines in the front that you would use for a warmup, like the treadmill or stair climber, only you’ll be wanting to keep your heart rate high like around one-sixty, and keep on it for at least fifteen to thirty minutes...” 

Alex listened carefully as hir father explained how to use the various machines. At first it didn’t seem like much fun, at least until he started talking about recording times and trying to beat your personal best. That was what shi liked about swimming: beating your personal high scores when it came to lap time and such. 

Yoga didn’t seem like much fun either until he yelled across the room at Mom, saying something shi didn’t understand: “Vrischikasana.” Mom put her forearms on the floor and arched her back, lifting her butt and then legs off the floor until her toes were high in the air over her head, the rest of her looked like the letter ‘C’ except where her forearms lay flat against the ground. Alex raised hir eyebrows, impressed.

A moment later, Dad yelled something else shi couldn’t understand: “Eka hasta vrksasana.” Mom straightened her legs and pushed with her arms until she was in a handstand, then spread her legs a little and raised one hand towards the ceiling, doing a one-handed handstand.

“Wow,” Alex whispered, not even realizing shi had said it. Mom was like one of those Cirque du Soleil gymnasts. Maybe yoga could be pretty cool after all.

“So, in order to do that you need to be very, very strong. That means you need to build muscle, which is what resistance training is for...” David continued. Alex barely heard him though. Shi was too busy watching Mom as she did another pose.

__________________________________________________

Monday, August 31st, 2015

Alex locked the side entrance behind hirself, stepping out into the chill morning air. This high in the mountains it was surprisingly cold in the mornings, even near the end of summer. Hopefully the khakis shi was wearing would be sufficient to keep hir legs warm during the winter, but shi doubted it. Maybe mom could get hir a really long coat or something.

The tiger cub hiked hir backpack on hir shoulders and walked down the side patio and hopped down the stairs to the driveway. Dad had already put down some black stuff on the edge of the steps that was rough, like sandpaper. Supposedly it would help make the steps easy to go up and down when everything was covered in snow or ice. 

It was about a five minute walk out of the neighborhood to the main street where the bus stop was. Since Alex had started leaving a minute or two earlier, shi was usually one of the first kids to the bus stop. Only Jerome and Brandy were at the bus stop earlier than shi was, as usual. Steve and Cindy usually showed up later, followed by Azalea and Jennifer. Jason was a bit unreliable, and shi was starting to wonder if the beaver had ADHD or something, cause sometimes he was like a zombie and other times he would speak a million words a minute. At least he hadn’t missed the bus yet, like Jennifer. 

“Hi Jerome. Hi Brandy,” shi greeted as shi walked up. Unlike last week, they were wearing the school colors, same as shi was. Shi couldn’t call it a uniform, since there were plenty of different variations of stuff they could wear, even hoodies, if they were willing to shell out the money for a school-branded clothing.

“Hello, kitty,” Jerome greeted, the mountain lion waving at hir as shi walked up.

“Itty bitty kitty committee,” Brandy rhymed, looking at the two younger felines with a smirk. She was the oldest of the bus stop crew, a fourteen-year-old 8th-grader, and had tagged Alex with the nickname ‘itty bitty kitty’ the moment she’d found out Alex had barely turned ten. The young tigress didn’t mind; it was kind of cute and far better than some other nicknames shi could think of.

The other kids eventually showed up as well, and they all piled into the bus. Alex sat down and pulled out hir 3DS. Shi had a feeling shi was going to wind up playing an awful lot of games on the ride to school this year. Their bus stop was one of the last on the way going out to Prairie Flats, which made for a shorter trip in the morning, but one of the last stops on the way back. That was good, since it gave hir more time to get schoolwork done on the bus.

When they got to school, Alex stepped off the school bus and looked around in amazement. Literally everyone was dressed in navy blue or white, with splashes of tan, black, and grey. They might not have a uniform, per se, but the requirements on colors were strict enough that it might as well be. Polo shirts and khakis or skirts were the order of the day, just like Alex was wearing. Shi jogged through the hallways towards hir locker to put away hir jacket and backpack before heading off to social studies, looking forward to learning about the ancient egyptian, mesopotamian, indian, and chinese cultures from thousands and thousands of years ago.

__________________________________________________

Nine hours later, Alex finally got home, still reeling over the amount of homework shi had to do, despite having spent nearly an hour on it on the bus ride home. Shi was definitely going to have to ask Dad for help with Math and ISTE homework. 

Math wasn’t really hard, but shi had definitely missed some things from skipping fifth grade. Last week shi had explained that to hir math teacher and he had told hir that he would give hir some help. Today Mr. Donnehue had given hir a thick packet of math problems to do, along with some URLs that explained how to solve them. There wasn’t any time limit on getting them done, but he’d said he expected hir to do at least one page a night, to bring them back so he could grade them as they were completed. That was on top of hir regular Math homework. Shi had a feeling shi was going to be seeing numbers dancing in hir vision whenever shi closed hir eyes.

The ISTE homework wasn’t hard either, but it mentioned a ton of words that shi literally had never heard before, like networks, encryption, data security, and other stuff. Apparently the schools here had a whole curriculum starting in elementary school to teach kids about computers, and shi had missed nearly three years worth of these classes. Mrs. Viaene had explained that most of the stuff from their earlier classes wasn’t that important, and just to look up the words she wasn’t familiar with. Looking up the words was easy, but they made no sense in how they were used. Having Dad explain how they applied to computers made things much, much clearer. 

“Hi, mom,” Alex greeted as shi stepped into the living room, then came to a halt as shi realized that the room was no longer empty. A long, dark brown leather sectional sofa was sitting facing the fireplace and along the glass windows at the front of the house. A matching chair sat opposite it, providing seating all around the fireplace. An equally new dark wood dining room table and set of chairs had replaced their old one.

“Hi, kiddo,” hir mother replied, bringing a plate from the kitchen to the dining room table. “Snacks are ready. How was school?”

“Oh My God,” Alex exclaimed, ignoring Mom’s question, dropping hir backpack and kicking off hir shoes before looking over the new furniture. Shi walked over and ran hir paw over the dark leather, pressing against it, then stepped around the front of the chair and sat down, sinking several inches into it. It was ridiculously comfortable. Shi leaned back into the chair with a sigh.

Raenne watched with a grin. “There’s a matching sofa and coffee table upstairs in the landing area, and another two chairs in that reading nook next to the landing. We got a few matching beanbags and futon for that upstairs entertainment room too. That’s real leather, kiddo, so be careful with those claws of yours. Any repairs will be coming out of your allowance.”

The young tigress was hardly paying any attention; sitting in the chair was like sitting on a cloud. However comfortable it was, shi was still hungry after going five hours since lunch, and mom had already fixed a snack. With a sigh, shi stood up and walked over to the dining room table, sitting down on the chairs. Apparently the seat cushions were upholstered in the same espresso-colored leather, and just as comfortable as the chair. 

The dining room chairs were still just as comfortable five minutes later, when shi finished the two sliced apples that hir mom had set out as a snack. Shi had a feeling shi was going to be spending more time doing hir homework down here than in hir room; the desk chair wasn’t exactly comfortable to sit in for long periods of time. Plus the dining room was way better lit with all the windows along the front of the house. 

“...Anyway, they gave us this afterschool activity sheet,” Alex explained as shi finished the last sip of hir tall glass of milk, continuing to recount hir day at school. “I’ll go get it out so you can look at it, but... I can’t really make up my mind between soccer and volleyball. They both seem like they could be fun.”

“Maybe you can ask that squirrel girl you mentioned,” Raenne suggested. “Maybe she’ll be doing sports too.”

“That... is a good idea,” Alex agreed, pulling hir phone out of hir pants pocket as hir mom picked up the empty plate and glass, taking them back into the kitchen. The young tigress held the button until the phone dinged, saying “Siri, call Azalea Winters.”

The phone responded. “Calling Azalea Winters, Mobile.” A second later, Alex heard the ring coming from the phone’s speaker and held it up to hir ear.

“Thank you for calling Looters, were you can get loot and looted. This is Azalea. How may I help you?” the hybrid asked when the line picked up. She was clearly trying to keep from laughing at her own silliness.

“Greetings, Mistress of the Fluffy Tail, Queen of the Arcade, Destroyer of Scrubs, Ruler of... umm... something,” the tigress gushed, running out of ideas after a few seconds.

“Ruler of cuties and snacks,” Azalea proclaimed proudly. “What’s up short fluff?”

“So, like, are you going to be doing some kind of afterschool sports this year? Or are you just going to spend all your spare time at the arcade, tail fluff?” Alex asked, standing up and walking from the dining room through the living room, heading upstairs.

“Don’t be jelly of the fluff. I was thinking that I would spend all my time, when not in the arcade, humping pillows or playing soccer,” Azalea boasted as she wiggled around, trying to find the most comfortable spot in her nest. 

As she reached the top of the stairs, Alex looked around at the couch and coffee table in the upstairs landing area overlooking the dining room. Shi glanced into the side nook as well, noting the pair of chairs that overlooked the living room, then sat down in one of them. The young tigress let out a sigh; it was just as comfortable as the sofa downstairs had been. “So you’re going to join the after school soccer team?”

“Well it’s that or going out for something like cheerleading. Then again, I would give everyone an eyeful.” She laughed, letting out a happy sigh as she found a sweet spot, relaxing on the pile of blankets. “I always play soccer. This will be the first year doing it for school, but I’ve been playing with friends for a while.”

“Cool. I like soccer, but I’ve only played it in P.E. a few times and I don’t know the rules very well. Do you think you could give me a few pointers? Please?” Alex asked hopefully.

“I mean, I could. What position?” Azalea asked, tapping her muzzle in thought. “Wait... Um, you might run into a little trouble with trying out. There’s prolly going to be some paperwork, cause you’re so little you compared to the rest of us.” She paused again before smiling. “But we have till the fall, so we have time for me to give you some paws-on training.”

“I got a waiver thing with the after school activity sheet, but... what do you mean by position? I mean, I know there’s a goalie, but...” the tiger’s voice trailed off.

“Well, there’s left and right fullback, center back, defender...” The hybrid rambled on, stopping as the thought hit her that she was probably confusing the poor little tiger. “I think it would be better just to show you. Wanna come over sometime?”

Alex’s eyes lit up; shi hadn’t expected one of the older cubs to be willing to put up with hir. Usually older kids thought younger ones were a nuisance. “Yeah! I’ve got a bit of homework to get done first, but I could head over in an hour. You live in those apartments across from the bus stop, right?”

“Awesome opossum! I do; we live in apartment number five. It’s on the second floor. Text me before you get here and I can let you in and introduce you to the family.” She looked over to her own backpack with distaste. “I should do the homework thing too,” the squirrel-hybrid added, nudging her bag with her foot as it was alive.

“Cool! I’ll see you soon,” Alex said, grinning from ear to ear.

“I'll see you then, and don’t forget your offering to your queen,” Azalea giggled.

“Your wish is my command, queen of snacks. Later!” the tigress replied, bidding the squirrel farewell. A second later shi hit the red button at the bottom of the screen, disconnecting the call. “Mom?” the tigress called, standing up and leaning over the balcony. “Azalea’s going to be playing soccer. She said she’d be willing to teach me how to play. Would it be okay if I go over to her place after I finish some of my homework?”

The older tigress stepped into the dining room, peering up through the atrium at her daughter. “Where’s she live?”

“In the apartments across from the bus stop. Apartment number five,” the little tigress explained.

The older tigress raised her eyebrows. Technically it was within walking distance, but it would only take a minute or do if they drove. That would also give her a reason to meet the other kid and her parents. “Sure, kiddo. I’ll drive you over when you’ve got your homework done.”

“Sweet!”

__________________________________________________

Alex glanced up from hir phone, looking around the apartment complex. It was actually pretty nice looking, with blue-grey siding and white trim. After a second shi noticed the apartment numbers on the side of the building next to the building number. “There it is,” shi exclaimed, pointing it out to hir mom.

“I saw it,” Raenne replied, spotting an empty parking spot that wasn’t covered. If it was like other apartment complexes, the covered spots were usually designated for residents. She pulled the car into the parking spot, then put the transmission in park.

Both of the tigers undid their seatbelts and got out of the black SUV. Alex took a moment to brush hir capris and t-shirt off, picking a few stray strands of fur off before following hir mom over to the stairs that led up to Azalea’s apartment. 

Raenne reached the top of the stairwell, then tugged the bottom of her flannel shirt, straightening it before she hit the doorbell next to the door. A second later Alex reached the door as well, standing next to hir mom.

From inside of the house, they could hear someone yelling something about getting the door before it opened a few seconds later. “Alex and big sister?” Azalea looked up to the tiger’s mom.

The older tigress smiled. “Alex and hir mother,” she corrected. “I’m Raenne,” she added, holding her paw out to the young squirrel-hybrid.

“Are you sure? You don’t look that old,” the squirrel hybrid joked before taking the offered paw and giving it a shake. “I’m Azalea, I’m guessing that you want to meet my parents?”

“Actually, I wanted to thank you for being so nice to Alex on hir first day at school. However, if your parents are home, I certainly don’t mind chatting with them,” the tigress said.

“Sure. Come in, take a load off,” the hybrid suggested as she motioned to the large sofa that sat against the wall. “Mom A, Mom B, we have guests,” Azalea called out as she stepped to the side to let them in before heading towards the kitchen. “Drinks? Snacks?”

“Actually, I brought some snacks for us,” Alex interrupted, pulling a bag of trail mix out of hir pocket and following Azalea into the living room.

An expression of confusion flashed across Raenne’s face as Azalea called out for her parents, not expecting the child to have two mothers. For a second she wondered if the child’s birth-parents were divorced as she stepped into the living room, following her daughter and closing the front door behind her. The living room had a sitting area with a sofa, wide recliner, and entertainment center as well as another area with a bean bag chair and a set of shelves with books and statuettes. The coffee table in front of the sofa had a fringed black cloth mat or shawl of some kind draped over it with gold-embroidered celtic knots around the outside and a silver-embroidered pentagram in the center flanked with two silver crescents. A deck of cards sat atop the mat, and the older tigress raised an eyebrow, wondering what it was.

“Sorry about that. I was in the middle of a painting,” an adult jerboa apologized, coming down the hallway to one side of the living room while drying her paws on a paint stained cloth. The rodent was wearing a long, paint-stained white t-shirt. “Azzy had mentioned something about her new friend and parents coming over. I’m Cora, Azzy’s mom.” She smiled, holding her paw out for the visitors.

Another female voice spoke up as a malabar squirrel in a black shirt and jeans walked into the room behind her wife. “And I’m Beth. It’s nice to meet you and Alex too,” the squirrel said, glancing at the tiger cub and her daughter.

“Likewise,” the older tigress replied, taking Cora’s paw and shaking it. “I’m Raenne,” she introduced herself before releasing the jerboa’s paw and stepping out of the way as Azalea headed towards the pair of bean bag chairs.

“Hello Mrs. Cora, Mrs. Beth,” Alex added, standing still for a moment, unsure what to do as the room suddenly filled with adults.

“Hello Alex. It’s good to meet you. Azzy has told us a good bit about you.” Cora smiled at the cub.

“Yes. It’s good to know that she’s making friends with such well mannered cubs.” Beth nodded to Alex. “It’s good to meet you too.”

“I didn’t think that you would bring snacks for real,” Azalea commented as she pulled a pair of bean bag chairs over to the table for her and Alex, flopping in one.

“Well, you said to bring an offering,” Alex explained as shi joined the jerboa-squirrel hybrid, sitting down in the other bean bag chair. Shi tossed the bag of trail mix over to Azalea and pulled a smaller pack of trail mix out of hir other pocket.

“Come sit down, visit with us.” Cora motioned to the sofa and oversized recliner that were around the coffee table. “Did you want a drink or anything? Anyone?”

“I’m good, thank you,” the older tigress said, sitting down on the wide recliner, now even more confused since it was obvious that Azalea did indeed have two mothers, and obviously took after both of them. She wondered if one of them was a hermaphrodite or transgendered.

“I was joking about the offering, but hey, free snacks.” Azalea nodded as she opened the bag and picked through it before getting up and walking to one of the shelves that lined the wall and dropped a few of the dried fruits that she had picked out and dropped them in a bowl that was sitting in front of a statuette of a feral cat. “Thank you,” she added, going back to sitting with Alex at the coffee table.

After both Cora and Beth joined them, sitting next to each other on the sofa, Raenne spoke up. “I really just wanted to come over and say ‘thank you’ for Azalea’s amiability, especially on their first day at school. We just moved out here two weeks ago, and Alexandrea here hadn’t made any friends yet. I was rather worried shi would have trouble, seeing as shi only just turned ten and is going into sixth grade with a bunch of twelve-year-olds. I know older kids sometimes view younger ones as an annoyance. So... Thank you Azalea,” the older tigress said, nodding at her.

“I know how something like that can be, and there’s just something about Alex,” Azalea nodded, pausing for a second. “And by that I mean she’s pretty cool. She’s going to fit right in and I’m just the first of many friends that she will make.”

“I certainly hope so,” the older tigress replied, hoping her daughter wouldn’t spill the bag of trail mix shi was pulling open.

“What’s with the deck of cards?” Alex asked, unable to contain hir curiosity. Shi poured a bit of trail mix into hir paw and popped a peanut into hir mouth.

“Those would be my tarot cards, I can use them to see the future in a way. I can use them to reveal stuff about a person too,” Azalea explained, setting her trail mix bag to the side, reaching over to pick up the cards and starting to shuffle them. “Want me to tell you about yourself?”

“Um, sure,” Alex agreed, taking another nibble of trail mix. “You could tell me how many years it’ll take me to finish Mr. Donnehue’s math packet.”

“I can tell you that without looking at the cards: two hours,” Azalea jested as she finished shuffling. Alex rolled hir eyes as the hybrid split the deck three times before placing three cards face down. Then she flipped over the first card. “The first is your past: temperance in repose. In your past, and possibly present, you’ve suffered or dealt with the effects of some duality in your life. Two different forces coming together to become one; something that many people may not understand,” she explained, referring to the image of the card, a crane that was sprinkling water over a fire to show the idea of duality or two opposing forces coming together. 

Alex stared at the card, wondering how Azalea had managed to draw a card that so perfectly described the past four months. Shi hadn’t told the squirrel any of hir past yet. Heck, shi hadn’t even told anyone that shi was a hermaphrodite yet, only hinting at it one time at the bus stop.

The squirrel-hybrid flipped another card. “Next is the ten of swords. This is never a nice card to get,” she announced, referring to the dark art of a bison with swords around it. “You’ve dealt with, and seem to still be dealing with great pain, physical or mental. Something or someone has done something to you that was beyond devastating, but you, like the bison on the card, are still going.”

The fur on the back of Alex’s neck stood on end; that was just as accurate as the first card. The sorrow of having to leave hir best friend behind was something that had been a constant companion for the past two weeks; it felt like shi had a hole in hir chest where hir heart had been.

Azalea flipped the last card. “The nine of wands. Despite all the things that has happened to you, you keep climbing, not stopping till you hit the top. The climb might not be a pretty one, and it might be painful, but you have the strength to keep going and reach the moon and stars,” she explained, pointing at the card showing nine wands forming a set of stairs that led up to the moon. “So, was I close?”

“I don’t know about reaching the moon and stars, but I know the rest of it is spot on,” Raenne stated as her daughter’s gaze darted back and forth from the deck of tarot cards to Azalea’s face. “I take it shi told you about what happened back in Oregon?” the older tigress asked with a sad smile.

Alex shook hir head, looking over at hir mom with alarm. Raenne's expression went blank and she raised an eyebrow, looking over at Azalea.

“No ma’am. All that I knew before this is that Alex had moved out here about two weeks ago. She never told me anything about why she moved,” the hybrid said, looking at the cards laid out, a little surprised that she seemed to get everything correct.

“What happened back in Oregon? I mean, if you don’t mind us asking,” Cora asked, leaning forward a little, looking from the cubs to the adult tigress.

“Well, it’s the reason we moved out here. But that’s Alex’s story to tell, when shi’s ready to tell it,” Raenne said, glancing over at her daughter.

Alex took a deep breath, looking around. Everyone else was looking at hir with curiosity. Shi didn’t really want to speak about it, but figured shi should at least say something. “I... um...” shi started, swallowing. “Er... I broke my leg when I was snowboarding this spring, so I was wearing skirts to school cause it was easier to get over my cast. I guess I was daydreaming or something and... one of the boys... noticed I wasn’t a girl. He... he...” Alex’s voice trailed off as shi leaned forward, choking up and trying not to cry.

“Shh,” Raenne shushed, standing up and walking over to her daughter, kneeling and rubbing hir back. “It’s okay, kiddo. If you don’t want to tell them, you don’t have to.”

“I do,” the little tigress said, nearly in tears. “but... but...”

The older tigress patted her daughter on the back and looked up, continuing the story her daughter had started. “Alex is a hermaphrodite, but shi had been posing as a girl since kindergarten. He and another kid attacked Alex and hir best friend Elizabeth, who had tried to intervene. They ripped Alex’s clothes off in front of everyone. The next week shi was attacked again, beaten and nearly killed. Shi wound up in the hospital with three broken ribs and a punctured lung, on top of the broken leg shi already had.”

“There’s a special place in hell for people like that.” Cora shook her head before turning her gaze to Alex. “Hun, I’m sure that you know that you don’t have to worry about something like that here, especially with Azzy around.”

“Not to step out of line, but please tell me that you sought or took some kind of legal action? Or do you need someone to help with that? I would take the case pro bono,” Beth said, looking at Alex’s mother.

“Yes, we did,” Raenne stated. “Both boys were suspended. We filed police reports, but they weren’t charged. The other three who attacked Alex the next week were charged and given a couple of months in juvenile detention. We did get full restitution though, and we have an ongoing civil case for pain and suffering. There’s a firm in Oregon handling it at the moment. We’ll be flying back there next week for the trial.”

Without thinking about it, Azalea drew one more card. She nodded as she looked at it, along the top of the card it had the roman numeral for six and the words “The Lovers” along the bottom; showing a pair of geese flying with each other. She slid it back into the deck and set the deck back in its place before reaching out and hugging Alex.

“Thanks,” Alex whispered. At least shi hadn’t actually broken into tears this time. It was strange how the memory of what had happened really hadn’t bothered hir all summer. It wasn’t until after moving that the memory of being beaten up had become emotionally painful.

“Don’t let it get you down Alex. You’re safe here, and if you ever need someone to talk to about genders, growing up as a herm, or anything, Azzy and I are here for you,” Beth spoke up.

Alex looked up in curiosity. “Growing up as a herm?” shi asked, hir voice still shaking a little.

“Yes ma’am. I’ve been through just about all of the things that life can throw at a herm in my past thirty-something years on this planet,” Beth stated.

Raenne looked up at the squirrel. Supposedly hermaphroditism was a one in a thousand mutation, and yet somehow they were sitting in the same living room with two of them present. She wondered what the odds of that happening were. At least she now knew why Azalea had two mothers: Beth was the young hybrid’s sire. 

“Oh. Thank you,” Alex said, sounding much more relaxed and leaning back again. Shi returned Azalea’s hug. “Can we go play soccer now?” the young tigress asked plaintively. Shi didn’t exactly want to dwell on the past right now.

“Let me go get the ball and stuff,” Azalea said as she got up and disappeared into her room, returning a moment later with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder. “There’s a park nearby.” She motioned for Alex to follow her.

“Give me a call when you need to be picked up,” Raenne told her daughter.

“I will,” Alex replied as shi stood up from hir bean bag and followed the hybrid out the front door, leaving their parents alone. 

As the door closed, Raenne sighed. “That’s pretty typical. Shi tends to bottle up hir emotions until they reach critical mass and shi has a meltdown. I’m dreading the one that’s sure to come from moving out here to Colorado. It’s been building for over a month.”

“That can be really bad. Azzy ran into something like that a couple of years ago. She had been keeping things bottled up for a while and one thing led to another and there was a revelation, and the death of our son,” Cora said leaning against Beth.

Raenne’s mouth fell open. That was definitely not what she had expected. “I... I’m sorry for your loss,” she told them. There wasn’t much else someone could say about the death of a child. “What happened?”

“Well, we came home one day and heard the shower going. That’s pretty normal, Avery liked to take showers when he got home from school,” Cora continued. “This time we noticed that he was in there a little longer, and decided to go check on him.”

“I went and opened the door and sprawled out on the floor was Avery, empty pill bottle next to him. He got into the prescription pills that Cora was taking at the time,” Beth had picked up the story, holding her wife. “We managed to get him to the hospital.”

“They got him stabilized and okay. We asked him why, of course. That’s when we learned that he had been holding in his feelings and emotions about his gender. That was the day that Avery passed away and Azalea was born.” Cora sighed softly.

“There was a lot of work that had to be done. Lots of late nights and long talks, but things are way better now for her. You need to make sure that Alex has something that she can do, some kind of outlet for her feelings.” Beth nodded, kissing her wife on the head, between her ears.

The tigress took a deep breath upon figuring out that it wasn’t literally death, but figurative. For a moment she was angry. “I’m glad Azalea survived, and that you have been so supportive. However, you might want to use a different metaphor than death for coming out; you still have a child, even if their preferred pronouns have changed. I can’t say the same for parents of those who served with me in Iraq and Iran.”

There was a moment or two of silence before Beth cleared her throat. “I didn’t know that you served. I would like to thank you for your service. Have you given thought to work? I have a few friends that I could get you in touch with.” 

“I would like to say sorry. That wasn’t the best metaphor to use.” Cora spoke softly as she snuggled against her wife.

“I don’t think in metaphors and for a moment I thought you’d really lost a child. No worries though, it’s okay,” Raenne replied to Cora, waving one paw dismissively. The tigress knew she was quick to anger, but she didn’t hold a grudge. She turned to face Beth again. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m not looking for employment at the moment. We’re doing well enough, thanks to Mr. Kravetts; he sold us our house here at cost. Apparently he’s a member of a local druidic sect or something. He said something about how the land welcomes us. I didn’t quite understand, but...” She shrugged, indicating her inability to turn down such an offer, despite not understanding the reasons for it.

“Well it looks like the Fates have a plan for you, especially if you have Mr. Kravetts blessing.” Cora gave a knowing smile, lazily nuzzling her wife. “Have you given any thoughts to plans down the line? I’m sure someone like you isn’t the type to sit around.”

“I’m not sure. I would like to continue teaching karate, but there aren’t any martial arts schools within an hour drive, much less a karate dojo. Maybe I’ll wind up starting one myself, either here or in Prairie Flats,” the tigress mused. “I’ll have to think about it.”

“I’m sure that there would be a lot of places around here that you could find to set up one,” Beth tapped her chin in thought. “I’ll talk to a few friends, and if you need help out with the paperwork or anything you know where to find me.”

The tigress smiled. “Thank you.”

__________________________________________________

“Okay, so the tree there and the bush there will be the goals.” Azalea pointed out as she set down the duffle bag and started pulling out some shin guards and putting them on. “I don’t know if my other ones will fit, but you might want to try them on.” 

Alex looked down into the duffle bag of gear, then pulled out a second pair of shin guards. The little tigress watched as Azalea put hers on, then did the same, pulling the velcro around the back. “Do I need special shoes like those?” shi asked, pointing at the cleats that Azalea was wearing.

“You will, but I don’t have any that will fit your big ol’ murder mittens.” She pointed out the difference in size between her paws and Alex’s. “For now those hiking shoes are fine. Next time wear cleats or sneakers without open toes, cause broken toes are baaad.”

“Okay. I’ll ask mom to get me some cleats,” Alex reassured the squirrel-hybrid.

“You don’t want to put them on ‘till you get to the field; walking on concrete isn’t fun,” Azalea said as she stood up from tying her cleats. “So, do you know anything about soccer?” she asked as she reached into the bag to pull out a soccer ball.

“I played it in P.E. before. Try to get the ball into the goal and don’t touch the ball with your hands unless you’re a goalie,” the tigress answered. “I don’t know much more than that though.”

“There is a little more to it. There are a few positions other than out on the field or at the goals.” Azzy paused for a moment or two. “So, do you want to be more active? Or do you want to go with something more defensive?” 

“Active,” Alex stated, nodding.

“Okay. So you’re going to go with center forward, or left or right forward. They are the more active of the positions. They are the ones that push the ball forward,” Azalea explained as she dropped the ball on the ground. “But first, let’s just start with something simple, like kicks. Kick it at me.” She walked away, heading to the tree that she pointed out.

Alex waited a few moments for the squirrel to get into position before shi took a few steps back, then jogged forward and gave the ball a powerful kick with hir toes, punting it straight towards the tree. The tigress winced as shi felt hir toes give a twinge of pain despite the thick hiking boots and made a mental note not to kick the ball with hir toes again. 

Azalea caught the ball with a little effort, she smiled at how well the tigress had kicked it, and the force that went behind it. “You did just fine, but to save your toes, use the side of your foot or the top of it. Like this,” She said, dropping the ball and kicking it back to the tigress.

The tigress watched the ball arc through the air and took a few steps back. The ball gave a satisfying smack when the side of hir foot hit it as shi punted the ball right back to Azalea, the ball flew slightly to one side.

“See, that hurt less didn’t it?” The squirrel took several steps forward, kicking the ball back. “Now, I want you to try and get the ball past me. Call it a little test.”

“What, like kick it over you or around you?” Alex asked, stopping the ball with one foot, clearly confused.

“Something like that. You want to dribble it. Use your feet to kick it ahead of you a little bit to keep it rolling. Once you get close, you have to get it past me, ideally you would have one of your teammates near you to pass it to. I can show you how if you want.”

Alex frowned in concentration, trying to visualize what to do. Shi kicked the ball forwards a few feet, following along behind it. The tigress continued toeing it forward as shi ran towards the squirrel, eventually reaching about ten feet away. Alex feinted, pretending to give a powerful kick to the left, but only bumped it, then kicked it to the right, trying to go around the squirrel.

Azalea watched the tigress as she dribbled the ball her way, watching for any tells that Alex might have that would hint at what she was up to. She watched as the tigress got closer, then wind up for a big kick. It nearly caught her off guard when the tigress punted it. Thinking of how she could kick the ball away from Alex, Azalea kicked it, sending it rolling further to the right. That gave her a chance to move around and get control of it, dribbling it back towards the bush.

As Azalea kicked the ball further away, Alex spun around trying to see where it had gone. The squirrel was already ten feet away and kicking the ball towards the bush. The tigress leaned forward and sprinted after her, panting.