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 5

Friday, September 11th, 2015

Alex walked up the street towards hir house, the last house on the right and one of the last houses on the street. Just as mom had predicted, the construction had taken a few hours longer than the contractors had estimated. The carpenter’s truck and plumber’s van were still parked in the driveway, despite it being almost four o’clock in the afternoon. The young tigress climbed up the steps to the left of the driveway, panting heavily, so tired that hir tail was dragging on the ground. The walk from the bus stop wasn’t exactly long or arduous, but it was uphill, and shi was still recovering from the attack last week. 

The little tigress pulled out hir key and unlocked the side entry door, stepping inside and closing it behind hirself. Several loud bangs greeted hir, coming from the upstairs bathroom, where they were apparently still installing the fur dryers. Shi was looking forward to having them once again; having to use towels to dry off was a pain in the tail. Especially since hir undercoat was still damp on the walk to the bus stop in the mornings, which had started turning chilly. 

Alex bent over and undid the laces on hir sneakers, pulling them off hir feet. Shi spent a moment stretching hir toes and extending hir claws before setting the shoes under the small bench they had next to the side entrance door. More than anything, shi wanted to get out of hir school khakis and polo shirt, put on hir pajama shirt, and curl up on the sofa for a nap. But with the noise that was coming from upstairs, shi doubted shi would be able to sleep. So the tigress did the next best thing and swung hir backpack around as shi walked towards the dining room to finish up hir homework, tail twitching in irritation.

“Hey kiddo,” Raenne greeted her daughter while walking down the stairs. As predicted, the side door opening and closing had been her daughter, arriving home from school. “Not going to take a nap?” she asked as Alex walked past the couch. 

Ever since the cub had started school again after the incident last week, the first thing shi had done after getting home from school had been to curl up on the living room sofa and take a solid two hour nap. It was probably good for hir recovery, so Raenne didn’t object, waking her daughter in time for dinner and making sure shi did hir homework afterwards.

Alex shook hir head as shi dropped hir backpack on the dining room table and pulled one of the chairs out. There was no way shi could sleep with the racket that the contractors were making. “Too noisy,” shi added.

“I figured,” the older tigress said with a short laugh. “Want a snack?” she asked, walking into the kitchen.

“No thanks,” Alex replied as shi started digging books out of hir bookbag. 

The tigress in the kitchen stopped, turned around and stared. “Who are you and what did you do with my child?” she asked.

Alex laughed. “Jennifer was selling Star Crunch on the bus ride home. She gave me and Azalea some of them,” shi explained, pulling out hir zip-up binder with the pens and pencils and sitting down.

“Aaah, that explains it,” the older tigress nodded, taking her hand off the refrigerator handle and walking over to the table. “So how was school?” she asked as she sat down at the table as well.

“Fine. I got a ninety on that network topology test on Thursday. If dad hadn’t explained all that stuff, I honestly don’t think I would have even passed it. I like Mrs. Vaiene, but she keeps forgetting that I never took the elementary ISTE courses, and I don’t have time to ask for explanations in class. Like, now that the basic networking stuff is over, we’re actually using network commands on the computers, and I don’t even know what a powershell or terminal is. I think it’s where we type in the commands, but... It’s so confusing,” Alex said, hir ears going flat against hir head. 

“Well, just ask your dad when he gets home. I’m sure he can explain it,” the older tigress said, confidently. She knew enough to get by with them, but her husband had a degree in IT. Raenne had gone to Iraq when David had gone to college.

“I will,” Alex said, nodding. Shi had planned on it. “Anyway, everything else is going okay. After we finished the section on maps, Mr. Spencer started talking about the United Nations. It’s interesting, I guess. I thought we were going to be covering ancient history or something, but I guess he changed when he’s going to cover it,” the tigress said with a shrug. “In Science we’re still talking about celestial bodies, only we’re learning about forces and motion now, like centripetal and centrifugal force and stuff. We’re discussing MLA formats in English; it’s soooo boring,” shi added, rolling hir eyes. “In Math we’re starting a new section on measurements, like calculating areas. Art and Theater are still fun,” the little tigress finished, hir ears perking up again.

“Good,” Raenne replied, reaching over and picking up a small handful of mixed nuts from the crystal bowl in the center of the table to try to satisfy her sudden hunger pang. All the complications that came from being pregnant were terribly annoying. Especially the decreased bladder capacity. “Blasted kids,” she muttered, staring down at her stomach and fighting back the need to pee, tail twitching in annoyance.

“Hey mom?” Alex asked, suddenly remembering a question shi had been meaning to ask for a while. “I know that babies are made when a boy squirts in a girl, but... how?”

“I thought your dad told you about that,” the older tigress said, tilting her head slightly. 

Alex shook hir head.

“Oh. Well then. Umm... Most plants and animals produce gametes, which are the reproductive cells. Reproductive cells contain half the DNA of a normal cell. Males produce sperm and females produce ova-”

“Wait, plants are male and female too?” Alex interrupted, eyes wide. Shi would never in a million years have guessed that.

“Not exactly. Most plants don’t have sex-linked genes, so they aren’t male or female and they produce both seeds and pollen. Plant seeds are the ova and pollen are the sperm. You’ll learn about it when you take a biology class, probably in high school,” Raenne explained.

“Okay... Wait. So like, all that green dust is plant sperm?” Alex asked, making a disgusted face, her muzzle wrinkling as hir ears folded back. “Groooss!”

Raenne laughed. “Yep. Anyway, as I was saying, in animals the males produce sperm and females produce ova. Sperm are produced in the testes, and ova are produced in the ovaries. When an ovum and sperm combine, they create a zygote, which is a single cell that subdivides into more cells and eventually grows into a baby,” the tigress continued to explain.

“Oh. What about the twins? Did you just have two ova in you and so they turned into two babies?” the younger tigress asked.

“Right on the money,” the older tigress confirmed. “If you have two different ova that both get fertilized, you get fraternal twins. If you have a single ovum that’s fertilized and somehow breaks into two zygotes, you get identical twins. If you have two different ova that both get fertilized and somehow fuse into a single zygote, like you, it’s called a chimera. There’s dozens of other variations as well, but-”

“Wait,” Alex interrupted, eyes going wide again. “I’m a chimera?”

“Yep, like the three-headed monster from Greek mythology,” Raenne confirmed with a smirk before continuing the explanation. “There’s a few different types of chimerism. You have tetragametic chimerism. Tetra means four and a gamete contains half a set of DNA, so you have four half sets of DNA, or two complete sets. In your case, one set of DNA is male and the other is female, making you a hermaphrodite.”

“So... I’m actually two people? Do I have two souls?” Alex asked, eyes still wide.

“Nope, you only have one brain, so you’re just one person,” the older tigress explained. “As for souls... Catholic doctrine says that the soul enters the body when it takes its first breath, based on Genesis 2:7. You only had one body with which to take a first breath, so you only got one soul.”

“Oh,” Alex replied hir whiskers drooping as she frowned slightly. “Okay. I’m going to have to think about all this.”

“You do that,” Raenne said, standing up. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go check on those contractors. They’ve been quiet for too long,” she added, squinting suspiciously towards the upstairs landing, her tail fluffing slightly. 

Alex sat for a moment, thinking, then shrugged and pulled open hir English book, hoping the contractors wouldn’t be making too much noise; it was hard enough to concentrate when the subject was so boring.

__________________________________________________

As the movie credits began to roll, David clicked the remote to turn the TV off. “Well, what did you think?”

Alex blinked. “That was... intense. He was waaaay scarier than Joker in the first Batman film. Like, he was actually crazy.”

“Well, you asked for it and I warned you. Christopher Nolan films are pretty intense,” the white tiger said, standing up off the sofa and brushing loose fur off his slacks. “In a few years we’ll watch Inception. Most of it would probably go over your head right now... I had to watch it like three times to fully appreciate it. It’s kind of like The Matrix, only really confusing.”

Alex shook hir head as hir mom stood up as well. The older tigress did a few light stretches; as much as she could without stretching the seams on her cargo pants and flannel shirt, then headed out of the room, following her husband.

The younger tigress unfolded hir legs and rolled off the couch, following hir parents out of the guest bedroom that they were using as an entertainment room. Shi flipped the light off as shi stepped out, walking past hir bedroom. The front of the house was decidedly creepy at night; the giant windows that were so wonderful at letting the light in during the day were giant panes of pure darkness. 

Fighting back the shiver that started at hir tail tip and ran up her spine, Alex quickly followed hir parents down the stairs to the first floor and down the hallway to their bedroom. Mom was already removing her clothes when Alex stepped in. Shi peeled off the oversized t-shirt shi was wearing, one of hir dad’s castoffs, and set it on the foot of the bed so that shi would have something to wear in the morning. Shi sat down on the edge of the mattress and waited, watching as hir parents got ready for bed. All three of them slept naked now; it was more comfortable that way. 

Mom was, predictably, the first to finish getting undressed. After chucking her laundry in the hamper, she turned around, saying “Okay, kiddo. Let’s see your side first.” 

Alex obediently raised hir arm, showing the bandage over hir side. The older tigress carefully peeled the sticky tape and gauze off, inspecting the sutures where they’d removed the metal plates two days ago. “Looks good; no seepage this time. You’re healing faster than I’d expected, given you got in a fight with a feral last week,” Raenne said. “Speaking of... Go ahead and take the wrap off your arms while I go get some fresh gauze.”

As Alex began to unwrap the bandages around hir arms, hir father tossed his own clothes in the hamper and knelt down next to hir to help. Together they managed to get the wraps off just as Raenne returned from the bathroom with a fresh bandage for Alex’s side. 

The older tigress quickly applied it to her daughter’s side and then checked the stitches on Alex’s arms to make sure none of them were showing signs of infection or seepage, since the cub couldn’t very well see the underside of hir arms easily without a mirror. It took a while, since there were so many. After a minute, Raenne pronounced her daughter healed: “Looks like you’re all good now. You don’t need to wrap them anymore, at least until you get the stitches out. Just wear long sleeves to school next week, and don’t roll the sleeves up.”

The younger tigress breathed a sigh of relief. The bandages made hir arms hot and itchy, especially at night. A pang of exhaustion suddenly made Alex yawn, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth. It had been a long day.

As Raenne stood up, her husband wrapped his arm around her from behind, rubbing the fur of her swelling belly and whispering in her ear. She smirked slightly and turned her head to meet his kiss. 

Alex watched as her parents continued to kiss each, slowly making their way to the side of the bed before falling into it. They made an interesting couple, shi mused. Mom’s orange and black striped fur contrasted sharply with dad’s white and black striped fur. They had totally different interests too. Mom liked reading mysteries and thrillers where dad preferred sci-fi and fantasy. Mom didn’t play video games at all, but dad spent hours playing them. 

Despite their differences, they got along well and both spent quite a bit of time watching movies and exercising together, which showed. Both of them could have been models for the covers of those exercise magazines that Alex sometimes saw near the checkout stands at pharmacies.

Raenne suddenly stopped, pushing her husband away for a moment. Panting heavily, she turned to their daughter and asked “We’re going to play for a bit. Did you want to join us?”

“Mmm... no thanks,” Alex answered after a moment of hesitation. Shi hadn’t gotten a nap after school and was pretty tired; shi didn’t have the energy to have sex right now. “I’m too tired right now. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Suit yourself, kiddo. Sleep well,” the older tigress said, turning back to David and wrapping both hands around her husband’s head, kissing him several more times.

As hir parents began to get serious, Alex crawled across the bed to the other side, pulled down the covers and curled up underneath them. Strangely enough, the gentle panting and the rocking of the bed was kind of soothing.

__________________________________________________

Saturday, September 12th, 2015

It was approximately three in the afternoon when Alex opened the door at the side entrance, revealing the expected orange and purple furred squirrel-hybrid. Azalea was wearing a button-down shirt over a t-shirt, blue jeans, and sandals, and carrying a canvas messenger bag festooned with pinback buttons. “C’mon in,” shi said, stepping to one side to let her friend inside. 

“Don’t mind if I do,” Azalea replied as she slipped past the tigress. Her messenger bag jingled a little with all the random things that she had brought with her, which included anything she thought might be interesting for the two of them. “So what’s the plan for the night, tigger?” the squirrel asked as she started taking her sandals off.

“Video games, dinner, and a movie?” Alex suggested, closing the door. “We’ve got board games and card games too.”

“I’m down for anything, “ the hybrid said, looking over at Alex. “I mean as long as you remember your panties,” she said, pointing at Alex’s oversized t-shirt. She tried to keep a straight face but started laughing, a faint blush clinging to her ears.

Alex blushed as well, hir ears visibly flushing pink even through hir fur. “I... uhh... I’ll be right back,” shi said, darting over to the stairs and sprinting up to the second floor, paws thumping against the carpet. By the time shi reached the top landing shi was panting for breath and had to walk the rest of the way to hir room.

A moment later, Raenne walked into the living room where Azalea was, dressed in her usual flannel shirt and cargo pants. “Hello again, Azalea,” the tigress greeted the young squirrel. “How are your moms doing?”

It took the squirrel hybrid a moment to get her giggles under control enough to look up at the older tigress. “Hello Raenne. The moms are doing good. I’m pretty sure they are having a date night or something. They kicked me and my sister out, saying something about celebrating a soon to be won victory.” The hybrid’s tail twitched with excitement.

“Oh? You mean the house? Did the owner already accept the offer?” the tigress asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not yet. I read moms’ cards and one of them for the future was the nine of stars. That one is always a good sign of something valuable or gaining something,” Azalea explained, speaking matter of factly. “Want me to read yours sometime?”

“That’s alright. I’m too much of a realist to bother with tarot readings and horoscopes and stuff,” the older tigress said. “Though you were pretty spot on when you read Alex’s cards a few weeks ago.” 

“Not to gloat, but if I was that right about your daughter’s reading, just think what you could learn if I did yours,” she said unsholdering her bag and setting it to the side. 

Raenne shrugged, then changed the topic. “I was going to make sushi rolls for dinner. It’s basically vegetables and uncooked fish wrapped in rice and seaweed. Do you have any particular dietary needs or allergies I should be aware of?” she asked. 

“That sounds good. I’ve had sushi before. No allergies. And I’ve got nuts…. I mean like trail mix.”

“Okay then. It takes a while to make, so I’ll need to start prepping now to get everything ready,” the tigress said before glancing around in confusion. “Where’s Alex?” she asked.

“Ummm...” Azalea looked around, noticing that Alex wasn’t back yet. “She said that she forgot something and then ran off. I don’t know what she could have forgotten. I just work here,” Azalea said, picking up her bag. “It’s upstairs and down the hallway, I think?”

“Yep; Alex’s room is the one with the bed in it. The other’s the guest bedroom and entertainment room. The sofa in there has a pull out bed for you to sleep on,” the tigress said before turning around and walking over to the kitchen. “Make yourself at home.”

“Thank you. I shouldn’t get too lost,” Azalea said as she shouldered her bag and started up the stairs to the second floor, walking across the landing just in time to see Alex walking out of her room. “You really did forget them again, didn’t you?”

“I... uh...” The tigress’s mouth hung open for a second while shi thought up a response to that. “I plead the fifth,” Alex said, turning back around and heading back into hir room. The twitching of the tigress’ tail was a total giveaway.

“Totally forgot,” Azalea teased as she followed Alex into the tiger’s room, setting her bag down before sitting on the bed. “You did at least remember to put them on the right way? Tail hole goes in the back,” the squirrel hybrid said, poking her tongue out a little.

“I know how to put panties on,” the tigress said, rolling hir eyes before sitting down on the overstuffed leather chair in the corner and carefully sitting cross-legged on it, making sure hir shirt covered anything embarrassing.

“I know. It’s fun to tease you. You’re cute when you blush. I… I well…Umm… I mean I saw a really weird rock on the way here,” Azalea said, trying to change the topic and laying back on the bed, hiding behind her tail.

Alex sighed, staring at the ceiling for a moment before looking back over at Azalea. “You’re such a goofball,” shi said before realizing that hir tail was kinked. Shi squirmed and pulled hir tail around hir side and laid it on hir lap. “Anyway, I kinda just realized that I don’t really know that much about you besides that you like art and soccer. And you have two moms. Wanna play something like ‘Truth or Dare’ or ‘Never Have I Ever’?”

“I think ‘Truth or Dare’ would be the best one. I’m pretty sure that the other one is a drinking game,” Azalea said, sitting up and looking at the tiger. “Rock, paper, scissors to figure out who goes first?” she asked, holding out her fist.

“Sure,” Alex said, holding out hir own paw in a fist. “One, two, three,” shi said, bouncing hir paw with each count and throwing scissors on the last.

The moment that Alex said three, Azalea threw paper, showing off her newly painted claws. “Well, looks like you get to go first.”

“Okay. So, ground rules: First, nothing that could be painful. Second, nothing we tell leaves this room. Third, If you want to skip a truth or dare or end the game... umm... you owe the other person your school lunch dessert for each turn skipped, or for ending the game. Fair?” the tigress asked, turning hir head slightly to one side and peering over at Azalea.

“Sounds fair to me,” Azalea agreed with a nod, waiting for Alex to hit her with the big question. “Hit me.”

“Okay then. Truth or dare?” the tigress asked melodramatically, waving hir paws in the air.

“I’m gonna take it slow. Truth,” Azalea answered with a smile as she leaned forward, elbows on her knees and head resting in her paws.

“Where’d you grow up?” Alex asked, trying to learn some of Azalea’s background.

“That’s an easy one,” the squirrel hybrid said as she pointed west. “I was born out in Cali, where the moms met. I was born right before Mom A got a job offer out here. We moved here... I think I was like two when we moved here.” She paused for a second. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Alex replied quickly.

“What’s the meanest thing that you have purposely done to someone?” Azalea asked, wondering if the tiger had any mean bones in their body.

“Umm... After it came out that I was a herm at school, I was really... I dunno... scared? That’s not right, but... I felt like everyone was looking at me.” the tigress replied, staring down at hir lap. “Anyway, my best friend, Lizzy, she’d always called me Lexi and I snapped at her, told her my name was Alex. I dunno why I did it, but it was mean, and I made her cry for... like all recess. But that made me cry too... it was a mess,” the little tigress said, frowning and picking up hir tail and holding it against hir chest. After a few moments shi looked up. “Truth or dare?”

“I think it’s time to make things spicy. Give me a dare,” Azalea said confidently, her tail fluffing up.

“Umm... I dare you to... Stand on your head against the wall for one minute,” the tigress said, pointing at the empty stretch of wall between the bedroom door and the closet door.

“You know I’m part squirrel, right?” Azalea asked, getting up and walking over to the indicated wall, making sure that it didn’t have anything in the way or that she might knock over before taking her phone out of her pocket and tossing it onto the bed. She carefully bent over and placed her hands on the ground before using her legs to kick up and softly thump against the wall, her tail cushioning her. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth” the tigress replied once again.

“If you had to be stuck in a haunted house with someone from your friend circle, who and why?” she asked, her tail twitching a little as the blood started flowing to her head.

“You,” Alex replied without hesitation. “Because Jennifer would probably be useless in a haunted house and because Lizzy might literally die of fright... and I kinda don’t want to scare her; she’s too cute for that,” shi added. “Truth or dare?”

“Well, I have seen enough horror movies to know how to survive,” Azalea boasted before walking on her hands a few paces to get away from the wall. “Ummm... I’ll go with dare again.”

“Dare you to... Do the splits until you’re done standing on your head,” Alex said, glancing at a small clock on one of hir shelves. “Speaking of, thirty seconds left.”

“I feel like this is a mating dance or something,” Azalea said, sticking her tail out a little to help her balance. She carefully spread her legs till she was doing a split and a hand stand at the same time. “Look, I’m a fart squirrel. Truth or dare?”

Alex considered for a moment before answering “Dare.”

“I dare you to do a loaf... and has it been a minute yet?” Azalea asked as she was starting to get a little dizzy from the blood rush.

“What’s a loaf?” the tigress asked. “And no, it hasn’t.”

“It’s that thing where cats sit and look like a loaf of bread, with their paws tucked under themselves and look super cute.” Azalea said, carefully walking on her hands over towards Alex’s bed.

“Uhh... Okay. Time,” Alex said, putting hir hands against the front of the seat and leaning forward until shi was laying practically flat. Shi looked more like a pancake than a loaf. The tigress watched as Azalea fell over against the bed, then asked “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” Azalea answered, getting up and flopping back onto the bed. “I think all of my blood is in my brain now.”

“What’s your full name? Like on your birth certificate,” Alex asked, wanting to know Azalea’s middle name.

“Avery Azalea Winters.” She shuddered a little as said her first name. “Tr... Truth or dare?”

“Wait, Azalea’s your middle name?” Alex asked, seriously confused. “Why don’t you go by Avery? And isn’t that a boy’s name?”

“Well, actually it’s just Avery Winters. And technically no, it’s a gender neutral name.” Azalea took a deep breath. “So, truth or dare?” she asked again, her ears folding back a little.

Alex turned hir head slightly, squinting suspiciously at the rodent hybrid. “Dare.”

“I dare you to...” She paused, trying to think of something good, her tail tip twitching a little as she thought. “I dare you to plank until you give me my next truth or dare.”

The tigress crawled forward off the chair and onto the floor, stretching out on hir tummy. Then shi did a pushup, stopping at the top and held the position, hir arms shaking slightly before steadying. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth.” The moment that the words left her muzzle she started worrying about what Alex would ask, but it was too late and Azalea had a stubborn streak a mile wide when it came to winning or games.

“So... Your birth name’s Avery Winters. Also you clearly don’t like it. Why?” shi asked, looking up to meet Azalea’s gaze.

“It’s my dead name for a reason,” the jerboa-hybrid said with a sigh, laying back on the bed. “The name doesn’t match the body, so after a long talk with moms we picked one that did. That’s why I don’t go by that name, and we will be getting it changed on my birth certificate soon.”

Alex’s arms and body began to quiver slightly from the strain of holding the plank. Shi took a few breaths; this had been easy only a couple weeks ago. “What’s a dead name? And why doesn’t it match your body?” shi asked, genuinely confused.

“A dead name is just that: a person’s old name.” She stopped trying to think of the best way to handle the situation, opting to just rip the bandage off so to speak. “So, when a trans person comes out and starts transitioning, they pick a new, more fitting name: one that matches how they feel. The old name becomes their dead name, one that gets buried and forgotten. And as for it not matching my body,” Azalea paused for a second pulling her tail up to her chest and hugging the fluffy thing. “I’m A.M.A.B., and I don’t feel like or want to be that at all, so I’ve started transitioning.”

Alex was even more confused at this point. Barely half of what Azalea was saying made sense. “What... What's a trans person? And what’s transitioning? And what’s A.M.A.B. stand for?” the tigress asked, hir arms and body shaking like a plate of jello in an earthquake. Shi didn’t know how much longer shi could hold the plank.

“A trans person is a transgender person. Short and easy of it, it means that they are born one gender, but their brains and personality and stuff don’t match it, so they start transitioning.” The hybrid paused again, her voice softening. “Think of transition like what a caterpillar does when it turns into a butterfly. And A.M.A.B. stands for Assigned Male At Birth...” Azalea’s voice trailed off.

The tigress finally collapsed, hitting the floor with a soft thump and rolling onto hir back, panting for breath, not even caring at this point that hir shirt had ridden up to hir waist. Shi was wearing panties, after all. “Holy crap. That was hard,” shi gasped. “So... you were... a boy and decided... to become a girl?” shi asked between breaths.

“Something like that. It’s not a flick a switch kinda thing.” Azalea took another deep breath, “I’m becoming a girl. And yes, I still have all the original equipment,” she said, sitting up at this point while still holding her tail. She was surprised that Alex had been holding the plank the whole time. “Um, Alex? Nice panties,” she said, blushing as she held her tail.

“Thanks. I put them on just for you,” Alex said, still panting. “Anyway... was it your turn or mine?”

“Glad to know that you picked them just for me. So, you’re not... You’re not going to ask me a million questions or get weird or upset about that?” She asked, the hybrid not expecting a reaction like this from the tiger.

“I just finished asking you like a million questions,” the tigress pointed out, taking another deep breath as shi started getting hir wind back. “And I spent most of my life pretending to be a girl, sooo... I figure it’s something like that. It never felt right, but it was something I had to do at school.”

“Well, at least you’re not like my ex that asked to see it and then got all weird like he never saw a dick before. I did have the best comeback though. I told him he saw one all the time when he looked in the mirror,” Azalea said, it dawning on her that it was her turn. “Oh yeah. Truth or dare?”

“Your choice,” Alex said. At this point shi didn’t care. “Just... let me get my breath back before you make me do any more planks. That was hard.”

“You did hold that plank for a long time. When you do try out for soccer I think you’ll give me some competition.” Azalea thought for a moment or two, “I’ll pick ‘truth’ for you. Is there anyone at school that you would date?”

“You, I guess. If you asked me. Jennifer’s a little too weird, and the rest of the bus stop gang are too old,” Alex said, pausing as shi heard hir mom call from downstairs. “Oh, that’s mom. Sounds like she wants help. I doubt she’s done making dinner yet,” shi said, rolling back over and standing up.

“Y- You would?” Azalea asked, blushing and holding her tail a little tighter as she watched Alex get up off the floor. “I can come help too,” she added, getting up to follow the cat.

__________________________________________________

Saturday, September 19th, 2015

“Okay, now that you’ve finished going through all this using powershell commands... let’s do the whole thing again in terminal,” David said, the muscular white tiger gesturing to the small silver macbook that was sitting on Alex’s desk next to her PC.

Alex pushed hir PC keyboard out of the way and slid the macbook over, flipping the lid open. Shi clicked hir user icon and typed in the password, then quickly hit command-space and typed in ‘terminal’ to bring it up.

“Start by making a directory named test. Then change your current directory to that one,” the white tiger instructed, watching his daughter type in the appropriate terminal commands. “Now print the working directory to make sure you’re in the right one. And list the directory contents to make sure there’s nothing in it. Lastly, let’s make a new file.” 

Alex looked up at hir dad, puzzled.

“Just use the touch command to create one. Type ‘touch file.txt’,” he instructed.

The little tigress did that, then listed the directory contents again to verify that it had been created. 

“Excellent. Now copy it to ‘file2.txt’. Then remove the original file,” the older tiger instructed. “And now let’s change the text file to an executable shell script. Rename it from ‘file2.txt’ to ‘script.sh’.”

Once again, Alex typed in the appropriate commands. They were far easier to remember when you were working on a computer than when you were writing them out on a piece of paper. Shi only hoped that shi’d remember all this stuff. At least her ISTE teacher had been willing to put together a list of instructions for how to do stuff in powershell and terminal. The last two weeks had been rough since they were doing a bunch of stuff using text commands and Alex didn’t even know the basics. Everyone else had supposedly learned how to use the command prompt and terminal last year.

“Now let’s change the permissions on ‘script.sh’ to make it executable,” the white tiger said, interrupting his daughter’s musing.

“What’s the argument for that?” Alex asked, unable to remember.

“It’s ‘+x’, for add executable,” David answered. “And last, try running it. It shouldn’t do anything ‘cause it’s empty.”

“Right. Now we move it up to the parent directory and delete the temp folder, right?” Alex asked, remembering the steps they’d done on her PC a few minutes ago.

“Exactly,” the white tiger confirmed, watching as his daughter did exactly that, typing in the appropriate commands and making sure shi was in the right directory. Shi was remarkably sharp at picking up computer stuff, as much as shi disliked working with them. “That covers everything,” he said, setting down the sheet of paper.

The young tigress sighed, then quit the terminal app, closed the terminal window, and closed the laptop. “Thank you,” shi said, picking up the laptop and handing it back to hir dad. 

“Keep it, in case you need to use it for school,” David said, waving it away.

“Okay.” Alex shrugged, then sat it back on the desk. “Now can we please have sex?”

David sighed, then stepped out into the hallway, calling out “Raenne? Alex is done with all hir homework. Do you want to join us?”

“Be right up,” Raenne called back, using the cover flap to mark her place and closing the book she had been reading. She set the book down and stood up from the living room sofa, walking over to the stairs and heading up to the second floor. By the time she arrived at Alex’s room, her daughter had already shucked her nightie and her husband was already down to his boxers. The tigress rolled her eyes. “I swear, both of you will fuck at the drop of a hat.”

“Mom!” Alex said, spinning in place and looking over at the older tigress in shock. “You said a swear word!”

“I’ll put a dollar in the jar later,” Raenne replied, pulling off the flannel shirt that she was now using as a jacket and then pulling off the t-shirt she was wearing under it. Her cargo pants and panties joined the pile on the floor. “I can’t believe you managed to con your dad into this.”

“It wasn’t that hard,” Alex said with a shrug, gesturing at her father. The muscular white tiger was sitting naked at the edge of hir bed, his penis already halfway out of his sheath.

“Well, when you live with the hottest woman in the world, you get a bit horny. So when you have a cute kid who wants to have sex as a reward for finishing hir homework, weeellll...” David’s voice trailed off and he shrugged.

“You’re incorrigible,” Raenne replied, stepping over to her daughter’s bed and sitting down next to her husband, then pushing herself up towards the pillows. “And you know this sets a bad precedent. Sex isn’t something you should give a kid as a reward for something they should be doing anyway.”

“Then don’t think of it as a reward, but rather as a fun activity to perform after they’ve gotten all the essentials out of the way. Think of it like video games or watching a movie,” David replied, scooting back onto the bed as well. “You know, this bed isn’t really big enough for the three of us. Maybe we should use the master bedroom.”

“We could use the sectional,” Alex piped up as she got onto the bed as well, gesturing out the door towards the entertainment room.

“Hmm... It’s leather; easy to clean,” David mused.

“No,” Raenne objected. “I don’t want our guest bedroom smelling like sex,” she said, stressing the fact that other people might sleep in it.

“It won’t smell like sex,” David started to protest.

“Later,” Raenne snapped at him.

David sighed, then turned to his daughter. “So, this was your idea, love. What do you want to do?” he asked. “Let me guess... you want to be in the middle, as usual?

Alex stopped crawling across the bed, sitting back with hir butt touching hir ankles and nodded.

“On our sides, as usual?” David asked with a slight smile.

Alex nodded again, a little faster.

David glanced upwards and sighed. “Don’t you ever get bored of that?” he asked.

Alex shook hir head. “Uh-uh. It’s the best. I get to have sex with both of you, and get snuggles at the same time.”

“Shi has a point, you know,” Raenne said, scooting to one side of the bed. The older tigress spread her legs and reached between them, gently rubbing the damp fur around her labia, which were slightly swollen with arousal. Both conditions had apparently become the new normal ever since moving out to Winter Creek, which both Alex and David appreciated.

David also took the time to scoot back against the pile of pillows at the head of the bed, leaving ample space for his daughter between himself and his wife. The white tiger leaned over, pulling open the nightstand and pulling out a tiny jar of coconut oil.

Alex leaned forward, crawling up the bed before rolling over and flopping onto hir back between hir parents. Shi glanced down at hir waist; apparently shi was already showing pink. The young tigress reached out and wrapped hir paw around hir father’s length as he started to unscrew the lid. It was warm and already growing hard. Shi squeezed it a few times, feeling it firm up. He flexed it and shi smiled, feeling it grow substantially harder then soften a bit. The tigress ran hir thumb-pad from the tip down along the side of his penis. It was already hard enough that the nubs where his spines would have been were slightly rough to the touch.

“Here, love,” David said, holding out the jar. He’d already taken a small dab of the contents and spread it over his fingers. As Alex reached hir own paw into the jar, he ran his fingers down his shaft, slickening it down with the coconut oil. While Alex did the same with hir own member, he stuck the lid back on and set it on the nightstand.

“Mom? Do you want me to lick you, or...?” Alex asked, glancing up at her.

“I’m good, kiddo,” the older tigress said, holding up the paw she’d been rubbing herself with. It was already wet and shiny. Before Alex could react she quickly reached out and dabbed the cub’s nose. 

Alex shrank back instinctively, muzzle scrunching up. “Mom!” shi protested, sticking out the tip of hir tongue to swipe the slime off hir nose. “Bleh.”

“You’ll happily sit between my legs and eat me out, but you don’t want it on your nose, huh?” Raenne asked, snickering.

The younger tigress rolled hir eyes, then stuck hir tongue out for a second before asking “Would you roll over? I’m getting horny.”

“What do you mean ‘getting’ horny? You’re ‘always’ horny,” Raenne replied. Nevertheless, the older tigress rolled onto her side, facing her daughter, and spread her legs. If she was to be totally honest with herself, Raenne was probably just as horny and had been for the past several months... probably because she was pregnant.

Alex rolled over to face hir mom as well, scooting closer and lining hir hips up. It helped when Raenne swung her uppermost leg over hir, using her foot to help nudge Alex into position. “Thanks, mom” the younger tigress said, using one paw to rub the tip of hir penis against hir mom’s vulva. Shi pressed hir hips forward, feeling the tip slide in. As usual, mom’s passage was warm, wet, and tight. 

The young tigress bucked hir hips a few times, sliding further and further in. Once shi was sure shi wasn’t going to slip back out, shi let go of hir member and took hold of hir mom’s hip for leverage and pressed hirself the rest of the way in, sighing with relief as hir sheath touched hir mom’s vulva. Enjoying the pleasurable warmth around hir penis, Alex turned hir head slightly. “Okay, dad.”

David, watching the spectacle, stopped stroking himself and rolled over as well, moving his hips down below his daughter’s tail. Raenne moved her foot out of the way and he took hold of his dick again, pressing it between his daughter’s legs. “Lift your leg a bit, Alex,” he instructed. As shi did so, he shifted his hips forward again until his tip touched his daughter’s pussy. 

Once in position, he used his hand to rub the tip of his member against hir vulva, sliding it between hir labia and around hir clit a few times. “Ready, love?” he asked after half a minute or so.

“Yes, daddy,” shi replied, waiting patiently. Shi loved foreplay, but was ready to get started with the main event.

David smiled; he loved it when Alex called him ‘daddy’, which was usually only when they had sex. He pressed his hips forward, sliding the first inch of his dick into hir tight pussy. For all that they’d been having sex pretty regularly for the past couple of months, shi was still just as tight as when they’d first had sex nearly half a year ago. Even then, shi still wasn’t as tight as his wife was, thanks to Raenne’s heritage trait that made her a bit more ‘feral’ down there.

The white tiger moved his hand up, gripping hir hips, and gently bucked his hips, slowly pulling back and pushing forward. With each repetition, more of his member slid into his daughter’s pussy. He knew his wife was feeling it too through the smile on her face. “Let me know when you can’t take anymore,” he said.

“Yes, daddy,” Alex replied, enjoying the gentle motion that pushed his member further and further inside hir. When they’d first started having sex, he’d been fast and a bit rough, but over the past several months he’d taken hir requests to heart, going slowly and tenderly. It took longer to reach orgasm, but was much more satisfying and didn’t leave hir sore later.

It was a good two or three minutes later that shi felt him press against the back of hir vagina, which was surprisingly sensitive. “Daddy? That’s it.”

“Okay, love,” he replied, reaching his paw back down. He was able to wrap a good two fingers around the base of his dick and kept it there, using it to keep him from thrusting too deep. “Do you want to take over or should I keep going?” he asked.

“I will,” the tiger cub replied, wanting to control the pace. Shi gently pulled hir member a few inches back and then pushed back in, hir mom’s flesh sliding over hir penis with a wet noise. “God, mom. You’re so wet. And warm.”

Raenne smiled, reaching her paw up and resting it against the side of her daughter’s cheek, under hir ear. She gently stroked Alex’s fur, enjoying the tender moment. Her daughter had been right, so many months ago. Sex was a wonderful way to show your love for someone. Or at least, it could be, if you let it... even when you shouldn’t.

As Alex pulled back, hir father pushed forward slightly, filling hir with his length... at least as far as his hand would allow, thankfully. Shi had learned over the past month or so that if he didn’t, shi would be sore for the next day or two. 

The young tigress repeated the action, pushing forward and then pulling back a few times before shi developed a rhythm, thrusting in and out, alternating between filling hir mom and being filled by hir dad. Alex preferred a slower pace than hir father did, having learned from hir best friend Lizzy that the orgasms were far more satisfying after a slow mating. 

As his daughter finally got into the rhythm of things, David found he didn’t need to do much more than just hold himself steady, relaxing and enjoying the slow pace shi set. He let go of his dick and reached his arm around hir side, running his fingers through the soft fur of hir chest. “Love you, kiddo,” he murmured, bending his head down to kiss the top of hir head.

“I love you too, daddy,” Alex replied. “And you too, mom,” shi added, leaning forward and nuzzling hir mom’s chest. Shi continued to thrust, doing hir best to keep that same pace for the next few minutes, eventually feeling a slight burn in hir buttocks from the exercise. 

Raenne was the first to come, feeling her orgasm build and build, and finally hit. Her abs tensed up and her leg started to quiver as her sex began to tense around her daughter’s member. She felt several muscles from her neck to her abs and even her leg twitch in time with the spasming of her pussy. It was a powerful and pleasurable sensation. Addictive, even.

Alex’s orgasm was hard on the heels of her mother’s. Both hir sexes began to twitch simultaneously and a moment later shi felt hir penis begin to pulse, shooting several streams of warm semen. A second later, hir vagina clamped down around hir father’s length in time with the twitching of hir member. Shi lost track of how many time shi squirted; all shi knew was that it was a lot. Hir orgasms were always longer and far more intense when both hir sexes climaxed at the same time.

David was last, feeling his daughter’s tight pussy clamp down around his dick, squeezing him with frantic intensity, practically begging for his seed. He was happy to provide it, pressing his length deep within hir, his tip firm against hir cervix. The contractions were more than enough to bring him to climax, and as he felt hir orgasm coming to an end, his own finally hit. His length twitched and began to spray streams of thick cum, coating hir cervix and the rest of hir vagina. The white tiger sighed in pleasure, and as his orgasm finally came to an end, kissed the top of his daughter’s head again.

“Mmm, that was wonderful,” Raenne said, gently stroking the fur on Alex’s cheek. “Good idea for a post-homework activity, kiddo.”

“Thanks, mom,” Alex said, waiting for hir dad to pull out before shi did the same. The tiger cub rolled onto hir back, panting slightly and feeling hir dad’s warm cum leaking out of hir female sex. Shi was too tired to move right now, even though shi knew it meant shi would have to wash the blankets. “I think I’m going to take a nap,” shi said, closing hir eyes.

“Okay, love. I’ll come wake you up for dinner later,” David said, rolling off the bed while his wife did the same on the other side. He watched his wife stretch, showing off her perfect ass and tits and felt his dick twitch again. As she walked back over to where her clothes were lying on the floor, he sidled up next to her. “Are you sure we can’t try out that sofa? It is leather, after all. Easy to clean. I’ve got enough left in me to try it out if you’re willing...” he whispered.

“Hmm. If you’re willing to clean it afterwards, I suppose we can,” Raenne whispered back. She met his eyes for a second and smirked, then walked out of Alex’s room, leaving her clothes behind. 

David smiled. He glanced over at the bed, watching his daughter’s chest rise and fall for a moment. The white tiger shook his head, wishing he could fall asleep that easily, and followed his wife across the hall, fully intending to put the new sofa to the test.

__________________________________________________

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

Alex sat on the table of the examination room, trying not to move. The white butcher paper shi was sitting on kept making loud crinkly noises with every tiny movement. Apparently the noises didn’t bother Mom, but they definitely bothered Alex. Once again, shi had forgotten hir 3DS and had to rely on hir phone for entertainment. Now the phone’s battery was getting low, so it was sitting in hir capri pants pocket. The tigress thumped hir tail against the paper, making it crinkle again.

Mom was busy reading a magazine that had been sitting on a rack on the wall above the chairs, flipping through it. The front of the magazine had half a watermelon on it with some kind of pink or red ice cream. Alex tilted hir head, reading the text: ‘Better Homes & Gardens’ and ‘Cool Summer Fun, 101 Easy Party Ideas’. Watermelon flavored ice cream sounded interesting.

A knock on the door distracted hir, and the door opened to reveal a scary-looking warthog with long curved tusks. He had sagging bags of skin under his eyes with lumpy protrusions that jutted out from his cheekbones. The coarse, tangled mess of hair atop his head looked more like a rat’s nest than actual fur. If not for the professional looking brown slacks and white button-down shirt with a green tie, Alex would have dived over the side of the table and tried to hide. The fur on the back of hir neck stood on end as shi watched him.

“Hello. I’m Dr. Negasi Abebe,” the warthog introduced himself with a strange accent that Alex couldn’t place. “You are Alexandrea and... Ra-ennay?” he asked.

“It’s pronounced ‘rain’,” the older tigress corrected, holding one hand out. “Good to meet you, Dr. Abebe. I actually met a gentleman with the same name as you when I was in the D.R.C. earlier this year, a sergeant with the Congolese National Police.”

“Did you?” the doctor asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “I’m from Ethiopia, actually. What were you doing in the D.R.C., if I may ask? It’s not exactly the most common of vacation spots,” he added, taking the tigress’ hand and shaking it.

“Oh, it was business, not pleasure. I was assisting the C.N.P. as a hostage rescue advisor, back in February,” Raenne explained.

Alex stared at hir mom as if the woman had suddenly sprouted horns. Shi remembered mom had gone on a vacation in February, but thought it had been to visit a friend in Washington or something.

This time the warthog raised his eyebrows, making the bags under his eyes a bit less noticeable. “Were you? Was this something to do with those missionaries who were kidnapped? I remember watching a program on ETV News about that.”

“Yes. I helped plan the operation, though I wasn’t part of the actual rescue,” the tigress explained, nodding.

“You must live a very interesting life, Mrs. Raenne. Please forgive me if I do not attempt your last name. I’m afraid I would mangle it quite badly,” he apologized.

“That’s perfectly alright. I prefer to go by my first name anyway,” she replied.

“Then please, call me Negasi.” Introduction complete, the warthog turned to the patient sitting on the examination table. “So, how about you, Alexandrea? You are here to have your many stitches removed, yes?” he asked.

Alex quickly nodded, trying not to shrink back as he turned to face hir. This time it wasn’t just the fur on the back of hir neck, but all along hir arms and back that felt like it stood on end. 

“Not very talkative, hmm? That is okay. You do not need to talk if you do not want to. I’ll get the stitches on your side first. Just lay back on the table and lift the side of your shirt up,” he ordered, turning around and pulling open a drawer and taking out a pair of tweezers and scissors and a small aluminum tray.

The doctor reached under a nearby desk and pulled a stool out from under the desk, rolling it across the room next to the exam table while Alex cautiously pulled up the side of hir shirt, exposing the patch of short fur where they had shaved hir side during the operation two weeks ago. Shi lay down and stared up at the ceiling, trying not to move as shi felt the chilly metal scissors press against hir skin. Hir ears flicked in time with the snipping noises and the tugs against hir skin as he removed the stitches. It was only a few seconds before he dropped the scissors and tweezers into the tray. “All done, Miss Alexandrea. No seepage at all. It looks to be healing very nicely. Sit up and I will get the stitches on your arms.”

The young tigress slowly sat back up, pulling hir shirt back down. Then shi held hir arms out. The doctor spent the next several minutes snipping and tugging out the many, many stitches that Dr. Willison had added when sewing up Alex’s arms after the feral cougar attack.

Finally Dr. Abebe put down the scissors and tweezers, then put fresh gauze on Alex’s arms and wrapped them up. “All done, little one,” he said.

Shi swallowed, knowing that shi had to at least thank him, just to be polite. “Thank you,” shi muttered, staring at the carpet.

“You are welcome,” he replied, turning to the older tigress. “Now, you have an ultrasound scheduled, yes?”

Raenne nodded. “Yes.”

“Would you prefer to wait here for Dr. Bradshaw, or would you prefer to wait out in the lobby?” the old warthog asked.

“Either is fine,” the tigress responded.

“Very well. I will tell her you are waiting here. She should be here shortly,” the doctor said, standing up and sliding the aluminum surgical tray into a plastic bin on the wall. “Have a good day, both of you,” he added as he stepped out of the room.

Alex let out a breath as he stepped out of the room, not even realizing shi had been holding it in.

“What’s the matter, kiddo?” Raenne asked, looking up at the deep breath.

Alex glanced away from the door and over at hir mom. “He was really, really scary,” the young tigress murmured, her ears drooping.

Raenne raised her eyebrows at that. “Huh. He didn’t seem very scary to me. He’s just an old warthog.”

“I’ve never met a warthog before,” Alex whispered. “He just... really, really creeped me out for some reason.”

The older tigress blinked. Alex had never behaved quite like this before. Usually shi got along with pretty much everyone. Shi was just a bit shy until shi got to know them. Raenne shrugged. “Well, if you can think of why he creeped you out, let me know.”

“Okay.... Also, I thought you’d gone to Washington back in February,” Alex said, staring suspiciously at hir mom.

The older tigress shook her head. “No. I lied to you and your father about that, because I didn’t want you or him getting worried about me. Most of the trips and vacations I took over the past ten years were business related,” the tigress explained.

Alex raised hir eyebrows, worried. “Does dad know?”

“Yes. He found out about them near the end of last school year and was pretty upset. So I agreed not to do those jobs anymore,” Raenne explained.

“What sort of jobs?” Alex asked, a bit afraid of the answer. 

“Mostly hostage rescue, saving people who had been kidnapped or were being held for ransom. Sometimes I was planning the rescue, other times I was performing the rescue,” the tigress replied. “It’s one of the things I trained for when I was in the military, and after I left the military I found there was a demand for the skill. It paid well,” she added with a shrug.

“So you... saved people?” the little tigress asked, eyes wide. Hir mom was apparently secretly a comic book hero.

“Used to. As I said, your dad was upset; he was worried I’d get hurt or killed. I did get shot at a few times and wound up killing a few bad guys, so I guess he was right to be worried,” the older tigress said with a shrug. “Oh, and... don’t tell him that I got shot at, please?” the tigress asked, meeting her daughter’s gaze.

“Oookay...” Alex agreed. Shi continued to stare at hir mom, incredulous. It was difficult to imagine her gunning down bad guys and saving hostages... but shi knew mom had been in the military, and shi had seen the crates full of guns under mom and dad’s bed. And mom was crazy good at martial arts and stuff. Maybe it wasn’t so far-fetched after all. Suddenly mom became easily ten times cooler than she had been ten minutes ago.

Raenne went back to reading the magazine while Alex fidgeted on the exam table, making the paper crinkle. A few minutes passed in relative silence as they waited before there was a knock on the door. 

A second later the door opened, and for a split second the older tigress thought that somehow the gynecologist from the clinic in Tualatin had walked through the door, until she realized the woman was taller and had darker fur; an elk rather than a deer. She was wearing a white medical frock over her pantsuit.

“Hello Mrs. Andreyev. I’m Samantha Bradshaw. You can call me Sam,” the elk introduced herself, holding the door open. “Come on out. The sonography station is just a few doors down,” she added, waiting for the two tigers.

As Raenne and Alex got up, stepping out of the room, the elk reached up to a set of plastic flags near the top of the door frame, flipping the white one flat against the wall and pulling a black one out. Presumably the flags were to notify people that the room was no longer in use or needed cleaning.

“So, as you probably already know, the nuchal translucency test is just to see how thick the nuchal membrane is on your babies’ necks. It gives us a pretty good idea if there’s any chromosomal abnormalities. However, it’s not completely accurate, and there’s a small chance for false positives. But, if we do detect anything worrisome, there are other, more accurate tests that can be done,” the elk explained as she led them down the hallway and into another room.

As the two tigers entered the room, she waited until the door closed before she continued explaining. “Sometimes it’s hard to see the images accurately. If that’s the case, we can always use an option called transvaginal sonography, which is a little more invasive, but also doesn’t require shaving your belly-fur. Some people opt for it simply because they don’t want to have their fur shaved.”

“No, it’s fine; I don’t mind having my fur shaved again. They did it when I had the first scan done at six weeks,” Raenne explained.

Alex sat down on one of the chairs to one side, watching. Shi remembered this from the last time Mom had a sonogram taken.

“Good. We shouldn’t have any problems with imaging in your case anyway. Have a seat on the exam chair here and go ahead and lift your shirt, please,” the female elk requested, pulling a pair of clippers and a vacuum tube from underneath the exam table. She tapped on a pedal with her foot, turning the vacuum on and went to work shaving a small section of the older tiger’s fur off.

A minute later, the elk put the clippers and vacuum tube away, then rubbed some clear gel over the shaved area. Preparation complete, she pulled off her gloves and dropped them in the nearby trash can, then reached for the probe, pulling it off the side of the machine and holding it over Raenne’s belly, pressing it against the freshly-shaved area. The screen above the machine immediately went from black to a fuzzy black and white image.

It took the elk a few moments of moving the wand around before she found the first child, surrounded by a wide black area. “Well that was easy,” she commented, holding the wand steady for a moment. “Nice, steady heart rate. All the expected number of limbs. Oh look, it’s waving at us,” she added, smiling as the baby moved one of its arms. 

“Okay, now we’ve gotta look at it from the side,” she added, slowly moving the wand while rotating it to reach the angle of view she wanted. She held the wand steady for a moment, pressing a few buttons on the keyboard below. “Okay, we’ve got it recorded... Everything looks just fine for now. I’ll review everything again later to be sure, make sure all the measurements are correct. You’re expecting twins, correct?”

“Yes,” Raenne answered, watching the screen as well. Doctor Bradshaw held the wand in place for a few moments, letting the expectant mother watch her developing baby. It was certainly active for a twelve-week fetus.

“Well, let’s go find the other one,” the doctor replied, slowly rotating the probe vertical again and moving it around. It didn’t take long to find the second one, since they were right next to each other. “Well, there we are. Nice steady heartbeat on this one too, and again, the right number of limbs. Huh. It’s far too early to tell with any degree of certainty, but I think this one might be a boy,” she muttered, slowly rotating the wand around again, pressing a few buttons. She held the wand steady for a few moments, then tapped the keyboard again. “Okay, all done.”

Raenne watched the screen for a bit, watching the subtle movement in its chest. This one wasn’t moving nearly as much as the other one was. As she watched it turned its head slightly, and one of its legs twitched. It was hard enough to make things out that she had no clue if the doctor’s comment about it being a boy was right or not. “Is that it?”

“Yep, that’s it! Both of them have strong heartbeats, all the right number of limbs and are developing right on schedule for twelve weeks. Nuchal membrane looks to be the right size for both of them, so they’re likely going to be perfectly normal, healthy babies. We’ve got recordings of everything now. I can even email you a copy of the video if you want. Do you?” the doctor asked.

“I’m sure my husband would love to watch it,” Raenne replied.

“Okay then,” the doctor replied, putting on a fresh pair of gloves. “Let’s just get this gel cleaned off and you can be on your merry way,” she said.

Raenne suddenly had a thought, something she had been meaning to ask. “Are you a gynecologist as well as a sonographer?”

“I am,” the woman confirmed. She tilted her head. “Why?”

“Well, I was wondering... Is it possible to, umm, stretch yourself out down there?” the tigress asked as the elk gently wiped the gel off her belly. “As in preparation for birth or... well, my husband is rather large, if you get what I mean. I’m... not,” she added with a shrug.

The elk blinked, then turned around in her chair, glancing at the child sitting across the room. The younger tigress raised an eyebrow. She turned back. “Is it okay if we discuss this with your child here?”

“Yes,” Raenne replied. “Shi’s had sex-ed already.”

“Alright then,” the elk conceded with a shrug. “Yes, it’s possible to stretch yourself out, but only in diameter, not depth, at least while pregnant. Don’t insert anything longer than six inches inside yourself while pregnant, or you risk a miscarriage. Typically stretching is done by using progressively larger-diameter objects. Start with the smaller-diameter objects. Insert and remove them until you find the largest diameter size that is comfortable to use, then leave it in for a while. You can even use sizes that are mildly uncomfortable if you wish, as long as it’s not very uncomfortable or painful,” the doctor explained.

“Now, if you leave them in for a short period of time, like over the course of a half-hour or so, the stretching is temporary and your vagina will return to normal within another half hour. If you leave it inside yourself for extended periods of time, like overnight, the stretching will last for a much longer period of time, like hours or days, and may be permanent. However, sanitation is paramount, or you risk bacterial or yeast infections. For extended use, only use smooth silicone objects and always remove them within eight or nine hours. No more than twelve hours per day. Clean them very thoroughly with anti-bacterial soap and very hot water, and let them dry completely before using them again. If you notice any itching, burning, or unusual smells, go to urgent care immediately. Any questions?” the elk asked.

“No,” the tigress replied. “You covered pretty much everything. What would you recommend as far as diameter to ensure an easy birth?”

“An infant’s head is usually four inches or so in diameter, but your vagina will stretch quite a bit during birth. If you can comfortably accommodate something two inches in diameter, that should ensure an easy birth. Remember, there’s always the option of having a cesarean section,” the elk said with a shrug.

The tigress nodded. “Okay then. Thanks, Sam.”

“You’re very welcome,” the doctor replied, peeling off her gloves and dropping them in the trash. “I’ll have a link to the sonogram videos emailed to you in a few minutes. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“Nope. Thank you very much,” the tigress said, sitting up and pulling her flannel shirt back down.

“Great! Have a good day, you two.” The elk bid them farewell with a smile, reaching standing up and opening the cabinet above the machine, pulling out some cleaning supplies.

Alex followed her mom out of the room, wondering what all the stuff about stretching had been about. Shi didn’t say anything immediately though, following hir mom through the clinic and back out to their SUV. Once they were both buckled in, shi asked “Mom? What was all that stuff about stretching your vagina?”

__________________________________________________

By the time the two tigers arrived home, it was nearly four o’clock. Alex had finished all of hir homework already, having spent well over two hours in the car today. Forty-five minutes down to Prairie Flats to the clinic, another twenty minutes driving around Prairie Flats to various stores, and another thirty minutes waiting in the car while mom was shopping at places that weren’t ‘appropriate for children’.

After following Mom into the house, Alex took hir backpack over to the kitchen table and pulled out the booklet of extra assignments that Mr. Donnehue had given hir last month. Shi’d been doing an average of three pages a day, plus hir regular math assignments, and Math had become second-nature. At least shi was nearly done with the booklet now, having only a few pages left.

The young tigress pulled out a pencil from the side pocket of hir backpack and flipped open the booklet. This page seemed to be a review of everything else in the booklet, combining everything that it had covered. The problems seemed to mix together decimals and fractions, doing fractional multiplication with large numbers, and powers. There were unit conversion and volume problems, some quadrilateral area questions, and a linear graph problem. All of them were word problems, too. Shi sighed and started reading.

Thirty minutes later, Alex finished the last problem on the page. Shi was starting to get a bit hungry; it was a little later than shi usually had hir afternoon snack. The young tigress turned to glance into the living room, checking to see if hir mom was still sitting on the couch, which she was. Alex pursed hir lips, then stood up and walked over to the refrigerator, pulling it open and glancing inside. Several small cups caught hir eye, and shi pulled one of them out. Peach yogurt was always a good bet. Shi snagged a small spoon from the drawer in the kitchen island and walked back over to the table, sitting back down.

After peeling the foil top off the yogurt, Alex took a spoonful of it and stuck it in hir mouth, savoring the sweet and tasty treat. Figuring shi could look over the next set of problems while eating, Alex flipped the page over. The next page was completely blank. Wondering if it was a misprint, shi flipped the page again. It was blank too, as were the next five sheets. Maybe they were just scratch paper. Then it hit hir: shi was done. Shi took a deep sigh of relief and set the spoon back into the cup of yogurt before turning to the living room. “Hey Mom?”

“Yes, love?” the older tigress asked, glancing up from her novel.

“I’m done with the math packet,” Alex announced proudly.

“Congratulations, kiddo,” Raenne replied with a smile. “Perfect timing, too. Now you’ve got a bit more free time each night, so we can start your Karate lessons.”

Alex’s mouth fell open; shi’d been hoping to get a chance to go exploring the local streets, seeing as shi wasn’t allowed to go hiking in the woods yet. “Now?”

“What’s the matter?” Raenne asked. “I thought you wanted to learn Karate, especially after what that goat and badger and the other three kids did to you and Lizzy.”

The young tigress felt hir jaw clench in anger. Shi didn’t really care much about what those stupid bullies had done to hir anymore; it was the fact that they’d made hir move across the country that pissed hir off. Losing Lizzy, or at least getting to see her, still hurt. Phone calls and playing online games together didn’t make up for seeing someone in person. Shi nodded. “I do.”

The older tigress nodded. “Okay then. Let’s go downstairs.”

Alex followed hir mom down the stairs to the basement, past the weight rack and the various exercise machines and around to the back where a pair of gym mats, each ten feet across, had been pushed up against the far wall. 

“These gym mats will be our dojo. That’s a place where you practice martial arts,” Raenne explained before going into detail about dojo etiquette, particularly the ritual of starting and ending class: meditation, bowing, and the dojo kun.

Alex paid close attention, as she was in the habit of such explanations from her mom being followed immediately by a quiz. As expected, mom immediately asked her to recite the six steps of the start of class. 

“So, after you line up in order of rank, what are the commands, in order, that the instructor or senior student will call out?” Raenne asked.

“Umm... seiza, mokuso, mokuso yame, shomen ni rei, sensei ni rei, and otagai ni rei,” Alex recited. 

“And the end of class?”

“Seiza, mokuso, mokuso yame, recite the dojo kun, shomen ni rei, sensei ni rei, and otagai ni rei,” Alex recited once again. They were basically the same except that it included the dojo kun at the end of class. 

Raenne smiled, genuinely pleased with the fact that her daughter had been paying such good attention. It boded well for how quickly shi would progress with hir karate studies. She walked over to the wall next to the gym mats and pulled out a small duffle bag that she’d prepared nearly a month ago in preparation for this, unzipping it and taking out a folded black gi and a white belt. She stood up and turned around, walking over to Alex and handing her the gi. “This is your karate gi. They come in several colors, such as white, blue, and black. The colors don’t have any significance. I chose black because white is a pain in the tail to keep clean. Go ahead and put it on,” she instructed. 

After Alex had the top on, Raenne showed her daughter how to tie the strings on the sides. Then stood back and held up the belt. “In modern martial arts, they give you a white belt to begin with. As you progress, you’ll earn stripes on that belt and eventually they give you a new colored belt to earn stripes on, and another, and another. Typically the order is something like white, yellow, orange, green, purple, brown, and eventually black. Blue is sometimes in the middle there, and many dojos include a red before brown. 

“This whole rainbow spectrum is supposedly based on what happens when the original karate-do were given a white belt to begin with. Over time it would be stained with sweat and dirt, turning yellowish. When they rolled in the grass it became stained green. When they sparred, which is mock fighting, sometimes they might spill blood staining the belt red. As the blood dried, it turned brown. Over time, repeated blood stains and dirt turned the belt black,” the tigress finished saying.

Alex’s eyes became wide as shi began to realize what the significance of a black belt was. “Okay...”

“That’s a bunch of bullshit,” the older tigress said, making Alex sigh and roll hir eyes. “Originally students were just given certificates called Menkyo to indicate their skill level. The black belts were invented by the Judo founder Jigoro Kano in the 1930s, and the colored belts were invented by Mikinosuke Kawaishi a little later when he moved to France to teach Judo and found that Europeans were not patient enough to wait years to earn a black belt. It eventually became adopted by even the oldest martial arts, like Shotokan Karate.” The tigress then handed the belt to her daughter. “Here’s your first belt.”

Alex held hir paws out and graciously accepted the belt, staring at it for a moment before looking up at hir mom, meeting her eyes. “Mom? You swore again.”

__________________________________________________

Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

“This is war,” Jennifer said, releasing the lever on her tape measure. It made a metallic skittering sound as it retracted into its housing. “First thing first, my Plague Priest is going to use ‘Bless with Filth’ on my unit of Plague Monks before they start pushing the mighty Plague Furnace into position to start attacking. The Plague Monks are coming along with them,” the white rat said as she used her tape measure again to get everything into position, effectively pinning down a few of Azalea’s units.

“Here it comes...” Azalea muttered, knowing the power that one Plague Furnace packed, and knowing that her opponent had at least one more of them on the field, along with a Verminlord Corruptor and at least a few Hell Pit Abominations.

“Don’t worry, this will be fast. And then you will feed the skittering hordes,” Jennifer said, pulling out her dice and rolling to see what units hit and how badly they hurt. The ratling smiled as she saw the numbers on her dice. She had landed enough hits to wipe out the cornered units, or close to it. “Oof. That’s six mortal wounds.”

“I’m starting to think that your dice are loaded,” Azalea said, shaking her head as she moved six of the dead Blissbarb Archers off the table, leaving only a few left... until Jennifer made the attack and damage rolls for the buffed Plague Monks. That took out the last of the Blissbarb Archers.

“I’m just that good,” Jennifer gloated as she spent the rest of her turn moving a few of her ranged units and launching a few attacks with them. Those weren’t too bad, thanks to the cover that Azalea’s units had.

“My turn. First thing, I’m gonna take control of that Plague Furnace.” Azalea motioned to the Mindstealer Sphiranx that was sitting a foot away from the Furnace. “Show me your dice.” The squirrel revealed the four that she had picked. Jennifer had picked a six. 

“I hate that thing.” Jennifer shook her head as she slid the Warscroll over to the hybrid, whose phone started to ring. The rat’s whiskers twitched.

Azalea answered “Hello, Azalea’s ass-whooping team. How may I help you with your ass-whooping needs?” The hybrid’s tail twitched as she thought out her plan of action.

“Umm... I don’t need an ass-whooping. But can you help with extreme boredom?” the tigress on the other line asked, laying on the couch in hir entertainment room and staring up at the ceiling.

“I can comment on the match that Jennifer and I are having. Speaking of... your Plague Furnace is going to turn and go that way. If I’m not mistaken, the rusty wheels and spikes hit and kill a few of them Plague Monks.” Azalea rolled the dice, laughing at how lucky she was getting when it came to killing her opponent’s units with themselves.

“What in the world are you and Jennifer playing?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

“Age of Sigmar,” Azalea said, pulling out her own tape measure and checking a few things before moving her unit of Hellflayers of Slaanesh. “Now that that’s out the way, my Hellflayers will help mop up,” she said, rolling a handful of dice. “So what’s up Alex?”

“I’m forbidden from going hiking without someone to accompany me. Mom’s busy making dinner, Dad’s out shopping, Lizzy’s busy playing with Chris, I’m sick of Rocket League, and I’m booored,” the tigress complained, tugging at the hem of the oversized t-shirt shi was wearing.

“I’m not doing anything else after this, if you want to hang out,” Azalea said. 

Alex could hear Jennifer in the background talking about Hell Pit Abominations and a Screaming Bell. 

Azalea groaned. “Which will be sooner rather than later. I’m not going to last too much longer in this fight, cause this literal rat is going to throw a Gnawbomb.”

“I am!” Jennifer called out excitedly, her tail standing straight behind her as she moved the scenery, taking out the cover that was helping the squirrel

Alex rolled hir eyes. Azalea and Jennifer were total nerds, but hanging out with Azalea was better than nothing. They’d had fun the last time Azalea had come over for a sleepover, playing video games and watching Hotel Transylvania. “Think you’d be down for another sleepover?” the tiger cub asked hopefully.

“I refuse to concede; I still have Shalaxi Helbane up my sleeve,” the hybrid pointed out, even though it was becoming clear that she was fighting a war that she couldn’t win. “And sure. I don’t think the game shop isn’t that far from your house. I have my bike with me.” There was a moment of silence followed by the clatter of dice. “Well, I will be there in about twenty minutes. That roll just cost me the game.”

“That’s right. Now I will show you why the Horned Rat is the one true God,” Jennifer gloated as she started her turn.

“Want me to pick up snacks or anything while I’m here at the game shop?” Azalea asked Alex, still having a little bit of her spending money and thinking about getting the younger tigress a little gift or something.

“Umm... maybe a small bar of white chocolate, if they have it?” Alex asked hopefully. “I can’t have brown chocolate.”

“I’m sure that I can find something for you. So, see you in a few. I’ve got to get everything packed up,” Azalea said with a sigh, having lost to her opponent and teacher yet again.

“Awesome,” Alex said, hanging up the phone. Then shi sighed and groaned, smacking hir paw against hir forehead; shi had forgotten to ask Mom for permission... again. Rolling off the couch, shi headed out of the entertainment room.

__________________________________________________

A little less than a half hour later, a knock at the side entrance sent Alex scurrying from the reading nook down the stairs at breakneck speeds. Shi hit the first floor carpet, accidentally tearing a few fibers out of it with hir claws as shi rounded the corner and a moment later hit the door with a thump, unlocking it and pulling it open.

“Afternoon Alex,” Azalea said, smiling at the tigress that opened the door for her. The hybrid was dressed in a hoodie that had to be at least two sizes too big for her and had a weird design on it, something that looked like a moon with an arrow going out of it and through another moon. She also had on a pair of blue jeans and a backpack on her back that looked rather stuffed. “Sorry, traffic sucked.”

“Wait, didn’t you bike?” Alex muttered, stepping back out of the way to let the older squirrel inside, closing the door behind her.

Azalea motioned to her backpack as she kicked off her sandals. “Come on. This thing is heavy,” she said as she started heading off in the direction of the stairs, only to be stopped as Raenne called out from the kitchen area.

“Hi Azalea. How are your moms doing?” the older tigress asked.

“They are doing good. They are hanging out at home with Jenny, watching a movie or something,” the hybrid answered.

“Good. Tell them I said ‘Hello’, would you?” the older tigress asked. “Oh, and is Austrian food okay? I was planning on fixing bratwurst, sauerkraut, steamed vegetables, and a Hungarian goulash for dinner.”

“I’m good with that. Sounds pretty tasty. But what’s a brat-wurst?” she asked, stumbling over the word a little.

“It’s a type of mild sausage. Usually it’s served like a hot-dog or by itself. In Germany and Austria it’s usually served by itself with a variety of mustards to give it some flavor. I’ve got five or so to try it with.”

“Yeah. I would eat that,” Azalea said, nodding at the thought of a fancy hot dog.

“Good. You two have fun. I’ll call when dinner’s ready,” the older tigress said.

“Oh, I didn’t forget your prize,” Azalea said, motioning for the younger feline to follow as she slowly made her way up the stairs, struggling under the heavy backpack.

“Prize? Oh, they actually had white chocolate?” Alex asked, eyes going wide and following the squirrel up the stairs.

“I have my connections,” the hybrid replied with a subtle smile as they reached the landing. Azalea pulled off the heavy backpack and set it down, dragging it the rest of the way. Once she was in Alex’s room, she slung it up onto the bed before opening it and pulling various things out of it. She quickly covered the bed in a number of small boxes and one large carrying case, before finally finding what she was looking for. She pulled out a white chocolate bar for Alex. “Happy Halloween.”

“Thank you,” the tigress replied, happily taking the offered treat and walking over to the overstuffed leather chair in the corner, flopping down on it and tucking hir legs beneath hir before carefully peeling the wrapper off. The tigress finally got the wrapper off the top and took a small bite, letting out a sigh of contentment at the taste of the creamy, sweet treat.

Mom and dad rarely got candy for hir, so hir only readily-accessible sources were Jennifer and Azalea. Shi had almost managed to convince mom to start giving hir an allowance, but they were still haggling over the details. Mom seemed to think shi was free child labor. 

“Happy to help,” Azalea said, sitting on the bed and looking over the boxes that she had pulled out of her bag and trying to figure out how she was going to get them back in. Jennifer had talked her into getting a few of the Skaven models to start building a new army. She glanced over at the cat, realizing that they were wearing the exact same oversized t-shirt that they’d worn the last time Azalea had visited... which reminded the squirrel about the cat’s previous lack of panties. “So Alex... Did you forget them again?” the hybrid asked.

“What?” Alex asked, looking up and raising an eyebrow as shi nibbled on the bar of chocolate.

“I see London, I see France, I don’t see your...” Azalea’s voice trailed off, waiting to see if she could get her bag packed before the cat realized what she was talking about. “I’m starting to think that you have the memory of a goldfish.”

The tigress blinked twice, then looked down. Shi looked back up, defiantly meeting Azalea's gaze, and then deliberately took another nibble of the chocolate bar before slowly taking the hem of hir shirt and pulling it down past hir knees. 

“I mean if you want to show off, you already said you’d consider dating me,” Azalea pointed out, poking her tongue out as she gave up on trying to get the case back into her bag. She just set it and her bag to the side and then sprawled out on the tigress’ bed.

“I’m not ‘showing off’; I just prefer wearing baggy t-shirts around the house. They’re comfy. As for dating, bring me another chocolate bar and I’ll consider it,” Alex replied.

“Oh is that sooo?” Azalea asked as she rolled over, leaning over the bed and digging through her bag, pulling out another chocolate bar. The squirrel waved it at the tigress, then started opening the bar. 

Alex raised hir head peering suspiciously down hir muzzle at Azalea, wondering if the squirrel was actually serious about the question of dating or was just teasing.

The squirrel smiled as she opened the candy bar, taking her time as she did so. “Yeees?” she asked, trying her best to not smile at the feline that was eyeing her as she finally got it open and brought it up to her muzzle before stopping.

“Yes what?” Alex asked. “I said I’d consider dating you if you asked, but you haven’t asked.”

“I remember that. It’s more you’re eyeing me and my candy like we’re a... snack,” Azalea said, taking a bite of the candy bar. “Do you actually wanna date me and my weird tail? I mean, you heard me and Jennifer playing. You’ve seen the boxes that I have with me and all the nerdy models that I get to build and paint.”

“You’re also a good person. If you want to spend your time playing nerd games with Jennifer, that’s your... Prorogi? Priority? Perogati... Whatever that stupid word is,” Alex replied. “Also, your weird tail is adorably fluffy. Not to mention you have naturally orange and purple fur, which is awesome.”

“If you want to touch the tail, you may. But only once,” Azalea said, wiggling the long, fluffy tail at the tigress. “And I would date you too, even if you don’t like nerdy things and attract wildlife in a bad way.”

“That only happened once, and my fur is already starting to grow back,” the tigress protested, holding up hir arms to show the underside where the fur was growing out. It had reached the point that the scars were barely visible. Shi then took another bite of the chocolate bar that shi was rapidly running out of.

“This is why we need to get you a bell or something,” Azalea said, taking a bite out of her candy bar. “That or I will just have to go out with you and protect you. Like a good girlfriend.” She snickered a little as she watched the tigress eat the last of the candy bar, a little surprised at just how fast they’d finished it.

Alex rolled hir eyes. Still, at least Azalea was willing to go out hiking with hir. “We’re not dating yet. You still haven’t asked and I haven’t accepted yet. But if you want to go hiking, I’ve been cooped up in this stupid house all day, ‘cause mom’s been busy making her ghoul ash,” the tigress said before leaning forward. “Can we? Pleeease?” shi begged, doing hir best impression of a feral puppy dog.

“I mean, I would love to take you on a hiking date,” The hybrid said, wrapping up her partly eaten candy bar before standing up. “Oh! Hold on,” she said, pulling her phone from her back, looking at it. In just a second or two of looking at it her eyes lit up. “We got the bid!” She squeaked, jumping up and down.

Alex stared blankly at the crazy squirrel. Apparently rodents could jump far higher than she expected... or maybe it was just because this particular one was part jerboa. After a few seconds of watching Azalea nearly hit the ceiling, shi asked “What?”

Without saying anything the jerboa hybrid practically pounced the tigress and pulled her into a standing position. “Moms got the bid on the house!” she practically yelled, wrapping her arms and tail around Alex. “It means that we’re getting a new house! The really nice one with the mini greenhouses,” Azalea squeaked out happily, talking a mile a minute from the excitement.

“Oh, that’s right. I never asked you what you meant by mini green houses,” the tigress muttered to hirself, awkwardly holding the ecstatic squirrel. “So you’ve got a house now? When are you moving in?” shi asked.

“Well, it’s not going to be for a bit. I mean, we still have to wait for the paperwork to go through, for the guy that sold it to move out, and then we have to move.” She squealed happily as she gave the tigress one more big hug, holding her for a moment before letting go. “I can’t wait for you to see my room. We have to have a sleep over there now!”

“Nice,” Alex said, smiling. “I can’t wait to see it.” The tigress stood back a bit, then remembered what they’d been talking about. “In the meantime, are we going hiking?”

“Yes. I’m hyper now,” she said, turning to leave the room. “Oh, and don’t forget panties,” Azalea teased as she left the room and headed down stairs. “Raenne!” She called out as she got to the bottom of the stairs.

“Yes?” the older tigress asked, looking up from the skillet that she was using to sear the brats. 

“Alex and I are going hiking. And moms just texted. We got the bid!” The little squirrel said, still bouncing around.

“They won the bid on the house?” Raenne asked, looking more than a bit surprised. “Congratulations! And tell your moms I said ‘Congratulations’ as well. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes, so make sure you’re back before then. And don’t let Alex get into any fights with the wildlife.”

“We’ll be back by then. And don’t worry; I’ll keep Alex safe,” the hybrid said, flexing her arms and fluffing up her tail to look bigger, before sitting on the sofa to wait for the tigress. She took the time to text her moms to tell them just how happy and excited she was and what Raenne had said.

A minute later, Alex appeared at the stairs wearing pair of black capris and a white t-shirt. Shi quick-stepped down the stairs and then walked over to the closet next to the side door, where shi retrieved hir black cropped jacket and put it. Lastly, shi sat down and put on hir hiking boots, sliding hir footpaws into the custom-made digitigrade footwear and painstakingly tightening and tying the laces. A few moments later shi stood up. “Okay, let’s go,” shi said, pulling the door open. “Oh. Mom? Didn’t they say they’d relocated the mountain lion?”

The older tigress looked up again. “Yes, love. But please be cautious and keep your eyes open. Just because that one’s gone doesn’t mean that another hasn’t taken its place.”

“Okay. Love you, mom. We’ll be back in a bit,” the younger tigress said.

“See you in a bit, Raenne,” Azalea added, shooting up and heading for the door, slipping past Alex. “Come on slowpoke!” she called out to the tigress, the hybrid having forgotten or just not bothered to put on her shoes. 

“Azalea! There’s mud out there! Mom won’t let you back in the house with muddy paws,” the tigress said, bending down and picking up the shoes next to the door and throwing them after the squirrel who was bounding down the stairs towards the driveway. The little tigress stepped out onto the porch and closed the door behind hirself with a thump that made the windows shake.

By the time that Alex got to the stairs, Azalea was sitting on the bottom of the steps, putting on her shoes. “I can’t help it. Shoes to me are like panties to you.”

Alex sighed, rolling hir eyes. “C’mon you goof. I wanted to show you where I met that mountain lion. Soooo many bones.”