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 7

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

None of the cubs at the bus stop were very talkative, despite the fact that it was the first day back to school after Halloween. That was understandable, given the heavy rainfall and the thick dark clouds that covered the sky as far as they could see. The moment that the bus pulled up, they all quickly climbed inside, hopeful to escape the relentless chill and damp that somehow soaked into their fur despite the umbrellas and raincoats they all wore.

Azalea, a jerboa-squirrel hybrid, and Jennifer, a white-furred rat, walked nearly the full length of the bus before managing to find an unoccupied seat where they could sit together. Both of them were dripping water all the way down the aisle. Jennifer sat down first while Azalea carefully ran her paws down her sodden tail to wring the excess water from it. By the time she was done, there was at least another quart of water on the floor of the bus. A serious slipping hazard, not that any of the cubs cared.

Alexandrea, a tigress who preferred to go by Alex, sat down on the seat across the aisle from them, next to a European badger who had gotten on at one of the previous bus stops. While Alex had less in common with Azalea and Jennifer than they did with each other, they were still... Well, Alex considered them friends. They all sat together on the bus and at school they had lunch together. Azalea had even spent the night at Alex’s house a few times.

If it weren’t for having made a few new friends, Alex would have been near tears at the moment. The ten-year-old tigress had spent last night waiting for a call from Elizabeth... a call that never came. They had been best friends since kindergarten, had hundreds of sleepovers, and had become young lovers last spring. That had all come to an abrupt end when Alex’s big secret had come out at school.

See, Alex was one of the two percent of the population that was born intersex. Not just intersex, but one of the much, much rarer true hermaphrodites. That was only possible thanks to a condition called tetragametic chimerism; the result of a male and a female zygote merging in the womb. A real-life Dragon Ball fusion technique, except without the dancing and flashing lights.

In most parts of the country, it was common practice for intersexed babies to undergo gender assignment surgery shortly after birth. That was in order to prevent the conflicting hormones from causing ambiguous sexual development and infertility. But the newborn tiger’s parents, Raenne and David, had decided that the practice was barbaric, and they had a doctor administer the hormone treatments that promised full development of both genders for a true hermaphrodite.

To prevent their unusual child from being bullied, they had Alex hide what shi was, letting [i]hir choose which gender shi was at school. When hir secret finally came out, Alex was beaten so badly that shi wound up in the Emergency Room with a punctured lung. Hir parents decided that was enough, and moved to the more open-minded state of Colorado, to a small town in the mountains called Winter Creek. It was so small they didn’t even have a hospital or school, instead having to drive or take a bus to the nearby town of Prairie Flats, over forty minutes away.

Alex pushed the gore-tex hood of hir raincoat back after sitting down, staring at the rain dripping down the window and sighed, then ran her claws through hir black and orange head-fur. It wasn’t long enough yet to call ‘hair’ but in another two months it might. Feeling a gentle poke at hir shoulder, Alex looked over at the black and white badger sitting next to hir. 

“I thought you were a boy,” the badger said, pointing at the skirt shi was wearing.

The tigress shook hir head. “I’m a hermaphrodite,” shi explained, carefully pulling hir cold and soggy tail over hir lap, so that it didn’t get stepped on by anyone else getting on the bus.

“Oh. I’ve never met a herm before; only heard about it in sex-ed. So... Do you prefer pants?” the badger asked, looking a bit curious. “They’re all I’ve ever seen you wear.”

“Umm... I actually prefer shorts or capris, but they’re not in the school dress code.” Shi shrugged. “My winter undercoat is starting to come in, so I decided to wear skirts so I don’t get too hot.”

“Ah,” the badger said, nodding. Then he reached up to his neck and pulled up a pair of earbuds, sticking them in his ears, clearly done with the conversation. Next he put the hood of his blue sweatshirt up, as if just to make sure it was.

Alex glanced at him (at least, shi assumed the badger was a boy), a bit surprised at the abrupt end to their conversation. Wondering what that had been all about, shi looked back up towards the front of the bus. There were only a couple more stops before the bus began the long drive from Winter Creek to Prairie Flats. Shi took a deep breath, hoping the ache in hir chest would fade.

“Alex, you feeling okay? Ribs still bothering you?” Azalea asked.

“Nah, I’m fine,” Alex replied, turning in place to look at the orange and purple-furred squirrel-hybrid, who had a strangely intent look, as if she’d somehow known that the tigress was in pain.

“Are you sure? You did fall through the floor, you know,” Azalea pointed out, perhaps a bit louder than was necessary.

“They just ache a little. It’s nothing,” the tigress insisted, noticing several of the other students turning to look at them.

“What happened?” Jennifer asked, her naked pink tail twitching with curiosity.

Alex glanced over at the white rat and felt a smile grow across hir muzzle. This was too good an opportunity to pass up. “Well, my dad’s been making me a suit of mechanized combat armor in our garage. It turns out the upstairs floor wasn’t rated to hold a two ton mech suit-” Alex started to explain before Azalea finally cut hir off.

“Alex, stop! She might actually believe that,” Azalea protested. “That was a joke, Jennifer. We were exploring some old abandoned house south-east of town up in the mountains and Alex stepped into the middle of the room, into a pile of dirt and mushrooms where the ceiling had fallen in. And of course, the floor collapsed. Duh,” she said, as if it had been obvious the floor would have collapsed.

Alex sighed with disappointment; shi had been hoping to pull another one over on the gullible rat. “That reminds me. The talking cat said something about it being ‘sow in sabbath’. Do you know what that might have meant?” the tigress asked the now wide-eyed rat.

“Talking cat?” Cindy interrupted with her distinctive bahamian accent from the seat in front of them, having turned around to listen in on their conversation. The chubby raccoon had one eyebrow raised, making her distinctive dark facial mask look a little lop-sided. “You mean... a talking feral cat? A throwback?”

“Yeah. After I fell through the ring of mushrooms, I got knocked out and had a dream or nightmare or something with skeletons and a talking feral cat. It said something a whole bunch of stuff that I didn’t understand, like about Avalon, Hy Brasil, Tír na nÓg. I think those were places. But it also said something about it being the day before ‘sow in sabbath’. I have no idea what it meant,” Alex explained, trying to squeeze some of the excess water out of hir tail tip.

About halfway through the explanation, Cindy’s boyfriend, Steve turned around and leaned his arms on the back of the bus seat and stared at Alex. The big polar bear’s head was tilted slightly. “It was probably talking about the Sauin Sabbath, or as it’s often incorrectly pronounced, the Sam-hain Sabbath. That’s what we call Halloween, or All Hallows Eve. My brother George mentioned that this weekend, what with it being Halloween and all. He knows all that kind of stuff; he’s way more into that wiccan and pagan stuff than I am.”

“Oh. The talking cat said it like it was important: ‘ye deliberately stepped into the faerie ring on the day before Samhain Sabbath, no less’,” Alex said, trying hir best to mimic the faerie cat’s irish accent. “I had no idea what it meant.”

“I don’t either,” Jennifer said, taking notes in a small notepad. “That sounds like a pretty crazy dream though. You should write it all down so I can see if it means anything. Preferably before you forget it.”

Alex looked up at Cindy, who shrugged, then up at Steve.

“I don’t know anything either,” Steve said with a shrug, “except for the thing about Samhain Sabbath. I could ask George though. See if he knows anything about fairy rings and whatnot.”

“Thanks,” Alex replied, flashing the big polar bear a quick smile. “Not that it matters; it was just all just a crazy dream. Well, everything except the cat. I saw it when I first went up to that abandoned house. It drank all the cream we left out for it when we went up the second time. At least, it was empty when I went up there yesterday to get the tupperware container.”

Alex was actually kind of surprised. This was the first time Steve had really talked to hir. Usually shi steered clear of him since it seemed he was usually ordering the other, smaller kids around with a fair expectation of being obeyed. And Alex was definitely on the small side, a barely 10-year-old cub going to a middle school full of children aged 12 to 14. Being one of the larger species didn’t help; both Azalea and Jennifer were as big as shi was and they were rodents.

“I’d go feed it myself, but I live too far away and I’ve already got a kitty of my own,” Azalea said. “It’s not safe for kitties to live outdoors. We’ve got feral coyotes and mountain lions out here. They eat kitties,” the squirrel-hybrid said seriously, meeting Alex’s eyes.

Alex absently scratched at the scars on the undersides of hir arms. Shi knew all about the cougars living in the mountains of Colorado. Shi had learned that the hard way. Swallowing the knot in hir throat, shi nodded nervously. “Maybe... I could go feed it a few more times until it trusts me... take it home with me...”

__________________________________________________

The rest of the school day and the bus ride home had been completely uneventful, other than the relentless rain. It was still pouring rain when Alex finally got home at around four in the afternoon. “Hey mom,” shi said after wringing out hir tail and stepping in the front door, seeing hir mom, Raenne, sitting at the couch in front of the fireplace.

“Hey kiddo,” Raenne replied, looking up at her daughter from the book she’d been reading. “How was school?” 

“It was fine. I’m starting to feel like I’m caught up in Mrs. Viaene’s class. Or at least I understand most of what she’s saying now,” Alex answered, pushing the door closed and locking it before dropping hir backpack near it. The gore-tex jacket was next, going on a peg on the wall above the shoe rack. Hir hiking boots went in the rack a moment later.

“Do you think that’s because of all that stuff your dad’s been teaching you?” the older tigress asked, looking down at her flannel shirt and picking a few stray russet hairs off it.

“Um... yeah, probably,” Alex replied, flushing slightly. Part of why shi had been paying close attention during hir dad’s lessons was the reward afterward.

“Good. Want to split a quesadilla?” The older tigress asked, unfolding her legs and standing up, only to stop as her daughter quickly stepped over to her, giving her a hug. “What’s the matter, kiddo?” she asked, running her paw through the fur atop Alex’s head.

“Nothing,” Alex replied, holding hir mother tight for several seconds, pressing hir head tight against the top of mom’s distended tummy. After a moment, shi heard movement and felt a gentle bump against the side of hir face. Reassured that the twins were still alive and kicking, shi looked up at hir mom. “A quesadilla would be good. But I want to get changed first,” shi said, stepping back and looking down at hir white shirt and black skirt.

“Did anyone say anything about the skirt?” Raenne asked cautiously, grateful that Alex had at least somewhat gotten over the fear of skirts. They looked really good on hir, and this was the first time shi had worn a skirt to hir new school. The first time shi had worn skirts voluntarily since the incident at Byrom Elementary.

Alex thought about that for a moment. Shi’d gotten a few questions about it, since some people (mostly those not in hir classes) had assumed shi was a boy, wearing pants all the time. But nobody seemed to get bent out of shape when shi had told them shi was a hermaphrodite. “Well, a few people thought I was a boy,” shi said. “But nobody was mean about it. A few kids asked me whether I wore boxers or panties, though.”

Raenne snorted in amusement, then headed towards the kitchen with her book still in hand. Alex quickly ran upstairs, trying not to tear up the carpet with hir toe claws, and changed into hir favorite capris before going back downstairs. Shi picked up hir still soaking wet backpack and headed over to the dining area.

While hir mom started up the gas range and began pulling cheese and tortillas out of the fridge, Alex was busy pulling books and binders out of hir backpack. Shi’d managed to get a lot of work done on the bus, as usual, but it wasn’t quite finished. Shi still had to finish writing an English essay for old lady Petry. Reading and worksheets were easy enough on the bus, but writing anything other than short answers meant burning through erasers with how many bumps and potholes it hit.

After the quesadillas were done cooking, Raenne brought them over to the table and picked up her book again while snacking on them. Alex did the same, while writing hir essay. Upon finishing, the tiger cub tossed hir pencil down and clenched hir hands, pushing them high into the air with a stretch and a yawn.

“All done?” Raenne asked, looking up from her mystery novel.

“Yep,” Alex confirmed. “Can I go out hiking?”

“In this weather?” Raenne asked, one fuzzy ear twitching as she glanced at the enormous windows that made up the front of the house. They looked like giant sheets of water with how much rain was pouring down them.

“Yes. I need to feed the cat at that abandoned house,” Alex said, heading into the kitchen to pour some heavy cream into a small tupperware container.

This time both of her eyebrows went up as Raenne stared at her daughter in near disbelief. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Alex confirmed, putting the heavy cream away and heading to the side door to put on hir hiking boots once again.

The older tigress sighed and put her book down, then walked over to the side door as well, picking up her own boots. “Well okay, since you’re clearly dead-set on it. But there’s no way I’m letting you go alone. I suppose a hike in the rain won’t hurt us. But you’re going to be sore later after going hiking and having karate lessons.” 

What the older tigress didn’t say was that she wanted to see this abandoned house that Alex had fallen in and gauge for herself what kind of mischief her daughter had been up to.

__________________________________________________

Friday, November 13th, 2015

Alex shut the school locker, having barely managed to stuff hir backpack into it. Shi suddenly jumped backwards as shi turned to head towards the cafeteria, not expecting to see a wall of white in front of hir. Shi looked up, and up... and finally met Steve O’Malley’s eyes. The polar bear was the last person shi would have expected to see; shi had literally never seen him in the halls of Scott Carpenter Middle School. Just on the bus going to and from Winter Creek... and the school entrance or bus stop.

“Umm... Hey Steve. What’s up?” shi asked, pulling hir tail up and holding it against hir chest, carefully running hir paws down it to smooth the fur back down.

“Sorry for startling you. And for not getting back to you sooner,” the polar bear apologized, handing over a thick stack of printed papers that had been stapled together. “I forgot to ask George about what you’d mentioned on the bus a couple of weeks ago. But then it came up in conversation and he said he’d ask around about it. Apparently there’s a lot more to it than I thought there would be. Here’s some information about the fae, including one called the cat sí that might be that talking feral cat you came across. The fae are basically shapeshifting magical monsters from a bunch of old Irish and Scottish folktales and stuff. George also found out about the house you were exploring. It was abandoned over a century ago. The deer who lived there had a pair of children that came down with pneumonia in the middle of winter. He left to get some medicine, but got caught out in a snowstorm. By the time he was able to get back through the snow, both the children had died.”

A chill ran down Alex’s spine and shi felt the fur all over hir body stand on end. That was exactly what shi had seen in the dream shi’d had. There was no way in hell shi was going back up to feed that cat again. To think that shi had actually touched it a couple of days ago...

“What’s the matter, kitten?” Steve asked, tilting his head slightly. “You look like you stuck your fingers in a light socket.”

“Nothing,” Alex replied, glancing through the packet of papers. “Thanks, Steve. And tell your brother George I said thanks too.”

“No problem,” he said, gently patting the much smaller tiger cub before turning and heading back down the hallway.

Neither Steve nor Alex noticed the large, gray-skinned elephant standing a dozen meters down the other end of the hallway, though both of them would have recognized him if they’d seen him.

__________________________________________________

For the first time in weeks, Alex and hir parents weren’t upstairs in the guest bedroom watching movies or TV when the sun finished going down. Both mom and dad were sitting on the living room sofa in front of the fireplace, reading books. Alex was sitting in the overstuffed leather chair in the reading nook of the upstairs landing, reading through the packet of information that Steve had given hir. Everything shi read had matched exactly with what shi had experienced the night before Halloween. 

Other than being of normal size, the feral cat shi had seen was a dead-ringer for the description of the cat sí (or cat-sìth), even down to the completely black fur with a single spot of white on its chest. So was having stolen the souls of the dead and given hir aid in return for a bowl of cream set out before Sauin Sabbath (or Samhain Sabbath). 

More importantly, what shi had experienced with the two dead deer telling hir about their father going out for medicine matched the newspaper story from the early 1900s. It was a heart-wrenching tale that the two children had died of pneumonia only hours before the father got back with the medicine that would have likely saved them. If not for the freak snowstorm...

Alex sighed and looked up from the paper, then jumped as a flash of lightning lit the pitch-black sky outside the giant windows at the front of the house. A few seconds later, a deep rumble of thunder shook the house. Sighing, Alex set the stack of papers down and stood up, tugging at the hem of hir father’s oversized t-shirt before walking over to the railing and looking down at hir parents. “G’night mom, dad. Love you,” shi said, waiting a moment for their responses. 

It was Friday night and shi knew they’d prefer to sleep in. Rather than risk waking them up in the morning, shi decided to sleep in hir own bed for once. After they’d bid hir goodnight, shi walked down the hallway to hir own room and peeled off hir dad’s old tee, leaving it at the foot of hir bed before climbing naked under the covers. The house temperature had already dropped to near sixty degrees; cold enough to keep the new Vellux blankets on, even with hir winter undercoat.

Shi reached over and turned out the light, leaning back into the soft pillows and relaxing as shi listened to the patter of rain on the roof, gradually getting louder as the rain picked up. As shi started to doze off, lightning struck, illuminating the room well enough that shi could see the flash through closed eyes. It startled Alex back to wakefulness. Then the thunder hit a split second later, a deafening crash that shook the house to its foundations. The tigress practically jumped out of bed, fur standing on end.

After getting untangled from the bedsheets, Alex quickly turned the lamp back on. There was no way shi was going to fall asleep easily after that. After putting on hir makeshift nightgown, shi quickly padded out into the hallway and down the stairs. Hir parents were still sitting on the sofa in the living room, though most of the lights had been turned down. Shi quickly darted over to the sofa and sat between them.

“Loud, wasn’t it?” David asked, the white tiger glancing over at his daughter.

Alex nodded quickly, tail twitching as shi leaned against hir mom. Just then, another lightning bolt lit the sky outside the huge glass windows at the front of the house, illuminating the living room like the noon-day sun for one blinding moment. A split second later all the lights went out just as a stunningly loud crack of thunder shook the house again.

“Well, we needed to go to bed anyway,” Raenne said, carefully setting her book down on the end table that she knew was there but couldn’t see.

“Yeah. I’m going to let my eyes adjust for a moment. I’m getting too old to risk tripping on something in the dark,”  David said, also putting his book down.

“Agreed,” Raenne said, draping an arm over her daughter’s shoulders.

The three tigers sat in the darkness for perhaps fifteen seconds, waiting for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Alex was staring out the giant windows when the next bolt of lightning ran across the sky, illuminating the landscape... and a cat sitting on the front porch just outside one of the large glass windows. Shi couldn’t help but scream, terrified that it was the cat sí shi had been reading about, and jerked backwards against hir mom. Both hir parents jumped at the noise and hir father swore under his breath.

“What the heck, Alex?” Raenne asked. “Are you trying to give us a heart attack?”

“The cat sí,” shi blurted. “The cat that we’ve been feeding up in the mountains! It’s on the porch outside,” Alex explained, hir words tumbling out. “I saw it in the lightning.”

“Oh hell, in this weather?” David asked, standing up and walking towards the side entrance. “Poor thing’s probably dripping wet and half frozen. I’m sure a warm bath would do it some good. We’ve got some flea-treating shampoo-”

“NOOO!” Alex screamed, sprinting past him and slamming into the door, turning around to bar the way. “Don’t open the door! It’s a cat sí,” shi tried to explain as hir father looked down at hir, frozen in shock. “They steal souls, like those poor kids from the cabin! I just found out today-”

“Alex, for God’s sake, stop yelling,” Raenne said, standing up off the sofa as well, being extra careful in the gloomy darkness. “And what are you talking about?”

The young tigress took a deep breath, then recounted the dream shi had after falling through the floor in the abandoned house. When shi was done, hir mom said “That was all a dream though. It wasn’t real. Right?” the tigress asked, trying to reassure the frantic cub.

Alex shook hir head. “No, that’s just it. It wasn’t a dream. I asked Steve... Steve O’Malley about it. He said he’d talk to his brother, since his brother, George, knows all about that kind of stuff. Today Steve gave me a stack of papers that he’d printed out with all sorts of information about fairy tales and the fae monsters in them. He also printed out an old newspaper article from the early 1900s.

“The deer kids who lived there? They were absolutely real. It was exactly as I’d dreamed; they died of pneumonia. Their father had gone to get medicine for them but couldn’t get back in time because of the snowstorm, just as they told me in the dream.”

“So, let me get this straight. You dreamed about these deer kids after you got knocked out, and you just found an article about them in a newspaper from the 1900s?” David asked, making sure he’d gotten the story straight.

“Yeah. I also dreamed about the cat we’ve been feeding up at that abandoned house. It talked to me in the dream, with an Irish accent. Told me that since I’d given it some milk, it advised me not to eat the food and that I was in Elfland and implied that it was fae. It said that it was going to keep the souls of those poor sick kids there with it for the rest of eternity,” Alex continued to explain. 

“I didn’t know what a fae was or anything at the time. But the stuff that Steve gave me... One of the pages was about something called a ‘Cat sí’. It’s a faerie that looks like a black cat with a white spot on its chest, just like the cat we’ve been feeding and the one in the dream. What it said about keeping those poor kid’s souls, that’s exactly what the cat sí do. There’s no way what I dreamed of was just a dream. It was real.”

All three tigers jumped as another bolt of lightning lit the room as bright as day just as Alex finished hir rant. A moment later, thunder shook the house. 

“Okay, kiddo. You’ve convinced me,” Raenne said. “Even if it is a normal cat, it’ll be fine if we leave it out in the rain. And if it’s not, we probably shouldn’t let it in the house. We can talk about this more in the morning.”

“So, I’ve read a few stories about the fae,” David said. “And the last thing you want to do is be unkind to them. The least we should do is put out something for it to eat and stay warm. To stay on their good side. I won’t let it in, though. Fair?”

Alex shivered slightly, but nodded. “Okay. I guess that’s fair. I just... don’t want anything to happen to us, ya know?”

“Okay. You two head up to bed. I’ll put out a bowl of cream and some towels for it to dry out and sleep on,” David said, turning and walking through the living room and into the kitchen, surefooted despite the lack of any illumination.

“Just... don’t let it inside,” Alex said, pushing hirself away from the door and following hir mom down the hallway to the master bedroom. There was no way shi was going to be able to sleep alone tonight.

“I won’t,” David said as he opened the refrigerator. 

Back down the hallway in the master bedroom, Alex peeled off hir makeshift nightgown, dropping it at the foot of the bed before crawling under the covers while Raenne undressed. A moment later the older tigress crawled under the covers too, leaning over and giving her daughter a kiss before relaxing into the pillows. 

“That’s a helluva story, kiddo,” Raenne said. “But... You know that picture you drew of the mountain village covered in snow? I was driving home from Prairie Flats this morning and had this weird sense of deja vu as I drove past the big sign that says ‘Welcome to Winter Creek’. I’m pretty sure you drew a picture of Winter Creek before you’d even seen it. I’m gonna go find that picture you drew and double-check.”

Alex didn’t say anything. The idea that shi’d had a vision of something before even seeing it, was a bit frightening. Like having a super-power or something, only completely uncontrolled. Like Rogue from the X-Men. It could have just been coincidence, though. Completely random.

A moment later, David stepped into the room, saying “Well, I didn’t see the cat outside at all, but I left out some cream and a towel for it to lay on. I’m going to have to do some research tomorrow about all this, ‘cause the idea that the fae might be real is... scary.”

After undressing, David crawled under the covers as well, leaving Alex snug in the middle between hir parents. Over the next several minutes, the storm began to calm, leaving just the gentle patter of rain against the roof and side of the house. 

Just as the young tigress felt like shi was about to fall asleep, it felt like something was walking across the covers of the bed. It took a moment to realize what it might have been, but then Alex jerked awake, pulling the covers down and sitting bolt upright. Even with hir eyes fully adjusted to the darkness, it was hard to make anything out except vague shapes in shades of blue-gray.

There was nothing on the bed, at least that shi could see. Shi scooted back a bit, hir back against the pillows and kept staring around in the darkness, sure that the cat sí was there, lurking in the gloom. It was a long, long time before Alex fell asleep that night.

__________________________________________________

Wednesday, November 25th, 2015

Alex sat down on the brown vinyl bus seat with a sigh, grateful that the school day was finally over. Shi pulled hir orange and black striped tail around hir side so the kids in the seat behind hir wouldn’t accidentally step on it. After three months of having to take the bus from Winter Creek to Prairie Flats and back, shi was getting very, very tired of the forty minute bus trip. Literally the only good thing about it was that it gave hir time to talk to friends or do homework.

As more students got onto the bus, Alex leaned against the side of the bus under the window, one ear pressed against the glass, the other listening to the chaos on the bus, alternating between watching the milling mass in front of the school and keeping an eye out for hir new friends. Cindy, Steve, Jennifer, and most of all Azalea had gone out of their way to make hir feel accepted at the new school. Shi still missed hir best friend, Elizabeth, but at least shi didn’t feel crushingly depressed anymore, thanks to the other four children.

After a moment the tigress tugged the backpack off hir shoulders and stuck it on the floor in front of hir, unzipping it and pulling out a thin binder. Flipping it open, shi pulled out the math worksheet and a pencil. Mr. Donnehue had handed the worksheet out at the last minute of class, not even giving hir time to write hir name on it before the bell rang. Shi remedied that first, then began quickly doing the basic algebra, skipping the word problems and going straight to the equations. Word problems sucked.

Finally it was Azalea’s turn to get onto the bus. As always, anytime that she was getting on a bus or going through a door the squirrel-hybrid held her tail close. Once she was on the bus, she started glancing around, quickly finding the tigress with her nose to a paper. Slipping up to the tigress and joining her, she whispered “The answer is seven.”

Alex, already in the middle of writing down an answer growled as shi realized shi’d accidentally written a seven instead of a nine. “Dangit, Az. Look what you made me do. The answer’s forty-nine, not forty-seven,'' Shi said, flipping the pencil around and rubbing at it with the last millimeter of eraser left. Alex already went through a lot of erasers thanks to doing homework on the bus, and Azalea wasn’t helping.

“I didn’t say that I was good at math,” Az said with a little snicker, reaching into her jacket pocket pulling out a pawful of different erasers. “Take one,” she said with a smile. “It’s weird. I’m bad at math, but I can work DoTs out in my head.”

“What are dots? And where are Steve and Cindy?” The tigress asked, looking up at the jerboa-squirrel hybrid and plucking one of the erasers from her paw. “I thought they were right behind you in the bus line. And thanks for the eraser,” shi added as shi flipped the pencil around and wrote down the correct answer.

“DoTs are Damage over Time. I’m a nerd, remember?” She said as she looked up to the front of the bus. “They were behind me. At least I thought they were...”

“Okay you two,” the burly bus driver said, irritation evident in the elk’s tone. “You can do that mess after you’re home or whatever. But let’s not hold up everyone else, hmm?”

“Sor- sorry Mr. Jackson,” a female voice chirped in response.

“Ummm, yea. Sorry, sir,” a round, white furred face added as it came into view, the young polar bear it belonged to walking up the stairs, a raccoon girl following closely behind.

Lowering his voice a little as the youngsters climbed aboard the bus the driver added, “Just take a seat and keep the paws out of places they shouldn't be, shall we?”

“Yes sir,” the pair answered, blushing brightly as they walked down the center aisle of the bus. Steve pulled the raccoon girl into the seat behind him, both cubs flopping down onto it as he turned his head a little. “Dai dhuit Azalea, Alex. So umm, what’s up?”

“I’ve heard of saving face, but geez you two are cutting it close,” Azalea said, shaking her head a little. “I give it another week before you two get caught doing that by one of the teachers or something and wind up in detention,” she added with a snicker.

Alex didn’t look up from hir math sheet, but did say ‘Hey’ as shi finished scribbling in yet another answer. Once the answer was correct, shi looked across the aisle, meeting Steve and Cindy’s gaze. “Who was it that you two were talking about just before lunch ended? Star Eater or something?”

“Huh?” the bear boy asked, cocking his head a little. “Oh, you gotta mean Star Dreamer. Big old polar bear guy right?”
 
“I dunno. I wasn’t paying attention; I was finishing my geography homework. I was going to ask you, but the lunch bell rang.”

“It had to be Star,” Cindy chimed in with her distinctive bahamian accent. “He’s the only person you were talking about at lunch. You were telling us about how Star and your brother were still after you about going to the meets and stuff.”

 Alex blinked. “Meets?”

“Yeah, the meets, or meetups or whatever the local pagans call them,” Steve answered. “Kind of like a party or something from the way George talks about them. I went to a couple when we first moved out here, it was kind of fun but I don’t know if that stuff is really for me or not.”

“It’s not something for everyone, but I think that people should go at least once,” Azalea asserted before pausing for a moment to organize her thoughts, fiddling with her whiskers as she thought of how to phrase it. “Think of it like a big celebration, in a way. There’s an opening ceremony, people talking, trading goods, vendors, some of the festivals have classes too. I got my necklace there,” she said, pulling out a necklace, showing off the little cat charm.

“Cute,” the little tigress said, peering at the necklace the jerboa-squirrel hybrid was holding before turning back to Steve and Cindy. “But who’s Star Dreamer? And why would he be after you about going to meets? More importantly, if it’s a festival, why the heck would you not go? It sounds like fun.”

“Star Dreamer is, well, he’s like a priest, kind of,” the bear boy said leaning against the raccoon girl. “He’s a pagan uhhh... Wiccan. Yeah, that’s it. A Wiccan priest. That’s one of the local pagan groups, a bunch of them get together several times a year in a spot outside of town for those meets.”

“Yea, each one is a festival connected to the time of year it’s held,” Cindy added, “there’s like eight of them if I remember right.” Wrapping her arms around the polar bear’s arm she continued, “I think he’s just not so into going because of all the people that go and get naked.”

Alex’s eyebrows rose and her ears perked up, wondering if shi had heard correctly. “Naked? What? No way. Isn’t that illegal or something?”

“Going skyclad?” Azalea asked, looking slightly affronted. “No. It’s not public nudity, as the grove is privately owned. But they have the clothing optional area separate, so you should be okay,” the squirrel explained with a smirk. “And no, I haven’t been in that area.”

“Steve’s problem is he last went to the Ostara festival. The nude dancing around the ritual fire and umm... the high priestess giving the Goddess’ Blessing were a little much for him I think,” the raccoon girl said blushing brightly. “It was for me the first time I went to that festival too.”

“What’s the Goddess’ Blessing? For that matter, which Goddess?” Alex asked, only familiar with the God of Christ. Well, plus a handful of Greek, Egyptian, and Viking gods (that shi didn’t really believe in) from ancient history... and the Marvel comic movies. Thor was hot.

“The Goddess,” Cindy said.

The polar bear nodded his agreement before explaining. “Oh, that's right. You’re new here, so you probably don’t know anything about this stuff. Pagans believe that the Divine Entity, or what Christian faiths call God, isn’t a single person... er, well, you know what I mean. Anyway, they say the creator is actually two parts: a male part that they call the Horned God of the Field and a female part that they call the Goddess.”

Alex nodded, tail twitching with curiosity. “What about the Goddess’ Blessing?”

“Ostara is kind of like Easter, but without the bunny and baskets of goodies. It’s a festival of fertility and rebirth, new life and new beginnings. The Goddess’ Blessing is a blessing of fertility and those that want to receive it ummm...” Cindy said giggling at the way her boyfriend was blushing again. “Well, the people seeking the Blessing have, umm, sex... with the priest or priestess,” she said, starting to blush as well. “Or at least that’s what they say. I have been told that they ritually simulate it and stuff,” she said as she looked up at the roof of the bus, finding something distractingly interesting there.

“So it’s a festival... in the woods... with a bunch of naked people... who have sex with a priest or priestess...” Alex said slowly, putting it all together. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but... that’s an orgy. A religious orgy.”

“This is why I don’t try to explain this stuff,” Steve said, blushing so hard the fur of his face looked pink. “It always sounds so much worse than it really is. You don’t have to take part in the Goddess’ Blessing if you don’t want to. That part they always do in the clothing optional area. It wasn’t that, it was the group that was dancing naked around the fire that got to me. I blame that on the crazy doe-husky and her bunch.”

“So is this Star Dreamer one of the priests who have sex with everyone?” the tiger cub interrupted. “Actually, scratch that, I don’t want to know. This whole thing is just sounding waaay too weird. Besides, I have homework to finish. I’d rather get this stuff done now so I don’t have to do it over the weekend.” The tigress turned back to the math sheet.

“Nah, no worries on that front. Star’s more like the peace keeper at those things,” Steve said, turning and settling into his seat more. “He’s a pretty cool guy, for an old bear that is.”

“Yea, Mr. Star is pretty cool, he’d prolly do a way better job of explaining this stuff than we do,” Cindy added, laying her head on the polar bear's shoulder and falling silent.

“Huh,” the tiger cub said, thoughtfully. The thought of a God and Goddess was more interesting than just one God, and shi was kind of intrigued about all this wiccan stuff that they seemed to already know about. But their explanations left hir with more questions than answers. If Steve and Cindy thought Star Dreamer was okay, maybe he was the one shi should ask regarding all this crazy wiccan stuff. Alex made a mental note to talk to this Star Dreamer person if shi got the chance. Especially about the festivals.

That reminded hir. Tomorrow was Thanksgiving, and they had a four day weekend. “Hey Az?” Alex asked hopefully. “Are you planning on doing anything this weekend?”

“Well, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving, and Friday I think my gaming guild has something planned. And the moms have been hounding me to start packing boxes and stuff,” the jerboa-squirrel said, thinking about it. “So I dunno. But I’ll text you and let you know if I’m free, okay?”

“Cool,” Alex replied, hoping shi would get a chance to hang out with Azalea again. Playing stupid kids games like Truth or Dare with Azalea had actually been pretty fun. Shi picked up hir pencil and went back to trying to solve the algebra problems.

__________________________________________________

Friday, November 27th, 2015

Alex yawned, cracking hir eyes open before reaching up and rubbing them with the backs of hir paws. It was barely light outside, from what shi could see through the window blinds. After a moment shi pushed hirself up, letting the covers slide down hir chest. Hir head throbbed slightly and shi definitely had to pee.

Mom and dad were still asleep, laying to either side. Being as quiet as shi could, shi carefully pulled the cover down a bit further before pulling hir legs out and crawling to the foot of the bed, being careful not to hit anything with hir tail. Shi snagged the oversized t-shirt shi was using as a night-gown and quickly pulled it on, then headed out of the master bedroom and down the hallway and up the stairs to the second floor. 

Alex panted as shi made it up the stairs, hir breath showing white plumes. The house was definitely a bit chilly in the morning; mom and dad didn’t bother keeping the thermostat very high in the winter, now that their winter coats had come in. Siberian tigers were practically made for cold weather. They did turn it up if they had company though.

The second floor area was a game room with a balcony that overlooked the first floor living and dining rooms. It also had a small hallway with a bathroom and another pair of bedrooms, one of which shi had claimed for hir own. The other was a guest bedroom where they’d put the big screen TV and video gaming systems. That was to keep the noise down in the rest of the house, because of the open layout. Alex headed into the upstairs bathroom, which shi used almost exclusively.

Alex peeled off hir dad’s old t-shirt and glanced in the mirror for a moment. Shi was an absolute mess after last night, with patches of matted fur all over hir face and chest. No doubt mom and dad’s were as well. There was no way shi was going to drink hard cider ever again; hir mouth tasted absolutely terrible. After using the toilet and taking a moment to flip the shower on to let the water heat up, shi grabbed the toothbrush out of the cup holder and squeezed some toothpaste onto it. 

It took a while to finish brushing hir teeth... long enough that the mirror was starting to fog up. Shi spit a few times into the sink and ran a bit of cold water into the cup shi used to hold hir toothbrush, then gargled and spat again. Feeling at least five times better, shi dropped the toothbrush into the cup with a clink and turned around to get into the shower.

Fifteen minutes later and having just stepped out of the fur dryer, the young tigress took one look at hirself and immediately grabbed the fur brush. It took another five minutes to get hir fur under control and shi once again looked at hirself in the mirror. Blinking, shi turned sideways, inspecting hir chest... and smiled. It looked like hir chest was finally starting to fill out. Or at least shi wasn’t completely flat anymore. Not taking any chances, shi reached over and picked up the tiny orange bottle on the counter, popping the lid off and taking one of the little testosterone blocker pills, just as shi had every day for months now.

Alex pulled the door open and stepped out into the hallway, heading down the hallway to hir room, not bothering to put the t-shirt back on. It was only a few feet to hir bedroom, and mom and dad were probably still asleep. As shi was walking over to the closet to get some clothes, hir smart phone sitting on the computer desk lit up with an email alert. There was also a text message from Azalea. Shi didn’t think Az got up before noon at the earliest if it wasn’t a school day. Swiping the bar to unlock it made things much clearer... the text was from last night, long after shi and hir parents had fallen asleep.

< Messages]   Azalea    [Details]

This might be kinda out of the blue,
but do you feel like hanging out or
something? All of the plebs in the
guild are having real lives. I think
I should try it too, lol.

Alex blinked, wondering if shi should respond to a message that had been sent six hours earlier. Shi didn’t have anything planned; it was the day after Thanksgiving, after all. Black Friday. Mom and dad both did all their major shopping online now, and they wouldn’t have gone out today anyway; they hated crowds. After thinking for a moment, shi tapped out a response.

Sorry I didn’t respond. I was
sleeping. I’m not doing anything,
if you want to hang out together.
Maybe at your place? Or we 
could go wander downtown.

After hitting send, shi set the phone back down and walked over to hir closet. Shi quickly pulled on a pair of plain white panties and then spent a few moments going through hir wardrobe. Eventually shi picked out a pair of loose black capris with straps and pockets all over, and a black babydoll tee with a hello kitty logo on the front. For some reason shi felt like wearing black today. While shi was pulling on the shirt, hir phone dinged, much to hir surprise.

Jeez, what is it with people and
sleeping? Maybe you can come 
hang out here for a bit, and then 
we could go to the mall. I’m sure 
that the stripper *cough* life model 
will be gone after lunch.

Alex blinked, wondering what the heck the crazy jerboa hybrid was talking about. After a moment shi decided to ignore it, then sat down in the computer chair and tapped out a snarky response.

You know, most NORMAL people 
sleep. You should try it some time.
Once my parents wake up I’ll ask 
if I can come over.

After hitting send, shi stood up and headed downstairs, intending to cook something for breakfast. Maybe an omelet or something. Or french toast. Definitely french toast. Just as shi walked into the kitchen, hir phone dinged again.

Yeah, I have been told that. Sucks
I’m not normal. I did try it, but
somehow ended up on the floor. 
I’ll ask mom if you can come over.

Alex smiled and tapped out another quick response, then took a skillet down from the wall, set it on the range, and turned the burner on medium. It would take a minute or two to heat up.

Cool. I’ll let you know if I can come 
over soon as mom and dad are awake.
Shouldn’t be more than a few minutes 
after I start cooking breakfast.

Alex pulled open the fridge and took out the milk and eggs, setting them on the counter. The bread was already sitting on the counter next to the fridge, so shi undid the ties on it and pulled out six slices, then started looking for the sugar and vanilla. The phone dinged again.

OK. Mom said you can come over.
She said to text me when you’re here, 
so she can tell the model to cover up. 
This one’s some kind of wolf/rabbit.

Alex smiled, then slid the phone into one of hir many pockets. After digging around in the kitchen drawers for a moment, shi gave up looking for a whisk and just grabbed a fork and bowl, then cracked a few eggs into it and chucked the shells into the disposal unit. Hir tail swished happily behind hir as shi made breakfast.

A few minutes later, Alex had just finished plating the various slices of french toast and was sprinkling cinnamon and sugar over them when shi heard the thumps of hir parents coming down the stairs. Shi picked up a pair of plates and walked over to the kitchen entrance, holding them out as hir parents reached the base of the stairs. As shi’d expected, both of them were an absolute mess, but at least they’d bothered to put on clothes. Dad had a pair of sweatpants on and mom was wearing a flannel shirt and undies.

“G’morning. Sleep well?” shi asked, handing a plate to each of them.

“Yup,” David said, smiling blearily. “And thanks for the grub, kiddo,” he added, reaching out to ruffle Alex’s hair and ears.

“Ditto,” Raenne added as she took one of the plates, heading over to the dining room.

“You’re welcome,” Alex said, turning around and snagging the last plate before joining them at the table. “By the way, do we have any plans, or would it be okay if I go to Azalea’s today? Maybe wander around downtown, if we get bored?”

David was busy stuffing a piece of french toast into his mouth, but Raenne wasn’t. “Sure, as long as you keep your phone on so we know where you’re at,” the tigress said, cutting her french toast into bite-sized pieces.

“Awesome,” Alex said with a smile. “Thanks.”

After the three tigers had finished eating, Alex took hir plate back to the kitchen. Presumably dad would put the dishes away. Shi pulled out hir phone again, then checked the distance on the maps app. It was well within walking distance. Shi tapped out a quick message, letting Azalea know that mom had said it was okay and that shi’d be there in about fifteen minutes.

__________________________________________________

Alex stood in front of the apartment complex, staring at the blue-gray siding and white trim. The apartments still looked nearly new. Hir breath steamed in the morning air as shi walked about, trying to find apartment five. It had been a couple months since shi had been here last. At the third building shi finally spotted it, and stopped to pull out hir cell phone once again.

< Messages]   Azalea    [Details]

I’m heeere.

After hitting the send button, shi waited a moment before walking over to the door and tapping the doorbell.

“You know,” A voice came as the door swung open, revealing a living room filled with brown boxes along with the expected orange and purple-furred squirrel-hybrid. “I would make a ‘look what the cat dragged in’ joke, but you’re the cat,” Azalea said as she stepped to the side to let the tigress in. “Aren’t you cold?”

“Nah. I’m fine,” the tiger cub said as shi wiped hir sneakers off on the mat in front of the door. Walking ten minutes in the early morning in forty degree weather wearing only a t-shirt and capris had left hir only slightly chilled thanks to hir dense winter undercoat, but shi sighed in pleasure at how warm the apartment was compared to outside. “What the heck were you talking about in that text message about a model?” shi asked as shi stepped in and closed the door behind hirself.

“That,” Azalea said, pointing to the corner of the living room where one of her mothers had a little painting area set up. Sitting on a stool wrapped in a blanket was a wolf-rabbit-hybrid of some kind. Her mother, Cora, was working on a painting of said hybrid. “Mom’s work. Sometimes mine.”

“Oh, cool. I forgot your mom painted,” Alex asked as shi undid the laces on hir sneakers and slid them off, putting them next to the door. “Hi Mrs. Cora,” shi said after standing back up, waving across the living room.

“Hello sweetie,” the jerboa said warmly, waving a paint splattered paw. It was clear who Azalea took after with her love of painting. “If you want to come out in the living room, let me know so I can get a blanket for Olivia here,” she said, adjusting her tail to keep it out of the way.

“Okay, mom,” Azalea said before turning back to Alex. “She’s where I get my talent from and the reason that I always have paint stains on my paws,” she said with a little snicker. “Shall we go to my little nest?”

“Sure,” Alex said, straightening hir shirt out and following the jerboa-squirrel hybrid past the living room and down the hall. Moving boxes were stacked high against one of the walls.

“It’s nothing fancy, but it works for me,” Azalea said as she pulled the beaded curtain to the side and stepped in. The hybrid’s room was cleaner than one would have thought, save for the painting area with a drop cloth that took up one corner. A pile of pillows and blankets sat on the floor in one corner. Her desk had different school papers scattered on it, and the last major eye catcher of the room was the gaming computer that sat on an entertainment center hooked up to a big screen TV.

“Wow. That looks like the computer dad put together. Did you build it yourself?” Alex asked as shi stepped in. “And where’s your bed?”

“Well, I bought a gaming PC, but I have been modding it and swapping parts here and there.” Azalea then pointed to the pile of pillows and blankets in the corner. “That’s my bed,” she said, walking over to it before flopping onto it. “It’s more comfy than it looks.”

Alex tilted hir head at that. “If you say so. Though I’m seriously wondering if that’s the reason you don’t sleep.”

“The reason that I don’t sleep is more ‘cause I’m insomniac,” she said, wiggling into the pile, showing her strong nesting urge. She paused for a moment, then patted the pile. “Come try it out.”

“If you say so,” the tigress said, stepping over to the pile and sitting down on it. “God, how many pillows do you have?” shi exclaimed as shi continued to sink further and further into it.

“I don’t remember. I gave up counting a while back. There are a few plushies in here someplace too. It’s a little weird at first but you get used to it,” she said, grinning at the sight of the tigress that was sinking into the nest. “Think of all the positions that you can lay in.”

Alex rolled hir eyes, then frowned for a moment. With an odd expression, shi carefully reached down with one hand, digging around. A moment later, shi pulled it back up, holding a corgi plush that had seen its fair share of snuggles. Holding it out, shi tilted hir head, looking at the jerboa-hybrid next to her.

“What? I have a nesting thing,” Azalea said defensively. “What’s a nest without things to snuggle and wrap my tail around?” she asked, a faint blush tinting her ears.

Alex sighed. “I guess that makes sense. So... What games do you play?” the tigress asked, setting the corgi plush down and pointing at the PC. “I mostly like survival type games like Minecraft and Don’t Starve, and racing games like Forza, Gran Turismo, and Need For Speed. Dad plays RPGs, like Skyrim and World of Warcraft. Though lately he doesn’t play them much.”

“WoW is ehhh...” Azalea said, holding a paw out and tilting it from side to side. “Me? I like Minecraft, if it’s modded, and games like The Witcher. Though the biggest one that I play is Guild Wars 2. And no, I don’t have an addiction,” she said with a little giggle. “I can’t help it if there’s nothing better to do than snuggling into the bed and beating up dragons and things like that.”

“I’d rather race cars than kill dragons. Though I did watch my dad play Skyrim a few times, and it was pretty cool. He shot a dragon with a bunch of arrows and stuff, until it landed. Then his character jumped up on top of a dragon’s head and stabbed it a bunch until it died, and he stole its soul.”

“Killing dragons isn’t all that hard. Well, not the ones in Skyrim. The ones that I kill, you need a lot of people to kill,” the hybrid said with a decisive nod, proud of her accomplishments.

“So what’s Guild Wars like?” Alex asked. “I’ve never heard of it before.”

“Well it’s a lot like Elder Scrolls in some ways,” Azalea smiled. “You go around doing quests, things like that, and there are big world events where you fight really huge bosses. I could show you,” she said, her tail fluffing as she looked around the nest for the TV remote.

“Sure,” Alex said, holding the corgi plush in hir arms as shi made hirself comfortable amidst the nest of pillows and such. The little plush was surprisingly huggable.

“Found it,” Azalea said, holding up the remote and flipping the channel to the HDMI input. She reached over for the keyboard and trackpad sitting just outside the pile, wiggling her tail a little as she scooped them up and snuggled back into the nest. “I think that you’ll like it,” she said, setting the keyboard on her lap and booting up the game. “They have several classes to pick from,” she explained, selecting a character named after her and jumping into the game. “You could be a super strong warrior like me or a spell flinger like some of the others in the guild.”

“So, these guilds have wars or something?” Alex asked, watching as the game loaded in some sort of coastal town, with a giant building shaped like an octopus in the background.

“Well there is PvP, but I don’t do that too much,” Azalea said while typing something into her guild chat. “I think it should be getting close to time for one of the dragons to come and play,” she said, looking at the chat and then bringing up the world map, traveling to another coastal swamp where a lot of other players were amassing.

“So are you going to fight a dragon or something?” the tiger cub asked, leaning forward and checking out the other players on the screen. Some of the races in the game were quite bizarre.

“Yes,” she said, smiling as she guided her character to some other people that had the same guild tag; a large bear-like character and a big feline thing with horns and pink hair. “Nice, some of my guild mates are here.”

“Cool,” Alex said, watching. An NPC in the game yelled ‘There’s something in the water!’.

A moment later, a giant skeletal dragon emerged from the water, landed on a nearby island and then jumped down in front of Azalea’s character. Azalea promptly charged in, attacking the dragon’s feet with a greatsword. About ten seconds later, the dragon reared back and slammed the ground in front of them, causing a wave of water to rush past them, which Azalea’s character jumped over. Alex watched, bemused by the sheer chaos of it all.

__________________________________________________

A couple of hours later, there was a knock on the doorframe and Cora poked her head into the room. “Are you two doing okay in here?” she asked, smiling at the sight of the two cubs in the pile of pillows. “Oh God, bushy butt. Please don’t get all of your friends sucked into that game,” she chastised. “I just wanted to tell you two that I had some tea brewing and some snacks if you’re hungry. Now that I’m done painting, I’ll be getting started on lunch soon.”

Alex leaned forward, looking up at Azalea’s mom. “Snacks?”, shi asked, ears perked forward. It had been a while since breakfast.

“That sounds good. I just need to kill this thing and log off,” Azalea said, whiskers twitching with how focused she was. “I’ll join you in the kitchen in a sec... or fifty.”

“Kay,” Alex said, awkwardly pushing hirself up out of the pile of pillows they’d been sitting in. The tiger cub stepped past the squirrel-hybrid, moving quickly to get out of the way of the screen and following the paint-stained jerboa back through the living room and into the dining room. A bowl full of candies and granola bars, a tin full of mixed nuts, and a plate of corn muffins sat in the middle of the table.

The tiger cub pulled out one of the chairs and sat down. “Oh, cornbread muffins. What’s in these?” Alex asked, leaning forward and trying to make out what the dark spots were. “Blueberries?”

Turning from the stove to face the tiger, Cora nodded. “Yes. Would you like something to drink?” she asked. “We have water, tea, and juice. Help yourself to anything there, just don’t spoil your lunch.”

“Yay, I love blueberries. Can I have some tea please? With cream and sugar,” Alex said, reaching out and snagging one of the blueberry muffins, swinging hir legs under the table happily. The tigress took a bite, trying to keep the crumbs on the table.

“Careful, it’s hot,” Cora warned as she set a mug down for the tigress and poured tea into it. “It's an old family blend,” she said, spooning in a little bit of sugar and then pouring a splash of cream into the mug before pouring herself one and sitting at the table. “So. Now that you’ve been here a few months, how is everything treating you?”

The tiger cub swallowed before answering “Mmm, I didn’t really like it at first, but it’s kind of grown on me. The people are really nice, and I love being able to go hiking just by stepping a few feet past the front door. I can’t wait for it to snow; Az says there’s snow on the ground for like three or four months out of the year and I love snowboarding,” shi said, picking up the mug and taking a sip of tea.

“We do get a good bit of snow. Just be careful; we don’t want you gettin laid up in bed cause you broke something,” she said with a smile, before taking a sip of her tea. “Az did that once. Not being able to paint almost drove her crazy.”

“Oh, don’t worry; I’ll be careful. I broke my leg last time I went snowboarding up on Mount Hood. I took a jump off what I thought was just a little bump. Only it wasn’t that little. I managed to clear the treetops on Kruser Run. I almost managed to stick the landing, but the front edge of my board caught a split second after I touched down and I flipped, cartwheeled a few times, and crashed into a tree,” Alex said, holding the cup close and breathing deeply while sipping it. There was some floral and minty note to the tea that tickled hir nose and made the fur on the back of hir neck stand on edge. It was very good tea.

“Oh goodness,” Cora said, reaching for one of the muffins. “Well, it sounds like you learned better. So if that crazy daughter of mine wants to try it, you can teach her,” the jerboa said with a chuckle. “As long as she doesn’t try to climb the trees, she’ll be okay.”

“Oh, don’t worry ma’am. I’m good at teaching people how to snowboard. You just start by learning how to go down the slope perpendicular first, so you learn how to control your speed. Then you cover J-turns, S-turns, and finally carving,” Alex said, taking a few more gulps now that the tea wasn’t hot enough to burn hir mouth. The odd minty flavor was delicious, and made the fur on hir tail stand on end.

“Sounds like we should all plan a little trip up to the ski range sometime,” Cora said, nibbling on her blueberry muffin, her whiskers twitching. “We still need to find a way to keep bushy butt from bringing the mountain with her. Poor thing, her tail and snow just don’t get along.”

“Oh. I didn’t think of that, though I guess I should have. It took me forever to brush all the burrs out of her tail when we went hiking around Halloween. Do you think they make tail covers for that sort of thing? Or maybe we could use a trash bag...” Alex mused while sipping the tea.

“Well I know that they make the tail covers for the species out there that have no fur. We would need one that’s big for all of the fluff she has, and long for her tail,” Cora said with an amused smile. “But I think that she’d rather deal with snow and burrs than having trash bags on her tail.”

Alex nodded, blinking a bit. Shi was starting to feel a little strange, and the patterns on the textured drywall seemed to be moving. “I don’t blame her. My tail gets snow matted in it too, but I’d rather just brush it out and deal with it than wear a tail cover. Then again, I don’t have a tail that’s bigger than I am,” shi said, jerking hir head and peering into the living room. Shi could have sworn shi’d seen something moving out of the corner of hir eyes, something large and green.

“Well, I can see you getting away with it. You have a lot less fluff than Azalea, though.” Cora paused, tilting her head to the side. “Is something wrong sweetie?” She asked, glancing into the living room before turning back to the young tigress.

“No, no... I just thought I saw something, is all. So who was that wolf-rabbit-person here earlier?” shi asked, staring down at the wood pattern on the table, which looked almost like it was swirling.

“You probably saw one of the cats making their way through the house,” Cora said, finishing off her tea. “And as for Olivia, she’s one of my clients. Well, volunteer actually,” she corrected herself, “from one of the classes that I teach. Do you paint or anything?”

“I prefer drawing, mostly. But sometimes once I’ve done a rough sketch I’ll do a watercolor background before I go over it with colored pencil. It takes a lot longer to do that though, and I’m not very good at getting the watercolors to stay where I put them,” the tiger cub explained, leaning back and staring at the walls and ceiling. The patterns were still moving, and sometimes shi could even make out swirls of color rising from beneath the swirling textures. Shi wondered if maybe the walls were actually computer screens or something.

“Well, if you’re interested, I would be happy to teach you a few things,” Cora offered. “They make a watercolor pencil that you might want to look into. You just color over a spot and then go over it with a damp brush. That might be a little easier to start with,” she said, wondering if there was something wrong with the young tigress, as shi was definitely behaving strangely.

Alex looked back at the jerboa. “Really? That sounds kind of cool. The art teacher at school’s good, but she’s usually too busy to give us individual tips and stuff. There’s a lot of kids in the class, and a lot of them goof off...” The tiger cub’s voice trailed off as one of the patterns near the edge of the ceiling started moving more rapidly, hir tail twitching.

The shifting pattern near the ceiling began to turn green and started snaking its way from the ceiling and down the wall, growing wings. As shi watched, it formed a scaly head with rows of sharp, pointy teeth. Suddenly, glowing red eyes popped open, seemingly staring into hir very soul. The dragon stared at hir for what could have been a second or an hour; shi didn’t know. What shi did know was that shi didn’t want to break that gaze.

Cora tilted her head with growing concern as she watched the odd antics of the feline, who was staring at a spot on the wall. Alex’s pupils dilated more and more, to the point that hir irises were the thinnest rings of gold around a pool of black. “Ummm... Alex, sweetheart,” the jerboa asked, reaching out to put her paw on the tigress’. “Are you ok?”

Alex’s eyes shifted toward Cora as the jerboa distracted hir. Shi instantly looked back at the hovering dragon, but it was too late; shi’d lost. Hir fur stood on end as the dragon reared back and drew in a deep breath, knowing that in a moment shi was going to be burnt to a crisp.

Without waiting to see what the dragon would do next, the tiger cub rolled off the chair, clawing at the tile underneath hir with both hands and feet in a frantic attempt to gain traction. A second later shi was tearing through the apartment, through the beads hanging in front of Azalea’s room, and dived past Azalea into the pile of plushies and pillows, hoping that the dragon hadn’t followed.

“Alex!” Azalea let out a squeak as she was nearly hit by the tiger cub. “What’s wrong?”

“Alex sweetie,” Cora called out, rushing to her daughter’s doorway where Azalea was standing in bewilderment. “Is something the matter? Do I need to call someone for you?”

“N-n-nothing’s wrong. I’m fine...” Alex said loudly. Then shi turned and met Azalea’s gaze, eyes wide in a panic and pupils fluctuating wildly. “Have you seen the fucking dragons in the kitchen?” shi whispered, shivering slightly and pulling a pillow over hirself.

“The....dragons?” Azalea asked, a little stunned. “There are no dragons in the kitchen. Dragon’s don’t exist.” The young hybrid paused, turning to her mother who was still at the doorway. “Mom? What did you give her?”

“I didn’t give her anything,” Cora protested. “I mean, she snacked on a muffin and had some tea. But it couldn’t be them, cause I had some too-”

“Mom,” the younger hybrid said, cutting her mother off. “What kind of tea?”

“The regular,” Cora answered, obviously confused.

Alex ignored the two of them, praying that the dragon would eat the two rodents first and hopefully be too full for thirds. Slowly, carefully, shi picked up the corgi plush and set it over hir head as a disguise.

“Mom, you drink catnip tea,” Azalea said, staring her mother in the eyes.

“Oh shiiii... snot fire,” Cora said as realization dawned, barely keeping herself from swearing. Her ears went flat at the fact that she’d accidentally drugged a feline with catnip.

“And Alex is a tiger, which is a big cat,” Azalea continued, turning to the tiger cub that was hiding under a pillow and sporting a corgi plush as a hat. “You know you just committed a federal felony, right? You drugged an underage feline with catnip.” The hybrid smiled. “We’ll talk about the price of my silence later.”

“Well... Do what you do when your cat gets high, I guess?” Cora suggested, still looking over at the feline. “Man, it looks like shi is having a bad trip.”

“Yeah. Shi thinks the dragons in the kitchen are going to eat hir,” Azalea said as she got up and scooped up a little feather wand cat toy. “Umm... Let’s see if this works. Alex? Look,” she said as she started wiggling the feather bobber over hir. “God, this is so weird.”

Alex caught the feathers floating through the air out of the corner of hir eye and hir head swiveled to follow it. Brilliant golds and reds floated through the air, trailing motes of light that sparkled and smoked. The sight was so incredible shi completely forgot about the dragon. As shi watched, the twist of red and gold feathers took the shape of a phoenix, dancing through the air as it followed a golden rod that swirled around Azalea.

“I think it’s working,” Azalea said, trying not to burst into a fit of laughter. “Is it weird that I think that this is cute?” the squirrel-hybrid asked, tilting her head, letting out a squeak as her own cat came running out of nowhere after the dancing feathers.

“It looks like you’re a double cat-mom now,” Cora said with a little snicker. “Since you have it under control here, I will be in the kitchen cooking. Yell if you need something,” the jerboa said, turning to walk back to the kitchen.

A moment after the older jerboa left, Alex burst out of the pile of pillows. The sight of the golden phoenix was too incredible to ignore. Shi leapt through the air, trying hir best to keep up with the firebird. Time seemed to crawl as the phoenix got further away, the ground coming up beneath hir. Desperate not to let the impossibly beautiful bird escape hir sight, shi dug hir claws in and jumped with all hir might, reaching out with one paw, only to let out a wailing cry as it narrowly avoided hir by diving to one side. Unlike the phoenix, shi couldn’t alter hir trajectory in mid-air. The tigress hurtled across the room, straight at the far wall.

“Oh God,” Azalea squeaked out as she watched her cat go skittering off somewhere as Alex slammed into the wall. “That’s going to leave a mark,” the hybrid said, wincing. The inebriated tiger hit stuck fast to the dented drywall six feet off the floor, still tracking the feathered cat toy.

Alex tracked the flaming phoenix flying through the air with hir eyes. Once shi figured out its path, darting around the squirrel-shaped titan that stood in the center of the palace courtyard, shi leapt off the marble pillar shi hung from. For a moment shi thought shi would finally capture hir prey, when suddenly the phoenix twitched in mid-air, diving towards the ground. Once again shi wailed as shi overshot it, realizing at the last moment that shi was headed straight for a pile of rubble in the corner.

Azalea bursted out into a fit of giggles as she saw the tiger land in the pile of pillows and blankets, thankful that they were there. “You okay there, tigger?” she asked, wiggling the feather toy at hir again. “This is way too much fun.”

The tigress struggled to break free of the rubble. For every boulder shi moved aside, two more took its place. Worse, the phoenix was getting away. Wailing at the loss of such a beautiful creature, Alex finally made hir way out of the pile of rocks that shi effortlessly threw aside in hir grief and rage. “No! Phoenix, don’t leave me!”

“I wonder if shi will believe me when I tell hir all of this,” Azalea said, snickering a little as she slowly wiggled the feather toy closer and closer to the big kitten. “You can get it! I believe in you!”

Alex nearly wept with joy as the firebird returned, swirling around the titan in the center of the palace courtyard; It had not forsaken hir! Once again shi tried hir best to keep up with it, this time keeping low to the ground and using hir claws for traction as shi followed it’s path above hir. It seemed that no matter how fast shi chased it, the phoenix managed to stay just ahead of hir. The faster shi went, the faster it flew. Losing hope, shi made one desperate gamble, jumping after it and landing upon one of the many pillars that lined the palace courtyard. Digging in with hir claws, shi leapt after it again, jumping from pillar to pillar.

“Oh God, Alex, the walls,” Azalea cried, as the tiger left dozens of long gouges in the drywall. “There’s no way we’ll be keeping our deposit,” she muttered, then sighed and shook her head. This time, she made sure to keep wiggling the feathers right on top of her nest of pillows. At least Alex couldn’t do too much damage there. “Come on, I know you’ll get it this time,” she said, giggling.

Alex continued to jump from pillar to pillar, leaping past the gaps where pillars had broken. The phoenix shi was chasing eventually slowed and folded its wings, alighting atop the pile of rubble. The tigress’s eyes widened: this was hir chance! Shi hit the last pillar before the rubble with a thud that shook the stone pillar to its very foundations, then gathered hir strength and jumped.

Unfortunately, the tigress misjudged hir own strength and went flying just over the top of it. Shi reached out to catch the firebird atop the pile of rubble and missed by only a hair, tumbling head over heels, headed straight towards one of the stone pillars. Unable to correct hirself in time, Alex slammed into the stone pillar headfirst, and the world went dark.

“What the heck happened?” Cora’s voice rang out from the hallway, the jerboa drawn from the kitchen by a rapid series of thuds that had literally shaken the apartment walls.

“Shi got a little too worked up chasing the cat toy and knocked hirself out on the wall. At least shi had a soft landing,” Azalea answered, dropping the toy and quickly standing up.

“Aren’t you going to see if shi is okay?” Cora asked, stepping to the side of the hallway as Azalea slipped out of the room.

“That’s what I’m doing,” Azalea said, still giggling over the absurdity of an anthro cat chasing a feral cat toy. The squirrel-hybrid disappeared to the bathroom before returning with a small vial of smelling salts. “I always wanted to see if this works,” she said walking through the bead curtain into her room. She climbed into the pile of pillows and nudged the unconscious feline. “You alive there?”

The tiger cub didn’t move at all, tongue tip dangling from hir half-open mouth as shi lay in a boneless heap atop the pile of pillows near the wall. The only sign the cat was even alive was the slight motion of hir chest, rising and falling with each rapid breath.

“I hope shi’s okay,” Azalea said, reaching out and poking at the kitten’s nose. “Alex, can you hear me?” the squirrel-hybrid asked, giving the tiger a moment to respond. “Okay, I got this,” she said under her breath, opening the bottle and holding it out, under the tigress’ nose. “God, I can smell this stuff from here,” Azalea said, scrunching up her nose.

The tigress’s nose twitched and scrunched tight, after a moment hir eyes popped open and shi drew back away from the powerful odor of the smelling salts. Blinking frantically shi tried to clear hir vision. Hir head throbbed, and shi really didn’t want whatever it was Azalea was trying to feed hir. “Nooo, it smells gross! I don’t want any,” shi whined, pulling a pillow over hir face.

“Wow. I didn’t think that stuff actually worked,” Azalea said, clearly impressed. She put the cap back on the bottle and set it aside. “Alex? You okay? You hit the wall kinda hard,” she said, reaching out and putting her paw on the tiger’s.

“Do I need to get you a glass of water and something for your head?” Cora asked, letting out a little sigh.

“Nooo... not hungry,” Alex said, pulling the pillow a bit tighter and rolling over. “Just nap... mmm, blanket.”

“Oh no. I don’t think that you should be sleeping,” Azalea interrupted, poking at the tigress. “You hit your head kinda hard.”

“Let me look at her,” Cora said, pushing aside the bead curtain and taking a few steps into the room before she saw the walls. “Oh my God,” she exclaimed. “What in the name of The Mother happened here? Did she climb the walls? Or maul them?” the jerboa whispered in awe, walking over to one of the walls. She traced a finger-claw along a foot-long gash that went all the way through the drywall. Pink insulation hung out the bottom like blood from a wound. It was one of dozens, maybe hundreds, that covered the walls and even the ceiling. The carpet looked like someone had taken a weed wacker to parts of it.

“Well, shi was tripping pretty hard. Shi kept crying about a phoenix or something,” Azalea said looking up from poking at the tiger cub. “You know... We aren’t the ones who are responsible for this.”

“You were the one that was supposed to keep hir safe,” Cora said, throwing a pointed glance at her daughter before walking over to the tigress, pulling at the pillow shi was holding.

“Yeah... and shi has large teeth and sharp claws. You see what shi did to the wall! I was more worried about hir pouncing me...” Azalea went silent as her mom pulled at Alex’s pillow.

Alex’s claws extended into the fabric of the pillow, not wanting to let go of it in the slightest, showing hir fangs and letting out a deep growl. The jerboa let go of it immediately, snatching her hand back.

“...and kneading me with those,” Azalea added, pointing at the inch-long claws that were now poking deep gouges in the pillow.

“Well, I guess I can let you two off this time. Though you’re going to help repair... Hey, where are you going?” Cora asked as her daughter got up and walked out of the room again, this time returning with a spray bottle in hand.

“This,” Azalea said, walking over to the pile of pillows. “No. Bad kitty. You don’t growl like that,” she said,  pulling the trigger. “Bad.”

Alex hissed, but let go of the pillow, rolling over to avoid the spritz of water. “No, stop! I’m awake, I’m awake...” shi said, rolling over and sitting up. After blinking blearily, hir pupils still rapidly dilating, shi shook hir head vigorously.

“I think I’m going to try that spray bottle on you, next time you don’t want to get up for school,” Cora said with a little snicker. 

“Yeah... No,” Azalea said, shooting a quick glance at her mother.

“Alex? Are you ok?” Cora asked, leaning over the pile of pillows.

“Alex, you were just tripping balls. Are you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?” Azalea asked, holding up three.

“Three,” the tiger cub said, rubbing the back of hir head. “Ow. Did I hit my head or something? And what do you mean? I tripped on a ball?”

“More like you climbed the walls and then jumped headfirst into one of them,” Azalea said, pointing at the badly damaged walls. “And no. I meant tripping as in ‘you were high’,” she said, snickering.

“I kind of, well, accidentally gave you catnip,” Cora said, blushing. “I drink catnip tea and I didn’t think about it when I gave you some.”

Alex stared at the walls around the room, hir mouth dropping open slightly. Huge rents and gouges ran around the entire circumference of the room. Most of them were diagonal or horizontal... and very, very deep. Chunks of drywall lay scattered on the floor around the room. After a moment shi looked up at Azalea, then over to her mother, and back again. “Did I do that?” shi asked in a whisper.

“Yes,” Azalea said before starting to laugh. “You were stoned on catnip and you thought that this,” she said picking up the feather toy, “was a phoenix and you were hell-bent on catching it.”

“Mouth, young lady,” Cora chastised, booping her daughter on the head. “And don’t worry about anything Alex. I know that you didn’t really mean to do this, so no one is in trouble. Though I’m sure that bushy butt here will want you to help repair some of this.”

“Mom, don’t you have food to be cooking or something?” Azalea said, pointedly.

“Love you too,” Cora replied dryly. “I will be in the kitchen if you need anything,” the jerboa said before slipping out of the room.

“Sooo... Did you get that phoenix?” Azalea asked, giggling and nudging the tiger.

“I... uhhh... I don’t know,” Alex replied, still staring wide-eyed around the room, taking in the incredible destruction that shi’d apparently inflicted upon the walls of Azalea’s bedroom.

“Well at least you didn’t get eaten by that dragon... though I don’t think that Mr. Sparkles likes being a hat,” she said, reaching out and putting her arm around the kitten. 

“Dragon?” Alex asked, eyebrows rising as shi turned to look at the squirrel-jerboa hybrid sitting next to hir. “What dragon?”