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 8

Friday, November 27th, 2015

“I still can’t believe I did that,” Alex said for the fifth time, the tiger cub’s ears flat against hir head from embarrassment. Shi was still picking bits of drywall and pink insulation off hir black ‘Hello Kitty’ t-shirt, nearly an hour after having awoken to the shockingly pungent scent of smelling salts in the unplanned demolition zone that Azalea’s room had become. At least the drywall and insulation weren’t as noticeable on the black capris shi was wearing with all the pockets, straps, and buckles on it. 

“For like the fifth or sixth time: you did it. You turned into a big kitten and climbed the walls trying to catch the feather toy,” the hybrid said, patting the tigress on the shoulder. “It was super impressive watching you climbing the walls and jumping from one to the other… Tigger.”

“Tigger?” Alex asked, tail twitching as she glanced over at the jerboa-squirrel. “Really?”

“You were literally jumping from one wall to the other. Like, there were a few times that you didn’t touch the floor,” Azalea said, waving her arms dramatically. “I mean you saw the horizontal claw marks right?”

Alex nodded, bringing hir tail around and hugging it to hir chest. “I saw. I just... I didn’t think I could do that kind of thing. And what I remember is... like trying to remember a dream after you wake up.”

“I tell you what: we will get you high again, and I will record it,” Azalea joked, or at least Alex hoped that she was joking. “With the way that you were jumping around you should try out for soccer or some sport.”

“Yeeeah... No. I am not getting high again,” Alex stated, “and I told you I’d sign up for the next soccer season if you teach me how to play.” The tigress went silent for a moment before muttering “I still can’t believe your mom didn’t murder us both for tearing up your room.”

“She probably thought about it,” Azalea admitted, before shrugging and reaching into her pocket. “But she decided to punish us in a more creative way,” she said, showing off the list of stuff that she’d been given by her mom. “Something about getting the deposit back,” she said, dramatically letting her tail flop in defeat.

The two cubs were currently walking down the sidewalk, headed towards ‘downtown’ Winter Creek. That was probably a misnomer since it referred to a single street that went through the middle of town that had perhaps a dozen shops and half that many restaurants. Still, there was a gaming shop and an arcade that made it a popular place to hang out for most of the cubs in town. There was also a hardware store, which was the reason for their current trek.

“You know, we can probably stop by the game shop or the arcade before we get all the stuff on that list. I think I’ve still got some money leftover from my birthday,” Alex said, finally letting go of hir tail as they reached the outskirts of downtown Winter Creek. “And it’s not like your mom said we had to be home by a certain time. I know my mom didn’t, as long as I’m back before dark. We’ve got at least another four hours.”

“You had me at ‘arcade’,” Azalea said, pointing down the street at the building in question. “I bet that I could beat you at a few games,” the hybrid added, smiling deviously.

Over the past fifteen years arcades had become less and less popular, since most kids had their own gaming consoles, but somehow this one remained in business. The place was always kept clean and they did a pretty good job of keeping their game selection up to date. Not to mention they had practically every kind of candy that was legally available (and some that weren’t), though their prices were steep.

Alex loved the Winter Creek arcade because of their motorcycle racing game, which had actual motorcycle seats, pedals, throttle, and clutch controls. Their formula one racing sim with an actual cockpit was a close second favorite. Shi also loved a challenge.

“You’re on,” the tigress agreed, picking up the pace a bit and jogging over to the arcade. Shi yanked the door open and waited for Azalea to step inside.

“Loser buys snacks?” Azalea asked, trying to up the ante as she stepped into the arcade, looking at the different games and machines. “I'll even let you pick the first game.”

“Heck no. This place is expensive enough without having to buy candies. Especially those Ferro Roach things you like so much,” Alex protested, tail twitching in annoyance.

“It’s Ferrero Rocher,” Azalea corrected the tigress, “and you don’t have to buy me a lot of them when I win. I will settle for, oh, let’s say a six pack of them,” the squirrel-hybrid said as she led Alex over to the King of Fighters XIII machine.

“They’re a buck each! We could play a dozen games for the price of a six-pack! No,” Alex flat-out refused, tail thrashing behind hir. “Besides, I know how good you are at video games, Ms. Professional Warrior, Queen of Fighters,” shi added, pointing at the arcade cabinet they were standing in front of. The screen was currently showing the high score listing, most of which were signed ‘AZY’.

“Um… That’s not me,” Azalea said, trying to come up with something off the top of her head. “That’s my sister, I’m actually really bad at this game. I don't even know how to do the Air Venom Shot.”

“You’re not fooling anyone,” Alex said, shaking hir head before pulling a quarter out of hir pocket and sticking it into the right-side coin slot, and selecting Versus mode. The character selection screen came up and shi quickly selected Takuma Sakazaki as hir fighter. 

Azalea fished out a coin from her pocket and dropped it into the coin slot. “I mean I can go easy on you,” the squirrel offered as she cycled through the characters, landing on the one that she knew the best and played the most, King.

Alex snorted. “Yeah right. I know how much you like those chocolates. You’re an addict,” shi said, selecting the dojo stage. The level reminded hir of the place mom had taught at when they were still living in Oregon.

“Fine. I will let you pick the candy that you buy for me when you lose the best of three, but,” the jerboa/squirrel smiled, her tail tip twitching in anticipation. “I get to go as hard as I can…”

“You can do whatever you like; I’m not feeding your candy addiction,” Alex said, trying to remember this character’s combos. Shi rarely played fighting games and had only started playing this one so that Azalea had someone to play against. The rest of the arcade regulars knew better than to challenge her. After rolling the joystick around and slapping a few buttons to no effect, shi finally remembered one of the moves, hitting it just as King came flying across the screen at hir character and managing to score the first blow.

“You managed to get the first hit. That’s a lot more than most people can, but that’s all you get,” Azalea said, her tail twitching more, bumping against the tigress’ tail as she started with one of King’s normal combos, something to build her meter. She was going to get that Neo Max Air Venom Shot.

Takuma was trapped against the far wall in no time, and as fast as Azalea was, Alex was barely managing to time the blocks right. After six consecutive blocks in a row, shi took a gamble and tried a sweep kick, only to wind up being juggled in the air for a solid ten seconds. Alex sighed as the screen exploded with flashing lights, followed immediately by the word “K.O.” across the screen.

Ten minutes later and two dollars poorer, Alex finally called it quits, hir tail lying flat on the ground with defeat. Out of twenty-one rounds, shi’d only won a single one, and that one victory was thanks entirely to Azalea’s overconfidence. “Okay, I’m tired of losing. I’m going to go play that motorcycle racing game for a bit.”

“You’re getting better,” Azalea said, following the tiger over to the motorcycle game. Azalea wasn’t good at racing games by any means, but she did like watching Alex play them and drive fast. She secretly hoped that she would pick up a few things from watching.

After hopping into the motorcycle saddle and making sure hir tail was wrapped around hir waist, Alex stuck a few quarters into the slot on the ‘fuel tank’, then quickly went through the menu system to select a race track. Shi’d only done this a few times before, but was getting better at it every time. 

The tigress revved the engine a few times while waiting for the countdown lights to turn green. 3... 2... 1... Alex hit the throttle hard, making the motorcycle under hir jerk as it sped up. Shi waited until hitting 6000 RPMs before pulling the clutch and popping it into second gear, then simultaneously hit the throttle and released the clutch. A few seconds later shi kicked the bike into third gear, and then fourth.

Alex knew the first turn was coming up, so shi kept hir speed stable while jockeying to the inside of the turn, knowing that it was easy to wind up in the rough if you took that turn too fast. Shi leaned into it, hugging the inside curve. The moment it straightened out, shi pulled the clutch again and knocked the bike down into third gear, immediately releasing the clutch before hitting the throttle as hard as shi could. 

Somehow shi managed to pass most of the other bikes shi was racing against, winding up third in the pack. Knowing this straightaway went on for a while, shi quickly made it up to redline and then shifted to fourth, redlined it again and shifted into fifth gear. The speedometer said 160 MPH. She was currently tied for second place with another motorcycle ridden by a fox with a big fluffy tail whipping in the wind. Azalea was standing next to her watching and cheering on the tigress as she watched hir getting closer to the finish line.

The next curve was rapidly approaching, and a warning popped up on the screen advising that shi was going too fast. Snarling slightly, Alex dumped hir speed and downshifted back to fourth gear, taking a wide curve and hugging the outside wall just before the start of the curve, then leaning into it, nearly touching the inside curve before winding up near the outside again as the track straightened once again. Shi’d somehow managed to pass the biker fox, probably ‘cause they’d dumped more speed than they should have.

Over the next two minutes, Alex tried every trick shi could think of to get into first place, but never quite managed to overtake the guy in first place... a cheetah, judging by the yellow fur, black spots, and the dark tail tip. Why were the fastest NPCs in racing games always cheetahs?

Two more rounds later, Alex sighed and dismounted from the motorcycle. Overall shi’d managed to come in 3rd place. That was better than last time shi had been here, but frustratingly far away from 1st. Only hir perked ears showed the pride shi felt at having finally reached the top 3.

“You almost beat them. Third is better than nothing,” Azalea teased, knowing that Alex could show her up on most racing games any day.

“Meh. I’ll beat them eventually. I just need to learn the tracks,” Alex muttered, unwrapping hir tail from hir waist. “You know, I’m getting hungry again. And I don’t really want to pay $4 for a candy bar when I could get an actual meal for a few bucks more. Want to hit up Mel’s?”

“I’ll never say no to going to Mel’s,” Azalea reached into her pocket, checking her phone before slipping it back in. “They have some good burgers.”

The two cubs left the busy arcade, dodging other kids on their way to the front door. Alex took a deep breath as they stepped outside; shi hadn’t realized just how stuffy it was inside the arcade. It was nice and cool outside. Their next destination was only a block further down the street.

The restaurant looked similar to a lot of the buildings in the downtown area, except for the polished metal overhang with red neon strips that ran around the rooftop and the large sign with red neon piping that spelled ‘Mel’s Diner’. 

Alex walked up to the glass door and put her paw on the push plate and leaned into it, stepping inside. Azalea followed a moment later. 

In front of the kitchen area was the typical diner bar, complete with chrome counter stools with red vinyl seats. The rest of the diner had various circular tables with white chairs and white wooden booths with formica tabletops under the front windows. Along the east wall was a twenty foot long table with benches for large families. 

Alex looked around, spotting a beaver in a white apron over a red dress behind the counter. Just as shi met the waitresses eyes, Azalea said “Just take a seat anywhere you like. She’ll come serve us when we’re seated. The tigress nodded, walking over to one of the booths and sat down so shi could keep an eye on the entrance, fitting hir tail in the gap between the backrest and seat. Azalea sat down a moment later, facing hir.

“I’m Nadine. I’ll be your waitress,” the beaver said, setting a pair of menus on the table. Alex jumped slightly, tail twitching; shi didn’t think shi’d taken that long to sit down. It was like the beaver had somehow teleported around the counter and next to the table. “What would you like to drink?” the waitress asked.

“Apple juice for me,” the squirrel-hybrid said, looking up at the waitress.

“I’ll have a coke, please,” Alex said, still a bit put out by the waitress startling hir. Shi narrowed hir eyes and watched as the beaver walked around the counter before looking down, but keeping an ear angled towards where the beaver was standing. Alex glanced over the menu, ignoring the words and looking at the pictures. There was a delicious looking hamburger halfway down on the right side. Shi didn’t get those often, and shi was pretty hungry. Knowing what shi wanted, shi put the menu back behind the dispenser.

“Did you find something? Cause I don’t think you actually read any of the choices,” Azalea said as she folded her menu up and put it with Alex’s.

“Hamburger,” the tigress said with a sharp nod.

“How would you like that?” the waitress asked as she set down their drink, making Alex jump again. “Rare, medium, or well done?

“Uh... medium, please,” Alex answered, hir fur fluffing up at being startled.

“Do you want fries with that?” Nadine asked, pulling out a small notepad and writing it down.

“Uh... Yes, please,” Alex said, wondering how the hell the waitress had managed to sneak up on hir again. Shi picked hir tail up and began smoothing hir puffed up fur flat again.

“Anything else?” Nadine asked, nodding when Alex shook hir head. “And you?” she asked, turning to Azalea.

“I’ll have the usual; the tenders and fries with extra sauce,” the hybrid said with a smile.

“Anything else?” Nadine asked. After Azalea shook hir head, the waitress smiled and said, “It’ll be out in a few minutes.” 

Alex continued to smooth the fur on hir tail, suspiciously watching the waitress as she walked back behind the counter again, then turned back to look at Azalea.

“You can relax. No one knows about the catnip incident. The police aren't looking for you or anything like that,” the hybrid said, having noticed that Alex was even more easily spooked than normal.

Alex tilted hir head slightly. “Huh? Oh, that’s not it. I just didn’t hear the waitress walk up behind me. Besides, they’d be looking for your mom, not me.”

“You’re a tigress. You’re supposed to be a predator and have super good hearing,” Azalea said, looking her friend over. “Did something happen? Did you watch a scary movie or something?”

Alex waited for a moment, thinking, before answering. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later. So when are you actually going to be moving into the new house?” the tigress asked as they waited, pulling hir tail into hir lap and gently running hir finger-claws through the dense fur.

“Tomorrow, provided we can take care of all the gouges in the walls that some giant kitten put there,” Azalea said, poking the tip of her tongue out, before smiling and showing off her buck teeth.

Alex’s ears went flat against hir head and shi looked down at the table. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. If anything, it’s mom’s fault,” the hybrid reassured her friend, “and I’m sure between me and mom we will have the walls looking better than when we moved in.”

“Should I ask mom if I can stay late tonight to help out?” the tigress asked, looking back up at the purple and orange-furred hybrid.

“You could ask her to let you stay the night. Then you could help out with the walls and the move and get to see the house... and the little green houses too,” Azalea said, a smile appearing on her muzzle and showing off her buck teeth.

“I’m sure mom and dad wouldn’t mind. I try not to bother them much on Friday nights. They like to sleep in on Saturdays,” Alex said. “I can just walk back home real quick to get some sleeping clothes and stuff. Let me text my mom to see if it’s okay,” shi said, pulling out hir phone and quickly tapping out a message.

“Woo, free labor,” Azalea smiled as she pulled out her phone and started typing out a message to her moms. “I’ll text my moms.”

Alex looked up from hir phone as shi waited for hir mom to respond to the text. “Where the heck is your new house anyway? Can I walk to it or am I gonna have to get mom or dad to drive me?” the tigress asked.

“I got you, tigger,” Azalea said as she flicked her paw across the phone a few times. Alex’s phone dinged a moment later with the address.

Alex clicked on the address, opening it in the maps app. “A twenty minute drive?! Really?” shi exclaimed with exasperation. “That new house of yours better be worth it,” the tigress muttered. 

“Oooh, it is. Wait till you see my room, and the massive plot of land,” the squirrel/jerboa hybrid exclaimed, squeaking happily. “I’m trying to talk mom into letting me set up some soccer goals and make a miniature soccer field,” she said, talking a mile a minute as she explained her plans to the tigress, the mass of fluff that was her tail thumping against the groove between the booth’s backrest and seat.

Alex listened, nodding as Azalea continued talking about her plans for the backyard, the basement, and her room. The tigress was starting to get the feeling that the house was... big. Very big. Shi was kind of looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.

Just as Azalea was running out of things to talk about regarding the new house, the waitress walked up to their table with a pair of plates and carefully set them down in front of the two cubs. Alex shook hir head when the waitress asked if they wanted anything else, and eyed the chicken tenders on Azalea’s plate. Azalea shook her head as well and the waitress said “Enjoy your meal,” before walking away.

“Mel’s has some of the best tenders around,” the hybrid said, her tail twitching happily as she popped the top off of the cup of dipping sauce before carefully selecting one of the tenders and dipping it in the sauce. 

“I never really had a thing for chicken tenders,” Alex said, looking down at hir plate. Shi picked up the glass ketchup bottle at the end of the table and poured some onto the edge of the plate for hir fries. Shi cautiously picked up a few fries between hir claws and dipped them in the red puddle before popping them in hir mouth. As far as plain potato fries went, they were the best shi’d ever had. The ketchup was a bit watery though.

“You didn’t shake the ketchup bottle. You have to do that to get the tomato pre out,” Azalea said with a perfectly straight face as she picked up a fry and dipped it in the pile of ketchup on Alex’s plate.

“Tomato pre?” Alex asked, tilting hir head and looking at the squirrel with a bewildered expression. “You mean... tomato puree? I didn’t have to shake it to get it out.”

“I meant what I said. You know when you open the bottle and that watery stuff comes out? That’s the tomato pre. It’s just like the other pre,” Azalea said, picking up another tender and starting to eat it as she waited for what she said to sink in.

Alex blinked. “I have no idea what you mean,” the tigress grudgingly admitted. “What’s ‘pre’?”

Azalea matched the bewildered stare with one of her own. “You’re serious?”  

The tigress nodded. “Is this something I should have learned in fifth grade? Cause you know I skipped fifth grade, right?”

“Nooo... you wouldn’t have learned this until you have sex ed.,” Azalea said with a sigh. “So... you fap, right? You do have a penis, right?”

“Yes, I have a penis, but what does fap mean?” the feline asked, growing very suspicious.

Azalea smacked the side of her face with one hand, then let it drop back to the table. “You know when you’re laying in bed at night and your pecker gets stiff, and you start stroking it? That’s fapping.”

“Masturbating,” Alex stated, glaring at the squirrel sitting across from hir, tail twitching in annoyance. “Okay. Now what’s pre?”

“After you stroke it for a bit, this clear stuff starts coming out the tip. It’s like cum, but it’s not. It comes out before the cum. It’s pre-cum,” the jerboa-squirrel explained.

After a moment, Alex realized what Azalea was talking about, hir mouth dropping open slightly in a horrified expression. “Ewww... Azalea! I’m trying to eat, here!”, the feline protested loudly, causing the waitress to look over at them with concern.

Azalea just smiled from ear to ear, snickering at the feline’s reaction. “I didn’t think that you would be that squicked out. I mean, you remember some of the things that we talked about during the truth and dare?”

“Of course I’m grossed out!” Alex said in a stage whisper, as the waitress went back to ignoring them. “If the watery stuff is tomato pre, that means ketchup is tomato cum. That’s why I’m grossed out. Now I’ll never be able to use ketchup on anything without thinking that again, you disgusting pervert,” Alex muttered, staring down at the mess of red sauce on hir plate.

“Well, here’s something else to think about. Pollen is tree cum, so basically when you go outside in springtime, you're getting a facial from the trees,” the squirrel was barely able to contain her laughter at her own silly jokes. “So now you will refuse to go out in the springtime,” she said, turning back to her meal.

Alex shuddered in disgust, deciding to ignore the squirrel... at least until after finishing hir midafternoon snack. Hopefully this wouldn’t spoil their dinner, but shi was too hungry to wait another three hours.

The tigress picked up the hamburger and bit into it, hot grease dripping down hir chin and onto the white ceramic plate. It was absolutely delicious. Practically purring with delight, shi chewed and swallowed before taking another bite. A truly good hamburger didn’t need cheese or bacon or barbeque sauce. Just a bit of lettuce and tomato and some fry sauce. Hamburgers weren't something shi had on a regular basis; mom tended to fix more exotic meals like sushi, pad thai, indian curry, or moussaka.

Just as the two cubs were finishing their meal, the little bell above the entrance rang as the door opened. A polar bear, large in both stature and build walked into the diner. He nodded to Nadine as he ambled in the door and headed for an open table near the middle of the room and took a seat. 

Menu tucked under her arm and a tall glass of ice water in her paw, the waitress stopped at the new arrival’s table briefly. “Your usual today Star or are you going to change it up on me?”

“The usual fried perch and potatoes will be fine, as always. Besides we both know that Melvin most likely has it nearly ready to come out of the kitchen, don’t we?” the polar bear asked.

“Not hard to be ahead of you when you come in at nearly the same time and order the same thing at least five days a week, you old furball,” the voice of the eatery's proprietor and head cook rang out from the kitchen.

Playfully bopping the older bear on the shoulder Nadine chimed in, “Charles Weynesmyer, you behave or I’ll loosen the salt shaker top on you again.”

Alex had been watching the big polar bear as he came in and sat down, wondering if he might be related to Steve or George O’Malley. But when the waitress called him Star, everything clicked: this was the guy that Steve and Cindy had been talking about at lunch the other day. The guy they’d said to talk to about all that pagan stuff. Shi wondered if he would know anything about the fae as well. From what shi had read online, Wicca was originally from Ireland or Scotland or something... and so were the fae.

“Hey Az?” Alex asked after swallowing the last bite of hir hamburger. “The guy that George and Cindy were talking about... it was Star Dreamer or something, right? Didn’t they say he was a polar bear?” shi asked before using a claw to pick at a piece of food wedged behind hir left bicuspid.

“Alex, don’t pick your teeth in public, that’s gross... Or at least use a toothpick. And no, he’s a brown bear that just dyes his fur white,” Azalea said. When Alex glared at her in response, the squirrel’s ears folded down at the death glare that she was getting. “Okay, yes, he’s a polar bear.” 

“Think he’d be okay with a random kid walking up to him in the middle of a diner and asking him about stuff?” Alex asked, a bit anxiously, looking back at the polar bear in the middle of the diner.

“I don’t think it would be polite, interrupting his meal, but...” She paused, rubbing her muzzle in thought. “I think that it wouldn’t be the first time that it happened.”

“Well, seeing as he hasn’t been served yet...” the tigress climbed out of the booth and cautiously walked a few steps over to the table where the polar bear was sitting. “Um... sir? Are you Star Dreamer?” shi asked tentatively, ears flat against hir head.

Glancing up from the small notebook that he held in his large paws, the polar bear smiled slightly as he responded, “Yes, little one. That would indeed be me.”

“Steve O'Malley said I should talk to you if I had questions about the... um... Pagan religions. Like wicca and the horned god and the goddess and stuff,” the tigress said. “Oh, and... I’m Alexandrea Andreyev. But I go by Alex.”

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance Alex. Please, join me,” the polar bear said, waving one massive paw at one of the empty seats before continuing, “and if you are not offended by an old bear nibbling at his food while we chat, I would be happy to enlighten you in any way that I can.”

“Cool! Um... Let me  go grab my plate,” the tigress said, quickly darting back over to hir table and snagging the plate that was still piled high with fries.

Azalea watched the tigress reappear to snag hir plate before poofing again. The squirrel let out a sigh and she got up, carrying her plate over to the table where her friend had moved to, sitting down with her. “I got lonely,” she said, lowering her ears a little, acting the lonely friend part.

“Hello Azalea. It has been a while since I’ve last seen you. How are your mothers? Well and happy, I hope?” Star inquired, glancing over the squirrel-jerboa hybrid.

“Happy, a bit concerned, and sore. We’ve been packing and getting ready for a move... not to mention sudden apartment repairs that we need to make,” the hybrid said, cutting a glance at the tigress that she was sitting next to.

Alex’s ears went flat against hir head again as shi glanced over at Azalea again and stared down at the table for a moment before looking back up at the polar bear. “So, I kinda looked some of this stuff up on the internet... but it seems like there's a ton of different websites that came up when I looked up the words pagan and wicca. Some of them seem like they’re not even talking about the same thing. Anyway, Steve and Cindy sort of gave me the impression that there’s a lot of people here that are either pagan or wiccan. I was just wondering what most people here in Winter Creek are...”

With a slight chuckle Star Dreamer leaned forward, folding one arm over the other before he began to speak. “First off, be not concerned overmuch if what you found was more confusing than helpful. Sadly, many of the websites you will find are not written or maintained by people who actively follow one or more of the pagan belief systems. Others are made by what are called neopagans or more commonly new age pagans. The information they disseminate is more often than not incorrect or misinterpreted.” 

The polar bear took a sip of ice water before continuing. “In my experience it is usually best if at all possible to speak with actual practitioners of the faith or faiths that you have an interest in. This having been said, the best definition of paganism is that the pagan faiths are what are considered to be non-standard religious doctrines. Wicca, or being Wiccan, is just one of the pagan faiths, of which there are many. Here in Winter Creek we have a good mix of those faiths and I would have to say that there are probably nearly as many of one faith as there are of the others.”

Alex blinked a moment, digesting that. “So Wicca is just one of the pagan religions. And Winter Creek has a lot of them,” the tigress clarified. “Are most pagan religions like Wicca or is it sort of its own thing?” shi asked.

“In a very general sense many of them are alike in many ways. Although each one has a central focus, if you will, that their particular beliefs are then built around. Wicca, for example, is centered on and built around two primary concepts,” the polar bear explained. “One is the belief that the divine, what most Christian religions label as ‘God’, is not a single entity, but dual entities that encompasses both the male and female aspect of all life. This ties in directly with the second concept of ‘balance in all things’.

“Druidism, on the other hand, is centered on a system of beliefs that all things should follow the natural order as closely as possible. Once again that belief system includes the concept of balance in all things. The deeper you delve into the concepts and guidelines of the pagan faiths, the more you will find both similarities and differences that may be both subtle and a bit extreme,” the polar bear finished, taking another sip of ice water.

“Oh. That’s... more complicated than I thought it would be. Is there some kind of book or something that explains what each of the pagan religions are based around? Like a Cliffs Notes for Pagans or a Pagan Religions for Dummies?” Alex asked, glancing over at Azalea before turning back to Star Dreamer.

“I got this one,” Azalea interjected. “There are a lot of books out there covering a lot of things. But there’s one ‘Wicca, A Guide For The Solitary Practitioner’, that’s a good one to start with.” The squirrel smiled, adding, “I have a copy of it that you can read, seeing as you’re helping with the moving.”

“Cool. Mom and Dad were Catholic for a long time and we follow the Ten Commandments for stuff like right and wrong. Does Wicca have something like that?" Alex asked, looking at Azalea.

“Simple: the rule of ten fold. Simply meaning that what you do, good or bad will be coming back to you ten times as strong. So if you do good, you get good; you do bad you get bad,” Azalea finished explaining with a nod.

“Though quite understated, you have the concept correct,” Star added when the squirrel-hybrid finished speaking. “In actuality, far too many that follow pagan belief systems misinterpret the truth of that religion's rules, for the lack of a better terminology. For example the Wiccan Rede, which is considered by the devout the primary guiding principle, is simply stated as ‘ere ye do no harm, do as ye will’. It sounds simple and is too often taken as a free pass to do anything you wish. What they seem to fail to understand is that what it truly says is that ‘as long as you do no harm’, you may do as you wish.”

Alex tilted hir head slightly as shi thought about that. “There’s a lot of different kinds of harm,” the tigress mused. “Physical, mental, spiritual... I’ll have to think on that,” the tigress said, picking up a french fry and dipping it in ketchup before eating it. For a moment the table was quiet. Suddenly a very serious expression covered the tiger cub’s face and shi looked up at Star Dreamer again. “Did George tell you about the abandoned house out past the aspen grove, southeast of town?” she asked, then glanced over at Azalea. “Or did you tell him, Az?”

“No. It’s a weird, old, and kinda creepy place.” The hybrid fluffed up a little, shivering at remembering Alex falling through the hole in the floor.

Raising one eyebrow the polar bear asked “Am I to assume you refer to George O’Malley? If so, I have not spoken to either of those boys in several days. The house you mention though... Do you refer to the old homestead where a family of deer used to live long ago?”

“Uh... Yes, I was referring to Steve’s brother. Steve said George was big into that pagan stuff, so I was hoping... nevermind. Anyway, yes, that’s the homestead I was talking about,” Alex said, nodding. “I went up there a few days before Halloween and saw a black cat with a white spot on its chest at the homestead. Then I went up there with Azalea the day before Halloween and fell through the floor...” the tigress said, going on to quickly explain the dream shi’d had where the feral cat had talked and the two deer children who had turned to skeletons, stressing that shi didn’t know beforehand about the deer or anything about what the talking cat had said about the fae, fairy food, or fairyland.

“Anyway,” Alex continued, “I asked a few people about it, but we all thought it was just a dream. So I kept going up to the cabin to feed the cat. Then Steve remembered I’d asked about it and told George, who found out an old article about the deer who lived up there... and about a type of fae called a ‘cat sí’... which steals the souls of the dead and keeps them for eternity.”

Alex leaned forward, suddenly deadly serious. “That wasn’t just a dream. I walked into a fairy ring. I was there, in that monster’s den. He called it his ‘cnoc’. And he’s trapped those poor fawns’ souls there with him for eternity.” The tiger stared up at Star Dreamer, waiting for a response. 
After a moment of silence, shi quietly added “You’re a priest, right? You can do something... right?” Another moment passed, and Alex leaned back while the polar bear gazed at hir, clearly thinking about all that the young tigress had said.

“It looked like your conversation was a little intense there Star, so I had Mel hold up on your order a little so it would be fresh when there was a lul,” the beaver waitress said as she approached the table with the bear's dinner in paw. Setting the plate of steaming fish and thinly sliced fried potatoes before him on the table she quietly walked away.

“Thank you Nadine,” Star replied, nodding at the beaver as the plate was set before him before turning back to the tiger cub. “First off Alex, it is a widely held belief that most stories of the fae, which are based on Irish and Scottish folklore, were intended to frighten children and keep them in line. Though I, for one, put a bit more stock into them as there have been things I have witnessed myself. I have known of this residence for several years, but this is the first tale of an encounter up there that has reached my ears. I myself have insufficient information on the fae to answer your query. I do, however, have several acquaintances that are far more knowledgeable than I and will certainly be in contact with them about it. It is obvious that this worries you, so rest assured I will see if there is anything that can be done.”

Azalea was staring at Alex, having not yet heard anything about the discovery of the fairy cat or that the deer family had been real. At that moment the bell hanging over the door rang and another customer walked into the nearly empty diner: a eurasian lynx, wearing slacks, a silk shirt, and a black leather jacket. He looked around before waving at the waitress, then walked to the furthest corner of the diner and took a seat at the table there. 

As the lynx sat there for a moment, he stared at the tiger cub sitting with the polar bear and purple-furred squirrel for a moment, a slightly puzzled look on his face. After a few seconds, his eyes narrowed before he glanced up, seeing the waitress walk over to him. He quickly ordered a soda and cheeseburger.

“Anyway, Mom and I went up to the cabin every couple of days to put cream out for it,” Alex continued as Star Dreamer began eating his ‘fish and chips’ dinner. “It even let me pet it a few times. But... the night that I found out about the deer and the fae, there was a really bad thunderstorm... and I saw the cat sí on our front deck. Like it had followed me home. I told my dad not to, but he put out some cream for it. So it may not be at the cabin. I’m scared it’s staying around my house now.”

“I knew you could make friends with anyone if you tried, but I didn’t think that you would go making friends with the fae,” Azalea said, looking worriedly at the feline. The squirrel was a bit concerned about her friend now. “Sounds like a good reason to come live with me at the new house. We don’t have any spooks or fae there.”

“I didn’t know it was a fairy when I made friends with it,” Alex protested dejectedly. “And even if mom and dad did let me stay at your place, I’m worried about them and the twins.” The tigress snagged a napkin from the dispenser in the middle of the table and held hir paw out to Azalea. “Pen,” shi demanded.

“How do you know that I have one? And didn’t your mom teach you please and thank you?” Azalea said, fishing a pen from her pocket and waving it at the cat.

“Please and thank you,” Alex said, snatching the pen so quickly that Azalea didn’t even realize shi had taken it and quickly writing down hir name, phone number, and address before sliding the napkin over to Star Dreamer. “Here. I hope you can help. The thought of those two miserable kids hacking and coughing, trapped in that stuffy cabin for eternity...” The tigress shuddered, then remembered to hand the pen back to Azalea.

“I and the coven council will look into this as best we can, young one,” the older bear said with  a look of concern on his face. “If there is anything that can be done to rectify the situation, we will do all in our power to see that it is done.” Taking the napkin in paw, he glanced at it briefly before putting it into his pants pocket. “We will look into this with keen interest as it has been a long time since there have been any tales of this apparition you speak of. That cat has been around a long time, though it keeps itself hidden for the most part. Its reappearance may be nothing, but I’ll not leave it to chance either way.”

__________________________________________________

The lynx at the back of the diner pulled out a smartphone, quickly but subtly focusing his camera on the tiger cub sitting with an old polar bear and a young purple-furred rodent, then snapping a photo of the striped feline. He then tapped the screen a few times before holding the phone up to the side of his head. “Hey Liam,” he said in a thick Boston accent. “I just pulled into this tiny-ass town a ways off I-70 to stop for a late lunch... No, man. I’m running transport. Denver to Salt Lake. Noah’s gig,” the lynx explained. 

“Look, this little town is literally in the middle of nowhere. It’s not even close to I-70. I wouldn’t be here if this diner didn’t have a reputation for being one of the best damn diners in the rockies. It was even on that diners and dives show... you know, the one on Food Network,” the lynx explained before lowering his voice to a near whisper. “Alls I’m sayin’ is: if there was any place to lay low, this would be it. I bet there’s a dozen people in WitSec livin’ here.

“Anyway... Ya know that old order we got to report tiger families to da boss? Well, I’m looking at a Siberian tiger cub sittin’ ‘ere eatin’ fries and she looks about ten years old...” the lynx said, highlighting the critical information, waiting for the guy on the other end of the call to catch on. “Exaaactly. There can’t be more than a hundred Siberian tiger girls that age on the entire planet, and most of ‘em is in Russia...”

The lynx’s eyes narrowed as the two cubs got up and left, leaving a small pile of money, mostly quarters, on the table and leaving the old bear to eat in peace. “Anyway, the kids are just leaving now. They was sittin’ ‘ere with an old guy, obviously not related to ‘em, who’s just now startin’ his lunch. Kids don’t chat with adults they don’t know. That means she’s local; probably walked or biked to the diner. Given that she was wearing shorts and a t-shirt in this weather, she can’t live far from here. Also, they paid for the meal in quarters and there’s an arcade right next door. I bet they’re regulars. I would stay and check it out, but I gotta deliver this product. So, I’m gonna send ya a photo and the address, and you’s gonna PayPal me that reward, eh?”

__________________________________________________

Alex wiped the putty knife off on the lip of the bucket of spackle and glanced down at hir pants. Given how many random bits of spackle had dripped on them, shi was glad that Cora had suggested getting some old clothes for working in (along with the rest of hir sleepover stuff) on the way back from the hardware store. They’d spent the last four hours fixing the walls in Azalea’s room, with a short break for dinner. 

“There we go,” Cora said, looking at their handywork. “We’ll just need to wait till tomorrow to do the sanding and painting. I think we still have a can of it somewhere.”

“I think that we need to make a rule,” Azalea said, turning to her mom. “Do we still have any of the cat claw cap things? And do you think that they will fit Alex?”

Alex shot an exasperated glance at Azalea and sighed, adding “I still can’t believe I did this. I’m never touching catnip again in my life.”

“For the...” Azalea stopped and started counting on her fingers, “twelfth time: you did it. It’s not going to change that you did it and we are still not mad that it happened. Heck it was pretty fun playing with a giant house cat.” The hybrid snickered, playfully nudging the tigress.

Alex sighed again, hir ears flat against hir head as shi stared around at the room. Nearly a third of the exposed wall was covered with spackling putty. Even the ceiling and computer desk hadn’t been spared the wrath of the tiger cub’s catnip-fueled rampage. At least the TV mounted on the wall hadn’t been damaged. 

“Mom B, you know my chair is wrecked... Can I have my Christmas gift now?” Azalea looked up to her mom, doing her best impression of puppy dog eyes, fluffy tail drooping behind her.

“You can have it when we get things moved to the new house. It’s sitting in storage and I’m not dragging that heavy thing in here. Your mom and I nearly threw out our backs,” Cora said, the jerboa shaking her head as she started picking up some of the putty knives and the buckets of spackle.

“Azzy, dear heart, what is that chair made of? Solid iron?” Beth said, turning the corner, a tray of drinks and snacks in her paws. “And don’t worry, I didn’t put any catnip in the tea,” the squirrel said, snickering and glancing around the room.

“I think it’s made of mostly metal,” Azalea said as she took one of the cups of tea, then sat down on her nest and sipped it. “It's like one of the best chairs that you can get.”

Alex pondered Azalea for a moment. Given that the squirrel-hybrid signed her initials at the arcade as ‘Azy’ and that was what her mom called her... the tigress took a gamble, deciding to use it instead of hir usual ‘Az’. “So... how much of this stuff are you packing up tonight, Azzy? Or are we just going to leave it until tomorrow?” shi asked.

Azalea paused for a second, before turning and looking at Alex. “What did you call me?” the squirrel asked, confused. “That’s the first time that you pulled that out,” she said, having gotten used to Alex using a shorter version of her name, but a bit relieved that the tigress was using the version that she was used to. 

“I’m sorry! I just... your mom called you that and it’s what you signed the high scores in the arcade, so I figured...”, the tigress quickly apologized, trying to explain, then hurriedly offered: “I-I can still call you ‘Az’ if you want.”

“No, no, I’m not upset,” Azalea said, reaching over and putting her paw on the tigress’ shoulder, patting it gently. “I was getting so used to you calling me Az, so I was a little surprised and confused.”  She shot a glance at her moms who were giggling at the two. “But yeah, I prefer Azzy over Az, just cause I’ve been called that for... a couple of years now.”

Alex let out a sigh of relief, smiling slightly, then stood up and picked up a drink from the tray that Beth had brought. The tigress carefully took a sip of the delicious iced tea.

“As for packing, all of the big stuff is boxed up: computer and stuff, books, clothes, some plushies,” Azalea said, then pointed at her desk. “I still have my laptop so we can watch movies or something tonight.”

“Well it looks like it’s getting close to bedtime, ‘cause we are going to be getting up a little early,” Cora said as she and Beth stepped over to the doorway.

“You kids get ready for bed and try not to play too rough. Or chase phoenixes,” Beth teased as she and her wife turned and left the room, pulling the door closed behind them.

“So, PJs and a movie or something?” Azalea asked, getting up and digging through the bag that she had sitting out, containing some spare clothes and toiletries.

Alex nodded, stepping over to hir own backpack and pulling out an oversized white t-shirt and pair of pink hello-kitty pajama pants. “I normally shower in the mornings,” shi said, pulling out a small ziplock bag with a toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste.

“Same,” Azalea said, pulling out a shirt, some short shorts and panties. “Mind sharing the bathroom? We can both change and brush. Or I can do it here and you take the bathroom, if Jenny isn’t in there hogging it.” The hybrid laughed; her sister was known for taking long baths in the afternoon, supposedly for unwinding after a long day, but Azalea had other theories.

“Um... I’ll change in here and join you in the bathroom in a moment,” the tigress said, realizing only afterwards that shi didn’t need to worry about changing clothes alone anymore. For years, shi had been conditioned to hide that shi was a hermaphrodite. That wasn’t a concern anymore. Heck, Azalea’s sire, Beth, was a hermaphrodite. “Just... open the door when you’re done changing.”

“Okay, and... you don’t have to be shy or anything. You don’t have anything that I haven’t seen before,” Azalea said, turning on her heels and opening the door before disappearing down the hallway to the bathroom, shutting the door, but not locking it.

Alex quickly closed Azalea’s bedroom door and shucked hir old clothes. With how much spackle was on them, there was no way they’d be salvageable. Shi left them in a pile near the doorway and quickly pulled on hir pajamas. The oversized t-shirt, one of hir dad’s castoffs, hung almost to hir knees. Finished dressing, shi grabbed hir toothbrush bag and pulled the bedroom door open again. The bathroom door opened a moment later, and shi walked over and stepped inside.

Azalea glanced up to see that it was Alex stepping into the bathroom. The hybrid was standing at the sink brushing her teeth, foam around her muzzle as she did so, she was also only partly dressed, lacking a shirt at the moment. She waved the tigress over and kept cleaning her chompers.

The tigress quickly pulled hir own toothbrush out, wet it, put a dab of toothpaste on it, and went to work on hir own teeth. Inch long bicuspids were a pain in the tail to clean. Azalea had long since finished by the time Alex was rinsing hir mouth out. Shi stuck hir toothbrush back in the baggie and followed Azalea back to the hybrid’s bedroom.

By the time the feline made it back to Azalea’s room the hybrid was laying on the nest of pillows, blankets and plushies. “Wanna watch a movie or something? Maybe some dumb videos on YouTube?” she asked, patting the spot next to her.

“Uhh... Sure. Do you want me to close the door?” Alex asked, as shi walked through the bead curtain hanging from the door frame.

“Sure. Though I don’t think things are going to get that spicy. Not like in the dinner with the ketchup pre incident,” Azalea joked, picking up and setting her closed laptop in her lap. “Now come on slowpoke, and toss me the mouse off the desk.”

Alex pulled the door closed behind hir with a click, then snagged the mouse off the desk and tossed it to the squirrel. After a moment of indecision as to how best to join Azalea in the nest, shi took the most expedient option and simply fell onto the pile of pillows and plushies with a gentle thump.

“Thank you,” Azalea said, setting the mouse to the side. After Alex had flopped and gotten settled into the nest the hybrid opened her laptop and typed in the password. As the screen switched over to the browser that she had open, she let out a squeak. She had left the tab open that she had been watching porn on. The hybrid fumbled around with the mouse trying in vain to get the page closed before Alex noticed.

Alex’s eyebrows went up. Shi’d never for a moment thought that there would be videos of people having sex. Much less people dressed up as video game characters. “Wait a sec... was that King and... Ash?” shi asked. “Like... having sex?”

“Nope. You didn’t see anything,” Azalea said, finally getting the tab closed with a sigh. “They were just fighting or something,” she prevaricated, opening a new tab and going to YouTube and looking up something for them to watch. “I’m a good clean gal. I would never look at something like that,” she squeaked, flustered.

“I’ve had sex enough times to recognize when two people are having sex. They were definitely having sex. And you are definitely not a ‘good clean gal’,” Alex said, reaching out and poking the squirrel in the sides. “Misses ‘ketchup is tomato cum’.”

“Am I wrong? I mean, like, apple juice is just apple pee,” Azalea said, wiggling as she was poked. “Yes, I was watching porn. I do that sometimes. You know you just have urges that you have to take care of...” her voice trailed off as she scrolled through the list of funny videos.

“Yes, you’re wrong! Apple juice is not pee,” Alex protested, then went quiet for a moment before asking. “What’s... um... what did you call it... porn?”

“Wait.... So you have had enough sex to know what it is, but you didn’t know what pre was and you don’t know what porn is. How does that even work?” Azalea paused for a moment, glancing incredulously at the tigress next to her. “Porn is well... a video or pictures of people having sex that other people look at and or fap to.”  

“Hey, I’m only ten, okay? Give me a break. It’s not like I’ve had sex ed yet,” Alex replied, defensively. “I mean... other than what mom and dad told me after Elizabeth and I... umm... nevermind,” the tigress said, going quiet for a moment.

“Wait, so you and Elizabeth really did have sex? I thought that you were pulling my tail,” Azalea smiled, leaning in close to the tiger. “Has someone already lost their V-card? Here and I thought I was lucky losing mine to my toys...”

The tigress shrunk in on hirself a bit, looking down at hir knees. “Yeah... I wasn’t kidding. It’s... a long story.”

“Don’t keep all the juicy details to yourself,” Azalea said, scooting closer to the tigress, practically pressing her cheek against her. “So how’d you do it? How’d you get into her panties? Got any tips for me?”

“Uh... so...” Alex paused, trying to think back. It had all happened months ago and so much had happened since that it was hard to remember when it had all started. Perhaps it would be best to explain the situation rather than how it had started. “Maybe... uh... Do you promise not to tell anyone else?”

“It will be our secret, I will even tell you where I keep my toys,” Azalea said, holding up her pinkie finger. “Pinkie promise.”

Alex wrapped her own finger around the squirrel’s for a moment. “Okay. So... Lizzy and I have been friends for like... all our lives. Since kindergarten, anyway. Only, she didn’t know I was a hermaphrodite. I’d pretended to be a girl; Only mom and dad knew,” the tigress began explaining. “Lizzy is a hybrid like you. Half stoat and half ferret. She’s got a pair of heritage traits that are... bad. Really bad. Basically, she has to have sex or she’ll die,” the tigress continued. 

“Anyway, last spring, we sort of accidentally discovered each other’s secrets. Once she found out I had a penis, she couldn’t resist ‘playing’ with me, I guess. When our parents found out about it, it was really, really bad. But in the end they all decided to teach us how to have ‘safe’ sex so Lizzy wouldn’t get pregnant and then let us have sex.”

“So you two did it like a few times?” Azalea said shifting around a little, her mind wondering to thoughts of the tigress and what she pictured Lizzy looked like doing something that naughty. “I’m not going to lie, I’m a bit jelly.”

Alex thought about that for a moment before nodding. “Yeah. A few times a day when we were together, like on weekends and during vacation. I didn’t exactly keep track. I think we went through a box of condoms a week after summer break started, so... maybe three or four times a day?” the tigress said, thinking a moment before letting out a depressed sigh. “I really miss her.”

“Wooooow,” Azalea said, surprised by the revelation her friend just dropped. “Yeah you got me beat, but I still find it kinda funny that you haven’t heard of porn and stuff,” she said, idly scritching the tigress’ back a little. “And from what you’ve told me about her, lewd and not, I can see why you would miss her.”

Alex took a deep breath. “After I found out we had to move, mom and dad told me that long-distance relationships usually don’t work out. So Lizzy and I decided that we should just go back to being friends after I had to move. The first month or so out here really sucked. Thank you for being so nice to me when we first met, by the way,” shi said, flashing Azalea a gentle smile before continuing. “Anyway... it really hurt when she told me about Chris a month after we broke up, cause I knew they’d wind up dating. It was like, I’d been replaced, ya know? Like a cheap toy or something. And I was right; they started going steady a few weeks ago.”

“Oh,” Azalea muttered, trying to think of something to say about the situation, but she lacked any experience when it came to something like this. “She rebounded really quickly from that. There’s a word for a person like that, but I’m going to be nice,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about this or anything that would help you, but I’m here for you, whatever that amounts to. If that means finding you a girlfriend... or boyfriend, or just a shoulder to cry on, you can count on me to be there to help.”

Alex vaguely remember hir mom saying something about having lots of partners being considered... bad. That was probably what Azalea had meant. It probably applied to hirself as well, so it was probably better if shi didn’t say anything about seeking a boyfriend or girlfriend. Besides, it wasn’t like shi needed one. “Umm... Thanks for the offer. I got most of my crying done weeks ago. It was a few days after I got attacked by that feral. Anyway... Did you want to watch something?” shi asked, pointing at the laptop.

“Sure we can watch something, like porn,” Azalea said, half teasing, half thinking with her smaller head. 

“I’ve never watched porn before,” Alex said. “Are we allowed to?”

“Well... I won’t tell if you don’t,” the hybrid said as she fished around the nest for her earbuds. “The door is closed, we’re going to have these,” she said, holding up the headphones, “and I’ve not been caught yet.”

“Uh... okay,” the tigress said, holding hir paw out for the earbud.

“Uhh, I don’t know what you like, so I’m going to find something... tame,” Azalea said, handing Alex the ear bud and popping the other in her ear. She was quiet for a moment or two as she pulled up a private tab and started searching up something for them to watch. The one that she settled on was a video that started with a pair of anthro house cats sitting awkwardly on a black leather sofa. A moment later they leaned towards each other and started making out.

Alex raised an eyebrow, watching. “So... who are they? Should I know them?”

“Um, heck if I know who they are. They are some porn people,” Azalea said, scrolling down a little to look at the description of the video, snickering. “Well, if this is to be believed, they are brother and sister,” she said, scrolling back up to the video.

“They don’t look much like they’re related,” Alex said, frowning as the tom reached under the molly’s shirt. “At least, I’ve never seen a gray tabby and an orange calico from the same parents. And isn’t that sort of thing illegal?” shi added, knowing full well that incest was illegal.

Azalea held up a finger and opened her muzzle to say something before lowering her finger and closing her muzzle for a moment. “It’s not real. Well, they are real people having sex, but they aren’t related. Some people get all hot and bothered by that kinda thing, so this is the closest thing to the real deal that they can get or see.” The hybrid paused for a moment as the two people in the video were starting to lose more and more clothing. “And it’s not like a movie. You’re not watching it cause it’s good or anything; you’re watching it cause you’re horny.”

The tigress blinked. “So... if it’s not good, why watch it? If you’re horny, just... Oh. I see,” the tigress said, realizing what the point was. “So people watch this and mastur... I mean... fap?”

“That’s right,” Azalea said, shifting around a little, a paw absentmindedly moving to her crotch. “Some people like having something like this playing so that they can imagine what it would be like to be doing it or something like that.”

“But... wouldn’t it be better if there was a plot?” Alex asked, now that the two cats were completely naked, rubbing their hands all over each other while they kissed. “Like, I want to know who they are, why they fell in love with each other, why are they having sex in... is that an office? That’s a really uncomfortable looking couch.”

“I mean, they make pornos with stories and plots in them. If you want something like that you can find lots of good written stuff out there.” Azalea sighed, before giggling at Alex and how she was being so critical about the porn. “Just sit back, turn your brain off and think lewd thoughts. Put your hand in your pants or something,” Azalea teased, now wondering just how comfy the couch in the video actually was.

Alex didn’t respond, watching as the molly bent over the armrest with her butt in the air and the tom knelt behind her. The tigress felt hir penis stiffen, and decided to take Azalea’s advice, grabbing a blanket to cover hirself, making sure there weren’t any visible bulges before shi fumbled hir shirt out of the way and worked hir paw into hir panties. Shi didn’t want to make a mess, so shi ignored hir penis and began rubbing hir flower.

“Tissues are over there. Speaking of, hand me a few,” Azalea requested, looking over at Alex, trying and failing to get a sneak peek. “You don’t have to be shy, and I have toys if you want,” she said, nudging the feline before turning her attention back to the video.

Alex rolled over and grabbed the box of tissues with hir free hand and lobbed it over at Azalea, then rolled back over and continued to watch as the tom railed the molly. “There’s no way he has barbs, or she’d be screaming right now with how fast they’re mating,” Alex muttered. “And I still have no idea how they can stand that couch. It has, like, no padding. I wonder if all offices have uncomfortable couches.”

“Thank you,” Azalea said, plucking a few tissues from the box before setting them between the two. “Yeah, I feel like most places like that skimp out on couches, but I also think that in a porno, they know that they would be on one all the time and that they would get a kinda nice-ish one.” They hybrid said, pushing her shorts and panties down enough to free herself. “Alex, do you have barbs?”

“Not anymore,” Alex muttered, still focusing on the porno, feeling hirself growing slippery and deciding to focus on hir clit, or button as Lizzy had called it. “I got debarbed when I was little. It’s a really common operation for felines.”

“I always wondered about that,” Azalea muttered, her paw moving up and down her penis quicker now. “I wonder if they hurt that bad. Like wouldn’t the female be built to take that or be used to it?” she muttered as the camera man moved in a little closer to get a better view of the two coupling.

“Yeah, they really, really hurt. Feral felines are pain-induced ovulators,” the tigress said, rattling off the medical terms without even thinking about it. “My mom is too. It’s why it took her ten years to get pregnant again after having me,” shi muttered, still focusing on the porn movie. To be honest, shi’d rather be having sex than watching people have sex. 

“So... if we get it on, I need to bite you or something?” Azalea said, huffing a little, a little trail of pre-cum dribbling down her member and the back of her paw. She glanced down at it, giggling a little as she thought back to the conversation at the dinner. 

Alex snorted in amusement. “Hah. No. I’m not a pain-induced ovulator. I’ve got a monthly cycle just like most girls.” The tigress glanced over at Azalea, noticing the rapid hand movement. Realizing that Azalea had taken her panties off, shi looked down at the trans-girl’s exposed penis. “So... that’s what a squirrel penis looks like, huh?”

“Yeah, and that’s pre there.” She slowed down a little, showing off to the tigress. It’s nothing too special, but it gets the job done,” Azalea said, looking down at her member. The long, thin cock twitched a little; she was getting pretty close at this point. “We don’t have anything cool like barbs or a knot.”

“I don’t have nearly that much pre. It looks messy,” Alex said. “At least you don’t need to use much lube, I guess,” shi mused before looking back at the porno. Just then, the cats began to climax, judging by the rapid twitching of their tails. Then shi noticed their expressions and started giggling. “Oh my god, look at their faces. I wonder if I make faces like that when I’m having sex.”

“Well there is one way to find out…” Azalea said with a smile as she slowed down a little, using her free hand to pick up the tissues to have them ready.

Realizing Azalea was about to ejaculate, Alex turned to watch, glancing from Azalea’s face to hips and back, wondering if Azalea made funny faces too.

It took Azalea a moment to realize that Alex was looking at her face. All that she could do was blush as she started cumming, using the tissues to contain any mess. And to Alex’s amusement she did make a face, scrunching up her nose and lightly biting her lower lip, mostly to keep from making noises.

Alex giggled at Azalea’s expression. “You totally did too,” shi said with a grin. After a second shi pulled hir paw out from under the blankets. “Hand me a kleenex too, would you? I got girl juice on my fingers.”

“Shush, you,” Azalea huffed a little as she slowly started coming down from her orgasm. She poked her tongue out, half tempted to be a jerk and hand Alex her used tissues, but she resisted the urge and handed Alex the box. 

“Thanks,” the tigress said, taking a single tissue and wiping hir finger on it, then started looking around for the trash can, finding it next to the bed. After shi turned back and saw the movie had ended, shi asked “Are they all this short? That was like... five minutes.”

“Oh Alex, my sweet tiger,” Azalea said, shaking her head a little. “Some of them are, but there are some out there that are like an hour long or something. Porn is short for a reason.”

“Oh,” the tigress said, realizing that it had lasted just long enough to masturbate to... or fap, as Azzy called it. “Well... can we watch a real movie now? Or maybe one of those cartoons... what did Charlotte call it... an anime?”

Azalea tilted her head a little. “There’s a big difference between a cartoon and an anime,” she said, closing the tab with the porn on it and unplugging the headphones. “Uhh, let's see what we have,” the hybrid said, opening a folder on her laptop and browsing through the list of files there.

“I thought they were just cartoons from, like, Japan or China or something,” the tigress muttered. “The one that Charlotte lent me was pretty good though. It was about these two kids who flew airships. Last Exile or something.”

Azalea just looked at the tigress, sighing a little before casually picking up a small pillow. “Bad kitty,” she said, bopping Alex’s face with it. “They’re more than just ‘cartoons from Japan’,” she explained, going back to scrolling through the list, clicking on a folder and opening it. “And who's Charlotte?” 

“What did I do?” Alex muttered to hirself, ears going flat and wondering what shi’d done wrong. After a moment, shi responded. “Umm... Charlotte is Elizabeth’s house maid. They have a really big house, so they need someone to help keep it clean.”

“And they like anime… Do they go around cleaning up in a classic maid outfit?” Azalea said, giggling at the idea of someone actually doing something like that. She clicked on the first video on the list.

“You mean the black and white frilly skirt and blouse? How’d you know about that?” Alex asked, curious. “Anyway... she wears it pretty often. Not all the time though. Charlotte likes wearing outfits and stuff. She likes going to some kind of thing with people who wear costumes... a ‘con’ or something?”

“Okay, she is pretty cool and I need to meet her now,” Azalea said, wondering how hard it would be to convince this Charlotte to make her an outfit like that or at least tell her where she got it. “And cons are a lot of fun. I think that there is one near here we could go to some time.”

“I think I’ve got some pictures of Charlotte on my phone,” Alex added. “Like,  there was this one time she dressed up as this sailor girl with long blond ponytails. It was kind of cute, but didn’t go that well with her black and brown fur. Elizabeth’s mom helps her with the costumes, ‘cause she makes clothes for a living.”

“Yeah, I definitely need to talk to her sometime,” Azalea said, already planning out her next con trip in her head. “And she was cosplaying as Sailor Moon,” she explained, hitting play on the video. The intro to One Punch Man started playing.

__________________________________________________

Saturday, November 28th, 2015

“My nest isn’t that heavy. It’s going down the stairs that somehow makes things more heavy, like gravity magic,” Azalea said as she and Alex carried out the box that contained the nest. It had taken the two cubs a while to get all the blankets folded and plushies sorted.

Alex panted as shi helped to carry the box down the stairs and over to the moving truck. Alex backed up the ramp into the truck, which was almost filled to capacity. One of the big moving company guys, a wolf, effortlessly took the box from the two cubs and yeeted it up over the wall of boxes, deep into the truck. The two cubs jumped off the side of the ramp, quickly getting out of the way of the badger in the moving company uniform that was coming up behind them.

“See? Not too bad... Just got to get my bag and then load the cat carrier into the car,” Azalea said, motioning for the tigress to follow, darting past a camel, also in the moving company uniform, that was bringing a box to the truck.

“Woooah. How much coffee have you had this morning?” Cora asked, stopping the two cubs. “Jenny is going to be riding with Beth, so you two will be with me. Toss your bags and things in my car, same with the cat carrier,” the jerboa said before stepping to the side and letting the cubs go back up to the apartment.

Alex quickly pulled the hem of hir black Hello Kitty t-shirt back down below hir belt and followed Azalea back upstairs into the apartment and into the squirrel-hybrid’s almost empty bedroom. All that was left was a cat carrier with a pitch black cat in it, Azalea messenger bag, and Alex’s backpack. As the two cubs entered the room, the cat started meowing and demanded to be released from the carrier, clearly not a fan of being stuck in a cage. The tigress picked up hir backpack and slung it over hir shoulder, watching as Azalea picked up the cat carrier.

“I know Shadow, just think, soon you will have a nice big place to explore,” Azalea said, setting the carrier next to the door before grabbing her bag and shouldering it. She looked around the now completely empty room, looking at the walls and then to the tigress. “You know, we did a really good job patching stuff up.” 

“I still can’t believe your mom managed to paint the walls so quickly,” Alex said. “Then again, she is a painter.”

“She’s been painting things for longer than I have been alive,” Azalea stated, nodding before touching one of the walls, then making a face at the feeling of the wet paint. “Bye room,” she said, picking up the cat carrier and starting out the door. “Come on slowpoke.”

“Uhh... you know you got paint on your fingers, right?” Alex asked, following Azalea out the door, through the living room, and down the stairs to Cora’s car.

“I do not,” Azalea denied, looking at her fingers before wiping them off on her pants, adding to the many other spots and splashes of color that were on her pants. “See? Nothing there.” She wiggled her fingers at the feline.

“I can clearly see white paint on your fingers. And now on your pants,” the tigress said as they reached the car. Shi pulled the door open for Azalea and stepped aside, waiting for the squirrel to get inside.

“How do you know that’s new paint? I have like a hundred different spots of paint on my pants and always have paint on my paws,” she said, putting the carrier in first and then climbing in.

“Goober touched the wall didn’t she?” Cora asked from the driver’s seat, suppressing a laugh.

“Yes,” Alex confirmed with a sigh before closing the door and jogging around to the other side of the car, pulling the other door open, and hopping inside. Shi made sure hir tail was inside before pulling the door shut.

“Knew that was going to happen,” Cora said, looking back to make sure that everyone was buckled up before she started the car. “You two ready?”

“Yes, mom. I can’t wait to show Alex my room. I have plans for it,” the hybrid said, looking over to the tigress. “There’s enough room that we could put a bed or something in there for you when we have sleepovers.” Azalea was clearly excited about showing off her room and continued blathering about her plans for the room.

Alex listened to Azalea with one ear, but most of hir attention was on the cat in the crate sitting between them. The tigress hadn’t really seen Azalea’s cat up close more than a few times, and not for long at all; Shadow was kind of skittish. Shi gently clicked hir tongue, trying to get Shadow’s attention and stuck hir fingers through the holes in the carrying crate. Shadow looked at hir and meowed, but didn’t do much more than that, other than resume pacing around inside the crate. “I hope Shadow likes it,” shi muttered, then turned and looked over at Azalea. “Don’t let her outside at your new place. There’s coyotes and cougars and stuff all over. Trust me, I know,” shi said.

“Oh, she and her sister are strictly indoor cats. They wouldn’t know what to do if they went outside,” Azalea said, poking her finger in one of the openings in the crate before pulling it back, a black cat paw popping at and batting at her.

“Huh. ‘Trust me, I know.’ Just what does that mean?” Cora asked from the front of the car. “Beth and I already warned Azzy and Jen about that and got them some bear mace.” 

“I got attacked by a feral cougar the first month I was here, like a couple minutes walk from my house,” Alex replied, looking up at the rear-view mirror, meeting Cora’s gaze. “I needed over a hundred stitches, mostly on my arms and legs,” the tiger cub said, holding one of hir arms up and running hir other paw down it to show the scars through hir fur.

“Ooh. That seems like that’s awfully close to home,” Cora said, shaking her head a little. “Well, I’m glad that you’re okay. I’m sorry it happened though.”

“You should have seen all the bandages and stuff. Did you know that a tiger’s skin is striped?” Azalea said, looking over at Alex’s arms.

“I knew about the stripe thing, I had a model once that shaved part of her arms and had tattoos on them that worked into the stripes that they had. I think that I have photos somewhere,” Cora said, coming to a stop at the light. “You two are getting hungry?”

“I’m not hungry yet, but I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to lunch,” Alex replied. “Breakfast was yummy. I liked Beth’s pancakes and sausages,” shi added.

“What about snacks and or drinks?” Cora asked, glancing down at her empty coffee mug. “Azzy, be a bean and text your sister and let them know we’re stopping for drinks at the next convenience store.”

“Can do, mom one,” Azalea said, pulling out her phone and starting to type out a message.

Alex looked out the car window, spotting a 7-Eleven a few hundred feet down the road. Cora slowed down as they approached it and pulled in, driving up to the small parking lot in front of the store and parking there.

“Snacks and coffee,” Azalea said as the car came to a stop in one of the parking spots. She was the first to get out of the car.

“No! No more coffee,” Cora called out to her daughter as the hybrid rushed into the store. “I swear, that girl sometimes,” she shook her head walking into the store with Alex in toe.

The tigress looked around, then snagged a bag of teriyaki-flavored beef jerky and some trail mix, checking to make sure it didn’t have chocolate in it, along with a bottle of water, bringing it to the counter. The tigress fished through hir pockets and pulled out a few dollars, counting them out as the cashier rang the items up. Shi was missing 72 cents. “Umm... one sec,” shi told the cashier, turning around and yelling “Azzy? I’m short a dollar. Can I borrow some money?”

“Don’t worry, I’m paying,” Cora called out to the two cubs as they wandered around the store, Beth and Jennifer joining them in the hunt for snacks. “Get what you want and put it on the counter. Make sure you go to the bathroom and all the rest of that; long drive and no stops.”

“Okay mom,” Azalea said, looking around the candy aisle of the store, settling on a bag of chips and a Milky Way bar, before slipping over to the drinks and getting one of the flavored sodas before heading to the front of the store and waiting.

Alex and Azalea were soon joined by Jennifer at the front of the store, who added their snack and drink selection to the growing pile. “Hey Alex, I hope Azalea isn’t talking your ears off about the new house,” Jenny teased, grinning at her sister who just shot her an annoyed glance.

“She was at first. I wasn’t really paying much attention though, to be honest,” Alex said, looking up at Azalea’s older sister. “She mentioned little green houses at one point, and I got confused.”

Azalea giggled, thinking back to when she told the tigress about the green houses and just how confused she was about them. “Yeah, and did I tell you Alex, I decided that we’re going to plant catnip in one of them?”

“Yes and we’re going to make sure that a wall-mauling tiger is kept far away from that stuff,” Beth said, adding her selections to the pile.

“Yeah, I heard what happened. Mom A showed me that video she took of Azzy’s bedroom,” Jennifer said, looking down at the tigress’ paws. “Remind me to stay on your good side.”

“You know if we keep hir outside and let hir run around, it should be safe to let hir have some. Shi would be less likely to maul anything important,” Cora chimed in, looking up at the confused and slightly horrified coyote that was ringing them up.

“Just think of all the space that you would have to run, and all the birds that you could chase and stuff,” Azalea teased Alex.

“I’m not touching catnip ever again,” Alex stated firmly, then shook hir head, ears going flat against hir head. “I still can’t believe I did that. We spent four hours repairing shredded drywall.”

“Don’t forget the ceiling. You did some good damage there too,” Azalea said, taking her snacks and started heading back to the car as her moms and sister did the same.

“Part of that was your fault, having me chase that feathered cat toy string thing,” Alex said defensively, picking up the snacks and water shi had picked out and following Azalea outside.

Once the group had left the store, the coyote stood there for a moment, watching them leaving. He was unsure if he had heard that conversation or if it was something that he daydreamed out of sheer boredom. The only thing that he could think was just how bad he wanted to watch that video and see just how much damage the tiger cub had done. He made a mental note to ask them on the off chance that they ever came back into the store.

__________________________________________________

From the stop at the 7-Eleven it was about a twenty minute drive to the Winters’ new house. Part of that was down a long gravel road that led past a dozen other houses. Azalea was looking out the window of the car at all of the open land that was around the house. In her mind she was already picking out where she was going to put the goal posts and other stuff for soccer practice.

“Hey, look Alex. Green houses,” she said, pointing to the little greenhouses that she had mentioned before, the ones that confused the poor tigress that time.

“Those... aren’t houses,” Alex replied, leaning across Azalea to look out the window. “They’re just green boxes... with tarp over them.”

“That’s basically what a greenhouse is. It’s a frame with tarp over it to get the snow and cold out.” Azalea  paused for a moment, giggling. “They are houses, just for plants.”

“Oh,” Alex responded, wondering why plants needed their own houses. “Is that your house?” shi asked, pointing at the two-story house just past the greenhouses. The house was quite large and painted in earth tones, ranging from tan to dark brown. 

“Yup, that’s the new house,” Azalea said, trying to find where her room was and pointing to the part of the house where she thought that it was. “I think that’s where my room is. I just remember that it’s on the second floor and off to the side with a really nice view. I can’t wait to show you,” Azalea said, getting more and more excited about showing off her room.

“Azzy, you’re adorable when you get that excited. Now if only you could do that about your school work. Oh and just remember what we talked about, and keeping the room clean, same with your bathroom,” Cora said as they pulled up to the house, putting the car in park and unlocking the doors.

“Come on Alex,” Azalea said as she got her seat belt unbuckled. The hybrid was already climbing out of the car and reaching for the cat carrier by the time that the tigress had gotten her seatbelt undone.

Alex climbed out of the car, taking hir backpack with hir and followed Azalea up the driveway and to the front door where the squirrel-hybrid was practically dancing on coals with caffeine-fueled nervous energy. The front door was surprisingly tall and rounded at the top, as if the house had been built for giraffes.

A moment or two later Cora joined the two cubs at the door, giggling at the sight of her daughter practically dancing in place. “We’re going to have to have you run around the house a few times or something, get rid of the zoomies,” the jerboa said as she started digging through her pockets for the key. “Oh shoot... You’re going to have to wait a little more. Your other mother has the keys.”

“Aww,” Azalea sighed and then stopped bouncing around as much. She looked down the driveway, seeing that Beth wasn’t too far behind them. “Alex, wanna go see the greenhouses?” She asked, trying to think of something to kill time.

“Beth and Jenny will be here in like half a minute,” the tigress said, looking down the road to where the other car was creating a small plume of dust on the gravel road, followed by the moving truck.

Alex’s prediction proved to be mostly accurate, as it wasn’t much more than that when Beth’s car pulled into the driveway. The malabar squirrel stepped out of the driver's side a second after the car came to a stop.

“We could have totally made it to the greenhouses and back,” Azalea said, poking her tongue out at the tigress before turning and waving to her other mother, who was walking up to them with the house keys in her hand.

“Okay. Time to hand out the keys,” Beth said, handing a set of keys to Cora, and then one to Azalea. “The blue one is for the front door and the black one is for the backdoor, or basement door, around back.” 

“Welcome home,” Cora said, turning and unlocking the door and pushing it open. “Shoes off,” she said, looking down at Alex and her daughter.

“Yes mom,” Azalea said, already inside the house and taking off her shoes. “Come on Alex,” she said, taking a moment to walk around the very empty living room.

Alex quickly took off hir shoes and followed Azalea through the house. Without any furniture, it looked absolutely enormous. The living room had large glass windows that covered two of the far walls, overlooking an enormous rocky field with forests and mountains in the distance.

“Over here,” Azalea said, motioning for Alex to follow her. The Jerboa-hybrid led her up the stairs to a hallway, and then down it. At the end of the hall she stopped and pointed to one of the rooms on the side. “That’s my bathroom. So that means, no more sharing one with my sister,” she said happily before turning and going into the room at the end of the hallway. “And this is my room.” 

The empty room that she was standing in was about ten feet wide and over twice as long. One of the walls was shorter, matching the slant of the roof. Azalea’s bedroom looked like it was originally intended to be an office or library. At the far end of the room there was another large window with a view of the fields and mountains.

“So I was thinking that I’m gonna put the nest over there near the window, cause nothing beats napping in the sun,” the hybrid said, pointing to the far end of the room. “And right here I’m thinking of setting up the battle station.” She pointed to the spot next to the door, “Over there my dresser and things like that. Oh, and there are going to be twinkle lights and stuff everywhere. Oh and a plushie net too,” she said, babbling on and on about the million plans that she had for the room.

Alex walked into the long, narrow room, standing in the center and looking around. Given the layout, it definitely had potential. You could have a section for a bed, another for a computer desk, another for painting or reading... Yep, it definitely had potential. “I like it.”

“Oh and right here, I could put one of them futon things, you know the ones that are a sofa and pull down into a bed. That way that you have some place to sleep that’s not on the nest with me... Unless you want to, that is-” Azalea said, suddenly interrupted by one of the movers.

“Where does this go?” the wolf asked. He and the camel stood at the doorway, carrying Azalea’s desk.

“Right there,” Azalea said, pointing to the corner of the room near the door. 

Most of the rest of the day was spent helping the movers bringing in boxes and furniture and unpacking boxes. Beth and Cora took care of the main rooms of the house while Jenny and Azalea handled their own rooms. 

After the truck had been emptied and the movers left, Alex wandered around the house while the Winters were busy unpacking. It felt... empty, like it was just too big for the four rodents. Then again, the house that Alex’s parents had purchased felt empty too when they’d moved in, until they’d started turning the last room into a nursery. The tigress wondered if Beth and Cora were planning on having another child.

Alex was standing in the completely empty basement when Beth came down the stairs carrying a box and set it next to the bottom of the stairs. After the malabar squirrel stood back up, Alex took the opportunity to ask “Are you and Cora going to have another kit? Is that why you bought such a big house? Cause that’s why mom and dad bought our house.”

The squirrel let out a squeak as she heard the question, then quickly put on her serious face. “So… How good are you at keeping secrets from Azzy and Jenny?” she asked, going over and sitting on one of the chairs that had ended up down in the basement.

“Pretty good, I think. I’ve got lots of secrets that I haven’t told Azzy,” the tigress replied walking over to the orange and purple-furred squirrel, then frowned. “I think I’ve only told her one secret that I probably shouldn’t have.”

“Don’t worry, Azzy’s not the kind that would go blabbing something that you tell her not to. If she does, come tell me and I’m sure I can handle her,” she said, slouching back a little. “So, we haven’t told Azzy or Jenny yet, but Cora and I are thinking about having another kit. It’s not going to be for a while longer; we’ve got to get things settled first. Needless to say, this is just between you, me and the floorboards,” she said, thumping her tail against the tiled floor as she made her point.

Alex nodded. “I promise I won’t say anything. But... I kinda wanted to ask... Cora had Jenny and Azzy, right? Did you ever think about carrying them yourself? Cause you’re a herm, like me... you could get... what’s it called... artificial insemim- insiman- shoot, I can’t say it,” the tigress muttered, tail twitching behind hirself in irritation.

“Inseminated,” Beth said, smiling at the tigress. “We thought about it, and it’s something that has been brought up and will get talked about more before we settle on it. A big factor at the time was my work. Things were just simply too hectic for me to carry a kid and be yelling in the courtroom too,” the squirrel said, smiling and showing off her buck teeth. “Also, Cora’s baby fever is way stronger than mine ever could be.” She laughed, thinking back to all of the early mornings with Cora worshiping at the porcelain altar and the late night trips to get the weirdest snacks. “I guess it comes down to the people making the kit… That probably didn’t answer your question at all.”

“No, it did,” Alex said, nodding. “Umm... did you ever worry about accidentally getting yourself pregnant when you were a kit? Cause I had these dreams and- Nevermind,” the tigress said, going abruptly silent, hir ears going flat and flushing scarlet under hir fur.

Beth did her best to not laugh at the poor tigress, but she failed. Once she got better control over herself, she apologized. “I’m sorry Alex, I didn’t mean to laugh like that. To answer your question, yes. There was a time when I was at that age that I was worried about getting pregnant. I tried a few different things to prevent it. I spent a few years sleeping with a condom on or sleeping on my belly. If you can think of it, I did it.” The squirrel’s tail lashed behind her, showing her amusement.

“Uh... okay,” the tigress said, awkwardly digging at the grout between the floor tile with one toe claw for a second before quickly saying “Kaythanksbye” and darting up the stairs.

“Oh to be that young again,” Beth said, giggling to herself, remembering the talk that she had with her mother about this sort of thing when she was just a little older than Alex. The malabar squirrel sat there for a moment before getting up and stretching, her tail nearly knocking over a stack of small boxes as she did. “Back to work,” she muttered as she made her way to the stairs and started up them.

__________________________________________________

Saturday, December 5th, 2015

“You’re sure you’re okay with hir staying for an entire week?” David asked, a concerned expression on the white tiger’s face and his breath steaming in the cold winter air. He was currently standing on the deck surrounding the house, holding a cell phone up to his head.

Over a thousand miles away, the ferret on the other end of the phone line replied “Absolutely. They’re still friends after all. Alex can stay in the guest bedroom if things get awkward. I’m sure they’ll all get along though.”

“Okay then,” David acquiesced, convinced that his daughter would be okay staying with Elizabeth for a week, despite all that had happened. Time had a tendency to heal the wounds of the heart, and it had been months since Alex had found out about Elizabeth and Chris. Now he just had to ask Alex what shi thought about this whole Christmas vacation thing. “I’ll go check with Alex to see if shi is still down for this and give you a call back.”

“Sounds good. I’ll talk to you later,” Terrence replied, ending the call.

David put his cell back in his pocket and stepped back inside the house, careful not to shut the door on his tail. Given the house layout, someone in the living room could hear nearly everything going on in the house, and his wife and daughter were currently sitting on opposite ends of the living room sofa, reading. Hence having stepped outside for some privacy.

“Alex?” he asked, walking over to the recliner next to the sofa and sitting on it. “When we first moved out here, you and Elizabeth were talking about spending vacations together. Do you think you’d still be interested in going to see Elizabeth over Christmas vacation?”

The book in the young tiger’s hands slowly dropped to hir lap as shi stared at hir father, mouth open. David had to fight back laughter at hir poleaxed expression. After a moment, shi looked down at the book in hir lap. “I... I don’t know. I haven’t really been talking with her a lot lately. And she’s dating Chris now... they’ve been dating for over a month now, actually. I... I just don’t know.”

“You’re still friends though, right, kiddo?” Raenne said, having put down her own book at the start of the conversation. “You may not be dating anymore, but you should still try to remain friends. And you can always spend time with friends... even if they’re dating someone else.”

“It just feels... awkward,” Alex said, glancing over at hir mom. “Like, what if Chris shows up and we don’t get along? I kinda want to punch hir in the face... but at the same time thank hir for keeping Elizabeth from being lonely. Like I am,” shi said, before correcting hirself, “Was.”

“Spending every other weekend or so with Azalea just isn’t enough, huh?” Raenne asked, a gentle tone and a smile tempering the sarcasm of her response.

“I mean, I guess...” Alex mused. “I just think Azalea and I don’t have a lot in common. But then, Elizabeth and I didn’t have that much in common either, did we?”

“You can be friends without having the same interests,” David pointed out. “It’s actually better in the long run. You need space to do your own thing rather than being joined at the hip all the time.”

Raenne hummed her agreement, adding “I love your father dearly, but we start butting heads when we’ve been together for more than a few days without a break. Keep that in mind when you’re visiting Elizabeth. Take a break and go read a book or something every day, so you don’t lose it and get in a fight or something.”

“That won’t happen,” the younger tigress said with absolute conviction, remembering hir promise to never make the little stoat cry again.

“So... Do you want to visit her for Christmas, or not?” David asked.

After a few seconds of silence, Alex nodded. “Yeah. I still miss her, and I want to meet Chris. I need to know if Chris is good enough for her.”

David raised his eyebrows, meeting his wife’s gaze over their daughter’s head. She shrugged in response, and he glanced back down at his daughter. “Okay then. I’ll let Terrence know you’ll be visiting.”

__________________________________________________

Friday, December 18th, 2015

“Mae geri. Ichi, ni, san...” Raenne called out as Alex went through hir front kicks, the cub’s gi snapping crisply at the end of each kick. She was paying close attention to her daughter’s actions, making sure that the young tiger did each move as close to perfectly as possible. The older tigress was actually pretty impressed; Alex’s form was impeccable and shi put more effort into it than the vast majority of cubs that Raenne had taught over the years. Then again, Alex was getting one-on-one training rather than attending a dojo with dozens of other students. 

“Mawashi geri. Ichi, ni, san...” Raenne called out, watching closely. “Higher, kiddo. You can go higher than that. And keep those toes pointed, claws out.” Karate had two ways to perform most strikes, one with claws and one without. Claws were far more dangerous than a closed fist, and if sharpened they could be as dangerous as knives. But you also risked breaking a finger or toe if your claws caught on something.

Alex was panting, hir breath steaming in the cold air of the garage. If it hadn’t been that cold, shi would have probably been a vaguely cat-shaped puddle on the floor. Karate was surprisingly hard work, and mom was making sure shi did every dang move perfectly. It had taken hir only a week or so to learn the necessary Japanese well enough to understand what moves to do, but learning how to do the moves correctly was a totally different ball game. Finally Alex finished the last of the kicks at full speed. 

Raenne waited for a few moments for Alex to catch hir breath before calling out the last instruction for this session. “Heian Shodan.”

Alex blinked, then repeated the name of the kata, then turned to hir left and began with a left downward block, following it up with the right punch, then turned around and did a right downward block, upwards right block, left punch... Shi knew the moves, but the names were far, far more complicated.

Raenne watched carefully, mentally naming each move as Alex went through them: Hidari gedan-barai, migi chodan oï-zuki, migi gedan-barai, migi tettsui-mawashi-uchi, and so on. There were twenty-one moves in all, and memorizing them was no easy task. The older tigress wasn’t surprised when Alex finished the entire thing without a single mistake, but she couldn’t suppress a surge of pride or the smile that formed on her muzzle.

“Excellent. Now at full speed. Heian Shodan.”

This time, the moment Alex finished repeating the name of the kata, shi went through the kata as fast as shi could; so fast hir paws were practically a blur. The little tigress finished the entire thing in a little over ten seconds, finally coming to a stop and panting for breath. 

“Very good,” Raenne said, impressed. That was almost as fast as she could do it herself, and as far as she could tell, Alex had done it perfectly. “Now... Seiza,” the older tigress instructed, stepping over to her gym bag and pulling out a small bundle while Alex knelt on the mat. The older tigress joined her daughter a moment later, kneeling in front of hir. “Alex, you have learned all of the basics that are required to progress. I will not say that you have mastered it, for that takes a lifetime. But you have demonstrated that you know all of the basic strikes, kicks, blocks, stances, and the first kata required to advance to 8th Kyu. And so, I am honored to reward your hard work and dedication. Congratulations,” Raenne said, leaning forward and setting a bright yellow karate belt on the mat between them.

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Saturday, December 19th, 2015

Alex turned and waved back at hir mom before following the stewardess down the tunnel towards the airplane. This was the first time shi had ever traveled alone, but it was a straight shot flight from Denver to Portland. Alex didn’t know what kind of bird the stewardess was, but she had beautiful iridescent blue and white feathers; they shimmered under the fluorescent lights.

“Umm, ma’am? I dunno if it’s polite or not to say, but you’ve got really pretty feathers,” Alex said as they passed under another light fixture, hir eyes fixed on the play of light across the woman’s plumage and the beautiful iridescent blues and greens.

The stewardess turned back, her beak open slightly and the corners of her mouth turning up. “Well thank you, sweetie. A girl never turns down a compliment,” the bird said with a thick midwestern accent. “So whatcha headin’ to Oregon for?”

“Visiting my best friend for Christmas,” Alex explained, following the stewardess through the hatch into the airplane itself and past a sharp-eyed brown-feathered falcon wearing a similar outfit as the stewardess. For a moment the tigress wondered if all the airline staff were birds. Certainly it seemed that way; there had been more birds at the airport than Alex had seen anywhere else hir entire life, combined.

“Aww, ain’t that sweet,” the blue-feathered stewardess said, interrupting Alex’s thoughts as they continued down the aisle. “You know, I haven’t seen my best friend in years now. She lives up in Montana though. Not many overnight layovers up there. Anyway, here’s your seat. Do you know how to use airplane seat belts?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Alex said, taking off hir backpack and dropping it on the floor before sitting down on the blue and gray seat, carefully fitting hir tail into the gap behind the seat. “We had to take a plane to Oregon and back a few months ago.”

“Perfect. Just remember to keep your tray table up and the seat upright until we reach cruising altitude,” the bird said. “I’ll be back periodically to check on you. If you need something, just hit this button here,” the stewardess added, pointing at a button above the seat where a series of small air nozzles were.

Alex nodded and the stewardess headed back towards the front of the plane. The tigress looked around for a moment, then picked up hir backpack from the floor and took out hir 3DS.