What cats get up to at night (Aiza)

by **Alea Davenport** on October 29th, 2011, 10:56 pm

66th, Fall 511

Alea woke up to see her cat silently leaving her tent. That was the fourth time this week. What did her cat get up to as it stalked the silent city streets? Well, curiosity would not be sated by going back to sleep. She quickly pulled on her boots and followed her cat, trying not to be seen.

The wily feline led her on a merry dance through the streets of Avanthal; there were often paths only a cat could traverse, forcing Alea to find another way around. However, she managed to keep up with him, and eventually he found his way to an alley behind one of the holds. She found spot to hide and silently watched her cat. Before long, another cat came out of the hold to join him! The two cats greeted each other by sniffing each other's whiskers. Then they started walking down the alley.

Alea wasn't about to let her cat be responsible for making that other cat's owner have to deal with kittens, so she jumped out of her hiding place and shouted, "Aha! I caught you, you rascally cat!"

by **Aiza** on October 29th, 2011, 11:16 pm

Aiza waited out behind the Winterflame Hold in her feline form, the chilly night air biting at her. She whispered a quiet thanks to the gods for her fur and settled down, her long silver tail curling around her legs. A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she spotted her friend. Jumping up she raced to greet him before the carried on with their walk.

The kelvic purred until a pair of hands picked up her friend. In a panic she yowled and rushed forward, dashing into the shadows. Peering out she watched the woman hold the cat. She figured it was someone trying to get rid of cats on the streets, or her friend's owner...

by **Alea Davenport** on October 29th, 2011, 11:26 pm

Alea held her cat up in front of her and scolded him. "Don't you think you get me into enough trouble?" Unbeknownst to Alea, her hold was very uncomfortable for the cat, he struggled to escape her grasp. Failing that, he hissed, and swatted her on the nose.

"OW!" she yelled, and dropped the cat, who hit the ground running and found shelter in a tiny cranny between two adjacent buildings. Alea felt her nose. Sure enough, there was a thin line of blood from a cat scratch. She emitted a long string of curses, until her eyes fell on the smaller silver cat. "What do YOU want?" she demanded in a sulky tone.

by **Aiza** on October 29th, 2011, 11:57 pm

Aiza watched as the cat got scolded. It was his owner. She watched for a moment staring at the girl until she called Aiza out. Aiza's eyes widen and she shifted into a human form. Peering out from the darkness she spoke in a shy, soft tone. "I'm sorry Ma'am... We've been hanging out a lot lately... I told him to meet me here." She got up and looked for her friend. "It isn't his fault, so don't be mad at him... please?"

by **Alea Davenport** on October 30th, 2011, 12:20 am

Alea blinked. "What..." Oh, wait. This was another one of those shape-changing animals... She was speaking Common, so Alea had to take an extra moment to translate in her head. She mostly caught the "please don't be mad at him." Her anger cooled at the girl's soft tone, and she replied slowly, "I just don't like him running off. He could cause trouble."

Somehow, Alea recalled what remained of her manners, and introduced herself. "I'm Alea. What's your name?"

Alea's cat was slowly creeping back out into the alley, but Aleae realized there was no point in chasing it. He would only escape again, and she might get another scratch.

by **Aiza** on October 30th, 2011, 12:29 am

Aiza blinked, for a moment and smiled when the Alea introduced herself. "I'm Aiza..." Her attention turned to the cat sneaking out of the shadows. She smiled more and picked him up, petting his head softly. "He isn't causing trouble... In fact, it was nice to have company. I don't know many people in Avanthal, so it was nice to have a friend..."

Aiza was happy to have found a cat friend, and was hoping to make a human one, that wouldn't stop her from being friends with the cat however.

by **Alea Davenport** on October 30th, 2011, 12:40 am

Alea laughed nervously. "I know exactly how you feel, actually. I just arrived in town," she counted in her head, "eight days ago. It's my first time away from home and I have no idea what to do next. I had this crazy idea that I would travel the world..." She trailed off as she once again noticed Aiza's nakedness. "Um, do you want to borrow my cloak?" She mostly offered out of modesty, but she also recalled her only previous experience with Kelvics and added, "Aren't you cold?" Given the number of naked animal people she seemed to be running into, Alea thought it might be a good idea to invest in a spare cloak...

by **Aiza** on October 30th, 2011, 1:23 am

Aiza blinked for a moment. She had forgotten what her mother had told her about non-kelvics and their discomfort for the nude. She shook her head, putting the cat down, and pulled a cloak from a box against the building. "I keep this here so when I go back inside I don't bother others. I still don't see why it is such a bother though..." She had been nude several times in the hold, but always got scolded seeing how it wasn't a very tastful thing for a nude human to be running around. The idea never made sense to Aiza, she was nude as a cat, why she can't be nude as a human?

Wrapping the cloak around herself she cocked her head at the stranger. "You are going to travel the world? ... That sounds amazing."

by **Alea Davenport** on October 30th, 2011, 1:36 am

Aiza's ignorance of social conventions made Alea feel compelled to educate her...but when she thought about it, she couldn't come up with a concrete reason for why nudity was taboo. That's going to bug me all night, she thought.

Alea was about to respond to Aiza's next comment by agreeing that it was amazing, but suddenly every feeling she'd had since she arrive came pouring out of her. "Oh my goodness, it sounds amazing when you're sitting at home fantasizing about it, but they you actually get to a new place and everything is scary and you don't know what to do or where to go or who to talk to... and everything is so DIFFERENT and suddenly animals are turning into people and I don't know how to react to things I thought I knew! I can't tell you how many times I've thought about all the ways something is going to kill me and I'll end up dead and that this was a terrible idea...but then I think about going home, and somehow that feels even worse." Alea took a deep breath and gather her thoughts. "But it's okay. I can do this. I can stay here and learn about the outside world, and then when I'm reading I can move on."

She laughed and said, "It's funny, I brought the cat with me at the last minute so I wouldn't be alone on the journey. But he and that glowing horse are turning out to be almost more trouble than they're worth."

The cat grumbled, She stuffed me in a sack.

by **Aiza** on October 30th, 2011, 1:43 am

Aiza blinked, cocking her head to the side. It still seemed like a good idea to travel, despite what Alea said. Then again, Aiza has only been alive for a couple of years and had not seem much beyond a couple of polar bear kelvics and her carabu that her parents owned. Avanthal was all she knew, and she barely knew that.

Ignorance can be bliss.

"Glowing horse? I've never heard or seen a glowing horse around here..." She stared at Alea, puzzled, yet intrigued. Her cat-like nature made her extremely curious to new things, and a glowing horse was most definitely new to her.