Children of Bast (16 page)

“I guess. I see what you’re sayin’, Chubby. Sorry I got sore.”

“S’okay. I forget you’re touchy.”

~ ~ ~ ~

I knew getting her loaded would be a huge problem because I’d have to let other toms get to her. So what’s the problem? I thought. Loaded was loaded, and how would Ned and Harriet know? Adele loved to be comfortable and would go for being in a warm house to have the kiths. And if the kiths were given away, like I was sure they would be, Adele wouldn’t care. What happened to kiths once they were eating on their own was no concern of hers. We all knew that, hey.

Of course, I knew Adele would go wacko when she came in, and that scared the khara outta me. I’d have to fight her.

~ ~ ~ ~

“Did you ever think about what you’d do if Harriet and Ned threw you out?” Chubby asked.

“Yeah. I thought of that. It was simple: I’d go where she went, wherever. We’d make it. I was never going to let her go again. Where she went, I went. No argument. Just fact.”

“You’re okay, Gaylord.”

I smiled. “We were tangled together when we woke up at Tuyuur Song. Apparently, sometime during the night my stink didn’t matter to her, and hers, of course, was like perfume to me, although smelling a bit like yesterday’s chop suey.

“Oh, brother.”

“Oh, brother? What wrong, Chub?”

“You’re makin’ me sick with all that silliness about stinkin’. Her smell was perfume. Brother, oh, brother. And don’t call me Chub. Hate that.”

“Okay, but you’re just jealous.”

“You’re right about that. Go on.”

~ ~ ~ ~

I was still determined to load her with kiths and take her to the seminary. Breakfast was a dive in the dumpster for her, and for me a couple of fat mice I found under it. I saw some cockroaches under there, too, and I remembered Mutt said they were tasty. But bugs have never been my thing. I tried a grasshopper once. Yuk! Dry and bitter. Mice are good, small, but good.

While we ate I thought about my plan for Adele and wondered when she’d be ready. “When do you come in again?”

“What?” She dropped a mouthful of some crap she’d been chewing on.

“You know what I’m talking about. When will you be ready for kiths again?”

Mouth open, she glared at me like I’d asked her to fly. “I don’t know, Gaylord. It hits me anytime, anywhere. You’ll know when I go for your throat in the middle of the night. Why?”

“Well, for one thing, to save my throat, and I might wanna try to be first.”

“You’ll have to stand in line.” She went back to eating. “Every tom in the neighborhood will be there. We stink to high heaven, and you guys can sniff us out a block away.”

“I know. I didn’t spend all my time away hunting rats. Think I might have a chance?”

“If you fight like you did yesterday, yeah, I’d say you’ll have a very good chance. ‘Course, this would be against a tom with lots of experience. Think you could take him?”

A picture of my encounter with Mutt flashed before me. “Like I said, I didn’t spend all my time hunting rats.”

Some time later I was ripped out of a deep sleep by yowling so earsplitting I thought my head would explode. It was Adele, rolling around on the ground like a snake.

“What the hell?” I was truly scared khara-less. I went to her, and she whacked me so hard I heard bells. Her claws slashed my nose and made it bleed. She leaped out of the crack and was gone. I cleaned the blood from my nose and smiled. She was ready.

I cleared the opening to our little den, caught a glimpse of her rounding the corner of a building and went after her. I saw her up ahead rolling in the grass, reaching out with all four legs and yowling louder. To my astonishment, ringed around her was at least six toms, all licking their lips and carrying their tails high like sticks in a breeze. I could almost hear them purr from where I stopped and sat down. How did they get there so fast?

You’re about to have your ass whipped, I thought. I knew I’d have to fight every one of them unless I could get them to fight each other and eliminate some rivals. That’s what I planned as I walked over to Adele.

They were street amai, lean, hard and scruffy like me. Two were gigantic tabbies with faces like gouged wet mud. One was a black shorthair like me but with enormous yellow eyes and dull, murky faraawi that showed miles of scars. I knew he was the one I’d have to take care of if I wanted Adele. He sat with a bored expression on his face, calm and together.

The others were ordinary, except for a filthy white who could be deaf and who kept twitching his head and frowning like he didn’t know what to do or where he was. They were ogling Adele in her torment when I got over to them.

“Who’s gonna be first?” I asked.

“Not you,” one shouted. The black smiled and watched me carefully. He knew what I knew.

“Come on. Get going here or we’ll all lose out. She’s askin’ for it and we’re just standing around gawkin’. Hey, you, big tab.” Both tabbies turned to me while the others turned to them. I could see Adele was getting beyond frantic, which meant she might not struggle.

“Yeah, you, the one whose face looks like kilaab khara.” Everyone snickered except the tabbies and the black, who still smiled and glared at me. “Wanna fight?” I returned his smile. I knew if I took him out, it might discourage some of the others.

“Hey, why not?” one of the tabbies said. The black watched the tabby move toward me, and he chuckled.

“I wasn’t talkin’ to you, Tabby. I meant the black.”

“Don’t hurt him, Tab. He’s mine after you,” the black said, snickering. His voice was deep and dark like his faraawi. It occurred to me that since I was black, too, our fight would look like a rolling tar ball. I thought it was funny.

The tabby sprang. I jumped straight up like a kith, came down on his back, whirled around and gave him a vicious bite in the back of his neck. He rolled over on me and I grabbed his face like I’d seen Adele do to Raeed and bit as hard as I could. I heard a pop. I let him go and blood was pouring out his nose. He turned and ran up the hill and disappeared over the hill.

“Next.” I sprang up like a kith after a butterfly.

Whitey was gone, and the other big tabby melted into the bushes while all the other toms had backed off to the top of the ridge and sat like teir on a wire. They knew what was coming. I looked at Adele laying there grunting, a distant look in her eyes.

The black sat quietly licking a paw and flexing his claws. He mocked me with a sideways glare. “Can I be next, pretty please?” He sniggered while he flexed his claws.

I smiled back. A rock sat in the pit of my stomach because I knew he could end my life. Before Mutt died, I tested my fighting skills against a few amai who turned out to be pushovers who couldn’t have whipped a crippled piss ant. This black had scars like Mutt’s, so he was seasoned. I had to kill him or be killed.

“Okay.” I smiled wide and cheery and took a stance with my rear in the air, my tail swatting and all my claws bared. I hissed like I had for Mutt, but the black just sat and studied me, frowning. “What are you doing?”

He surprised me, so I relaxed and sat down.

A black flash is all I remember of his attack. He went right for my throat, and I dropped my chin and did a forward roll between his legs. He whirled around and sprang for my back just as I flipped over and sank my teeth as hard as possible into his leg. I pulled and wrenched until I got a plug of his flesh. He screamed but was able to slap blood from my nose and mouth. I spit the hunk of meat and leaped for his throat when he screamed again. Blood squirted into my mouth, and I knew he was finished, except that in his death convulsions he could still latch on and kill me, too. I clamped down for all I was worth, and finally, I felt him relax. I released him. He looked at me and gave a faint smile. “You’re really good,” he murmured as his eyes dimmed and became lifeless.

I was sorry I had to kill him because I think he was a good amait. We might have made friends. But he was the only one of the clowder around Adele that I knew could do me in. The others were good seconds and thirds if Adele chose, but I felt I had to be first. I was also amazed that I had taken him without getting torn up. Maybe I was that good.

“There you go again. Braggin’,” Chubby said.

“Sorry.”

~ ~ ~ ~

The amai like a row of teir sat on the ridge, watching. I mounted Adele and she began to squeal and purr. It was over quick, but when I withdrew, she screamed and turned on me, hissing, growling and punching. I ran away, and she followed until she dropped and began moaning again. Scared the khara outta me, Chubby. I was totally blown away.

She gave in to a couple more, and then whapped the others silly when they tried. She cleaned herself after each time before she let another one mount her, and if they got restless before she finished cleaning herself and started for her, she whapped them, too. When it was over, she came to me.

“You’re dangerous. I’ve never seen anyone like you, Gaylord.”

I just looked at her and grinned. I was burnt from fighting and flopped down. Adele joined me. It was after Time of Owls when we woke up and went back to our den.

Chapter 16

Some people say that cats are sneaky, evil, and cruel. True, and they have many other fine qualities as well
. Missy Dizick

“As you know, Chubby, amai have been hangin’ around with bašar for a long time. ’Course, we’re the ones that get the good from it, right? And, they don’t know that. They think we’re just so sweet and cute and warm and cuddly. They think we need them for everything, and we give them a few purrs, we scent mark them, which they think is showing love, we sprawl on their laps, we let them pet us and we show how happy we are to eat that stuff they call food.

“But, a few of them are savvy and know we’re taking advantage in every way and keeping most things for ourselves. Belly rubs are a good example of how we use them. We roll over and let them rub our bellies because it feels good and it makes them feel they’re in charge. But, when it gets us drowsy, we nip them and run off, and some of them get wise to us. They figure out that they aren’t in change and that we use them any way we want to. They’re the ones that often throw us out or run us off because they can’t take it that we’re smarter. The good news is, most bašar don’t know we’re smarter and just keep on giving like the softies they are.

“I don’t have to tell you, Chubby, we can take care of ourselves, even if we have to learn it the hard way like I did. It’s a well-known fact that we can grab comfort in devious ways and be proud of it. We deserve it. We’re former gods after all, and probably still are, somewhere.”

“Youth,” Chubby said and yawned. “Ah, to be young and empty headed again.” He smiled and looked at me. “When I was your age, I thought the same thing. I ran around with that empty head for a long time, but as I got older and old, as I am now, I found a little sense and changed. Gaylord, bašar are alive like we are. They are what they are, just as we are what we are. Respect them Gaylord. They’ve been our friends and enemies forever, but they’re a part of life. Respect that, okay. I just sayin’.”

“What about kalb? They’re part of life, yes?”

He looked at me for a long time. “Well, I don’t know.” He was silent again. Then he said, “I’d have to say, yes. There are kilaab that kill us for no good reason, mean, nasty kilaab who need to be stopped, killed even. But, they are alive, a part of life. In my years I’ve learned to respect everything that’s alive, and I’ve learned, too, that there are good kalb. I know you don’t believe that, but there are, somewhere. Maybe I’m just a stupid old amait.” He smiled again and looked away.

“You take the fun outta everything, Chubby, but when I’m you’re age, I’ll think about it.”

“Like I said, youth.”

~ ~ ~ ~

So, when we had more cold days than warm, I took a very knocked up Adele to the seminary. It hit me that I wasn’t sure if Ned and Harriet were still around, but I wasn’t worried. We’d find a bašar or two who’d take us in. I would blow them away with my charm, and they would be in my control.

“Okay, I’m conceited but most amai are.”

“I can see modesty is one of your great virtues,” Adele said after I’d laid my plan on her.

“Oh, yeah. Definitely.” I straightened my tail like a tower and pranced on. “Tails up, Adele. They think we’re happy that way.”

“Yup. I remember.” She thrust her tail high and followed.

“Like a smart housie, I listened to them talk when I was locked up.” I stopped and waited for her. “See, Adele, they don’t know we can understand them, understand their language. And, how is it we can understand their language? Because we’ve had to for however long we’ve let them take care of us, and let them believe they’re in charge. So if you’re quiet and listen, you learn a lot of stuff. Anyway, I know what I can do in the streets, and when it gets cold and the snow flies, I like to be fed and pampered and kept warm even if the food ain’t all that good.”

“Gaylord, I know all that khara. I’ve been around. You’re not the only one with brains, even if they are kith brains.” She laughed. “You know I’m having fun with you, right?”

“Yeah, I know.”