A/N I've wanted to write a story for this franchise for some time, but never had any good ideas. Now, I think this is pretty promising.
I don't own this story or characters; I only own Sophia.
Back in the olden days of humanity, it was a common belief that children should be seen and not heard. Even though that belief is nearly extinct, if not totally extinct today, there were those who still held that belief. And some of them weren't even human.
One such example was a family of purebred Sphinx cats. These hairless cats lived in the old ages, when kits were to be seen and not heard, unless spoken to otherwise. The parents of three kits taught their children their golden rule. Two kits listened and obeyed, not uttering a word unless granted permission.
One kit, however, wasn't so loyal. This one fought against her parents' beliefs, and talked with her siblings, her blind old grandfather, and even to their human owners, though it came out as mews and purrs. If anyone wanted to listen, she would talk. She was very smart, learning to read human books at a young age.
Talking when she wasn't allowed to was one bad thing. But learning to read, that was another. And the kit's father was less than pleased. Much less. He was furious. He yelled at her, smacked her around, and confined her to a room from the afternoon to the morning the next day. When she tried to talk with her brother that day, she got the same treatment from her father as before.
Soon, it stuck with her to be seen and not heard. So much so that she stopped speaking, period. She only answered with nods, head shakes, or shrugs. This seemed to please her father.
The kit was miserable without her voice. She never smiled, or looked even remotely happy. Her father was unconcerned, and even uncaring. Her mother saw that her daughter was unhappy, but never went to comfort her, knowing it would make her mate angry. Her siblings didn't care, and never did anything about their sister's sadness, knowing they would be in trouble if they talked without being spoken to. They didn't want to risk their skins for their sister, whom had disobeyed their parents for months.
Finally came the day the kits would be adopted out. Their parents allowed them to speak freely from that day forward. The female misfit, however, never spoke a word. Her family couldn't care less, and her father almost looked smug. The kit decided enough was enough, and that she didn't like living as a pet. When no one was looking, and the door was still open, she ran out of the apartment and down the sidewalk, never looking back.
For the next year, she lived on the streets, learning to hunt, search for food, and avoid dogs. She had gotten caught one day, and was kept as a pet for some time, and was even given a silver collar, with the name "Sophia" engraved in the collar. She liked having a name, but she didn't like being confined indoors, nor being a pet, period. She longed for the outdoors. Even when the sun made her bare skin feel hot, and the snow made her feel cold, those sensations told her that she was alive. If she couldn't feel hot or cold, or smell the fresh air, she wasn't happy.
So, one day, she leapt out of the balcony of the house, and ran again, not looking back. After that, she made sure to never get caught again. She kept the collar however, having gotten used to it. It also gave her a name, which she didn't want to lose.
She found a neighborhood she liked, and decided to stay a while. Little did Sophia know that she would become involved in big murder mystery that would change her life forever.
It was a nice neighborhood at first glance. Sophie wondered if she would eventually decide to stay permanently. But she knew even if the neighborhood appeared nice, it had its deep, dark, dirty secrets. And she had a sneaking feeling in her gut that this would be one of those neighborhoods.
She trotted along the sidewalk, glancing around. Aside from humans walking around as well, there wasn't much activity.
Sophia shook her head as a rotten smell came across her nose. Wrinkling her velvet nose, she jumped onto a brick fence, and to the ground, landing in the bushes. A few steps out, she gasped sharply, just barely keeping herself from screaming, at the sight of a dead, short-haired orange tabby tom laying in the grass, bleeding from a deep gash in his neck. His green eyes stared lifelessly at the cloudy sky, and his mouth hung open, with blood on his tongue and teeth.
Sophia stood there, shaking at the sight of the murdered cat. Wh-what do I do?! What do I do?!
Her inner ramblings were interrupted when a gruff voice yowled, "Hey! You!"
Gasping again, Sophia scurried back into the bushes to hide, not thinking to jump back over the fence. It wouldn't have mattered; the tom who had yelled—she assumed it was a tom—would have easily followed her out onto the street.
"Come out with your tail down, asshole!" The voice growled. When Sophia failed to answer, she felt sharp teeth close around her skinny, rat-like tail. She squeaked in pain as she was dragged out into the open. "Whatduh?" The muffled voice grumbled, spatting out her tail. "Are you a giant rat, or some kind of hairless cat?"
Sophia looked over her shoulder to see a stocky cat that looked like a Manx. He was dark reddish-brown in color, with his face, belly, back paws, and front right paw being beige. His right eye was shut tight, and it looked like there was a large, dark, gouge scar over said eye, and his left paw was mangled, looking very much smaller than its twin.
She sat up, curled her tail around her haunches, and licked at the tip. The tip and base of her tail were pink, and the middle was pinkish-gray. Her front paws, whole left ear, and right ear tip were also gray, and she had gray splotches on her back and legs, and she had a gray stripe running from the back of her neck to the middle of her ears.
"Guess you're a hairless cat." The Manx remarked, sitting down as well. Once Sophia finished grooming her tail, she turned around and sat in front of the tom, glancing at the dead tom with a questioning expression. "In case you were wondering, I had nothing to do with this." He shook his head. "I just found him, and thought you had taken him out."
Sophia's eyes widened as she shook her head frantically, backing away. "Toots, I said I thought you did it." The tom rolled his eye. "I didn't say you did it. You'd be pretty beat up too."
Sophia relaxed, glancing at the dead tom. "So, not gonna say anything?" The Manx asked, scratching behind one small ear. "What's the matter, cat gotcher tongue?" He laughed at the joke.
Sophia deadpanned at the tom, not impressed. "Seriously, though, can you not talk?"
She nodded slightly haughtily. "Well, why haven't you made a sound?"
Sophia pointed at her eye with a paw and nodded. Then, she pointed at her ear, and shook her head. The Manx cocked his head in confusion. She did the gestures again, raising an eyebrow. "Seen…but not heard?"
She nodded, smiling slightly. The tom laughed again, "C'mon, that saying's been dead since before I was born. How'm I supposed to know your name?"
Sophia simply puffed out her chest, displaying her collar. The tom sniffed the collar, and saw the engraved name. "Sophia, huh?"
She nodded, slightly impressed. "Impressed, huh Toots? I'm much smarter than I look. I even read a book once in my lifetime. The name's Bluebeard. You new to the neighborhood?"
Sophia nodded again, glancing at the dead tom and wrinkling her nose. "Well, he's the third to drop dead this month." Bluebeard said as Sophia's jaw dropped in surprise. "But how 'bout we get away from this stinker and I show you 'round?"
Sophia nodded with a smile, turned around, and jumped back onto the stone fence. Bluebeard joined her, and led her down the length of the fence.
A/N I originally was going to stop when it mentioned the neighborhood changing Sophia's life forever, but decided it was kinda short. And I was able to introduce my favorite character of the film; in German, he's known as Blaubart (did I spell that right?) but in English, he's Bluebeard. I think he's the only character with a name change per language change.
Also, I've seen both German and English versions of the movie, and will try and mix them up in this story.
I won't be updating this or my Rise of the Guardians story for a couple weeks because my family and I will be on vacation for two weeks. But I wanted to get this out as soon as possible.