Author's Introduction:

In the middle of working on a big piece, sometimes yea, come little ones. (chuckles.)

This is dedicated to my very own White Blaze, soft and furry and constant companion. Couldn't sleep without that smiling face.

If It Hollers, Let It Go

A Ronin Warriors...something...byFirestar9mm

Swing it high, swing it low
If it hollers, let it go
If it's drowned there's only one way to take care of that
You must grab it by its feet, swing it high and swing it neat
You might save a life at that if you can swing a cat!

(Swing the Cat, lyrics by M. Davis, can be heard performed by Pyrates Royale)

Ryo Sanada caught Kento Rei Fuan's eye from his hiding place behind a cedar tree on the Koji estate. The two boys exchanged nods, each having sighted their prey and silently agreeing on how to proceed.

"One, two…" Ryo mouthed, and Kento yelled the last count aloud.

"—Three!"

Both boys pounced onto their target—a mucky, mud-spattered thing that only barely resembled a tiger. Unfortunately, Kento's yell had given the big cat a split-second warning of the impending attack, and now he bolted up the path. The two Ronin collided, heads knocking audibly against each other. "Owwww!" Kento howled as Ryo was knocked to the ground.

White Blaze knew he didn't have much time; he galloped towards the house, only to be intercepted by Cye Mouri wielding a washcloth.

"Gotcha!" Cye said as White Blaze ran headlong into the charge. Torrent had a few seconds to wipe some of the mud out of the big cat's eyes and whiskers. White Blaze stepped back with his front paws, body hunching as his back paws stayed planted firmly on the ground. He tossed his head, trying to get away from the washcloth.

Ryo had caught up by this time, grabbing the big cat around his middle. But the mud hadn't quite hardened yet, and the tiger squirted out of his friend's grasp, bowling Cye over in his haste to escape.

Crawling to retrieve the muddy washcloth, Cye grumbled, "Do we have to go through this every time it rains?"

Further down the path, almost in the yard of the Koji mansion, the two remaining Ronin had resorted to brainpower instead of brute force.

"I kinda feel bad f'r trickin' him like this," Rowen Hashiba called down to his partner in crime. The blue-haired Ronin was sitting astride a low bough of the tree overlooking the path to the house, knotting a length of rope into two loose nooses, one big and one small.

"Well, it's just like my grandfather said when I was a boy," Sage Date answered as he poured water from a bucket over the dirt path, making more of the mud that so attracted the big white tiger. "If he's going to play in the mud…" Halo tested the consistency of the mixture with his shoe and nodded, satisfied with the results, "…then he's going to take baths."

"Heads up," Rowen called excitedly. "He's comin'!"

White Blaze had managed to lose his pursuers; as he loped under the tree his paws slid in the newly created mud puddle. Much as Sage had predicted, he stopped to play, cantering with his front footpaws to feel them squish when he landed.

Rowen had stealthily lowered the noose in the middle of a particularly high canter; now he looped it expertly over the big cat's head and front footpaws, tightening it around his middle.

"Got him!" Rowen crowed, holding the other noose up in triumph.

Sage saw the danger in the situation and came out of hiding, but it was too late. White Blaze's ears stood up in horror, tail puffing up like a bottle brush. He bolted, dragging the hapless Rowen straight out of the tree. Letting go of the rope, Strata landed right on top of Halo, who had leapt to try and grab the tiger. Both boys ended in the mud, watching the tiger run for home, dragging the rope behind him.

"Thanks f'r breakin' my fall, Sage," Rowen groaned, trying to haul himself up.

Sage's response was muffled by mud. "Oh, no problem, Ro. The mud cushioned the blow to my spine."

"Makin' more mud to use as bait was your idea," Rowen argued, rolling off his friend's back.

Sage levered himself up on one elbow and glared from a face that was coated in dirt. "And it would have worked if you had tied the rope to the tree like we planned."

"Aah, you an' yer plans," Rowen scoffed, flicking mud at the blond.

Sage's lilac eyes caught fire and he plunged his hand into the puddle, coming up with a double handful of mud to throw back at the Ronin of Strata. A wrestling match ensued.

When the other three came jogging up, huffing and puffing, Sage had Rowen pinned to the ground and was trying to throttle him. Rowen, for his part, was smushing mud into Sage's hair.

Kento chuckled, breaking up the fight. "Guess you two brainiacs didn't have any luck either. Who's stupid now?"

Sage and Rowen immediately joined forces, each grabbing one of Hardrock's ankles and pulling him down into the mud.

Five filthy, bedraggled Ronin followed muddy paw prints towards the Koji mansion. "We'll never catch him now," Ryo lamented. "Why haven't we figured out a better way to do this?"

"I get the shower first," Kento declared.

Sage snorted. "Oh no, you don't. I'm filthy. I get to go first."

"There's more than one shower, guys," Cye pointed out. "And maybe Mia will let us use hers."

Rowen arched a blue brow that was mostly obscured by mud. ""If ya think she's even gonna let us in the house lookin' like this, you're nuts. It's the hose f'r us, guys."

"I get the hose first!" Kento announced, and started running for the yard.

"Kento!" the other four hollered, giving chase, but the Warrior of Hardrock stopped short almost immediately. "Look, there's White Blaze!"

White Blaze, still covered in mud, was stopped at the edge of the yard, focused intently on something between him and the house.

"White Blaze," Mia Koji cooed, swinging her hair and fluttering her eyelashes coquettishly at the big cat as she held something out to him. "See what I have for you."

What she had was a tuna steak; now she took a small piece of it and popped it into her mouth, closing her eyes and moaning as if the taste had sent her into ecstasy. "Mmm," she purred. "Tuna. Your favorite."

White Blaze's tail beat an excited tattoo against the ground at the sight of the treat; he even stepped one paw closer, looking eagerly at her.

"First one to come to me gets it all," Mia promised, holding a piece of the steak out and stepping backwards. White Blaze followed, and she fed him the piece of steak, all the time walking further backwards as she offered more. The boys watched in fascination as she led the tiger to the big wooden basin they kept for all of his ill-fated baths. Holding out the last piece of tuna steak, Mia stepped out of her flat shoes and into the basin, which was filled with warm water. Putting the plate down on the ground as she got to her knees, she used her free hand to splash some of the water on her shirt, soaking it. "Come here, White Blaze. It doesn't hurt, see?"

"I wouldn't believe it if I weren't seeing it with my own eyes," Ryo laughed appreciatively. "Why didn't I think of bribing him with food?"

"That's why she's th' smart one," Rowen joked.

White Blaze stepped one paw reluctantly into the basin, shuddering at the feel of the water, but still craning his neck towards the proffered treat. Mia held it just out of his reach, sitting on the far edge of the basin and forcing him to step further into the water. Finally hunger won out and he got all four paws in the basin, gobbling the piece of steak. "Good boy," Mia cheered, giving him a pat and reaching for a bottle of soap. Pouring some into her hands, she started to lather the big cat up, frowning when she saw the rope tied around his middle. "What did those mean old boys do to you?"

"Do to him?" Kento snorted. "Look what he did to us!"

Mia only laughed, reaching for the scrub brush. "You catch more tigers with tuna than with mud, Kento."

Rowen elbowed Sage sharply.

White Blaze made a sound like a weed whacker at the feel of the scrub brush, huddling miserably in the soapy water.

Ryo knelt by his friend's side and petted his damp head, taking the scrub brush from Mia to continue the work. "It's okay, boy. Almost done." White Blaze twitched his ears, still growling miserably.

Cye had found the hose nozzle; he handed it to Mia as soon as the water flowing from it was warm enough and she began to rinse the suds away.

"There's White Blaze!" Mia cheered, as if she were speaking to a very young child. "I thought we'd lost him under all that mud, but we found him!" She hugged the big cat around his clean neck. "What a good boy! All done." Turning to the boys, she laughed. "Now we need a bath."

"Tell me about it," Sage groused, pulling at his muddy forelock.

White Blaze was happy to oblige his tormentors by stepping delicately out of the basin and shaking himself vigorously. The Ronin cringed away from the spray, shielding their faces, and the tiger escaped into the cool of the house, happy the ordeal was over.

"And that's how you give a tiger a bath," Mia declared, drawing herself up smartly. The Ronin shook their heads and smiled. Ryo threw in some applause. Striking a pose with the scrub brush in one hand and the hose in the other, shirt and cutoffs thoroughly soaked and sticking to her, she winked and asked, "Who's next?"

Kento's hand shot up cheekily, and the others laughed—until a blast of water hit him from the side.

All eyes turned to Sage, who had taken the hose from Mia and trained it on Kento. "I changed my mind, Kento. You can have the hose first," Halo quipped, lavender eyes intense. "You need a cold shower!"

Rowen knocked on the upstairs bathroom door with dirty knuckles. "Ay. Some of us are still filthy an' covered in mud, pretty boy," he called in to the shower's occupant.

"You should have tied the rope to the tree," Sage answered, reveling in the high-pressure blast of hot water from the showerhead.

"I hate you." Rowen pounded on the door with both fists as Sage turned the taps off.

Not wanting to be totally cruel, Sage dried and dressed quickly, shaking wet hair as he emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, sighing contentedly. Rowen glared at him. Before Sage could react, the Ronin of Strata wiped a muddy hand across his face, then shot into the bathroom, locking the door.

Muttering a curse, Sage hurled himself at the door. "Rowen! Damn it—"

"Can't heah ya," Rowen said, turning on the taps. The sound of water on tile changed to the sound of water pelting against skin.

Sage snarled, glancing towards the landing. There was no chance of getting into the downstairs bathroom—Cye, Ryo and Kento had started a fistfight over it. The bathroom down the hall was Mia's and was off-limits, but surely she'd let him wash his face?

A humming sound greeted him as he got closer to the door, and then Mia's voice could be heard over it. "Don't tell the others I let you in here. They'll be jealous!"

Sage's mouth fell open in surprise. Had one of the others wheedled his way in here?

"You smell so good," Mia sang. "Feels good, right?"

Later, Sage would reflect that forcing the door to a woman's bathroom open with his shoulder without knocking was probably not courteous, especially when he should have predicted the sight that awaited him.

White Blaze was sitting on the floor of the large bathroom, claws flexing in contentment. Mia was perched on the side of the large bath; she had a blow dryer aimed at the big cat's flanks and a brush in her other hand. The room was warm and her hair was damp, as if she'd been bathing, too.

She smiled wryly at Sage. "Did you get chased out of the shower? What happened to your face?"

Sage frowned. "Rowen thought I took too long. May I borrow your sink?"

She laughed. "Knock yourself out." The dryer clicked off and she resumed brushing White Blaze's fur.

"You spoil this cat, you know," Sage said conversationally, scrubbing at the mud on his face.

"Nonsense." Mia stroked White Blaze's ears. "Sometimes it's just nice to be pampered and have someone fuss over you. Right, boy?"

The big cat's tongue caressed Mia's cheek. She caught his chin in her hand and kissed his muzzle. "No more mud puddles for you for a while. Okay?" She patted his flank, and the big cat rubbed against Sage's legs like a big housecat before heading into the hallway.

Mia shook out her wet hair. "And Jill came tumbling after," she chuckled. "It's never boring with you guys around."

Sage leaned against the sink, considering her carefully. "You were great today."

She smiled. "Nah, it's just girl stuff."

"Sometimes it takes a girl to think of something like that," Sage said. His fingers crept down the sink to the drawers beneath it; pulling one out, he found a smaller brush than she'd been using on the tiger's fur. She braced both hands on the edge of the bath as if she were going to get up; his hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"Hm?" she asked, turning her head as he sat behind her, one hand pushing her head gently back to face front.

"Don't move your head," he said, tugging her wet hair over her shoulder to tumble down her back.

She giggled softly as he worked the brush through the damp locks. "What are you doing?"

"Fussing over you," he said matter-of-factly.

"And you didn't even have to chase me," she joked.

Moving the brush carefully through a particularly stubborn snarl, he murmured, "I don't think I could catch you."

She turned her head ever so slightly, just enough to catch his gaze. "No?"

Their gazes locked for a second; Sage was the first to look away, focusing on the movements of the brush as he restored order to her unruly hair. "Thank you for letting me in," he said—the perfect way to explain the day's actions, all of them.

Mia nodded, watching him as he replaced the brush in its drawer. Standing, she reached both hands to gather her hair up and tie it back.

Once more, Sage's hand on her arm stopped her, an expression that was just short of a smile on his face.

"Leave it."

Mia smiled, walking past him and out of the room, hair swinging loose down her back.

Author's Notes:

This was just something that struck me during a really bad day. I was at work and I guess I was missing my White Blaze. As soon as I get home, first thing I do is go in the back room and bring him out to sit with me. He's right by my side right now, smiling away!

Actually, tigers love water, so I've learned (chuckles) but I had fun writing this, so I decided to put it up anyway. I just laughed at the idea of White Blaze tearing around the Koji estate while five beleaguered Ronin gave chase (tips over, laughing).

Swing the Cat is a sea shanty, and a great one at that. I first heard it here on the outer banks at Harborfest by this awesome band called the Pyrates Royale, but internet research seems to say that the lyrics were written by someone named Meg Davis. Anyway, it's a funny song. Pyrates Royale are great, and being a bit of a nautical ottermaid, I'm a sucker for a great sea shanty. It is not meant to promote violence towards cats. It is meant to promote violence towards rats. I think.

So there's a story, as my beta said, for a hot sticky summer afternoon! (smiles) Just for fun.