Title: Ritzkin (1/6)
Rating: PG
Warnings: Macavity is a mean kitty. His father isn't much better.
Additional Notes: The biggest rivals to the Jellicle tribe in this story is the Monnik tribe. They got their name for me thinking I was terribly clever - Jellicle is the end of angelical. The rivals of angels are demons. Demonic. Terribly clever, isn't it?
This is the first story in what will hopefully be an arc revolving around Ritzkin and Munkustrap.
Ritzkin - Part 1
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A little black kitten, lost on his own?"
Tugger drew back with a hiss at the sound of the purring voice, his ears flat against his head. Skollus, his brother, bounded back toward him, mewing in distress.
"Ah, not alone. Two to play with, brother!"
"Get down, idiot!" Tugger smacked Skollus with his uninjured paw, making the slightly older black kitten drop into a crouch. This wasn't good. They were in Monnik territory, and Tugger had a bleeding leg. He couldn't run like this, and Skollus was too moronic to be trusted to do anything without his help. "We're gonna haveta fight 'em."
Skollus looked over at Tugger's gold face and nodded, complete trust in his reddish eyes, trust tinged with only a bit of fear. They had just escaped another battle with a pack of Pollicle pups, which was why they were in Monnik territory with Tugger bleeding all over the place instead of safe in their Jellicle home.
Tugger really hoped their new assailants were kittens. He knew at least one of them was a cat, that type of purr couldn't be replicated by any other animal he had encountered, and since the purring one mentioned a brother, presumably there was a second cat. The voice, though cold and cruel, was rather high for a tom, but too low for a queen. A male kitten, however, could easily fit into that range – he knew, his own caterwauls sounded a lot like that.
Sure enough, a small, lean kitten paced toward him, a cruel smirk twisting his lips. In the dim light, Tugger could make out the stripes of a ginger tabby. When Skollus twitched beside him, Tugger turned his head enough to watch a grey tabby kitten emerge from their other side. The grey tabby wasn't smirking, but he didn't look very kind.
"What should we do with these two?" the ginger tabby asked, grinning wickedly at the Jellicle brothers.
"Why are you even bothering to ask me, Macavity?" the grey tabby replied, sitting a foot away, his tail flicking irritably.
Tugger's eyes widened at name, and he scrabbled back away from Macavity, pressing his back against Skollus'. Macavity. That meant the grey tabby was Ritzkin. Though only kittens, Macavity and Ritzkin already had a reputation as the Terror Twins, cats who were evil incarnate. As the story went, they were born with a terrible bloodlust, which they immediately began to slake by devouring their family. Macavity ate their four littermates while Ritzkin chewed his way out of his mother's belly. They were killing full-grown rats by the time they were a week old, and their first Pollicle kill had come after only a month of life.
Tugger knew that Macavity and Ritzkin were his age. He thought they were so cool, without any moms to wash their ears at the most embarrassing moments, or stupid older brothers who sat on their heads (Macavity never sat on Ritzkin's head in the stories). Still, now that Tugger wasn't listening to a story, but staring at the two evil Monnik kittens, he realized they weren't as cool as they used to be. Especially not with Macavity chuckling as he described the best way to eat the two…
Tugger glanced between the Monniks. Macavity was hopping from paw to paw, excitedly detailing the way kitten bones would crunch between their teeth. Ritzkin was looking bored and irritated, flicking his tail faster and faster. The seeds of an escape plan began to form in Tugger's mind.
"Skollus!" he hissed, careful to keep his voice as quiet as possible. "When I says "go," run thatta way," he pointed in the direction of Jellicle territory, "until you finds one of the adults, and tell thems to come here, and fast, 'cause I'm being attacked by Leviticus!" Leviticus and Deuteronomy were old rivals, and news of Deuteronomy's youngest son being attacked by Leviticus would be sure to bring the Jellicle army coming. "You got me?"
Skollus blinked slowly, his mouth hanging open, head tilted to the side, and just as Tugger was about to cry in frustration, he gave a nod. Tugger gave a weak smile. Okay, Skollus understood. Now to distract the Monniks, and pray he wasn't eaten alive before the Jellicles could arrive.
The Monniks, though, seemed happy to do the distracting for him. As Macavity clapped his paws together, getting to the climax of his tale (something about Tugger's still-beating heart making a 'squelch' as he bit into it), Ritzkin opened his mouth and yawned, big and loud, showing off a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. Macavity lunged forward with a hiss, glaring at Ritzkin. "Do you have a better idea!?" he demanded, scratching at the pavement with his claws.
"Go!" Tugger whispered to Skollus, who took off quietly (for once).
"Why do we always have to eat everything?" Ritzkin asked, seemingly unfazed by Macavity's show of temper. "They're cats. Like us."
"They're not like us! They're not Monniks!" Neither cat seemed to notice Skollus' departure.
"I bet they even have names," Ritzkin continued on. "Hey, you, kitten, what's your name?"
Tugger blinked, trying not to cower under the other kittens' scrutiny as two pairs of eyes, one brown, one gold, were turned on him. "I'm the Rum Tum Tugger," he said, cursing the way his voice broke with a squeak.
"See, he's just like us." Ritzkin lifted a paw to his mouth and began to wash it delicately. "And now that he has a name, we can't eat him. We don't eat named cats."
"Says who?" Macavity smacked the ground again. "Says who, says who, says who?"
"Says me," Ritzkin replied, sticking his tongue out far more than was necessary to wash his paw.
Macavity hissed, arching his back and fluffing his fur up. Ritzkin lowered his paw and rose, returning the hiss.
Tugger tried to push himself onto four trembling paws and limp away while the brothers were distracted.
"Stop it!" Macavity launched himself at Tugger, who fell on his hurt paw with a whimper. He felt sharp teeth pierce through his ruff before Macavity tumbled off Tugger with a yowl, having been tackled by Ritzkin.
"You stop it!" Ritzkin shouted, stomping his grey paw on his brother's. "We're not eating a kitten we know the name of!"
"Maybe you won't, but I'm hungry!" Macavity shouted back.
Tugger whimpered, nudging his left paw. He couldn't feel it very well. Running was definitely out of the question, and walking would be difficult at best.
"Ahem." A larger shadow loomed over the three kittens, belonging to a large gold and brown tom. "Is everything all right, boys?"
"Uncle Skimble!" Tugger shouted. "They was gonna eat me!"
"Eat you? Now, that wouldn't be very nice." Behind Skimbleshanks, an older red tabby sat – Asparagus, the theatre cat. Skollus had come through for him! Tugger was never so glad in his life to see an adult cat, much less two of them.
Macavity hissed, hunkering low to the ground. In front of the two Jellicle toms, he didn't look so big or scary anymore. "We weren't really gonna eat him. We were just playing, weren't we, Kinny?"
"Yeah, just playing." Ritzkin was slinking backwards away from the group, already mostly covered by shadows. "Mac, I hear Mom calling. We need to get back."
Macavity shot Tugger a glare as he turned and bounded after Ritzkin, whispering, "I'll eat you someday!"
Skimbleshanks shook his head and padded over to Tugger, nudging him onto his back. "Skollus came running through the theatre, yowling up a storm about Pollicles and monsters and you being in trouble." He licked the wound on Tugger's leg, cleaning it roughly. "I didn't think two little kittens would be enough for you to get in over your head." He sounded amused, and Tugger's fur bristled angrily.
"It wasn't just two kittens!" he began to protest, but Gus cut him off.
"Pollicles too, right? You and Skollus fought off a whole pack?" He winked at Tugger before picking him up by the scruff of his neck. Tugger curled up as if it were his momma carrying him.
Skimbleshanks shook his head and followed Gus back to Jellicle land. "You shouldn't encourage their stories, Gus, you'll only make them worse." Gus gave a slight toss of his head and roll of his eyes, but made no other reply, as his mouth was full.
Shortly after returning to Jellicle territory, the trio was beset by a group of Jellicles. Coricopat and Tantomile, the twins, were in the lead, their glittering eyes focused on Tugger. Carsina came running up behind, Tugger's sleek black mother. She pushed between the twins and pulled Tugger from Gus, cooing over him, licking his fur down, washing behind his ears… "Mo-om!" Tugger wailed, trying to bat her away, feeling his cheeks burn. Oh how embarrassing! And in front of Cassandra, too! He could see the older Burmese sitting behind the twins. She gave him a small smile when he caught her eye, and his cheeks flared up even worse.
"You're very lucky you weren't killed!" Carsina cried, lecturing him between swipes of her tongue. "Skollus was wailing about the horrible monsters and the Pollicles, and Leviticus!"
Skimbleshanks laughed. "Nah, don't worry, Miss Carsina. The monsters were nothing more than a couple of Monnik kits. Tugger probably scraped his paw on something sharp and they were teasing him about it. There was no scent of Leviticus or Pollicles."
Gus sighed, shaking his head ruefully. "Skimbleshanks, the least you could do is let the kits have their stories. Imagination is the gift of the young, after all." He passed by the other Jellicles, bumping his shoulder against Carsina's. "Keep that up, Missy, and you'll lick away his ears. Now me, I'm going back to the theatre."
"Yes, yes," Skimbleshanks said, nodding. "I'll be going with you, see if that show is over yet. Tell Jenny I'll come by for a visit after supper!" With a wave of his tail, he trotted off after Gus.
Carsina picked Tugger up, and he could hear her still scolding him through his fur. Cassandra's smile seemed to be laughing at him now, and Tugger curled his hind paws up, wishing he could disappear. Nobody would believe him now, if he told them how he had been attacked by Macavity and Ritzkin and managed to hold off the two bloodthirsty brothers, buying Skollus enough time to make his escape back to the safety of their home… and to make things worse, Cassandra had to see his mom bathe him!
