Disclaimer: CATS belongs to Andrew Lloyd Weber, the RUG, and T.S. Eliot.

He'd had a lot of experience being in an unknown place, with strangers whom he had to accept and learn about, and for things to settle down and fall into a rhythm, a steady pace, when out of the blue, everything changed.

As a result, he'd had a lot of practice – almost too much – at adapting on the fly. Adapting on the fly, and adjusting by himself. Some companions helped greatly – others hindered, many times with malicious intent. Others still had left him to the night, and the good will of the unknown.

But this – this topped them all. This awful, awful situation was so much the same in so many ways, yet was strangely unfamiliar.

Maybe, Alonzo thought, it was because for the first time in a lifetime of unfamiliarity and changes, he now had the power to make the situation better. He wasn't in the dark; he had some form of control. And even though the thought should have been exhilarating, exciting…

Right now it was just scaring him shitless.

This hadn't been how it was supposed to be. He knew he was where he was by some form of default and an incredibly strange sort of luck, he supposed, and somehow, he didn't know how in Heaviside it had happened, he was benefiting from it. In a way.

But…he would be the first to admit that he'd never actually wanted this. In some ways, he still wasn't sure if it was what he really wanted. He'd had to do a lot of self-convincing in order to get himself to accept his position, and even now, most of his unquestioned self-confidence and bravery was merely a façade. One where he could usually fool everyone – including himself – into thinking it was real – a façade nonetheless.

So easy, to pretend he was really a protector.

But it was times like these – and this one in particular – that Munkustrap had himself convinced that he really wasn't the right one to do it. To keep an entire tribe, a growing tribe, safe. He had tried, tried so hard to protect them all from everything in their lives that could harm them and hurt them, but now…

Now, even as he lay, unaware of anything, he knew he had failed them. He had left them unprotected. And he hated himself for it.

She knew that she was had not been born into the tribe. She had known that for a long time, and it never bothered her. She had family enough with them, and friends, and the best father figure she could have asked for.

There had been something, though. Something which was only just beginning to come to light. She kept having the feeling that, somehow, inexplicably, she had more of a relation to them than they cared to admit. Possibly, that there was something important that they were not telling her. She had been feeling a strange sense of foreboding, and could swear that she was being watched.

But she would turn around, and no one would be there. Strange, that, and the feeling she got around so many of them. A sense of kindred.

There was something else, though. Electra knew that there was another kind of feeling coming well into light. It was inevitable, she supposed, what with being at the age and stage she was at.

But she'd never thought that it would happen in this way – the way it shouldn't happen, and the way she knew she would have to keep hidden away for a very long time.

Author's note

This is the prelude to the rest of this story, which is the multi-chapter story I mentioned on my profile. I'll not give too much away now, but it's in three parts - Unfamiliar; Protector; and Kindred. And three guesses as to the central characters in the story (and each of the three respective parts). The first chapter will probably be posted in a week and a half, two weeks, something like that.

I've had this story in my head for ages, and now it's actually happening! I'm so excited!

Until next time: Unfamiliar, Chapter 1

~JemmiVoice