Hey guys, looks like it's time for another story! I've been in a "musicals" mood lately, and a big one I love is Cats. I mean, come one, how could you not love singing and dancing cats? And yes, there are going to be OCs in here, but they're a bit different; they're based off of and named after my own cats. Well, technically I only have one cat now, since the older of the two died a while back, but she's still alive in my heart. So I hope you enjoy the story!
Disclaimer: I don't own Cats or any of its characters.
Chapter 1: Braving the Outside
All was still in London at one in the morning. Clouds hid the moon and stars, but it was a warm night nonetheless. In a small apartment, a black and white cat was just waking up from her nap. She stretched each of her limbs and began to groom herself. As she carefully licked her left shoulder, a dark shape slunk slowly toward her. It stopped about a foot and a half away, wiggled a little, and then sprang. It landed on her back, and she yowled in surprise. She didn't swing at the shape, however; she already knew whom it was.
"Kiara," she meowed furiously, "Don't do that!"
The offender, another cat, grinned and licked her paw, grooming herself as the first cat had previously been doing. "Oh come on, Cookie, it's not like I hurt you."
Cookie shook herself to get rid of the tingly feeling that had come with being startled. "Maybe so, but I don't like it when you do that."
The two cats were littermates. They had been together all their lives, not even separating when their humans had picked them out of the rest of their litter. Kiara – a completely black and fluffy queen cat – was the older of the two, protecting her sister, but not stopping herself from teasing her sister. Cookie – a smaller black and white patched queen – had been the runt of the litter, and had still been picked especially by the human mother.
"Never mind that," Kiara said nonchalantly, although there was an excited undertone to her voice. "I have a huge, HUGE idea. I know you're not going to like it at first, but hear me out, okay?"
Cookie gave her sister a wary look. Her ideas usually didn't turn out the way she planned them. "What is it?"
"We should go outside."
Cookie froze. Out of all of Kiara's "huge, HUGE ideas", this one was by far the hugest. "What? Kiara, are you crazy?"
Kiara didn't react to her sister's outburst. She had been expecting her to react as such. "Oh come on, sis, don't tell me you've never wondered what it's like out there."
"Actually, no, I haven't! We're inside cats, Kiara; we can't just go out there like it's nothing! And anyway, how would we get out there, use our non-existent opposable thumbs to open the door?"
Kiara batted her sister's ear playfully. "That's easy; we use the dog door."
Cookie gaped at the black queen. Their family owned a large black dog as well as the two felines. They found him to be annoying, but were relatively able to ignore him. "You know that's not possible; only the dog can go through—"
"Cookie, I've done it before."
Cookie stooped mid-sentence and stared at her sister like mice were coming out of her ears. "You've what?"
"I've been through the dog door."
Cookie's jaw dropped. "You…Kiara, you've gone stark raving mad!"
Kiara glared at her sister. "The only thing I'm mad about is having to stay in his tiny apartment for so long! I'm so sick of watching everything from behind a window! Just try going through that door, Cookie; the smells alone make you want more!"
Cookie shook her head, feeling almost frantic. "No, Kiara, it's way too dangerous outside! There are cars, cat catchers and dogs – stray dogs, not ones like the one who lives with us! We could be—"
She was stopped by the determined look on Kiara's face. "You don't understand, Cookie; I'm going outside, whether you come with me or not. I wasn't meant to be an inside cat. That doesn't mean I'm not going to come back tonight, but I have to know what else is out there."
With that, she turned and exited the room, heading for the fabled dog door. As Cookie watched her sister, she was having a massive debate in her head. The sensible side of her was telling her that it was a scary and dangerous world out there, and it was too much of a risk to even consider leaving the apartment. But the mother-hen part of her was telling her that she couldn't just let her sister go out there all by herself. And then there was one more, very small part of her – the adventurous part of her – that was telling her that she wanted to know what was out there too.
After much internal arguing, she got up and dashed after her sister. It took quite a bit of courage to actually go through the flap. A cold breeze hit her the moment she was on the other side. Kiara was three feet away, about to leap over the chain link fence that separated the yard and the sidewalk. Cookie ran up next to her, and Kiara gave her a look of surprise. "I thought you weren't coming?"
Cookie shivered in the night air. "Well, someone has to keep you out of trouble, don't they?"
Kiara grinned and leaped over the fence, with Cookie not far behind. It was after Cookie had landed on the sidewalk that she really started to notice the smells. She was bombarded with scents of dogs, cats, rats, and various other animals, not to mention the aromas of a nearby restaurant and the cars that had been driving on the asphalt earlier that evening. It was almost overwhelming how many smells were hitting her.
"So," said Kiara, a big smile one her face, "Which way should we go?"
Cookie looked confusedly at Kiara. "You've been out here before, so shouldn't you know the best place to go?"
At this, Kiara looked sheepish. "Well, to tell you the truth, I only went as far as the fence last time. This is the closest I've been to actually exploring."
Cookie snorted. "Well, at least you have some sense of self-preservation."
Kiara rolled her eyes. "Whatever, let's just go this way," she said, walking to her left.
They both started on their little adventure, Kiara with bright, curious eyes, and Cookie with cautious, searching ones. Cookie expected at any moment for a dog to leap out and try to tear them to shreds. They walked down alleys and on top of fences, smelling new smells and (with Kiara) tasting things if they smelled good enough. They both had a bit of a scare when a car drove by and splashed them both with a puddle, causing them to leap three feet into the air and make a mad dash for a nearby alley. Once they realized that they weren't going to die, they laughed and cleaned each other off.
They had been wandering around for about a half-an-hour when Cookie said, "We've been walking a long time, Kiara. Why don't we head back now?"
Kiara shook her head. "No, not yet. There's one more place I want to take a look at before we go back."
Cookie looked curiously at her sister. "I thought you said you've never been this far out before. How can you know about this place if that's true?"
"An alley cat told me about it. He said something special happens there around this time of year, but didn't know what it is. I want to see if we can catch sight of anything."
Cookie checked the moon's position, and then sighed and said, "Okay, but if nothing happens after five minutes, then we go back, deal?"
Kiara considered this, and then said, "Deal."
They continued to walk, through one alley, down another, until they came to a fenced in area. Inside it were old rusty cars, cushionless sofas, and bits and pieces of all the things no one wanted anymore. Cookie looked incredulously at her sister. "A junkyard? That's the place you're so excited about?"
Kiara leaped over the fence and called over her shoulder, "Don't knock it 'til you've seen it."
Cookie hesitated before leaping over the fence as well. They both began to sniff around, looking for something…special. They crawled over boxes and into crevices, both ending up on top of an old car with a battered old license plate that read "TSE 1". From the top of that car they could see almost the whole junkyard, but nothing special materialized. The only thing strange about that place was the faint scent of cats; lots and lots of cats.
"Kiara, there's nothing here," said Cookie exasperatedly, "Lets just go."
"Not yet, there's something here, I know it," stated the black queen.
Suddenly, a car drove by, its headlights briefly illuminating the clearing in the middle of the junkyard. The two sisters weren't expecting to see anything there, but to their surprise, another cat was lit up briefly before letting out a surprised hiss and returning to the shadows. This sight so surprised them that they leaped down from the car and hid under it instead. As their eyes recovered from the blinding light of the headlights, they noticed more and more cats converging onto the clearing. The more cats showed up, the brighter the junkyard seemed to become. The sisters looked at each other, Kiara looking excited and Cookie looking terrified.
One final cat came forward – a tom by the looks of it – and stood up as proud and tall as he could. He hadn't noticed the two of them yet; none of the other cats had. As they watched, he sang one line of a song, with each of the cats taking a turn after him. Each line asked a question, and although it seemed strange, it was almost as if each question were aimed at the sisters hiding under the car. Then the two of them watched as the group of cats began to dance. It was an enchanting sight, each movement happening in accordance with every other movement. Neither of the sisters could take their eyes away.
In the middle of the song, however, two cats who looked almost exactly alike snapped their heads over to look directly at Cookie and Kiara's hiding place. "Intruders," they hissed.
Instantly, the junkyard cleared except for the tom who had started the song; a fluffy, grey striped cat. He stayed on the clearing, glaring at the car with his arms spread in a protective position. "Whoever is hiding there, show yourself now," he said in a commanding voice.
Cookie was trembling like a leaf in the wind, but Kiara bravely stood up and addressed the tom. "Please forgive us for interrupting, we don't mean you any harm. We just happened to be passing through when you started dancing."
The tom didn't move. "Only Jellicle cats may enter this place during the Jellicle Ball. How did you find your way here? Did Macavity send you?"
The rest of the cats hiding in the shadows hissed at the mention of this mystery cat's name. Cookie crawled out from under the car so that her sister wouldn't have to face the threatening cat alone, but in her head she was thinking to herself, "'Jellicle cats'? Where have I heard that term before?"
"Sir," said Kiara, using her most reasonable voice, "We've never even heard of this Macavity person. This is the first time we've been outside of our human's residence. I swear we have only good intentions."
The tom looked skeptical. Suddenly, the cat whom they had spotted in the glow of the headlights – a queen – came up behind him. He looked surprised, but allowed her to pass. She walked timidly up to Kiara. Cookie was amazed at how gracefully she walked, almost like she was still dancing. When she was standing directly in front of Kiara, she sniffed her gently, and then did the same with Cookie. When she was finished, she breathed a small sigh. "They do not carry his scent."
The tom sighed with relief and relaxed a little, but not completely. "How did you come to be here?" he asked as the rest of the cats began to emerge from their hiding places.
The sisters looked at each other and then Kiara shrugged and said, "We just…walked. And now here we are."
The tom gave them suspicious looks. "But you aren't Jellicle cats?"
"What are Jellicle cats?"
A collective gasp went up from all of the surrounding cats, and they muttered, "What are Jellicle cats?" incredulously.
Then the cats began to converge in front of the sisters. When they were all in one big group, they began to speak – no, more like chant. They explained about the naming of cats, each in a monotonous voice, always in time with each other. It was unnerving, and Cookie wanted nothing more than to make a mad dash out of that junkyard and back to her human's dwelling. Despite how terrified she was, however, the chanting seemed very familiar to her, as if she had heard it before.
Suddenly, the cats seemed to come to the end of their chanting and each began to slink into the shadows until there was only one cat left. It was a calico queen with bright reds and oranges and dark browns in patches all over her body. Slowly, she began to dance. It seemed to express her very personality, with flashy high leaps, but also subtle, barely noticeable movements. When she was still, a black and white cat ran out and ran his paws down her leg. He sang of the Jellicle Ball, and then the protective tom from earlier explained how the ball worked.
When all had fallen silent, Kiara and Cookie were stunned into silence. The grey tom took a step forward. "Well, do you understand now?"
Kiara and Cookie looked at each other, and Cookie could see that they were on the same page. For the first time since they had been discovered, Cookie spoke. "Those songs, that explanation, the term 'Jellicle cat', it all sounds so familiar to us. I can't exactly say where I've heard it, but it's something I've heard of before."
The grey tom seemed surprised to hear her speak, but played it off well. "Because you obviously have some experience with Jellicles, we cannot let this slide. What we must do is wait for Old Deuteronomy to return. He will know what to do."
Kiara's ears perked up with interest. "Is he your leader or something?" she asked.
"Yes," he said, "He should be here soon. Until then, there will be more dancing and singing that you can watch if you like."
Cookie shot a warning look at Kiara, but she either didn't notice or ignored it (most likely the second choice). "Sure thing," said the black queen, "But can I ask you something?"
"Yes?"
"It will me much easier to get things straight if you tell us your name."
The tom straightened up and said regally, "I am Munkustrap, protector of the Jellicle tribe. We do not have enough time to introduce every one of our members, but you won't have to worry; all of the next songs will introduce most of our members for us."
As Cookie and Kiara sat down next to the car to watch the Jellicles dance, Cookie furiously whispered to her sister, "I knew something bad was going to happen! Kiara, we have to get out of—"
"Chill, sis," said Kiara, "Nothing bad had happened yet; we're still alive and unharmed, and these guys dance amazingly! Besides, Munkustrap himself said that we couldn't leave until their leader got here, so we might as well just relax."
Cookie wanted to do anything but relax, but she knew there was no convincing her sister, so she laid down and watched the dancing. The first cat they introduced was a queen named Jennyanydots. Cookie liked this cat; she seemed very motherly, and organized too. That is, until she was stripped down to something resembling a flapper dress and started tap dancing. Then she resembled someone's cool aunt.
Just when she thought that everything was winding down, the sound of trumpets blared a catchy tune and a new cat burst through some papers in the back with a "Meow."
Cookie's jaw dropped. That cat was the most handsome tom she had ever seen. He appeared to be a main coon mix, with a spiked collar and a huge fluffy mane. The moment she laid eyes on him her heart skipped a beat. As the group sang about him – the Rum Tum Tugger they called him – he swung his hips and flirted with the female kittens who were surrounding him and squealing with joy. At one point he even danced up to Cookie and caressed her cheek, which made her face turn hot under her fur. Kiara grinned cheekily at her. "Ooh, someone likes what they see."
This only caused Cookie to blush more. "N-no, just watch the show."
"Oh believe me, I am," the black queen said, staring at Tugger's swaying hips, "Me-OW."
Cookie ignored her sister's crude behavior and continued to watch the flashy tom dance. It was almost hypnotizing the way he moved. Everywhere he went both female and male kittens followed him with looks of adoration and admiration. All of the queen kits wanted him, and all of the tom kits wanted to be him. Cookie would have been inclined to join them if she didn't think she would be completely mortified.
After his song ended, she didn't pay much attention to the other songs. She was too busy thinking about the curious cat; his beautiful fur, the lone curl in the middle of his forehead, and everything about him. She finally started paying attention again when she noticed that everyone had become very quiet. They were all looking around, as if searching for something. Suddenly, out of the group of cats a lone voice called out, "Old Deuteronomy?"
Cookie perked up. That was the name of their leader, wasn't it? She looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of the fabled leader, as the cats once again began to sing. Their tone was loving and full of admiration. Munkustrap sang warmheartedly of the old cat's long life, and Cookie's heart fluttered when the Rum Tum Tugger came out to sing a duet with the grey tom. She wondered briefly if they were related somehow.
Then a huge fluffy cat appeared and everyone was running up to him, embracing him and nuzzling him lovingly. He didn't ignore a single kitten, greeting them each individually and with equal amounts of love. The old cat made it to the top of the large tire and sang the final line of the song. His voice sounded as old as time itself, and yet resonated with strength.
It was then that he noticed Cookie and Kiara. His eyes lit up with surprise. "Who are these two? Are they Jellicle cats?"
Munkustrap brought them forward. "We don't know. They didn't know what a Jellicle cat was, but they said that they had heard the term before, and they were able to enter the junkyard. We need your guidance in what to do."
Old Deuteronomy looked them over, and Cookie couldn't help but feel as if he was evaluating her soul. She squirmed under his gaze, and Kiara did the same. Finally, the old cat said, "This is an unusual situation. Perhaps we should discuss this more privately."
Afternote: …This is the longest chapter I have ever written. Over 3000 words, and I actually cut it shorter than where I had wanted it to end! This is unusual for me! I started writing and then I just couldn't stop! Maybe I'm being influenced by the fact that it's NaNoWriMo…
Anyway, some things about these OCs that are the same about my own cat(s) are:
They really were sisters
Cookie was really the runt of the litter
She really was specially picked out by my mom
She really is more of a fraidy-cat than Kiara ever was
Their designs are exactly the same as their actual fur patterns
Now for the stuff that isn't the same:
We don't live in an apartment in London
Neither of them have actually attempted to use the dog's door
So, it looks like Cookie has a bit of a crush on the Tugger. Is that the pairing destined for this story, or do I have something else planned? You're not going to find out until later. I will warn you, one of these OCs isn't going to survive to the end of the story. I'm so mean to my characters. is shot
Thank you for taking the time to read this, hope to see you in the next chapter!
~DaAmazingMeepers ^w^