The Kit Who Grew Up Too Fast
The soft cries of kits, a distinct change in the amount of pain in her abdomen, and the joyous purrs of her mate. That is what alerted Marionette to the fact it was finally over. Her second time giving birth had produced three more kits, a tom and two she-cats, a voice said in much simpler terms. Davie had never been spectacular with words, but he was kind and loyal, and the perfect mate for a cat like her.
"Can we see?" A voice gasped from nearby. With a wave of her tail, Marionette beckoned over her eldest kits, Tiana and Mira. "Oh, thank you, thank you!"
Tiana gaped at the tiny bundles of fur, but Mira was already curling up by them, nosing and cooing over the small, albeit chubby, bundles. The tom let out an indignant squeak that only made Marionette and Mira coo more, while Tiana shot her father an incredulous look.
"Let's not swarm the poor things. Tiana, Mira, it's your turn on stage tonight," David said with his odd little accent as he lounged behind his mate, watching the kits with fond, warm hazel eyes.
Tiana dragged her sister off before the complaining could begin, leaving their parents in their secluded den, away from the noise of the circus. In the shelter of an empty crate, a mass of cloth, blankets and what looked suspiciously like a scarf made a perfectly suitable nest.
"You name the first one," Marionette sighed, leaning her elegant, small head against her mate's broad, dark shoulder.
After a few seconds, he decided that the first cream she-cat would be called Jewel. The next one, Marionette named Jade.
They stared at the tom for several minutes, unable to muster the energy or creativity to find a suitable name for him.
Eventually, Marionette let out a dry, tired laugh, her eyes already shut.
"Why not?" She sighed. "Circus."
As she finally fell asleep, Davie slowly began to nod, smiling down at his young kits.
"Circus it is."
A joyous laugh sounded out from the Ringmaster as he watched the kittens potter around, while their older sisters tried to get them to play.
He had been as proud as any parent when he discovered that his dear old pet had once again had kittens, and was quick about taking more photos than should be possible, most of which were scattered around his sleeping quarters.
"Aren't your family just adorable?" He beamed, scooping up Marionette and placing her on his knee. She sat down, head up high, looking down upon her family as if she was a queen, and they were her subjects.
"The little children love kittens, and while they keep them quiet, you and your eldest ones will perform like the stars you are!" He chortled as Davie, in that peculiar way of his, sprung onto his shoulder. The way his cats interacted, it seemed almost as if Marionette was telling him off.
A loud ringing of bells, which served as an alert just as well as a knock at a door, made Marionette get to her paws and after several elegant stretches, she went down to usher her children out the way, as what could be described as a stampede of brightly colored feet marched into the room.
Coo's filled the air as the women of show business laid eyes on the very confused kittens in the center of the room. The Ringmaster found himself surrounded by feathers, flamboyant coats, fake wings and everything in between as they doted on the newborn bundles.
In vain, he tried to convince them to move on to another recently born baby, this time a baby elephant, but very few listened, all too enamoured with fluffy little kittens.
One of the female kittens, with bright, almost violet eyes was grumbling unhappily as she was petted from every angle, and the other, who was identical to her, only with eyes of emerald, was squirming in the firm grip of an animal trainer, but the boy was basking in the attention, stumbling around adorably with wide eyes and flopping over on cue. One of the acrobats turned around to exclaim that he had a new performer in the family, and the Ringmaster could only nod as he watched a future star be raised into the air like a tiny champion.
His proud mew caused the tent to be filled with delighted squeals, and if a bystander was passing, they would no doubt be wondering why a group of women and men in drag were crammed into the Ringmaster's nice purple tent, but thankfully there was only people from the circus allowed here, and they were all far too used to the way many reacted around small baby animals.
As they finally left the tent, he was relieved to see that none of his suitably jaunty-looking furniture had been ruined or put out of place, and that he still had all his cats in one piece. He sat down again on the velvet blanket that covered his bed, purple, like everything else in the room. The Ringmaster chortled as he noticed that David was still perched on his shoulder like a weird, fuzzy parrot. The rest of his 'family' clambered up onto the bed, the kittens complaining as they were being lifted up inelegantly by the neck.
His grin faded to a happy smile, as the cats settled down next to him, curled up until they resembled a giant circle of fuzz.
"Sleep well, my little performers. We have a big day tomorrow."
"Circus, stop showing off!" Mira whined like she was the youngest, pouting up at her brother as he sat perched on one of the big circles that those weird humans decided to spin around in at the roof.
"Leave him," Tiana chuckled with a grin. "I'll bet ya' now he can't get down for at least an hour."
"I can hear you!" A faint voice yelled from above.
"Well, it's spinning, so getting down is gonna be fun," Tiana snorted as the circle slowly began to rotate around.
Circus glared down at them from above as he fought to keep his balance. Jade would have no trouble doing this, he thought, feeling a pang of loss for his sisters. They had been sent away only a day before he started to perform for the other Two-legs.
"They'll be taken care of, they'll be house cats now," his father had said reassuringly, right before he went on stage.
Performing wasn't nearly as fun as he imagined it to be. Often it just meant that he had to weave in and out of their owner's legs, or jump over his arms or equally boring. The best bits were when he would go up with the weird female two-legs who did strange twists and spins in the hoops near the roof. But all of this happened rarely, as most of the time it was his parents who went on stage and 'disappeared' for a bit in one spot, before reappearing again.
"It's Circus, darling," his mother told him one day, "It's weird and sometimes boring and sometimes amazing and you just get on out there and do your best, and that's all you can do."
So, like the show-off he was, he made it his goal in life to be better than the rest of his family, and by default, go on stage more than the rest of his family.
"Your pride's going to kill you one day!" Mira shouted up at him as he climbed back up onto one of the thin, cold bars that criss-crossed at the top of the odd, brightly-colored den they performed in. After several minutes of near-death experiences trying to climb down, he jumped down next to his siblings, and after several minutes of scolding they were off.
"It's a tradition," Mira explained, checking that her fur was perfect in the reflection of a puddle. "We go out every full moon to the town, socialize a bit, then head back at sunrise. There's no shows tomorrow, so it's fine to have a late nap."
After confirming this with Tiana, Circus reluctantly agreed to go along.
"You could show off your fancy footwork to some she-cats. We don't always like big, beefy toms you know," Mira said with a wink, causing Circus to momentarily freeze, his face growing warm.
They remained silent for the rest of the journey as they navigated through long, dark alleys, across busy, stinking roads, and once even across the slippery rooftops, as dogs barked at them from below, until they finally reached a run-down creaky old house, that seemed to be inhabited by at least 30 cats.
Tiana gave him a reassuring nod, and after a moment's hesitation, he slipped into the den - and his jaw dropped.
Cats were on the slender beams at the top of the den, near the roof, leaping around and doing something akin to dancing, while others sat around a massive bowl of meat and cat food, chatting up a storm. There were cats doing dramatic stunts, cats taking a drink from a large barrel of something that didn't smell entirely of water, and still there were more and more cats arriving.
But that wasn't the impressive thing. Most likely, somebody had stolen it from the circus, but one of the strange machines that made multi-colored lights flash in strange patterns, was currently sitting in a corner, illuminating everything with a strange, bright glow.
"I told you you'd like it!" Mira exclaimed, running off to start chatting with a group of cats who were laughing near the light. Circus could faintly hear them welcoming him with loud, cheerful shouts, but the noise of everything else drowned her reaction out.
"Head up top," Tiana advised, gesturing to a sort of platform at the top corner of the room, with a series of crates stacked up to make it easy to reach. "The new, younger cats always start out there."
Giving her a thankful smile, Circus nimbly weaved in and out of cats who eyed him for a second, mildly curious, before he ascended up to the platform.
"Yes! I'm not alone!" A male voice shouted, a voice that Circus quickly realized belonged to an oddly feminine-looking thin white tom, with yellow eyes.
A she-cat this time, with long fur and dark eyes, added on, "You're not the only tom anymore, Citrus."
Glancing around, partly blinded by the bright lights, Circus suddenly noticed that there were two more she-cats, one with light gray fur and blue eyes, and another with dark brown fur and green eyes.
"Introductions, introductions!" The gray cat beamed. "I'm Isabelle, this is Eve," she gestured to the she-cat next to her, "the tom is Citrus," the white tom waved his tail happily, "and that's-"
"I'm Diana," the first she-cat interrupted. "And you are?"
"I'm Circus," he replied with a half smile.
Eve smiled and said in a teasing tone, "I guess it's not too far of a stretch to guess you're from there too?"
Nodding, Circus added on cheekily, "my parents wasted all their creativity on my four sisters."
"We can hear you!" a faint voice yowled from below.
Citrus let out a cackle of laughter, the other four soon joining in.
Circus smiled as they bantered, previously unaware to the fact that he had missed the company of cats his age so very much. In fact, Mira had to drag him off the platform by his scruff, much to the others' amusement.
It was only as they were leaving the meet-up, that Circus realized something.
"Where's Tiana?" he asked, frowning.
Mira shrugged, replying in an odd tone, "With a friend. She'll probably stay the night."
"I thought we weren't aloud," Circus said, confused by this sudden change.
"Well, when has Tiana ever listened to the rules?"
Their journey carried on in silence.
"You shouldn't have just left her there! Who knows what she could be doing right now!" Marionette snarled at Mira, in an uncharacteristic display of anger.
"I couldn't stop her!" Mira yelped back. "She refused to leave him!"
Davie laid his tail over Marionette's shoulders, soothing her with slow, steady licks to her cheek. "Mira and Circus have said they will go back there and look for her again tonight, okay?" Turning to Mira with a stern look, he added on, "Right," Mira?"
Mira shakily nodded and left, immediately curling up in her nest with something that could be described as a whimper, if it wasn't Mira who was making the noise. Because Mira did not whimper. It was a strange thing - her refusal to give in to her weakness, to admit she was sad, by whimpering. She would shout it out to the heavens if possible, but she utterly refused to make one tiny sound. It tricked a lot of cats into thinking she was actually okay.
Except one.
A small, bony body curled up next to her.
"I heard the conversation," Circus murmured, slowly starting to groom his sister's pelt. "I'll go with you."
"Thank you," Mira whispered in relief, shutting her eyes tight, letting herself fall into sleep's warm embrace, calm in the company of her younger brother.
They were both anxious as later that night, they retraced Tiana's steps through long grass and bushes of thorns that scratched their pelt, leaving long, red lines, until even Mira couldn't tell which scratches were from her mother. For once, Mira didn't care.
"Who was he? The tom she was with?" Circus asked, feigning curiosity in an effort to distract Mira. It didn't exactly work.
"A fox-heart, a good-for-nothing rat. He and his friends charmed her, but if only she knew... if he's laid a single paw on her where he shouldn't have, he's dead. He's straight up dead," Mira spat, fur bristling.
Of course, he and his friends obviously had laid more than a few paws on her where they shouldn't have.
Her stomach was split open, not the clean cut you would use when halving meat, but a thick, jagged cut that made it seem like they ripped it open with the sole intention to cause pain. Her pelt, though it was clean and glossy last night, was matted with dried blood and flies, covered in a thousand scratches so that it was practically hanging off of her. Her eyes were hollow, bloody sockets, and like some cruel joke two blue flowers, as blue as her eyes, were put in the place where her irises would have been, staring up at them, mocking them. He claws were unsheathed and clumps of different-colored fur was scattered around her, so Circus could only assume that she didn't go without a fight.
Mira turned away from it, unable to breath due to the symphony of sobs and cries that escaped her mouth, as she wailed her sadness and fury to the sky, still never once whimpering.
But Circus stared at the mangled corpse. He stared and he stared and he stared, memorizing every detail. And at some point, he realized that he was staring because he found the whole arrangement beautiful. Like the strange colored bits of paper that looked like cats or people or flowers in the Ringmaster's tent, Tiana's body seemed to have had the same time and effort put into it, into the way it would be seen, the way it would be found.
And it was there, standing over his dead sister, that Circus grinned. A maniacal, out of control grin, as tears fell from his eyes, and the loss and sadness he felt was rivaled by satisfaction, by joy.
Circus had seen his first brutal, brutal death. And he liked it.
For the circus, he always had to act older, more mature than he actually was. He had to learn what felt like a hundred things every day, and learn how to perform them as if they were second nature, as if he was born with the talent he has now. There is no place in the circus for immaturity and silliness, his mother had told him, the first time he had ever been beaten by the trainer. There is only room here for hard work and dedication, for cats that stand tall and perform as they should, with no distractions, no other intentions.
There is no place in the circus for kits. If you want to remain... grow up. Grow up fast. And never, ever let yourself be affected by anything that may happen during a show. During a performance. Find a way to see beauty in it. Find a way to make it nice.
Well, mother. He had done just that.
A/N: So, guys, this isn't going to be a long story, there's only going to be one more chapter, showing Circus' life as 'The Cat Who Kills Too Much'. I'll try have it posted sometime between 24th-10th, but I will warn you now, there's going to be quite a bit more death and corpses like Tiana's.