Dou'gian was not a proseperous town by any means, the streets populated with rabble and urchins. Orphans were common, even more so after it's orphanage burned down. A traveler to the area once remarked, "The whole place was very depressing, but the locals seem to bear it with stoic faces...It is pitiable, but that is their lot in life. nothing can be done to help them."
-an excerpt from "Towns and villages: a Historian's Handbook" A reference created in the Xan dynasty.
Dank winds, void of any freshness, wafted hazily through the backalleys and streets of Duo'gian. There was no respite, no break to be found for anyone unfortunate enough to not have the luxury of a house to sleep in. One was lucky to even have the shirt on his back, and infinitely more so to have someone to share it with him.
The small form of a canine, hardly twelve years of age, skirted and weaved unhesitatingly through the busy streets and alleys, ignoring the shouts of "Stop! THEIF!" behind her. The package that she now held, clutched to her chest, had been hard-won and hard-found, and she wasn't about to give it up.
She darted beneath a rickshaw, and clung to the undercarriage, a technique she used often to escape from unwanted situations. A small smile formed crookedly across her lips, hearing the confused cries of her pursuers.
The puppy hung there a while, till the rickshaw became of no use to her. Letting it go, she then dropped to the ground, and took a furtive glance around before darting away, off into the shadows.
She made her way down the maze of streets and passages, finding a familiar alley. It was almost more of an abandoned house than an alley, dark and dreary. In fact, one could almost imagine that it was a building, burnt down by some ancient fire. On closer inspection, this person could perhaps say that it was the charred remains of a half-burnt orphanage...
The puppy scaled a small pile of debris with astonishing ease, indicating extensive practice. Behind it, a small room, with charred walls, loomed.
The puppy approached, unafraid, but furtive, glancing this way and that quickly.
Suddenly, a small form dropped from the blackened ceiling, and the puppy bared her teeth at the intruder.
"Well, aren't you the bold one," the intruder said, in a slightly mocking tone, "Now, stop that snarling, or I'll make you!"
The puppy clutched her package closer to her chest, still with lips curled. She eyed the intruder cautiously. It was smaller than she, a kitten of about her age. The puppy's neck hair rose intimidatingly, as the kitten shot a hungry look at her package.
"You do nuffin," the puppy replied, speaking at last, "I don't take 'strucions from a teeny cat!"
The kitten didn't appear phased, only smiling slightly.
"Well then, in that case," the feline grinned, "Why don't you GIVE something?"
The puppy cocked her head, confused. 'Huh?"
"Yeah, give something!" the kitten hissed, suddenly snarling, "Like that package!"
"NO!" the small canine barked, shielding the precious package with her body, "This is MINE!"
The kitten didn't reply, instead, leaping forward with a yell, small claws extended.
The puppy jerked back, and moved into a protective stance, fists balled. The kitten clawed sideways, but the puppy jerked backwards, and punched the kitten in the face. HARD.
The kitten groaned, and fell backwards, but twisted around, cat-like, so she landed on her feet, and back-kicked the puppy to the ground. The puppy lunged forward on all fours, driven by the canine instinct to close, to grab and to hold-
But her snapping teeth met with nothing, as the kitten nimbly leaped upwards, landing on the puppy's back, claws dug in, before leaping off and running towards the parcel, which the puppy had left safely on the floor. The smell of freshly-baked bread came from it, almost overpowering...
The kitten felt paws close around her tail, and she was jerked backwards, as the puppy began to draw her in, despite her flailing claws, paws, and teeth.
Soft footsteps invaded the scene, almost silent, and unnoticed until now. Both puppy and kitten looked up, the puppy's face contorting in rage, and the kitten's lighting up triumphantly.
Another kitten, older-looking and taller then the one that the puppy currently fought with, walked quickly up to the parcel, picking it up flauntingly. This new kitten turned her asymmetrically colored eyes on the puppy.
"Well...' her voice was deeper that the others, and far crueler, "Hasn't anyone ever told you not to leave things lying around?"
"Hey!" the puppy yelped, "That's min-'
Suddenly, two paws impacted the canine's face, halting her speech. The kitten on the ground had taken advantage of the puppy's disadvantage, and nailer her in the face, H-A-R-D. The puppy fell backwards, a small trickle of blood streaming from her nose.
Both kittens fled, before the puppy had recovered, their thin forms vanishing into the gloom of the dark alley.
The puppy, beaten, pointed her nose at the sky, and howled pitifully.
"Well, didn't I tell you that was a good idea?" Su asked triumphantly, her eyes proud, "And so much less work!"
"And so much more painful..." Wan remarked, rubbing her sore nose.
"Well, I thought it was a great idea!" Wing exclaimed, "But c'mon, let's eat already!"
"Easy for you to say, Wing," Wan whined, still chafing her face, "You didn't even do anything."
"That's because there was nothing for me to do!" Wing retorted, "T'wasn't my fault."
"No one said it was, Wing..." Su remarked coolly. She made a point of proper speech when she was talking.
"Now let's eat!" she said, rather loudly.
The appetizing smell of fresh bread filled the air, and the kittens ate ravenously. This was the best meal they had eaten in weeks, and they enjoyed every mouthful of it.
Food had been hard to come by, ever since... The incident.
None of the sisters ever talked about that day. It was just one of those things that you don't talk about.
But a lack of words did not stop the feelings and emotions that came, every time any of the sisters thought about it. For Wing and Wan, it was mostly shocked horror, horror that their sister could have done something so horrible, but more because she didn't show the slightest sign of remorse.
However, for Su, it was far worse. For her, it was mind-numbing, crippling guilt. She had not meant for the entire orphanage to burn down, but once she set the lion-cub on fire, she started running...
She had what could have been called friends in the orphanage. Friends which she murdered. So she hid her guilt beneath a guise of cruelty, until the guise became real.
But she told no-one all of this. She kept it strictly to herself.
Anyway, now all three sisters scoffed down as much of the delicious bread as they could, mindless of anything else.
Their physical condition had degraded somewhat, but they were used to not eating much. That didn't mean it did not bother them, as the rate at which they ate examplified.
Food was one thing, water was another, but clothes... Clothes were quite another. The sisters had always had a thing for not wearing rags, but clothes were very difficult to come by, for three penniless orphan children.
Of course, they didn't exactly have to buy it...
A raid on the clothes merchant was dangerous, as he actually had an indoor stall, and no orphan children were allowed in. When they planned their monthly/yearly raids, it always was a time of excitement and anticipation among the sisters, as they carefully mapped out every detail of the raids to come.
It was that time of year again, and it was now time that they got some new clothes. The unfortunate merchant on whom they had decided to visit was a feline of some kind. He was actually a lynx, but none of the sisters knew that.
Hunzai Li, the merchant, sat in his wooden chair, waiting for business. It had been a slow day, and it seemed that no-one had any need for clothes. Well, no-one that is, except for these wretched (and penniless) orphans and beggars. He could even see some now, some sort of spotted cat, three of 'em, outside the window.
He leaned back in his chair, and stretched his legs.
"Hunzai, me old boy," he muttered to himself, "You're going to rot, if you just sit here like this. You need some action..."
Suddenly, there was a pounding on the door. It sounded urgent...
Hopping off the chair, he rushed to the door, and looked out. One of those orphan kittens were out there, waving her arms frantically.
Oh. That's all. But it was kinda cute to see her jumping around like that, so he waved, and turned to leave.
"Mithter, the wall's on fire!"
THAT got his attention. He was out of the store in a flash, and rushed to the wall. One thing struck him about it. That it was most certainly not on fire.
Realizing he had just fallen for the oldest trick in the world, he rushed back to his store, and pushed on the door to open it.
It didn't budge. Not an inch. He pushed harder, and the door gave a little, as if something was pushing on the other side.
On the other side, Su and Wing pushed against the door with all their mights, trying to keep the merchant out of his own store. Wan rushed around the store, finding anything with weight, and piled it up in front of the door. Finally, they closed the latch.
The door was well and truly closed.
Once they had accomplished this, there was time to relax a little. There was no other way to get in, as the window was at least eight feet from the outside ground.
"We-... We did it!" Wan gasped, placing a last tome by the door.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Su said, in a loud salesman's voice, "The grand reopening of... Wu clothes store!"
The other two sisters laughed, and they each ran off, to find some clothes with they fancied.
On the other side of the door, Hunzai was NOT having such a great time. He hammered and kicked on the door, until his paws and feet were blue. He shouted till his throat was hoarse. He pushed till his arms ached.
It was all no good. He slumped down against the door, contemplating getting help.
Tell someone that a tiny orphan cat managed to fool a grown lynx, who was constantly bragging about his cunning.
No. That was just too humiliating.
It pained the poor cat, that there was some mangy orphan inside his store, helping herself to whatever she wanted. Well, she couldn't get out, at least. Not while he sat there.
"Hey, Hunzai!" a goose, an old friend of the lynx, called, "Having a day off, or something?"
Hunzai realized that him lying here must look pretty strange.
"No... No I'm not," he stammered, getting to his feet, "I was just... Looking at the sky!"
He looked up, to prove his point.
"Alright then," the goose replied, "See you around!"
"Yeah..." Hunzai murmured, still looking up. His eyes were fixed on an open window, eight feet from the ground. But he was a lynx, renowned for it's leaping skills... Could he make it?
No harm in trying.
He took a few determined steps back, and leaped upwards.
He got it! His large paws caught the windowsill, and he pulled himself over, until his head and shoulders were through the window. He could see the children that had locked him out from here, but he didn't think they had spotted him yet.
There were three of them, each rushing around the store, and holding clothes up to themselves, as if to see how it looked on them.
Clothes were one thing, where the more feminine aspects of the sisters would come out. They loved them. Of course, they wouldn't take any of these, (the bright orange hanfu that Su was holding certainly would stick out on the streets) they still liked to feel them all, and see them all.
Hunzai watched their antics for a while. They weren't ruining the clothes, they were just looking. But they HAD locked him out of his store.
He pulled himself fully into the window, and dropped down. THEN the orphans noticed him, and with a squeal, they raced away from him.
He gave chase, following them around the racks of clothes, over the racks of clothes, UNDER the racks of clothes...
"Well, I wanted some action..." he thought to himself.
Eventually, he managed to corner all three. They each had their teeth bared viciously, their claws stretched...
He crossed his arms, smirked, and walked up closer.