I don't own any of the animals, apart from Colin
The sight that greeted Vitani when she finally reached the source of the laughter and mewling, at first puzzled her, then angered her. Several animals, dogs from the looks of things, had surrounded another animal she couldn't see, but was definitely scared. "Hey," she said loudly.
"Yeah," one of the dogs said, turning round to look, as the others stared past it, and at the sight of Vitani, they flinched and began to cower. Now she could see past them, she spotted what they'd been bullying, it was a cat of some sort, smaller than a cerval, and with a grey-stripe patterning she'd never seen before.
Vitani could feel her anger rising at what they were doing, so she growled, "get out of here, now." When the dogs had gone, she look down again at the cat, who was now frozen, wide eyed, in terror. "Hey," she said, as softly as she could, but it seemed to have no effect, and neither did waving a paw in front of its face, the cat was mesmerised.
For a few moments, Vitani considered abandoning the cat, after all, she didn't owe it anything, quite the reverse, and trying to do anything with it would slow her down, then decided that wasting her time here with this cat was probably better that wandering around lost. Of course, she'd had to leave sooner or later, but it was better to have a companion who knew its way around, so she began trying to think of ways to gain its trust. Of course, simply talking to it wouldn't gain its trust, she'd have to make demonstration of it.
It didn't take Vitani long to come up with an idea, but it took her longer to accept it. When she finally did accept the idea however, she acted quickly, and before the cat could even shift it's weight to move, she'd scooped it up, and begun to wash it. She almost reconsidered after the first lick, of course, because of the taste, but then again, if it was safe for him to be cover in the dirt he was, it probably wouldn't do her any real harm.
The day wasn't looking up for Colin. Firstly, he hadn't eaten, everything he'd found was either rotten, at least, more so than usual, or vegetables. Secondly, almost finally, he'd run into the dogs, a situation in which, if rumour was anything to go by, his life would be just a few minutes. And now the dogs had been scared off, and he was about to become a meal for this, animal, rather than a plaything, which at least promised a quick, if painful end.
Colin tensed as the animal licked, him, expecting at any moment to feel the bite that would finish him, so he was quite surprised when instead of killing him, the animal continued to lick him, arousing vague memories of cubhood, and especially of his mother. The licking, cleaning, he suddenly realised, was quite rough, but not really unpleasant, and so, without realising it, he began to purr.
It didn't take Vitani quite as long as she expect to finish the cleaning as she thought it would, but it was more than made up for, once she'd finished, by attempting to get the taste out of her mouth. When she was finally satisfied with her efforts, she turned to the cat, and said, "I don't know what you've been rolling in, but it tastes hideous."
"Well, it's kind of hard to get clean around here," the cat said, "and er, thanks for that, and for scaring the dogs off."
"Don't mention it," Vitani muttered.
"I hope you don't mind me asking," the cat continued, "but, er, why'd you do it?"
"This is the first time I've been out of the zoo since I arrived here," Vitani replied, "and I want to get to a place called Grand Central Station, only, I don't know where the heck to begin looking for it."
"Grand Central," the cat said, "from Central Park?"
"Central Park Zoo, yes," Vitani replied, "why, have I been going the wrong way?"
"Sorta," the cat replied, "well, actually you're closer than Central Park, but still going in way the wrong direction."
"You know the way to Grand Central Station," Vitani asked, "from here?"
"Yup," the cat replied, "of course, it's full of humans."
"Is it," Vitani asked.
"Yeah," Colin replied, "still eager to go?"
Vitani thought for a moment, then said, "I'm not in a good way at the moment, how much worse can it get?"
"I don't really know," the cat said, then muttered, "and I don't really want to either."
Vitani raised an eyebrow for a moment, then said, "lead on."
"I'm Colin, by the way," the cat said, as they set off.
"Vitani," she replied.
"Mm," Colin said, "sounds a bit, um..."
"Yes," Vitani asked, after a few moments, "sounds a bit, what?"
"Well, don't get me wrong on this or anything," Colin said, "it's a good name, it just, to me, it sounds a bit posh."
"Posh," Vitani asked.
"Yeah, posh," Colin said, "you know, snooty, uppity, that kind of thing."
Vitani was silent, stunned, for a few moments, before replying, "maybe it sounds that way to you, but I've got to be one of the last people to deserve that kind of description."
"Nice name though," Colin said.
"How long till we get to Grand Central Station," Vitani asked, changing the subject.
"Not so long now," Colin replied, "you weren't exactly headed for it, but you weren't too far off."
Colin and Vitani travelled well for a few minutes, then suddenly, a voice behind them said, half sneering, "and what do we have here?" Both Vitani and Colin turned to see who'd spoken, then the little cat cowered, as he put a name and face to the voice, Jack Doberman, dreaded by any cat as the leader of the largest, roughest pack of stray dogs within several miles. "Well, it looks like we have several trespassers boys and girls," Jack said, "and of course, you know what do to trespassers." There was a sneer of agreement from the rest of the pack.
"Really," Vitani said, eyeing up the dogs, "and what is it you do to trespassers?" There were a few too many dogs to fight, but she could almost certainly outrun them, and she was sure they couldn't climb.
"We Kill them," the dog said, "just as we're about to do now to you."
"You, kill us," Vitani half sneered, "unlikely."
"Oh, really," the dog said, "you're going to fight us, all of us?"
Vitani shrugged, "I could if I wanted, but right now I've got other places to be."
"I'll bet," the dog said, "but right now, there's only one place you and your little friend are going."
"And where's that," Vitani asked.
"Straight to hell," the dog replied.
"Yeah," Vitani replied, and when the dog nodded, she said, "well I've got only one thing to say to that." She roared as loud as she could, then, with the dogs still worried and uncertain, bodily picked up Colin, and ran.