"Where's Little Dragon?" Blinking sleepily, Bill Bailey rubbed his hazy brown eyes, yawning as Griddlebone rubbed the fur between his ears.
"Up there." Jabbing a thumb upwards, the white queen gestured to the top floor of their home, where the young Siamese had been spending a lot of time in the past days, communing with the black spirit.
Rolling onto his back, wriggling to try and rid himself of an aggravating itch, he licked his lips and twitched his nose sleepily. "Not again. I hardly ever get to play with her anymore."
Griddlebone reached down to scratch his tummy gently. "Don't worry about it, short stuff." She reassured him, stitching another small papoose up with taut leather thong. "She's learning about us. That's a lot to learn, but she'll be back to play with you soon, I guarantee it."
As if on cue, the sound of small paws running down the stone steps was audible and Little Dragon exploded down, tackling Bill Bailey and pulling on his tail cheekily. "So?" She chirped, batting at his nose. "Did ya miss me?"
"Don't flatter yourself." He muttered under his breath, turning away to come face-to-face with the smirking Griddlebone. Glancing over his shoulder at Little Dragon's sad blue eyes, he chuckled, flipping her over and pinning her down. "Of course I missed ya!" Licking her nose, he grinned. "Who am I trying to kid! You're me bestest best bud!"
"Aw!" Hugging him, Little Dragon nipped his ear playfully. "Well, you're me bestest best best bud too!" Tickling at his belly, she enquired cheerfully. "Wanna go and catch some fish down at the river?"
"Off you go, kids." Looking around at the sleeping figures of Grumbuskin, Blaze and McDuff, she cautioned. "And make less noise. You don't want to wake up those cranky cats, do you?"
"Good point." Bill Bailey whispered, taking Little Dragon by the paw. "We'll be…" He crept over towards the door, followed by his friend, then yelled. "SO QUIET!" Before sprinting away, leaving Griddlebone at the mercy on the newly-wakened cats.
*
"So, whatcha want to do?" Little Dragon enquired, her wide eyes following a large insect that buzzed irritatingly passed her nose. Batting at it with her paws, she flattened herself to the ground, crawling after it.
"Dunno." Bill Bailey watched her, chuckling as she pounced at the little bug, missing it completely, her paws catching thin air. "Wanna catch some fish? I thought that's what ya wanted to do."
Still flat on the ground, she squinted around at him, grinning wickedly. Her razor-sharp teeth were as white as snow, her eyes as blue as the wide, clear sky high above them. "I'll catch more than you!" She crowed throwing herself forward into a wild run, her eyes sparkling brightly.
"I wouldn't bet on it!" He yelled back, giving chase, his brown and white fur rippling as he ran. He tried to stifle a laugh of sheer exhilaration, but couldn't hold back, stumbling to a halt, breathless with giggles.
Catching up with the smirking queen by the river, he pouted in mock-annoyance, narrowing his brown eyes at her. "That wasn't fair." He muttered, turning his back on her, his arms folded across his chest.
"Nothing ever is with you." She retorted, sticking her tongue out as she leapt into the cool water with a shriek of laughter as it soaked her fur.
"Still," Glaring at her, he tried to feel angry, but couldn't and threw himself into the water after her, his longer fur hanging in soggy swathes over his eyes. With his claws he pulled it back, to find Little Dragon's nose barely millimetres from his own. "It's just not fair!" He finished, swallowing hard.
A wicked twinkle in her blue eyes should have warned him, but she caught him off-guard, knocking him backwards, straight back under the cold water.
Bursting up through the surface, sending a shower of droplets spraying through the air, he yelled in delayed dismay, water streaming down his tangled fur, as Little Dragon peeked at him from behind a rock, giggling madly.
"I'll get you for that!" He vowed, charging after her, determination in his eyes.
Scrambling up onto the rock, she laughed happily. "Of course ya will!" She teasingly stuck her tongue out at him, wiggling her tail cheekily.
Leaping up, he tried to grab her leg, but she jumped out of his reach, her paw hitting a slippery patch on the rock. With a shriek, she plummeted out of sight, the sound of a body tumbling down the rocks followed by a splash.
"Little Dragon?" With a forced laugh, he tried to pull himself up onto the rock. "C'mon…stop fooling around…I'm bored with this game…c'mon." There was no response, only the quiet splash-splash-splash of the river against the rocks. "Dragon?"
Grabbing an outcropping on the rock, he felt his paws tearing as he scrambled up the jagged stone, warm blood making the already-dangerous outcroppings even more hazardous.
"Dragon?" Peering over the top, he stared down in horror, seeing her still body floating – face down – in the white, swirling rapids. "Dragon!"
Leaping off the rock with no concern for his own well-being, he plunged into the water, startled to find it only came to his knees as Little Dragon lifted her face out of the water, choking on a fit of manic giggles.
"You crazy little bitch!" He exclaimed, a shooting pain bursting up his legs, the jarring pain erupting from the hard impact his feet had made on the gravely bottom what he had supposed was a deep part of the river.
Smirking, she remarked. "That's kinda sweet. You were willing to play the hero to save little old me…then you call me names!"
"I think I have every right to!" He retorted, angrily clutching his throbbing leg. "I could have broken my leg and then what would we have done? Huh?" He looked his friend over. "But you are okay, aren't you?"
Nodding, she touched the back of her neck with an involuntary wince. "I've got a few scrapes and a bruise or two, but I think I'm okay."
"Let me look." He limped over to her, turning her around gently, his fingers carefully brushing aside her fur to examine the cuts on the back of her head and neck. A few drops of blood dripped onto his fur, spreading through his waterlogged coat, leaving it stained pink.
Sitting down sharply on a rock, Little Dragon yelped as his fingers probed a little more roughly than he intended. "Careful." She grimaced.
Pushing his long fur out of his eyes, he nodded, his fingers moving deftly. "Hold still." He murmured, lowering his mouth to her neck.
"What are you…" She trailed of as his rough tongue brushed lightly across the wounds, a new kind of pain shooting through her. A kind of pain she didn't mind at all. Her head lolled forward, as he slowly licked over every cut, cleaning it, all the way up her neck.
Sliding one arm around her waist to support her, he could feel her purring, the thrumming sound buzzing through him, sending tingles from his nose to the tip of his swishing tail, as he carefully licked the tender cuts on the tips of her delicate ears.
Little Dragon shivered, pulling his other arm around her body, his warm, firm, damp chest pressing solidly against her back. Running her head under his chin, she heard him give a deep purr and purred in response, her eyes closed happily.
*
"Ain't it sweet?" Grumbuskin remarked to Genghis, leaning on his spear, a cock-sure grin on his face. Below them, the two kittens nestled together, oblivious to the two toms on the low cliff above them. "Looks like we might win our bet after all."
"Don't be too sure." Genghis warned, grinning. "That Bill Bailey's a tricky little bugger. He'll hold off having a kitten until he knows he's won and then he'll be father of the year."
Chuckling, Grumbuskin hefted the spear from hand to hand. "It honestly wouldn't surprise me at all, Genghis…and if he tells that little queenie of his, I'm sure she'll play along."
Shaking his head, the male Siamese disagreed. "He won't tell her." He said with certainty. "She may like him, but if she found out he was making bets on having kittens, she would give him the biggest fight of his life. She's a stubborn tinker, that one."
"How'd you know so much anyway?" Grumbuskin turned to the other tom, one brow raised curiously.
Shrugging, Genghis gave him a knowing smile. "I just know." He replied quietly. "And we'll leave it at that, okay?"
"Can we talk about Blaze then?" His face lighting up hopefully, Grumbuskin was grinning like a lovesick schoolboy. "Please?"
"You really think I want to hear how good my sister is?" Making a face, Genghis shook his head and grinned at the crestfallen tom. "How'd she doing?"
Grumbuskin's face was aglow as he chattered about his mate. "She's been a bit sick, but I suppose that expected in any pregnancy…we think she's about three weeks gone, but we can't be sure and she's dead excited about it…me too…God! Can you believe it, Genghis? We're gonna have kittens!"
"Whoa!" Holding up his chocolate paws, Genghis widened his eyes in mock-horror. "When you say 'we', you only mean you and Blaze, right? There's no way in hell I'd want to carry your kittens!"
With a deep sigh of regret, Grumbuskin slung an arm around his companion's shoulders. "I hate to say it, Genghis." He remarked sadly. "But you're just not my type."
"You have NO idea how relieved I am to hear that!" Genghis laughed. "And I'm sure Blaze would be relieved to hear it as well."
Tossing his spear over to the Siamese, Grumbuskin gave a low growl of laughter. "Perhaps we should actually go and do some hunting before Lady Griddlebone decides to give us one of her lectures about all toms being lazy again." He suggested, raising a black eyebrow.
"Sounds good to me." Genghis nodded with his usual lazy smile. "Lets get going before she comes to catch us."
Rubbing his head dramatically, Grumbuskin nodded. "She's got a powerful throwing arm for such a little lady. If we get to the woods, we should have enough cover…agreed?"
"Agreed!"
With that, both toms broke into a frantic run towards the safety of the trees on the edge of the wide clearing, laughing as they ran.
*
Blaze was curled up in the sun, outside the building, when the sodden kitten got back to the tower, giggling and whispering to one another.
Bill Bailey immediately ran inside to find McDuff, while Little Dragon sat down beside the sleepy Blaze and poked her tentatively with her paw.
"You okay, Blaze?" Her eyes fell on the very slight swell of the black queen's stomach. "Are you still feeling sick."
"I'm fine." Blaze replied quietly, stretching out sinuously with a yawn. "What about you? I noticed you and Bill Bailey seemed to be grinning an awful lot when you came back from the river."
Little Dragon's cheeks darkened, flushing under her silky fur. "We were just playing at the river." She tried to fight back her embarrassed giggles. "I fell off a rock and he cleaned all my cuts for me."
"That was nice of him." Blaze smiled, washing the dust-coated fur of her arms lazily with her tongue. "Care for a nap with me? I think this is the best spot for the sun…"
Nodding eagerly, the little Siamese queen curled up close beside the black queen, both dozing off quickly in a large, fluffy heap, the sun warming both of them as Bill Bailey and McDuff came out of the tower.
"She seems all right to me." McDuff replied, playfully cuffing the kitten across the back of the head. "You made it sound like she was dying, kitt."
"Maybe she was tired." The kitten shrugged, pointing at the flecks of blood still dotted in Little Dragon's sleek fur. "She did hurt herself and I tried to clean all the blood, but that wouldn't go away."
"She'll be fine." McDuff replied, a knowing gleam in his eyes. "Don't be so worried, kitt. She's a tough little furball. She'll be fine."
"Are you sure?" Bill Bailey frowned. When she had fallen into a sitting position on that rock, he had thought she had fainted or it was because her head was sore.
"Positive." The large tom replied, pushing the young tom towards the two sleeping queens. "Why not join them? You look exhausted."
Nodding, he clambered in between the two, adding a whole new scheme of colours to the already-diverse patterning.
Re-entering the tower, he smiled down at his mate, who lay languorously on a mattress of hide and straw, her white fur as impeccably clean and soft as ever, her paws beckoning him down to her, a smile on her sensual lips.
"Isn't young love a marvellous thing?" He drew her into his arms, burying his face into her gloriously thick white fur, holding her as close and as tightly as he dared.
"And they all live happily ever after." She nodded, her lips finding his, her arms wrapping warmly around him. Or at least I hope so, she thought to herself, giving into to the secure warmth of his love.