Rubena stood opposite a cat who was the spitting image of herself, save an old vertical scar that went over her eyebrow, scimitars in hand. Her opponent's face twisted into an ugly sneer as a beam of white-hot energy that resembled fire shot from her outstretched palms and straight towards Rubena...
Rubena awoke with a start, soaked in sweat and gasping for breath. Two worried faces bent over her: one of them she recognised - it was the young Siamese queen she had had a short conversation with during one of her brief waking moments. The other face belonged to an elderly tabby Rubena didn't remember seeing before.
"Are you all right?" The elderly cat looked concerned. Now Rubena remembered her - she had heard that cat's voice just before fainting and then finding herself where she was now. She considered the question she had just been asked.
"I'm aching all over - does that classify as `all right'?"
Jellylorum's face broke into a small smile.
"It's probably as close to all right as you are going to be for a long time," she admitted. "How did you ever get yourself into such a mess?"
The tiger-striped queen's eyes darkened, and she looked into the other direction.
"I'd rather not talk about it," she confessed.
A look of worried confusion crossed Jellylorum's face. What was this girl hiding? She decided not to press the issue - her patient was still in too delicate a condition to be placed into distress. Jelly left the tigress alone with the Siamese to attend to her other patients.
Alyzria leaned closer to the battered form of Rubena, who had turned her head to look back up at the ceiling again.
"Do you really know how to use these things?" she asked, pointing at the scimitars next to her.
Rubena gave the weapons a rueful look.
"Yeah, sure enough."
Alyzria wanted to ask more questions, but she decided against doing so just yet - she had a feeling most of them would result the same way Jellylorum's enquiry about her patient's wounds had done. Instead, she just sat next to her, not really wanting to leave.
After a few minutes, Mistoffelees entered the den, looking tired. Munkustrap was behind him. Rubena looked up at the two toms, recognising the tribe's magician. A wide grin crept over her face.
"Well, if it isn't the beverage cat."
Mistoffelees glared at her.
"You're the beverage, not me," he replied hotly.
Munkustrap blinked in cofusion. Beverages?? He shook his head, muttering to himself.
"So, you're the tiger-striped queen, are you?"
Rubena looked up at the silver cat, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
"The last time I checked, I was a tiger-striped queen, not the tiger-striped queen," she commented. "But unless there are others who fit that description in your vicinity, I suspect the answer is affirmative."
Munkustrap raised a skeptical eyebrow at the queen's sass. She was obviously in a better condition than she had been when he first heard about her. He cleared his throat and turned to Mistoffelees.
"I will be leaving you alone with this... lady. You may explain the current situation to her."
Before Mistoffelees could protest, Munkustrap had stalked out of the den.
After sending a flurry of evil looks after Munkus, Misto turned to face Rubena, who was now sitting up with Alyzria supporting her. Misto sighed.
"All right then, here's the deal," he explained. "We don't usually tolerate strangers in here - the only reason we made an exception with you was the fact that you were half-dead. Now that you're here, you've got two choices: You could either leave once you heal up, or you could become a Jellicle - that's a member of our tribe. If you decide on the latter, you will have to go through a formal initiation. A sort of test, if you will."
Rubena blinked at the sudden flow of information.
"Do I get some time to think about this? What is this `test', anyway?"
A tiny smile appeared on Misto's face.
"Ah yes, that's the fun part. You see, the `challenge', as we call it, varies from cat to cat. As for getting time to think it over: your time for that ends when our leader, Old Deutoronomy, arrives."
With that, Misto left the den. Rubena stared at the spot where he had been.
"What do you think you're gonna do?"
With a start, Rubena realised that Alyzria was still holding her up and looking at her curiously. Once again, a dark look clouded the tigress's features. Finally, she sighed, and looked at the young Siamese.
"I think I might well take the black guy up on his offer," she said slowly. "What do you think I should do?"
Alyzria shrugged.
"It would certainly be a rare occurence if you joined. As Mistoffelees - that's the black cat - said, the tribe isn't really that tolerant towards new cats."
"You don't seem so intolerant," Rubena pointed out.
Alyzria grinned, revealing her left eyetooth, which had lost its sharp tip in an accident.
"Well, they do all accuse me of just being a kit."
"Which you're not?" the tigress enquired with an impish grin.
If Alyzria's face hadn't been covered in grey fur, she would have blushed beet red. As it was, a definite tinge of red could be detected underneath. She lowered the battered feline back onto her makeshift bed and mumbled something about Rubena needing some rest (which was the last thing the tigress wanted, since she had slept for nearly two days).
Alyzria was just about to exit the den when Rubena called out after her. She turned around at the entrance.
"D'you have a name?" the tiger-striped queen asked.
The younger cat suffered another wave of embarrassment.
"Alyzria," she called back, then walked out into the sunshine. The last two days certainly had been quite eventful!
Rubena lay awake in the middle of the night, thinking. Now that her exhaustion had subsided, sleep was the last thing she needed, and she had some time to take note of her injuries.
Her thoughts drifted back to Misto's words. "Or you could become a Jellicle..." that phrase kept echoing in her mind. Indeed, accepting this offer would give her the closest thing to what she would call a `family'. Her mind was suddenly filled with the dream she had had that morning, which re-awakened unpleasant memories. No need to repeat anything like that. I will try to become one of these people, she decided. That settled, she turned her head to the side, closed her eyes and eventually drifted into a light sleep...
