Phew, finally! This chapter took much longer than it should have done, sorry about the wait. You will have noticed that I've permanantly changed the rating of the story to T-13+ and for good reason. When I started this story I meant it to be suitable for little kids to read but that has most definitely changed now. Okay, time to read!
Sillabub huddled against an old brick wall, her patience all but gone. She didn't know whether to burst into tears or start screaming in rage. Both options would be appropriate in her predicament but neither were very wise. Going into emotional fits of anger, sadness or even both weren't going to get her out of this storm and find her shelter.
Yet she knew it was her own fault. Although nothing would have stopped Macavity from doing what he did, maybe it would have been wiser to just tell Fanika that she'd been raped and denied whatever source that had told the brown queen that she'd enjoyed every minute of it. Her stomach twisted horribly at the way her mind was going. Macavity wasn't exactly the fatherly type and probably wouldn't even know the difference, yet it made Silla felt sickly guilty at knowing she hadn't minded even enjoyed having sex with the one who'd spawned her.
She shivered, both from the cold and her own thoughts. There was no point in fretting over it now, the damage was done and she'd payed dearly for it. Pushing her worries to the back of her mind, Sillabub focused on the problem at hand; getting herself out of the Mother of all storms before she drowned in it.
Pushing herself off the wall, Silla sought for that special place in her mind that was full of blazing sunshine so hot that it seared through her skin just the way she liked it, and set out at a jog through the little winding streets that ran like rivers beneath her paws.
Just then a bolt of lightning lit up the alleyway followed by a deafening roar of thunder. Cat instincts taking over, Sillabub let out a shriek of fright and sped away in a blind direction, not knowing nor caring where her paws took her. She was going so fast and in such a state of panic that she wasn't paying attention to the large box that was coming rapidly towards her.
Plastic, claws and fur went flying and Silla dimly heard a young male voice call out, "Hey!" before her world dissolved into darkness.
"Oy, Munkie!"
Munkustrap didn't respond to his brother's call, nor did he look around when Tugger plonked down on the roof of the TSE1- aka, Jellicle Hospital - beside him.
Tugger frowned. The silver tabby never let him get away with the name Munkie. "Hello, earth to Munkustrap, come in Munkustrap, Munkustrap, do you read me?" Still no response. He just kept staring at the small group of kittens below who were playing a game in which they sat in a circle and, from what Tugger could tell, giggle a lot. He could see Misto with them, staring at Exotica with a big grin on his face.
Starting to get annoyed, Tugger, tried again. "Munkustrap, Munk, Munkus, Munkie, Stripes, Stripey, Streak, Strap, Strappy, Slinky Malinky, Old Deuteronomy Jr?" He ran through every other name he'd ever heard the silver tabby be called before (Munkustrap had had several owners before his current one) but nothing worked. Thoroughly ticked off now, Tugger leaned back, reached out, grasped Munk's tail in one paw and gave it a hard yank.
That woke him up. Giving a loud yowl that turned many heads in alarm, Munkustrap jumped about a foot in the air (quite an amzing feat for a cat) and turned around to face the wickedly grinning Maine Coon.
"Tugger! Was that really neccessary?" Munkustrap demanded with a scowl while hugging his tail to him protectively.
"Well, considering Munkie and Old D junior didn't work, yes."
Munkustrap looked scandalised. "Tugger, that's practically blaspheme! I'm nothing like Deuteronomy and never will be."
"So sue me if I happened to think there was a slight bit of family resemblance, not that I can see why you'd really want to resemble a rug. You treat that guy like a god, you know. Was that what you were thinking of, exactly how low to bow next time he arrives?"
"No, actually, and he doesn't look like a rug! I was thinking about something else."
"Well, it must have been pretty deep to make it look like a pumpkin had taken up residence inside your head in place of your brain. Was it perhaps, a certain pretty gold queen?" He queried cajolingly.
Munkustrap blushed slightly. "We are mates it's not that unusual. An I wasn't thinking about her. I was thinking about the kittens."
"Hmm. Personally, I think Demeter was a better choice, but if you like them young, well, that's your choice I guess..."
"Tugger! Stop Being such a sicko! I was reflecting on how odd the kittens had been acting lately."
"Ah. Well that's a good thing 'coz I don't reckon Demmi would have liked being upstaged by a kitten much..."
"Shut up, Tugger. The point is, do you agree with me about the kittens?"
"Er..."
"I mean, the way Jemima just attacked Exotica the other day, for no reason at all!"
"She gave you a reason," Tugger pointed out
"Oh, yes. Exotica's an evil cat who's going to brainwash us all. I'm really worried about her Tugger, maybe she's losing her mind or something. And she still hasn't apologised."
Tugger raised an eyebrow. "Munk, I highly doubt that just because she accused someone of being evil means that she's going crazy. You of all people should know that."
"And even Quaxo's been acting oddly. You know he hit Tumblebrutus when he called him 'Shorty' the other day and claimed to not remember it afterwards?"
"Really?"
"Yeah and that nickname has ever bothere him before. It got into a real fight and I had to go break it up. They're friends now again, but it was really weird."
"Yeah, I can imagine."
Munkustrap sighed and rubbed his temples. "To tell you the truth, I haven't been feeling all that well lately either.
"Oh?"
"I've been getting all these headaches and felt more tired than usual. I supose it might be common stress that comes from being second in command and all, but it seems more than that, you know?"
"Not really, Munk, you're the leader here, not me." Both toms were silent for a moment and Tugger chose his next words carefully. "Munk, have you noticed somthing?"
"What? That it's going to storm later?" He glanced up at the sky.
"Huh? Oh, well yeah, I guess it is, but that's not what I had in mind."
"What then?"
All these strange - happenings have only really started, well, happening since the arrival of a certain brown queen."
"What? Exotica?" Munkustrap looked genuinely shocked.
"What other pretty brown queens have arrived in the past two weeks, Munk?"
"But, Exotica? You can't be serious Tugger."
"And why not? It's true you know, I mean think about it. Quaxo has been spending every waking moment with her lately - and by the looks of things he probably wouldn't mind spending every sleeping moment with her either - and then he goes and hits Tumble. She's probably being a bad influence on him." Tugger couldn't believe he'd actually said that. He felt rather that he and Munkustrap had switched bodies - he was being the sensible leaderly one looking out for everyone's well being and Munkustrap didn't have a clue.
"If you ask me, I think it's good that Quaxo is learning to defend himself. He always used to get picked on a lot by the other kittens."
Tugger's mouth dropped open. "Wha...? But you just said..."
A loud scream pierced the air, making the toms jump.
"That was Demeter!" Munkustrap cried needlessly and jumped off the tire in search of his mate. Tugger followed closely behind, his mind all mixed up. One minute Munkustrap was stressing about how odd the kittens were behaving and how Quaxo would never hit anyone, then when the Maine Coon had mentioned that Exotica might be the cause, the silver tabby had started going on about how it was good that Quaxo was starting to stand up for himself. It was all too strange, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as they approached Munkustrap's den which Demeter was standing over, her eyes full of tears.
Munkustrap reached her first and gently pulled her into his arms. "Demmi, what is it? Did you sense Macavity?"
Demeter sniffled a bit. "No, it's worse! Jemima's missing!"
A whisper went through the crowd that had all been alerted to the den at Demeter's scream at these words
Munkustrap's face hardened. "She's not is she?" Without waiting for an answer he ran into the den. Silence held the other cats as they waited for him, except for Demeter's quiet sobbing. He came out a moment later, stony faced. "She can't have gone far. Search the Junkyard."
The cats hurried to obey and Tugger's previous thoughts about Munkustrap were put to the back of his mind for the meantime as he went with them. No one noticed the dark brown queen slipping into the shadows, making herself all but invisible to her fellow Jellicles just as the first few drops began to fall.
The first thing Silla noticed as she returned to conciousness was that she was dry. Cold and hungry, yes, but the water of a thousand oceans was no longer attacking her mercilessly. For a moment she just lay there, thinking that she was home in Fanika's box and Macavity, the storm and getting thrown out were just part of some wild nighmare.
As her senses returned, she was aware of a loud roaring sound of water on metal penetrating her eardrums harshly and something registered inside Silla's brain. The box in which she lived was made of cardboard, with no metal anywhere. And where was her bed of comfy, albeit old, rags? There was also the unfamiliar musty smell about. Nope, definitely not home. But if she wasn't home then where was she?
Blue eyes flying open, Sillabub found herself facing a metal wall and realised she was in the back of an empty, strangely clean rubbish bin, hence the water-on-metal sound and hard floor. Starting to panic slightly at finding herself in these foreign surroundings, she tried to sit up and turn around, only to have a sharp pain run through her leg. Giving a small wimper of pain, the queenkit started twisting her head aroung frantically, trying to see behind her.
"Hey, would you calm down!"
The voice was also unfamiliar which frightened her more than anything. Ignoring the pain, Silla forced her body to twist around and found herself facing grey tom with flecks of brown and white standing beside two mice. His light green eyes bore into her blue ones. Sillabub was scared, thinking that she could hardly be in a worse position than stuck at the back of a rubbish bin with a sore leg and an unfamiliar tom standing between her and the entrance. But she didn't look away. If she did he would assume she was weak and probably try to take advantage of her.
The eyes, however, bore no trace of hostility, merely curiousity, it seemed. But Silla was not going to let her guard down that easily. Drawing herself up to her full height (which wasn't much, considering her shortness and injured leg) she tried to look at least a little threatening and spoke.
"Where am I?" Her voice, which was still sluggish from her having just woken up, didn't program the words nearly as fierce as she would have liked and she suddenly felt rather foolish.
The tom looked rather amused at her futile attempt to be tough. "Where does it look like? You're in a rubbish bin."
His mocking tone made her feel extremely annoyed. "Well, how did I get here?"
"Well, duh! I carried you in after you decided to knock yourself out on that box out there." He gestured outside to where the storm was still raging. "Honestly, you should try and use those big eyes of yours once in a while.Or were you just too scared of the storm to think?"
Silla pouted angrily at his mocking. "I was not scared of the storm!"
"Yeah, sure. I bet you were so scared that you knocked yourself out on purpose just to get away from it!"
"That's not true!" she jumped to her feet in indignation, but the pain in her leg was brought to the surface once again and collapsed with a hiss.
The tom softened at this and approached Sillabub cautiously. Looking up at him, she saw he was younger than she first thought, maybe a little older than her.
"What's wrong with my leg?" she asked.
"The plastic box was broken when you cannoned into it. Your leg just cut across the jagged edge. It's not very deep, though so it shouldn't take too long to heal." He put a grin back on his face. "Silly girl, crying over a scratch."
Sillabub sighed. She had been contemplating who he might be while he had scrutinised her leg. He was fairly young and she wonderd if he might have been one of Macavity's many queens' kids but all of his kittens always had some similarity to their father. Lishren, for example had inherited her father's magic powers and dark brown eyes. It was the same thing with the tell-tale bright red flecks in Silla's primarily black and white fur, but this tom, however, bore no traits resembling the Hidden Paw.
His attitude, however, was pretty evil and it was starting to really annoy her. But she refrained from growling and instead examined the tom's face.
"So who exactly are you?"
The tom shrugged. "Well, to most cats along here I'm simply known as the runt in the bin. My name, however, is Orico."
"Orico. Can I call you Rico?"
He gave her a funny look. "If you really must."
"Right, then, Rico. Are both of those yours?" she geture to the mice he had brought in.
The Rico rolled his eyes and flicked one of the rodents at her. She dug into it hungrily, gnawing at it's flesh and noticing that it was considrably fatter than what she was used to. Silla supposed that competition wasn't as heavy in these parts of the Empire and it made her realise how far she had run last night. The sun was starting to rise outside by now and the steady onslaught of rain had died down to a light drizzle.
Rico, meanwhile, was looking at the was she was devouring her breakfast with a faint look of disgust on his face. "Whoever said that queens have table manners obviously haven't met you."
Silla gave him a withering look but didn't reply, too absorbed in her food. The grey, brown and white tom shook his head and started on his own mouse more delicately.
Halfway through the meal, Silla sat up gingerly, trying not to bump her leg, sat up and began to groom herself.
"It's not very comfy in here," she remarked between licks, referring to the cold hard floor of the rubbish bin, so unlike the soft cardboard that she was used to.
"Yeah, well I'm not running a motel," he growled.
"And yet you offer me accomodation." Silla stopped grooming and looked at him questioningly.
Rico shrugged. "Well, you're Macavity's daughter, I'll probably get punished pretty bad if I don't."
Sillabub felt uneasy. "Macavity's got tons of daughters, I'm sure he won't miss one." But she remembered the Hidden Paw's touch on her body and wasn't so sure of the words even as she said them. She gave an unvoluntary shudder at the memory and wondered what Rico would say if he knew what she did. Then a thought occured to her.
"Hey, how did you know I was Macavity's daughter?"
He grinned. "It was pretty damn obvious. I mean, everyone's heard of Sillabub, the pretty kitty with blue eyes who Macavity fucked."
Sillabub cringed. "You heard about that?"
Rico laughed. "I'd be surprised if there was a single cat living within ten miles of the Empire who hasn't heard about that."
Silla looked down at the unfinished mouse, not feeling very hungry anymore as the now familiar feeling of nausea and self-hate, the fruitless attempts to console herself and the frustration of not knowing the answers was once again set spinning through her head.
The emotion must have shown on her face because Rico, who had returned to his mouse, looked up at her. "What?"
"Hmm? Oh nothing. It's just...yeah, nothing." She knew this tom wouldn't understand.
He raised an eyebrow. "Sillabub - can I call you Silla?"
She gave him a wry look. "If you really must."
Rico smiled smugly. "Oh, I must. Now, Silly Silla, I'm not quite as silly as you and I happen to know the difference between 'nothing' and 'Oh, I have something really sad and troubling to say but the big scary tom will think I'm weak if I do'. Now spit it out!"
Sillabub, who was was practically spluttering in indignation, sat up straighter. "Okay, first of all, do not call me 'Silly Silla' because I am not silly! And I don't think you're a big scary tom, you're the smallest tom I've ever seen!"
He certinately stopped grinning like the Cheshire Cat at that. "Shut up. I can't help it if I'm short! And, Silly Silla I'm not going to stop until you tell me what's wrong!"
Green eyes bore stubbornly into blue ones until the latter unvoluntarily started to fill up. Silla wrenched her gaze away, angered my her own weakness and in front of this cocky young tom, no less.
Rico, for his part, actually looked uncomfortable at making her cry and, after a moment's hesitation, put his arm awkwardly around Silla's thin shoulders. "It's okay, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to," he tried to console, evidentally not used to this sort of thing.
She wiped her eyes impatiently on the back of her paw. "I'm sorry, it's just -"
"It's okay, really. We can just forget it."
She sighed. She knew that he wouldn't understand. He was an Empire cat. They both were. She just happened to be one with a very crazy mixed up mind.
Silla wondered if she should feel guilty to be sitting her in a tom's arms three minutes after meeting him. She wondered if she should even trust herself with any tom again after Macavity. But, like the kitten she was, Sillabub soon gave into the unfamiliar but welcoming sense of safety and security and lay her head on Rico's shoulder with a sigh. They both sat like that for a long time, staring out at the rain falling lightly upon the Hidden Paw's Empire.
Far away from the Empire, in another part of town, another black, white and red flecked kitten sat huddled underneath a parked human car, staring at the rain, her eyes mirroring its steady fall onto the silver pavement.
Okay, just so you know, I'm hoping that Sillabub doesn't sound too much like a Sue, with her angsty thoughts and all that. I'm really trying not to make her one, but plz correct me if you think I should try harder.