Chapter 4 - A Lamenting Mother Figure
Demeter had been pretty close to Grizabella ever since she was really young. This was probably due to the fact that, unlike the other cats who played mother to all the kittens, Grizabella obviously had favorites. The beautiful cat began falling in love with the two abandoned kittens for a few reasons. For one thing, they were both gorgeous little queens. This reminded her of herself when she was a kitten, and she knew they would grow up to be as beautiful as her. Another is that her kittens were boys, and she had always wanted girls. But Grizabella loved Demeter much more than she did the little red queen because of the obvious fact that Bombalurina had never liked Grizabella since she could remember. Demeter, however, was young and impressionable.
Bombalurina often left her younger sibling with Grizabella only because she wanted time for herself. She trusted the older queen to at least care for her sister, and the little red queen was coming to an age where she wanted to spend time with kittens her own age, rather than tied down to a kitten a little more than half her age.
Demeter loved to spend some time with Grizabella in the past because she would entertain the little kitten with individual attention like most mothers should. And when she had nothing to entertain the kitten with, or wanted to be alone, the cat would make a million suggestions on who to play with, and what she could play, making the kitten brim with ideas and run out, looking for the appropriate play mate.
Over the next few months, however, things had become difficult for the two. Demeter seemed to be looking for a mother figure, and Grizabella was unfortunately the only cat she could see as such. But Demeter could clearly see that Grizabella was depressed over something. When she asked her what was the matter, Grizabella simply replied that she was trying to figure out how to say goodbye to someone she loved. Demeter didn't quite understand, but she let out the sympathy of a kitten: utterly selfless, and completely innocent.
As Demeter could recall, she woke up one morning, lying against the would-be mother. Grizabella, however, was looking at her reflection in the old discarded hubcap of a car. When Demeter commented on how pretty she was, hoping to get praise, Grizabella simply nodded sadly, a far off look in her eyes.
One day, after her mild infatuation with the thought of having a mother figure, she decided to leave her steadfast venture for a more playful one. These days, she so rarely spent time with the other kittens; they were all surprised to see her. She had changed from the playful kitten she once was, and the other kittens weren't too sure what to make of it.
"What are you all doing?" she asked, sitting down next to Mistoffelees. He pointed at the kittens, fairly new to the tribe. The little gold queen was shocked to see how fast the moderately newborn kittens had grown. They were so cute, pawing at each other playfully. Some were unable to talk, only able to make little mewling sounds. The others would attempt words, but the litter of kittens was mostly made up of younger ones, the tiniest a little turtle-shell kitten who chomped onto the tail of a white kitten, the oldest of the little queens.
Alonzo and Mistoffelees decided they wanted to play with the tiny Jellicles, and Demeter and Bombalurina joined them. Cassandra (who enjoyed the minuscule kittens about as much as a Pollicle's breath) instead decided to take a stroll. Tugger came in later to join them. The little queens enjoyed his attempts to get them to smile and laugh, and they would hardly divert their attentions from the older kitten. The tiny toms were happy to get into little wrestling matches, Alonzo cheering them on. Little Mistoffelees let the kittens crawl all over him, and pretended like he was losing the fight. (In reality he was pretending that he was pretending. He was the smallest and youngest of the older kittens, and three tiny toms easily overpowered him. Did that make sense? Anyways, we're in the beginning of the middle of this chapter, so let's continue…)
After a while of playing, Demeter decided to play the mother kitten as she had seen Jennyanydots do. She picked up each kitten and lined them up on the matting from biggest (that being baby Pouncival) to the smallest (that being baby Electra.) But before she could start a game of pretend (teaching them to crochet), a frazzled Munkustrap came in.
"I said stop it!" he whined.
He was very proud of his brand new collar. A family had found him and "adopted" him into their house (though he easily escaped through the kitty door…not that he wouldn't go back.) But at the sight of this new collar, Macavity decided that it should be his.
The little ginger kitten had reached a stage where he became increasingly jealous of whatever his younger brother had. And what with his older brother, the Rum Tum Tugger, already having been adopted into a home, the annoyance was too much. He would detest having humans to begin with, but it was the principle of the thing…
Poor little Munkustrap looked as though he had been in a pretty rough fight. But when he saw the other kittens in front of him, he instinctively turned around to face his foe, who slinked in with a sly look on his face. Munkustrap felt the fur on the back of his neck rise. Why he suddenly felt prepared for another fight, he didn't know.
The hungry look in Macavity's eyes disappeared as his gaze went from Munkustrap's collar to the kittens all lined up in a row. "What are these?" he asked, poking baby Pouncival. Like a domino effect, one fell onto the other until all seven kittens had toppled over, and started to cry. The older kittens quickly swooped down to help the crying kittens and Macavity did his best to suppress a laugh. Then he was confronted by little Munkustrap and little Alonzo.
"You did that on purpose!" Munkustrap yelled, pointing at the little ginger kitten. (Alonzo mimicked Munkustrap in his movements.) "Why do you have to do that everywhere you go?" he asked hypothetically.
"I hardly cried that much when I was that young," young Macavity said. Munkustrap and Alonzo were ready to fight their adversary when Grizabella walked in, annoyed.
"You're interfering with my beauty sleep," she said grumpily. She then blinked her eyes as she surveyed the room. Little Mistoffelees was comforting baby Victoria, Tugger was comforting the other baby queens, and Bombalurina was comforting poor baby Pouncival, (who seemed most perturbed at being the one who was actually poked). Demeter, who was nuzzling little Plato while trying to calm Tumblebrutus down, looked up helplessly at Grizabella. "What happened here?" she asked, putting her paw on her hip.
"Macavity made the kittens cry," Demeter said plainly.
Macavity looked astounded at the accusation against him. "I didn't do anything!" he claimed. But Grizabella knew him enough not to believe that pathetic lie.
"Come on, I'm taking you to your grand-father, he'll know what to do," she said, an admonishing look on her face the best she could muster. "He'll show you how to respect kittens…and adult cats, as well. It's about time you learned."
"Shouldn't you be doing something about that?" the little ginger kitten snapped back. The other kittens had gotten the newborns out of the way. This didn't seem to be going well…
"I don't have time to teach you these things. Your time would be better spent with Old Deuteronomy. He's a much better teacher than I am."
But a boiling anger seemed to flare up in the kittens' eyes. He wasn't about to be told off in front of kittens he had spent a good amount of time getting to "respect" him. And least of all by the glamour cat - who had no time for little ones, but all the time in the world for herself. In a swift movement, his claws bared, he scratched Grizabella straight across her pretty face before turning and running away. Even he knew he crossed the line at outwardly attacking an older cat.
"My face! He hurt my face! That wretched little kitten hurt my face!" Though the wound wasn't at all that deep, the horror at being taken down a peg by a kitten in front of other kittens was absolutely humiliating. And soon enough the awful awareness that the scratch might have left a cosmetic scar across her face sank in, and panic ran through her veins. "That little wretch!"
"Grizabella, are you okay?" Demeter slinked up to the flustered queen and tried to nuzzle her, but Grizabella made a frustrated motion with her arms, and ran out of the play area before tears would come streaming down her eyes.
After a moment of silence among the Jellicle kittens, Jennyanydots came rushing in. "Why did Grizabella leave here in tears?" she demanded.
"Macavity scratched her," Bombalurina said, becoming the spokesperson for the calming kittens.
Jennyanydots shook her head. "That kitten is becoming more brazen everyday…" And without another word about that, she started to handle the baby kittens, who had begun to calm down.
Aww, thanks to everyone who reviewed, Mystitat, Krissy 4, and AJNemo. It's so funny, cause I wasn't writing Macavity to be so amusing, he just came out that way. In fact, it all started out as an inside joke of poking a tarutaru in the head (Final Fantasy Online) and watching him topple over because his head is bigger than his body.
Anyways, I read on a website once that she didn't "know why Macavity kidnapped Old D. Maybe he was just too evil, haha!" I can't quote it exactly, but that's basically what she said. And I stopped and thought, yeah, why does he have to be pure evil? The only problem is his character might be one I can't control. Damn him, he IS pure evil! I don't know if that made sense, lol. But you might see what i mean later on. He writes himself, i think.
Thank you for reading, and please keep along with me! There is alot more chapters to come, some more mediocre and explanatory, some fluff and stuff, but some good if I say so myself, so I hope you'll stay until the end!
-That was Sleeping Tiger, talking too much