Dawn of a New Era
Chapter 8: The Kitten and the Hunter
Jasmine's Point of View:
I can't believe haw much time has passed since our first few missions. We've faced many more challenges and completed many missions at the same time. I would have to think that it's been about a few weeks or a month since it all began, since I left home. It was so surprising as I laid down in my bed, just woken up a few minutes ago and staring off into space as my thoughts wondered.
I couldn't believe how far along I've come in my studies too. Olivia and I have worked on multiple things that needed work that she showed me how to fix, and now I understand how she can feel so excited about it, to see how something works. The same goes for all my other lessons as well, my combat training with Rover, my pilot training with Rose, my history lessons with Gabriella, and my power primate training with Annabel. It was like a whole new world to me, now that I am out on the outsides of the walls of the place I never called home. This is my home; this robot is my home, just as my team is my family, it might not be the family I dreamed of, but it was one that I would never replace.
I sat up on my bed and stretched my sleeping muscles to have them wake up for another day on the run from my so called 'parents'. Annabel has told me many times that I shouldn't judge them for what they did because they did it out of love and concern. I blew off that idea that my parents cared a long time ago, well.. maybe my mother does, but my father is just too stubborn to care about me.
I got off my bed and ran out of my room and into the kitchen while everyone was still asleep, or at least, I think they are at five-thirty in the morning. Even Annabel doesn't get up for another half hour. So with not much to do, I set out about cooking breakfast for myself before I start in making some for the rest of the team. I pulled out some cereal for a light breakfast to eat, before I made anything big to eat later for the team and I. I also got the sausage started so Gabriella and Annabel had something to eat while they waited on the other food I was making. Or I should say only Gabriella will eat it because Annabel is a vegetarian. I fixed up a small bowl when I dropped a spoon and heard a small crash behind the trash can.
What was that? I thought. I placed down my cereal on the table and got down on my knees to move the trash can out of the way when I came face to face with a pair of two golden, enlarged, beady eyes. I moved the trash can even more out of the way then it was and saw a small black kitten hidden in the corner, next to our refrigerator.
I knew this kitten was too scared to come out on its own, and would be even more scared if I tried to take it out of the corner by force. I got up and pulled a chunk of the sausage out of the frying pan and cut it up into tiny pieces and placed them on a small dish and set it down in front of the kitten. It cocked its head at the food and sniffed it before slowly stepping forward to eat it.
"That's a good kitten." I praised it, gently scratching it on its head. It seamed to like it and went back to eating. From its size, it looks like it was just barely old enough to leave its mother, and it was very thin. I moved away from the kitten and searched threw all the cupboards until I found what I was looking for. "I don't know why you're here," I said aloud to myself. "But I'm glad you are." I pulled the baby bottle out of the cupboard and poured some milk into it and placed it into the microwave for a few seconds.
When the microwave went off, I pulled out the bottle and felt a few drops on my hand to see if the milk was still cold or now too hot. Thankfully though, it felt just fine. I hurried back over to the kitten and saw it look up at me with those adorable eyes, and it had even come a bit out of its corner. I pat its head again and picked it up in my arms. It meowed at me in the form that it was scared. I grabbed the bottle and placed it close to the kitten's mouth and waited for it to drink on its own. When it did, I watched it drink as it tried to get its little paws on the side of the side of the bottle, its little claws trying to get a grip on it, but to no avail. I couldn't help but giggle at how cute the sight was.
When it finished the milk, I pulled the bottle away and placed in on the table and started to pet the kitten. I swear I could see it smiling at me while I pet it. It walked all over my lap while I petted it, it purring was loud, I could hear it echoing off the walls of the kitchen. It suddenly stopped and sniffed the air and then looked up at me with those irresistible eyes. "Meow!" It repeated this over and over again. I never had an animal so my best guess was that it was begging for more sausage.
"You want some more of that sausage?" I asked it. It then stopped meowing and purred like crazy and it cuddled with me. I could only guess that it was a 'yes'. I picked up the kitten gently in my arms and placed it by my feet as I made some more sausage for it. It looked up at me strangely with those adorable eyes. I placed down the plate again and it ate up the sausage like there was no tomorrow. I sat down in the chair next to the kitten while it ate its last bits of sausage. When it was done, it came over to me and used my pajama pants to climb up onto my lap. It circled around a few times before it laid down on my lap and I watched it sleep. I guess in those few minutes that I gave it food; it trusted me enough to sleep with.
"Oh my god! What is that?" I heard Olivia say from the doorway. That was quite surprising to say the least. Olivia is usually the last to get up, along with Rose. Olivia must have had too much sugar before bed again, which got her up too early.
"You're up early." I commented. "And this little thing is a kitten. One that I found this morning behind the trash can all curled up into a ball, practically petrified of me."
"How did you get it to like you?" She questioned, her eyes focusing on the kitten in my lap.
"I fed it some milk and sausage and it warmed up to me just like that."
"Did I hear someone mention food?" It was then that I saw Rover enter the kitchen. His eyes bulged out of his head when he saw the kitten in my lap. "Please tell me that's not our breakfast that fast asleep on your lap."
"It's not!" I snapped at him. He flinched back.
"She found it behind the trash can and fed it, so now it likes her!" Olivia told him.
"But where did 'it' come from?" Rover asked, sitting down with Olivia and I at the table.
"My guess is that it must have somehow gotten on our ship while we were at that last planet we stopped at, uh I think it was Kenzen." I said. "But how the robot didn't pick up on it being in here, that's what is a mystery."
"Maybe it's because the kitten was so helpless that the robot saw it as no threat." Olivia said. "I mean, look at it. It's the most adorable kitten I've ever seen!"
"What are you guys talking about?" We turned to see Rose now standing in the doorway, her eyes trailed to the kitten in my lap. "Oh my god! That kitten is so cute! It better not be our breakfast."
"No its not!" I yelled at her. She jumped a foot in the air and walked over to us, standing behind her brother and Olivia to use as a shield. The kitten also woke up from my yelling and looked up at me, its beady eyes were so bright, and they caught me in the moment, making me speechless.
"Those eyes are so adorable!" Olivia said. The kitten meowed and backed into my abdomen, scared of so many new faces around it.
"Its alright, these are my friends." I whispered to the kitten. It looked back up at me and then to Olivia who was right beside us. "Olivia, hold out your hand." Olivia did as I asked and the kitten slowly sniffed it. "See, everything is ok. None of them will hurt you." The kitten then went up it Olivia's hand and rubbed its body against it.
"I think it likes me now!" Olivia said, overjoyed that the kitten liked her. The kitten the jumped down from my lap and sniffed both Rose and Rover's feet before she rubbed its side against their legs.
"Wow, this cat sure warmed up to us fast." Rover complemented.
"Ditto, and I can't believe how adorable this little kitten is!" Rose gushed over the kitten, picking it up in her arms and petting it.
"What's going on in here?" We all turned to the door way where we saw Annabel and Gabriella, both looking extremely tired.
"This cute, adorable, and sweet little kitten is what is going on in here!" Olivia said. She hurried over to Rose, taking the kitten into her arms and bringing it over to Annabel and Gabriella. "Look how cute and adorable it is!"
Gabriella sighed. "Yes it is cute, but you do realize that 'cute' and 'adorable' do mean the same thing?"
"It does?" Olivia questioned. "But how can you not call this kitten both of those words! It's just so cute that you have to call it both 'cute' and 'adorable'!"
"I understand that, but still, its not right to use both those words in one sentence, just as Rose will often forget that when referring to another and yourself you use I and the person's name before yourself, where as she often puts herself first as a 'me' and then the other person." Gabriella explained. Olivia and Rover looked at her with confused glances and Rose looked pissed. I couldn't help but sigh at how often I see that enraged look on her face.
"Who cares about 'Proper English'?" Rose questioned her. "And why does it really matter how you say it? I don't see a difference."
"It just the rules of Proper English. And please lower your voice, you're frightening the uhh... kitten." Gabriella noted to us and we looked at where she pointed out where the kitten was. It hid itself behind my legs. I picked it up and placed in my lap and pet it, calming it down.
"Its alright, those two wont hurt you, they are my friends too." The kitten looked up at me before jumping off my lap and sniffing both Gabriella and Annabel, and slowly she warmed up to them and rubbed her body against their legs.
"Wow, it actually likes you, I thought it would have hated you for being all weird." Rose said. I rolled my eyes at her comment and watched the kitten walk around the others to get back to me, digging her claws into my pants again and jumping up onto my lap. "But it still seams to like you the best Jazz."
"Can we keep it?" Olivia asked.
"Yeah guys, it just a kitten. If we take it back to where we were last, it might not find its family, if it even still has one, and we could be placing ourselves at risk with running into our parents if we back track." Rose said.
"I understand your concerns," Annabel said. "But I don't know if you guys are really up to the task of taking care of another being that needs a lot of attention along with food, water, and shelter."
"We can do it Annabel!" Olivia shouted. "We'll be the best friends to this little kitten.
"We have no food for it while its here with us." Gabriella remarked.
"I can cook up some meat for it, like it did this morning, it seams to love sausage." I said.
"Come on Annabel, please!" Rose begged. She and Olivia ran up to Annabel and gave her their best puppy dog faces. But I knew that Annabel would not be phased by that alone. The kitten seam to understand what was going on though and jumped down from my lap and walked up to Annabel and looked up at her with those adorable eyes it has, and I saw Annabel for once, stutter.
Annabel sighed. "Alright, we can keep it." The girls and Rover cheered for joy and the kitten seam to know it now had a new home and thanked Annabel by rubbing up against her legs and purring like crazy.
"The kitten seams to be very thankful Annabel." I chuckled. "And I am too, thank you for letting it stay." Annabel nodded and smiled.
"Now we should be helping her get settled, shouldn't we?" Gabriella questioned.
"Wait, hold on a sec Gab." Rose said. "You called it 'her', does that mean it's a girl and how did you know that?"
"Would you really like for me to explain that to you Rose, or would you rather avoid that lecture?" Gabriella said, grinning.
"I'll pass on the lecture and just say you know what you're talking about." Rose said, rolling her eyes at Gabriella.
"I've already had all I want to eat so I'm heading out into the command center to watch out for anything unusual. You guys go ahead and eat your breakfast; I'll let you know if anything is up." My team nodded me and I got up form my chair and headed out of the kitchen with my sketch pad in hand. I headed out to the command center and looked over all the monitors and watched carefully for anything suspicious.
It was then though that I heard a meow at my feet. I looked down and saw the kitten looking strait up into my eyes with her own, curiosity filled her golden eyes as she cocked her head at the sight of my sketch pad in my hands. I giggled at her appearance and drew the way she was now on my sketch pad. While I drew though, the kitten dug her claws in my pant legs again and jumped up onto my lap. She walked around my arms and looked at my drawing of herself. She cocked her head at that too.
She turned her head away form the picture though where I heard the proximity alarm go off. A ship was closing in fast, it was a newer model of most of the ships that were being built now a days. As the kitten looked at the ship, I watched her innocent face disappear and she lashed out in a fury of rage in her spot on my lap. She extended her claws, rolled back her lips over her teeth, and she hissed at the ship loudly before she turned around and jumped onto my shoulders and hid herself behind my hair. I could feel her trembling behind there. I hit the alarm and the team came up here in seconds.
"What's going on Jazz?" Rover asked.
"I don't know, the kitten started to act up as soon as she saw that ship, she lashed out and hissed like crazy. I have a bad feeling about that ship" I told them.
"They seam to be attempting to board us." Olivia said. "What should we do?"
"Do they seam hostile?" Annabel questioned.
"Other then the fact that their trying to board us, no." Olivia replied.
"Then we should at least hear them out, after that we can make our judgment of whether they should go or not." She said. The rest of the team reluctantly nodded their heads and I watched the ship come into boarding position. It was then that we saw a man slip himself on board and made his way over to the command center.
When I saw him, my first reaction was to either run away from him or kill him. I could feel the kitten trembling even more behind my neck as it watched our uninvited visitor make his way close to us. His clothes in general were torn up and ragged. A lose pair of jeans and a shirt fit him loosely from being torn up so much. A leather jacket was on him, surprisingly not torn up, along with hiking boots and a hunting cap.
"Sorry to have uh… trespassed on your ship." The man said, grinning evilly. "But I'm a man looking for a special treasure on board your vessel that I've been after since it escaped me on Kenzen."
"And what would that be?" I asked, careful not to move so much as to revel the kitten's hiding place.
"I'm looking for this here cat, or kitten some others might call it." The man said, handing us out a picture, and there on that picture was our adorable little kitten, trapped in a cage.
"What did you do to this poor animal?" I seethed at him, wanting badly to rip his head off.
"I'm a hunter girly." The man said. "I hunt after ran animals that are near extinction and sell 'em to the highest bidder. Some of those animals live until they die of loneliness from being taken from their families, others… well let's just say that their suffering ends a lot quicker. This cat however, escaped from me, so I only got its mom and siblings, but not the last one. They want this one special for a nice feline fur coat. Its siblings and mom were probably tossed on some unknown planet far away since none of 'em was the color that my boss wanted. Either that or they were just killed. I just want the money, what happens to the animal doesn't matter to me. Now where is it? Where is that blasted cat?"
I couldn't believe the nerve of this man, this poor kitten; she'll most likely never see her family again. I had to get ride of this man or end him. I try one option and if it doesn't work, I'll try the other. "Get off my ship." I told him sternly.
The hunter ignored my words and moved away from us and started looking threw our things on the command center. Rose had already lost her temper and transformed her hands into magnets and blasted an electric field of energy between the hunter and our things. "Our commander said get off our ship, now do it!" She yelled at him.
"Can't do little missy monkey. I have a deal with my employer to get that cat soon, or it will be my head." He then pulled his riffle off his back and pointed it at us. "Now I'm just going to look around your ship, and if its not here, I'll let you go, but I think I'll keep this ship."
"Sir," Annabel said angrily. "I'm giving you this final chance to leave before we have to take action against you."
"What are you going to do, throw a banana peal at me?" He laughed. I rolled my eyes and nodded to Rose. She smirked and transformed her hands into magnets and pulled the gun out of the hunter's hands and into her hands. The hunter stopping laughing and quickly pulled out a small pistol, which in a quick motion he fired at me. I was able to doge the bullet, but the kitten has jumped out from its hiding place behind my hair and caught the eye of the hunter.
"There you are you little fur ball." He then aimed to fire his pistol again, but Rose pulled that one away from him too. The hunter then pulled off his backpack and pulled out a rope, which he used to quickly catch us. "Now you little monkeys and your girl better stay out of my way." He pulled out another rope and aimed it at the kitten.
"Run little kitty!" Olivia shouted at her. The kitten raced away from the hunter, but it wasn't to get out of the room, it was toward us that she ran. I couldn't let her get hurt or taken, I had to get free. I pulled against the binds that were on me. I felt the power building inside of me too; the power primate was giving me strength to break free. I felt the rope stretch around me as my muscles pushed the rope away from my body. I felt the ropes begin to snap and I jumped to my feet just as I broke free and ran toward the kitten, scooped her up in my arms and then flung a 'Monkey Fu' at the hunter. It hit his arm and he flew backward into the wall.
"You little brat!" He yelled. He pointed his pistol at me, wait another one?
How many of these things does he have? I thought. Just when I thought that I was going to jump out of the way of his bullet, the hunter dropped his pistol in fear at the sigh of something that seamed to be behind me. I could see the shadow hanging over myself, covering my own shadow. I turned around and in the place where I once saw our cute kitten; I saw a large feline with a set of eyes that were redder then the color of my blood. She grew to a size much larger then myself and extended her claws and teeth. She jumped over me and faced the hunter.
With no weapons to protect himself, the hunter screamed and made a run for it back to his own ship. The large feline growled in her place but didn't make a move after him. She stayed at my side. I petted her fur and she looked back at me, her eyes shifted from blood red to the golden we had once seen and she turned back into our adorable kitten. The kitten jumped into my arms and snuggled into me.
"What just happened?" Rose asked. I hurried over to her and the others and began pulling off the rope that bounded them.
"I think our little feline was protecting us. This is its new home, it didn't want to lose that too, or the people that are family with it." I guessed.
"Shouldn't we go after the hunter though?" Annabel questioned.
Rover laughed. "I don't think so Annabel, that hunter, if he had a tail it would have been between his legs, shaking in fear. I don't think we'll have to worry about him for a long time, or even ever again."
"We can still keep the kitten, can't we?" Olivia asked softly, worried the others would no longer keep it due to recent events.
Annabel chuckled. "Yes Olivia, we can still keep the kitten." It was then that Olivia jumped for joy and tackled Annabel in a hug. The rest of us laugh at the sight.
"Speaking of the little cutie," Rose said. "What are we going to name it?"
Well that was something I never thought about. I thought. The rest of us had to think about it.
"Maybe a calm and soothing name?" Annabel suggested.
"No way Annabel, this cat is not calm! Maybe a name that stands out among others!" Rose said.
"I have to disagree with you there Rose." Gabriella sighed. "I think a rather intelligent name would fit this animal for how much it adapted during this day."
"No! It should be a fun and creative name!" Olivia shouted. The four of them bickered like there was no tomorrow while I stood back with Rover and the kitten.
"What do you think kid?" He asked me. "I don't really care what you guys come up with, besides I'm not the best at naming things." I looked down at the kitten in my lap and I instantly knew the perfect name for her, even when I first saw her.
"Midnight." I said. The kitten looked up at me, and I swear I could have seen her smile at the name I gave her.
"That's good kid, that's good." He said. Rover then had a smirk on his face and turned toward the others. "If there is any objection to the name, say 'I'!" He yelled.
"What?" The others stopped fighting and turned to us. Rover laughed at them, and I couldn't help but giggle. The kitten I thought smiled at this before she ran up my arm and stood on my shoulder and rubbed her body against the side of my face.
"The non 'I's' have it. I guess that's the name Jazz, good work." The others started to freak out and tackled him and began tearing him to pieces while trying to find the answer to their question. I laughed and headed out of the command center and back to my room. Sitting on my bed, Midnight climbed down from my shoulders and into my lap, curled into a ball and fell into a deep slumber.
"Sleep well Midnight." I whispered to her. "And welcome to the family."
Witch's Note:
I was really inspired to write this chapter because of my own cat, which we call Blackie. She a annoying fur ball at times, but she's family, and she can always get what she wants with her adorable face, even if she is old, she's 17, turning 18 next year.
Question of the Chapter: What really annoys you the most in your life?
Answer to the Question: Besides Blackie when she wants something because she's deaf, my younger brother is also quite annoying, and put him and the cat together, I don't even want to think about that.
Remember to Review People! It's quite saddening that only one or two of you do every chapter.
Halloween Witch