King of the Jungle
Chapter 1
Names
Bellville. Rose could say the word now without feeling like she had to hack up a hairball afterwards. The process to get to that, however, had been a long one, typically revolving around all of the neighbors. It was her displeasure to learn that Francoise was not her only neighbor to the right, but one of three furry savages. Besides the Persian, there was an arrogant, albino Russian Blue with a scar across his right eye, aptly named Scar. Beside him there was also a rather jovial, light brown and white mixed breed by the name of Tomato. Needless to say, all three drove Rose to the brink of insanity, but they were not her only neighbors. She learned that to her left was actually another female cat in this neighborhood, a black oriental named Kitty. This cat did not annoy Rose like the others, but was prideful herself and was not much for conversation. Needless to say, it was even more slim pickings for intelligent conversation. However, Rose did get a rather unexpected hope in this hopeless situation: kittens. More specifically, her own kittens. Any details about their father or fathers she could not provide, or honestly wanted to with the population of her new neighborhood, though she was quite adamant that at the very least Francoise had nothing to do with the process. The issue was not particularly pressed though, seeing as that spring she was hardly the only one welcoming newcomers into the neighborhood. Far from it actually, but she did not know all the details seeing as she had not left the house since the blind and deaf beings were first born.
It actually took Lucy about three days to discover that the odd noises under her bed were Rose and her new family. The human had actually been unaware that Rose had been expecting, and had been more than a little surprised. More surprised than the time that Rose turned out to be a girl, instead of the "Arthur" she had been originally. Speaking of names, it was a tradition of the feline species to allow the humans to pick their names, seeing as the name had absolutely nothing to do with their identities. It was supposed to make humans feel more secure, so Rose's mother had always told her. That was why she was willing to follow the tradition, even if she already had names she would far prefer to anything they could come up with. In all truth, Rose would not have picked her own that she now had. She actually preferred Arthur, but as far as she was concerned she had gotten the best names out of her littermates both times around. That still did little to decrease her anxiety as the humans started to pick names for her two petite kittens. It did little to help her nerves that they kept trying to reach for them to inspect them for their new names. Needless to say, all hands were met with Rose's claws and teeth. Her kittens were not ready to be touched.
Lucy's mate, who Rose learned to be named Richard, seemed to think differently. He purposely waited for Rose to leave and snuck under the bed. Rose had not been out three minutes, but when she came back her squealing kittens were in his hands. She, being the good mother she was, naturally tried to remove said hands. Sadly, Lucy was faster in shutting the door, causing a very angry Rose to smash right into it. She promptly began clawing and yowling. Through her cries, she could hear the conversation between the two, but not anything from her kittens, which worried her for various reasons.
"I feel like a bad person doing this, Richard. I mean—just listen to her."
"There has been no harm done. We just want to see them. We have to take them to the vet later anyway, she has to get used to this."
Vet? The vet meant nothing to her anymore, but kittens were another matter! Her claws began to go deeper and her voice rose an octave.
"They are so cute and white!"
"They do look rather unusual, don't they? I mean they are carbon copies with different colors. One white and black, the other white and light brown."
"Unusual?" Who did he think he was calling her kittens "unusual?!" Something that spawned those grabby things had absolutely no right!
"They look like that Persian next door, now that I think about it." Richard murmured, thoughtfully.
"You are right, they do!"
That was the final nail in the coffin.
"Francoise has nothing to do with it, now: LET. ME. IN!" screamed Rose, actually climbing the door with her claws embedded in it out of frustration.
"So what do you want to name them, Richie? Should we wait and let the kids instead?"
"Not with the way your demonic cat reacts."—Rose scoffed.—"I'll name this one, I think he is a boy. You can name that one. I am pretty sure it is a she."
Rose had a good idea which ones they were talking about, but it did not help her calm down in the least. That man had no right to name her kittens, the grabby things either, Lucy only.
Lucy hummed in thought, "I think I will name this one… Maple!"
How… Original, Rose supposed.
"I feel bad for her," Richard laughed, "You, on the other hand, will get a great name, little guy. Hm. You remind me of Clark Kent, strangely enough. You can be my little superman, my little hero. Maybe you will tame that mother of yours and the save the household, how does that sound, Hero?"
Rose immediately cried out in protest, but it was too late. Tradition was tradition, after all.
"We better just let her in already, Richard."
"Fine, just let me put them back."
He could put them wherever he wanted, the moment they turned their backs Rose was going to hide her babies. The first thing she was going to do when she reached them was give them a very thorough cleaning, though. If she could get a snap at Richard in, it would only be icing on the cake. While she was formulating her plan of action, she forgot that she was halfway up the door, so she gave herself, and Lucy, quite a fright when she started to open the door. Rose bolted under the bed where her two filthy smelling kittens waited, squalling. Even the usually quite one, now named Maple, was crying out in wild abandon. That man really must have stunk. It made her feel all the better when said man saw the damage done to the door in the form of deep gashes and began to curse.
As soon as she reached the two she had started to groom them, but only once the humans were gone did her nerves start to calm and her thoughts began to form. Maple and Hero, was it? Hero was the younger of the two, a little white boy with a black tail and ruff that looked something like a lion's man. Unlike his sister, Maple, he was quiet talkative. She was light brown everywhere he was black and had a little curl on the top of her head. Rose had yet to see their eyes, but she knew they would both be blue until later in their lives. All in all, she thought the names did not fit. At all. They were too, simplistic might have been the word? If she had been the one naming them Hero would have been Alfred without a doubt, and Maple would have been Matthew. Or maybe, Madeline? No, Matthew. She liked that name best and gender based names were something stupid that humans did. Names did not change or define anyone's identity after all.
Rose's ears began to perk as she recognized a familiar sound in the back ground, the bus. That meant the grabby things were home. She huddled closer to her kittens. They had already gone through too much that day because she had been careless, she would not be caught off guard again. It was a disgrace to her own mother to be so inept. One thing she knew is that she had to protect these two as if her life depended on it, her sanity surely did.