100 Tales 95
Forever
Amber and Ashes slept peacefully in the curve of their mother's belly, beside their brothers, Ginger, Moss, and Talon. Their mother's name was Quince, and they were all sleeping peacefully in the hollow beneath the Bush, their birth-place.
None of them heard the huge gray-furred intruder come sniffing around the base of the bush. He opened his mouth to taste the air. Hmm, kits. Two she-cats and three toms, and by the smell of the kits and the mother, I'd guess that they're about two moons old. Perfect. The she-cats would do nicely as slaves. He crept in.
The mother was orange with black tabby stripes and a white underbelly and paws, one she-kit was calico and the other gray. They were both very small, promising easy submission. One tom was ginger, one was black and the other was gray and brown. But he couldn't take toms, they were more likely to grow up to be strong fighters; she-cats, on the other hand, were better hunters and more submissive so they were great to torture.
He purred, then picked the two she-kits up by the scruff, gently holding them until he got far enough away.
Once he was back at his camp, the gray she-kit was crying. He set the calico down and shoved the gray kit's face into the dirt. She didn't stop, but cried louder. Perfect. He'd get many screams of pain from this one. He said gruffly, to see if it worked, "Lie at my feet, belly side up."
As if by magic, the tiny kit turned over until she was belly side up by his feet. He sunk his huge fangs into the tiny belly, and raked her face and haunches. The gray kit's belly was about a mouthful for him. He was a huge cat, though. The gray she-kit cried and screamed, and he put a paw on her throat and squeezed until she fell limp. Then he released it, and she started to gasp for air, but he put his paw on her throat again until she writhed and struggled, and by then he was pretty sure she'd die if he didn't stop, so he took his paw off and set the tiny kit in a pile of his dung in the dirt-place. That was where they'd sleep. "Your name will now be Mousebrain," he growled to the gray kit and stalked out of his dirt-place.
He moved on to the calico kit. She was still sleeping peacefully. Well, that would soon change. She was lying belly side up, having turned as well, so he raked his claws down her belly. She screamed in her sleep. Good, he'd achieved a scream. He picked her up by the scruff and set her down in the pile of dung next to her bleeding sister. "Your name will now be Foxdung," he whispered to the calico kit, for she had just fallen in a big pile of watery foxdung.
He purred, satisfied, and stalked out of the dirtplace, into the night, into his den. He would keep these slaves.... He would keep them forever, and he would torture them for life.