Keith could move around in short bursts of energy before nightfall. The parents brought Lance with them into their bedroom to sleep for the night. Keith followed them in, not wanting to stray too far from the kind-smelling woman.

"This is where I draw the line, get him out of here." The husband demanded as he scuttled to the far side of the room to get away from the cat.

Knowing she had asked for a lot from her husband already, Lance's mom relented and picked Keith up gently. He struggled a little and made displeased noises the entire time.

"Sorry, gatico. You can't follow me in here." She apologized as she set the cat down. Keith looked up at her pitifully. It had taken a lot of his strength to even follow her in there in the first place.

Is this another test? "Mrow?" Keith meowed questioningly.

The woman stood up and quickly backed into her room. Keith took a moment to steel himself before he stood. By the time he'd taken two steps forward, the door was closed.

What had just happened? Was she going to disappear like Shiro?

Don't go! "Mow!" Don't leave me alone! "Mrow!"

Please... not again. "meow."

He waited an eternity before he heard the handle turn. Keith looked up and watched as the human spawn's face appeared. The big blue eyes widening when they saw Keith.

"Keeth."

Keith tried to use the opening to go into the room and be with the kind-smelling woman, but her child hurriedly exited the room and shut the door.

Keith grumbled his displeasure and backed away from Lance.

Have you come here to torture me? Make me leave this nice place? Don't even try to touch me, or else. "Mrrrrrow."

Lance giggled before he lost his balance and fell to the ground, he quickly settled for crawling. He wasn't good enough at walking yet to do so for more than a few seconds.

"Keeth, meow. Meow."

I'm afraid I don't understand your dialect. "Hmm?"

"Meow, meow. Keeth, meow meow."

You're saying the same thing over and over. I still don't understand.

"Meow, meow. Keeth, meow."

Was the child trying to communicate with him? Keith tested his theory as he replied, "Meow?"

Lance giggled in delight. "Meow!"

The bedroom door opened and the kind-smelling woman's face appeared.

"Lance what are you doing down here?" Lance's mother asked as she scooped up her child.

Lance looked down and pointed at Keith. "Keeth, meow."

Was this his purpose for being here? If he taught this child the ancient feline ways, would he be accepted into this family? Or was he supposed to just obey the human spawn? That seemed more likely. Looking up at the child, Keith meowed.

The woman chuckled and set Lance down. "Are you teaching Lance how to be a cat?"

Keith meowed nonsensically (to him) in response.

"Such a good boy. Lance, you have to teach Keith how to be human now. It's only fair."

"Far!" Lance mimicked happily.

"That's right."

Lance's mother, knowing that her child would continue to leave the room to play with the new cat until he fell asleep, went into her room and grabbed her pillow and a blanket. She returned and set up a spot on the sofa.

She laid down and watched as Lance crawled around the cat. The child didn't touch him, which she was surprised about. At Lance's age, she was a menace to all felines. Constantly grabbing at them and pulling on their tails when they tried to escape. She blushed at her actions even though they were only because she didn't know any better.

The question she had, was why Lance wasn't behaving like that? Because that was a completely normal response. Being only one, she didn't expect an exact answer, but she figured Lance might be able to understand enough to try.

"Do you like Keith, Lance?"

The child turned to his mother and beamed as he nodded dramatically.

"Why don't you pet Keith?"

"No!" was the immediate response.

"Why not?" she tried again.

"No!" Lance was starting to get upset, so she backtracked and changed the subject.

"Would you mind if I pet Keith?" she tried.

Lance looked down at the cat and watched his face. Keith lie on the ground, relaxed now that the child wasn't constantly crawling around him.

"Keeth?" Lance began. "Meow?"

The cat looked at Lance a moment before letting out a meow of his own.

Lance nodded, "Ye." He permitted his mother to pet Keith.

The woman reached out hesitantly before she gave the cat a few quick pets. The cat accepted them without tensing. She stared at Lance for a long moment. Were they communicating?

…

She snorted to herself. There was no way.