Thunder Kittens
Chapter 1.2
By Robin Gurl
A pair of wails coming from the nursey woke them up for the 2nd time that night. He rolls over checking the clock on the side of bed hearing Cheetara sit up.
He growls sleepily as he sits up, "…at least they have a set schedule."
She glances over giving him a half glare, "Every three hours. Now I know why every set of new parents I see around the nobility circles look like death warmed over."
Tygra leaned against her wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "At least the kittens are cute. If they weren't this wouldn't be as bearable."
"Cute?" She asked half annoyed. "What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know if you've seen some of those cubs, Cheetara… they aren't as adorable as ours."
She blinks before laughing, "Do you want to make the bottles and I'll go see if I can get them to calm down until they are ready?"
"I made the bottles the last time we were up, but I'll go heat them." The tiger gets to his feet and turns to watch her to get her feet. She seemed in a better mood. He stretched before stumbling down the hallway to the kitchen.
~*
The small lamps are flicked on as the two tiny cubs let it known they were hungry. In each of the cribs lay one of twins. Wily Kat was on his back crying and Wily Kat was on her side, she had managed to unwrap herself a bit from her blankets.
"Alright alright, we hear you both." Cheetara starts her voice rising above the wails. "Tygra is getting you food." She bends down into one of the cribs and picks up Kat first getting him comfortable in one arm before picking up Kit one handed. The kitten wriggled out of her arms back onto the mattress pad. "Well, you get to wait on Tygra then."
The kitten looked up at her before she started to cry again. "Wily Kit, if I didn't know better, I'd think you preferred him over me."
"Preferred what?"
"Your daughter won't let me hold her."
The tiger blushes bright red at being told that. He clears his throat before awkwardly handing her one of the bottles, now flustered. "S-She uh.. not quite my daughter… w-we're just watching them for Jaga."
Cheetara takes the bottle and gently gets Wily Kat to start drinking it before looking to her mate. She sighs smiling, "May as well be… look how fast she quieted down."
He looks down at the kitten in his arms as she curled up in her pink blankets, her face up against the orange fur. She was sniffling from being hungry but looked comfortable. "Now was there any reason to make such a racket?" He asks playfully as he gets her to drink her bottle. "I could hear you over your brother all the way in the kitchen."
~*
"Did we ever hear how old they are?" Tygra asked from the kitchen table as he flipped through one of the child rearing books they had bought.
"According to Jaga 3 months old. Why?" She walks in trying be as quiet as she can be. The kittens were down for a nap in the den and they were trying their best to not wake them.
"I'm reading through the books we bought, once they turn four months old we can start introducing them to solid foods." He explains turning the book towards her.
"Is that the jarred foods we have in the cabinets?"
"The purree? Yes, I would assume so." He sits back in his chair crossing his arms. "The problem is we don't know exactly when they will be four months old."
"Why don't we give them a month from now and see how it goes?" She offers smiling down at him. She had a feeling it would take a lot of reminding him that they were cats not robots. "We can offer some of the small cereal that was given to us and see if they like it."
"With the milk?"
"Maybe before or after?" She sat down in the chair beside him flipping through the other book. "Will they cry to tell us they are hungry?"
"According to this they will cry when they need anything."
"So that would be a no…"
"Technically a yes, it could also be 20 other things as well. If only they could speak this would come in handy."
"Tygra, they are 3 months old. They won't be speaking for another year and a half.." She laughs patting his arm. "We'll just have to figure out how to read their signals."
"Wait. What's this?" The tiger picks up the book showing her the page. "We can teach them sign language?"
"We're not teaching a child this young how to sign."
"No, look… we can teach them simple words. Food. Done. More. …they don't look that complicated." A smile crosses his features as he sighs relieved. "It says we can start around 6 months. Why don't we try?"
"How exactly are we supposed to teach two young kittens sign language?"
"Well," Tygra picks up the book reading from it word for word. "You will begin to associate the signs with the action. Each time you mention food, you will make the hunger sign. When asking if they are done, the finished sign and of course if they need more ..the more sign."
The book is sat down as the tiger starts to mimic some of the signs. He looks over to Cheetara, "Here, look." He pinches two fingers down to his thumb on each hand and moves his hands towards one another. "This would be more."
She repeats it tilting her head, "Alright.."
"This," He holds his hands up again turning them so his palms were face down and started to shake them in the air. "Mean no more/done."
"You're right, they don't seem too complicated."
"I don't see why we should wait."
"What do you mean?" She laughs nervously. "They are 3 months old."
"The sooner they start to see us using them, the faster they will catch on." He offers shrugging. "It won't hurt to try."
~*
"I pulled out one of those jars, Tygra.. do we want to try it?" Cheetara calls from the kitchen. "Or do we just want to go with their normal?"
"At this point make a choice.. they are on the verge of tears. We're past their feeding time." He calls back looking down at the two baby kittens who were playing on their stomach. He just smiles as best he can hoping they won't start to cry just yet.
If one started the other followed and together they made quite the racket.
He reached out picking up Wily Kat setting him back against one of the stack of pillows they had sat up. The kittens weren't quite able to sit up by themselves but they tried. The male twin looks around curiously and starts to cry when he doesn't see his sister.
The tiger groans realizing what he'd done. He hadn't been fast enough. "Alright, alright.. your sister is coming." He leans forward and picks up the female twin sitting her beside her brother. "There. You're both together."
The babies don't look at each other, only stuck in their positions looking around the room but their tiny hands brush up against the other reassuring them that their sibling was there.
Tygra glanced up towards the direction of the kitchen. His eyes widen as he hears a gagging noise. "Are you alright in there?"
He starts to get to his feet to just go peer into the hallway. He was getting worried at getting no answer, was she sick? They had been going and going with little to no rest, it wouldn't surprise him if one of them came down with a cold.
He turns back to the kittens and hurries over picking them up. He looks to the side seeing their play pen and lays them down into it. "Behave.. I'm going to go find your mother."
Quietly he hurries down the short hallway that led to the kitchen and the dining room. He didn't know what to expect but was ready to help her back to bed at the very least. "Cheetara? I'm worried, I heard gagging-"
He stops in the doorway and has to clear his own throat backing away, "What in Thundera is that?" It was a very unpleasant smell that felt out of place. Like a food had been left out and smooshed into a mush of what it once was. Whatever it's original form wasn't that tasteful either and mushing it had just made it worse.
It was gag inducing.
"….pea purred baby food." She pants her arm over her nose.
"What?"
"Tygra, there is no way.." She pushes the jar over to him holding in another gag. "I-I feel sick.. I can't feed it to them."
"Why would you purree peas into a paste like that?" He coughs before tossing it into the trashcan closing the lid. They would have to find something else to feed them. "There have to be other flavors that don't smell like that."
"I-I need some air…" She coughs shaking her head. "Choose a flavor." She walks past him getting out into the open area letting out a breath of fresh air.