Mission Aborted

[Ki]

Nala leapt on to a fence and balanced there precariously for a few moments before leaping on to a low branch of a tree. Her bell jingled merrily as she landed on it gracefully. She and Frisbee had been chased out of the forest by the Clan cats. Nala was still trying to decipher why she had reacted the way she did. Once she'd lived outside with her mother and a few littermates. But, looking back on it, Twolegs had probably been around and she never noticed. All the same. If it hadn't been for her kits, she would have left a long time ago. Nala noticed a long-furred cat laying below, soaking up the sun. Ah, Shanghai. One of the most lazy cats to live in the Twoleg Place. But he was nice enough.

"Hello, Shanghai!" Nala called down. "Mind if Frisbee and I hunt here?"

Shanghai had been laying peacefully in his garden, soaking up the sun. When suddenly a loud, vaguely a familiar voice entered his relaxation. He opened one sky blue eye and looked up at the tree that cast a bit of shade into his garden. An exotic-looking kittypet was sitting on the lower boughs of the tree. Nala, her name was. Or something else like that. She and someone else wanted to hunt here? He looked to a birds in their bird bath, mostly oblivious to the cats nearby. They had learned long ago that Shanghai was not a threat to them. "I don't mind. My garden is your garden."

[Kitty]

Frisbee followed Nala over to the fence but was kind of wary about jumping up on top. He'd never talked to the lazy tom that lived beyond it. Frisbee doubted if the so-called Shanghai had even seen him before. It was possible. Althoguh many cats had. Cautiously, he leapt up on the fence behind the large, spotty she-cat. He looked down at Shanghai, and he appeared to be just as lazy as he'd heard from the few kittypets that dared talk to him.

"Thank you," he called down, jumping from the fence and into the garden. He did his best to ignore any looks Shanghai might be giving him. No point in lowering his self-esteem. He didn't mind being bald - liked it, even because it made him different, stick out from the crowd. But sometimes it got a little awkward, especially around new cats. Nala was the only one that didn't have a reaction, and he figured it was only because she understood him. A cat like this tom, though, wouldn't. Even the wildcats had seemed shocked and even repulsed!

[Ki]

Shangai's eyes grew wide and he raised his head. He blinked in disbelief. A hairless cat! There wasn't a bit of fur anywhere on him! At first Shanghai thought he was seeing things. But when he blinked and shook his head, the tom, Frisbee, was still furless! Nala jumped into the garden after her hairless companion. So many odd-looking cats around here! Shanghai thought. Shanghai was nearly scared out of his fur when Nala had first started venturing outside her Twoleg's den. Now here was an actual hairless cat!

Nala shot Shanghai a look. He was a nice cat, once he got used to you. Nala remembered when she had first met him she'd scared him so much he'd run yowling back into his nest. Well, at least he had a better reaction to Frisbee. She landed beside her furless friend. "Alright. We can try to hunt here. Most of the prey here is fat and a lot easier to catch, anyway." Nala mewed, looking at Frisbee. The birds were still flitting around in the bird bath, oblivious to all of the cats. She crouched down and began to mew quietly, "Crouch like this, so you can jump. Claws unsheathed, by the way. Go for whichever one you want." It was hard for her to explain how to hunt. It was something that couldn't be explained. You had to get out there and try it for yourself.

[Amber]

Chloe had finally awoken her sister and the two young kits had been playing outside. She didn't know how she had gotten Addy to come out and play with her, but she liked it. Why was it only she got to see Addy's fun side? Seeing a little hole in the fence the kit's silver eyes shone with excitement. This could be fun! Ignoring Addy's warning's the kit squeezed through the hole without much effort and padded into the next garden, spotting several cats. What were they doing here? The moment she spotted Frisbee the little kit instantly went to him and bounced around. "Who are you? What are you? You look funny. Why do you look funny? Do you get cold? How did you jump down like that? Can you teach me how to jump down like that?" The questions stopped the moment Addy's tail swooshed across her sister's face and silenced it.

Addy had been glad to get outside, she liked it sometimes. And playing with Chloe was always amusing. She laughed as her sister ran aound trying to find something to play with, but once Chloe had found the hole in the fence, Addy shook her head. "Not a good idea." she mewed. She ran after her sister hoping to stop her from doing something stupid. Then again it was Chloe and her sister wasn't too smart when it came to adventures. She squeezed through the hole her sister had gone through and immediately ran to Chloe's side. Great, Chloe had already found someone to bother. Before too many questions could escape from her sister's mouth she whipped her tail in front of Chloe's mouth to shut her up. Looking at Frisbee Addy sighed. "Sorry, she has a big mouth." she murmered.

[Kitty]

Frisbee copied - or attempted to copy - Nala's crouch, and thought he had it sort of right. He unsheathed his claws - at least he was like other cats in that way - and targeted a sparrow.

He was prowling towards it when out of nowhere a kit bounced. What the-? The bird flew off and he hissed in frustration. Amber eyes focused on the kit and a bewildered look crossed his face. What was with all the questions? No way could he answer them all, let alone remember what question she'd asked in the first place. And of course the kit would target him. Even Nala looked normal when she stoof next to Frisbee. And he shouldn't have been surprised when she said that he looked funny.

Well. They couldn't all be considerate, he supposed, although he was grateful Shanghai hadn't said anything about it. Frisbee was grateful when another kits came over and fwapped her tail across the first one's mouth. He dipped his head. "Its okay."

[Ki]

Nala was startled by the kits, and hissed in frustration herself. Frisbee could have made that kill! Ah, well. You win some you lose some. She turned her gaze towards two kits that had come in through a hole in the fence. One of them was talking too quickly for Nala to understand, bombarding Frisbee was questions. Deep down, Nala was happy she hadn't been targeted. She was taller than most cats and built differently, with an exotic spotted pelt to match. She sat down and looked at the kits. A smile flickered across her face. One day, she would like to have kits. One day. "Hello little ones. How are you? What are two little ones like you doing out here alone?"

What the...? Two more? And noisy kits no less! Shanghai let out a sigh and set his head on his paws. Why couldn't other cats just be more like him: quiet and perfectly happy to stay in their own gardens and out of someone else's fur. "Keep it down," he mewed. "I'm trying to take a nap!"

[Amber]

Chloe let out mewls of protest, doing her best to get her sister to stop. She still had plenty of more questions for the tom. Why wasn't Addy letting her ask questions? And why was her sister apologizing for her? She didn't do anything wrong, she was just asking questions. When Nala began to talk, Addy darted away. Glad that her mouth was free the little kit stared up at the she-cat. "Wow. You are bigger than me and my sister put together!" she mewed in amazement. And now it was back to the questions. "You aren't answering my questions." she said glaring back at Frisbee. "I wanted to explore and I found a hole in the fence and so I came and I think Addy decided to follow me. She says I cause trouble wherever I go and don't need to be left alone for more than two seconds." she replied to Nala.

Addy was growing tired of her sister's struggles and when she heard Shanghai say something she padded toward him, leaving her sister with the other two cats. "I'm sorry that we disturbed your nap and came into your garden. I tried to tell Chloe not to come in here, but she doesn't listen too well." she said looking toward the ground. She wasn't too great at talking to new cats, she tended to be a little shy at first.

[Kitty]

Frisbee blinked. Great, the quiet one just had to walk off. No way was he going to be catching a bird today. He sighed. Oh well, there was always tomorrow. He tried to focus on the noisier kit. "Um. Can you repeat the questions?" Repeating them alone probably wouldn't be enough, though, so he tacked on to the end, "Maybe a little bit slower, too?"

Maybe if he answered the kit's questions, she would leave him in peace to learn how to hunt. With any luck. Usually he liked kits, but today was s special circumstance.

((888 posts! ))

[Ki]

Nala dipped her head. She noticed the quieter kit wander off to talk to Shanghai. How was she supposed to teach Frisbee how to hunt when this other kit kept chattering away loudly? She sat down, sighing a bit. Frisbee was going to try and answer her questions, in hope that she would be satisfied and leave. But Nala had a feeling she wouldn't. Once, long ago, she was just like this little kit in front of them. Extremely curious and very talkative. Back then, answering her questions only brought on even more. Would this kit be the same?

Shanghai looked at the small she-kit gently. They must live in the nest next to his, judging from the hole on one of the fences. He crossed his front paws over each other and let out a world-weary sigh. "It's alright, I suppose. No real harm done." He kept looking at Nala and Frisbee in awe. It figured that two of the oddest looking cats he'd ever seen would be friends with each other. Birds of a feather have to stick together, after all. "My name is Shanghai. What do they call you, little one?"

[Amber]

Chloe soon was distracted by her own tail swishing around and began to chase it pouncing on it and mewling in delight. The little reddish brown kit stopped her game when she heard Frisbee speak. "I don't remember what I asked, but I can always think of new questions to ask. And talking slow really isn't something I'm good at, Addy tells me I talk way too fast but I pretty much ignore her a lot* of the time." she blabbered on looking back at the tom. Realizing she had interrupted something, after several moments had passed, she sat down and looked to the ground. "Sorry I made you have to stop with your game. I just got really curious and well I don't get to see many cats other than my sister a lot* of the time. But can you teach me how to do that too?" she asked meaning the crouching they were doing.


"Still we shouldn't have come in without permission. I just thought I would come over and apologize for both of us." Addy said, looking slightly up. "Oh, I'm Addy. That's my sister Chloe. It's kinda hard to tell us apart, unless we're right beside eachother. I'm a little bigger than her, and Chloe has a black spot on her tail." Addy didn't know why she was sharing all this information with this tom, but he seemed nice enough to her. It was someone different than her sister, after all.

[Kitty]

Frisbee blinked. Of course. The noisy, talkative kit got to stay over here and chat with him while her quieter sister went elsewhere. Why did he get stuck with her? He was trying to learn how to hunt, here!

"Listen, kit," he said, voice as gentle as he could muster. "I've never done this crouch before. That was my first time." His mind contradicted him; he'd done it in the forest, too, before he and Nala were chased away by the wildcats. "I don't think I was even doing it right! I would know if I could catch something. So if you want to learn, sit and watch. And by all means, be quiet!" The bald tom turned and looked for another bird or something, but he couldn't see one. No bird was mousebrained enough to come around so many cats, he supposed. Suddenly he realized why this kit irked him so much. One of the first things out of her mouth had been You look funny, which was pretty much offensive to anyone, even Frisbee, who'd been called it so often.

[Ki]

Nala nudged Frisbee comfortingly. The bare skin against her muzzled felt odd. She dipped her head down to look at the little kit. "It's not a game, little kit. Hunting is serious business. It requires patience, practice, and, most importantly, quiet." That was the entire point of coming to Shanghai's garden. This little kit alone had scared away the birds! But Nala shoved her agitation aside. She was only a kit, after all. "I can teach you. But you have to promise to be silent."

"It's nice to see a little kit with decency." Shanghai mewed. He stretched one of his back legs, briefly unsheathing rarely used claws. The tom smiled a bit. Addy, she called herself. Addy and Chloe. His eyes flickered to the other kit. They did look rather alike. But, then again, they were sisters. He'd looked like his littermates. Sure, he hadn't seen them in moons. But that wasn't the point. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Addy."

[Amber]

Chloe glanced up at the two cats, a bit taken aback by their harshness. She was only wanting to play, was that so bad? She felt herself press against the ground in fear. Never had she been afraid of something in her life, this was definitely a first. Maybe she should be more quiet like her sister. Yeah, like that was possible. This kit was just too curious about the world around her. It was her only escape from being confined in that home so much. "I'll try to be quiet." she finally said, actually meaning those words. It would be the hardest thing this kit has ever tried. Well at least she could be patient when she wanted to, she just didn't like to be. Chloe was very capable of that, just like being quiet.

Addy felt her eyes look to the tom and purred slightly. She was actually enjoying a conversation, who would have thought? The quiet little kit who tried to keep her sister out of trouble was actually having fun. "Would you mind if I sit here and watch my sister? I don't want to disturb her or else she might dash off again and find someone else to annoy. I may be a kit too, but not even I can keep up with her energy." she said a small smile forming on her face.

[Kitty]

Frisbee gave a nod of satisfaction, feelign rather bad about his maybe-too-harsh words. He'd tried to be gentle, but...he probably hadn't pulled it off. Ah, well. She was going to try and be quiet now, at least. He'd apologize later. After all, knowing some kits, if he apologized now, it would be an excuse to talk more. Like they didn't think that he'd meant his previous words.

"Nala?" the bald tom asked, turned back to the large spotty she-cat. "Can you show me that crouch again? I wanna make sure I get it right!"

((Short. *sigh*))

[Ki]

Nala felt a pang of guilt. Perhaps their words had been a bit too harsh. She nudged the kit good-naturedly before looking towards Frisbee. She showed him the crouch again. There was nothing to practice on now, but they could always find something in one of the gardens. It would help him with tracking! "Like this. This crouch is for birds, so you can jump a bit if they try to fly away." It was nice, sharing all of this information with someone. Nala hadn't had a proper friend since she was a kit. Mostly she just wandered around the Twoleg Place and play with ther kits. Now she had someone to wander around with! Happiness glimmered briefly in her eyes. "You probably won't need to get as low as I have to, though." Nala was taller than Frisbee and had to crouch lower to hide herself from her prey.

Shanghai replied, "Not at all." He wouldn't mind having Addy sit beside him to watch her sister. She seemed to be a quiet, sensible kit. One with maturity beyond her years. If he ever had kits, which he was certain he wouldn't, he would want them to be like Addy. Ones like her didn't usually get under your fur and pester you night and day. Addy made the comment about her sister's energy and Shanghai smiled. "I had a sister much like her as well. When we were kits no one could keep up with her. Not even our poor mother." He wondered if they'd been taken away from their mother yet. If they hadn't she was bound to come looking for them. If they had, their Twolegs might eventually notice their abscence and call for them. His Twolegs never worried about where he was. Because Shanghai was always in the same spot: outside in the garden, wherever the sun was shining the brightest.