by Kitty on August 10th, 2010, 1:20 pm
He stared at the shiny men as they approached. He couldn’t fathom why they would have such shiny bodies. It just didn’t make sense. But whether it made sense or not, it made Kitty want to know. As they reached him, he moved his hands out and began to step back. They were coming at him from two sides. He could smell the slight musk from their bodies. The odor of sweat seemed strong to his sensitive nose. Again, he couldn’t understand why they wore such shiny things; it had to be hot within them. But whatever he smelled it didn’t seem like they really meant harm.
One man was slightly closer than the other, and he tossed a cloak onto his shoulders. Kitty’s first instinct was to run as soon as he saw the thing coming at him, but he stood steadfast. He couldn’t show that he had any fear. Fear made predators vicious. If he knew anything from living on his own, it was that the appearance of bravery can often send predators away in search of easier prey. When he spoke, Kitty turned to look at him, not really understanding why he had a cloak on top of him. He didn’t grasp everything the man said, some of the words he had never heard before, but he got the general idea. He lacked fur while a human so he needed fake fur.
The man pulled on him slightly and he followed him to the side of the road. The man spoke again and Kitty listened close to make sure he grasped what the man was saying. He nodded to what the man said, once again grasping the overall meaning of what he said. He was repeating himself, you need fur or you can’t enter. Once he had finished talking the two men began to laugh. Kitty didn’t understand what was funny, but he did his best to smile. He wasn’t practiced at it, and he hoped it didn’t look threatening. The edges of his mouth poked up and he revealed his teeth, hoping his two elongated fangs didn’t seem frightening. It was a hard thing to smile at people. It was the opposite of what he would do as a jaguar. Baring his teeth in the wild was a sign of fury, or anger, a way to intimidate your foe. But to humans it was something entirely different. So he tried to smile.
His mind worked as he tried to come up with words to say to these people. He didn’t really know what was going on, but it seemed as if they were doing something nice for him. At least now people shouldn’t stare at him, and that was indeed a great gift. While searching for the words, a strange thing happened, he thought of his mother. He never thought about the past, but he now remembered her smacking him on the nose for not saying some words after she handed him something. His nose twitched slightly at the memory. It was as if thinking about getting smacked in the nose made his nose sting. He disliked that. He remembered the words she had told him to say, then it just became a question of whether he could say them or not. It had been a long time and he wasn’t sure if his voice would work. “Thank you.” The words came out slow and a bit louder than he had intended them to be.
He considered asking them why they were so shiny, but once again his nose picked up the scent of food. He turned away from the guards, his curiosity about their shininess forgotten. He walked toward the gate. He was going to eat well today. Everything smelled so good; he couldn’t wait to find out what made the smells. The guards which had helped him out moments ago were forgotten as he stepped into this strange city called Syliras.