Coming home
“Keep up Angel! Your too slow!”
“I’d be able to keep up with you if it wasn’t for these damned books that I’m carrying!”
A teenage lioness followed by her sister (both 13 years of age), jogged down the street. They had finished school and they were racing each other home, like they often did.
“Up for taking a short cut?” Angel suggested as she caught up with her sister. Angel pointed to a nearby alleyway, between a block of houses and garden fences.
“Sure why not” Crystal the white furred feline replied.
After catching their breath for several moments, the lion sisters made their way down the alleyway.
As they proceed on with their jog, in the distance they noticed two figures, a black furred she-wolf who has a white furred rabbit girl pinned against a wooden fence. Both wore the schoolgirl uniform of a white shirt and black skirt, the same as the feline sisters.
“Slut!” the female canine growls as she slaps the rabbit girl hard across the face. “You still owe me for those cigarettes!”
“Please” the rabbit begs “I could only get a pound today. If you give a more time I could….”
She is cut off as the wolf thumps her in the stomach with her free paw.
“You fucking idiot! I asked you for two pounds! Not one!” the wolf screeched.
Fortunately, the she-wolf hadn’t noticed the two lionesses, in the distance as she was too focussed on her rabbit prey. Angel took off her backpack and handed it to Crystal.
“Wish me luck sister” the yellow furred feline said before she shot off like a bullet towards the wolf. The raven furred canine had no time to react or defend herself as Angel shoved to her the ground. In the process, the wolf loses her grip on the rabbit.
“Run Macey. I’ve got your back!” Angel tells the rabbit. She recognises the bunny from her science class.
Macey dose not wait be asked twice and is off like an arrow being shot from a bow. After all rabbit’s are fast runners.
“You little bitch!” the wolf growls as she rises from the ground with her teeth bared and her claws drawn. The female wolf looks to be around 15 or 16.
“Why are you beating up younger kids!” Angel demands “Macey is almost half your size. Hey! Aren’t you Kate from the higher year?”
Angel has seen Kate around the school yard several times before. The wolf girl is usually hanging around with the rough looking male furs and the slutty looking females. Word of mouth had it that Kate had sworn at the headmaster, let off the fire alarm, and sold cigarettes to kids. She was also on the verge of being expelled from school, due to her lack of attendance.
“So what if I am?” Kate growls. “Macey owed me money for cigarettes, and you interfered. You’re going to pay for this!”
“I’d leave if I where you” Angel grows as she folds her arms and glares back at Kate.
Angel watches Kate as she slowly turns around and crouches down to pick up her bag. Suddenly Kate spins around a throw’s a sharp stone in Angel’s face. Angel is barely able to block the stone by shielding her face with her paws.
With her opponent momentarily distracted, Kate lunges on Angel and knocks her down on the ground, before sinking her teeth into the felines right arm.
Angel lets out a scream as blood gushes down her arm.
*******
Crystals P.O.V
Crystal watches in horror as the black she-wolf pouches upon her sister knocking her to the ground. As she hears her sister cry out in agony, the young felines mine begins to race.
She needed to get the wolf off Angel and fast! Otherwise, Angel could get seriously hurt. She could punch or kick at the she-wolf however, how effective would it be? Crystal knew she wasn’t a very strong feline.
Unless, unless she used a weapon to fight against the wolf. Come to think of it that heavy, brick-like dictionary book Angel had in her backpack would make a great weapon.
Crystal tore the book from the backpack and charged towards Kate, who was sinking her teeth into Angel arm.
“Get off my sister bitch!” Crystal yelled before she smacked Kate hard over the head with the book. This caused Kate’s jaws to loosen slightly, enough for Angel to rip her arm free.
Angel then scratched Kate hard down her left cheek, that caused her to scream out in pain and fall back clutching her bloody face.
Crystal helped Angel up from the ground, whilst the she-wolf lay on the ground shaking and bawling her eye’s out.
“You fuckers!” Kate sobbed. “I’ll get you for this! Just you wait! I’ll tell my mum what you did!”
“Go ahead and tell your mum!” Crystal growls firmly. “Will have to tell her about the kids you’ve been selling cigarettes to and bullying! Not to mention biting my sister!”
Kate gets up from the ground and runs off sobbing.
“You ok Angel?” Crystal asks her.
“I’m alright, just a little shaken up. I sure hope this bite mark doesn’t leave a scar.”
The young lioness winced as she held out her arm for her sister to examine. Her arm has a large a bite wound inches away from her paw. Angel licks off the excess blood of her arm like a feral cat, before Crystal places a few sticky plasters on her arm.
“I sure hope that Kate doesn’t tell on us.”
“I’ve a gut feeling that she won’t tell. If she did, then she’d get into a million times more trouble than us” Crystal replies.
Angel smiled slightly.
“Good point there, Crystal. However, don’t tell mum and dad about this. They won’t be pleased if they find out that we got into a fight. Besides I wouldn’t want to upset them either.”
“Well ok, however what if they notice that bite mark? What are you going to tell them?” the white furred feline asks her.
“I’ll tell them that it was an accident” Angel says as she scoops up her backpack. “Perhaps I got bitten by a feral dog.”
The two lion sisters continue their journey down the alleyway, though this time they keep their guard on. Ready to attack in case any crazy she-wolves have a go at them.
*********
6 months later…..
It had been 6 months since the siblings encounters with Kate. They hadn’t seen her since.
Lucky for them, not long after their scrap, Kate had been expelled from school for truancy. They had heard rumours that she’s been moved to a juvenile detention centre for shop lifting.
The siblings where on their usual route home from school, down the alleyway.
“You know Crystal. Don’t you just get that eerie feeling that your being watched by some one?”
“Yeah, I get ya” the white furred feline replied. “However, I’ve always get that feeling, every time we take this route back home.”
The two felines reach the end of the ally way, when a shadowy figure appears from no were and attacks them, throwing the contents from a can of paint at them. The siblings barely have time to shield their eyes from the paint thrown at them. The red, sticky liquid covers the two lion girls in seconds. Their fur and their school uniforms are covered in blood red oil paint.
The shadowy figure is soon to be reviled as Kate, who is smiling a nasty smile, as she stands before them, several meters apart.
“I got you! I got you good!” The teenage wolf cries in triumphant. “No one fucks with me and get away with it!”
“You…. YOU BITCH!” Angel roars. “If any of that paint went in our eyes, you could have blinded us! You’ve ruined our school clothes!”
“So what do I care?” Kate scoffed back the feline. “You and your sister shouldn’t have provoked me.”
“You….” Crystal growls as she points a paint covered paw at Kate. The white furred feline is shaking with anger.
“You’ll be in deep shit for this!”
“Oh really now?” The she wolf gasps in a sarcastic tone of voice.
“What are you going to do? Hit me with your books again? Scratch me? Run home crying and tell mummy and daddy what I did?”
Then the wolf girls tone suddenly becomes threatening, and she looks livid as her eyes narrow, and a snarl appears on her muzzle.
“If you tell anyone about this, then you’ll fucking regret it. I waited 6 months to get back at you and I can wait much longer to get you again. When you least expect it.”
“So what do you want us to do then Kate?” Angel growls crossly. The young felines paws are bunched into fists.
“The scores have been settled between us now. Six months ago, you girls assaulted me. I had a nasty bump on my head and a scratch down my check, that could have left a scar. So, I had to even the odds.”
Now Kate’s voice is sombre, as if she is a victim in all of this and Angel and Crystal are in the wrong.
“Now you won’t hear from me again and hopefully you won’t see me again. However, if you tell anyone about what I did, then I will find both of you.”
Kate’s voice tone suddenly becomes threatening.
“When I do, it’ll be a lot worse than throwing paint at you. I could get you back in another 6 months or perhaps 6 years, if you grass. I won’t forget.”
What the teenage wolf said next, made the lion sisters feel sick with fear.
“Besides, I know where you live” Kate says in an icy voice.
Kate then made her point by telling the sisters their exact home address, with a gleaming smile on her muzzle. Unknown to the lions, Kate had followed them home without them seeing her months ago, not long after their first encounter.
“You wouldn’t want me to put a brick threw you dad’s nice jaguar, would you? Or perhaps I’ll burn your house down. So, what’s it going to be? You both got covered in paint by accident, that’s what happened. Unless you’d rather rat on me…….”
20 years later……
“We both decided not to report Kate. We didn’t know what she’d do if we reported her. Especially if she’d waited 6 months just to get back at us. We also didn’t want to upset or scare our parents, either. So, me and Crystal, both told them that we got covered in paint by accident. However, on the plus side we never saw Kate again, though of course you and the police have told me plenty of awful stuff about her.”
Now as an adult in her early 30s Angel, is telling her adopted son, about her encounter with Kate. The boy’s name is Leonardo (though everyone calls him Leo for short), and he is a grey wolf cub. He sits in his bed, looking wide eyed and shocked as Angel, finishes her story. Kate has happened to be leo’s former mother who had been abusive towards him. Weeks ago, Leo had ran away from home and with help from Angel, he had reported Kate to the authorities for her violent abuse against him. After the police had arrested her, Kate had attempted suicide in prison and had been transferred to psychiatric hospital, where she’s likely spent the rest of days.
“Damn…. I’m really sorry to hear what Kate did to you and Aunt Crystal” the young wolf says solemnly.
“It’s alright honey, I remember that we both got over that incident quite quickly. After that encounter, I began to learn self-defence, which made me feel a lot stronger. Then as soon as I turned 16, I started hitting the gym and muscling up” the older feline explained to the young wolf. The lioness then said.
“It astonishes me Leo, that you really are Kate’s son. Your nothing like her. For what I’ve know of you these past few weeks, you’re the best cub that any mammal could ask for, since I enjoy your company. Every minute of it. You help me do chores around the house and you help me prepare meals. Your well-mannered and you get on well with my family.”
“Thanks mum” the wolf cub says with a smile. “I guess I take after my late grandma Cassie and my father Stephan, who was barely around for me. They were nice to me, unlike Kate. Your probably one of the best parents ever, that any wolf would want. You listen to me and you understand me. Your able to be there for me.”
“Aww thanks hun” the feline grins. “I’m just glad that I met you by chance and got to adopt you as my own. You know that I can’t have children naturally.”
The young wolf boy nods in response, before he reaches underneath his pillowcase and pulls out a hard back book, that looks as though it’s been printed in the 1980s. The front book has the picture of a photograph of a mountain on it and the title, which reads “Tales from the Animal Kingdom” in bold white letters. It’s a compilation of fantasy stories set in the medieval era.
“Would you like me to read to you, before you go to sleep, hun?” the older feline asks the young wolf.
“Yes please mum” the little wolf says with a smile and wagging his tale with happiness.
“It’s gonna be the story called “The Badger King.”
“That sounds like a great choice for a story kiddo. I have yet read that story.”
