When Eliot awoke, the first thing he saw was a furry, white face with green eyes, a pink nose, and pinkish pointed ears at the top of the head. This face was only a few centimeters from his.
"Gaagh!" he yelled, and scrambled backwards, only to get his legs tangled in the sheet that covered him. The owner of the face turned out to be a small, all-white female Coricat who flattened herself against the wall at Eliot's yell and hissed. Her fur bristled slightly and her tail lashed back and forth.
Once over his initial shock, Eliot disentangled himself from the sheet and held out a hand to the little white Coricat, saying, "Hey, it's okay. I'm sorry I scared you."
The little female moved toward him, but didn't get quite close enough for him to touch her. "I'm Eliot," he told her. "What's your name?"
"Vyktorea," she said after a slight pause. She crept closer until mere millimeters separated them. Eliot dared not move as she sniffed him all over. There was a moment when her face was right in front of his and he was tempted to try to kiss her little pinkish mouth, but then Cazondra walked in and the moment was gone.
"I see that you've met my youngest," Cazondra said, and casting a glare at her "youngest", added, "who I told not to disturb you."
Vyktorea cringed slightly at the reprimand.
"Oh, she didn't…" Eliot began, but Cazondra waved him into silence.
"It's nearly nightfall," she said, "and the hunters are returning. You are to come with us tonight to the feasting. The Old Wise One Dutironomy wants to meet you."
Eliot nodded; he had stopped listening after the word "feasting". "Great, I'm starved!" he said, nudging the slumbering Jabez with his foot as he stood up. "Hey, Jabe, wake up. Time to eat."
Jabez tried to turn on his side and ignore Eliot (after all, it was just K-rats, right?), but a twinge in his shoulder made him moan and sit up. "Oh, man, El, I had the weirdest dream," he yawned as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "I dreamed we crashed on this planet with these freaky cat people, and, uh…oh." Jabez broke off as he noticed Vyktorea looking at him quizzically. Then he turned and saw Cazondra. "It wasn't a dream, then, was it?"
"No, Jabe, it wasn't a dream," Eliot confirmed. "These people are very real, and they are inviting us to dinner and I, myself, feel inclined to accept because I am famished!"
Jabez got to his feet, and coming over to his captain, said out of the side of his mouth, "Are you sure they're not inviting us to be dinner?"
As Eliot turned a horrified stare on his co-pilot, Cazondra said slowly, " 'Be dinner'? Oh. No, you don't look like good eating."
The Terrans turned to stare at her, somewhat taken aback. Then Eliot laughed nervously. "I think we've just been insulted," he commented.
Jabez just grunted and asked, "What about Pavel?" nodding at their recumbent young friend. Some of his bandages had been removed, revealing the newly healed, bright pink skin underneath. He sighed in his sleep and murmured something in Russian.
"It kind of seems a shame to wake him…" Eliot began.
"He will come, too," Cazondra said purposefully. "We'll carry him if necessary. After all, he must be fed if his body is to heal properly."
The Coricats' "feasting" took place outside within a ring of massive trees, the leaves of which formed an incomplete roof overhead, allowing the half moon to shed its light into the outdoor hall. There was a large fire with two large, deer-like animals roasting on spits. Another, smaller fire had a cauldron in which something was bubbling. A few wooden bowls were stacked near it; next to that were a couple of baskets filled with fruits that looked kind of like apples and pears. The smell of the roasting meat was enough to set the Terrans' stomachs to growling.
At the other end of the wooded hall Munkustrap sat next to an old brindled brown Coricat. When the Terrans came in, the grey and black chief got up and came over to meet them. He affectionately nuzzled first Cazondra, then Vyktorea before they moved away, leaving him with the three Terrans, Pavel supported between the other two. "Please come meet Old Dutironomy. He wants to learn more about you."
"Oh, really?" Eliot murmured apprehensively as they followed Munkustrap.
He brought them to the older Coricat and introduced him as "The Old Wise One Dutironomy." Eliot in turn introduced himself and his friends. Pavel was feeling weak, so they all sat down at Old Dutironomy's feet.
The hall was beginning to fill with other Coricats of various colors and coat patterns. The younger kittens would stare at the off-worlders with open curiosity until they were distracted by other things, while the older cats gave them only a fleeting glance as they passed by.
Dutironomy smiled warmly at the Terrans. "I'm glad that you're here," he told them. "I welcome the chance to learn about other worlds. What is the name of the planet that you come from?"
"Terra," Eliot and Jabez answered together; Pavel was dozing with his head in Eliot's lap.
"How far is that from here?"
"I'm…not really sure," Eliot admitted. "I'm not exactly certain of where we are," he paused for a moment to study the stars shining through the leaves overhead, "but I intend to find out."
"So you're lost," Munkustrap observed.
"No, just lost our bearings when we, uh, ran into trouble," Eliot said quickly. "But I've got star maps I can refer to, so we shouldn't have too much trouble getting back on track."
"Assuming we can get that old wreck off the ground," Jabez grumbled under his breath.
"What happened to your space ship to make it crash here?" Old Dutironomy asked.
"Oh, uh, well," Eliot stammered, his mind racing. They had actually been attacked by an Alliance police corps ship, the captain of which had apparently suspected them of transporting illegal goods, which, in fact, they were. They had made a hastily calculated hyperspace jump, with rather unfortunate, though not entirely surprising results. But Eliot had a feeling he shouldn't tell that story to the Coricats. "It, uh, she's an old ship…"
"Mostly held together by Eliot's spit," Jabez put in.
Eliot ignored him. "I guess she was a little overdue for repairs," he finished weakly.
"Will you be able to repair…her?" Munkustrap asked.
"I'm certainly going to give it my best shot," Eliot replied. "Not that we don't appreciate your hospitality, but we were on our way somewhere, so we'll just leave as soon as we can get my ship to fly again."
Dutironomy looked a little disappointed, but Munkustrap nodded vigorously and said, "We wouldn't want to keep you."
Just then, a high-pitched yelp drew their attention to where two young Coricats were wrestling. Nobody else seemed to consider it worth paying attention to, but Eliot and Jabez, accustomed though they were to bar fights and brawls, found themselves watching in fascination.
The larger of the two threw the other off, and for a moment they crouched glaring at each other, their tails lashing wildly back and forth. They appeared to be a male and a female, both white with black and red stripes, though the female's stripes were not as plentiful and veered closer to orange. Within a moment they were at each other's throats again, rolling around on the ground.
Then, to the Terrans' surprise, the female, who had her arms wrapped around the male's neck, stopped trying to bite his nose off and started to lick his face all over. When he tried to pull away, she started biting again, and they rolled over so that he was on his back. She went back to licking until he kicked her hard in the head. Now he flipped her on her back and started chewing on her ears. This was apparently too much because she gave a long, high-pitched cry.
As her crying continued, Munkustrap sighed and called out, "Mungojery!"
The male snapped his head around.
"Don't plague your sister so," Munkustrap said sternly in Coricus.
Mungojery sullenly turned back to his sister and snarled. She replied by sticking out her tongue, and it was no time before they were rolling around again.
"Are they playing, or what?" Eliot asked in bewilderment.
Munkustrap shrugged, "The silly things, they are my next to oldest kittens, and twins at that. They are always fighting; they only stop to sleep and eat. You know how kittens are."
Eliot wasn't sure that he did, but he nodded anyway.
Just then, another male, a tall white one with patches of black and red, stalked over to the tussling pair and backhanded Mungojery, throwing him several decimeters. "Leave Rumplteezer alone," growled the larger male. "There are off-worlders here, so try to behave."
Mungojery sprang to his feet, apparently unhurt. Winking at Rumplteezer, he said, "Oh, Plaetoh is trying to be like Papa. Do this! Stop that! Behave!"
"Be quiet!" Plaetoh snapped, swiping at the smaller male.
It was all the encouragement Mungojery needed. Soon the two males were rolling around at each other's throats. Rumplteezer scampered, laughing, over to her father, who just shook his head. Eliot and Jabez exchanged bemused looks.
Finally, just as Plaetoh was starting to make Mungojery squeal, Old Dutironomy stood up and boomed, "Kittens, please, we have guests." He waved an arm to indicate the three Terrans. "Eliot, Jabez, and Pavel from the planet Terra. Please make them feel welcome. And now…"
Dutironomy switched to Coricus. Eliot couldn't understand it, but he gathered that it was a before meal prayer since, when it was over, everyone converged on the roasted beasts.
Cazondra and Vyktorea brought food to their Terran charges, cuts of meat for Eliot and Jabez, soup for the weakened Pavel, and fruits for all of them. Food was also brought to Dutironomy and Munkustrap by two female Coricats, one of whom showed a great deal of affection for the grey and black male. This, Eliot soon learned, was Demeetar, Munkustrap's mate. She was smaller than Cazondra, but bigger than Vyktorea, and black with white breast, reddish orange and yellow patches, and blue-green eyes. The other female was her older sister, Bombalurina. She was much taller and quite muscular, red where Demeetar was black, and black where Demeetar was red-orange.
Eliot also learned that Dutironomy was the grandfather of Munkustrap and Alahnso, though they weren't brothers. Munkustrap was the leader of this little tribe of Coricats, with Alahnso as his second in command.
All this the Terrans learned from Vyktorea and Rumplteezer, along with Etsetera, another female kitten, greyish white with brown stripes and gold-green eyes. The females were all too eager to sit with and talk to the newcomers, or the "furless wonders" as Mungojery had nicknamed them. The younger males were less than thrilled with this set of circumstances.
When all the food had been eaten, some music started, Eliot couldn't tell from where, and the younger Coricats started dancing. Vyktorea and Rumplteezer tried to get Eliot and Jabez to dance with them, but Plaetoh and Mungojery, respectively, dragged them away.
After the dancing had been going on for a while, some of the older Coricats joined in, including Munkustrap and Demeetar, Cazondra and Alahnso, and Bombalurina and her own mate, a tall, muscular, grey and white, gold-green-eyed male called Admeetus. Eliot watched this last couple in fascination; they were both so large, but they moved with such elegance and lightness that one scarcely noticed their size.
As he watched, Etsetera slipped up beside him and nuzzled him. "Will you dance with me, Eliot?" she asked sweetly.
Eliot glanced at his companions. Pavel, having eaten his fill, was dozing again, his head pillowed in Old Dutironomy's lap. Jabez gave him a "go ahead" nod, and he allowed himself to be pulled into the middle of the dancing.
Eliot and Etsetera actually danced quite well together, which seemed to annoy a tall, wiry, black male with golden-brown, leopard-spotted head, chest, and paws. He took the first opportunity to snatch Etsetera away, but she was soon replaced by Vyktorea, and when Plaetoh came to reclaim her, Rumplteezer took her place.
But Eliot wasn't having all the fun; out of the corner of his eye he could see Jabez dancing with a female Coricat he hadn't met yet. At first he thought it was Demeetar because she had a similar coloring and pattern of fur, but a second look showed that she was younger. Besides, Demeetar was still in Munkustrap's arms; the two seemed inseparable.
Finally, the music began to fade, and one by one the Coricats returned to their homes. Alahnso carried Pavel, who was fast asleep by now, and escorted his family and his guests home for the night.
©1999 Delilah