#kittenfic

“Granny! I mean, Elder!”

Kija smiled from inside his room. He recognized the visitor from her voice—Li-an, a village girl a year or two younger than him. She seemed to get excited by anything, so the fact that she was here now probably didn’t mean anything, but—he listened, anyway.

“What is it, child?”

“Um …” The girl paused. Kija imagined her looking around, staring up at the outside of the Lord Hakuryuu’s home as it was being decorated for the festival tonight. “It’s so pretty!”

“That’s right, we’re busy with preparations. It’s Lord Hakuryuu’s birthday, you know, and ten is an important one, so we’re very busy indeed. Now, what is it, girl?”

“I came because it’s Lord Hakuryuu’s birthday! Our cat had kittens today too.”

“Well then, they were born on an auspicious day. Now, do you want to stay here and help, or leave us to our work?”

“Not just that! They’re all dark like their mom, but one of them has a white paw! It’s important, right?”

Granny was probably about to say no, it was a silly coincidence, kittens couldn’t be born with the gift of the white dragon—which was true, but—Kija pushed the door open and stepped outside before she could speak. “I want to see!”

Li-an blinked at him, wide-eyed, then bent forward in a slight bow. “Lord Hakuryuu!”

“Can I see it?” Kija repeated. There were a lot of cats in the village, but mostly, they never let him play with them. Granny always said that cats couldn’t see divine blood, so they wouldn’t make good pets for him anyway, but Kija thought maybe he just hadn’t figured out the right way to make friends with them. If a kitten was born on his birthday with a white paw, it was definitely a sign of something, and Kija wanted to see it for himself.

“Lord Hakuryuu, you need to prepare for the festival, too,” said Granny.

“I’ll come back in plenty of time.” He looked back at Li-an. She nodded, then turned and ran down the hill, with Kija racing after.

“They’re tiny …” He hadn’t realized they’d be so small.

“They’re not actually very interesting right now,” Li-an confessed. “They haven’t opened their eyes yet and they have to stay with their mother all the time.” The mother cat was a grey tabby, with long fur, and most of the kittens—there were five of them—were that same shade of grey. “But look, see? This one has a white paw, just like I said.” Kija knelt down on the floor, next to the pile of blankets where the mother cat rested. The kittens were all sort of piled up on top of each other, nestled against their mother’s belly, but he could see that the one closest to the edge did indeed have a patch of white on its right front paw. “Um … Lord Hakuryuu? Do you think it means something?”

Kija shrugged. He honestly didn’t know, but— “Can I touch him?”

“Be gentle,” said Li-an. “And it might be a her. We don’t know yet.”

Kija reached out, then drew back his hand. They all looked so fragile. He reached out again with his human hand—just the lightest touch, running his finger along the back of the kitten’s head. “He’s so soft!” The mother cat glared up at him, and Kija drew back. “I wasn’t going to …”

“She’s just like that right now,” said Li-an.

“It’s probably a sign about something,” said Kija. “But I don’t know what it could be. Granny or the other elders might know. Or,” he admitted, “they might just say it doesn’t mean anything at all and we should stop thinking about the heavens and get on with our lives.”

“Granny—I mean, the elder—says stuff like that?”

“Sometimes,” Kija confessed.

“But you have power from the heavens!”

“Right,” said Kija. “But so did my father, and my grandfather, and my great-grandfather. She got used to it.”

“Oh …” Li-an paused, considering. “Maybe it’s a sign that Hiryuu will come in your lifetime!”

“I already know that!”

“Oh.” She looked away.

Kija hadn’t meant to speak so strongly. But thinking about how his ancestors had all waited, had all passed away unfulfilled … “Can I tell you a secret?” Kija asked. Li-an’s eyes widened, and she nodded. “I think Granny’s going to be surprised when Hiryuu comes. But don’t tell her I said that.”

“Um, Lord Hakuryuu … since we don’t know if the white kitten is a sign about anything important … well, it has to stay with its mother till it’s bigger, but after that … it could be your cat! I mean, if you want.”

“You’re—you’re giving him to me?”

“It might be a she!”

“What if he doesn’t like me?”

Li-an laughed, like that was the silliest idea ever. “You want to take care of it, don’t you? I can tell!”

“I—thank you!” Kija didn’t know how to take care of a cat. But Li-an could show him, right? “Um—do you want to dance with me at the festival tonight?” It was supposed to be a big honor, and it was the first way he could think of to say thank you.

Her eyes widened. “Okay!”

Kija returned to Li-an’s house to visit the kitten every day, and finally, Lady White-Cat—who turned out to be a girl, just like Li-an had predicted—was big enough to leave her mother. “Wow … I’ve never been inside here before! Your house is so big!” It was true, Kija’s house was a lot bigger than Li-an’s.

“She’ll have lots of places to explore.” Indeed, when he set down the basket he’d been carrying the kitten in and let her out, she immediately raced out of sight to explore her new home. “You can come back and visit her whenever you want,” he added.

“I don’t know if I can,” said Li-an. “My family gets mad at me when I skip my lessons and chores …”

“People get mad at me, too,” Kija reassured her.

“Maybe …” Li-an looked doubtful. “But you’re Lord Hakuryuu, so they can’t get that mad. Apparently I’ve got a duty, too, and it involves a lot more studying than yours.”

“Oh?” Kija’s ears perked up. He knew what his duty was, but he’d never really thought about the duties of the other villagers, other than the broad, open-ended call to protect Hakuryuu’s lineage. “What is it?”

“My aunt and uncle are merchants who travel and bring back information from outside the village,” Li-an explained. “But they don’t have any children, and I’m the second daughter, so next year, I’m going to start traveling with them …”

“That’s really cool, though!”

“Do you—you really think so?”

Kija nodded, excitedly. “You’ll be the one to tell me all about the outside world, so that I know what it’s like before I go. I’ll be counting on you to tell me absolutely everything!”

“I’m a little bit scared to leave,” Li-an admitted. She gave a resolute nod. “But—I’ll do my best for you!”

“I’ll—” Kija began, but he was cut off by a yowl from Lady White Cat, coming from somewhere unseen. “Is she all right?” He turned towards the sound, still unable to see the kitten. There shouldn’t be anything here, in his own house, that could possibly hurt her, but she was so small, so fragile—Lady White-Cat emerged from behind a curtain, something dangling from her mouth, and trotted up to Kija, dropping the—thing—at his feet. “Aaugh!” It was a bug—a giant cicada, at least half the size of the kitten’s head, and it was still twitching. The movement didn’t escape the kitten’s notice, either, and she crouched down, wiggled her tail in just the same way she would when chasing a piece of string, and pounced. “There—there aren’t supposed to be bugs here!”

“Well, I think she killed it for you,” said Li-an. She giggled, and Kija turned back to face her.

“—what?” She’s not laughing at me, is she? It was perfectly normal to be startled by an insect of such size!

“When you thought she was hurt, you—I mean, your hand—and then it was a bug, and—” Li-an was still laughing. Kija looked down, at his right hand. Without even realizing it, he’d put his strength into his dragon’s hand the moment he thought Lady White-Cat was in danger. “Were you going to use the full strength of the white dragon to protect a kitten?”

“No!” Kija paused. “… yes.”

Li-an stepped forward, reaching down to pick up the kitten, who had grown tired of her no-longer-moving prey. “Look, Lady White-Cat! He’s got claws just like you! Hold out your hand,” she commanded. Up until now, Kija had avoided playing with the kitten with his dragon hand, because she was so tiny and fragile, and he knew his strength. But—he did as Li-an asked. She set Lady White-Cat down in the still-oversized palm of his hand. “You could probably hold her like that even when she’s all grown up,” Li-an said, and Kija nodded. The weight of the tiny kitten was nothing to him. Lady White-Cat turned around a few times in place, sniffing curiously, and Kija cupped his fingers so she wouldn’t fall, lifting his hand before his face. She looked out at him, unsure—was this still part of her soft friend? Then she rose up on her hind legs and began to bat at his claws with her own, going so far as to try to sink her teeth into the smallest of Kija’s fingers. “No biting!” Li-an scolded, but Kija just laughed.

“It’s fine,” he said. “It tickles!”

“She probably likes your scales ‘cause they’re shiny …”

“Granny would probably scold us if she saw us playing like this,” said Kija, lowering the kitten back down to the floor. “This hand is holy, after all.” He let it go back to its normal size and Lady White-Cat just stood there, watching curiously. “Not a cat toy!” But he continued to crouch down on the floor, tapping out patterns with his claws, laughing as Lady White-Cat pounced after him.

“Well, I won’t tell her,” said Li-an, sitting down cross-legged next to Kija.

“I meant it,” said Kija, when Lady White-Cat finally decided she was tired enough to step onto Kija’s lap and curl up to sleep. “Come and visit as much as you can! Even after you leave the village, the times you come back—come visit us both! Because—” He wasn’t sure how to say it. It was hard to make friends when everyone called him “Lord Hakuryuu,” even if he was set apart from the rest of the villagers. After he’d danced with Li-an at the festival, it seemed like Granny expected the two of them to get married someday, but that wasn’t it, either—Kija wasn’t going to marry anyone, after all, because he’d be serving King Hiryuu. “I didn’t just visit your house to see the cat, you know!”