Kitty started to feel the need to visit the bathroom. She didn’t want to start opening doors randomly, searching for it, as there might be things February didn’t want her to see. She couldn’t think what, but this was February’s house and Kitty felt the need to respect the queen’s privacy. The main reason, though she refused to admit it to herself, was that she didn’t want to stumble upon the larder by accident. There was at least one dead body in there, the one she had carried last night. And she really didn’t want to come face to face with it. Besides, who knew how February might’ve prepared the corpse? The sight of a complete corpse she could perhaps handle, but one that had been cut up, ready for eating! The mere thought made Kitty want to retch.
She reached into the pocket of her pet rags and felt the reassuring shape of the pill bottle. Well, she ought to have one, and now while February wasn’t around to see she had them might be the best time. Not that she thought February might take them away. She really had no idea how the queen might react to seeing them. There had always been antipathy between domesticated and wild cats, though, and to her the pills were definitely a symbol that Kitty had been domesticated.
She popped open the bottle and dropped one of the pills out into her other hand. She then snapped the bottle shut. She looked at it for a moment, both calculating what she had left and regretting the need to take one, hence lowering the number remaining. Then she returned the bottle to the pocket in her rags with an almost inaudible sigh.
‘Do you have many of those things?’ The voice was that of February, her last word clearly suggesting disgust. She had chosen the moment that Kitty closed the bottle to enter the room. She was dressed, but she was wearing clothes designed for moving about the house. She had applied a little makeup to her face to hide the darker of her stripes, but that was all. Her eyes shone yellow without her contact lenses, and her tail was protruding from a hole in some specially altered leggings.
Kitty looked round, shocked, as if she’d been caught with her hand in the biscuits tin. She tried to think of an excuse, but all that came out of her mouth was, ‘er.’
February stood there quietly, waiting for an answer and ignoring the apparent panic on Kitty’s face. She didn’t look stern or angry as Kitty had expected, simply inquisitive. She had sounded disgusted at mentioning them, but then Kitty was disgusted by February eating human meat. On the other hand, she understood it. Perhaps February would understand the need Kitty had for the pills.
‘About a month’s worth,’ she said finally.
February nodded. She sounded unhappy about Kitty taking the pills, yet her words suggested otherwise. ‘That’s good; you’ll have a month before you have to start getting used to the taste of herd meat.’ She crossed the room to her computer and turned it on. It buzzed gently and started going through its standard self-diagnostic checks as it booted up.
‘I could never eat human!’ Kitty exclaimed worriedly. She fingered the pill nervously, as if wondering if it was all right to take it.
‘I know,’ February replied simply. She watched her computer run through its machinations, turning her head back to Kitty when she saw it wasn’t done yet. ‘At the moment you’re still domesticated. You’ve lived with humans. The idea of feeding off them must seem an anathema to you. But…’
‘Anawhata?’ asked Kitty.
‘Anathema,’ February said. She sighed. Kitty seemed to be quite intelligent, but she probably hadn’t even had a simple education. ‘Er, it would be against your very nature.’
Kitty nodded. ‘You’re right; I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything that had been human.’
February tried to re-find her train of thought, and after a short pause she continued, ‘The pills help to reinforce this. They make you docile. I don’t mean docile in that you spend most of the day sleeping, but docile in that the thought of attacking anyone, especially humans, is…’
‘Anathema,’ Kitty agreed, trying out the word.
‘I’ve heard the pills can also affect your mind so that the mere thought of eating the meat of a human makes you nauseous. Although I have to admit that personally, I think they’re just scary stories put out by those who don’t really know. After all, if you’ve lived with and loved humans all your life, that too would make hurting them, let alone eating them, against your very nature.’
‘Might be true,’ Kitty replied calmly. ‘The mere thought of eating human meat does make me nausous at times. Though as you say, it might just be because I’ve spent all my life among humans.’
‘Well, anyway, when the pills run out, when all that is left to eat is herd, then you will come round to eating herd meat. You will or you will die.’
‘Die?’ Kitty seemed very shocked.
‘Your instinct for survival will cut in before that happens, though, I assure you.’ February seemed confident in her statement, but Kitty was sure she was just making assumptions.
‘I’m not sure I like being assured of that,’ Kitty replied bluntly. She decided to put the pill in her mouth and swallow it.
February shrugged and sat down on the stool at the computer. ‘First thing is to find you a bed. I hope they’ll deliver today, but I think it’s unlikely. You may have to spend the next night or two on the couch.’
‘You don’t mind paying out for me for a bed?’ Kitty asked. She massaged her neck where it still hurt. It seemed a lot for someone she had known less than a whole day to do.
‘The computer firm pays me well enough, and I don’t want you spending the rest of your life on the couch. It’s for sitting on, not sleeping on.’
‘It’s comfortable enough,’ Kitty commented. It was true that she had missed the cot back at her master’s house, but this seemed far too much for her new friend to spend out on. She massaged her neck some more. In truth, she’d love to have a bed to sleep on, but she didn’t want to be a hassle.
‘Maybe,’ February replied, ‘but it’s not designed for it. You might wear it out before its time, and these things don’t last long enough as it is. The herd have this irritating habit of building obsolescence into everything they make, forcing people to buy more than they should really need.’
February started tapping a light pen against the screen of her computer. Before long it put her in contact with a bed store. ‘Want to come and pick a bed?’
‘Well,’ Kitty replied, ‘I can’t really admit to knowing what would be a good buy. I was a human’s pet, remember? You don’t get many opportunities to make choices. I’ll be happy with whatever you choose.’ Actually, she had made a number of decisions every day when she had been with her master, but none of them had involved the spending of money and it was that aspect that made her hesitate to put herself forward now.
February nodded and sighed. She made some more movements with her pen and seemed to be reading things off the screen and speaking at the same time. ‘I wonder why your master had you leave. If he was fed up with you, it’d have been normal and easy to place you in the care of the Cattery. Not release you on the streets where you might turn wild, with just enough pills to last you a month.’
‘It was something he saw on the newspaper, something about some new government policy. He assumed the government was lying and let me go. He seemed to think that I had a better chance on the streets than in the hands of the authorities.’
‘Doesn’t trust the government?’ February repeated, almost to herself. ‘He sounds like a good judge of character. Not usual that you get herd like that.’
‘Actually they’re quite common,’ Kitty told her. ‘If you watch some of the holomovies, it seems that suspicion of the government’s motives is very high at the moment.’
February seemed only a little surprised at her comment. ‘The newspaper, you say… Maybe I should take a look after I’ve gotten you a bed. See what it’s all about.’
Kitty smiled. ‘Is there somewhere I can shower? I’ve been wearing these clothes since before I left my master. I’ve even slept in these clothes, and I have to admit,
I’m feeling a little icky.’
February grinned. ‘Of course; go out this door, second door on the right. You’ll find a lavatory in there too, if you need it.’
Kitty seemed more than a little relieved; she was feeling in desperate need of the lavatory but really hadn’t known how to ask about that. She got up and hurried out of the room, leaving February with the screen and her pen.
She emerged from the bathroom nearly a full forty-five minutes later. She was wearing only a towel wrapped around her and another wrapped about her hair. She found February in the kitchen preparing breakfast.
‘The best I could do was a week,’ February said as she entered. ‘Every bed supplier I could find has to order any bed from their wholesaler. And even then, it’s not guaranteed that they can get it to us inside a week. Anyway, I’ve ordered one, but I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with that couch until it arrives.’ She looked at the towels Kitty was wearing and added, ‘You don’t want to put those rags back on. I’ll get you some of my clothes to wear for now and we can go out and buy you a wardrobe of your own a little later. Then we can burn those rags and remove the evidence that you were ever a pet.’
Kitty nodded slowly; she seemed to be thinking. She was carrying the jar of pills and a small piece of paper that she had forgotten about until she had stripped for her shower. ‘A week is fine. You’re already doing a lot more than I ever expected anyone would for me. Especially after all I’d heard about how wild cats, er, sorry, wild Herbaht treat those who have been domesticated. As for clothes, I will need some nice new ones, but I don’t want to be a pain.’
February smiled. ‘Don’t be silly. How would you like your eggs?’
‘Eggs? Er, as they come,’ Kitty replied, a little confused. Didn’t the wild ones only eat humans? And yet, that was bacon she could smell and hear. Kitty would have had to admit that she liked the taste of bacon.
February cracked open a few eggs and placed them in the prep and set it to fry. ‘The rest is ready; they’re just being kept warm while I do the eggs.’
Kitty smiled and nodded. She had watched her Master cook many times, but he refused to use a prep, claiming that the food didn’t have the same taste as when cooked the old-fashioned way.
No more than twenty seconds after she’d placed the eggs in the prep, she removed them and started to share the perfectly fried eggs between two plates that already contained sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes and bacon.
‘There are several things we have to do today,’ February announced as she handed the plate over. ‘First we need to find you a name; I can’t go calling you Kitty in front of herd. No herd would ever name their child Kitty because of the feline associations.’
‘Catherine,’ Kitty suggested.
‘It’s true that some of the herd are still in the habit of naming children Catherine, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea. It might draw attention to yourself, picking a name that starts with the letters C-A-T.’
Kitty sighed. ‘What else needs doing?’
‘Well, we need to get you some clothing. Also, I’ll need to go to the regional headquarters to warn them of this weapon I found, as well as the extra trackers we found in the laser weapons. I’d like you to come along with me so you can be introduced to some of the others. Before we go anywhere, though, I’ll have to teach you a little something about how to disguise yourself. We can’t go out the door like this. ’
‘That might take a long time,’ Kitty said.
‘When you know a little more about what you’re doing, I’ll teach you the best type of disguise we use. It’ll take quite a while to put on, even assuming you’ve done the preparation first and assuming you’re used to wearing it. However, it’ll fool a herd sitting as close to you as I am. It can fool nearly anyone. That’s for another day, though,’ February said. ‘Today I’m just going to teach you a quick disguise, the most common type of disguise we use. It’ll get you past nearly everyone’s cursory glances and can be applied in just a few minutes.’
‘Nearly everyone?’ Kitty asked thoughtfully.
‘Well, those in the Elite Guard are not easily fooled. Fortunately they are a relatively rare occurrence on the streets. But they know where to look and what to look out for. If we wear something to cover those signs, it just makes them suspicious. No, you might get away with it if the Guard isn’t alert, but it’s not worth gambling your life over.’
Kitty nodded slowly. ‘I think it’s probably fundamental that I learn, then.’
‘I’ll have to get to the regional headquarters today, whether you’re with me or not. We’ll have breakfast and then I should start teaching you immediately. The clothes shopping can always wait until tomorrow if getting you ready takes too long.’
Kitty nodded; she was enjoying the meal.
‘By the way, I think I found that article you mentioned while you were in the shower,’ February commented between mouthfuls. ‘I think your master might have done you quite a service. I definitely don’t like the sound of what they’re claiming. After all, the location of the Cattery is the best-kept secret in the country. They aren’t about to release anyone who’s seen the way there. I suppose they could knock them out for the trip there and back, but somehow I don’t think so. Anyone with half a brain can see that something is up.’
Kitty nodded but said nothing.
‘I’d like to meet this master of yours—on friendly terms, I mean. Not as prey.’
Kitty grinned and pointed to the piece of paper she had been holding when she had emerged from the shower. ‘He gave me a contact number, asked me to call him nightly if I could. He definitely wants me to contact him when this latest government edict thing has blown over so he can come and collect me.’
February eyed the paper suspiciously. ‘I think we might call him, but not from here. And I’ll want to check him out first, see if he’s as he appears or if he’s a government stooge laying a trap for whoever helped you.’
‘But,’ protested Kitty.
February grinned. ‘It was unlikely that anyone would have aided you before you’d run afoul of a crowd of herd. So I can’t see it being a setup. But I do have to be sure before I’ll risk contact. I’ll nip out tomorrow night and call round on him. I assume you can tell me the address where you used to live.’
Kitty nodded quietly.
‘Don’t worry; I won’t hurt him. Until I’m sure of him, though, it’ll be better if you don’t try to contact him.’
Kitty nodded her reluctant agreement. Her Master wasn’t the sort to hurt anyone, but she could understand the wild queen’s desire to be sure for herself. After all, February hadn’t survived without being careful. That last thought gave her pause. She had met February the previous night without any hint of a disguise on. That was hardly the attitude of one who survived by being careful. Kitty decided it was all done by degrees; February was careful about some things and less so about others. Besides, all this thinking was doing nothing to sate her appetite.
Kitty finished the last of her food ravenously and then gazed at the empty plate sadly. She hadn’t realized she could be so hungry, but then it had been more than twenty-four hours since her last meal. That had been breakfast yesterday. Her master hadn’t yet started cooking their dinner for that evening when he had sent her out into the night. Had she thought, she might have mentioned it to him, but they had both been upset and he had been in a hurry, as if the Elite Guard were going to call on them just as he was setting her free.
‘Would you like some more?’ February asked, evidently recognizing the expression on Kitty’s face.
Kitty shook her head. ‘I would like some more, but I don’t want you to run out because of me. I’m grateful for the one plate. Besides, if there’s going to be much more running around, I’ll need to stay fit.’
February reached to take the dirty plate from her. ‘Well, if you’re sure. I can always mix you up something if you’re still hungry.’
‘I’ll be fine, thanks, and thank you for
a lovely meal,’ Kitty said.
February put the plates and cutlery into a small machine that sat by the prep which was about three foot square and could only really be described as a dishwasher. Once the plates and cutlery were in, she closed the door on the front and pressed a button. After the passage of no more than thirty seconds, during which the machine buzzed gently, she opened it again and took the clean items out.
‘If there’s anything I can do about the house to help…’ Kitty suggested as February put the plates away.
‘Just think of a name,’ was the reply. ‘We have a lot to do already today, so don’t worry about anything else. There’ll be plenty of time to divide the chores up between us tomorrow. Right now, I want you to go upstairs to my bedroom and sit on the chair in front of the mirrors. I’ll be up as soon as I’ve cleared everything away for your first lesson in disguise.’
Almost feeling as if she had been dismissed, Kitty headed towards her new friend’s bedroom as bidden. The stairs were tall and narrow and led to two rooms, one on either side of a very narrow top landing, barely wide enough for a doorway on either side. The rooms on either side seemed big enough, though.
The room to the left contained a number of unopened boxes, giving the illusion of someone having only just moved in and not yet having enough time to unpack. Kitty guessed that when the bed arrived, that was where she would be sleeping.
The room on the right was February’s bedroom, and it was definitely the type of room that might have been decorated by a woman. The room was dominated by the bed. Against the wall opposite the bed was the dressing table, complete with triptych mirrors.
Kitty made herself comfortable on the chair in front of the dresser and studied the selection of makeups that were spread about on the top of it. There was also a mannequin head that held a blonde wig. She smiled at her reflection in the mirrors and waited for her friend.
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