GT Chapter Seventeen

I once spent a month lost in the jungles of Pallapalla. The indigenous peoples were lovely, if you ignored their propensity for eating each other, and while I could not convince them to change their culinary habits, I did at least lead a cultural revolution in hair bows. By the time I managed to return to civilization, the Pallapallans, male and female alike, were wearing bows as large as their heads, and probably do to this day.

-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey

As Maria had said, the trip back upriver was simple. The two girls stayed close to the water’s edge, avoiding a few places they had found where the bank was either too soft, or had been undercut by the rushing waves. By the evening of the second day of their return trip, they were completely out of the generous portions of bread and hard cheese Hattie had given them.

Tia shifted back to her cat form, her dress puddling around her, and her stomach growling audibly. “We need to catch some fish, or a squirrel.”

Maria’s stomach twisted. “But how will we cook them? Do you know how to make a fire?”

The other kitten snorted. “We can just eat them. We’re cats, you know.”

Bile rose in Maria’s throat at the thought of eating raw meat. “What about berries? You grew up around here. Didn’t they teach you to forage?”

“We’re Felis!” Tia snapped, tail whipping behind her. “We don’t forage, we hunt.”

Maria knew Tia well enough by now to recognize that the kitten was more defensive than angry. “So, no, then?”

Tia’s stomach growled again, and she whimpered. “No. They usually teach the little ones how to start a fire and find berries and roots once they make their first change, since they’re usually sent into the woods for their Proving. Since they didn’t know I could shift-” She shrugged meaningfully, and Maria sighed.

“No training, huh?”

“Well, what about you?” Tia asked grumpily. “You’re always reading. Didn’t you ever bother to read anything actually useful? Didn’t your beloved Lady Chatterwick ever have to build her own fire or gather food?”

Maria licked a paw. “Of course she did, she just didn’t linger over it. She had flint and steel, anyway, which we don’t.”

Tia glared. “Then you’ll have to eat your squirrel raw, like a proper Felis, or go hungry.” The kitten stalked to a nearby tree and began climbing, using her powerful back legs to easily propel her up the rough bark. A few minutes later, chittering squeaks were followed by a small, limp body and several leaves falling from above. Soon after, Tia was back on the ground beside Maria, licking her paws and looking very satisfied.

The black and white kitten sidled over to the body of her victim and began to feed. Maria watched, feeling both repulsed and amazed. When Tia looked up at her, yellow eyes gleaming in pride, Maria just turned away. No matter how hungry she was, she was a human before she was a cat, and she couldn’t bring herself to eat one of the small, comical creatures whose antics had so often entertained her and her siblings.

As she moved away from Tia, Maria caught a whiff of a familiar scent in the air. Smoke? Along with the smoke was the barest hint of the tantalizing aroma of something much tastier than a recently deceased rodent. Without thinking, her deft paws made their way over the hard-packed dirt, following the complex bouquet.

Her sharp ears picked up the murmur of voices before she saw anything. She slowed, listening, hearing fully human voices with no overtone of feline meows for the first time in days. Instinctively falling to her belly, she slunk closer, listening intently.

“...don’t know why the queen thinks Princess Maria might have gone to Bremerton, Sir. As far as I know, the girl has barely stepped foot outside the capital.” The voice was slightly whiny, and Maria recognized it. Sir Grogas was the son of one of Father’s childhood friends, and while he was a fair swordsman, his personality was less than pleasant.

“That’s her highness to you, Grogas.” Another familiar voice corrected him sharply. “Show proper respect for the royal family.” Shadows shifted as Sir Baylin stood, handing something to another nearby figure. The dim light of the banked fire picked up the planes of his face, highlighting his sharp nose and jaw into something vaguely menacing.

“You’re on first watch, Grogas. Wake Sir Jenna two hours before midnight.” The stern royal guard strode away, leaving Grogas and another knight, presumably Jenna, behind.

“Her highness, pfft. What do we even need watches for, so close to home?” Grogas muttered, pouring out the contents of the cup into the fire, which popped and sputtered.

The last figure, who had been seated by the fire, waved a hand in front of her face and coughed pointedly. “Yes, her highness, Grog,” the woman said sharply. “Cap’n’s right. If you called her girl in front of the King, he’d have you scrubbing privies no matter who your father is.” Maria nodded in agreement. She didn’t recognize Sir Jenna, but the female guards who protected her mother and sisters rarely spoke or removed their helmets while on duty, so that wasn’t terribly surprising.

Grogas spat into the ashes of the fire, which hissed back at him angrily, much like Maria wished she could do. “I’m here because I won my round at the trials. You’re only here because someone needs to guard the girl if we find her.”

Sir Jenna stood, tossing the contents of her own cup into the fire pit just as a gust of wind sprang up to swirl the resulting smoke and sparks toward Grogas. “We all won our trials, Grogas. Yours was just especially easy because Lord Kissinger got to choose your opponent.” She turned away, toward the bedrolls that Maria could just see laid on the ground on the other side of the small clearing.

“If we have to respect that plain princess because of her father, then you should respect me because of mine,” Grogas jeered.

Sir Jenna paused, looking back. “I’ve guarded Her Majesty and the princesses since before Princess Maria was born, Grogan. You only get to guard the royal family at parties and large events where we need every warm body. I know them better than you ever will, and every one of them is worthy of my fealty.” With that, the woman walked away stiffly, ignoring Grogas’ derisive snort.

Maria watched as the unlikeable guard finished smothering the small fire, but had to quickly slip out of the way when he strode toward her, making no effort to be quiet as he forced his way through the bushes to take up a position on a small hill overlooking the camp and surrounding area.

“Should I scratch him?” Tia’s voice nearly made Maria jump, and she hissed quietly before she could catch herself.

“No,” she muttered. “It’s fine. I know they call me the plain princess. It’s not like it was surprising or anything.” She looked over at the other kitten, who had crept up beside her while she was avoiding Sir Grogas. The utter blackness of most of her fur vanished so completely that her white paw and tail tip seemed to be moving independent of a body.

Tia looked away. “You knew that?”

Maria shrugged, trying to look as if she didn’t care. “They say that eavesdroppers hear no good of themselves. I’ve been running away from Mother’s parties for years. I was bound to overhear someone say it eventually, while they were looking for me.”

“It’s just because the rest of your family is so, so-”

Tia hesitated, and Maria said, “Beautiful? And I’m… not.”

“You’re fine!” Tia hurried to reassure her. “I mean, you don’t look like them, but you’re pretty! You just look like, you know, regular people. If you were a member of my family, you’d fit right in!”

Maria stifled a bitter laugh. “As a person, or as a cat?”

Tia looked away. “I guess you’re right. It’s not like you’d think looking like someone related to me was a compliment,” she said, stiffly.

Maria bit her lip, wincing at the pain caused by her own sharp teeth. “That’s not what I meant. Tia-”

Tia sighed and shook her head, looking back toward the campsite. “It doesn’t matter. Why did you come here?”

Maria’s stomach, suddenly reminded, growled so loudly that both kittens froze, waiting for one of the guards to notice. When no one did, they exchanged relieved glances and giggled softly.

“I couldn’t eat raw squirrel,” Maria admitted. “I smelled real food, and I followed the scent here.”

Tia stared at the camp assessingly. Her body stilled as her gaze locked onto something to their right. “There are their provisions,” she said, softly.

Maria followed her line of sight and saw something slightly lighter than the surrounding shadows, swaying gently as a gust of wind blew by. “What is that?”

They slowly began to slink toward the moving thing, which resolved itself into a pair of saddlebags draped over a thick branch as they moved nearer. “Tobias taught me this. Humans hang their edible things up in the trees, to keep rats and other scavengers from getting into it.”

“Does it work?” Maria asked, as they stopped beneath the bags. Her sensitive nose smelled still-warm meat and some kind of pungent cheese.

Tia snickered. “Not with us.” In an instant, her furry outline resolved itself into a much larger, smoother one. Thanks to her dark skin, she was still all but invisible, but her white hand flashed as it fumbled at the straps holding the saddlebags closed. Something clinked, and they both froze.

A snore came from the nearby hill. It sounded like Grogas had decided that he didn’t need to keep watch after all. The girls grinned, Tia’s sharp white teeth flashing in the gloom. “Time for dinner,” Tia said triumphantly, pulling a waxed pouch from the depths of the bag. She opened it and peered inside, and the yeasty smell instantly told Maria what it was.

“Bread!” she whispered, delighted. “What else is there?”

Tia pulled out a few more pouches and wrapped packets. “Dried meat and cheese. Even a few boiled eggs. And,” she held up a leather purse, “some more money.”

Maria instantly shook her head. “Put that back. If we take their money, they’ll hunt us down. They can get more food easily enough, especially if we make it look like some kind of animal got into it. Money, though, no. They can’t let thievery slide.”

Reluctantly, Tia put the purse back in. “Fine. But how do we make it look like animals did this?”

Maria pawed at the loaf of bread Tia had set beside her. With her sharp teeth, she pulled a bite free, leaving a ragged gap behind. “Do what comes naturally,” she said, through a mouthful of food. “After all, to them, we are animals.”

Tia grinned, her body collapsing into her Felis form. She, too, took a large bite of food, though she chose the round hunk of cheese. “We can leave some evidence behind, and take the rest with us for tomorrow,” she agreed.

“Best of all,” Maria mumbled, “how much trouble do you think Grogas will be in for letting wild beasts eat the food?”

Tia’s gleeful chortle was smothered by another mouthful of cheese.