Days 12-18: Teaching Each Other

Emyri rubbed her head into the warm fur, snuggling up for comfort before hearing a voice mewl from afar. Her ear twitched as suddenly she began to make out what sounded like a growl, no it was a low hiss before... laughter? Her eyes reluctantly opened and began to focus, wiggling away from her mothers paws and getting up on all fours. Rubbing her nose, she shook her face to feel her fur loosen up a bit as she walked softly outside. Once she was exposed, her mouth parted open wide and she leaned far back while stretching her front legs, shivering as her fur stood on edge momentarily. Licking her lips, she crept along following the source of the noise.

It was a bit of a surprise when she peeked into her old den, where Leone sat up watching two of the little ones play with each other in a game of pin. Rather, it was cute to watch them giggling and waving their tails before jumping and holding each other, struggling to pin the other down. Finally one of them came out on top with the bottom girl laughing back.

"Like dis?" She asked, looking at Leone.

He shook his silver head no and smiled. "You girls have the spirit, but it's a lot more than just hugging each other and coming out on top. What if the other one is stronger?"

The two girls split up and sat back on her butts, their tails waving along the floor. "Umm... then she is the winner?"

"Well, yea but what if you're fighting someone bigger? Would you just let yourself lose?"

She giggled and shook her head. "Fuu, I dun play with bigger girsh, they beat me lotsh!"

"Teehee, yea! Bigger girls are nuu so fun, but I can beat her lots more."

"Nu-uh."

"Yu-huh."

"Nu-hu."

"Yu-huh."

Leone closed his eyes and held his chin, thinking how best to approach this. "You know, I have to fight bigger people often."

"You do?" They asked, that sure put an end to their squabble.

He smiled as they scooted forward. "Yea, I didn't have any friends to help me though. So I had to learn how to fight different to beat people much much bigger then I am."

"Wow! Can you teash ush, mishter?" She smiled exposing her cute fangs and missing front teeth. Her friend clicked her tongue and pushed her arm.

"Like you will ever learn, you get pinned all the time!"

"Nu-uh."

"Yu-huh."

"Nu-uh."

"Actually, that might not be a bad thing." Leone looked up ahead as Emyri spoke out to them from the entrance, now in her Nekomata form and with a cute grin revealing her little cheek dimples.

Both girls gasped as their ears and spirits dropped. "Are we in trouble, Emy?"

"Normally yes, but this time I'll let it pass."

"Yay!" They cheered and hugged each other, beaming with joy as Leone slipped on his boots. In a moment, they crawled outside with the two jumping around and giggling about, waking any others who kept into their dens. Emyri giggled as she and Leone walked forward, watching them go and invite their friends.

"So, can you?"

"Can I what?"

"Teach us how to fight, silly. You were serious, yes?"

Leone shrugged. "I suppose, but I haven't taught anyone before."

"You seemed eager to teach them."

Leone began nervously stroking his hair. "Yea but... well-"

"Is it because they're monsters and don't know better? Come on, you could be surprised by what we know. I do remember kicking your butt in one time." She pointed out.

"That was because I wasn't used to your appearance then."

"And you are now? I admit, I'm rough on the eyes."

"Far from it, you're... ehh, you know." He blushed, rubbing his arm when her tails flicked him from behind. "Hey, watch it they tickle."

"You had some dirt there." She replied, snickering at him. "Now come on, teach. Time to help us kitties learn something else."

They stopped walking when the two girls returned, this time with their dozens of friends jumping around with them. So many little voices crying out in excitement, shouting I wanna play! I wanna play! It made him smile much to her enjoyment, he looked cute when he let his guard down. What followed was a few quick lessons for both hunter and monsters. He learned that Nekomatas prefer staying away from predators and climb up a high place that others can't reach, like trees for example. He learned that the women often throw whatever they find at a threat, keeping its attention while the younger ones sneek away to safety. Emyri demonstrated how sharp and durable their claws are, to which the children realized their own claws much like their small bodies needed time to develop its strength.

Also, scratching. Emyri made sure to emphasize this point, with the kids following her example and scraping their claws hard against the bark of any tree. Not only would this mark their territory, but it would help sharpen their claws as well. Though interesting to see, the hunter had mentioned that the scratch marks could benefit anyone tracking them instead and mentioned that they do so in higher and harder to reach places instead, which Cyri took note of. While observing, Leone noticed some of the older women staring at him instead. He had grown used to this, being a hunter and prisoner since day one but well... they carried hunger in their eyes. Luckily, Emyri would also catch on and shout at them, publically embarrassing them as they crashed into each other and walked away, faking some urgent task they just remembered.

While winter was harsh, he found himself finding comfort between a rock and a hard place underground. The snow would calm down during the day, giving them time to retrieve more fish and water from the river to sustain themselves. At one point, Leone was invited to join the bigger girls in search for other food, a diet on nothing but salmon wouldn't be healthy after all. Within a bush, one girl sniffed out some berries tucked inside. Emyri smelled them carefully to see if they were poisoned, to which Leone supported that yes, these were sweet and good to eat.

He leaned against the bark of an oak tree, chuckling and eating berries. A Nekomata in cat form had settled on a sturdy branch and slept from exhaustion after climbing around, and her tail wagged side to side like a pendulum from under the tree brach she slept on. Some of the kids looked mesmerized by the motion and attempted repeatedly to pounce up and catch the tails with their paws, failing each time. Emyri joined him and sat down to watch.

"Why do they do that? I remember cats do that often."

"Oh, do they?" Emyri asked, "Why do you think?"

He shrugged. "Beats me, boredom maybe?" He closed his eye as her tail playfully flicked his cheek.

"Not quite, we do it because it's fun. Nothing more to it really." They watched as one girl lept up and missed the landing, falling on her head against the snow. She sat up with a bruise above her eye, her fists rolling up and her breath growing faster.

"Mewwww! Mewww! Mewww!"

"Oh no." Emyri hurried over and scooped her up, her tails parting the girls hair and rubbing her forehead. "Hush, you're just throwing a fit it's fine. Hey, watch me. Waaaatch."

She huffed and pouted before opening her eyes, staring back at Emyri as their noses touched. "Where does it hurt?"

She sniffed and rubbed her eyes, her little tail gently touching her red mark. Emyri covered the bruise with her paw.

"Pain pain, go away!" She gasped, "Where does it hurt again?"

She giggled and reached up with her little paw on her head.

"Show me, show Emy." She asked, with the kitten placing her paw on Emyri's forehead this time. "Aww, is Emy hurt too?"

"Nuu." She shook her head with a smile.

"No, but Emy iiiiiiis hungry!" Emyri dove into the girls tummy, blowing raspberries from her stomach which made the girl squirm and laugh. She giggled and waved her paws and tails helplessly as even her friends began to laugh with her.

"Better?" She nodded, raising her paws as Emyri placed her down. "Good, now be more careful now. Always land on your paws, or Emy is going to eat you up next time. Rawr!"

"Eeeeee!" The girls scattered and ran away, laughing as Emyri bared her fangs and made a face at them. She shook her head and stood up, realizing that Leone was watching the whole time.

"What?"

"Just, you girls behave so normal. It's cute."

Emyri raised her arms and shrugged. "Well, how do Monster Girls act, huh?"

"Definitely not like this." Leone commented, with Emyri sitting back down beside him.

"Mur, you're being weird. I'm going to close my eyes for a bit, you aren't allowed to move until I say." She leaned over his shoulder, closing her eyes. Before long, she was quiet and her breathing pattern meant she was sleeping now. Leone blushed and kept still, not wanting to stir and wake her up when some snow fell several feet in front of them.

"Aww, look at you two." Cyri smiled, leaning on her side watching them from above. Leone blushed, he should have known the sleeping cat looked familiar!