บท 169: Chapter One Hundred And Sixty Nine - What happened to the cub Jin Li rescued?

On an unrelated note, while Leon was weeding and Jin Li was doing... well things that Jin Li did, a young creature was gnawing gently upon a small flat wooden fish; its tooth was coming in and its gum was a bit sore because of this.

The young creature was about the size of a leopard cub on the cusp of adolescence, but skinny like a sleek Siamese. It once fought for Milk within the nest of its mother, before strange two-legged, pale monsters came along and stole its mother's life away as well as captured its burly siblings. It had been small, weak, left to fend for itself in the nest with no mother and all alone. Instinctively, it knew that this was a death sentence.

However, despite the gurgles in its tummy and the resignation of its end, it noticed a sparkling light in the hopeless tunnel of darkness and couldn't help but become attracted to it. Thus it peeked through the grass and feathers of its nest and its blue eyes caught sight of a dangling object from which seemed to be shining like a star. It caught the attention of a two-legged pale monster, but this monster smelled different from the ones that had captured its siblings and although it was scared, it sensed that the monster did not mean it harm. So it buried its way into the monster's pouch like skin and enjoyed the warmth of its body. As it happened, this monster was in possession of the star, so as it felt more and more confident that the monster would not kill it, it saw no reason not to try and obtain the bright object it wanted.

And it had caught it as well!

That monster went away and new monsters tried to replace its mother in its heart, but while it liked the fact that it no longer had to fight for food, it didn't want to be with any of these two-legged beings. They smelled all wrong. The monster that had given it the shiny, wooden fish had smelled a bit better, but that one had disappeared and not come back.

In time, its siblings, who had also come to this nest of monsters having been taken away from their mother's killers, all decided to chose one monster in which to place their trust. After a while, only their runty sibling remained. But despite the fact that it wasn't as strong or as able as its big siblings, the monsters still came to it each day hoping to catch its attention. It was a bit annoying.

The little feline concentrated on eating and sleeping and soon grew to a size that could be compared to its siblings, but it was still slender and nothing like the thick, muscular Male and females usually born of its kind. Its black and white fluff had become shorter, coarser and a few opalescent, snowy scales were now poking through its fur on its back. Its clear growth encouraged the monsters more, but it still chose to ignore them, all its attention was on its small, wooden treasure.

One day, a monster that smelled a bit like flowers came to its small nest in the shelter the monsters created for it with a wooden object about the size of the monster's palm. It looked, at first, like food or more specifically, like a fish. But its nose could not be fooled! It knew it was made of wood! The monster tried to coax it using those sounds that the two-legged creatures made. Those sounds became impatient when it ignored the monster and the floral scented creature tried to snatch its treasure and replace it with the block of wood! It scratched and hissed in displeasure and wailed loudly!

"What are you doing?" The sounds of another monster came, causing the floral scented one to stop. The feline sniffed and purred before snatching its treasure away to hide it at the back of its nest, less the floral monster try grab it again.

"I was just..." the floral one spoke, but the other interrupted.

"I suggest you leave before I mention this to Teacher Volun," the monster said. "And don't bother the Coeurl cub anymore. It is obvious that it won't chose you no matter what you do." The floral one ran away; the feline thought it inefficient that the monsters only had two legs to run with and never used their fore paws to make them faster. But it seemed to work for them.

It yowled its thanks to the remaining monster. It didn't mind this monster too much, a pity it smelled like dog. But then, that blue mutt was always close by it, so was it any wonder! It sniffed again and then realised that the canine was not with the monster this time, in fact, the monster was carrying one of its own, an adolescent. And from the metallic scent of blood, it was wounded.

The blue-eyed cub blinked and emerged from its nest to inspect the strange feline. It couldn't see much, but the stranger was placed in its siblings former nest and food and water was placed near to it. The stranger hissed and warned away the monster, but there was not much strength to it. Still the dog-smelling monster left, leaving the two coeurl to themselves.

The day past as usual, the cub played with its treasure, before burying it more cautiously away when the monster's came with food. But while it buried its face into the yummy lumps of meat, the stranger was ungrateful and hissed and yowled angrily at the monsters who approached it.

'They are just bringing food', the cub yawned with a mewl, licking the remnants from its still small whiskers.

'Ignorant cub,' the adolescent hissed. 'They trapped us in here. They will enslave us if we do not escape!'

The cub tilted its small head in question. 'But if you don't eat, how will you escape?'

The adolescent did not answer, so the cub lost interest in it. However, the monsters found that the food had all been eaten in the end.

The wounds on the adolescent coeurl healed and the creature regained its vigour. Thus it began to attract the monsters to it in the same way the cub and its siblings called to them. They each wanted to gain the adolescent's trust to the point that they actually ignored the cub. Not that the cub was bothered by this, so long as it had food, warmth and its treasure. The adolescent was a handsome feline with sleek fur and scales of midnight. Its eyes were like two bright rubies and its whiskers like slender whips stretching the length of its body. However, it was stubborn and refused all that approached it. This did not stop the monsters from approaching it.

The adolescent bided its time until it was at full strength and then during one feeding time, it attempted to escape. The monster that brought the meals opened the cub's nest and popped in its meal. It left the nest unlocked, knowing that the cub was unlikely to leave; it wanted to try once more to get close to the cub by grooming it. It was more cautious as it unlocked the adolescent's nest, but then the cub yawned cutely, distracting the monster briefly and the adolescent rushed out of its nest to knock over the monster. It fell unconscious upon the floor.

The midnight coeurl approached the nest of the small cub, even nuzzled its face in greeting causing the little one to purr. 'Escape with me,' the older one urged.

The cub shook its head. It had been raised for a long time by the monsters. Even if it wanted to leave them, it knew it could not survive in the wild. It had been a runt, its fate had likely always been to die, so although it had not extended its faith to one of the monsters, it knew it was grateful to them.

'I can't leave,' the cub replied. 'My mother was killed by not these monsters. I cannot hunt, I cannot find shelter. I owe these monsters a life.'

The adolescent tilted its head, thinking over this for a while, then nodded as it came to a decision. 'Then I will remain with you until you decide otherwise.'

The little cub grinned and said; 'would you like to see my treasure?'

Later that evening, a monster came in search of the one who was responsible for feeding the two coeurl, only to find that it was unconscious upon the floor. It was also shocked to find that the adolescent was curled up asleep in the cub's nest, the little one sprawled asleep over it.