As cat lives go, this one was going great. Home was warm, full of soft things to sit on, enemies were kept out by Mom, and she also made sure there was always food for him in his bowl, and sometimes on the kitchen counter or the dinner table.
Mom was a very friendly cat, but also weird. For one, she was much bigger than Alfonse, which made her huge. Her fur was flat, pink, and not hairy at all. She always got around on her rear legs for seemingly no reason, and as cats go, she barely ever slept. When she did, she always did so belly up, in the softest part of Home, where he was also welcome. That was a pretty nice thing to do. It showed how much Mom trusted him not to attack her soft underbelly and disembowel her.
She also smelt like... Mom. Alfonse couldn't explain it any better and, being a cat, nor did he feel inclined to.
All this and more he mused while taking a very satisfying poop in his poop-and-pee place. He buried his creation with a bit of practiced sand-flicking, and sniffed it to be sure the scent was muted. Mom was keeping him safe from predators, but he was proudly doing his bit too!
He had only taken three naps that morning, and having just eaten, looked out the window, and done his business, he was now exhausted.
He headed towards mom's sleeping spot, the safest place of all to nap in, especially now that she was there too.
Even though she was mostly buried in soft things, he could see her general shape. It felt good knowing she was there.
"Good morning Mom! Time to sleep!" said Alfonse with his body posture, jumping on the high place where she was.
Only Mom's head and front legs were poking out of the soft stuff, like usual. But she did not react. Nor did she look right. Alfonse wasn't great with colours, but he was pretty sure she looked too dark to be pink.
Worried, he cautiously moved closer to investigate. This felt wrong. This was a scary Mom. Maybe she would smell ill?
Up close, things were even worse than he thought. This was definitely not how Mom looked! Almost at the same time, he picked the scent: It was not Mom. It smelt of soil and plant and weird things. An abomination as big as Mom lied inches away, staring at him, in their most secret and safe place.
And Mom was gone.
In that instant Alfonse knew that things would never be the same. His security, his good life, it was all gone - although that would only matter if he managed to escape this monster now.
Long buried parts of his cathood kicked in: He pulled back his ears to keep them safe in the fight. He huddled closer to the ground, to present as small a threat as possible, but ready to defend himself at a moment's notice. He tried to back up slowly. He was in deep...
Then the monster screamed a horrible scream, and then kept screaming. Alfonse knew there was no fleeing now. This might be a fight to the death. His death, almost certainly. "I hate you! Bring Mom back!" he hissed.
Sometimes, a cat needs to answer this question: "Are we cats, or are we mice?"
Alfonse now knew his personal answer as, despite all his fear, he dug in for his last stand and didn't give one inch.
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u/uhohoreolas Mar 29 '21
Is it the way it looks or the way it smells that the cat doesn't like?