The Kitty Cat Bites

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

South California

February 5th

2:03am

In a tree, sleeping (Or was, at least . . .)

 CRACK!

“Ugh, ow.”

“Shh!”

“Sorry . . .”

“Oh my gosh. Just shut up.”

I sat up with a start, swinging my head from side to side, looking for the noise. My ears swiveled atop my head, searching as well. I moved to a crouch, smelling the air. Bird and cat. The cat scent was weird and unfamiliar, but probably just a cougar. The bird scent was off, too.

I furrowed my brows. If it really was just cougar and those were some birds, then I just found tomorrow’s breakfast, if not . . . No! Don’t think about such ridiculous things Rodney! That’s impossible. I narrowed my eyes into the branches above and away from me. I might as well go catch them. I jumped up the branches silently until I knew I was above my prey.

My prey wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, though. Actually, it was nothing like what I expected. What I found wasn’t not just a simple bird. Instead I found teenage boy probably a little older than me with a huge set of black and brown wings on his back. He was asleep and snored softly. He had light brown hair that was a little long, about to his eyebrows, and looked unkempt. Not surprising if he lived like I did, which I kind of assumed he did.

What startled me even more than the bird boy, though, were the two people who sat across from him on another branch. One was a boy, probably my age, and the other was girl who was a few years younger than me. It wasn’t their age or gender though, or even what they looked liked. It was what was on their bodies.

Each of them had a pair of cat ears and a tail.

I gaped at the two of them. I never thought there was even one more of my kind, let alone two. I nearly fell off the tree branch that I was crouched on.

The girl, small and young, had chin length, super curly, bright red hair. She was eating a granola bar. The boy next to her had short cropped, extremely fair blonde hair and was half asleep against the trunk of the tree. The girl rolled her eyes and smacked him with her tail. He jolted awake.

“I wasn’t asleep, I swear it,” he mumbled groggily.

“Don’t sleep dimwit. We have to stay up and stake out the place to make sure nothing or no one is out here,” she explained matter-o’-factly. The boy groaned.

“Why do we have to do it, though?” he grumbled.

“Because, Mike is exhausted! He flew all over the place to make sure there were no bear or cougars or whatever. Not to mention he found us this tree. He did more work than the two of us together!” she exclaimed.

“Okay, okay! I get it already . . .”

She rolled her eyes again and kept eating. She had a thoughtful look as she chewed. She swallowed and opened her mouth.

“Hey, Josh, do you think there is anyone else out there? You know, like other than just us? Maybe even more cat-people like us, or more bird-people like Mike?”

“There isn’t anyone out there Lily, at least not around here,” the boy said in an exasperated tone, as if he hear this at least once a week. I snorted.