Abbernathy and the Cat Kingdom

A Mouse's Memories - EXTRA

As with all chapters labeled 'Extra' you don't have to read them to understand the main story. However, by reading them, you'll learn more about Aelurus and the Kingdoms of Eridan as well as showing some of your favorite characters that little bit of extra love.

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Margo'd stood outside Heidmarr-the White City's most prestigious Academium-knees trembling, eyes widening in awe of the rust-colored gates. The flesh around her upper lip stung as her whiskers needled their way toward the surface. She rubbed the tender flesh there, silently urging her whiskers to hurry up and grace her face already. Being without them made her antsy, and lacking such an integral part of the Cloudian aesthetic made her feel exposed.

She hoped she would have whiskers resembling her Da's - black and thick, like strips of nightsilk adorned his face. Her sister, Magdalinna, had been sand-blessed to have Da's whiskers. Margo hoped she would follow suit, though, she'd be okay if her whiskers looked like her Ma's - thin, delicate, and white, curled at the ends like snaking Venmas vine. Of course, if Margo was sand-blessed enough to have black and white whiskers, she wouldn't complain. She just wanted whiskers. Not having any was embarrassing.

"Liessie!"

A copper-skinned girl, with a head of sleek, black hair, bounded toward Margo, her radiance glowing brighter than three harvest moons.

Margo gulped, feeling her own radiance dull in comparison to her sister's, and waved.

"I didn't think you'd be here so early," Magda said cheerily. She reached up and curled a whisker around her finger. Jealousy reared up in Margo as she reached to poke at her own, whisker-less face.

Magda smiled and patted her sister's head. "They'll come in. Don't worry."

Margo nodded and Magda continued, ruffling her sister's thick curls. "Most first cycles don't have their whiskers anyway. You'll fit in."

Magda released her sister, delighting as she pulled on one of Margo's curls only to have it spring back into place. Magda frowned and her radiance grew dull. "I wish I had your hair. It's so lively. Mine's," she grabbed her smooth hair - it glimmered under the dusk lamps like river obsidian. "Mine's so boring." She sighed.

Wanting to change the subject, Magda began inspecting Margo, with the intensity of a Matron's gaze, and, pointed at Margo's sandals, smirking. "Ma let you out of the house like that?"

Margo felt her radiance lash outward with heated embarrassment. She had to concentrate all her energy on cooling herself off to make her radiance return to normal.

Cloudians were too dark-skinned to blush, but the golden shimmer - their radiance - that graced their skin flared and dulled with their changing emotions.

At times, Margo felt it made her kind special. At other times, especially times like this, Margo felt it was a curse. Young Cloudians had the hardest time controlling their radiance and they were the ones prone to crippling embarrassment.

Margo looked down at her muddy sandals, wishing she had chosen a longer skirt to hide their appearance. Of course, she could also not have visited the Twins, and certainly, she could have ignored the temptation to dip her feet into their crystalline waters but, to have such an adventurous spirit, meant giving in to those adventurous urges. She should have worn a longer skirt.

Magda tapped her own, pristine pair of sandals against the paved stone. "Couldn't resist visiting the Twins, eih? Even on your first day of formal school?"

Margo shook her head, curls bouncing around her face. For a moment, she thought she saw a flicker of envy roused awake in her sister's brown eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it might have come.