The Demon and the Mute

Tariq ran to greet Sorrow, rubbing his head against her leg to welcome her back. He was extremely thankful that she hadn't just up and left him. He smelled a familiar scent on her, blood, but he paid no mind. She had, after all, apologized for her intentions on eating his liver earlier.

"Who is that, Mommy?" A little squeak was heard behind Sorrow's leg. Sorrow chuckled "I hope you don't mind I brought someone"
A little kit, looking to be about two weeks after just opening her eyes, hopped out from behind Sorrow. The kit was..absolutely gorgeous. She had the brightest, sparkling emerald green eyes, a perfect mixture of lime green and forest green from her parents. She had a long, silky coat, with a black pelt and golden tabby markings despite her cream-colored muzzle and the bushy tip of her tail was ivory white. She had a lean physique, obviously from her father if you were to ever meet Baxter Bled. The kit's eyes were filled with the curiosity of the world, and discovery started at finding out everything she could about the tomkit in front of her.

Tariq shook his head, he didn't mind at all. It had been a while since he had had someone to play with. He walked up to the kit, sniffing her a couple times out of curiosity. This must have been Emerald, the she-kit that Sorrow had told him of earlier.

Emerald nosed the Tom in a curious fashion. "Hi! I'm Emerald, but you can call me Emme! What's your name?" She asked, not knowing he was mute. "Oh, Emme, Darling, this kit can't speak" Sorrow said, feeling bad "His name is Tariq" Sorrow filled in. "Why can't he talk? What happened to him?" Emme asked innocently. "He was just born that way" Sorrow shrugged

Tariq bent down into a crouch and began hopping left to right, lightly batting at Emerald every now and then. His stumpy tail would twitch every now and then, but that was all. Though he was naturally mute, if looked at close enough, it was obvious that his tail wasn't naturally short. A human had taken him to a place after the accident, a weird one that was really clean and had a lot of other cats in it too. They injected him with something and when he woke up he had no tail!

"Your tail is really short! Did you lose your tail like mommy lost her eye?" Emme asked, forgetting he couldn't speak back. "Hun, he can't speak, he can't answer that" Sorrow chuckled. "Oh! Right!" Emerald remembered, caught up in her thoughts and questions. When Tariq batted at her, she giggled, crouched, and swiped a paw back at him. "Watch out! Emme's in training!" Sorrow smiled warmly

Tariq reached out and poked Emme before dashing a few tail lengths away and looking behind him to see if she was going to chase.

Hell yeah Emme was gonna chase. She leapt to tackle him, paws splayed out even thought he was bigger than her.

Tariq bunched his powerful back legs underneath him. They were the only thing that made up for his lack of balance. He waited until Emme was almost upon him then lept, full force, aim at him chest.

Emma squeaked playfully as she was knocked back, and the two rolled in a flail of tails and paws

Tariq jabbed at whatever he could reach. His claws were in their sheathes, of course, he didn't want to hurt the other kit.

Emmy giggled and side hopped until she was bopped in the nose. "Rawr! I'm gonna get you for that!" She squeaked and leapt to tackle him, paws flailing

Tariq tried to turn and run away to see exactly how fast the younger kit was, but as she was flailing she had managed to take one his legs out from under him. As he tried to regain his footing the suddenly became very hard to get a grip on and he was slipping and running everywhere in a five foot radius.

Sorrow out her paws in between the two, chuckling softly. "Alright you two, don't hurt yourselves, little ones" she purred. Emme hopped over to Sorrow, tail up in the air. "Is he gonna be with us forever? Is this the brother you told me that was taken away by the bad cat?" Emme squeaked with hopefulness. Sorrow's remaining eye clouded in sadness. "No, no, Emme, this cat is much too old to be Asher, silly. And your brother was a white tom" Sorrow said quietly

(THE FEELS)
Tariq just gave up and flopped on the floor. He felt sad, he had built up this kit's hope, then outright smashed it. He nuzzled them both in comfort.

Emme's tail drooped. "....Oh..." She said quietly. When Tariq nuzzled them, she smiled warmly. "But he doesn't have a Mommy or Daddy! Daddy wouldn't get mad if he stayed with us, right?" Emme purred. "Oh, he wouldn't ever get mad at me, he knows better" Sorrow snickered, but then gave that a thoughtful thinking-to. "Hmm...well, I would love to, but I'm not going to force Tariq into anything, ok?" Sorrow said to Emme, then glanced back at Tariq.

His head tilted, having a family again would be nice. And he didn't really have anything much going on lately. Tariq finally nodded. He would go with them, at least for now.

Emme's eyes sparked. "YAY!! YAY YAY YAY YAY!! NOW I DONT HAVE TO PLAY WITH TOBY, I HAVE A BROTHER!" She said in enthusiasm, hopping around him with Sorrow laughing

Tariq smiled and watched while his sister hopped around. At least it looked like he was adopted into a nice family.

Sorrow sweeped them up with her tail to guide them into through the forest. "Baxter would be delighted to meet you, along with the Proxies, and my closest friend Eyeless Jack" Sorrow spoke as she led them through the forest, navigating perfectly, the forest could be the pattern on her pelt she knew it so perfectly.

Tariq immediately had about fivethousand questions, but of course was unable to ask. He had guessed that Baxter was his new fathe, but had no idea what a proxy was. He pushed all of the questions into the back of his mind and simply let himself be guided through the forest.

"If you see a Tom with a pointy, swirly, black and white cone nose, AVOID HIM" Sorrow said suddenly as she was sure they were getting close towards where The Mansion was. "My real home is here" she spoke as they came out of the trees to face a huge mansion that had defiantly seen better days. "But because you two are young, I can't trust some of the cats in there around you two, ok? I'll take you when you're older"
"Whose this, Sorrow?"
Sorrow stopped dead, hearing the sound of laughter behind them. "Laughing Jack, fuck off, and excuse the profanity, young ones" Sorrow turned around quick and pulled the kits in close. There stood an insanely tall, with fur so thin and ribs so pronound it would be frightening to any kit. He had a long, curved smile, with two rows of jagged, sharp teeth, and a long black and white swirly tongue. "Oh, no, I wouldn't harm any kits of yours, my good friend Sorrow" his voice was a gravely and clown-like, looking as if he was hurt by her comment. Sorrow took a long breath of relief. "Good, I don't have to send EJ on your ass" she chuckled and brought a paw up. "Thank you for your never ending kindness" Jack said sarcastically and smacked her paw with a cackle. "Shut up, pedophile" Sorrow smiled and shoved him with her shoulder. "What? I don't--you--oh fuck it, you know I don't swing that way" Laughing Jack rolled his eyes. "Well, are you coming down to greet the rest?" LJ asked. "I'm not sure, I'm afraid that--" "Nonesense! I'll gut anyone who even touches the cute little tykes. I mean, look at this one", he scooped up Emerald with a boney black paw, "Look how absolutely cute" he smirked. "Jack, no, give me my kit" she snatched Emme away. "Your kit? Oh I forgot, you were pregnant! Then that must be Emerald, and the little tom must be Asher!" LJ said in excitement, crouching down in front of Tariq.

Tariq fluffed up as he turned to see the bizarre cat, but his eyes widened in curiosity not fear. This must have been Laughing Jack. His eyes narrowed as the cat picked up Emerald and he almost launched himself at the cat's face when he bent towards him thinking that he was Asher. Instead, he pawed at his unnaturally pointy nose and smiled.

"U-Um, no, this is Tariq" Sorrow stammered. "Well, what happened to Asher? I thought you only have birth to two"
"I did" Sorrow murmured. Jack's face grew somber. "....HABIT, right...?" He got in close to whisper this to her, just in case. Sorrow nodded, turning her gaze to the ground. "That fucking guy....I'm sorry, Sorrow. Is the kit alive?" Jack asked. Sorrow shrugged her shoulder with a heavy sigh "I honestly don't know" she admitted "But I like to think he is"

Tariq watched the two talk, wondering who it was that they were talking about. He took another look at the cat's nose and clawed, "Is that real? It's cool!" into the dirt.