Cat Naps

    “Wake up.”

    I don’t wanna.

    “I know you can hear me. Wake. Up.”

You can’t make me do anything!

“Leave her alone, she’s just taking a cat nap.”

Cat nap… my brothers. Where are my brothers?

“Yeah. For the past sixteen hours!”

Sleep. We all huddled in a pile. All four of us.

“Let her sleep!”

Yeah let me-

SPLASH

What. The. “Hell!” Her roar echoed throughout the cave, bouncing, and rebounding off the walls. All four heifers stared at her, disappointed, except for one. The Leo unraveled herself from her spot on the floor, shook herself off and stretched. Her back arched in the air with her claws pawing into the gravel bellow.

“Do you know what time it is,” Said one of the Taurus women. The Leo woman sighed, licked her paw and began grooming. “Answer me!” She demanded.

“Late, I’m guessing?” The Leo answered.

“It is three forty-five, in the afternoon!” She shouted, her voice almost as loud as the Leo’s roar. Almost.

The Leo continued grooming. “Only three forty-five?”

There was a pause, the three heifers looked to their infuriated leader. “Only three forty-five?” She repeated.

“Well,” said the one nice heifer, “for a Leo that is early.”

“I don’t care what it is for a Leo,” she snarled, “for a Taurus, that’s way too late. Come on, get up!”

With a grunt and a growl, the Leo woman agreed, standing up on her hind legs. Which by all means should be uncomfortable, considering they were lions’ legs, but for a Leo it was normal. Living with the Taurus herd was not.

The lead Taurus led her herd and the Leo out of the cave and into the light. A flat field going on for miles without end. The youngest, a calf, ran out ahead of them, running around like she was the biggest bull around. “Come on Christine!” she whined, “come play!”

Christine sighed, her lion tail slowly swaying from side to side. “Fine, but if you step on my tail, I will burn the field down.”

“Don’t burn the field down,” said another member of the small herd.

There was only four Taurus left in the world. Lisa, the oldest and the nicest. Miki, the calf who loved to play rough. Bess who played second fiddle to the leader of the herd. And Margaret was the herd leader… and the one who dumped water on her.

Christine smiled sheepishly. “Just one acre?”

“No!” The elder heifers shouted.

“And don’t go too far!” Bess added.

But Miki didn’t listen. The young calf grabbed the Leo’s paw and dragged her through the field. The bright sun beating down from above, the blades of grass brushing past their legs. Christine looked back as they ran. The small hill and cave that they called their home now so small. A small path of charred grass leaving a scar in the otherwise perfect plane.

    “Where are we going?” Christine asked.

    “Shh!”

    “Can you at least slow down?”

    But the little calf kept her pace, her short brown hair blowing in the wind. Maybe it’s a good thing I slept for, how long again? Sixteen hours? Christine thought.

    Miki let go of Christine’s paw and gained a few feet of distance. Not that the little girl could escape from her older adopted sister. Still, the Leo refused to let the child out of her sight. “Keep up!” The child called out.

    “Keep up!”

    The hell?

    Christine rubbed her eyes and she saw someone who wasn’t there before. Miki was gone but someone… three someone’s were there. They were huge! Or she was small? She raised her little paws to touch her little face.

    “Leos, with me!” Came a booming voice.

    Ray?

    The Leo leading the pride had olive skin and short black hair, and he wore a suit. He almost looked human… though he was anything but.

    “Come on! You can do better than that!” Came another voice.

    Shinji…

    Shinji strayed away from the pride. Running with hands in his pockets and a big fur coat flapping in the wind. His lions mane flowing majestically… even though his face looked less attractive than a zebra corpse.

    “It’s okay. It’s okay,” said the third voice.

    Apollo!

    She felt a paw give her back a gentle nudge forward. She could hear his steps behind hers. His shadow protecting her from the harsh sun.

    Her brothers… her precious brothers. How long has it been since they’ve been all together like this? “Cristine!”

    “What? Hey! Put me down!”

    She remembers why she hated being so small. Because Shinji could just pick her up like she was a cub. “We’re stopping,” Ray said.

    In an instant she was snapped back to reality. “Huh? What?”

    “Why’d you stop? We’re almost there!” Miki complained.

    “Let’s rest for a second, we have time,” Christine offered.

    The calf rolled her eyes and relented, looking at what caught Christine’s attention. “It’s just a rock,” she deadpanned.

    “Yeah, a comfortable rock!” The Leo argued. She leapt onto the flat rock and sprawled out. The sun’s warmth bringing her back to her brothers.

    “Calm down cub,” Shinji scolded.

    He let her go, and she plopped onto her stomach on the rock. Her brothers leaping up onto the rock as well. Ray lying in the middle of the rock, his suit getting all wrinkled. Apollo pushing her between himself and Ray. And even Shinji, distant and cold as he was, huddled with the rest of the pride.

    “I’m not tired yet!”

    Apollo chuckled, “Shh. Rest. The humans are only two miles away.”

    “Then we can watch Ray blow his cover,” Shinji joked.

    “Did I ask for your opinion?”

    Chuckles and growls surrounded the four Leos. And she drifted off to the familiar sounds. “Don’t go to sleep again!”

    Jolted awake, Christine looked at the little girl sitting with her knees to her chest. “Maybe you should take a nap,” she suggested.

    “I’m not tired yet!”

    “Let out your inner Leo, Miki.”

     The Taurus stared at the Leo confused. “You want me to roar?”

     “No… Just, go to sleep. We’ll go stalk the humans later.”

     “But I want to see them now!”

     Gripping the little girls’ shoulder and pulling her back onto the rock. They looked up at the sky, the cloudless blue sky. And for a moment it felt like her brothers were still with her. She wondered what they would think, now that she was with the Taurus herd. Now that she considers Miki her sister. But that was a question with no answer.

     Maybe I’ll just take a mini-hibernation…