Flerae: A Lie Untold

Chapter 38: Deep Depths

- Ocean -

Cat dragons peak out of their homes, confused. What were those noises? It sounded like a flood or like someone was dying. They gasp and shriek when they see the seen. Three bodies. Mom, in death, her pink tail having replaced her rear legs, and two black cats, one bloodied, and one drowned. And me, sitting in the middle of it all, crying, tears streaking down my face in a rush. The ground all wet and muddied, the water keeping me in mer cat shape. 

The villagers surround the seen, holding their kitten's faces against them, keeping the young ones from seeing the death. 

Ti runs forward out of the clowder. She embraces me in a huge hug. "I'm so sorry," she says.

She turns to the crowd. "Well what are you guys doing just standing there? Go back to whatever you were doing before you came here! The kid and I need to have a chat by ourselves."

"He's the kid from the missing posters," says a cat.

"Yes, and his mother found him, and now she's dead."

The cats slowly disperse, going back to wherever they were before they gathered in the crowd.

Ti turns back towards me, "where is your father, Ocean?"

"Please don't make me go back to him," I reply in a choked whisper.

"Does he hurt you?" she asks.

I nod.

"I should have known. The way you attacked that kid in The Orphanage... I can tell you've seen abuse."

She glances at Mom's eggs. Thankfully, the three of them are unharmed; I made sure not to hit them with the water I smashed into the black cat. "Who's eggs are those?" she asks.

"Mom's."

She nods her head in reply. "Do you have any other siblings, other than the unhatched ones?"

"Two."

"You have two siblings? Where are they?"

"In the lake."

"Can you get them for me?"

"I'll try, they can be a bit stubborn." I turn to the lake and I wiggle towards it, my tail making it hard to move. Once I reach it, I jump in and swim away, into its deep depths.