Growing Up Kitty

Before Dinner

  As we have always done since first living with mom we stop at the Smaten house after school for a few hours of time to learn passive information about shifters. I figured it out about five years ago, the reason the Smaten's always watch the local children is because; it is a good way to teach the new generations about everyone.

In so much that once more magic users started moving into town they also would come and spend time as well. Granted our family spent more time here than other families just due to the fact that our families are so close. What was fun was when Mary Smaten and her husband decided they wanted their 'retirement' home. Mr Doug and Mrs Brenda were surprised that they had given up their home so soon after the two of them had gotten married. For shifter families two years is a short period of time. Especially since 'Granny' Smaten could still cause problems for young vampires. I got her angry one time, my backside will never forget it.

We pull in and the young raccoon shifters pile out of the house, all of the combined children from Doug and his sisters as well as his cousin whose wife was the local witch healer. Their daughter was probably in the garden harvesting herbs as she is always tasked with after school. Her mother said it was good to learn how to properly do it at a young age so that she doesn't have problems when her magic starts really going in her teen years.

My ears perk when I hear Mrs Brenda's voice from the kitchen, "you boys better go and help pull up some taters and Lupus come in here and help with the prep work. I expect you boys to assist after." We head out to the back vegetable garden, and I find dad out there watching Mrs Brenda's goat herd. After we started getting products from the local dairy Mrs Brenda decided she had wanted some herself. Dad sees us coming into the garden and he points to the smaller than normal herd. "We've got something poaching easy meals, I smell something funny about it too. It might be a luck born, that no one has spotted yet. I'm going to have to ask Mary to ask her fey friend if he can find out of the locals have seen anything."

I hope they look for any missing of their own kind too as fey were odd creatures. They don't tend to 'notice' the world around them but they can recall traumatic events and if one chooses to 'notice' you enough to talk with you it's best you pay attention. The reason to ask them however is that anything that would snatch a goat would probably thing a fey would be a nice easy snack too. One of the wandering shifters that always stop by as they pass through told us that once time he had after having been in a fight and his other form took over he had killed and eaten a fey. He had said it was like eating a cake so laden with sugar you'd barf. Which tells me something about their nature makes them that way, maybe the Goddess decided they needed a way to be protected and like a monarch butterfly made them unpalatable.

Dad was the one investigating because after the second year of dad's gift from the Goddess it was discovered not long after mom was pregnant again. Mary Smaten decided then that any time dad was 'home' he'd be working so much that he'd be to tired to get mom pregnant again. I chuckle at the idea, as it was clear the Great Lady wanted this all to happen or she wouldn't have given him his own skin back even briefly. I know Mary Smaten was just making sure mom wasn't over burdened. Lady knows that the fans of her books are getting worse after it was slipped that she was a shifter.

The funny thing is the shifter community knew the whole time, their view of mom's book were that fairy tales exist and they aren't quite accurate. Yet they help explain things humans don't understand or comprehend, and if they need to think every shifter gets moon eyed over their Mate so they can understand the connection we have to them. Well then it's necessary.

I notice dad sniffing me even this far away and I shake my head at him and he gives me a disappointed look. "Listen son you need to tell her or you need to stop being her crutch. If you don't do one of them she will be angry with you. She either has to learn to control better or she has to accept your help willingly. Remember your mom was not happy to discover that I was her Mate and no one directly told her." He rubs the back of his neck, "I'm still paying for that one I'll have you know any time she gets angry. You don't want to start your future with her with a lie hanging over you, tell her." I hang my head, I knew he was right, but I just wanted to protect her. I hear Mrs Brenda's voice come out of the window, "I'm not hearing any dirt being moved boys." The three of us gulp and start digging out young potatoes and dropping them into a bucket. Based on the size of these she must want to make some oven roasted potatoes for the dinner tonight.