Kat Tails

Please, Elaborate.

Turns out you can't... Not on earth anyway.

"You're mother didn't die in a car crash, Kat. I'm sorry I didn't tell you until now, but I had to wait until you were ready," My dad started abruptly, after another minute deep in thought- presumably about how to phrase his explanation. He held up his hand when he saw me opening my mouth to talk. "Please, don't interrupt, it's hard for me to tell you everything. I'm afraid if I stop, I won't be able to start back up again." I nod and try keep my mouth shut. This is hard on him. I never really knew mom, but I know that dad loved her, and that's enough for me.

"I guess I'll just start at the beginning. You already know I met your mom when I was is college, that she was in my engineering class. You also know that I eventually worked up the courage to ask her on a date," he smiles faintly, replaying the moment in his memories, "We went out, etcetera, I proposed, we got married, and then we had you a not long after. What you don't know, is that when I decided I wanted to marry her, I found out that she was not... Well.. She wasn't exactly human."

"Remeber what I said, Kat," he sternly says to me, as I start to interrupt him. I sigh impatiently and wave for him to keep going. What has he been smoking?

"I found out when I went to see your mom's father, and ask for his daughter's hand in marrige. I was walking to the front door when the house started shaking. I was afraid it would collapse, so I ran inside to try to help them get out. That's when I walked in on your mother and her family bording a, for the lack of another word, spaceship. No it wasn't a giant glowing frisby, it was more of a large space-car," he laughs, seeing my face. My jaw is probably touching the floor.

"I was so confused," he continued, "I mean, who believes in aliens? Although, they really don't like being called that," he mutters, half to himself, "Anyway, the first thing I could think of was that she was supposed to be having dinner with some friends. I thought I was being all smart, waiting until she had plans so I could ask her father in private about marrying her. When I got over the shock of the bizzar scene, I realized that your mother's family was pointing some kind off weaponry at me. She ran from the vehicle and stood right up in front of me. I was so scared that they were going to shoot her anyway, but they dropped the weapons. They all started speaking some kind of weird language, and I just kinda stood there wondering what was going on."

"When they finally finished what sounded like arguing, your mom turned around and said 'what the hell are you doing here?!' And trust me when I say, the look on her face was scarier than anything else I saw that night. She told me that her family thought I was a hunter, trying to spy on them or kill them. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I just told her the truth. It worked out pretty well after everyone was on the same page. After that, is the same as I told you."

I stare at him for a full minute before I can form a coherant sentence.

"One, that's crazy hobo alien apocalypse talk, and two, that still doesn't explain how she really died," I tell him skeptically.

"It's not any more crazy than growing a tail," he informs me. I decide to accept what he said, as hard as it may be. The thing growing out my back doesn't really make room for argument.

"Dad, you still haven't said how she died, or even why I have a tail. For all I can tell, other than that space-ship-car-thing, they could all be human," I say, pushing for more information.

He looks troubled. I feel guilty for badgering him about mom, I can only imagine how much it hurts him. When I was little, I would ask a lot of questions about her, and he would answer as honestly as he could. I stopped after I got older, because I realized how hard it was for him.

"She was caught by Hunters," he says, in a voice barely above a whisper. He pauses, and I wait for him to continue. "Hunters are a group of aliens that are bent on taking out your mothers kind," he says after awhile, "They are part of race called, well an English translation of course, Grevotes. You're half Esathe. There was some kind of war between them, I don't know the details, but it was pretty bad. There weren't really good guys and a bad guys, just a couple races with faults on both sides. It was something over resources, I think. It ended in a draw of sorts, both races lost so many lives, and their resources were used up. They both just went back to their planets, and only bitterness remained."

"But there were still groups in both races that wanted to end what they started. Only, the Grevotes acted first. This is when they truly became antagonists, not just equally wronged people. They called themselves the Hunters, and they started geurilla warfare on the Esathes. When the Grevote government got a wiff of the Hunter's going ons, they ignored it, waiting until the Hunters had done some damage before warning the Esathe rulers what Hunters were. This caused quite a bit of friction between the Esathes and Grevotes, but not enough to rekindle the war. The Hunters are picking off Esathes, but they're fighting back."

"Your mom was no longer under their protection when she was on Earth, though. She was exposed to whatever Grevotes or Hunters that found her. And the Hunters did. I didn't even know the danger she was in at the time. Hunters showed up at our door, and it was just chaos, and I had no clue as to what was going on. We managed to hide in the cellar, that's when she explained who had broken into our house. They found us though, and it was awful," dad took a shuddering breath, reliving the night, "They looked like something out of a movie. Dark green scales, razor teeth, four inch claws. It was nighttime, and I barely got more than a glimpse of them, but enough to see how deadly they looked. For the first time, I saw your mother Change. She morphed into something nearly indescribable, it was beautiful. Huge cat eyes, and teeth and claws just as dangerous looking as the Hunters'. She looked almost like a lioness, except more slender and definitely had something other about her. I later found out that Esathes are the ones who accidently put cat genes on Earth. Her fur was the same color as yours," he adds sadly.

"She told me she would be fine, that I had to get you out of there. I knew as a human, I would be useless against those Grevotes. We didn't even own a gun, but I wanted so badly to do something. She was right though, I had to get you out of there. She was out numbered, but I had to believe her when she said she'd be alright. I ran out and waited for her in our designated meeting place, a hotel we had picked out if there was an emergency. I waited for a week, but my money was running out, and deep down, I knew she wouldn't return. That night was the last time I ever saw her."

More silence ensues. I try to wrap my head around what he's saying, but it's so hard. Aliens? Intergalactic wars? This sounds like a cheesy comic book, not my history. Not my life. But again, my... I hate to say it... But, my tail, proves that dad isn't crazy.

"So what now?" I ask, feeling lost and more than a little confused.

Dad glances at his watch. Quite a bit of time has passed.

"I'm going to call the school and tell them you're sick. I'm so sorry hon, but I don't know how this works. I always thought your mother would be the one teaching you how to morph. As a half-breed, we didn't even know if you'd even be able to," he says, looking a little choked up. I can see how taxing all this talk about mom has been on him in the tightness around his eyes.

"We'll talk about our plans in the morning, so why don't you get some rest sweetheart," he says kindly. My mind is so jumbled up with thoughts, I don't know if I'll be able to sleep. My world just fell apart, but dad's here, he can put it back together. I hope.

"Okay," I say numbly, "Good night dad, love you." I really do love him. I don't even really feel angry that he kept this from me, it makes sense I guess. I must admit, as a little kid, I wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut. At sixteen, I'm a much better secret keeper. And right now, Dad just looks like an old, broken man. And it hurts to see someone like that so defeated.

"Good night, Kat, love you too," he says, hugging me. We stay like that for a moment, father and daughter. It reminded me that the most important part of my world was still very much in tact.

I trudge up the stairs to my room and get ready for bed. When I crawl under the covers, to my surprise, I go out like a light.