Kittley ran as fast as she could, her heart pounding in her chest and her blood ringing in her ears. She could feel the wind wiping through her silky hair as she dashed through the streets. The ground felt hard under her feet as she surged down the alley. A small abandoned house caught Kittley’s eyes as she darted towards the door. To her dismay, however, she found the door locked, almost running headfirst into it. Kittley then spun around, her pursuers slowed as they panted from the chase. Kittley prepared herself for the men, raising her hands up a bit. The closest walked up to her, back handing her across the cheek as Kittley let out a shriek, falling to the ground.
“You brat,” he snapped out, narrowing his eyes on her.
“Oh come on,” She whimpered out, blood trickled from her nose as she looked up at the man.
The man snorted, crossing his arms, “Why did you steal from me, you street brat?”
“It was just a pair of shoes,” Kittley squeaked.
“Drop the act, scum. You stole from my business and me. I got ta report ya to the watch.”
Kittley slowly struggled to her feet as she looked the man in the eye, moving her sleeve to wipe the blood away from her nose as she sighed, “I know it’s wrong, but I-“
“Stop the excuses! You know it’s wrong, and then it’s wrong. Simple as that, come on. Let’s get you to the jail. No running off this time.” With that, the man moved to grab her arm.
Kittley tried to pull away from him as she grumbled, “How much did they cost? If I can pay you that money, will you let me go?”
He stopped, looking at her as his eyes narrowed, “They cost twenty silver, but if you can pay thirty, I’ll let you free.” He’d say, not expecting her to have the money to pay up even the original cost.
“I don’t- wait!” Kittley began to dig into her bag; she remembered a friend had actually given her a coin purse not too long ago. Of course, he stole it first, but no one needed to know that. Kittley produced the coin purse, looking into it before holding the bag out, “30 silver.”
“Did you steal this too?” The man asked as he took the coin purse, holding it up.
“I didn’t,” Kittley responded, telling the absolute truth, other than some details of course, “A friend gave me it for food.”
“A friend, eh? One from the alley?”
Kittley shook her head, “No sir, he lives in the homesteads.”
The man narrowed his eyes, “Why did you steal them if ya have the money?”
Kittley kicked the ground softly as she puffed her cheeks out, “That’s my business.”
The man just shook his head, pushing Kittley back against the door again, “Get lost you good for nothing street rat.”
A frown crossed her mouth before she opened it to protest against the name that he called her. Instead, she just sighed and moved to brush past him and down the street. The temptation to argue against the people who believed her worthless or a lost cause became harder each time as Kittley began to believe it bit by bit. Kittley moved down the road, walking out of Bree itself. She remembered the time before she started acting up, when she still had her father’s pride and sister’s love.
As Kittley walked, she thought about several years prior of when she was five years old. At that time, her father use to take Kittley out of the town to go fishing once every week. Every time Kittley reeled in a fish, she looked over to see the grin on her father’s face, the pride that sparkled in his eyes. Oh, how much she longed to have her father look at her with pride instead of disgrace. When Kittley turned ten, she met Cisses in the alley who soon became her best friend. The two raised hell together, they could flip Bree upside-down if they wanted to.
The first time Kittley ever found herself arrested happened to be after she and Cisses made a man believe a thief took off with his diamond necklace so that they could snatch it themselves. They only made it a few steps out of the store when a watcher of them. She remembered that being the first time her father ever looked shameful upon her. After that day, her father’s pride dwindled year by year. In that time, Cisses’ older brother became a predominant role model for Kittley and her first crush.
He ended up dying, which devastated Cisses more than it did Kittley. When Cisses’ older sister who took over taking care of Cisses after her brother died disappeared, Kittley tried her hardest to keep Cisses on her feet. Kittley tried sneaking food to her best friend, but Cisses always refused until she starved, dying with Kittley by her side. In the entirety of Kittley’s life, that had been the only time she ever saw death or knew someone who died. Kittley told Cisses’ older sister when she returned, and that marked the last time Kittley had any contact with Cisses’ family.
Of course, Kittley never stopped the misbehaved deeds; she just went at them alone. A large part of it because of Cisses, in remembrance of the time the two spent together. Kittley let out a sigh as she finally stopped in front of the mansion where Dal lived. She looked up, feeling her hood over her head that shielded her blackened eye. After a few moments, Kittley walked forward, stepping inside of the vast hall. At first the only person she saw happened to be Erimyl, who sat gently rubbing her daughter's back, seeming to be very content in that moment.
The sight made Kittley feel content, almost warm inside. It made her forget her past thoughts, drifting into a happy state once more as she stopped to watch the mother and daughter for a moment. Then Dal and a blanket wrapped Gold appeared in the room. The blanket mound moved across the room to the kitchen as Dal’s gaze turned towards the hooded Kittley, squinting a bit, "Eri, who's that?"
Erimyl glanced up from her child to Dal, coming out of her thoughts before she looked over to see Kittley brightening up and walking over to approach Dal, "Never did get her name the last time she was here." She murmured, "She's been here once before but that's all I remember."
It took a moment for Dal, peering under the hood, before a chuckle erupted out of him and his face brightened, "Kit! A mysterious visitor indeed..."
Kittley waved slightly as she smiles again.
"Can I get you some coffee? I believe my husband is preparing some," Dal asked her.
Kittley glanced over her shoulder towards the direction the pile of blankets that covered Gold disappeared towards before she looked back at Dal, nodding her head a few times.
Dal then turned his gaze back to Eri, winking to her, "No coffee still for you...but maybe some milk? I had some fresh goat's milk delivered this morning"
Erimyl nodded a little and chuckled, "That actually sounds good, Dal, thank you."
He smiled a bit before he gestured towards the two women, "Eri, meet Kit. Kit meet Eri and her daughter
The two women then waved to one another as Kittley moved to pull down her hood, her silky hair could rolling out and revealing her black eye, "Think we met a little while ago."
Erimyl chuckled, "We did, but I never did get your name.” As she spoke, what looked to Kittley to be a giant striped cat walked out of the study, moving to walk to the pile of blankets around Gold before she instead stopped to stare at Kittley. Kittley’s eyes widened as she saw the giant cat. Erimyl’s gaze flickered to the cat as she chuckled, “And there's Thany! Been a while since--whoa, she got big, fast.”
Kittley tilted her head; she had never seen such a giant cat before. The entirety of cats in Bree stood barely to her ankles, but this cat stood much taller. "That's one big cat.. What did you feed her?"
Thany watched Kittley for a few moments before she merely moved to lay down behind Gold, who chuckled at Kittley’s reaction, "Her breed gets that big... and bigger..."
When Kittley looked behind her at Gold, she could only see his hands and face sticking from the pile of blankets. Dal emerged from the elevated platform before he paused infront of the blankets looking them over. He then bent over and tried to slide a bowl of brownies and cream into the folds.
“She's pretty,” Kittley murmured as her gaze flickered from the two to the giant cat beside Gold.
Dal leaned forward and murmured something to Gold, although Kittley couldn’t fully make out the words. A smile crossed Gold’s face as he slid out a parchment for Dal to read, causing the man to gasp, his jaw dropping and turning a deep, polished and rosy brown, quickly refolding the paper before either of the women could peek over his shoulder and reading.
A smirk crossed Gold’s face a little as he pulls a brownie out and takes a bite, "You like?"
Dal slid the paper into his robes quickly, "I....like lots. Yes."
Goldgel grinned, "Good! I had that in mind for later."
Kittley blinked in confusion as she watched the two, Dal turned to walk towards Erimyl and Kittley, handing Erimyl her goat’s milk. When Kittly glanced over to Erimyl her eyes drifted to the baby briefly to the daughter in her hands. Kittley wasn’t much for babies; they actually startled Kittley most of the time. However, that particular baby struck Kittley as a surprisingly beautiful child.
Dald then turned to offer the cup of a rather strong coffee to Kittley. When she took a sip, she could feel the bitter hot liquid flow across her tongue. It almost burnt her mouth, yet something about the bitterness made Kittley enjoy it even more. She sniffed from the cup, never having tasted coffee quite that flavor as the warm scents drifted into her nose, "What kind of coffee is that?"
A frown crossed Dal’s face as he moved his hand to try and touch Kittley’s cheek below her blackened eye, "It's from my lands, the plains of the south where fertile land is hard to come by"
"It's strong."
Dal nodded and slid his long, elegant fingers down her cheek, then cupped her chin if he could, trying to examine her eye, "Who done this?”
Kittley pauses, she didn’t want to tell Dal that a watcher caught her stealing shoes again. She wanted to be his friend so bad that she felt a little afraid to talk about such in case it might scare him off. Even if he happened to be one of the kindest friends she met, "Oh... I was trying to get into some building. Didn't realize the door was locked." She finally said, saying in part truth. She did run into that door.
Goldgel arched his brow as she spoke and looked over, "How does a locked door do that?"
Dal’s eyes narrowed at Kittley, sliding his finger to give just below her eye a small push to test. A slight pain stung as he did, causing Kittley to wince and pull her head away a bit, "When I don't stop moving when the door doesn't open and I run headfirst into the door." She'd responded to Gold's question.
Goldgel nodded slowly, 'Well that’s silly.... Were you running from someone?'
Kittley sighed as she noded a few, "The little kids who I was playing tag with." She lied.
With a sigh, Dal shook his head and dropped his hands, "Let me get you something for it" He then moved up to his kitchen table, grabbing a potato from a sack and cutting it into two, starting to whittle a rough little oval shape to it
Kittley hums as she looked around nodding a few times, as she felt a bit of a jolt of pain in her stomach from the lie. It was the first time in years she felt bad for lying, "Doors are meanieheads, that's all I have to say."
The statement caused Gold to chuckle. Dal returned to Kittley after a few moments, holding the potato, carved very roughly into a curved surface to fit onto his eye and cheek. Behind Dal, Erimyl’s child woke up wiggling in her arms as Erimyl laughed, “Well hello there.”
"Put it onto your eye"
Kittley reached out to take the potato half before slowly moving to put it on her eye, "Why?"
“It will sooth your skin and cook it, bringing down the swelling,” Dal responded
“Cook it?" Gold snickered.
Kittley nodded slowly as she wrinkled her nose, "I don't want to be cooked."
"No, no, you put it raw over your eye,” Dal chuckled.
Kittley glanced over to Gold as he flopped on top of Thany, nibbling her ear softly, making nomming sound, "Nummy Kitty..." Behind Kittley, Erimyl merely chuckled softly. "I think he meant to say 'cool it' instead..."
Although what Erimyl said made the most sense, Gold’s teasing frightened Kittley as she quickly looked up at Dal with a frightened look spread across her face. He looked at her before slowly looking at Gold, giving him a playful glare, "Pay no attention to him..."
“Don't cook me," Kittley whispered out.
“Roasted with a bunch of taters and carrots and seasonings,” Gold taunted, causing another squeak to escape Kittley.
Dal folded his arms, shaking his head, "No one would cook you. The potato will help your eye be more comfortable...raw, as it is!"
Kittley noded a few times.
“See!” Gold called out, “He's getting you ready to be fried! Spitted and roasted! Stewed!'
Suddenly, Dal turned, darting towards Gold as he gripped the blankets tugging on them hard, "Come on you, out you come and stop hiding"
A shriek escaped Gold as he and clung onto the blankets, "Nononononono!"
Despite Gold’s desperate pleas, Dal merely grunted, tugging and yanked the blankets, not realizing what was hidden beneath them, "You can go and make us more coffee.” Suddenly the blankets came loose, and Gold’s hands darted to cover parts of him. Panic spread through Kittley at the sight as she squeaked, she immediately dropping the potato in her hand as she covered her eyes as quickly as she could.
Dal released the blankets once more as Gold lunged on them, wrapping himself up again into a pile as he grumbled, "You know how I sleep, love!"
"I never...I mean...I didn't think you were sleeping!” Dal snapped out, all flustered.
Kittley couldn’t see what went on, she kept her hand clasped over her eyes as she shook nervously. She didn’t like seeing naked people in any way; it startled her and made her panic.
Although she couldn’t see what was happening, she could hear Dal squeak out, "This is not proper in front of company!"
Gold started to purr, which made Kittley panic a bit more inside, "Shush... You are decent at least..."
"I can assure you...I at least wear all my clothes, Kit,” Kittley could hear Dal’s voice again as she shook her head several times. "I'm so sorry Kit...so sorry...this doesn't normally happen"
It was a little while before Dal finally sighed, Gold moving upstairs to dress. "I'll just go and gather some vegetables for dinner Kit. It's safe to open your eyes..."
Erimyl moved to put her babe to sleep, and the rest of the night went on quietly before Kittley left and headed home.
