Setvian & Areesha

by TigerLily

”Setvian, I don’t want to look at your ugly face ever again!” Areesha yelled.

“Oh, look who’s talking! The only one who is ugly around here is you, and you know it. You’re to ugly to be feline!” Setvian hissed back at her

“Oh, just get out of here!”

“I have as much right to be here as you do!”

“Shut up, you deformed pollicle.”

“What about you? You were so ugly your parents abandoned you. They thought you as a mistake. You’re a mistake! Your parents didn’t want you!”

Setvian enjoyed the look of devastation on Areesha’s face. That was her soft spot. Any mention of her parents would crush her… temporarily.

“I’m warning you, Setvian…” Areesha sneered

“Oooohhh… You’re warning me. Gosh, you really scared me”

“Oh yes, I can see your nearly non-existent tail shivering”

Now, Areesha was the one who grinned as she saw Setvian look down, trying to keep in his sob. His tail had been cut off by a human teen who was “having fun” with some friends. They almost killed him, and the memories were painful. His only visible damage was his tail, which now was just a bit over an inch long. But, like Areesha, he neither needed much time to snap out of it, and had a biting reply ready quite fast.

“Well, at least I still have my brains… and my parents” Setvian grinned wickedly at Areesha, and walked away.

As soon as Areesha knew he could no longer see her, nor hear her, she buried her face in the green grass. She burst into crying, her salty tears wetting her face and the green grass. “Why does he keep on doing that? Why does he keep on hissing at me, yelling at me? Why does he hate so much? And why do I love him so much?”

Setvian ran up to his special place. The place where he used to go when he needed to be alone. It was hidden among the trees, a little meadow full of flowers. In summer, he could lie on a rock by a pond, surrounded by flowers, and bathe in the warm sunlight. And best of all, no one else knew about this place. These flowers had never been touched by humans, and no cat had ever bothered to walk that far into the forest. “Why?” he thought, just as his worst enemy at the time “Why does she know just what to say to hurt me? Why does she know me that well? Why does she hate me so much? I’ve never done anything to her!” After a while of thinking, in Setvian’s case, and crying, in Areesha’s case, they both returned to the junkyard, mysteriously enough at the same time. They looked at each other with hatred. And they both caught themselves thinking “Why?”

The same night, they were fighting again. They were both on the top of a garbage container, located on a parking lot.

“Setvian, poor thing, it must be horribly… humiliating not having a tail” Areesha snickered evilly

“Not as humiliating as it must be knowing your parents didn’t want you” Setvian spat back at her

Areesha pushed him

“When will you stop spreading evil rumors about my parents? They didn’t leave me because they didn’t want me!” She pushed him even harder “Besides, while we’re on the subject of parents…. What about your? There’s you mother, who has the brain about the size of a pea, and your father, running around with other queens, and spending too much time with his friends and catnip. Some family” Areesha laughed

“You…” Setvian gave her a hard shove.

Then, suddenly it seemed as everything slowed down. He saw Areesha stumble backwards. He saw the puddle of water. He saw her slip. He saw her falling off the container. He heard the loud, disgusting “Crack!” as she hit the asphalt, 7 feet below where she had fallen from. And he heard himself, screaming “NOOO!!!”

Setvian jumped down to the trashcans besides the container, which worked as stairs. “What have I done?” he thought. He ran over to Areesha. “Reesh! Reesh, honey, wake up!” He kissed her. Nothing happened. He saw blood forming into a puddle around her. “No!” He whispered “Reesh, please don’t die. Reesh, wake up! Please!” He stroked her fur, kissed her, and licked her head. “Please Reesh, don’t leave me. Please. I won’t ever say anything bad about you ever again, if you just wake up. Please Reesh! I… I love you, Reesh. Just wake up!” A single tear ran down from Setvian’s eye. “I have to go tell Old Deuteronomy!” he thought “But I can’t leave her.” There was only one thing to do. Setvian picked up Areesha, and carried her to the junkyard.

“Setvian! What happened!” Natchee, the tribe healer, came running towards him. “She… Areesha… we… we were arguing… she fell… I pushed her! I pushed her Natchee; I might have killed her. Oh please tell me you can save her! Please tell me she won’t die” Setvian broke down, crying. “Siruso, Cantrep, carry her to the shed” Natchee bossed some of the cats around, but they didn’t mind. They knew she needed all the help possible to save the queens life. “Setvian, I might be able to save her.” Natchee said softly. As she turned and started walking towards the shed where Areesha was, Setvian heard her mumble: “I knew one of them were going to get hurt someday”

“She’ll be fine. It might take some time before she recovers completely though. You can visit her now, Setvian” Natchee told Setvian. He ran into the shed, where Areesha laid. She was asleep. “I’m so glad you’re okay, Reesh.” He whispered. He laid down beside her, and soon he was fast asleep, his tail intertwined with hers.

Areesha woke up, and almost fainted with happiness and surprise when she saw Setvian sleeping beside her. She carefully kissed his head. He woke up and looked into her eyes. “I love you” she whispered, and blushed. She hadn’t intended to say it out loud. “I love you too,” Setvian answered softly and kissed her.