"Grrr…take that, Mungo!"
"Ooh, yore go’a be sorry!"
Rumpelteazer giggled and dashed off, her brother at her heels. The kitten’s black and orange-striped cream fur rippled on her sleek body as she ran. She turned her head back momentarily, and her nearly-identical brother, Mungojerrie, tackled her. She rolled over and bit his tail.
"OW!" he yelped.
"Play nice, you two," scolded Screcelia, the mother of the two kittens, looking up from where she was laying in the sun. Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer sat up, staring at the dirt, shuffling their paws.
"Sorry," muttered Rumpelteazer.
"Don’t apo’ogize t’me, apo’ogize t’yore brother," insisted Screcelia. The kitten gave Mungojerrie a cold look, then apologized.
"Sorry," she said.
"Good. Now go play. You’ve given me enough gray fur," said the mother cat. The two kittens nodded obediently and raced off.
"Race ya t’ that tree!"
"Y’bet’er ‘ope Oi doesn’t catch ya!"
Screcelia shook her head and smiled at the antics of her kittens.
It was a cold and moonless night. Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer lay snuggled against their mother in an old cardboard box. They mewed occasionally in the revels of some kittenish dream, but other than that, the night was silent.
An unkempt ginger tom with a dusty coat and uncombed whiskers slunk quietly through the dry leaves on the pavement. His eyes gleamed faintly in the darkness as he paused to examine an old cardboard box lying a little ways away. He moved closer to get a better look.
Screcelia heard the call and opened her eyes slowly.
"Psst!"
"’uh?" she whispered.
"Come here," came the answer. The mother cat craned her head up as far as she could. Still nothing.
"Wot?"
"I have to talk to you."
Screcelia shrugged slightly and stood up, careful not to wake Mungojerrie or Rumpelteazer. She slid over the top of the box and carefully moved into the shadows.
"Yes?"
"Over here."
The queen looked in the direction of the voice. Standing alongside the nearby road stood a figure barely distinguishable as a tom. Screcelia walked slowly over to him.
"Why, ‘ello. What didja want me for?" she inquired.
"I need someone like you for a…little project. I’ve had my eye on you for awhile," he answered. Screcelia stared at him for a minute, than recognized the tom.
"Maryaridi!" she gasped.
The other cat laughed. "I see you will not help me, now. Very well. I have no use for you." He pushed her forward, and she landed sprawled in the road. Maryaridi laughed again, eyeing the car that was coming down the road at the same time. As the queen struggled to get up, the car whizzed by.
SPLAT!
"That takes care of her," said Maryaridi, laughing again. "Now, back to the lair." The ginger cat started to cross the road, so sure of himself that he didn’t notice the car coming from the opposite direction.
Rumpelteazer had awakened not long after her mother had gotten out of the box, and she had watched the whole scene on the road. It was not until after Maryaridi had met his end that she sank back down into the box and woke Mungojerrie.
A half-grown ginger male who bore an uncanny resemblance to Maryaridi slunk out from his hiding place and cautiously approached the two cats in the road. Both were dead. He growled under his breath.
"So long, Father," he hissed, then got out of the road and headed off to his deceased father’s lair. He had much planning to do for what was yet to come.