Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

  KuliKuli tossed and turned, fussing as she y on her side curled up and hugging her furry tails for warmth. She struggled to find a comfortable position to combat the frigid cold that night with only a wooly bnket to hold, but the crickets chirped loudly through the evening, leaving her agitated and stressed. All she desired was to squeeze her eyes shut and force her body to y dormant for some time, hoping that eventually it would submit into slumber. But sleep would not come, no matter what position she would adjust to.

  Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

  She sprung up and tossed the bnket aside, scowling and peeking out the cracked window if it could be called that. The house was cramped and meant for one individual, the single window it had cked any gss at all and was left with moldy window framing held by rotting wood. When she first id eyes on this sheltered husk, she found the thought of sleeping outdoors to be more comfortable than this. Yet as she leaned her arms out the window frame, hanging on as her face basked in the night air quietly observing that still frame of the outside world, she found herself longing to be back in the comforts of her home with a warm and bouncy bed and her Felix to snuggle up to.

  Life had indeed taken a drastic turn in the past week.

  "Can't sleep either?"

  KuliKuli swung her head, alerted by Na'Vi as she calmly approached her from the shadowy corner where she sat before. "Didn't mean to scare you."

  KuliKuli looked back outside and sighed. "It's hard, sleeping in the cold like this. I hope the others have better luck than this. I miss sleeping back home, in our little cabin. You've never been, but Felix had this adorable little cabin sat on a grassy hill."

  Na'Vi sat beside her and nodded. "Go on."

  "Well, we had this big red house with lots of animals in there. He called it something, but I get it confused, I know it's either a barn or a farm. They both rhyme, he corrects me every time." She giggled. "In the mornings, I would wake him up and we would have some food he calls breakfast. Sometimes I would surprise him with salmon, other times he would go to the chickens and cook up their eggs. They would turn yellow and fluffy and he would add some cow milk to make them puff out. Those went well with fish. Then we would start our day taking care of the animals. Like cows! He would put this metal bowl under their boobies and squeeze it full of milk."

  "Wah?" Na'Vi looked puzzled while she nodded vigorously.

  "Neat, huh? I would feed chickens! Those are like little birds only not so little, they have big bodies and some with big tempers that go balk~balk~balk and do this funny little thing with their heads while they walk. When Reta came in, we had this agreement where we decided to let her stay if she helped out around. She taught us a few things about gardening, weeding, and even taught Felix about certain crops and grains and beans and stuff. Though she seemed a bit too excited with some of the garden tools, like this scythe we had. She would wave it around or flip it in her palm while we spoke, sometimes it would scare me a little."

  "Your friend, the wolf?"

  "Yea! We first met when she jumped Felix and tried to take him from me. We got into a big fight, I threw apples on her head, she nearly scratched my head off, and then we came to an agreement after chaining her in the celr!" She looked around, realizing that the rest of her family were sitting up with shocked expressions on their faces.

  "What? She wasn't always a wolf but it's a thing we're trying to help her with. She's... well, she's a lot like Felix. They don't like to talk about their past."

  "And you don't remember much about your past, huh?" Na'Vi asked. "Why is that?"

  She shrugged and hung her head. "Not since I got this nasty bump on the back of my head. My hair covers it well, but Felix says it looked really bad when he first saw me."

  Emyri sprung up immediately, carefully looking into the back of her daughter's head. Her lip quivered and her eyes grew wide, gasping in shock and stepping back to fan herself. "Well, it-it's a good thing it healed I suppose."

  Na'Vi took a peek at her head wound and frowned. "How did you get that?"

  KuliKuli moved her head back up. "Hmm, Felix says it was a tool shed that fell on me. He says some tools hit my head when I was hiding in my cat form."

  Na'Vi noticed a shift in her facial expression. She seemed rather perplexed, perhaps questioning something but cking the heart to mention it. "You're not sure he's right?"

  She rubbed her sore wound, looking away from her. "I don't know. My memory is not as good when I think of that night, but I don't remember being super hurt from that."

  "You two met that night, but Felix didn't mention any big injuries." Dimyri mentioned, looking at her sister with interest. "No broken bones? No scratches or purple marks?"

  "Nope, it would just hurt when he touched it or when I would rest my head back. It went away after a few weeks." She expined, noticing her sister give their mom a worried look. "What?"

  Emyri swallowed, her lips sealed tight as she gave her oldest daughter a stern look. "It's nothing. I think it's a good thing that it doesn't hurt anymore. That means it's healing."

  "Yes, but if she knew what caused that head injury," Dimyri's voice trailed off as she stepped toward her mother, "Maybe that would help her recover faster."

  "Some things are better left forgotten, dear."

  "And some things should be confronted if it means recovering."

  "Sometimes there lies a risk of confronting or taking the wrong risks, and it leads to bigger pains, bigger problems that concern more people than you think." Emyri huffed.

  But her daughter wasn't backing down. "Hiding things that can help can also lead to bigger problems, mother."

  "This isn't the time or pce for this." Emyri turned her sights on KuliKuli, her eyes growing softer as she cradled her in her arms. "Can't you see that we're already under duress? Is it too much for us to get some sleep for tonight, one night at a time?"

  Dimyri had opened her mouth but hesitated, realizing the startled looks she was getting from her sisters. She backed down, her ears dropping as she held herself and leaned against the wall at the opposite side of the room. Syri approached her but no words were shared, just a look of comfort followed by a soft smile and a head nod to comfort her oldest sister.

  Na'Vi sighed and looked out the window, her tails swaying behind her as the crickets continued chirping. "It's getting easier calling you that."

  "Calling me what?"

  "Your new name, KuliKuli. It's kind of helping me with moving on."

  Her ears dropped as she felt a twinge of guilt settle in her gut. "I'm sorry."

  "Don't be, I'm still a stranger to you. I get that." She looked down when KuliKuli moved away from her mother's hold, reaching out to touch her forearm.

  "Thank you, for helping me this far. You didn't have to." She smiled. "Maybe when this is over, we can start over? As friends this time."

  Na'Vi hesitated. "I don't know. Ask me again when this is over, I should have an answer then."

  She nodded back, it wasn't the response she was hoping for but she'll take it. Her sisters came in to stand next to them, just enjoying each other's company when KuliKuli spoke out. "Well, can you help me remember? I do want to know what I was like as Nityri."

  Dimyri scoffed as she broke out into a smile. "You used to be a pain in the ass before."

  "Um, excuse me?"

  Syri chuckled and patted her sister's head. "It's true, you would get into all sorts of trouble. Always sneaking out with Na'Vi te at night or getting into fights and pulling pranks."

  "That doesn't sound like me." She stuttered.

  "Actually," Dimyri hummed before poking her sister. "That sounds exactly like you right now."

  "Well did you get into any mischief of your own?" She retaliated, only for Dimyri to huff.

  "Hardly! Mom would always be nagging about teaching me how to be a Head Mother."

  "You're pregnant?"

  "No, you dummy!"

  "Dimyri, please." Emyri intruded, "Kuli dear, Dimyri would spend some weeks with Aunt Alma's for her training. Being the oldest, she's next in line to become Head Mother, that means looking after the clutter once I grow old and tired. Being in charge of the Nekomata who lived with us. We used to have this great big clutter of friends, we lived together, and everyone pyed their role to gather food, teach our kittens and raise them to grow strong and healthy."

  "Not like it will happen anymore." Dimyri mumbled while staring out longingly into the outdoors. "Not after him. It's just not fair, why do we need to stay hidden while people like Nihja can walk out with everyone else?"

  Emyri frowned. "That's not the same, she's some sort of sucker bis I think. She likes like anyone else out there, that's why it's easy for her."

  "Okay, so if we hide our paws, tails and ears then can we walk with them?" Dimryi argued, gesturing toward her sister. "She snuck out in a cloak and hood and it worked."

  "I-I had to be extra careful, I needed a veil to hide my eyes too." KuliKuli added. "It got a lot harder when Felix started to show, because his eyes look just like mine now."

  "It's common for most mates." Her mother mentioned, turning her gaze on Dimyri. "And that's too many details to be careful about. Better not to take the risk at all, especially if it can get your family hurt."

  "But what about people like Felix? She trusted him and he wouldn't turn on her!"

  "She's not wrong." Na'Vi muttered in agreement. "I'm just as surprised after what happened before."

  Emyri gave her a crossed look before addressing Dimyri. "You're still young and naive. I was the same before, as was your Aunt Alma. Things were going well for over twenty years, then we got sloppy. Yes, there are some people we can trust but it's hard to differentiate them from those who would abuse our trust. That kind of mistake is what got us into this mess, young dy. You think I'm proud of that? I don't like hearing myself say that we can't go outside unless we are absolutely sure we are alone. I don't even know for certain about the people helping us, I'm too nervous to get any shut eye as it is!"

  "I don't know if I want to be Head Mother," Dimyri admitted, leaving her mother distraught. "I don't want to live with the nervous feeling of whether what I decide will lead to making things horrible. It's too much pressure, a-and I couldn't sleep if I made a mistake like this. Knowing that you can't either just tells me I'm right, a-about not being the right person for this. What if there's another Perdilius out there? I-I don't even know if my friends are still a-around."

  "Dimryi, we can't say that."

  "That's right, if I thought like that I wouldn't have rescued Felix and Reta" KuliKuli argued.

  Dimyri frowned. "That rescue was messy and you got super lucky after finding a succubus to help us."

  "Well it worked, didn't it?"

  "If I'm ever so lucky, sure! What are we doing next, sis? Go home and hide? That's what mom wants."

  Emyri stepped between the two. "Now I will not tolerate that tone, both of you knock it off!"

  "You just want to keep running even though Perdilius has made it clear he won't stop coming for us! What are you hiding mom, did we do something to him? Why does he want us so bad?" Dimyri shouted.

  "I said that's enough!"

  "Quiet!" Everyone jolted and turned their attention on Syri. She had her back pressed against the wall, her tails curled up around her legs with her fur on end and her ears perked up and trembling.

  "Listen!" She whispered loudly, her eyes staring out the front door.

  Everyone looked around, startled by her reaction and appearance, hearts beating frantically as their ears perked up. KuliKuli licked her lips and closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on the environment around them.

  She gasped. The crickets were no longer chirping. How long has the night grown so silent until they noticed?

  Emyri swung her head around with a gasp, bottom lip quivering as she heard a noise out the front door.

  "Oh no."