Trigger has never been scolded like this by Astra before. He was cowering in the corner of his cot, crying himself to sleep. He hadn't done anything wrong. He just wanted to help Orion and the kitten. He was sad. He wouldn't eat, stayed curled up in a ball and soon fell asleep. Orion faced Freya, and he didn't like her reading him the bill for his leaving. "I found his mother, I found where he belongs. He can go back there. He doesn't have to stay here. You should be glad." He felt hurt that she hadn't praised him, even though he'd done the right thing. "Cool, where's the mom?" Freya looked past him from left, right, top. "She stayed there." He said more calmly now. "Why? If she misses the kitten, why didn't she come with you?" "Well, she says she doesn't miss him." He admitted. "I see. Strange mom who doesn't miss her baby." She wasn't sure if that was really special, but she couldn't think of anything else to say to Orion. "It's hers. I know it." "How can you when she claims otherwise." "You'd have to see her. Her and the three kittens. Their tails, that's just obvious." Orion explained. He grabbed the white ball of fur that was still swirling around him. He held it up. "See? It's just like theirs. Every last stripe." He shoved the kitten in front of Freya's snout and waved it back and forth. Oddly enough, he didn't mind at all. Perhaps he even liked Orion's attention.

Astra sighed. It was too late to work anything out. She summoned the kittens for milk. The ball came fully alive and immediately began fighting with Orion to let her go. He opened his claws. The kitten fell to the ground. It lay sprawled on its belly for a moment, then cautiously crept up to Astra and latched onto one of the loose teats with gusto.

Freya watched him. It was still drinking milk, so it was smaller than it looked. Could Orion really have found his mother? But why would she say she didn't miss him? She'd be looking for a kitten this small if she'd lost it. It couldn't have been that long ago, it came in fed, happy. Kitten finished drinking, rolled onto back. Freya noticed it was a boy. Soon it was asleep. It slept even though the others were still rampaging and running around the house for a while. It slept even when they managed to knock a bowl of water out of the window and the noise scared everyone enough to scatter to all corners. "Hmmm." She snorted, watching Orion for a moment. He was snuggled in his den, his back to everyone. He was definitely offended and angry. He was tired, too. She could tell. He must have come a long way to be dragging his feet like that. She climbed up behind him, stood over him. "You'll take me there, early in the morning, before breakfast." She said, waiting for Orion to nod in agreement. She might have figured out what had happened, but she needed reassurance.

Orion was surprised when Freya left him waiting at the top of the flower field and continued to walk alone. He was looking forward to seeing how she would deal with the cat. Maybe he'd drag her up to them, even in her teeth. But when Freya came back, she was alone. She didn't even seem to be fighting with the other cat or anything. "Where is she?" He asked, disappointed. "You didn't think I'd bring her in my teeth." She snapped at him. Clearly annoyed and maybe a little angry. "What else?" He asked cautiously. "Nothing. What would. We're going back." She uttered distantly. She sullenly pushed her way through the tunnel in the bushes. Orion followed her. He expected her to break a bunch of branches from the annoyance in him and walk better, but even though Freya was like a bulldozer, she didn't break a single branch. The tunnel was much bigger than she was. "Did you ask her anything?" he dared to speak, because she couldn't even turn to look at him. "I don't think so. I dragged myself through the brush just to say hi to her and go back again." Why was she being so obnoxious? He was just curious, nothing more. "And what did she say to you?" "The same thing she told you. Her kitten didn't get lost, didn't run away, didn't go off on its own and get kidnapped." "And did you ask if she missed it?" "She's not missing." "And did you ask if it was hers?" Freya paused. She snorted. "You talk too much." She said instead of answering. "So it's hers." "I say again - you talk too much." "Then why didn't you make her go get it." "You're still talking too much." "She should take him to her place if he's hers." "You're always talking too much." "Maybe, but I'm right. He belongs to them, not to us." She paused and snorted again. "You're such a talker." She said and continued walking down the tunnel. "Why doesn't she go get it?" he asked when they came out and he could look Freya in the face. "Because it's Nigel." She answered him. He put on a stupid face, he didn't get this.

"He stays here." Freya said upon her return. Everyone looked at her. She looked like the kitten was torturing her with it. "Why?" asked Trigger. He was sure she was going back home to her mom. "Because I say so." Freya almost shouted at him. She didn't like that she was supposed to stay with them, so why had she made the decision she had? They didn't understand her. "Did she give you a reason?" Astra asked, turning to Orion. "Yeah, but I guess I'm stupid, I didn't get it." He didn't even look at her. "And?" "Because his name is Nigel." He was eating his lunch like someone was going to eat it when he took his head out of the bowl. "Because his name is Nigel? That's the reason he's staying here?" Even Astra felt stupid at that moment, she didn't get it either.

"I don't want him to stay here." Orion complained. He was no longer being chased everywhere by not two, but three kittens. He was sick of them. "There's nothing you can do about it." Astra said, licking Nigel's dirty forehead. "He'll grow up and play with the others soon." She soothed him. He didn't seem calm. He was a little one, that is until he grew up... "Let's go for a walk, what do you say little man?" He asked, nudging him towards the window. It didn't even take him much trouble to get him out. The kitten was obediently cupping after him, and he liked the fact that he could be outside. Orion made his way through the brush, then through a tunnel in the trees and headed along the field. Nigel kept following him. When they reached the cat's house, Nigel took off running and happily climbed inside. Orion listened for a moment to the contented meows of his siblings and the even more contented spinning. "That would be." He said to himself. He was glad that everything had gone easily and smoothly. He jogged on the way back so that he wouldn't be gone too long and the others wouldn't think it strange that he wasn't there.

He was the last to arrive for dinner. He sat down at the bowl and ran his eyes over the hungry kittens. Luna immediately squeezed in next to him and Ajax followed after a moment. He just hissed in warning. But they were no longer afraid of him. He moved over to Ajax's bowl. He glanced at Ajax and gave him a warning shout to stay nicely where he was. When he turned back, he was looking directly at the white furball. "Ahhh." He shouted, jumping away from it. He knocked over four more kittens and emptied two bowls of food. "Orion!" Freya thundered above him. "What are you doing!" Orion would have liked to answer her, but he didn't know what he was doing himself. "I got scared." He admitted, and began to scoop the food back into the bowl with his paw. "Scared? Of what?" Astra asked. "Him." He pointed at Nigel. The cat was content to eat, oblivious to the commotion around him.

"Let's try again." Orion thought to himself the next morning. He set off with Nigel on his heels as soon as they had breakfast and could go play in the garden. He would have much preferred to sunbathe and bask, but he couldn't. They climbed through the tunnel, ran along the field. As soon as anyone could see him from the house, he nudged Nigel in front of him and hid. He watched the cat join his siblings and play with them on the other side of the path among the flowers. He looked content, happy. Orion had no doubt that returning him home was the right thing to do. He waited hidden for a few more moments before heading back. In the garden, he crawled between the large stones and fell asleep. When he awoke, he couldn't believe his eyes. Nigel was sitting on a stone looking down at him. "How did you get here?" Orion exclaimed as everyone else turned to look at him. But Nigel didn't react in any way. He licked his paw, spotted the bee, and ran after it.

"Third time's the charm." Orion tried to concentrate. He left Nigel at the house and hid in the field, waiting. He could have sworn the little one hadn't followed him back, and that it wasn't big enough to have remembered such a long journey and come on its own. Nonsense came to mind, like the idea that Freya had come for him. That it had fallen through some black hole. That someone had stolen it and given it to them in the garden.

But even though he waited for quite a long time, and mama cat came back, nothing special happened. Maybe he really had come back alone before. He thought to himself and headed home. On the way, he stopped at a rock. He looked up and wondered what Freya had seen there. He would have liked to look too, but it was too high for him. He was afraid he'd fall. He walked to the right side, walking beside the rock and examining the tiny burrows in the grass. He might catch something, Freya would praise him for it. He thought. He lay down and waited patiently. He wasn't a bad hunter. He just usually didn't feel like it. But now he probably had more energy. When he came back, he carried seven stingrays proudly in his teeth with their long tails.

He walked into the room where they were eating together and paused in the doorway, chest out. "Nice." Nukhfi looked at him admiringly. "Nice catch." Jam praised him. "Well done Orion, Freya will be very pleased." Astra told him. Orion just opened his mouth. The rays were falling to the ground. "You could have put them in a bowl." Astra picked them up and the kittens helped her. "Are you okay?" Ajax stared at him. For Orion just stood there, mouth open, tongue lolling out a little, staring. "Hey, can you hear me?" Ajax nudged him. "What's wrong?" asked Luna, poking him a few times with her paw as well. "Astra, something happened to Orion." They both whimpered at the same time, startled by the fact that he wasn't moving and was just staring. As if perhaps he had seen a ghost.

Astra looked in the direction Orion's gaze was going. Nigel stood on the arm of the chair, watching something outside the window. "Great, you finally got a grip." Freya walked into the room. She patted Orion on the back so hard he almost fell over. "What?" he got a groan out of himself. "I said, you finally got a grip." Freya repeated the praise and the pat. "What's he doing here?" He continued to stare at Nigel. Both cats looked at him in confusion. "Is he sick?" Luna worried, licking Orion's forehead. He bristled, snarled, and pushed her away from him. "Leave me alone, don't lick me, I'm warning you." He held her away from him with an outstretched paw, frowning. "It's not." Freya said and went to inspect his catch. Astra eyed him suspiciously. It hadn't escaped her notice that Orion had disappeared off somewhere with Nigel hot on his heels, but each time they both returned, she stopped suspecting him of foul play. Perhaps too soon. She thought to herself, wondering.