"That's not possible." Orion watched Nigel crawl contentedly into the house with his family. "How did he get there before me? I haven't hunted that long again." He lay in the field, neatly hidden, waiting. This time he was determined not to leave there until he saw Nigel return to them with his own eyes. "What's not possible?" A voice echoed beside him. He whistled, groaned, and then shoved himself into the first hole he had nearby. The big brown cat started laughing. She laughed until her belly shook. "You're such a hero to me." She said in amusement, pulling Orion out of his hiding place. She dusted the dirt off his head and shook it out of his fur with a few taps. "But it's nothing, nothing at all, I was just passing by. I was just walking around." He waved his paw around, backing away from the cat as far as he could. She watched him amusedly. "Aren't you a bit far to walk?" She asked, taking a few steps back closer to him.


She quite enjoyed scaring him. And since she hadn't exactly had a lot of fun while nursing and raising the cubs, she figured now was her one opportunity. "I like long walks. Lots of long walks. To new places. You know, to explore and discover." Orion watched her huge paws and big head with a big muzzle and definitely big teeth. "Is that why you're here for the fourth time? That you like to explore new places?" She took five quick steps and stood towering over him. Orion sat down on his butt. He looked up at her. He probably would have liked to start praying, but he didn't know how to do such a thing. So he just swallowed and hoped she was already fed and wasn't planning on having him for dinner.


"Get up, little man, I'm not gonna hurt you." she said with a smile. But he saw more of a smirk and there wasn't a very pleasant tone in her voice. "I'm not a little guy." He stood up nonetheless. "Aren't you? You're the smallest tomcat I've ever seen." "And what? You're the biggest cat I've ever seen, and I'm not calling you a giant." He objected. She insulted his manhood and his feelings. "More for you to say. I guess we wouldn't be friends." She scowled at him. Suddenly he was being a little too presumptuous for her territory. "Are we some kind of friends? You're going to serve me for dinner." He looked at her teeth in dismay. They really were big, pointy and long. His gaze darted around, searching for a hiding place. "Smart kid, who would have thought it of you." The cat uttered with a growl, and Orion just started meowing horribly and scampering off among the flowers. He could think of only one way to save his life. To run far enough away. Far enough away from her house that she wouldn't run after him anymore because she wouldn't leave the kits alone.


When he rolled out of the tunnel, he fell into the grass. His tongue was out and he needed a drink badly. He thought he had surely escaped death. He made his way to a well they had found on one of their expeditions. It was on the edge of a pine forest and soft moss grew around it. He would need rest, too. Running away from real danger like this was seriously debilitating. He gulped down the cool water in great gulps. He didn't drink like he normally did from the bowl. He stuck his whole mouth into the well, scooped the water in, and cocked his head. He was flushed. So much so that he might have gone all the way in, but then he would have had to dry for a long time. So at least he stretched out in the moss and rested until he felt he had regained enough strength.


Astra and Freya stood on the rock, watching him. "At least we know where he's been disappearing to lately." Freya said. Astra looked around. She didn't see Nigel anywhere, yet they had left together. "Don't you think Nigel's getting too much for him?" Astra asked. "He's too much for me." She replied. "You and him were too much for me too." She pointed at her and Orion. Astra looked at Freya in surprise. "I'm a loner cat. It never occurred to you that the company of other cats bothers me?" She asked, turning to leave. "Wait, Freya. Why would Nigel stay with us?" She asked the question that was on her mind. Freya just grinned. "He is like his name, that's why." She replied and started to run towards the rocks.


Astra thought about Freya's words. The cat should have stayed with them because he was like his name. But he wasn't. Nigel meant black, after all. He wasn't black. Had he been black when he was born and then changed colour? No, nonsense. Cats couldn't change colour like that. She scratched her claws on her hind paw. Orion was screaming again, and when he stopped screaming, he stared at Nigel like he was an apparition. It was clear to her that he was annoyed by another kitten who was slowly not moving an inch away from him. But why was he making such a fool of himself? "Nigel, come here. Come here." She called the kitten. He continued to hunt Orion's tail. "Let go of me!" Orion shouted, tail held high. Nigel jumped at him with even more gusto. "Stop hunting me. Stop it. What's wrong with you? Can't you hear me or what?" he fumed, spinning around and then running away. Nigel, of course, followed him.


Astra stopped scratching. "That's what you meant." Said to Freya, though she hadn't come back from the hunt yet. "He is like his name, of course. He's the exact opposite of what he should be." Astra rejoiced, glad she'd figured it out. That she had cracked it. "Give me a break! Stop it! I don't want to play!" Orion shouted, flying across the room. "He can't hear you." Astra said calmly. "How can he not hear, he can hear me very well, who can't hear me? I'm screaming like the woods!" Orion shouted. He stopped and turned to Nigel. "They just can't hear. He can't hear any of us." Astra grabbed Nigel's tail and pulled him to her. "Bullshit." Orion said. "He comes out every time we go home. Every time you summon us, he comes running. How could he if he couldn't hear." "Simple. He just follows the others." Astra pointed at the kittens. Orion opened his mouth to say something. But after considering that possibility for a moment, suddenly more things made sense to him. "She didn't really lose it, it didn't get away, no one stole it from her." He sat down on his butt and stared at the white orb. "She carried him down the tunnel to our side all by herself." He realized why the tunnel in the bushes and trees was so big. He realized how it was possible that Nigel kept coming back again and again.


"But why did she take him away from them?" When he led him back to his family, he seemed content there. "Because he can't stay with them." Freya said in a serious voice. "As long as he was little and always with his mother, no one noticed he was different. But when he grew up and started going out, it became clear that he couldn't hear." "And what's it supposed to be? He obviously doesn't care." Orion pointed at him. Freya patted him on the head with her paw. "Think a little." She gave him a reproachful look. "Think how? I am thinking. I figured she brought him here on her own." He objected to her accusation that he wasn't using his brain. "Have you seen her?" Freya asked. She knew he had seen her, what a stupid question. "Then think. How could a kitten like him survive in a world like theirs? Open spaces full of dangerous animals everywhere. Could he possibly survive? There?" she pointed out the window in the direction of where the land of the big cats was. "How could he learn to hunt if he can't hear anything? How could he learn to avoid danger when he can't hear it? All he would have to do is get separated from the others somewhere and he wouldn't survive." Freya explained.


Everyone listened and looked at Nigel. It didn't occur to them that if he wasn't answering them, it wasn't because he didn't want to talk to them. He didn't know that they were talking to him, that they were saying something to him. "But why us?" said Orion, almost tearfully. "Are we some sort of shelter for abandoned kittens?" He was desperate. He understood that there was nothing else to do for now but keep him with them. In the safety of the house and the enclosed garden. Under the supervision of everyone else. "Maybe there's nowhere else to put him." Astra said. "But then doesn't he have any other family?" Orion continued trying to think of somewhere he could take the furry little guy. "She already had enough trouble that he is a different color than her other kitties." "But that's her own fault." Orion said curtly. "You shouldn't judge her if you don't know her at all." Freya looked at him sternly. Orion just grinned, muttering something to himself about how unfair it was to have to take care of someone else's kittens when he didn't even have his own yet. If only he had kittens of his own. He looked around for Luna. No way, ever. Terrified at even the possibility, he retreated to the safety of the pine forest. As far away from any girl cats as possible.