The Little Girl and the Three Stray Cats

(This is a joint effort between AriEmeraldstar and myself. Ever space between lines marks a different author.)

Once upon a time...

in a faraway magical land...

there lived a little girl

in a little house

... with her mother and father

and three stray cats

, all of whom she loved very much.

The cat's names were Larry, Curly, and Mo.

(sigh... you had to do that, didn't you) , though Larry looked more like a "Mittens", Curly was the most uncurly cat you'd ever seen, and after Mo, the little girl's parents decided that they didn't want any 'mo

(yes, I did. apparently, I'm bad at names off the top of my head). Mostly, Larry was called "Mittens." no one really knew that his name was Larry. anyway, the little girl loved them all very much, no matter what their names were.

But the girl's stepmother, a supermodel who replaced the girl's mother after a tragic trip down an elevator shaft onto some bullets, did NOT love the cats, and plotted to get rid of them.

And the girl's father was too deeply in love with her stepmother to notice. But little did he know that he was under the effects of a love potion which the stepmother had procured from a shady person in a cloak exactly three towns to the west.

So one night, the wicked stepmother took the three strays in a sack and left them deep in the middle of the forest, pretending to be unaware that her stepdaughter had been following her the whole time, and managed to sneak away

So once her wicked stepmother was gone, the girl rushed over and let the stray cats out of the bag.

They were at once delighted and disappointed to see her, for they were no ordinary cats, and they could see that their beloved mistress was now stranded with them.

As the girl looked around, she realized that she was no longer in the forest where she had been only moments before. in fact, she did not seem to be anywhere in particular. there was a pale white mist everywhere, and everything was silent. What she could see of the landscape had no defining features whatsoever, and the ground beneath her did not feel like grass, stone, earth, or wood.

It was then that the three cats spoke to her.

"Mistress," Curly said, "we are grateful that you have freed us from the small place which we were trapped in. But now you are trapped here with us too. And that makes us sad." And when Curly said that, Mo, the youngest of the three cats, started to cry, for he loved his mistress and it pained him to think that she had also been resigned to their fate.

"However," said Mittens, "we are more than just cats. Mo, here, is the descendent of the last great dragon, who shrank, grew soft and playful and furry after being fed milk regularly and treated kindly. Curly was once a witch's familiar. And I, my dear, am seven hundred generations removed from the famous Puss in Boots. We shall protect you as best as we can, and perhaps now we should seek shelter?"

The girl blinked, for she was very surprised that her cats had the ability to speak. "Is that why mama did bring you here?" she asked, in the speech of one too young to have completely mastered the concept of grammar.

"BROUGHT us here, my dear. And yes, it is," sniffed Mittens as if affronted.

The girl pouted slightly. "Okay. We go find us home now."

"This way" proclaimed Mo sniffily, while skipping ahead and wiping his tearstained eyes with a paw.

The girl followed the cats, lingering a bit behind. She didn't know where they were going, but all of this suddenly seemed exciting. She'd never been away from home before.

It was only then that she noticed the cats' fur standing on end, and they arched their backs and hissed at the bush in front of them

She stopped, and another pout came to her lips. "Whas wrong, kitties? Is there be another kitty in the bush?"

"No, madame, there most certainly is not," growled the colossal, canny wolf that stepped out from behind the undergrowth, glaring at the cats

The girl, having seen plenty of dogs before, but no wolves, grinned widely and approached the wolf, arms wide open as if to hug the creature. "Doggy!"

The wolf laughed, showing off all of his very sharp teeth, and murmured in an aside to Mittens, "My, you have your work cut out for you, dear boy. At least that miller's son or whomever he was had the sense to stay put while your infinitely great grandfather went about Ogre-slaying"

"She is very young, as you can tell." Mittens murmured back, sounding none too pleased. "And we haven't been with her for very long." "Doggy! Fetch the stick, doggy!" the girl called, picking up a stick from the ground and hurling it off somewhere. "Go on, doggy! Gets the stick!"

"Please!" whispered the wolf to Mittens. "This is entirely too easy. It's not shooting fish in a barrel, it is dropping a fireball on a whale shoved into a bathtub. I will be laughed out of the Big Bad Pack if I so much as nibble out of her!" "Well," said Curly, "You could always direct us to a place to take shelter tonight."

"That's right." Mittens added. "No one actually has to know that she's like this. You could just go back to the Big Bad Pack and say you ate her up in one gulp, and no one would be the wiser. Meanwhile, we might be able to get out of here if you could point us in the direction of some shelter."
"Doggy!" the girl yelled, pouting yet again. "You s'pose to chase the stick!"

"I think you should point quickly," said Mo smugly, joining the others

The girl's pout became even more pronounced, and she marched right up to the wolf and pulled on his fur. "Doggy! Go gets the stick!"

"This is humiliating," growled the wolf, loping over to fetch the stick, and returning it. "Now, there is an old house made of gingerbread two miles East... it has been abandoned for some time, but is still in good condition. I am leaving before I do something we all regret." And before he could be asked to fetch any more sticks, the wolf bounded off into the night

The girl squeaked, clapping her hands in delight as the wolf returned the stick. "Good doggy!" she praised, patting the wolf's head before he left. As he disappeared into the mist, she waved. "Bye bye, doggie!" she called before dropping her hand. "He is be a nice doggie." she told the cats before her stomach rumbled loudly. "I's hungy. Where we go find food?"

To be continued