In Constant Search of the Right Kind of Attention

[DragonSong]

Kitty rumbled a chuckle and tugged at the blanket until she could see his face, which she promptly set about licking with her sandpaper tongue, making sure to get a cow-lick into his thick, dark hair.

Satisfied, she sat back with a soft "Prrrp!" and a tilt of her head.

[DaGlobster]

She tugged the blanked away and he frowned. She started licking him and he made a token effort to push her head away, but she was quite the powerful animal. When she cow-licked his hair, he'd finally had enough.

"Okay, okay... Okay!" he said, sitting up in his bed, rubbing her saliva off of his cheeks.

"I'm awake."

[DragonSong]

The shifter chuffed a laugh, flopping onto her side to blink up at him innocently. As she did, she allowed her form to slip into her more humanoid shape, tail flicking back and forth playfully.

"Morning!" she chirped, entirely unrepentant.

[DaGlobster]

"g'mornin..." Atiq said, rubbing his forehead. He looked down at Kitty and reached down to give her head a short pet. He sat there, body upright but mind not fully awake, until finally he broke his silence with a yawn.

He wasn't mad, and why would he be? He messed with her about as often as she messed with him.

"So, you got me up. What's next?"

[DragonSong]

"Breakfast!" Kitty exclaimed, sitting upright and perking her ears forward. "C'mon, I'm starving!"

[DaGlobster]

At the mention of breakfast, Atiq nodded. She had a point there.

He slipped out of bed and onto his feet, stretching. He took a moment to step behind a dressing screen so he could put on a different pair of silken pants (he'd been wearing the same ones since yesterday!) and throw on a light, breezy vest.

He came out and smiled at her.

"let's go, then! I heard one of the servants say that Defka bought some crocodile meat yesterday," Atiq said, even as he started to hurry down the stairs. He was lazy, yes, but once he was on his feet he was as active as ever.

"Defka!" Atiq called as he descended the stairs, looking left and right for his live-in cook.

[DragonSong]

Kitty bounced out of bed with a happy chirp, easily taking panther form again. With a playful “Rrreow!,” she bounded around Atiq’s ankles, careful not to trip him as they hurried down the stairs.

Once they were in the kitchens, she wound herself around her friend’s legs, rubbing against his hip and purring loudly, before leaping away to make a dash for the larder, hoping she could get in before the cook stopped her.

[DaGlobster]

Atiq made an attempt to stop her, but she was just too quick for him. As she approached the open door, Defka appeared from inside the larder, holding the ingredients for the day's breakfast. Defka was a thin, tall man in his early twenties. He spooked easily, but he was also sharp as a whip, and knew that Kitty had a human side to her and at least understood words spoken to her. He also knew that she'd made a mess of the larder the last time she got into it.

He tried to step up and close the door before she got past him.

[DragonSong]

With a soft yowl of complaint, the panther slid to a stop, letting her ears drop and widening her eyes at the cook.

Knowing that probably wasn't going to work, she upped the charm, collapsing into her side and purring loudly while she batted gently at Defka's leg.

[DaGlobster]

"No." Defka said, flatly, and he went to put the ingredients down on the prep counter. Just as quickly, however, he turned back about to look at her.

"I'll get you something after breakfast, okay?"

At this point, Atiq caught up. He exchanged glances with Defka, and then loosened up considerably.

"So, with all that considered, what's for breakfast?"

Defka sighed, and motioned to the table in front of him. There was long, pale cuts of meat alongside spices, vegetables, and a few eggs.

"Braised alligator, basted in a spiced yolk and roasted over a fire."

He looked down at Kitty again.

"Do you want  to eat it as a person, or...?"

[DragonSong]

Pouting, Kitty shifted back to her human form, sitting on the floor with her tail twitching back and forth.

"Cooked meat tastes better this way," she sighed as she got to her feet, tossing her hair.

[DaGlobster]

Defka nodded and looked to Atiq, who was glancing over the ingredients. He nudged his hands away with his tenderizer and made shooing motions to Kitty. He tried not to blush when he looked at her, still not accustomed to her nature of dress as a human.

"Alright, you vultures. Gimme some space and breakfast'll be up in no time," he said, and Atiq looked to Kitty, giving her a sympathetic look. Then, he smiled at her.

"Maybe the groundskeepers will share some of the crocodile's breakfast with you? That is, if you're that hungry."

[DragonSong]

"Oh, no, that's alright." She smiled at him and leaned against his side for a moment, butting her head against his shoulder affectionately. "I'm sure the river lizards are hungry too."

She looked around for a place to settle, then shrugged and decided that where she was would serve well enough after all. With a lazy yawn, she looped her arms around Atiq's neck and buried her face against the back of his shoulder, purring gently as she flicked her tail back and forth.

[DaGlobster]

Atiq gave kitty a few moments of repose against his shiulder before batting at the side of her leg with a hand to get her attention.

"And if I told you I wanted to take a stroll through the grounds anyways?" he asked, turning his head about so he could glance at her.

"Would you still come?"

Defka, not yet accustomed to how close Atiq and Kitty were, gave a short stare Atiq's way while he wasn't looking before starting breakfast.

[DragonSong]

"Hmmm." Kitty let her head lull from side to side, pretending to mull it over. Then she smiled and purred, butting her head lightly against Atiq's cheek. "Oh alright, I guess I will."

[DaGlobster]

Atiq nuzzled her back, ushering her along with a hand at the back of her hip.

"The keepers are giving Scal a new leather ball today, I want to see how he recieves it," he said as he walked. Scal was Atiq's baby dragon turtle, for which he had an undying love.

[DragonSong]

The shifter rolled her eyes with a fond exasperation. "I swear, you'd think that thing was your firstborn heir the way you dote on him," she chuckled, bumping her shoulder into Atiq's playfully as they walked.

[DaGlobster]

"I can't dote on him enough," Atiq said. He perked up once the unfiltered sunlight hit him. The day was pleasant, and the burgeoning clouds in the distance promised some light rain later on.

Not wanting to remember how he'd nearly lost his mind when Scal developed rot on his scales, he brushed her comment aside.

"It's going to be a long hunting trip," he started, and he parted from her so he could walk backwards and keep speaking. The gardens beyond the second set of walls that surrounded his home had his own personal menagerie of beasts within. Animal enclosures and paddocks blended seamlessly with the walkways and garden areas, essentially making Atiq's estate a miniature zoo.

"We'll be gone nearly a month, to the jungles down south. And when we get there, I have to help a couple of relatively clueless nobles track and kill an armored beast that digs through the ground."

He slowed to a stop and smiled at Kitty, despite the serious nature of his words. They'd stopped in front of a high-fenced enclosure. The trees within were populated by about five Snalleks, lanky wyvern-like lizards the size of turkeys with varying hues and shades. They roosted lazily on branches, watching the pair as they passed by their enclosure.

Atiq spoke up again.

"It will be nice to have you there."

For he did miss her when he was gone on his hunting trips. Her companionship meant so much to him throughout his whole life and he was so used to having her in his personal space that her absence was felt all the more. In a sense, the idea that she'd be there with him gave him something to look forwards to.

[DragonSong]

The shifter beamed and bounced forward to wrap her arms around Atiq's shoulders from behind, nuzzling into the curve of his neck with a happy purr. "I'm glad," she chirped as she pulled away, twirling toward the Snalleks' enclosure and looking up into the trees with the absent attention of a lazy predator.

She glanced back over her shoulder at her friend with a small smile. "I miss you when you go. I'm so happy you're bringing me with you this time."

[DaGlobster]

The Snalleks were smarter than they looked, and they returned her lazy look with wide-eyed looks of their own, making throaty chirping noises among themselves. One of the larger ones stretched its wings a few time and gave Kitty the same look.

She'd chased that one before, and it seemed to remember her.

Atiq came up next to her an peered up into the enclosure, before looking back to her.

"I know I won't regret it, and that you'll be on your best behavior."