[kiwipen]

For arrillaga

[Arrillaga]

The seas weren’t exactly a great place to raise a kit, even if Bream had wanted to have kits of her own. When the stranger approached her with a small kit, Bream laughed in their face. It was only when their somber expression didn’t falter that Bream took them seriously. Who was this stranger with a kit? Was it theirs? What on earth did this kit go through where a band of pirates would be a safer option. Besides, what sort of a childhood would a kit have on the seas? Even Bream, who was shaped by the ocean the way a cliff gets its shape from her teeth, was raised on the land.
They were in port for now- sure, but they were set to leave in a few hours. No kit would stop their quest. They couldn’t afford it. Perhaps it should just be left here.
But its eyes weren’t even open. And it was so quiet- it had barely made a sound in the entire time that Bream had known it. How could Bream just leave this kitten here to suffer in a port town? There are rapscallions and miscreants and all sorts of their ilk here.
There was a story that Bream’s old captain used to tell her of a cat raised at sea. It was born weeks away from the nearest port city, and months from the nearest real town. They had a hard childhood, tied with poor nutrition and never knowing other children. However, as they grew, they never had to get their sea legs. Other pirates take days or weeks to become comfortable at sea, but there was no learning curve for a cat born at sea. Maybe they could become a great pirate?
The ship left the port that evening, albeit a bit later than expected. Still, in all the time that Bream had had the kit, it had yet to make a noise. She spent all of that night with the kit, hoping that it would make it through the night without its mother. Bream had life magic, but is still very restrictive after all. If the kit had the will to survive- to make it through its first night on the ship, perhaps it would grow to be a hardy sailor after all.
When morning came and the kit’s mews hit Bream’s ears, annoyance came first as she was woken from her slumber. But when she realized what it meant, joy replaced her negative thoughts. Bream had to figure out how to feed this kitten, it was obviously hungry. She had a cook… maybe with their expertise and her magic combined she could make it work?
The first thing they offered the kitten was a tasty, enchanted gruel made of ground meats and stew water, topped with a bit of that delicious life magic. They drank it happily, and did seem to have some rejuvenation to them. The kit had a long way to go, but this small victory gave Bream and her crew hope that this kitten may make it after all.

513 Words