From Disaster Comes Good by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

Tom the top cat

Even before we came to our new world, Tom was the top cat in the shelter. He brought more cats to the hide. He led Sharon and the children to me. He adopted a wild cat that told us that we need to leave the old world because it was doomed.

Now here on this world, he has taken over. He can be seen, like most of our cats, in his original form, that chubby orange cat.

I have been told that, in that form, a fat cat is most attractive to the females. It means he can provide for all enough so he can be fat. Even on this world, he has the attraction.

There is no animosity with the other felid males. This is because a lot of them have eyes for the mouse folk females. Since the barrier of predator vs prey has been broken, There are a lot of formal matings of the combination.

The felid females don’t mind so his harem has grown to a very large proportion. There are a lot of pregnant females. He pours affection on all of them. Again that is obvious by swollen bellies. He already has kittens that he is the obvious prey for their stalking.

He makes sure that they all get the message that mouse folk are not prey. He gets the look that all father’s get. Ah duh. He knows that the mouse folk children play with them. Games that are fierce but no one gets hurt except for the occasional cuts and scrapes that children always get.

I watch and remember the videos on the web of cats getting backed down by a mouse and chased off. These mouse folk children can do the same thing when provoked. Some kittens will push a felid mouse kit too far and realize that the kit has fangs and claws that are actually greater than the kitten.

Those are the times Tom will come over to the kitten and swat that one. All, including the felid mouse would get a lecture about a petty world where people could not get along. They finally destroyed that world.

By the time he finishes, it happens each time, some have wandered off but most of the remainder are asleep or close to it. It is the same story that they hear all the time.

Tom usually walks away as if that is what he wanted.

He has told me many times that they don’t continue to fight, that day. He says that they all act just like children always play. “At the young age, goblin, mouse, felid and human, male and female they always are going at full speed and feel immortal.”

He elbows me in a friendly way and says that they will find that, at a certain age, they will gain other interests and find that they really are mortal. “I only jump in when the claws come out. Now, there are a few of my harem that are indicating that they need taming also. Time to explore, the forest.”

With that he struts off with a few females trailing. I wish him a good exploration. All I get is a tail snap from that orange fat cat.

Later in the day, I see him belly up in the cat form with those females curled up next to him.

The day came when Night Walker came to tell the both of us that he was going with the fleet. He has been asked to survey that home world of the mouse folk to see what exactly has happened with the felids. If they have gotten past that hunter stage, they may be ready for an intervention. He hopes to select some of them to be tested for integration into a peaceful society.

We both tell him that we are proud of what he has chosen to do. Tom tells him that he will go down in history for ending the fear and hatred the mouse folk have for them by his example. He has felid mice children. His wife is brave by letting him go. She knows that he is strong and will be back.

Even so, she whispers to him that he needs to be careful.

He looks at me, not Tom his father, “Please watch over my family. Also, my father is no longer as young as he thinks he is. Watch over him for me.”

With that he turns and boards the ship.

We wave until we cannot see the ship anymore. I ask his mate to come live with us until he returns. She declines but asks Tom if he would live with his daughter in law until his son gets back. Tom is stunned. He tells her that he would be honored but at times he will need to explore. She knows that he has his harem to attend to.

Most of the ladies of his harem do come over to help.

One day, I was called to her house. There was all of his harem. It seems that he went to sleep and crossed over peacefully. We do not know his actual age but I felt that he was an old cat when we were on the old world.

The word was sent to Night Walker and the goblin ship opened a door to his home location. He was there only a short period after I came. We let him say his goodbye’s alone, then his mate went in. After that the harem said their goodbyes.

After all left except Night Walker, I was informed that he wanted me to say my last to Tom. I had deliberately left the door open as I speak.

“Tom, you ruled the hide and this world. You were a good companion to me. You brought my wife Sharon and the children when I most needed. You adopted a wonderful son to our family. Be assured that all your kittens will now be taken care of by your harem and your family. More than one child will remember your tale of my old world. They will relate it to their children’s children for generations to come.”

I ask Night Walker where he would like to be buried. It stunned me when he said that Tom had told him many times that he wished he could curl up in your chair in the old world. We opened a door to find that the world was being rebuilt.

One of the gods came in a white light. Picking up Tom, she walked through the door into my hide. The hide door was gone. Replaced by a rock wall. He was placed on that restored chair. From the hide side, the god told us that we can open the door when we liked but we were not to step through.

When one of his harem passed, they were also placed in a chair or on the floor, as cats curled up in sleep. Each time the door was opened it was that god who placed the body where they wanted It placed. She made sure to say that she was watching over them.

Each time, it was a private ceremony for our family. I have told them that I want to be interred here on this world. That world is for Tom. Night Walker has said the same thing, much to the relief of his mate.

As a side note, the mouse folk original world’s felids are a change lot. When the officials from that world were brought here, they kneeled in front of the mouse folk and pleaded for them to forgive what their barbaric ancestors did to them.

They were pleasantly surprised when Della went to each and hugged them.

She pulled back after the last one and said, “What happened is in the past. I was not chased and you did not hunt.” She goes over to one of the felid mice and brings her over. “On this world we have wonderful children like this one. If we were not chased off that world in our far past, this child would not exist. I am told that at the site of Rubin King’s cave ruins a sign saying ‘please forgive us’. I now require you to take that sign down and replace it with ‘forgiven’.”

She smiles at them and walks away with a bounce in her step.

That world is now another goblin protected sanctuary for the freed. The residents welcome all but the new comers sit for the history. The shame that led to the world as it is now. Be there for peace and live in peace.