Part 3

‘Wha- What’s going on? My mind feels so… sluggish.’ I tried sitting up, only to find that I couldn’t; my body was barely responding at all. Looking down I found my fuzzy paws weak and trembling. ‘Paws… that thought feels wrong… somehow. Where is mama? I’m so cold… and hungry. I couldn’t place what was wrong; despite everything, I actually felt a lot better than I had in quite a while. No more burning, no more pain…  memories from those days spent slowly wasting away made me shiver in fright. But now that was over! I could feel new strength flow through my body; I was ready for all this world could throw at me!

Nearby I could smell my siblings. ‘Siblings? I have siblings? They smell so similar to me though, so perhaps it is right? I crawled forward, still a little wobbly but I was getting more sure with each step. I had always wanted to play with my siblings… but I had been so weak before. With a happy smile, I approached the other cubs. Though when they saw me coming closer all three backed away from me! They were smaller than me now, even if they had all been bigger before.

‘Wait. This… this is wrong! I am not a cat! What is happening… why am I so certain that they are my siblings? They look… different than me!’ I looked down at my paws – no these were hands – again. While they too were covered in brown greenish fur my digits where much longer and more dexterous than my siblings'. ‘My… my hands! When did I grow fur… or claws!? Monster me! WHAT DID YOU DO!?’

I roared in anger as I rose to my feet. The cubs backed away in panic but I barely paused to pay them any mind. Something far more important had to taken care of right now. The other me, the one that had given me bird feet… she had changed me again!

“This harlot!” I screamed into the cave. “Show yourself you monster! Face my wrath!”

“What?” She asked in a tired voice.

“You! You did it again!” I couldn’t help but growl at her.

“Hush queenie… you're scaring the little ones.” She wasn’t even taking me seriously!

“No, I am not!”

I turned around to prove my point only to see three cubs stare at me with wide almost terrified eyes. ‘Why are they scared of me? We’re siblings… No, we are not! Well, technically their sister is inside of us.’ Excuse me? What is that even supposed to mean in the first place? As far as I was concerned, it should have been pretty obvious if I had a cat inside me. But I didn’t hear any mewling from my body and I was obviously still hungry. In other words, it was impossible for me to have a cat in me! ‘Then what are the cubs' names? Well, that one is pretty easy. From left to right is Reika, Joran, and Isumdra. Isu always likes to lick me! Wait… how do I know this? Well…’

“Ahhhhh! I have a cat in me! Oh, gods! You stupid monster me! Take it out! Take it out!”

At the same terrified and unsure as to what to do, I began pulling on my dress, as if that would somehow help. Unsurprisingly it didn’t! Instead of magically expelling the cat's thoughts all I managed to do was shred my already savaged dress even more. This was no good! I couldn’t continue this way and risk destroying my dress; after all, it was the only royal thing that I had left… now that I had lost both my shoes and my crown.

No, no, no. There had to be a solution to my predicament. All of a sudden it came to me, the best course of action one could even think about: If wearing my dress risked destroying it, then I just had to take it off! ‘Actually… how does one take off a dress? Do I just demand it off? … okay, yeah that obviously won’t work! Could have seen that coming. Shu- Shut up me! It’s not like you know how to get this thing off! You know what!? What?’ Ugh, the other me was so ignorant, how I wished I could properly glare at her! But for now, I could just ignore her childish comments and focus on my grandiose plan; namely pulling my dress off by hand!

I made care not to nick the delicate fabric with these ridiculous claws of mine and started ruffling up all of the half dozen or so skirts. Seriously, who had designed this ridiculous outfit? Six skirts? Was one more royal the more skirts one wore? I couldn’t help but giggle when I imagined some woman in so many skirts she could even move. ‘Silly humans!’ With a barely hidden smirk, I grabbed onto the mass of cloth and pulled!

“RIIIIIP!”

‘Oh, no, no no! By all the gods in existence – even if I can’t recall their names – how could I have been so stupid!?’ Both distraught and utterly crestfallen I looked upon the remnants of what once used to be a beautiful dress. Somehow – despite using my utmost care – I had ripped the skirts right of the rest of the dress! For some stupid reason, the top of my dress hadn’t even budged! I stop myself from pathetically clawing had the stiff cover over most of my upper body.

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Just who had designed such a stupid thing!? I mean I couldn’t even bend properly – not to mention that breathing wasn’t as easy as I had expected to be. Perhaps this was some form of torture devices? Because even if I couldn’t remember anything about my time before the cave, I was rather certain that my body was supposed to be more nimble than this stiff cloth thing allowed for!

‘Stupid dress… you are by far my least favorite royal clothing… thing! At least the shoes redeemed themselves after injuring me! They killed a bird-thing but you only expose my butt to everyone, weigh me down and now you even rip without my permission! Why don’t we just get rid of it? That… is actually a brilliant idea! I hate it and what I hate isn’t allowed to exist! Good job me! Yay~.’

“Dress!”, I loudly declared into the cave. “As well as stiff cloth thing! I hereby sentence you to permanent exile!” And under the adoring eyes of my subjects – also known has possibly-my-siblings – I brandished my new – and totally awesome – claws and ripped into the offender!

I was actually quite positively surprised as to the sharpness of my – new and improved! – nails; they did a superb job of rending the corset – haha, that was its name, I remember now! Now, what I hadn’t expected was for the stupid thing to literally explode! I had scarcely damaged the fabric when all of a sudden with several rips and pops the whole thing flew right off of me – and right onto one of the other cubs. Sorry, Isumdra!

Another thing I hadn’t quite expected was the, well, jiggling of my own body. Not only where my breasts quite a bit bigger and softer than I had assumed but my midriff wasn’t flat at all! In all honesty, where ever I had been before the cave, they certainly had a lot of food – at least if my chubby tummy was any indication. I poked myself; no wonder I was having problems breathing if so much of me had been tied up like a sausage.

While this revelation hadn't been what I had expected, I did make me a bit happy. I liked being soft! The cat-me – the one monster-me had introduced into the mess that was my brain – had always been malnourished and sickly, but now I was big, had beautiful hair, really healthy and pretty tan skin, and to top it all of I simply looked amazing! Looking down at my body I was certain of it: I was by far more beautiful then my siblings and I was so going to rub it in! ‘Actually that thought feels quite familiar… I wonder why?’

Before I could do that though, I had to take care of the really annoying pressure in my lower back. The heck was going on back there? ‘I could swear that I can feel something moving around in my knickers. That would be our tail. A tail? Well, yes. Cats have tails, so we also have a tail now. I… guess that makes sense?’ Unsure on how to properly react, I m simply grabbed into my underwear and pull the long furry appendage through one of the leg holes. Unsurprisingly it was the same greenish-brown as the rest of my hair. Though I had to smile when I saw that it was quite a bit more fluffy than the ones of my siblings.

“Hmmm… it’s a bit boring like that, isn’t it? Ah, I have an idea!”, I exclaimed happily and went over to the remnants of my dress. Taking several strips of fabric and some of the jewelry off it I sat on the soft ground and began working on my new adornment. A few minutes later I was finally finished, now the tip of my tail was wrapped in several pretty bows with some of the jewelry dangling down from it! It was a bit heavy perhaps, but that was okay; after all, it was far more important that I made my queenliness known! Nobody should ever think me a simple… whatever-I-was, no I was fancy!

“Well?” I asked my siblings while walking towards them. “How do you like my new look? I am quite stunning, am I not?”

The three stalker cubs looked at each other confused before two of them just decided to ignore me! How dare they? I was most fabulous and they didn’t even deign to comment on it? Ugh… those two were such… peasants! At least I still had Isumdra, unlike our boorish siblings she was quite enamored with my looks. Well, and the corset that still lay upon her. Deciding to indulge her curiosity, I twirled around and struck a few poses so that she could see my glorious body from all angles. I was just about to bend over and lift the corset from her when she did something quite unexpected!

She actually mimicked me! Instead of just watching me she got on her back legs and tried to move the same way that I did. Of course, she couldn’t do it, as I was far superior but it was still rather entertaining to watch. By now I also had figured out what had her so interested, it wasn’t my pretty undergarments or even my stylish accessories. She actually seemed far more fixated on my breast; while that did make me a bit uncomfortable, I obviously couldn’t admit that! Instead, I dropped to all four and assumed a haughty expression.

“Ha! Like what you see? Well, you’ll never be able to have your own, 'cause you’re just a cat! Only queens get to have such a perfect body! At… least I think that is how it works?”

Once more my idiotic brain had failed me! ‘Maybe cats do get breast? I don’t think mama cat had breasts… but the small plant woman – that thieving vermin – she did have very small breasts. Hmmm… I have yet to see anything with as much padding as me, so perhaps being soft and well-fed is a trait of only queens?’ I was suddenly ripped out of my very important thoughts when I felt a light touch on my bosom. Looking down my eyes fell upon Isu who was gently kneading my breasts!

“Wha- What are you doing?” I couldn’t help but blush a little at her touch.

As if she had understood me she looked up with a happy grin and… spoke! “You’re very soft now, Ari!”

Before my mind could even comprehend what the heck had just happened, the rustling of nearby plants made me look up. In the entrance of the cave stood the very cat-monster I had run from earlier. Only now she was holding some sort of deer in her mouth that easily dwarfed even me! With a wet thump, the carcass dropped to the ground and my eyes were drawn to the sharp fangs covered in blood. Mama cat's eyes narrowed upon seeing me.

“Isu! What’s going on here? Why are you bothering your little sister?”

‘Oh my gods! I can understand cats!!!’