Shiori's first memories were of being abandoned. She hadn't yet had a name, only knowing herself as herself. Her mother that had raised disappeared one day. The mewing cries of herself and her littermates were ignored. One by one, they crawled out of their den, mewing, searching for mother. And one by one, her littermates vanished, leaving her alone. Her belly full of milk quickly disappeared and she grew hungry, and thirsty. She left the den, the last of her litter to do so, crawling out of the dark to search for mother, for her littermates.

What she found instead was a giant girl with dark purple hair crouching down in front of her, hand extended in greeting. The girl smelled strange, new, dangerous. She'd hissed and swatted at the girl's hand, her back arched and tail puffing out to increase her size, show that she was to be feared and respected. She had expected a scream or a yell of anger, prepared for a fight. She hadn't expected to be given food.

The girl held a something out to her. She sniffed the thing, feeling a wet dot on her nose as she got too close. The thing smelled delicious, not like her mother's milk, but something her instincts told her would be almost as good. She licked the thing and tasted a delicious gob of something. She kept licking, until all the gobs were gone. She mewed at the giant in front of her, demanding more of the delicious gobs, and another soon appeared. She continued to lick gob after gob until her stomach was full and she felt tired, sleepy.

She awoke again pressed against something warm. Mother? No, the warmth was different, the fur strange. She opened her eyes and looked up to see the giant from before carrying her somewhere. The world outside the den smelled different, sounded different. Too many different things. Things her instincts couldn't tell her about.

The giant girl brought her to a new den, a new home with other giants and full of warm wood and cold, humming metal. She was given a name. Shiori. A guide. And a title. Ship's cat. The other giants were kind, offering food and toys and attention. She grew bigger, stronger. The giants were still giant to her, but less so. They gave her plenty of food and love, and she in turn protected them from the squeaking intruders that dared to invade their home. She protected her family.

The purple haired girl was her sister, barely more than a kitten herself. They grew together, and her sister taught her. Words. Tricks. Magic. Shiori soon learned her sister's name, Shari.

Time passed and they grew, Shiori quicker than Shari. They played together, learned together, worked together.

Until the day they didn't. Things changed, and Shiori was alone again.

Shiori continued to grow stronger and learn more, about magic, about herself, about the world and beyond.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Time passed. Too much time. Much of it alone.

A small disturbance in the fabric of the world pulled Shiori out of her musing as she raised her head up from her ledge in the cave. Her den that she had claimed through might. The disturbance pulled at her so she left to investigate, to sate her curiosity.

She could feel the pulsing of the fabric quickening then suddenly tear as a hole was ripped through it. A young human girl fell out of the rift and landed in the meadow as Shiori watched from a tree. She had purple hair. Shari?!

Shiori prowled closer, focusing all of her attention on the girl. It had been so long. It couldn't be her. She approached, her eyes glowing as she peered into the girl's soul. It was strange. Different. Interesting. The girl stuck her hand out at Shiori, reminding her once more of Shari. She sniffed the girl's hand, and it smelled familiar, comforting, but different.

Memories of a time and place long in the past came up unbidden and Shiori purred for the first time in a long time. Memories of a girl with purple hair much like the one in front of her, delicious food, and a comforting hand.

The girl's name was Jun. She was grown for a kitten, but still young, weak, and naive. Shiori was no longer a kitten, but the girl in front of her was. She took the kitten to her den, prepared the things she knew the human girl would need, and fed her.

She let the kitten experience her first taste of conflict, but Shiori had miscalculated. Her kitten was not ready and had gotten hurt, but she still managed to chase off the kobold. She trained the girl, and she learned quickly, far quicker than Shiori had as a kitten.

Days turned into weeks as the kitten Jun learned and blossomed, until she fell ill. The illness was nothing new to Shiori, but she had forgotten about it. Shari had suffered the same illness many times, as did the other human women Shiori had known. But she'd never learned much about treating it. She knew the herbs to ease pain and speed recovery. Magics that could help with the symptoms, but little about the illness itself, nor how to be a human woman.

Little Jun cannot live with just her alone in her den. She needed more. Memories of the human town outside of the forest came to mind. It was a young town. Certainly younger than Shiori. It would be perfect for Jun to enrich herself, learn more about being human from other humans.

Decided, Shiori packed up her kitten's things and they set off. The journey would be long for little Jun, but important to her growth. Shiori guided her through the forest, first to Sun Wind's Fall, where she would introduce little Jun to her family. Shari and Jun would have gotten along well.

The introduction was interrupted, though Shiori had a feeling it would be. She dealt with the obsessed reptile that stalked her kitten. He would serve to temper her little Jun, her kitten and apprentice. But she still needed time to grow and learn. A year should be enough time.

The remaining trip through the forest was uneventful. Shiori guided Jun through the use of her magic, teaching her what she could about how to use magic in a fight and introducing her to combat beyond simple hunting. Much of what Shiori knew instinctively could not be taught or little Jun was not ready for, but she would be one day. It just required building a proper foundation.

A day before they would reach the human town, Shiori sensed something. An opportunity for little Jun. She subtly altered their course, guiding little Jun forward. Towards a new opportunity.