Hey folks. You don't get a real chapter this week, BUT you do get a very brief (~600 word) teaster. It is the first draft of the first part of a chapter. I am only including the parts that are not a spoiler, so you have no context for when or where this chapter piece takes place. Anyway, I really feel bad about the lack of posting, so as recompense, I am giving you this shorty. I hope you enjoy:

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He didn’t understand humans. They made everything so… hard. The way he did things was so much better. In fact, he figured that if all humans just copied how he and his sister did things, they would be much better off.

He wanted things, and she got or did them for him. It was so simple.

When he had an itch and needed a scritch, he pushed that part of him against a human. Then they scritched it. Well, sometimes they missed it and he had to move, which was annoying, but humans were only humans after all.

The same was true when it was time for his sister to feed him. He let her know and she did it. Playtime too, although that was usually his other helpers lately. Humans made for great helpers when they paid attention to him. Other times they were just bothersome.

Life was so much simpler as a beast. A cat specifically. That metal dog wasn’t totally terrible, but still not as good him, being a cat.

At least he isn’t a human though. Humans were so ridiculous. For example, they only seemed to nap once a day. Utterly mad! Who does that? Nap times were the best times of day. Especially with his sister. She was comfy and sweet and smelled good. Familiar. Not like his mom, but a little like his… dad.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Bai didn’t really remember his parents in the normal way he remembered things. They were more like things he just… knew. The way his father’s stripes appeared on his fur, the way his mother’s eyes glowed, and more than anything else, the way they smelled. It was how his sister smelled.

He knew he looked like a mix of his mom and dad, which explained why everyone told him he was so handsome and amazing. Which he was – it was obvious to anyone. Trying not to be sad, Bai thought of other things he remembered by didn’t know how. There were a lot of things like that, which was why he was so smart and great.

He knew how to stalk and hunt and kill. That was pretty great. He was really quiet when he did that. When he hunted alone, sometimes the poor prey toys fought back and that was funny and entertaining. Sometimes, when he was really really focused, he could even make energy go and did special things to play with his prey. He also sometimes used it to get out of that boring place he slept in cause he wanted to be near his sister and their friends. But that was hard and he always got so tired afterwards.

Not like when he was his sister and practicing some of the other hard things they did. When he hunted with her, it a lot harder than by himself because they always went after things that had powers too. He wished he could use power like them, but it was still hard. He would soon, but not yet. He couldn’t wait to play with his living toys when he could let them escape and them not know he was there the whole time. That will be SOOOO fun! But even without it, he was able to do fun things with his toys now and his sister usually praised him. According to his non-human friends, they were great too even though gave the worst scritches, they like to… eat their toys. Blech! That is so gross!

Instead he played with his toys because that was what toys were for. He was smart like that. Toys were for playing, his sister was for feeding. And scritches. And sharing naps. It was simple. Bai didn’t hold it against his friends, or make them feel dumb or anything, but he knew he was just smarter than them.

Yeah, he was amazing, which is why he deserved so many scritches and pets and nap times.