Shedra groaned quietly and slowly opened her eyes, before looking around with a confused expression. 'Where...?'
It took her a moment to notice the movement between her legs. She looked down and saw the young WildKat caretaker,
taping up a fresh diaper, before looking up and meeting her gaze with a smile.
For some reason, Shedra could only smile and giggle in response, feeling genuine joy from being smiled at by her.
"Now that you're awake, how about meeting the other kittens? Do you want to go meet your new friends?"
Shedra enthusiastically nodded, while sucking on her pacifier, barely even thinking about what the can had said.
All she heard was 'new friends', making images of a cartoon cat flash through her mind, before immediately disappearing again,
and suddenly she couldn't wait to meet and make friends with the other kittens. 'Other kittens? But i'm a Dragon. Something feels wrong...'
But those thoughts quickly faded as she sucked on her pacifier. "Now, let's get you out of the crib so we can head to the playroom."
The caretaker cat opened the side of the crib and grabbed Shedra's had, gently giving it a few tugs, prompting her to follow.
As the two of them walked down the hallway again, Shedra thought back to earlier.
'Why did i think of myself a kitten? Something is definitively wrong about that... but what?'
Shedra suddenly felt like she was getting a headache. 'I'm a dragon, right? So thinking of myself as a kitten wrong?'
The headache got worse as she thought about it. 'I'm Dragon not a kitten. But... kitten is baby? Draggy is baby? Draggy kitty?'
Her headache got worse and worse, until she shook her head. 'Hurt, no think.'
She sucked on her pacifier and the headache slowly got better, until it disappeared completely.
'Wait, what was i thinking about?' Suddenly, Shedra and the cat stopped in front of a door. "Are you ready to meet your friends?"
Shedra thought for a moment, before nodding. 'That's probably what i was thinking about.'
The caretaker cat opened the door, revealing a colorful room, filled with toys, that she lead Shedra into, stopping in front of a short fence,
behind which Shedra could see several tiny shapes moving around. "Everyone, come over, we have a new friend!"
She opened the fence, leading Shedra inside, and closed it again behind her, before turning to the tiny cats that were gathering around her.
"Alright everyone, let me introduce a new friend to you all. This is Shedra. Now, i know she looks big, but please be nice to her."
The cat was about to continue, when she saw one of the kittens raise her hand. "Yes, Millie?" "Why doesn't she have fur?"
"That's because she's not a cat, she's a dragon. But that doesn't mean you should treat her any different. She's one of you, even if she doesn't look the same. Its just like how you and Maple have different fur colors."
Shedra noticed how one of the cats, who was red with a white, vaguely maple leaf-shaped pattern on his body, was suddenly pouting.
"Now, i'll leave so you can all get to know each other, so please get along." The caretaker cat left the fence-in area, and,
after hesitating a moment, the room as well, leaving Shedra alone with the kittens.
Most of the kittens quickly lost interest and got back to playing with their toys, with the exception of a small group, that included Millie, Maple and three others. "I told her she should call me Claw, not Maple." The red kitten was clearly peeved, pointing to the pattern.
"It's clearly a claw, right? And Maple sounds way too girly anyway!" The light brown kitten called Millie smiled at him. "I think its cute!"
"Hmph!" Maple (Claw?) turned away from Millie and looked at Shedra. "Whatever! Shedra, right? She said we should take care of you,
so as the oldest one, i'll take responsibility." "Why you? You're only a week older than me! I want to take care of her too!"
It seemed Millie had taken an immediate liking to Shedra. "Fine, you can take care of her too. But a week older is still older!"
The other three kittens had dispersed at some point while the red and light brown kittens were talking, leaving Shedra alone with them.
"...so you can call me big bro!" Shedra realized that Maple had started talking to him at some point, but only managed to catch the last few words, making her subconsciously repeat them. "Ig bwo?" She immediately realized her mistake.
'Luckily the pacifier made me mispronounce it. Wait, why am i not supposed to talk? I'm sure it was important...'
Unfortunately, the small red cat snapped her out of her toughts, before she could remember.
"...just tell your big bro Claw if you have any problems!" "Or tell big sis Millie!" He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, i guess you could tell her too."
Millie narrowed her eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means that i'm older and she should come to me!" "By a Week!"
"Still older." The red cat said in an exceptionally smug tone. "Anyway, talking to you is boring. Let's go see which toys are still free."
Millie crossed her arms. "You're only saying that now so you can pretend you've won." "Still older!" "You can't just keep repeating that!"
She was about to follow Maple, who had started to walk away, when she stopped and turned back towards Shedra.
"Come on, we'll show you around!" Shedra, unsure of what else to do, followed Millie over to where Maple was waiting.