A Catian's Dream Ch. 03

She grinned at Jon when she walked into the room, her catlike footsteps gaining a noticeable sway as she put herself on display. Her shock of red hair was combed back in a teased style, giving an appearance of cultivated chaos. She tossed her locks over her shoulder as she circled the table, planting a loving kiss on Jon's cheek, pivoting at the hip and leaning over to embrace him. Jon's chest tightened, and his groin hardened. She was stunning to look at.

"Hey you." She whispered, her eyes lidded low as she flashed him a toothy grin. She reached down and adjusted his askew tie. Jon smiled and did his best to ignore the awkwardness in his gut. He was still not used to such public displays of affection in front of her fellow Pryde members. Felicia was practically sitting on his food facing him. Jon heard Zanari stifle a giggle across the table at his expense.

"...Would you mind if we spoke alone for a moment?" Jon asked. He had to struggle to restrain the urge to kiss her right then and there.

"Certainly." Felicia purred, slipping from his grasp and slinking out of the room. She took him by the hand, pulling him after her in her wake the same way she had done weeks before by the lakeside. She was enchanting to watch when she moved.

They had barely cleared the archway separating the dining room from the entry hall before Felicia had him up against the wall. She kissed him deeply, her hands clutching at his face as she mashed her lips against his. She pulled back after a breathless moment, her eyes smoldering and her lips curling into a naughty smile.

"You're getting better at that." She teased.

"As are you, Kitten." Jon retorted, swiping a thumb across her cheek. "I barely felt the bite this time."

"Gotta keep you on your toes." Felicia said, flashing him a glimpse of her pointy incisor. "It's been a while since we did that... I needed the reminder."

"I bet you did." He said, his hands trailing across her back. He felt the nervous butterflies enter into his gut again. "You look lovely this evening." Felicia's smile widened.

"I'm glad you approve. You look quite handsome in that fancy bird suit." She purred, sliding against his body with the smoothness of two puzzle pieces fitting together in perfect symmetry. Her arms went around his shoulders as she straddled him. He felt her simmering body heat against his skin, her fingers curling through his hair. For a half second, he thought she was going to grope him. Thankfully, the Catian refrained from such overt exhibitionism.

Jon's face heated. "Listen... I wanted to ask-"

"Yes. I'm braless." Felicia said, laughing.

Jon smirked, "Cute, Kitten. But not quite what I was angling at." He reached down into his pocket and produced a set of holo-chits, displaying his gift to her. "I wanted to surprise you. The Catian Government had these issued to me on request. Had to scramble to get a reservation in time."

Felicia's eyes widened with interest. "What are those?" She tried to grab the holo-chits out of his hands but he pulled away. She let out a little squeal of delight and hugged tighter to him, trying to snatch them from his grasp. "C'mon, tell me what it is!"

"A 'cultural exchange' I believe they called it. You would know better than I would." Jon replied, stepping out of her immediate space so she could see what he held up to her. "It's an invitation to the Uidano Temple ceremony this evening."

Felicia's eyes lit up. "The Yalnoi Festival?" Jon nodded. She broke out into a wide smile. "Oh, that's wonderful, Jon! You'll have so much fun there!"

Jon paused. "...I will have so much fun?"

Felicia nodded, her face growing apologetic, "I already had plans with the pryde tonight. Beimei is off of work for the first time in a month. She and I have been planning a night out for several weeks now. I was just heading out the door to meet her when I saw you sitting down to dinner."

Jon's heart sank. "Oh." He said, annoyed at his failure to hide his disappointment.

"I'm sorry love. I wish I'd known about it sooner, I've always wanted to go." Felicia said, granting him a sympathetic smile. She leaned in and planted a wet kiss on his lips. "You go have fun though; it's an experience like no other."

One I was hoping to share with you. He almost blurted out. But the diplomat in him refused to be so discourteous. Instead he returned the loving kiss and pulled away. "You as well," He said, his quivering hands adjusting and re-adjusting his tie to symmetrical perfection. "Make sure Beimei knows what she made you miss out on."

"Oh, I will." She said, her eyes lidding low as she blew him a kiss. "And I expect a full report on your escapades at the Temple when I return..." She allowed the innuendo to hang in the air.

Jon chuckled. "I shall do that, Kitten."

"Have a fun time, Jon." She said, waving goodbye as she opened the front door. Jon watched her as she went, a low sense of helplessness creeping into his chest.

"You too, Felicia." He said as the door closed in front of him. He stood for a moment staring at the empty entryway, then made his way back to the dining room.

He felt Rikka, Serana, and Zanari's eyes lingering on him as he took his seat with as much grace as he could manage.

"What was all that about, Jon?" Rikka asked, smirking.

"Nothing." Jon responded. He realized they were all staring at him. He sighed. "I asked Felicia to join me for the Yalnoi Festival. She... was busy."

Jon ignored the awkward looks as he took his seat, feeling suddenly short of breath. In his absence Rikka had served his dinner, laying out his place with silverware and napkins. Looking out across the table, Jon saw he was the only one with such a setup. Catians were curious with their culinary habits, forgoing forks and knives in place of their fingers and claws. Dinners with the Pryde more often resembled a massacre than a meal.

"So," Rikka said, tearing apart her leg of roasted Kryll before biting a deep gash into the thigh. She chewed for a moment before continuing her thought, "How much do you know about the Yalnoi Festival?"

"Not much." Jon said, stirring his faux-broccoli with a fork as he debated whether he was hungry enough to actually eat the meal Rikka had prepared for him, anymore. "The NAA's briefing pamphlet on the subject was surprisingly light on details. It's supposed to be some kind of feast?"

Zanari smiled from across the table. "Not anymore. More of a celebration of feasting. Count yourself lucky Jon: in the original ritual, the food in question was consumed raw... and live."

Jon swallowed, "Just what am I getting myself into with this 'cultural exchange' of yours?"

"Nothing too serious." Zanari said, cutting a delicate line down her Kryll leg with her fingernail and tearing off a strip. "The Yalnoi Festival has lost a lot of its more primitive rituals over the years. At this point, it's more of a fun custom than an actual religious practice."

"Did Felicia stand you up, Jon?" Sereana piped up. She took her own leg of meat in both hands, leaning her head down to savage the leg with her teeth. Jon heard the crack of bone as she reached the center and chewed into the marrow.

"Sirri, manners!" Zanari scolded her. It took Jon a moment to realize she was referring to her sister's probing question, and not her ferocious method of eating. Zanari shot a sympathetic smile at Jon. "If I didn't have a briefing to give to the Senate tonight Jon, I'd ask if I could accompany you to the festival in my Pryde-mate's stead."

"I'll go with you." Rikka piped up. She set down her food and fixed Jon with a solemn stare. "Think of it as my chance to make it up to you for cooking your Chi-ik-Een so badly."

"...What?" Jon asked, glancing down at his breaded chicken for a moment in confusion.

Rikka laughed, "The pryde isn't fond of overly-cooked meals, so I never learned the proper culinary skill. I obviously overcooked the meat, otherwise you wouldn't be picking at it like a Long-fingered Joishashi trying to get at a Xyboxe hive."

"Oh! No, you cooked it well." Jon lied. In truth, the 'broccoli' tasted more like rancid spinach. He stirred the mushy food around on the plate once more in two or three awkward spirals. "I'm just... not particularly hungry this evening."

"No need to be polite at my expense." Rikka said, her round cheeks spreading out into a wide smile. "It's not like I'd know what it tastes like, anyway."

* * *

The whirring pulse of the automated hovercar's boosters kicked in just as the vehicle cleared the upper reaches of the skyscraper-sized Liger Tree, a red streak of speed zipping through the muggy jungle air. The Temple complex that they were headed to was located deep within the Jungle's interior, nearly a hundred miles distant from the Capital City. It was accessible only by air, much to Jon's chagrin.

He looked out, staring at the massive Liger Tree, whose very existence seemed to defy all Earthly logic. The tree's far-reaching branches stretched out across hundreds of feet, an interconnected webway of entwined fingers and vines, each thicker than a normal Earthen tree trunk. They formed tiers, rings of foliage like steps up a 360° ladder.

An ecosystem of life spent its entire existence atop the enormous alders. As the car passed by, a great flock of Kryll took off as one, the four-legged avians leaping from their perches on the topmost tier of the tree, trailing along behind the car with their twin sets of thin, membranous wings. A riotous conflagration of red, blue, and turquoise plumage shimmered as the trailing rays of moonlight peeked through the dense ceiling like peepholes in a cavernous dungeon, spattering across their wingspans in flashes of vibrant color.

It was a strange sight: the darkness of the canopy above was so absolute that it seemed almost like a void in the sky, yet betwixt the large leaves were small openings that shifted and swayed. From this angle, it almost seemed like the Liger Tree was raining starlight. Jon was in awe.

"It's amazing, isn't it?" Rikka commented from behind him, leaning forward in the back seat. Her hand reached out past his shoulder to point through the windshield at the Kryll. "They fly in perfect formation with the hovercar. They even color-coordinate!"

Sure enough, as Jon looked he saw a pair of yellow-winged birds flying at the very tips of the V in the wake of the hovercar, their golden feathers shimmering in the light.

Despite his dark mood, Jon allowed himself to smile. "Catia is a wonder."

The hovercar that was transporting them to the remote Uidano Temple complex was barely bigger than an old taxi back home, with roughly the same accommodations. Jon adjusted the buckle around his chest, feeling constricted in the small confines. "Are we sure this thing is safe?" He asked, giving a nervous laugh. The vehicle was a bit small for his stature; Jon could feel the barest hint of the hovercar's roof brushing against the top of his head.

"Perfectly so." Rikka said, "We punched in the destination and landing pad, we'll be fine."

Jon adjusted his tie. "Forgive me, I'm a bit paranoid when I fly."

In the shadows Rikka smiled, "So I've heard. Sirri told me about your escapades to Taishei Station."

"...Of course she did." Jon said, letting out a huff of air. Catians were incorrigible gossips. He didn't dare to wonder what lurid secrets Felicia had already revealed to the rest of her pryde about him.

Jon looked out the window with a sullen expression, the Deepforest's uneven terrain and far reaching foliage stretching on into the interminable horizon past the artificial darkness of the canopy. Rikka's hand was on her chin, her face empty of expression as she stared out the window to his right. Jon felt the encroaching feeling of an awkward silence, and moved to head it off before it became oppressive.

"Catia has much more woodland than Earth does." He remarked.

"We do our best to preserve the Mother Garden." Rikka answered, "She is, after all, our home."

"Do you visit the Jungle often?" Jon asked.

"No." Rikka said, letting out a laugh. "I'm a terrible survivalist. Haven't spent more than a week at most under the shade of a Liger Tree. Sirri thrives in these kinds of situations. Beimei too. I barely know my head from my tail."

"That's a shame," He continued. "I loved camping in the woods on Earth when I was a kid. We don't have anything close to these kinds of woodlands back on Earth. Our tallest trees are maybe three hundred feet or so at the most, and even they are pretty rare."

"The Jungle is a wonderful place." Rikka said, "A wonderful, dangerous place. If you aren't careful, you can end up as prey."

"Well," Jon said, staring out at the wide canopy of green as the hovercar began its final descent, "Hopefully it won't come to that tonight. I'd hate to die wearing a tux."

The hovercar's anti-grav boosters kicked in as it stopped into a hover, then began to descend like a vertical elevator. Jon watched as the Temple of Uidano came into view.

It was a long, complex, built of a thick, ancient stone several feet thick. It was a streak of grey in the otherwise sharp colors of green in the night. The overall shape of the temple was in the shape of a capital I, surrounded by walls overgrown with moss and vines. On one end was a tall, two story stone structure in a pyramid like shape. On the other end was a broad pavilion where a large cluster of oddly colored trees gathered in a copse.

The Hovercar lowered down into a small parking zone less than a mile from the Temple, where dozens of vehicles were packed together in narrow spaces on the open grass. Jon felt a grateful weight beneath his feet as the hovercar landed on its skids and he unbuckled from his seat.

He emerged into the muggy night air and immediately regretted his choice in clothing. The air was hot and humid, sticking to his skin like sweat. No trails led from the city to this place, but a single, winding track stretched into the forest, leading to the Temple. He took a deep breath through his nose.

"Aah." He exhaled, tasting the planet's air. It was strange; there was an almost discernible sensation when he inhaled. This air was not like anything he had ever breathed back home. Jon guessed that it was the slight excess of nitrogen content in the atmosphere compared to Earth, or perhaps it was just the psychosomatic knowledge that the air itself was not of his home planet.

Rikka slinked out of the car as well, looking around with a sudden, sharp awareness of the world. There was an immediate change in herbody posture, her spine bending forward like an animal having been released into the wild. He saw her inner instincts kick in, returning to some primordial place in her subconscious brain. Her furry brown ears twitched this way and that, listening to sounds beyond the periphery of Jon's paltry senses.

"Hear something?" He said, stepping up to her. Rikka had foregone covering leggings, and instead opted for a set of yellow spandex booty shorts, a matching black tube top, and functional looking hiking shoes. Catians never seemed comfortable with anything more than minimalist clothing. Her fat brown tail sat just above the edgeline of her shorts, swaying back and forth as she sniffed at something in the air. She didn't respond to his question.

"Rikka?" Jon asked again. Her eyes snapped back to him, as if remembering where she was. He saw something red pass across her cheeks before she turned away from him quickly.

"No." she said, "Jus uh... instincts kicking in." Without preemption the Catian began to walk up the trail. "Let's go." Jon followed.

The trail they were following was narrow like a needle, allowing only one person at a time to trudge through the thick foliage that surrounded them. There were colors here he didn't expect to see: red ferns, pink bundles of mossy texture growing from bushes, flowers as big as his hand of a glorious sky blue and yellow.

As they walked Jon asked Rikka about the different species, and she chattered to him about what she knew. It soon became apparent she was about as well versed in botany as he was, but at least she knew the basics well enough to get the gist of the idea.

As Jon walked he felt his mood darken. He watched the enchanting sway of Rikka's wide hips as she led the way through the trail, and felt a pang of guilt at the way they managed to draw his eye. He grew quiet as Rikka continued on, pointing out this plant or that tree, describing what it was.

At last, after a long silence, Rikka looked at him askance. "...Something tells me you'd rather be taking this walk with someone else, right now." She murmured. Jon sighed, staring at the bleak cover of the night foliage above him with an impotent feeling in his chest. He started to speak, but closed his mouth. It took him a moment to find the right words.

"Have you ever found yourself in that awkward position, where you suddenly realize you're ten feet deep into a situation and you have no idea where you're going?" He asked, picking his way through a stand of bushy brush that hung over the trail like a set of floral shower curtains.

"Of course," Rikka responded. "You ever hear Beimei talk about work? One minute of her blathering about 'acculturation' and 'disease vectors,' and my head starts to spin."

Jon frowned, remembering with a certain discomfort the thought of Felicia leaving him that evening for Beimei. He knew it wasn't fair to be jealous of their relationship, but...

"I suppose that's the crux of the matter, isn't it?" Jon said.

"What is?"

"Beimei. Your Pryde-mate." Jon said, picking his words with care.

Rikka said nothing for a moment. She slowed down, cutting off to one side of the path so that she could walk side by side with Jon. She wasn't quite as sleek in her movements as her Pryde-mates when moving through the undergrowth, but her footsteps still betrayed a Catian's furtive grace.

"...Did you know Jon, when a Catian joins a Pryde of her own, she often goes to each of her Pryde-mate's paternal Prydes to speak with their parents about the engagement?"

Jon was caught off guard for a moment by the sudden shift in topic. He recovered quickly. "Humans have a similar custom. Though I guess it's a bit less taxing than yours, given that we only have one set of parents to meet."

Rikka nodded, "I figured as much. Despite our superficial differences, Humans have a remarkably similar family structure to our own." She clambered over an overturned tree, "When I first joined our Pryde, I went to each of the families alone - except for Beimei of course, wayward stray that she is."

Their walk became a leisurely stroll as they moved between the thick foliage. The 'trail' was more akin to deep jungle, with only the moon and stars in the gap of the canopy above to guide their way. Thick roots from some monolithic tree rumbled up from the ground in front of them, creating a dangerous hump of ground upon the narrow path that could trip up the unwary. It was good that the moonlight filtered through the break in the trees as it did, as otherwise Jon would have been unable to find his way. Rikka seemed not to mind the dim light in the least.

"Felicia's was the last one I went to. It was about the family that you'd expect from her: a loud, raucous Catian household. Thirteen kids, with two more on the way, all of whom had to be shared between six mothers and one father. Her house was loud and social, always filled with the comings and goings of the parents, her elder and younger siblings, to say nothing of the little Kitts." Rikka laughed, "It put even my big family to shame. I have to admit I actually felt a bit jealous of her: she was her daddy's favorite. Both of them engineers, obsessed with tinkering - as you well know."