EXCERPTS FOR EVERYONE

3 😄

"Baby"?

A soft mew was his answer as the tiny shape, hidden in the dark by his soft black fur, slunk through the bars of the cell, holding a small object in his equally tiny mouth. His azure-on-powder blue eyes, dimmed only by ever-round pupils that looked like black glass marbles, seemed to stare right into his soul as the shape padded up to his bunk and dropped the small nub close to his hand, nudging it forward earnestly.

Arms numb from the cuffs, Astra grunted as he struggled to sit up, clutching the nub as he did. He blinked his darkness-blinded eyes a few times, trying to see what it was. It was a piece of bread, old but otherwise safe to eat, and digest. Hunger wracked his insides, but even then Astra forced himself to eat it at a moderate pace so as not to scare the little straggler in his cell anymore than he already was. He bit down on the nub, chewed on the bitten piece and then placed it back on the stone floor, pushing it towards the kitten.

"Don't want", was the Alien Magma kitten's petulant reply.

"You must eat, baby", Astra urged him weakly. "You need your strength, or else you will not be strong".

"Star prince...too weak...too thin", the kitten murmured in whatever bit of English he knew, pawing the stone floor aggressively. "Star prince must eat, then have strength to fight. Not eat...then no strength...cannot escape cell".

The words felt like a clod of dirt lobbed directly into his face, but even then Astra willed himself to not eat the other half of the bread. He couldn't let the kitten starve...or was he starving?

"You still have to eat something", Astra told him.

"Ate already", the kitten answered, licking his silvery lips. "Alien Magma...meat eaters".

As an emphasis, he opened his mouth as wide as his jaws would allow, showing off his set of tiny teeth that from experience Astra knew were milk canines. His lower right fang seemed to stick out a little, but with that exception, everything was fine, and even the scissor-like teeth near his inner throat looked somewhat nightmarish.

"Impressive", he whispered.

This was his daily routine now in the dreary prison. Be jaw-socked awake, tortured for information till he bled, then returned to his cell, where he recently started meeting this strange but oddly comforting kitten.

Astra couldn't exactly recall when he had met the kitten. Perhaps his groans late at night from the wounds on his body had grabbed his attention? Or he had smelt the blood flowing out? He sure had lost a lot of blood the past few months.

That begged another question as well, that is, where was such a young kitten coming from?

Astra judged him to be about four, maybe five even, assuming he stood up instead of crouching all the time so he could see his full height. The kitten didn't seem to live in the prison either, judging by the condition of his fur and mane, which, except for the thin layer of dust covering it, was remarkably clean and even shiny. He was also rather energetic, if a little bit thin, and there was a healthy gleam to his eyes and ears (which he had permitted Astra to check once). Overall, healthy.

But why was he here?

"Star prince...not real name"? he asked.

"Nay, young one. It is a title people refer to me with", Astra explained, folding his legs (with much difficulty) so the kitten had room to sit. "My real name is Astra".

"As...tra"? the kitten repeated, confused.

"Astra. Prince Astra", Astra told him.

"Astra"... the kitten murmured, shaking his soft blond mane. "I like. Nice name".

"My mother gave me the name. She thought of me as her beloved star", Astra clarified, his chest feeling heavy as he thought of his dead mother, but he was quick to snap out of it. "What about you"?

"Don't want tell", the kitten mewed.

"Why"? Astra asked.

"Don't like name", the kitten answered.

"Now then, how can you not like your name"? Astra asked him again, very much bewildered. "Surely, it is nothing to be ashamed about"?

"Prince think different once heard", the kitten mewed again, somewhat defiantly. "Prince name okay. Me? Not okay".

"Well, what is your name"? Astra pressed.

The kitten paused awhile before letting out a low-pitched purr. "Maguma".

"Maguma"? Astra murmured. "That is a lovely name".

"It mean 'let them laugh at me' in Magma tongue", the kitten named Maguma explained, wrapping his tail around himself. "Truth? Not confident. Hate when people laugh at me".

"Not now, of course. Maybe one day, you will have the confidence", Astra assured him, just as he heard a familiar clink.

"I say we better get moving lest Schaefer finds out", Kallus, the jailer muttered as he padded into the now open cell and stood in front of the incarcerated Astra. "He's not gonna like this, but then again, none of us like him either".

"Go to hell, fuzz face", Astra growled, backing up to the wall as much as his thinly frail back would allow. What was it now? Torture? Execution? If the latter was that then so be it. At least he didn't have to be a corpse with a beating heart anymore.

At least, that was what Astra thought, so Kallus's move of snapping the chains around his neck, thighs, wrists and ankles shocked him so much he was dumbstruck for a moment.

"Wha"-? Astra gasped, unable to breathe for a moment. "What is the meaning of"-?

"I'll explain later", Kallus answered brusquely as he hauled Astra up onto his feet. "Right now, we gotta haul furry and red ass and get outta here".

Astra merely complied, wincing a little as he stood on his bare feet. His skin was so dirty that the bright red and silver colours were now dimmed to bloody red and dark grey, and his ankles and wrists had swollen to twice their size. His mouth felt bone dry and his eyes could barely tell light from dark at the moment now. As he hobbled about, trying to regain his balance, he heard a loud hiss, followed by a whine. It took him a minute to recognise the hiss was Kallus's and the whine was Maguma's.

Kallus was growling at Maguma in their native tongue, seemingly saying something along the lines of 'no, you can't come with us' or 'its too dangerous, stay here', but the kitten was having none of it. He wrapped himself around Astra's twiggy legs and whined loudly, refusing to budge. He even spat and aimed a glancing bite at Kallus when the jailer reached out to pull him away by the scruff. This continued for a few minutes, then he turned to Astra.

"He wants to come with us", Kallus sighed. "I can't get him to leave, so will you allow him to come with us"?

"I will"... Astra stuttered, gathering the soft furball close to his calves. "If it makes him feel safe".

"What makes ya think he ain't safe in here"? Kallus chortled, then sobered up and padded out of the cell. "C'mon, lest we get caught".

The prison was state of the art and pretty nightmarish for almost any prisoner there, for there were motion sensors everywhere, and all kinds of security measures including terawatt strobe lights that were also equipped with blacklight bulbs, security cameras outfitted with enhancing lenses, laser beams that could slice metal panels and even all kinds of guard animals trained to detect even the faintest of movements. Nightmarish indeed.

"How did you clear the way"? Astra whispered as they tip-toed through the darkened corridors, Maguma snuggled securely in the former's arms.

"I melted half the fuses in the fusebox. You ever tried cleaning up melted plastic? Pretty sticky mess", Kallus explained jokingly as they ducked under a still-working beam. "And I sprayed some wandering livestock with predabait. It's like chocolate cake for the animals. That'll keep everyone occupied long enough for us to get outta here".

"I do not mean to complain, but why are you helping me escape"? Astra asked, wincing a bit as Maguma nuzzled his chest and accidentally hit a cut. "I am not saying you should stick me back in the cell again, but I am just curious".

"Long story short, some of us got sick of taking orders from our president, so we got to rebelling instead", Kallus responded in a tone drier than picked bones. "My pals'll fill you in on the details. Right now we gotta-DROP THAT YOU LITTLE s**t"!

Astra jumped when he shouted, then turned around to see Maguma out of his arms and on the floor, a life space rat's backside hanging out of his mouth, tail still twitching. The kitten seemed just as shocked as the prince was, but more from being caught than the actual shout.

"Does your deadass brain honestly think it's the right time for a snack"!? Kallus growled at Maguma. "Spit it out. We have to move".

"Mmmfffggg", Maguma tried to answer in protest, but his voice was muffled by the rat.

"Spit it out, you little crotch goblin", Kallus spat at the kitten. "We have to go. Don't make me tear it out of your mouth myself-"

Just as he was going to finish, something grabbed him by the throat hard and slammed him against the wall, hard enough to knock him breathless from the impact. Kallus let out a hoarse rasp of 'What the'- as his orange eyes met Astra's yellow ones, narrowed and blazing angrily.

"Talk to him or call him names again, and I assure you that the last thing you will hear is your own death rattle", Astra snarled, hard enough to sound deadly serious. "Do you not have kittens of your own? Or do you speak to them the same way"?

"Let...go...", Kallus wheezed, trying to pry Astra's red stick arms off his neck and throat. "Can't...breathe...".

"Apologise", Astra growled, then shoved him in front of the kitten. "Now".

Chastened, Kallus curled his tail around Maguma and begin purring softly, likely just apologising to him in their native tongue. For all his swollen joints would allow, Astra flexed his fingers menacingly everytime Kallus showed any sign of wanting to leave before he was done apologising. The deformed parts burned with a dull ache, but he was firm with his resolve.

"He's a kid", Kallus told him later after he finally let them all go. "He won't remember half of what I even said to him".

"A child, regardless of age, will always remember how you made them feel", Astra murmured quietly as he cradled a now perfectly content Maguma in his left arm. "To make a child feel anger or fear is terrible, as they are strong emotions to those capable of feeling".

"Wise words, prince", Kallus laughed wryly. "Suppose you wanna get outta here and get some decent food"?

In response, he pointed out Astra's swollen ankles and wrists.

"I am fine", the Ultra replied, but the jailer wasn't convinced.

"That's caused by a lack of proper nutrition, and of course, hygiene", he noted quietly, patting his back with his long tail. "No need to look so annoyed. I get it, it's obvious. You can clean yourself up back at the base".

"You have a base"? Astra asked.

"It complicated", Maguma murmured, pushing his nose into the base of the Ultra's throat.

"You'll know it when you see it", Kallus commented. "Trying to describe it's like trying to explain what water tastes like".

They barely managed to sprint out through the front gates before the rest of the guards returned, their tan and silver armour stained red with the blood of their prey. Kallus made a point of assuring Astra that they could rest awhile every now and then, but the fallen prince would always refuse. If they stayed out in the open, they would be recaptured, and to know that one of their own had helped a prisoner escape would be disastrous.

"My father was once a soldier, and till now he regrets killing", Astra quietly explained as he stopped to allow Maguma to rearrange himself in his arms. "In the heat of a fight, none will be spared. If they do manage to round us up again, they may even kill Maguma".

"I'll take your word for it", Kallus answered, then stopped short of a mound of red clay. "And here's our base"!

"I do not see one", Astra noted.

Maguma let out a soft mew, then hopped out of his arms and used his tail to brush away some loose dirt on the ground near their toes, revealing a metal trapdoor with a security panel. Kallus knelt down, typed in a code, and the trapdoor flipped open, startling Maguma briefly and making him back up before Astra picked him up and waited for Kallus to climb down, then followed him after some time. The trapdoor shut above them, and Astra braced himself for more darkness, but that didn't happen.

"There are wall lamps"? he asked, reaching out to trace the outer casing of the rectangular lamp emitting an ivory glow.

"We didn't have 'em up here, of course, but Olga and Jon went ahead with it after I told 'em I was gonna rescue you next", Kallus clarified as they descended down the steps one by one, the former holding Astra's hand to guide him. "Perpetual darkness does nasty s**t to your eyes. I guess the ladies thought better and turned it on, but we don't use 'em that often".

"Who else occupies the base"? Astra asked, narrowly missing a step before Maguma pushed his leg back onto it.

"Me, Maguma's folks and my wife, Rochelle", Kallus ticked them off his fingers. "Go straight to either of the ladies once we get down. They'll sort you out from there".

Astra didn't say anything else as he was led down the steps, until he could feel his feet on flat ground again. Maguma occasionally pointed out any objects of interest to him, mentioning where they were so Astra knew where they were, mainly on account of the fact that he couldn't see at the moment. The scent of blood had left his nose completely, and as they descended further, Astra could catch a strong odour of concrete, followed by minor whiffs of loose dry fur, warm moist breathing and various preserved foods. His eyes, still blurred over, could make out the silhouettes of various sacks, guns and what seemed like sterile tanks holding drinking water or medication. Maguma scooted out from between Astra's legs and petered out into the dark void to their left, screeching like he was calling somebody. That left Astra to rely on Kallus to guide him around until the alien found a chair and let him sit on it. He then left, and Astra took his time to take in the room around him.