The air fell still, almost suffocating quiet as everyone on the deck froze. Slowly the heads turned to look at the black cat sitting between the captain and Gordon.
The cat looked… adorable. It had a big white pattern on its chest, white socks. Pristine but a bit dirty black fur overall. Its head tilted to the side cutely as its tail swished behind it leisurely.
The cat's greyish-black eyes bored into Gordon… then onto the captain, briefly to the pot of soup and then back to Gordon.
"Meow"
The cat meowed as if asking for something. the cat had quite the big belly, but on a closer look it didn't seem to be fat… rather it was, well carrying a few little surprises. The cat was pregnant. Yes, the stowaway Gordon had been looking for was pregnant feline.
The captain turned slowly to look at Gordon. Eyeing him up, chuckling as he noticed Gordon's widened eyes. And couldn't help but ask.
"This the 'wee pilfer stowaway' ye've been looking for?"
The captains questioned woke Gordon from her trance as he looked at the cat, turning to look at the captain and then back at the cat before turning to the rest of the crew he had been interrogating all morning.
"Y-yes… believe so."
Gordon answered as he brought up his hand to rub his temple and took a deep breath before exhaling slowly. He'd been chasing after a pregnant cat all morning and even suspected there was a stowaway on board.
"Now, be ye a dear and gonna give that poor little kitty some soup, ok?"
The words from Flora snapped Gordon again out of his trance state as he then proceeded to grab an empty bowl and scoop up some soup onto it. Purposefully taking as little stock as possible, trying to get only fish as he then bended down and placed the bowl in front of the cat.
The cat looked up at Gordon for a moment longer and then turned to the bowl and stood up before moving slightly closer to it and leaning down to pick up a fish chunk and eating it. The main deck was still quiet as everyone just watched the cat feast.
Not that there was anything weird about a cat in itself. But that it had managed to sneak onto the ship, then hid itself for more than a day, and even managing to steal from Gordon was quite the achievement.
But the actual reason for the silence was the question. What were they going to do with this cat? Having a cat on the ship required a lot of work, and also took extra food, especially now since the cat was pregnant. But it would also be a bit too cruel to just toss it overboard.
Captain turned to look at his mother, Flora, who had told Gordon to give the cat some food. Flora just nodded back at the captain with a gentle smile. The captain looked at the cat and then at the crew.
"Everyone in favor on havin' a new mascot, raise yer hand"
Almost immediately every hand flew up to show support for the cat that was just enjoying its meal.
- - -
It had been a few days since Diane had revealed herself to the crew and they'd taken her in as the ship mascot. She'd been taken in by the old grandma Flora and hung around her little garden at the bow of the ship. Content on just lazing around as she sunbathed. Not like she had much to do anyway.
She was given food three times a day and could get scratches from the grandma when she sat down to rest her old legs. The doctor of the ship, Dr. Okter had checked on her and determined she was pregnant with triplets. To be honest, Dione had no idea how the doctor had determined that.
The weather had stayed sunny, but the sky had been slowly gathering more clouds, but still not enough to stop Diane from her sun therapy.
"Sweet little kitty, come to Grandma, won't you?"
Flora said as she sat down on a bench and clapped her hands while looking at the cat.
Diane's ears perked up and she looked at Flora who was looking back at her. Diane rose from her side and stretched her back in an arch as she waltzed on over to Flora, rubbing her side against Flora's hand as she gave out a small purr.
"Oh, my sweet kitty darling, look at that big tummy! Seems like we might be having a little bundle of joy, or maybe even a whole litter, running around soon. Aren't you precious!"
Flora said to the cat as she rubbed it's headed a little and then scratched its side.
Flora had a gentle smile on his face; her eyes closed in a friendly manner as he petted the cat. But slowly, unnoticed by Diane, Flora's smile fell, her eyes opened and she looked down at the cat. Flora's eyes piercing and cold
- - -
Valo's eyes slowly opened as he found himself floating in empty darkness. The darkness was darker than his old alley at absolute darkness. He couldn't even see his own paws.
Valo however didn't feel cold, nor hot. Quite contempt. His body, if he even had one as he wasn't quite sure, was relaxed. He had no aches anywhere and he wasn't even hungry.
Slowly in that darkness something began to happen.
A river appeared, slowly coming into existence as it seemed to run down from somewhere infinitely up to here and continue far past it. It wasn't of water, but of something… abstract, Valo couldn't tell, but normal river it wasn't. That's what he was sure of.
Valo saw the river merge with other rivers, creating a kind of lake… or ocean? He really had no concept of size here. From the river small stone like pebbles appeared. Though if it was sea they'd be close to islands.
Valo could not see anything on those islands, they we're all obscured by some weird grey mist and a harder kind of firmament below the mist. He saw the islands upstream start to slowly emit brighter lights. The ones downstream and in the lake also started to slowly emit a light. Some brighter lights than others, but never quite reaching the level of the ones upstream on the rivers.
There were some pebbles that emitted a light but died out, and then slowly disappeared back into the river. Some flickered between brighter and dimmer light, as if in an internal conflict with its own nature.
Then suddenly, a bright flash, a light brighter than most islands on the river shot down the river from somewhere upstream. Moving at huge speeds, grazing by many other islands, till entering the ocean. On the ocean it kept going, till it reached a secluded part of the ocean. One where only one lone island was still standing. The flash hit the island and then jus disappeared as if absorbed from existence itself.
Then Valo heard an ethereal voice that boomed in his ears, it felt like it was coming from his very core. But the tone of the voice itself was very leisurely, accompanied by a small sound Valo assumed was a chuckle.
"How interesting"