Silvia Anderson (_cookiedough) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-10-27 21:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | #flashback, #solo |
All the dandelion seeds that surrounded
Who: Silvia & Sarah (NPC)
Where: Their home
When: 2008
What: When life was... well, life as it should be
Silvia loved the windowsill in the kitchen. It was just the right width to accommodate her kitten form and exposed her to the sun for the longest out of anywhere in the house. Roof was absolute best for that but her dad'd nearly had a heart attack the last time he found her up there and Silvia didn't really want to repeat that particular instance. Getting grounded sucked always even if she didn't listen. Getting grounded for slipping out of the house in cat form was worse. But hey, she was eleven and adventurous, she really couldn't be held to blame for all of that. It was in her nature! Her mother said so practically every time that she got into this or that and insisted she'd grow out of it once she was older enough to be considered full-grown and not half a kitten.
"Silvia!" it was her mom's voice and that was what caused the kitten to lift her head. She had been enjoying a nice little cat nap in the summer sun and was debating whether she should slip out the window and go chase that butterfly, but responding to her mom was a better idea. Sarah Anderson was an absolute sweetheart and Silvia had never gone through a moment of wanting a different mom so she'd never even dream of not going when she was called. If her father called then that was a different story but every kid had their favorite parent. It was just really easy to pick when one happened to be a were like you and the other wasn't. A moment after Silvia rolled over and mid-leap back to the floor she found herself caught in mid-air. She mewed indignantly, wriggling about as her mom laughed and brought her up to her face, nuzzling against her soft fur. After a little bit Silvia stopped her struggling and started purring, catching her claws in the front of her mom's blouse to knead it gently, giving off little mews that she knew were adorable. "You're too cute, sweetie, but you've got softball practice in half an hour. Gotta get you ready."
Shaking her head, Silvia hooked her claws in deeper so that when Sarah tried to pull her off she couldn't. Softball practice was boring. She wasn't a dog, she didn't like running after some stupid ball or bases. If there was a sport that she'd ever had a desire to be a part of then it was gymnastics. There was grace for you. Yet it required far too much dedication for someone as naturally lazy as Silvia and she hadn't lasted past the first month without declaring that she didn't want to do it anymore. Now if someone would only invite a sport for chasing butterflies, catching your tail, napping through any distraction or having the cutest pout then Silvia was in. Until then she didn't want to play and the only reason she was even on the softball team was her father's insistence. Jeffrey didn't always like the fact that he didn't have a 'normal' child and occasionally tried to get Silvia interested in things other than being a cat. Silvia, on the other hand, had very little interest in the human aspect of her life and much preferred the life of a cat. Had her mother not had a talk with her about how she couldn't always be a cat then she would've just stayed one forever. Being a pampered pet wouldn't be so bad.
Sarah bit at her lip as she looked down at her daughter. She really did have the cutest little kitten face ever. Sarah didn't see the point of facing a child to play a sport she didn't want to... and besides, it wasn't like she'd get in trouble if she just missed one practice. "Okay," Sarah said with a sigh. "You don't have to go to practice. But you do have to do something other than laze about in the window. If your father comes home and sees that then he's going to start taking you to practice himself." Because he knew that was the only way to make sure she got there. There weren't any problems between Silvia's parents they just didn't see eye-to-eye on certain things and instead of discussing them Sarah would simply pretend they hadn't discussed them at all. It certainly made things easier to deal with. Silvia's eyes immediately went towards the immense cat playscape in the living room. It took the place of a swingset in the backyard. "Ah, no," Sarah denied with a shake of her head. "Because you'll crawl into one of the little homes and I'll have to come in there again and drag you out by the nape of your neck. You're getting too big to drag." Which was sort of the whole point of being able to hide in there. Duh. "Tell you what, let's go chase some mice. Hmm?" Silvia let out an agreeing mew, body wriggling as she was set down. Before Sarah made her own shift she wound her way between her ankles, purring affectionately and once she was basically the larger version of Silvia the little girl was bouncing up on her back to nip at her ears before bouncing off and out the cat door.
It was one of those afternoons that Silvia knew she'd remember forever. There were plenty of field mice dwelling in the small meadow behind their house and while she wasn't as good of a hunter as her mother what she lacked in skill she made up for in enthusiasm. And when she finally caught one, the wriggling and still very much alive thing dangling by its tail from her jaw, she pranced over and showed it off. See, she thought proudly, letting it go and watching it scamper off like its life depended on it. I'm a good hunter! Her mother had then proceeded to pin her down to wash the dirt off of her head. Something which Silvia had always taken in pretty good stride. That sort of bath beat out getting stuck in the tub anyhow. Going in the tub and getting all washed meant that all of the scents were just gone. It was disconcerting to someone who tended to think of herself as more of a cat than a human.
A few hours later, whiskers stained with the blood of the mouse that she had killed at her mother's encouraging, Silvia and Sarah returned to their house. Sarah was the first to shift as always and blinked down at her daughter when she curled up on top of her foot. "Come on, Silvia," she encouraged, kneeling down and scratching under the half-grown kitten's chin. "You've been a cat practically all day, you've got to give your human side a little time too. Half and half, sweetie, you have to keep some sort of a balance up."
Silvia shifted back, face scrunched up as she cuddled against her mom on the couch after she let her pull on the over-sized t-shirt that always served as her pajamas. "I like being a cat more," she confessed, her voice a little higher than normal. "It feels weird to not have my fur and my tail and my whiskers...." She rubbed at her face to show off her point. It was like all of her senses had been dulled and she didn't like it one single bit. "Why can't I just stay a cat forever?"
"Becaaaaause," Sarah drawled, reaching for the brush on the side table to being untangling the plethora of knots in her daughter's hair. "Then I'd never get to see your pretty face and hear your lovely voice!" Pulling a face as the brush tugged at her hair, Silvia wriggled impatiently until she felt a tug on the nape of her neck and settled again. One thing could be said for her constant reversion to cat-like behavior - it meant that her mother knew just how to get her to do everything. "And because you're not a cat, Silvia, you're a were. It means that you're both."
"Aren't there weres who don't shift unless the moon makes them?" Those were her favorite times, when she got to stay up all night long as a cat just playing with her mother and whichever relatives from her side decided to come by and join in. She especially loved it when her cousin, Edgar, came over. He was the same age as her and an orange tabby to her silver so they looked awesome together.
Sarah nodded, still working on the knots. It hadn't been brushed since the last time that she did it, knowing her daughter. She loved the attention of having her hair brushed for her. "Yes, but that's no better than what you do." A light rap on the head that earned her a pout. "That didn't hurt you. Denying your animal nature is no better than denying your human one. There's a balance that you need to find. Spend too much time as a cat and you won't be as developed as you should be as a human, and vice-versa. Besides, we wouldn't get to have our mother-daughter talks or shopping days if you were always a cat. And I know you love those."
Guilty as charged. Silvia made a distinctly cat-like noise and sulked down at her hands. Pale, weak things with no claws at all. She missed her claws already. For some reason she'd always just felt more at home as a cat. "I wasn't born a cat, was I? Because that'd explain a lot."
"Nope, you were born a human. Changed into a cat pretty much the second we got you home. Can't count how many times you nearly gave your father a heart attack shifting back and forth like you did. Such a silly little kitten."
Sulk fading into a smile as the knots came out and the brushing turned into a soothing motion instead of a jarring one, Silvia closed her eyes and leaned back against her mom. These were times when she could stand being human, when her mom was brushing her head and talking to her. Only one way for it to get better. "Tell me a story, mom?"
"Hmm... what about?"
"Mowgli."
Sarah groaned. "You always want stories about Mowgli."
"That's because he's my favorite!"
"And it has nothing at all to do with Bagheera and Shere Khan?" The girl's look was guilty and she bit at her lip, staring with wide brown eyes until her mother sighed and gave in. Like always. "Alright. In the jungles of India..." It didn't take long for her to get lost in the story, they'd always been her favorite when she was little, and it didn't take much longer for Silvia to drift off to sleep, content and actually purring despite the fact that she'd stayed in her human form like she as told.