Saga - OT Kittytalk (Lasat OC, cat, fluff; birthday fic-gift for Raissa Baiard)

Title: Kittytalk
Author: Findswoman
Era: Later Saga–OT, early teens ABY
Characters: Ezrashai “Shai” Orrelios (OC, son of Zeb and Shulma) and his cat; his twin sister Chava (also OC)
Genre: humor, pets, family, fluff, vignette, etc.
Summary: Shai feeds the cat every morning. But this time, something is different…
Notes: A birthday gift for my good pal @Raissa Baiard. Happy birthday, my friend! I wanted to write you a little something as a gift, you gave me the prompt “something with Ezrashai, Chava and Percy the Loth-cat,” and here is the result—hope you enjoy!

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“Mrow.” Bat bat. Up.

“Mmphh.”

“Mrrow?” Bat bat bat. Up?

“Mmmghhphh… Perce… jus’ a sec, arright?”

The young Lasat shifted heavily in his bed. It was just like chronowork. Every morning, at or about 0530, the family’s pet Loth-cat, Percephalos—Percy for short—climbed onto his chest and began batting his face with a forepaw to wake him for feeding time. It was always him, Ezrashai Kanheran Orrelios, and no one else in the family. Never mind that the household also contained a dad, a mom, and not one but two sisters who were all equally capable of providing one (1) stub-tailed, notch-eared, blue-green-striped furball with breakfast.

And yet, Shai noted, there was something different about it this time. He couldn’t quite put his finger on what, but…

“Mrrrowww?” Bat bat bat bat. Up please right now?

“Fine, fine.” Shai shifted again, hoisted himself up to sitting, and swung both purple-striped legs out of bed.

“M-row!” I knew it! I’ve got you well and truly trained.

“Yeah, heh, I guess you do.” Shai stretched and pulled on a nearby NLUPS Loth-Wolves Gravball tesh-tunic (a gift from his Syndulla-Jarrus honor-cousins on Lothal)—

—and then stopped short. “Wait just a minute. What’s going on, here?”

“Myow. Mreerrorroww.” You tell me. First you’re getting out of bed to do your job, then you freeze like a cornered baby gizka. What are you waiting for?

“Um, well…” For a few moments Shai remained frozen, just like that cornered baby gizka. And then it just hit him: he had understood every word. Okay, fine, it hadn’t been actual words—but he’d understood, all the same. Something was up.

“Percy, did you just… talk to me?”

“Myaaarrh.” Suppose you could say that. Though what you bipeds call talking is such a… limited form of expression.

This time Shai almost jumped out of his fur, because he had understood every word of that, too. Something was most definitely up—something very weird and possibly even something mystic and Ashlic of the sort that his sisters were so into…

Aw ’bast, he thought to himself, if that’s the case, just bean me with a bo-rifle right now. Honor and Cha would never let me hear the end of it. Especially Cha.

“Myow?” The query was unmistakable. So, are we going to do this already?

“Yeah, sure.” Shai trudged off to the kitchen, Percy loping happily along behind him, making speeder-boat noises that had more than a hint of it’s about time to them.

Once they got to the kitchen, the oh-so-familiar ritual began. First, Shai collected the food bowl (a dark-green-glazed, wheel-thrown number Honor had made in pottery class). Then, from one of the pantry closets, he hauled an immense bright-orange bag, whose contents he began pouring—very carefully—into the bowl.

“All righty, big guy, here you go.” he announced at last, placing the brimming bowlful of meaty bits on the floor with a dramatic gesture. “One king-sized bowl of YUARS Premium Select Gizka-Liver Nuggets. All yours.”

Percy gave it a sniff and a look that Shai could only describe as quizzical. “Mrmmyew.” he remarked, turning to face his young master. Actually, if you don’t mind, today is feeling more like a peka tuna sort of day, please and thank you.

“Peka tuna? Peka tuna?! What the—All right. Fine. FINE! Karabast, karabast, karabast…”

So it was that, some minutes later, his twin sister Chava, carrying a cup of tea in one hand and some light shamanic reading in the other, entered the kitchen just in time to see her brother placing a heaping plateful of bright pink organic material on the floor in front of one (1) broadly grinning blue-green-striped furball.

“Shai?” she asked. “What is that?” She came closer and sniffed the air. “Is that—that’s not the peka, is it? Weren’t we going to save that to make those po-khei wraps from the Hosnian cookbook?”

Oh, karabast. Darkly, matter-of-factly, and sighing a heavy sigh, Shai turned to face his twin.

“Cha,” he said simply, “it’s a very long story.”

fin

Spoiler: Notes

The Syndulla-Jarrus cousins, the NLUPS Loth-Wolves, and their gravball team are Raissa’s creations, from her epic OC diary (Not) The Ballad of Ronen Syndulla-Jarrus.

Peka tuna: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Peka_Tuna_Poke (which apparently you can get at Galaxy’s Edge)

 

Aw, this was such a fun read! What a fantastic fic-gift! It's always a pleasure to see how this 'verse grows and evolves, and this story was no exception.

Your voice for Shai is perfection! I can hear bits of both his parents, all with something uniquely his own. Although here, I seem to remember Shai promising Zeb that he was ready to take care of the Loth-cat that he pleaded to bring home. It's funny how that quickly turns to grumbling with that time finally comes - although, maybe Shai can be excused for just how bright and early the cat demands sustenance. 0530 is just killer!

This is the most cat thing ever.

Such a great detail!

And then, it was so much fun watching realization dawn on Shai. Just wait for it - it's going to click. Your build-up to this moment was perfectly executed for maximum comedic timing.

Yep: spot-on cat voice is spot on.

As is this.

!!

Maybe just a little teasing - just a smidge. In the end, though, it's beautiful to see so much of Lasan's culture preserved in this next generation, and I betcha his sisters are going to love sharing everything mystic and Ashlic with him, just as I suspect Shai is going to ultimately enjoy being part of their world in return.

Percy has quite the taste for fancy food, doesn't he? I can only imagine what his mother is going to have to say about feeding the good tuna to the cat, though!

Some light reading to wake up to, of course.

!!!


This was such a delightful story, and a door opened wide to even more stories down this path, it seems. Thank you for sharing your work with us, and, as always, I can't wait to read anything more you may be inspired to write for this 'verse.