MagiStream

Deep in the forest, if you listen very carefully, you can hear a set of ever so quiet paw steps, followed by another set of smaller, faster paw steps.

Some people say that those are the paw steps of two ghosts, twin brother and sister who were murdered together when they were still kittens.

But you may be surprised to find that although their story is similar, it is also quite different...

Nicojiro continued to pad through the forest, the wet moss layering the forest floor squishing under his paws. The air was damp, and his nose and whiskers twitched, searching for any danger. The fog surrounded him like a blanket, making everything outside of his vision a looming shadow. His piercing green eyes flickered around his surroundings, taking in every single detail. The curve of a lone plant, the tall trunk of a tree. Nicojiro must remember everything, because if he did, he could quickly spot anything different in his surroundings, and put up his guard.

A cat-shape appeared in the thick fog behind Nicojiro, yet smaller than him and fluffier. Nicojiro’s hackles went up, startled by the sudden appearance of another cat. When the cat padded into view, Nicojiro relaxed. This new cat had a blue-gray pelt; it’s long, wet fur sticking to its sides. It was almost identical to Nicojiro, except for the long hair. Its pale green eyes flickered worriedly around until it focused onto Nicojiro, and the gaze softened.

“Karikami,” Nicojiro said, a little bit relieved. “Where were you?”

“Well I was trying to follow you,” Karikami retorted. “But you were so fast that I couldn’t keep up. You do remember that I’m younger and smaller than you, right?”

Nicojiro licked the darker blue-gray fur on his shoulder-blade, trying to hide his smile. “I’m sorry, Kari. C’mon, let’s keep going.” Nicojiro stopped licking his fur and looked at his younger sister.
Karikami padded up to her older brother’s sides. “I’m tired of walking, Nico.” She complained. “Where are we going anyway?”

“I wish I knew, Kari. I wish I knew...” Nicojiro murmured.

...

Nicojiro and Karikami had been journeying through the forest ever since their mother had been attacked and killed by a fox. Nicojiro had been one year old, but Karikami had only been a couple months old.

Their father was also killed; before Karikami had been born, but shortly after Nicojiro had been born. Karikami had no memory of their father, but Nicojiro sometimes remembered the flash of a dark pelt, or a whisper of his father’s voice.

When their mother had been killed, Nicojiro knew that whatever was slowly killing their family was going to come after them, so he had fled their home and into the forest with Karikami.

Although Karikami often complained about always walking and journeying, Nicojiro never told her the real reason that they were fleeing for their lives. It would only scare her and make her scared to sleep at night.
Karikami never disobeyed her older brother, even if he could be annoying and a little bossy. Besides, he was the only family she had left now; she didn’t want to lose him. Karikami was secretly happy that they looked so much alike, so that everybody knew that they were brother and sister when they first looked at them. Of course, Karikami was longhaired and Nicojiro was shorthaired, but that didn’t really matter to her.

...

As the two cats continued to pad through the forest, Karikami started to complain again. “Nico, when can we stop? I’m hungry, let’s hunt. Oooh, that looks like a nice place to sleep, how about we stop and rest for a while? Nico...” She whined.

Nicojiro sighed and stopped walking for a moment. “Fine. We can hunt a little bit, but we’re leaving right after a small meal.” He stopped and smelled the air. It was a little hard to smell any prey with the scents of damp grass, mud and fog wafting through the air, but Nicojiro finally found a medium-sized vole just a little ways off the path they were taking. “That way.” He pointed toward the right with the tip of his tail. “There’s a vole over there. Wait here and I’ll go hunt it.

“Awwww, but I want to try to hunt it too! I’m not a kitten anymore, Nico.” Karikami protested. She hopped around, shaking the water off of her wet fur and onto Nicojiro.

“Stop it!” Nicojiro protested, shaking the water off of his slick pelt. “Fine, but I’ll hunt the vole. You can look for a mouse or a squirrel or something.”

“Of course you give me the easiest thing to catch...” Karikami grumbled, but walked away, fading into the thick, gray fog.

Nicojiro sat near a tree, the vole at his feet. This was the place where Karikami and he agreed to meet up when they had caught something. He had been waiting for a while, but Nicojiro wasn’t worrying. Knowing Karikami, she probably would have missed the mouse or squirrel and tried to chase after it.
So Nicojiro just set to cleaning his paws and whiskers, swiping his paw across his whiskers to wipe the vole’s blood away. After a while, he started to nibble on the vole, because he was a little bit hungrier than he thought he was.

But then Nicojiro started to get worried. What if Karikami had gotten lost, injured or attacked? What if she had been carried away by a fox or a badger or something? Nicojiro shivered at the horrible thought.
Finally, just when Nicojiro was about to get up and look for Karikami, he saw her shape in the fog, walking toward him.

“Kari!” Nicojiro cried happily and leaped up from his paws. When the fog opened up, Nicojiro’s eyes widen. Karikami was carrying a huge rabbit bigger than her head!

Nicojiro ran over to help her with the rabbit, and when they finally set it down, Nicojiro spoke. “I caught the vole! Are you hungry? What took you so long?” He head butted her. Strange... Nicojiro thought. There was an odd scent among her pelt, but it was masked by the smell of wet fur and muddy grass. It was probably just the rabbit, Nicojiro decided.

“I’m not really hungry.” Karikami said quietly. “You can eat the rest.”

Nicojiro eyed Karikami with shock. “Are you alright, Kari? You were really hungry an hour ago.”

“I’m fine.” Karikami turned away with an air of arrogance.

That was the Karikami Nicojiro knew! Relieved that his little sister was okay, Nicojiro knelt down to finish the vole. Licking his muzzle, he looked up to see Karikami staring into the fog. “I don’t know what we’ll do with the rabbit though, because I’m full.”

“I don’t know.” Karikami said with a half-hearted shrug. Nicojiro stared at his sister. ”Can we go to sleep now? That tree has some good perches.”

“Sure.” Nicojiro said cheerfully. Maybe a good nap would make Karikami turn back to normal. He could only hope.

...

The next morning Nicojiro woke up with an ache in his back. Karikami had totally lied. That tree was horrible for sleeping in. Nicojiro grumbled as he stretched, and looked up toward where his sister was sleeping.

Karikami was sound asleep on a branch above Nicojiro. Good... Nicojiro thought. She needed her rest. Stretching one last time, Nicojiro leaped down from his perch.

The giant rabbit was still at the base of the tree, and he padded over it, taking a tentative bite out of the thigh. Nicojiro immediately spat it out. Yuck! Overnight, the water had seeped into the fur and skin, making the meat all squishy and watery. What a waste of such good food.

Nicojiro’s ears perked as he heard lazy mumbling from above. That must mean that Karikami had woken up. “Kari...” Nicojiro called up into the tree. “The rabbit you caught went bad.”

Karikami stretched and yawned. “Oh. That’s too bad.” Nicojiro was worried about Karikami. She didn’t seem to care about anything anymore. Suddenly, Karikami’s ears perked up. “I know!” She said cheerfully. “I’ll go catch us breakfast!” She leapt down from the tree and padded away without a response from Nicojiro.

Nicojiro just shrugged and leapt back into the tree, curling up to fall asleep again.

When Nicojiro woke up, Karikami still wasn’t back. He looked down at his stomach as it rumbled pitifully. Nicojiro wasn’t worried about Karikami, because she had done a really good job hunting yesterday. So he settled himself down and waited for Karikami to get back.

It was about an hour later that Karikami returned, and she had nothing in her jaws. She was staring at her paws, mumbling something that Nicojiro couldn’t hear. When he leapt down from the tree, Karikami jumped a little. Realization flooded her eyes.

“Oh, Nico! I’m so sorry! I totally forgot to catch something for you!” Karikami wailed. “I’ll go catch you something right now! I’m so sorry!”

“No, it’s fine. You go rest, I can hunt for myself.” Nico said wearily and padded away, disappearing into the fog.

...

For the next few days, whenever Karikami went off “hunting” she would always come back two or three hours later. Her jaws would also be empty and she wouldn’t be hungry. Nicojiro soon learned to expect nothing of Karikami and went off hunting alone when she was gone.

When Nicojiro had suggested that they start to get moving, Karikami had thrown a fit and wouldn’t talk to him for the rest of the day.

Nicojiro also noticed that whenever Karikami came back from “hunting” she would always have a strange scent in her pelt, but it was always buried underneath the smell of the damp forest. He couldn’t recognize it without smelling it dead-on.

But Nicojiro was smart enough to know that something was up with Karikami, and he was worried for her. Whatever she was doing, she didn’t want Nicojiro to know about, so it must be dangerous or incredibly daring.

...

Once day, when Karikami was sound asleep in the tree, Nicojiro decided to go hunting. Might as well get some food in his stomach since he couldn’t depend on Karikami anymore. Nicojiro was stalking a squirrel, and was just about to pounce when he heard a deep, throaty laugh. Nicojiro looked up, startled, and the squirrel ran away.

“What a disappointment.” A deep, growling voice echoed, and a shadow of a huge, looming appeared in the fog. “So you’re her brother. You can’t even catch a tiny squirrel!” The voice let out another throaty laugh. “So I see who she takes after now. You’re family is really pathetic, isn’t it? First your father was killed by my father, and then your mother can’t even stand against my little fox friend.”

Nicojiro stood there in shock. He knew this scent! It was the scent that he smelled on Karikami’s pelt every time she went “hunting”! She had been with this terrible cat?

Every muscle in Nicojiro’s twitched, itching to lunge at this cat and tear out his throat. But that wouldn’t be fair to Karikami. Nicojiro would most likely be killed, because of the other cat’s gigantic size, and she would be left alone in this world to fend for herself. And what if Karikami found his body, ripped to shreds? She would be traumatized to no end.

“Oh well. Too bad I won’t get to enjoy her company any longer. I actually think she had fallen in love with me. But my family orders me to kill tomorrow.”

Nicojiro was jolted back into reality when he heard those words. He looked around for the shadow, ready to tear out the cat’s throat, but it was gone, the only trace of it was a deep laugh that seemed to close in on Nicojiro.

The next day when Karikami said she was going to go “hunting”, Nicojiro waited a few minutes before followed her. He knew what was in store for her, but if the cat was right, Karikami was clearly in love with him and would never listen to Nicojiro if he told her to not go.
Nicojiro just hoped that he would get there in time.

...

Karikami slunk through the fog, eager to see him again. His scent was sweet like fresh-killed vole on her tongue and nose. When their pelts touched, it was like electricity crackled between them. He would murmur sweet things in her ear, and it would make shivers run down her spine. They were meant to be, they were... right. Karikami had no words to express how she felt when they touched.

When they came together, he would always bring something sweet for them to snack on; sometimes a bird, more often a juicy rabbit. They would spend hours together, and Karikami would forget that time existed. It would only be them, in their own little world. They were perfect. Nothing else.

She slinked through the fog and trees, and saw him waiting in the distance. Karikami smiled to herself. It seemed like he always knew when she was going to come or was always waiting for her.

The moment Karikami saw him, she ran toward him, a blue-gray rocket ready to bust through anything to get to her target. Karikami skidded to a stop next to her lover and head-butted him, purring happily.
But instead of head-butting her back, he pulled away, not looking at Karikami. Karikami looked at him with hurt in her green eyes. “W-what’s wrong?” She stammered.

Karikami didn’t even have time to scream before her former lover’s claws were unsheathed and swooping toward her throat. It was all slow motion, his claws slowly moving and Karikami tightly shut her eyes, waiting for the pain.

But it never came. It was pure and utter silence, and there was definitely no pain. Just a cool breeze ruffling her fur. Slowly, Karikami opened one eye, and gasped with surprise.
Only a few feet away from where her lover was standing, two pelts had been mashed together. One was the dark pelt of Karikami’s lover, and the other was the blue-gray pelt of... her brother?

...

Nicojiro stood up, his legs shaking. He gasped when he saw that his legs were covered in blood. Not his blood though. The cat’s blood. Apparently when Nicojiro had barreled into the cat attacking his younger sister, he had cut open its throat and killed it.
He looked up, searching for his sister and hoping that he had saved her in time. Nicojiro relaxed when he saw Karikami running toward him. She skidded to a stop in front of the two cats, her pale green eyes filled with tears.

“You...! You killed him!” Karikami screeched. “I loved him! You killed him! I’m not a kitten anymore! I can love other cats than you!” She rambled on and on as she sobbed, tears staining her fur.
Nicojiro’s head hung. “I’m so sorry, Karikami. He was going to kill you. I didn’t want to lose you like Mom and Dad.” He said quietly, licking the blood off of his paws.

Karikami immediately stopped talking when Nicojiro mentioned their mother and father, but tears still silently rolled down her face. The look on her face clearly said I’ll never forgive you. Yet she walked silently next to Nicojiro back to the tree.

And when Nicojiro looked down at his younger sister, he saw a symbol he had never seen on Karikami’s face before in the tracks of tears. It was a circle, with a vertical line down the middle. But he didn’t mention it to her, because who knows what would have happened to their relationship after that.

He just hoped she would forgive him.