5. Eyeliner and Kitty

All around Bree, other kids were jeering. Some of them had animal ears and tails, while others looked like typical humans. Some had slit pupils so they looked like a cat or snake. It was a bit disturbing after remembering her previous life and then being born in Lapin Village, a hidden village of bunnies. Her mom had sold her off to Ekpen Village, which is known for its cat shifters.

Bree couldn't help looking around at the small gathered crowd standing around her. It looked like the whole group of them had gotten pretty aggressive with a black eyeliner pen and were really into kitty cosplay. At the forefront were three young girls standing together who looked like young teens.

In the center of the three girls was a tall girl with lightly tanned skin who was willowy like a runway model. She had big golden eyes and long strawberry-blonde hair. Her little button nose was cutely tilted upward and her heart-shaped lips where black like the thick lining around her eyes. On top of her head were a pair of strawberry blonde tiger striped kitty ears and wiggling back a forth from a hole in her mini skirt, was a matching tiger tail. She had a smirk on her lips and a hand on her hip. Her long pointy nails would have made a beautician proud if it weren't for the chips in her nails and blood stains.

On her left was another girl with chin-length ash-brown hair and amber-colored eyes that tilted up at the corners and looked sly. Her nose was little but pointed upward slightly. She was slightly shorter than the tiger girl, but more toned, like a gymnast. She also had black lips and looked like she had a serious love for eyeliner. She had rounded light brown ears and a light brown long tail with a tuft of fur on the end she had a small chest with wider hips and some ab definition. This was a lion-girl shifter.

On the right side of the tiger girl was a much shorter girl with an angelic baby face that gave off a beautiful china doll feel and rounded light green eyes with thick eyelashes. Her skin was pale ivory colored and she had silky white hair that was long enough to reach the back of her knees. She was two heads shorter than the other girls without any curves to speak of and wearing what looked like a sleeveless wrap dress or robe that reached just below her knees. On top of her head, were cute white kitty ears and she had a very long and fluffy white kitty tail that stretched out past her body and rested on the ground. She also had the black eyeliner look and cute rounded light pink lips. She was seriously adorable. Even though Bree was freaked out about her current situation, she very much wanted to play with that adorable little girl's ears and fluffy tail.

All the kids around her looked like they had a serious love of black eyeliner, but only those two had black lips. They all wore leather wrap skirts or long wrap dresses in shades of gray, black, or brown leather. Some had little jewels on them and some had jewelry. The two teen females wore matching belly tops with short sleeves and a design on the front while the teen guys wore a side bag with a strap across their chest. The bag also had a design on it, but their chests were bare. They were all so beautiful that Bree's eyes felt like they were stinging just by looking at them. The younger kids wore the little wrap robes like the white-haired kitty.

Bree pulled her little limbs up further and wrapped her legs around the bars too, just in time to feel her body shake once more from the cage jerking.

The little white cat shifter looked down and nibbled their bottom lip before looking up at the tiger girl standing next to her and reaching up to tug on the Tiger girl's sleeve. The tiger girl looked down at the little white cat who had watery pleading eyes and blew some air out of her lips with a bored look. She lifted her arm that wasn't being tugged and gestured towards the cage. "That's enough, you can lower the cage now," she said in a slightly annoyed tone that had a little bit of a sensual note in her voice. She had a queenly air about her that would undoubtedly magnify once she matured into an adult.

Immediately the white tiger lowered the cage with Bree in it and sat it back down. Bree continued to keep her arms wrapped around the cage bars but released her legs from around them, so she could stand up. She looked over at the white tiger with suspicion. As she looked at the white tiger, there was a bright white light emitting from its body and then in the place where the white tiger had been standing, there was a handsome and pretty boy who looked about nineteen. He had longish white hair that was shaved short on one side and had a thick black stripe near the long side bang area. He had a strong handsome jaw, a straight well-shaped nose, and highly kissable light pink lips. He had golden phoenix eyes with cat-slit pupils. He was tall and well-toned with defined ads. The only thing covering him was a dark green wrap skirt-like thing that had small scales. The color looked almost oily and shifted from dark green to purple. On his upper arms were two black stripes and what looked like a few light gray tribal-looking tattoos. Bree almost drooled while looking at him, but her rage at being woken up in such an aggressive and humiliating way kept her swooning at bay. At the moment, he had human-looking ears and his tail couldn't be seen. Although his ears looked mostly human, the tops of them were slightly pointed. When he smiled at the tiger girl, Bree could see that his top canines were somewhat pronounced, like a vampire. Bree shivered while looking at his smile.

When his eyes turned back to Bree, he squinted in disgust. He looked her up and down and snickered. "Let this be a lesson to you about kicking your betters, little female slave. You're lucky that Vera saw fit to stop me. Otherwise, I may have decided to eat you. I've heard that rabbit shifters are delicious. However, if I see or hear of you kicking Vera again, you won't get out of it so easily next time."

He slammed his fist against the bars, slightly denting them before turning his attention back to the strawberry-blonde-haired tiger girl. "Vera, are you alright? I was so worried when I was told about you being abused so viciously."

Vera looked up at the white tiger boy with watery eyes and touched his upper arm. "Zane, I am injured so horribly that I fear I may become malformed and appear hideous in your eyes. When I added my temporary marker to your arm, I knew that I had competition for your affections. I hope in the end, the marker that you choose is mine. Now with my hideous injury, I fear I may have lost you forever."

Bree looked a Vera's pink and slightly swollen leg. She finally realized what had happened, but wasn't that too strong of a reaction? Vera had been the one stabbing her all over and Bree had kicked her away while drowsy. She certainly wasn't malformed and should recover shortly.

"I wouldn't look down on you so easily," said Zane.

Vera continued to look up at Zane pitifully as if the two of them were putting on a play. Bree rolled her eyes and turned her attention towards the disheveled hay scattered in all directions. Bree started to collect what she could and pile it in the corner where it was before. She only looked up when she saw a delicate ivory arm poking through the cage bars holding a large pile of hay.

Bree followed the delicate arm up to see the face of the little white kitty shifter she'd seen earlier. The little doll's eyes were lowered bashfully and there was a light blush on their pale cheeks. "I've retrieved this for you. If I'm not being a bother, I can collect more for you," they said quietly.

The other kids who'd been near the cage had already walked away and Bree could see the back of Zane as he carried Vera princess style. Bree hoped that that dramatic couple would keep their distance in the future, but she didn't hold much hope in it. This Village was likely going to be a pain, but at least she'd found a cute kitty cat.

Bree smiled at the adorable big light green eyes as they looked up at her hopefully. "Your help is much appreciated, thank you."

The kitty's eyes widened and their face turned bright red.

"It's no problem. I'm happy to help. There's no need to thank me," they mumbled while collecting more hay scattered around the outside of the cage.

"By the way, what's your name? I keep on thinking of you as kitty or doll," said Bree.

The kitty shifter looked up at Bree blushing from ear to ear, and quickly covered their face with their hands and mumbled. "Kitty is fine. You can call me Kitty if you want, but my name is Sam."

"Why do you keep on blushing?"

Sam peeked out from between their fingers at Bree. "You're very pretty and nice. You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen."

Bree's heart thawed a little at the adorable sight in front of her. "You're quite pretty too, you know."

Sam lowered their hands into their lap and looked down while their lower lip pouted. Their long eyelashes fluttered down, brushing their cheekbones. Bree felt panic at the darling's heartbroken face. "What's wrong? I only meant to compliment you."

"I know, I'm sorry. It's just that, I worry I'll never be considered handsome. You're so wonderful that I doubt you'd ever consider me as a mate. Now that I've met you though, I don't think I could look at other girls."

Bree blinked her eyes a couple of times while her mind registered what Sam said. "Aren't you a little girl?"

A blush reappeared on Sam's face with a vengeance. "I'm a boy."

Blink, blink. "You're a boy? Are you sure?"

Sam covered his beautiful face in his hands once more. "I'm doomed."