It was a complicated situation to find himself in. Sure, he’d been able to dispatch anything else that came across his way, but this was just ridiculous. Mesalx Menos for once was at a loss at what to do in this sort of predicament. He’d come across many nemeses in his existence but these things were by far the most complicated things he had ever had to deal with. Here they were, squirming around and climbing over each other in no particular order.

They whined and cried and were in crate with a larger version of their species. Mesalx crouched down to the level of the crate for several moments to examine and see if this was a trick or not. An explosive device could have been strapped anywhere on this box that could have been potentially dangerous to him or the tiny foes within the crate. He picked it up to look under it and found nothing. It was just a simple and ordinary crate.

There wasn’t a soul for a mile around and the only sound that was even relevantly audible was the cries these little things were making along with the occasional purring noises. Mesalx picked up the crate again and shook it slightly, the larger of the little ones eliciting a loud and angry hiss at him before he set the box back down.

Again, he pondered over what to do with them. “I could kill the lot of you one by one. Arrange you down from color assortment, size, amount of noise you make…” His ebony eyes settled back on the larger of the bunch and watched it nestle the little ones against the soft fur of its belly. His foes you ask?

“Mew!”

“Meowr!”

“Nyeow!”

“Common house cats.” Mesalx sighed. “How does one go about slaying cats anyhow?” He asked, scratching the side of his head with an index nail. There were about 5 kittens in this litter and one mother. All were either one color, two colors, or an assortment of colors. There was no doubt that someone had just left them out here to die or wait until a predator came along and ate them.

“One, two, three, four, five…and mother makes six.” He muttered to himself, pointing at how many there were before several caught wind of him and they were standing on their hind legs mewing up at him for some form of attention.

“Huh? Oh, no, no, no!” He exclaimed, trying to put them back towards their mother with great confusion because they’d all ready spotted him. As soon as Mesalx had put them back against black fur of their mother, they turned right around and stumbled right back up to the edge of the crate and were staring up at him again.

“Mew!”

“No.” He sighed, doing exactly the same thing over again. “Stay.”

Cats, of course, were not dogs and did not obey to commands like common canines did. Cats were finicky, fickle, stubborn, contemptuous, and they had amazing hearing. Kittens were no exception to this because they were just as bad. It almost seemed like a game to them, because they just kept coming back. The number of them at the edge of the crate increased though as he repeated this grievous process at least 7 times before all little furry family members were accounted for. Their tails swished slowly back and forth at his presence and the annoying meowing that ensued.

“You all are quite stubborn aren’t you?” He put his head in his hands and browsed over them. There was a black one just like the mother, two crème colored ones with either orange or gray spots, a gray one with white paws, and a mutt looking one that was a rainbow of black, white, gray, and orange spots.

Their tails continued to swish until the little black one decided being in the box wasn’t enough and flopped out onto the ground in front of him. “So, separating yourself from the pack eh?” He asked it without expecting an answer.

Ah. What a shame, it must have knocked the wind out of the tiny kitten because it couldn’t see straight and stumbled around for several moments before bumping against Mesalx’ leg. “Meowr.”

“Well, that’s what you get when climbing over things taller than you.” He picked the furry little critter back up and put it back in the box, only to have the rest try and climb out as well. “ACK! No!” He exclaimed, pushing them back into the crate frantically. “Don’t come near me, I’m not keeping you.” The Salx King insisted.

Of course, all of them remained seated in the crate until the little black one went at it again and clawed the way to the top of the crate again before shakily standing on the edge of it to meow up at Mesalx again. “What now? I said no.” He insisted, picking the kitten up by the scruff of the neck and glaring at it.

His response was a little paw making contact with his forehead and he snorted in annoyance. “Aah. Stop.” He scolded, holding up an index finger to the little black kitten. “Understand.”

“Meowr.” His attempts at getting the attention of this little thing though was proving fruitless and all he could do was submit to the little black kitten pawing at his fingers with fervent play.

“Are you quite finished?”

All play stopped with this little black kitten before Mesalx suddenly felt moving little things he shouldn’t have. “Oh no,” He grumbled, looking down to find little balls of fluff clambering all over him while he sat there holding this little black kitten by the scruff of its neck. “Nooo…Why?” He almost wanted to whine. These little kittens swarmed him practically and it was actually very hard to become furious with them because well…they were animals. Cats weren’t bred to kill Salx or Arithanids. They were merely that sort of furry companion that wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in the sunlight coming in from a window or curl up on your lap by the fireplace.

That and cats were often more feared than dogs were by superstitious humans. “Oh I give up…you win.” Mesalx admitted, stretching out one of his legs as the little kittens clambered around him. His black eyes looked slowly about him, making sure that his younger sister Julie Dashara or her almost constant companion Jenna Kelly weren’t around to see him with kittens all over him.

One of the little ones was on his shoulder, nipping at his earlobe, two were playing with the seam of his shirt, another was playing with his hair, and the little black one was in his lap as Mesalx absentmindedly ran his hand over the little one’s soft black fur.

“I surrender.”

“Mew!”

“For now…”