FicWad

“Would you like for me to tell you a story?” a silver haired woman with kindly periwinkle blue eyes and weathered, tanned skin asks her two grandchildren who were fidgeting on her frail lap.
The words greatly excited three and six year old siblings, as they would any child and the cosy sitting room is instantly filled with gleeful chants of, “yes,” and “Pwetty pwease!”
The old woman laughs softly at their eagerness and happily begins her tale. It was one that the two brothers knew all too well, but it never failed to captivate them, even though it was often the sole cause of their many childish arguments and a fairly upsetting topic for the eldest, Gerard.
“Our tale belongs a very long, long time ago,” the woman begins in her hushed voice, knowing the story off by heart. How could she not, when it was such a great part of her and her dear family`s life?

“A long, long time ago, the Cat and the Rat were the best of friends. They accompanied each other everywhere they went and they shared their food. One day, the Cat learnt that the Jade Emperor was going to elect twelve animals to represent the twelve calendar years, and invited all animals to a party. The Cat suggested to the Rat that both of them should make a presence.

When the day finally arrived, the Cat told the Rat, 'I am going to take a nap so that I will be in my top form. Can you please wake me up when it's time to go to the party?' 'No problem.' the Rat replied, 'Just relax and rest. I will wake you up when the time comes.'

After the Cat fell asleep, the Rat thought to himself, 'I am among the smallest of all animals and I don't stand a chance in making one of the twelve if the Cat will go.' So when the time came, the Rat left on his own without waking up the Cat, and was elected as one of the twelve Zodiac Animals.

When the Cat found out what the Rat had done, he was furious. The two became worst enemies. This is the reason why cats are not one of the twelve animals and they love to chase after rats.”
The two boys are silent through the tale, hanging on every single word their loving grandmother uttered. They simply adore the old woman, not just for her incredible knack at telling stories, but because she had practically brought them both up, especially Gerard.
“That’s sad, Granny.” Mikey mumbles, clutching a worn unicorn teddy to his fragile little chest protectively. “How the Rat betrayed his best friend.” He tucks his head under his elder brother`s arm to try and appear grown up and muffle his tears. “I could never do that.”
There is a soft knock at the door, and the black haired boy tenses immediately, his extra sensitive senses telling him who was there before the heavy oak door was even pushed open.
“You!” He hisses, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on edge and his hazel eyes narrowing into angry slits.
Standing calmly in the door frame an innocent expression on her young face was a little girl, no older than around seven or eight. She was dressed simply in a denim playsuit with a plastic beaded necklace worn loosely around her neck, sucking on one of the largest pink beads in her mouth. Her light brown eyes widen dramatically when she spots the raven hair boy who was glaring at her as if she was the devil herself. At this she grins, releasing the plastic jewellery and showing of the gap between her snowy white baby teeth.
“Hello cat.” She chuckles and enters the room, walking past the dark haired child and making her way to the mousy haired one who was watching the scene unfold with cautious hazel eyes.
Mikey loved his brother, he was his hero, even if he was typically avoided like the plaque by most of their other family members, but he also liked Zora. The timid boy just couldn’t understand how the two could hate each other so much, even though he had heard the story of the Zodiac Cat and the Rat so many times before.
“Mom says dinner is ready.” The girl sings before skipping out of the room, swinging the pink plastic necklace, her glittery trainers lighting up with each step she took.
“I don`t want to eat.” Gerard states plainly as he crossed his chubby little arms, “not with her, not with that silly rat in the room.”
Sighing deeply, Elena gets to her slipper clad feet slowly , telling Gerard that he had to, otherwise his food would be cold and Zora`s mother wouldn`t be happy after spending so much time on it. Sighing equally as deeply, Gerard gets to his bare feet, muttering something under his breath and follows his enemy into the large kitchen.
…
Years passed. Days blurring and melting into weeks and months and soon after Gerard`s fourteenth birthday, Elena had passed on, leaving behind her legacy of kindness patience and her grand, five hundred year old house to the eldest Zodiac member, Pandora, who was eighteen at the time. Gerard continued to live on at the house, but soon his Gran`s memory and living under the same roof as the his natural enemy, the rat, became too much and he ran away, vowing to never return to his so called “family.” He knew deep down that was the last thing his grandmother would have wanted, and that he should have gone to the main house, where the rest of the other Zodiac members lived, but he had never truly felt like he belonged there, so he didn’t.
The poor little black cat didn’t belong anywhere.