Tuesday Tales: From the Word: Mark

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales. Time is streaking by. This week, our word prompt is MARK. I’m continuing with Listen to the Stones. And the plot thickens. Enjoy!

Raven chose that moment to introduce herself. She jumped down from the couch, tumbling ass over tea kettle, before approaching Maeve, and rubbing against her legs.

It was odd how the animal stayed away from James but seemed to befriend everyone else.

“Look at you.” She turned to Marina. “What’s her name?”

“Raven. We found her huddled against the building when we arrived.”

Maeve reached down to pick up the kitten. She opened the animal’s mouth and smiled.

“’Tis an unusual name for a kitten. I doubt she’s more than ten weeks old. She weighs about a kilo and still has her baby teeth. She’s not one of our cats. None of our queens have kittened yet, although when Mab disappeared last week, I thought she might have, but she was back within a couple of days as pregnant as ever.”

Marina cocked her head. Queen Mab? It had a familiar ring to it.

“You call your pregnant cats queens? I’ve never heard of that.”

“Aye. It’s the term given to an unspayed female cat, especially when she’s expecting kittens. As to the provenance of this wee one, we do have a few feral ones in the area, but eventually, those are adopted by one of the locals. I’ll wager someone from town dropped it off as soon as it could leave its mother.” She shook her head. “It’s not the best way to get rid of unwanted kittens, but we see it often enough, especially black ones. The fools don’t understand the role cats play in keeping the mice and rats at bay.” She held it up and smiled. “You’re a special kitty, aren’t you?”

Marina frowned. “What do you mean?”

 James stood back with his arms crossed. He reminded her of a pouting child who wasn’t getting the attention he wanted.

“See that wee, white mark on her chest?” She turned the kitten so that Marina could see the spot. “She’s Cat Sith and belongs to the fairies, most probably a gift from them to welcome you home and keep ye safe. She may be tiny, but she’ll have powers of her own.”

She set the cat down.

That’s it. Come back next week for more. Don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.