Fair point. The two of them stood watching for a while, unsure what to do. Then the larger yellow kitten stirred. It sneezed, opened its eyes, and fixed them on Flick and Idalee. The next moment, it was on all fours with legs splayed out and hair standing on end. This woke the other two. The gray kitten opened its eyes and stared. And Lettie’s face took on a perfect mask of guilt.
“Lettie,” Flick said again, keeping his voice low lest he startle the kittens more. “What are you doing?”
Lettie shrank down and leaned a little closer to the gray kitten. “They wanted to play.”
Play? These kittens were as big as she was, and their fangs looked sharp. “You’ve been playing with them?”
“When you and Idalee were busy around the house,” Lettie said, raising her eyes to his reproachfully.
“How long has this been going on?”
“Today, yesterday, and the day before.”
Flick took a step back, ran a hand through his hair, and forced himself to take a few deep breaths. Lettie was safe. She didn’t look to be missing any limbs. But what by the three cities had the girl been thinking?
“Come here, Lettie.” He took the girl’s skinny wrists in his hands and rolled up her sleeves, then spun her around in front of him. She had a scraped elbow and a few bruises on her other arm. Her dress was torn at the bottom.
He opened his mouth to berate her when a familiar voice spoke from the forest. “She has been in no danger. I’ve been watching.”
Flick supposed he was getting used to seeing Adele pop out from between the trees. The clanswoman seemed more sure of herself this time, less shy. “Flick, Idalee,” she said in greeting.
“Lady Adele,” said Flick, wondering briefly what the proper way to address a Makvani lass was. The day just kept getting stranger and stranger. Though he had to admit that part of him was glad to see her. The clanswoman intrigued him.
“The kittens mean no harm,” said Adele. “It’s play for them. That’s all.”
“Lettie’s rather scratched up for a bit of play.”
Adele cast a glance at the girl. “How do your small ones grow strong if you don’t let them tumble?”
“I’ll wager our small ones don’t heal as quickly as yours,” said Flick.
Adele held out her arm to Flick and traced a faint scar on her skin. “These marks make me a better sibling to my litter-mates, and a better fighter for my clan. But I know that your young are more delicate than ours. I made sure that Libena and Ziben were careful.” She crouched next to the kittens and rubbed each of their heads in turn. “The kittens are curious about humans,” she said.
“As are you,” said Flick.
Adele looked at him, taken aback. Flick was beginning to notice that she startled when he stepped too close, whether physically or in conversation, though she recovered more quickly each time.
“Our elders mixed more with humans before Leyus pulled us out of the slave trade,” she said. “But we younger ones have only been among our own kind.”
She mentioned the slave trade without any self-consciousness, as if it were just a matter of fact, which Flick supposed it was. Kyra had mentioned something of the sort. “And what do you think now that you’ve spoken to us?” he asked.
“You are weaker, in some ways. But you are not helpless. And you solve your problems by very different means.” Well, that was certainly honest. Flick got the impression that Adele rarely lied.
Adele looked up then, to some sound Flick couldn’t hear. “One of my kin is close by. Stay here, and stay quiet.”
She untied her tunic and let it drop to the ground as she walked to the trees. Flick caught a glimpse of her (admittedly shapely) backside before propriety prompted him to avert his gaze. Well, propriety and the fact that Idalee was smirking at him. In theory, the prospect of shape-shifting women who shed their clothes at a moment’s notice had very few downsides. Of course, theory didn’t include two younger sisters watching his every reaction—Idalee with noticeable amusement, and Lettie with her usual wide-eyed interest.
“Just try not to get yourselves killed, all right?” said Flick, trying his best to hold on to his dignity.