The Warlord's Kitten Ch. 03

"KITTY!" Rugana bellowed, and Lin'qa jumped in surprise. She hastily turned the water off bolted back out to Rugana's room. She slowed down when she crossed the doorway and kept her gaze downcast sheepishly in an attempt to avoid her owner's wrath. "Hurry your fuckable little ass up, we have an appointment." She grumbled in annoyance and grabbed Lin'qa's leash. The chain went taut and the Orcess began to lead her out of their rooms and through the fortress once again. They didn't go deeper into the fortress, and after a few turns Lin'qa lost track of where they were going. She did notice a lot more people in this area, and it wasn't somewhere she recognized.

"Hey Chief, we heard you're entering the Kavagor this year, that true?" A trio of Orcs dressed like fighters approached her out of nowhere. Rugana stopped to address them, and Lin'qa scooted forward to hide behind her a little. She knew a terse response would be coming. 'Sorry, I'm busy. See me during court hours.' Or, whatever passed for court in this place.

"Fuck yes. Entered it and won it when I was a nobody, why shouldn't I enter it again? I don't expect to win because I'm sure everybody will gang up on me like a bunch of little bitches but that's just fine." Rugana laughed and punched one of them in the shoulder with the hand that wasn't holding Lin'qa's leash. It looked like she was trying to be playful but the Orcess she hit flinched more than a little. Lin'qa frowned in confusion. That was not the type of response she'd expected. Rugana had just treated those three like she treated the people allowed to eat at her table.

They moved on and entered a vast hall with people coming and going everywhere. The burning sun of late afternoon flooded in through an open steel gate on the other side of the room. A pair of soldiers nodded to Rugana as she walked into the room. They didn't even give Lin'qa so much as a glance. She found herself starting to feel increasingly self-conscious, and she walked a little closer to Rugana. She got close behind her Momma and squeezed her legs together to protect her clitty from view. This forced her to half-shuffle to keep up with the big Orcess and she hoped she didn't look too ridiculous doing so. Rugana didn't even seem to notice. She moved through the area with practiced familiarity, heading directly towards the open main gate. It occurred to Lin'qa that what Rugana had meant by "we have an appointment" probably meant they were going into the city. She considered tugging on her Momma's arm to get her attention and ask if they really had to go into the city. A few moments of pondering that course of action was all it took for her to reconsider. Of course they "had" to.

They passed through the massive iron gates into a courtyard surrounded by a walls. Four huge towers were spaced equally around the wall. They were seemingly built to support a device mounted on top of each that Lin'qa recognized. A huge, metal device, painted white but with veins of glowing turquoise spider webbing down the sides adorned each tower. They were long, curved, and cylindrical. They pointed up at the sky like the talons of some massive bird. Even from down below, Lin'qa felt like she could hear the familiar humming they made.

"Anti-air cannons, new from the U.R.F. They look pretty sweet, eh?" Rugana sounded perversely proud, like she was talking about a new toy. To her, she probably was.

"M-My family makes them," Lin'qa whispered. She had no idea how four of them had gotten here. She knew who her family did business with, so for four Plexion Claws to just mysteriously be here meant they had to have been sold off-books. Could her Father or Mother really have done that? Or was it someone else in the family? Someone corrupt down in the supply chain? No, there was no way some project manager could siphon off four of those without anybody noticing. It had to have been someone high up.

Rugana either didn't hear her comment or didn't care. She just took her on foot through the courtyard towards the gates and the city. Lin'qa scurried along directly behind Rugana, using the big Orcess' body to shield her naked form, even if just a tiny bit. Lin'qa had seen the city proper from the window earlier, but she wasn't prepared for just how loud it would be. There was the usual city din. The sound of people talking, carts rolling down the streets, footsteps and movement echoed off the poorly paved roads. The variety of buildings around them looked almost as made up on the spot as Lek had. She got the distinct impression that while the city was almost entirely Orcish made, each individual building was probably put together with whatever material the builder had available. Or what they'd stolen, more likely.

"Ugh... idiots..." Rugana grumbled, and veered off to the side all of a sudden. Lin'qa peeked out from behind her and saw a fight going on, two Orcs beating the hells out of each other bare-fisted. Well, one was beating the other, anyway. The loser of the fight had just stumbled backwards and impacted heavily with the wall. Blood ran down his chin and onto his shirt as his arms feebly tried to deflect the blows. Rugana grabbed the attacking Orc by the shoulder, spun him around, and punched him in the gut. The Orc wheezed and fell to his knees from the powerful blow, his eyes going wide.

"Looks like whatever disagreement the two of you had, he's lost the argument. Don't you agree?" Rugana asked the winner, pointing at the loser who was groaning weakly. The other Orc was slumped down against the wall, one eye swollen shut.

"B-But... Chief!" The winner gasped in between breaths. He sounded like he was in a lot of pain.

"Brawl all you want, but don't beat people bloody and senseless. Those are the rules. If you don't like them then I'm sure the Red Scar have plenty of use for idiots with more balls than brain, but I sure don't." She growled angrily at the winner, the scene drawing a bit of a crowd.

Mostly people wanting to see what the Chief was doing, Lin'qa figured.

"Right Chief. Got a little carried away. Sorry." The winner noded and rose to his feet, checking on the loser.

Lin'qa was surprised, even as Rugana tugged her along towards their unknown destination. The way the Orcess had handled that, and, the fact that she'd decided to handle it at all was so very unlike everything she'd learned from watching her family. Granted, Lin'qa herself had no real intent of going around punching people in the stomach when she got home. Still, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was something to be learned here. Goddess knows she'd be doing little else other than sucking dick and washing dishes if Rugana had her way. Which she almost certainly would.

Rugana pushed open the door to a shop that Lin'qa hadn't properly noticed and led them inside before she could see what it was. She craned her neck to try and get a glance, but the leash went taut and she stumbled forward into the shop instead.

"Ruge! How nice to see you in here again." A balding middle-aged Orc sat at the counter of a shop covered in papers with drawings on them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Orc himself had a piece of paper with a half-completed drawing on it right in front of him.

"Nice to see you too, Hur," Rugana smiled warmly and put her hand on Lin'qa's back. She shoved her forward towards the counter. "This is Kitty."

Hur frowned at Lin'qa for a second, then gave Rugana a skeptical look. "Kitty? Really? You named her after your old cat?"

"Of course! She's even got white fur with the black stripes, look!" Rugana grabbed Lin'qa's tail and presented it to Hur like proof. Lin'qa gave a cry of discomfort and glared at her Momma, who seemed not to notice.

"It was a dumb name then, and you were a kid," Hur chuckled, looking over at the very grumpy kitten in front of him. Lin'qa sighed. She'd been thinking that Rugana had named her 'Kitty' partly as a joke but mostly as a means of making a point. Giving her a silly, childish name to contrast her status and her worth. But, no, apparently both child and adult Ruganas were just deeply unimaginative women. Naming her pet cat Kitty, honestly...

"I'm thinking the inside of her ears, can you do it?" Rugana asked, ignoring her latest existential crisis.

Hur peered at her over his glasses for a second, scrutinizing her. Lin'qa wondered what they could be doing about her ears but doubted that asking would be appreciated. "Mmm, not sure if I'll get clean lines using the regular ink. Will she sit still?"

"Probably not. She's a squirmer. Use the Magic Ink? I'll pay for it, don't worry." Lin'qa's ears twitched in agitation. She looked up at Rugana pleadingly, searching for an answer as to what they were talking about.

"It's mystic ink. You said you wanted your personal crest for both of them, right?" Hur rolled his eyes as he corrected her. Lin'qa knew he was probably right, it would only be magic ink if it was created artificially, Mystic Ink would just be extracted from a magical creature.

Lin'qa's eyes went wide. "M-Momma...! What are you—" She tugged on her leash in a panic as she realized what was happening. This was a tattoo parlor. They were going to tattoo her.

"Shush, Kitty. I'm getting you marked so you don't get lost." Rugana rolled her eyes and herded her along behind Hur into the back room. An elevated table with a piece of cloth covering it at the center dominated the room. Bright magic lamps shed light on it from multiple directions like a surgical surface.

"N-No! No I can't! If I get—"

Rugana pinched the tip of Lin'qa's ear and she froze mid sentence, trembling. "Kitty, I know you're a little nervous, but you're gonna be a good girl and sit still. You're not gonna throw a tantrum or I will be very very upset. This is happening." Rugana looked her in the eye, and she felt a tear roll down her cheek. She nodded slowly, though her racing heart didn't slow down even a little. Rugana let Lin'qa's ear go and effortlessly lifted her up onto the table. "Lie down," she said sternly, putting a hand on Lin'qa's shoulder and applying pressure. It wasn't enough to force her down, but she went down anyway.

As her head came to rest on a small pillow at the end of the table, Lin'qa looked over to Hur for some pity, some mercy. He was busy inspecting his inks and didn't even notice her. Rugana's hand on her chin straightened her head out until she was looking at the ceiling. She saw Hur's chest looming over her out of the corner of her eye a moment later.

"Won't even hurt at all, just relax," He told her. She felt a tiny object brushing against the inside of her ears. Like he promised, It didn't hurt, but it did tickle a little. She let out a shaky breath, resisting the urge to giggle and squirm like a little girl. She didn't feel like giggling. She was full of dread.

Whatever Hur was using didn't seem like a tattoo needle, not that she'd know. She tried to get a peek at it but her curiosity yielded nothing as the Orc worked, oblivious to her discomfort. Her left ear didn't take especially long, and he moved on to her right. As he switched sides, she got a glimpse of he was using. It was a little paintbrush tipped with a sparkly purple ink that shimmered softly in the bright light.

"Looks great, same thing other side," Rugana commented happily, and Hur started humming to himself as he worked. Perhaps the Chief's approval had lifted some of the pressure on him.

The whole thing was done in what felt like an hour or two, and Lin'qa felt a little of her anxiety lift when Hur put the brush away. "Alright Ruge, you might want to hold her down for this part," he said.

Lin'qa tried to raise her head to get a look at what was happening, but Rugana's strong hand on her shoulder and forehead pinned her to the table. "Shhh... It's okay, Kitty. Momma's here." She whispered to Lin'qa soothingly, as Lin'qa felt a little puff of air or dust get blown into her ear.

The outlines of the drawing blazed to life, searing the sensitive skin of her inner ear. The pain was so sharp and so clear she felt that she could have drawn it herself despite never having seen it. She screamed and thrashed against the pain. She tried to shove Rugana off, tried to kick the big Orcess to dislodge her. Neither worked, and another puff of smoke hit her in the other ear. The pain blossomed there too. She cried, screamed, cursed, and thrashed as her agony redoubled. Rugana held her all the while, murmuring to her softly, but she barely noticed. The Orcess may as well have been made out of iron for all the good her kicking and flailing did. Rugana didn't budge, and neither could Lin'qa. Finally, the pain started to ebb, and she cried weakly, her strength failing her. She laid there on the table, her face covered in tears. Her ears twitched, and the movement sent a new shock of pain through her that made her whine in misery.

"You look so pretty now, Kitty," Rugana whispered to her. Her Momma kissed her on the forehead and stroked her hair.

"Second application a year from now, or it'll start to fade. Second time isn't so bad though." Hur spoke cheerfully from the corner.

"Will do. Kitty, do you want to walk or am I gonna carry you?" Rugana asked as she let go of crying catgirl. Lin'qa didn't move just as surely as if she was still pinned down. When she didn't immediately answer, Rugana's fingers found one of her nipples and pinched gently. 'Always answer your Momma when she asks you a question.' The phrase ran through Lin'qa's head, reminding her what Rugana expected of her.

"C-Carry... please..." she groaned weakly. Rugana picked her up, one arm under her shoulders and another in the crook of her knees. Lin'qa leaned her head against Rugana's chest, whining quietly as she dealt with the throbbing in her ears and the headache that was setting in. She barely noticed where they were going. It was only when she was laid down on the bed that she realized they were already back in the fortress, in Rugana's room. "I'm gonna take dinner in here tonight. I'll be back in a second." Lin'qa heard the door click shut behind the Orcess.

She laid there for a few moments before eventually curiosity got the better of her and she rose to her feet off the bed. The chain leash made a soft jingling noise as it trailed along behind her. She walked over to a mirror set on Rugana's desk and looked at her reflection. The inside of her ears has previously been a pale pink colour, crisscrossed by barely visible veins that came out only when her ears were backlit by the sun. Now, the image of an eye, with a spear vertically coiling around it like it was a snake decorated both of them. The ink was a soft purple and it sparkled ever so slightly, just like the paintbrush. Lin'qa had seen a similar design all over the fortress, except the one she usually saw was two of those spears coiled around one another and no eye. They'd said it was Rugana's personal crest, so perhaps the ones she saw around the fortress were the clan's crest.

The tattoos were so obvious. So unmistakable. Even if she got away and made her way home, these marks would remain. She'd have to explain them. It felt like her home was slipping away from her, falling through her fingertips. She started to cry, tears of misery and defeat rolling down her cheeks. She sobbed and didn't hear Rugana re-enter the room, didn't hear Rugana right behind her. Rugana grabbed Lin'qa and sat down, taking the distraught cat girl into her lap.

"What's the matter, Kitty?" she asked softly, whispering into her ears.

"I c-can't go home l-like thiiis..." Lin'qa wailed, her head in her hands.

"Shhh, Kitty. You were never going home. I was never going to ransom you back. Don't be sad, this is your home now." Rugana scratched her between her ears as she sobbed. Lin'qa leaned into Rugana, burying her face between the Orcess' cleavage as she cried and wailed. She tried to be angry at Rugana, to defy her, but she couldn't. She felt broken, and right now Rugana was the only one who was there to comfort her. She cried. Cried even though she knew it wasn't over. She still wanted her old home. She still wanted her freedom. But even having this small piece of her old life ripped away had hurt her. She realized how fragile she was in that moment, that the strength she tried to show at home had been a facade. Her family and her old life had systematically ripped away most of her strength because they didn't like how she acted. She didn't really fit in with what they expected her to be. She'd been an embarrassment. In that moment, she hated them for it. Not Rugana, but them, the entire system that she'd been a part of, her family included.

"Feeling better?" Rugana asked, still stroking her hair gently and affectionately. It felt different, somehow. . She believed that Rugana actually cared for her. Certainly not in the way that she would have wanted. Not as an equal, but it was something. Maybe that should have been more distressing than if Rugana didn't care at all, but right now she couldn't bring herself to be upset about it. Or, maybe the ink was just messing with her brain. That was probably more likely.

"Yes Momma," she answered anyway.

"Good. Kitty, I'm hard on you because the sooner you stop fighting the happier you'll be. I might enjoy messing with you but I'm not cruel. I don't like seeing you cry like this." Rugana patted her again and stood up, forcing Lin'qa onto her feet as she did. She went over to a table next to the door and retrieved a plate and a bowl that hadn't been there earlier. The plate was piled with hot food that was steaming softly, and the bowl had what looked like a large hunk of bread in it. Rugana returned to the desk carrying the two. She set her plate down on the desk and put the bowl onto the floor. Lin'qa noticed up close that it looked more like the kind of a thing a pet would eat out of than anything else. "Go ahead, eat."

Lin'qa nodded and sniffled a little bit, sinking down onto her butt and reaching for the food in the bowl. It was mostly some bread with a few strips of dried meat in the bottom, but she ate without complaint. It was plain, but filling. A question began to develop in the back of Lin'qa's mind, nagging at her, begging to be let out, even though she was afraid to ask.

"Momma... are you mad at me?" Her voice felt so small.

"Huh? What're you on about?" Rugana asked around a mouthful of food. She sounded confused, not angry.

"Because of... last night..."

"Oh, no I'm not mad, I was just annoyed. You're pretty smart, aren't you, Kitty?"

"Uhh... no I don't... No..." The question caught Lin'qa by surprise. She wasn't sure what to make of it.

Rugana snorted a laugh. "Well, okay. Let me answer that for you. You're smart, Kitty, but you sure can be really dense sometimes. Why do you think I'm putting you to work?"

"Because I'm a slave?"

"Yeah, see that's what I meant when I said you can be really dense sometimes. Do you think I need the extra labor? Especially from you?"

Lin'qa was quiet for a little bit. She HAD been thinking about this, but she hadn't actually come to a conclusion, she'd been too busy actually working to think about it further.

"No."

"Exactly. I'm putting you to work because you still think you're a little princess, and you're not. I'm teaching you some humility. You're not a princess anymore, you're my pet. My trophy. I was annoyed when you offered me your opinion on how to run MY tribe because you did it thinking you'd get out of working."

Lin'qa pouted a little. Rugana wasn't really wrong, it was a sort of a faint hope she'd held. She'd thought maybe she could have been like, Rugana's advisor instead of washing floors, or something. That wasn't the main reason why she'd spent hours thinking up a better solution to Rugana's problem though.

"I did it because I feel useless..." she spoke softly.