Slow Blink

Boots opened her eyes a little. The late Spring sun painted the roughly equidistant trees and neatly trimmed hedges outside the window in lush greens and hints of red. A cherry tree - a feeble little thing that would likely have appreciated being planted in a warmer climate - was trying its hardest to best to accent the landscape with flecks of white-ish pink petals that had already started to wane as soon as they had even begun to bloom. Boots didn't pay it much attention from her spot on her favorite window-sill. She had never had to try anything. Boots didn't try. Boots just did. She adjusted the angle of her head slightly, yawning - more to signify that she was done sleeping, rather than shaking up any measure of grogginess - and stretched. Tension spread from just above the center of her back in both directions, reaching her haunches first, then the toes of her front paws, and then finally reversing the curl of her tail, before she felt it appropriate to stand properly, first reversing the arch of her back, and then letting her body relax.

The evening hours were perfect for doing rounds around her neighborhood. And it was her neighborhood. The houses, trees, humans regarded her with the respect she thought was necessary, and while she was perhaps slightly annoyed by the occasional human that crossed her path, but in the grand scheme of things, that was really no issue. After all, she couldn't expect everybody to be perfect. Unlike Boots, their tastes were flawed. Boots was also a benevolent monarch, so beyond the occasional expression of dissatisfaction, she rarely let it be known that somebody had transgressed. Instead, she elected to leave if she did not feel sufficiently entertained. Her orange and black mottled front paws tested the temperature on the floor outside her primary residence. It was perhaps slightly colder than she would have surmised from a glance outside, but it would do. She took a full step out of the door and tippled across the road onto the side with the hedges. It was important to check the hedges. Not only were those where the local deliciacies lived, but it was also the primary hiding space of neighboring cats. Some were older ones with their own territory, who thought it wise to try their luck at expanding their territories, some where younger, more naive ones, who thought that perhaps this area wasn't already spoken for. She had more sympathy with the latter. She too, had been young once, and in her time, she had overstepped one or two times, on account of her retainers at the estate not being able to tell her the customs of the regions. Those were the days, Boots mused and swatted down a stray leaf that stuck out of the hedge in a way that didn't appeal to her. She hadn't built up her regal stature, and what had started as territorial disputes had evolved into a game of politics between her and the other young upstarts, currying favours and paying in meals that - by all accounts - she was still bitter about having to give up.

Boots darted through the hedge, where she had had to split free territory with a Calico several years back. It was fine. She had gotten the better half. Hers had gerbils, creatures that she never developed a taste for, but that some other cats traded birds against, which were at least fun to play with. At her age, she had better adhere to the customs. Her wild days were done for a while now, though she detested the kittens that thought of her as old. She much preferred to think of herself as "wisened" and not in the need for more material things. She spotted a magpie taking a few clumsy steps on the lawn she had just arrived on. Immediately, she froze, lowered her body against the neatly trimmed grass. Because the retainers in these parts found it necessary to shorten it to ridiculous standards, she couldn't trust it to obscure her form entirely. Instead, she flattened herself against the ground, and slowly extended her claws. They dug into the soft ground, a poor imitation of the feeling for getting to hook them into real prey. Accompanied by a little grunt, Boots pushed herself off the ground. Her spine straightened, pushing tension into her back legs. Her front paws reached forward and swiped for the magpie, that was already mid-takeoff. Boots felt one of her claws snag on a tailfeather, just before the magpie fluttered past her, into the air and well past her reach. With a similar grunt, Boots landed again, turning to check whether the magpie landed somewhere, but it was long gone by then. She held her arched back for a moment, then relaxed. That magpie better run. Nobody had given her permission to be there, anyways, and Boots hadn't been hungry anyways. She made sure everything was in order, keeping her expression slightly smug, just in case somebody was watching, before tip-tapping further across the grass.

Not an hour later, Boots returned to her primary estate, where her favorite humans had already prepared some food for her. They did that almost like clockwork, which was very admirable, she thought. She so valued dependency in a retainer. The sky had begun to darken somewhere between the time she had turned back and her arrival, and she could see the trees throwing long shadows across streets and sidewalks. There was little that could excite Boots in a change of seasons now, that she'd seen so very many of them.

After her meal, her duties for the day were mostly done. Depending on her mood, there was time for another hunt, or perhaps some more exercise. Boots preferred the late night hours for that, usually when her retainers were asleep. That was when she could feel most like herself, and even though it was a shame that nobody could witness her prowess during her exercise, she could always wake them to assist, or entertain, or feed her, if fancy struck her. Not today though, she felt. Today had been a slow day, and it wouldn't do to end it in excitement. She had started having more of these slow days lately, or perhaps she had learned to appreciate them for what they were. So she found her bed, curled into a comfortable position in it, and closed her eyes.