...Good grief. Read!
Chaper Index:
Chapter 1-This post
Chapter 2-Page 3
Chapter 3-Page 5
Chapter 4-Page 5
Chapter 5-Page 7
Chapter 6-Page 11
Chapter 7-Page 24
SPECIAL BONUS CHAPTER-Page 52 (Note: It has nothing to do with Golden)
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Okay, before ze story begins, I have something to say.
Feel free to post your comments here, but don't have big discussions, okay? Please make the chapters easy to find.
Okay, here's the first chapter for you.
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Golden - An Original Catgirl Story
Chapter 001-The 'Gift'
Rai Aquarius was a moderately normal kid. He went to school, played games, and liked surfing the net. He had untidy brown hair, normal brown eyes, and tended to wear practical black clothes. But he wasn't Gothic. Simple enough, right? Okay, so his friends were a bit weird, but that's irrelevant. Rai was a normal boy. But on this particular day, an abrupt turnaround was going to occur in Rai's life...
Yawning, Rai woke up and got out of bed. His room was a bit messy, since he'd stayed up for an extra few hours working on his computer. A bunkbed occupied the wall opposite the door, with a window right behind it. Rai liked this because he could get fresh air when he read, quite easily. A computer sat atop a wooden desk in one of the other corners, fairly new and powerful. Opposite it was a large walk-in closet that Rai mostly used for stashing away boxes from games and such. The closet was also the game chamber, full to the brim with video games and consoles, in addition to the decent-sized TV he had gotten for his birthday. After the boy got up, however, he quickly dressed, brushed his teeth, and walked downstairs, getting the newspaper like he did every single morning for as far back as he could remember. But today was different, because there was something else there. Two things, actually, a letter and a girl Rai's own age. Not being stupid, Rai tossed the newspaper inside, shut the door, and opened the letter.
"Dear Rai." The boy said, reading aloud. "As you are surely aware, my parents have decided to move across the country, but we could not take her with us. I know that she is a bit strange, in personality and looks, but she is a very good person and I couldn't bear to just send her to an orphanage or something where who knows what kind of people would adopt her. Instead I privately filed a petition to send her to someone I personally knew and approved of, and it went through. She has no idea that we're even gone, I made sure to keep it hidden from her. I am very sorry to have not given you any notice, but we left too abruptly for me to contact you otherwise. This was simply my backup plan in case that happened. Please. Take care of her. Tor." Rai finished. He looked at the girl again, and his eyes widened a little. She looked like a normal person, but there was the small fact that she had cat ears and a tail. "Tor, you are such an idiot... I can't turn away somebody when you ask me like that. I'll get you back for this..." The boy muttered, folding the letter up and stuffing it in his pocket. The sun was rising by now, and would soon wake the cat-girl. Sighing, since he didn't want to have to deal with this, Rai gently picked up the girl, barely strong enough to do it, and carried her to his room where she could continue to sleep on his bottom bunk. As soon as that chore was completed, Rai went to the kitchen to eat his breakfast and read the newspaper. Luckily, it was Saturday, so Rai wouldn't have to drag the mysterious girl to school with him. But on the other hand, his favorite cartoons were on today as well, which could turn into something of a problem.
"Rai?" the boy's mom called. Rai looked up the stairs to where his parents' room was.
"Yeah?" the boy asked.
"You were out on the porch for a bit longer then usual."
"Er... Tor was moving quicker then he thought, but he left something for me." Rai explained. It was true enough, though his mother was almost guaranteed to misinterpret it. She had a funny tendancy to do that.
"Oh, that was so nice of him!! Is it interesting at all?" Rai's mother asked.
"Very." Rai replied, unrolling the paper. He stared a moment later at the headline. "Hmm... Interesting indeed."
"Okay, then." Rai's mom replied, heading back into her elaborately furnished room. Rai was wrapped up in the headline, which was announcing the choosing of his town as the location for a movie being filmed. About twenty different famous stars would be acting in it. But the interesting part was that it was based off one of Rai's favorite RPG's. And that could only be a good thing.
"This is awesome... But if they're here for filming, that means the script's already done and all." Rai muttered, reading on. A little while after he finished breakfast, he returned to his room. The cat-girl was slowly waking up. She had short, dark red hair and soft skin. Her body was decently developed, what you would expect from a 14 year old girl. Her eyes, however, were a gold so bright it was slightly ridiculous.
"Uuuuhh..." the girl muttered. "W-where am I?"
"You're at my house. Tor had... some business to atend to." Rai said, lying rather badly. But to his relief, the girl bought it.
"You... Know Tor?" the girl asked, looking up.
"Yeah. I'm Rai." Rai said, sitting down in his large, comfortable computer chair and swiveling to face the girl. The chair had cost him quite a bit, but it was definitely worth it. Few things you sat on were more comfortable.
"Oh... My name's Mina." the girl said, looking around curiously. "Um... When will Tor be back?"
"Dunno. Maybe never." Rai said, shrugging. "I don't really know." Rai felt bad about lying this way, but he had a funny feeling that he shouldn't speak the truth. Tor hadn't, so he could really do no less.
"Oh..." Mina whispered sadly. "I see... I met him about a week ago..."
"That short a time? I thought you'd been with him for awhile." Rai said, rather surprised. This was really a rather understandable thing.
"No... I don't really know how I got here." Mina muttered. "He said he was going to try and help me, but I guess he can't really do that."
"Well... I might be able to help." Rai offered. "I'm not going anywhere except to school on Monday."
"R-really?" Mina asked.
"Yeah! Not like I have anything better to do." Rai said cheerily. "You hungry?"
"Um... Y-yes... I don't wish to intrude or anything..." Mina began.
"That's okay. We have plenty of food." Rai said. "It's no problem. You should be able to stay here for as long as is needed."
"I... Thank you." Mina said, following Rai into the kitchen. Rai quickly got out a can of Tuna, and Mina ate it happily. Rai's mom came down a moment later, and paused as she saw Mina.
"Rai... What's going on?" she asked, understandably confused. "Who is she?"
"Remember what I said earlier?" Rai asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Y-yes." Rai's mom said haltingly. "But--"
"I never told you exactly what happened." Rai replied, walking back to his room. Mina padded along after him while Rai's mom just stared. From somewhere under the bunk bed Rai managed to pull out a large bean bag chair, which Mina quickly curled up on. Rai himself sat down in his chair and booted up his computer. "Okay... So, you're looking for your family or something, right?"
"I... My past might be a better place to start..." Mina said after some thought.
"...You have Amnesia?" Rai asked, frowning in concentration as he started typing. "Well, I doubt it'll be a problem, considering what you seem to be."
"Yeah..." Mina muttered sadly, her tail twitching back and forth. Several minutes passed in silence while Rai surfed the internet, occasionally looking into news articles.
"Ugh... Nothing." the boy muttered, closing his web browser. "Not a single mention of you on any of the major news sites, in any way. So I guess it's safe to presume you didn't run away from some sort of scientific institute, nor is the government particularly concerned about you."
"Are... There any other people like me?" Mina asked after a moment.
"Yeah, people like you pop up now and then. The chances are extremely low of it happening, but not so low that you might call it impossible. There'll be a bit of fuss over you for awhile if the press knows you're here, and one or two of the more dedicated reporters might go so far as to stalk you, but they'll leave soon enough." Rai explained. "In the meantime, you can stay here for as long as you want. If Tor actually got permission from the government to send you here, nobody'll complain and the scientists will stay away."
"Oh. Okay!" Mina said, cheering up slightly.
"Just don't go into the closet unless I'm in there." Rai said, smiling. "There's some valuable stuff in there."
"Right." Mina said, nodding. "Um.... Thanks for being so nice to me..." Rai was a little surprised at hearing this, and then he understood why she was feeling the way she was.
"You don't seem to be ill-mannered or anything, there's not really any reason not to like you." Rai explained. "Besides, Tor asked very nicely, and I can't turn him down after he went to a court and everything. You're almost part of the family now, and once mom gets used to you, you really will be."
"'Kay." Mina said happily, her tail swishing back and forth a bit rapidly. The computer beeped a moment later, signaling new e-mail. Smiling, Rai opened it and quickly read the contents.
"Oh, interesting." Rai said. "He's at the airport, making sure I know you're here... Yadda yadda yadda... Attatched a copy of the court order for me, that'll be useful... Apologizing to you, Mina, for leaving you suddenly like this, and he hopes it's not causing you trauma... He uses too many fancy words." Mina's mouth twitched at hearing this, understanding that Rai was making a joke. "Let's see... Oh, and something about already having your claws trimmed so you don't rip up anything so I don't need to worry about that... Typical Tor, no idea what he's doing." Rai finished.
"Huh?" Mina asked blankly. "No idea?"
"Of course not. He thinks I wouldn't have already figured all this stuff out." Rai replied, replying. "Let's see... Okay, got it. 'Tor, yes, I got her, and she's in my room right now. You don't need to worry, my mom didn't throw her out of the house, so she'll be allowed to stay. Good luck on your flight, and don't forget to send me an e-mail when you get to wherever you're going." Smiling, the boy added a P.S. to the mail, not saying it aloud so Mina wouldn't know about it. 'If I were you, I would've taken her with me. So now I'm stuck with a hot girl while you're not.' Laughing silently, Rai sent the mail, and waited exactly one and a half minutes before checking for a reply. Sure enough, Tor had used Caps Lock on his reply, which was 'RAI, DON'T YOU DARE ACT LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!!! She has AMNESIA, you little rat!! She needs help, not somebody horny!!!!!'
"What'd he say?" Mina asked curiously.
"Um... He says that your favorite food is fish, which is kind of obvious." Rai lied, typing a response. 'Relax, Tor, I was just joking. She'll get all the care she needs.' With that, Rai sent the message. There was no response from Tor, so Rai assumed he'd gotten on his flight and would respond to the mail in several hours. In the meantime, there was the important matter of cartoons to watch, so Rai shut down his computer and went into the closet, sitting on a beanbag chair. Mina walked over and stood nervously by the door. "It's okay, you can come in right now. I'm just going to be watching TV." Rai said, noticing Mina standing there. The girl quickly walked in and lay down next to Rai, who had by now turned on the TV to the channel he wanted. Mina watched with interest as the show began, it was apparently the first episode of a new show that Rai had been eager to watch.
"So... Um... Any idea what this show's about?" Mina asked after several minutes. Rai was silent for a moment, formulating an answer.
"Well, I don't really know. I'll have to watch more of it." Rai said eventually, shrugging. From the way Mina's tail was swishing back and forth, Rai correctly assumed that the girl was interested in the show, so he resolved to make sure she got to watch it every Saturday. After the show ended, however, Rai's mom poked her head into the closet.
"Rai." she began. "Your cousins finally arrived." Having informed him, she left, while Rai was left quite pale.
"...Is something wrong?" Mina asked, concerned.
"Um... Well... My cousins are sort of... Enthusiastic about anime. They'd go crazy if they met you." Rai explained. "It might be a good idea for you to keep out of sight--"
"Hey Rai!" a voice said through the closet door.
"Oh, crap..." Rai began.
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