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Rhea looked thoughtful. "Well ... she talks really quiet," she mused. "What about ... Whisper?"

The kitten purred softly and circled in Rhea's lap, then made herself comfortable, tucking her head against Rhea's ribs.

"Hai," she said in her very quiet voice, almost too soft to hear over her purr.

Rhea giggled and stroked the kitten lovingly. "Whisper," she nodded happily.

Rhea's eyes sparkled brightly. "Maybe I won't have to do lessons for the rest of the day," she mused hopefully. "Maybe we can just play instead!"

It made sense to her - and of course, she didn't realize just how unique she was, in that she had three different types of lessons that took up almost her every waking moment. Everyone else from the ranch and the valley had grown up with only lessons in the mornings. But to her, the idea of a free afternoon was a strange one, though appealing.

She giggled. "Maybe we should try to teach Whisper to talk in only one language at a time."

"I hope so," Rhea murmured softly, stroking Whisper from head to tail. "But it's a little funny to hear her talk like that." She giggled softly.

Whisper closed her eyes and purred loudly, laying her head down on Rhea's lap and spreading her wings so that they wouldn't block her back from being properly petted.

Rhea giggled again, snuggling with her new kitten. She was just so happy to finally be able to really play with her now, she didn't care that her speech came in several different languages.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Rhea grew used to Whisper's way of speaking, even to the point where she began unconsciously to do the same thing from time to time, asking Cindy questions with the odd elvish word in them.

One morning, however, she was shocked to find that a rather large change had taken place.

She woke up feeling particularly warm. It puzzled her, because as far as she knew she had left the window open overnight to help relieve the early summer heat. Yet she was ... sweating, even without blankets ...

"Whisper?" she murmured, reaching down to pet her kitten's head.

Except that Whisper was no longer a kitten. She was massive now, more than half Rhea's size. When Rhea reached down to pet her head, what she got was a very large muzzle.

Whisper stuck her tongue out to lick Rhea's hand gently. "Good morning," she purred softly. "Make sure you get up now, you have lessons after all."

Rhea's eyes flew open, and she sat up like a bolt and stared, drop-jawed, at her pet. "You talked right!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Whisper's neck and hugging her tightly. "And you grew! Cindy! Cindy! Cindy, come quick!"

Rhea giggled and nodded excitedly, still hugging Whisper's neck. "And she can talk right now, too!" she beamed. "Even though she never could with all the lessons we gave her, she can now!"

Whisper purred and licked at Rhea's forehead. "You need to get up for your lesson with your grandmother," she reminded her again, headbutting her gently and pushing her towards the edge of the bed. "I'll be coming with you, go on."

As Rhea scrambled to get dressed, the large cat turned to Cindy and grinned, still purring softly. "Good morning," she said warmly.

Whisper purred and lowered her head to her paws, her tail twitching in a very mischievous manner. If she had a human face, she would have been grinning, and the halo over her head seemed at that moment a tad ironic.

"I want to snuggle," she purred softly. "But Rhea has lessons, so I can wait."

She leaped lightly to the floor and padded over to Cindy, rubbing her head against the girl's stomach. "It's nice to know you can finally understand me."

Rhea pouted as she pulled her blouse over her head. "I always could!"

Rhea stuck out her tongue. "Me and Mama could," she muttered. "It was just elvish and the ancient language ... well and common tongue ... and the other elvish ..."

And from time to time, dwarfish, and even a little bit of the human tongue ...

Whisper padded over to Rhea and nuzzled her muzzle against her side. "Don't fret," she said quietly. "You should be happy. Now come on." She licked Rhea's cheek a bit. "Finish getting dressed and I'll come with you to your lessons with your grandmother."

Rhea tried to keep pouting, but she was too excited by Whisper's growth and the fact that her speech was easy to understand, and she just ended up giggling instead.

As soon as Rhea was dressed, Whisper nudged her gently towards the door. "We'll be back at the usual time," she assured Cindy with a catty grin. "I hope you get some rest until then."

"Are you saying I don't give her any peace?" Rhea asked the cat with one raised eyebrow as she headed out the door.

Whisper merely purred in reply.