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Starfish Scares (13) : Starfish live in the sea. They do not live in freshwater rivers, lakes, or reservoirs with no connection to the ocean. Starfish are also not social creatures. And yet, here they are–in hoards. They can be found near any water source–and far from it. These starfish seem to be a unique species that are eager to travel and don’t seem quite bound to water, though they will seek it out. The starfish will latch onto just about anything they can to hitch a ride, even though they’re fast. They secrete an itchy, oozy slime after they’ve latched onto something, and though it seems as though they can absorb nutrients from any living creature, these starfish have an odd penchant for blood. You might as well have a colorful leech stuck to you as soon as you think one of these things crawling your way. Their bites are sharp and will leave the nearby skin itchy and painful. They are a bit difficult to remove but they can be killed; as soon as they have perished, they will rapidly dry out and crumble. However, it’s far more likely that they’ll escape before you can get your hands on them. Be vigilant; these things are pests–and smart enough to cling to people and vehicles alike if it means getting to where they want to go.
The day was nice and sunny out, and the warm paving stones of the patio practically called his name. Alexis exited the sliding glass door that Ainsley usually left slightly ajar for him and immediately felt relaxed by the sun’s heat. He didn’t mind the chill of the air conditioned house, he could always burrow underneath Ainsley’s blankets if he needed to get warm. But there was nothing that would ever come close to relaxing under the rays of the sun on a warm surface. Earth cats were known to do that and the first time Alexis had tried it, curious about the draw of it, it had been the best and most relaxing experience of his life up to that point. Now anytime he needed some serious relaxation, he could be found lounging in a puddle of sunlight.
What he hadn’t noticed was the strange accumulation of starfish that were near the pool. But one of them seemed to notice him. By the time the starfish had inched its way to the Mauvian, Alexis was softly snoring with his belly up toward the sunlight.
Feline yowling alerted Idri to a possible problem with his sister’s cat. With Ainsley away at her summer soccer day camp, it meant that Idri was the one who had to deal with it. “What the hell is wrong with you, furball?” he muttered as he tracked the sound of pained and irritated cat noises. It didn’t take him long to track Alexis down, finding him rolling around like he was fighting some invisible demon. “The ********?” he muttered as he bent down to try and calm the cat down long enough to see what the problem was. Ainsley would be devastated if anything happened to her precious Alexis.
When Alexis rolled onto his back with his feet attempting to rabbit kick something off his stomach, Idri almost had to do a double take. Was that a starfish? How the hell did a starfish get here? Idri carefully scruffed Alexis, holding him by the fur of his neck while he pulled the starfish off him. There was blood oozing from a circular wound on Alexis’s stomach but the cat twisted until he could free himself from Idri’s hold and ran off. Idri sighed. He’d have to find him to tend that wound later. The starfish, which seemed to be the source of the wound judging by the traces of blood around its mouth, would have to be returned to the beach later.
Today was a nice and sunny day, which meant that Noa would have liked to go chilling out on the patio. She put on one of Idri’s shirts followed by some swim bottoms and waddled outside. She heard yowling and instantly tried to waddle faster to get to Alexis, not paying attention to where she was walking or what was around her. “Alexiiii?!” she saw the cat running towards her with a small trail of blood trailing behind him. She opened up her arms but yelped once, twice, then outright screamed in pain. “What the ********?!” Why were there starfish here?! She tried to pull them off, squeaking when the damned thing seemed to latch on tighter. There were at least three of them attached to her and she was not liking it at all.
But also…
Why was she dizzy?!
“G-Get off!” She was swaying a bit and trying to reach one of the lawn chairs that were nearby, using the patio door to keep upright.
Idri heard Noa call the cat’s name and snorted softly. He should have known Alexis would go to her. Noa and Ainsley were much nicer to the cat than Idri was. But then he heard Noa yelp and he was heading outside to the patio just as he heard her scream. The same starfish were on her legs. “What the hell is going on?” he asked no one in particular as he moved to scoop Noa up into his arms. He could feel the starfish as they latched onto his own legs, an irritating itch starting each time a new one claimed a spot on his body.
He carried Noa into the house, nearly shutting the patio door on Alexis as the cat zoomed inside. It was bad enough the starfish on them were in the house, they didn’t need more crawling inside. Wincing a bit with each step, Idri took Noa to lay her on the couch. A small black trash can was nearby and Idri grabbed it. “This is gonna hurt, baby, but they have to come off,” he told her, trying to be gentle but the starfish were latched on tightly. Eventually he was able to pull the starfish off of her with as little pain as possible, dropping the offending creatures in the trash can. What the hell was going on in Destiny City this summer? First giant chicken monsters, now vampire starfish?
Alexis had been on the path to finding Noa when he heard her yelp. As he turned a corner he saw her stumble just before that monster of a man caught her in his arms. Was he hurting her?! He knew things about their intimate life he had never needed to know, ever, but had Idirian taken things too far? Did he need to find a way to rescue Ainsley and Noa from this villain’s grasp? Non! He would not stand for it! He yowled again as he raced inside after them, his tail nearly getting caught in the closing door as Idirian placed sweet Noa onto the sofa.
Hopping up onto the furniture, Alexis hissed as he caught sight of the starfish covering her legs. With claws out, he batted at one closest to him. It took a few strikes of his claws but finally the petit monstre released Noa’s flesh and began to shrivel up.
Honestly she was more scared for her baby than anything, which is why she had her arms trying to keep the damned fish away from her stomach. There was a bit of a surprised squeak when Idri picked her up but she tried to curl into him as much as she could while still protecting her stomach. Her legs were itchy and all she wanted to do was run her nails down them to satisfy the feeling. As soon as Idri put her down on the couch, she tried to help but eventually gave up since it made her so dizzy. The small woman almost paled at the thought of pulling the starfish from her, but they would have to go anyway since they were literally sucking out her blood.
There was minimal pain and a couple of winces but eventually all the fish were pulled off and Noa gave a tired giggle at Alexis. “Silly kitty. Thank you for saving me.” She gave him a kiss on the ear then pulled Idirian up to kiss him as well. “Where on Earth did these things come from? Honestly you’d think they were a type of Youma or something…” She unconsciously rubbed at her stomach, smiling. “See? Daddy and Alexi saved you and mommy from the big bad starfishes.” She had to resist the urge to scratch, her hand twitching every now and then.
Once all the starfish were off of Noa’s legs, he pulled the things off of his own. He felt a little dizzy, but since he was sitting on the floor he was fine. “I have no idea. I didn’t even know they were out there until I found one on Alexis,” he said, leaning close for her kiss before kissing her stomach. He huffed softly when she credited Alexis with helping to save her and murmured to her stomach. “But Daddy did most of the work.” He sent a playful smirk to Noa before laying a hand on her stomach lightly. “I’ve got some aloe we can put on the bites.” Hopefully that would help the itchiness. He just needed a moment for the dizziness to pass. “Orange juice, too.” For the blood loss.
Alexis preened under Noa’s praise and attention, nuzzling her cheek and somehow resisting the urge to swat at Idirian as he received his kiss. He did hiss at him when he said he had done most of the work. If he hadn’t alerted them to the problem, Noa could have been in a much worse position now! He longed to be able to speak to them and tell them his mind. Perhaps curse the giant in a language he would not understand. As Idirian laid a hand on Noa’s stomach, Alexis swatted at him, though he didn’t use his claws.
Noa snorted at Idri’s comment, and leaned back on the couch with her hand resting on her belly. “I'll try to resist scratching then….But ******** it's sooooo itchyyy.” Her gaze turned to Ainsley's cat, “Alexi! That wasn't nice, don't do that.” She sighed and scooted over a bit, “Here, you want to come lay near Haji?” He couldn't lay ON her belly, but he could be on her side just fine while she waited for the aloe and orange juice. She really couldn't wait till she would be able to power up again, because if that were the case then she would've been able to stab them with her little chain kunai. The thought actually brought a little bit of a crazed glint to her eye that no one noticed. Has she always been this way? Thinking about it….Probably. Eh, good thing she had the right partner then.
Alexis mewed plaintively at Noa’s reproach, but happily accepted the invitation to lay next to her where he could hear the baby’s heartbeat. He’d always had a soft spot for babies, at least until they started squalling. Still, he settled himself between her and the couch with his front pressed against her stomach so his purr would resonate to the baby inside.
Idri rolled his eyes at Alexis’s swat and shook his head before getting up to get the aloe and orange juice. A few minutes later, Idri had all their wounds cleaned and covered in aloe, even Alexis’s. He made sure Noa drank a whole glass of orange juice and had another to sip on, not wanting the blood loss to affect her or Haji. “I should probably see about doing something with whatever starfish are left outside,” he said, eyeballing the patio door warily.
