Ritual

Jax woke up to a paw being prodded into his side.

“Come young one. It is time you learned how to awaken the giant human so that she may feed us.”

Jax yawned and stretched all the way to the tips of his claws before mumbling as he stood, “I thought you enjoyed doing it too much”

“But I won’t always be here, so hurry up.” Duke trotted off to where the human slept, his long black and silver marbled coat blending into the shadows of the house, his hulking frame never making a sound.

Jax was the opposite. His bright orange and white coat like a beacon in the dark house, and the sound of his young footsteps always reminded him of the heavy hooves of the horses that were kept outside.

He let out a heavy sigh. Jax didn’t like to think about Duke one day not being in the house but he knew the older cat was right. Still, it wasn’t a happy thought.

“I said hurry up,” Duke growled startling Jax from his unhappy thoughts, “I’m hungry.”

“Sorry.” Jax bounded forward to join him at the foot of the human’s bed.

“Just wake her up,” Duke grumbled with a swish of his tail.

Jax nodded, “Human!” he yelled and paused looking for a response.

There was none.

“Again, louder.”

“Human!”

“You can do better than that.”

Jax took a deep breath, “HUMAN!”

The mass on the bed shifted. Jax looked excitedly at Duke who had flattened his ears and shook his head. The human stopped stirring and settled back down onto her back without ever even opening up her eyes.

Jax let out a sigh of frustration.

“Well, what are you going to do now?” Duke asked with a smirk, “If you don’t hurry up I’ll have to do it and you won’t be getting any breakfast I can guarantee that.”

Jax swallowed nervously, that was no hollow threat, Duke had done it before. Jax studied the sleeping human for a few moments.

Having made up his mind, Jax leapt up as high as he could and sunk his claws into the sheets of the bed. Hauling himself up the rest of the way, tail quivering with the effort.

He paused at the top before carefully crawling his way to the human’s head.

The human’s bed was always confusing to him. The surface was soft but often what looked like solid footing gave way beneath his paws making him stumble and tumble around. He never could understand how Duke navigated it with such ease or how the human could possibly sleep in such a strange place.

Despite the, sometimes, hollow ground under his paws, Jax had made his way up to the human’s face. He sat on top of its chest, just a foreleg’s length from its nose.

“Human!” he yelled again.

The human scrunched up her face and turned her head to the side.

“Louder!” Duke commanded.

Jax placed both front paws on the human’s cheek, took a deep breath, and yowled as loud as he could, “HUMAN! WAKE UP AND FEED US!!!”

The human woke with a violent jerk, sending Jax flying for the floor, only to be caught before he hit the ground by one of the human’s hands.

Jax squirmed out of the human’s grasp and trotted over to Duke, “I did it!”

“You need to work on your dismount,” Duke harrumphed, “But not bad for a first attempt.”

Jax and Duke followed their human as she grumbled and shuffled into the kitchen, turning on the lights as she went.

Jax squinted at the sudden light, “I hate it when she does that.”

“It can’t be helped,” Duke sighed, “humans can’t see as well as we do in the dark.”

The cats sat in front of their bowls and waited as the human turned on the can opener. The small green light of the device blinking several times after it had opened the wet food that both cats craved.

The human placed the food in front of the cats and left to get her own food.

Jax let out a purr of contentment, satisfied with a job well done.