Rory's Voyage
#8 of Rory
Rory's Voyage
By : Panthera
This story is not to be reproduced, copied, or otherwise published anywhere, in any way shape or form, without the express permission of the author.
It was a cloudy morning when Rory's mother came to wake up the cub. Grey clouds blotted out the morning sun, and a cold light-falling rain patted against the windows Rory loved to look out of so much. His mother came into the room, her orange and black-striped fur almost entirely hidden under her warm, off-white sweatsuit.
She frowned at the weather outside, muttering to herself that winter was fast approaching, then padded over to shake the sleeping tiger cub gently. "Rory?" she asked with her sweet and gentle voice. "Time to get up little cub."
Rory gave a soft, kittenish mrewl in protest and turned onto his other side.
His mother grinned and shook him again, slightly harder than before. "I said it's time to get up Rory. We have to get you to the train station by eight-thirty, and it's already a quarter past seven. Now c'mon cubbie ... rise and shine for me please?"
Rory started to smile in his freshly awoken stupor, and he turned over to look up at his mom. "Mmm ... goin' to gram'ma's today mama?"
She smiled and gave a nod "Yes you are. Going to be like a big tiger and take the train all the way there all by yourself."
Rory vigorously nodded and his smile managed to grow some more on either side of his muzzle.
"Alright then .. " his mother smiled, " .. let's get you cleaned up. Good thing you packed last night cub."
He smiled and nodded, hopped out of his bed, and then quickly walked to the bathroom, knowing running wasn't permitted in the house. He quickly squirmed out of his overshirt, and even took off his overnight diaper all by himself. He waited for his mother to come in and run the bathwater for him.
After the warm water was in the tub, Rory carefully climbed in, then sat there, smiling as his mother shampooed and cleaned off his fur for him. After a brisk drying off in the big, thick, fuzzy towels he liked so much, Rory headed back to hid bedroom with his mother. They picked out some warm clothes for him, a pair of undies, a dark green sweatshirt, and a pair of blue jean overalls. Rory was so happy about the upcoming trip on the train that he didn't even protest to having to put on his winter coat, even though the red had faded to a very girlish pink color with how often he managed to get it dirty.
They both sat down to a god breakfast with Rory's father. Everyone was smiling, though Rory wasn't quite sure what why his parents were smiling so much and making kissing faces at each other so much during their meal. After giving him as big of a hug as he could, Rory's father went off to work.
After he helped her to clean up the dishes, Rory and his mother got in his mother's car and drove to the train station. Rory was very excited about getting to take a train ride by himself, but he was even more excited about getting to spend a whole week with his grandmother, since he normally only got to see her on holidays, and when they visited her in the summer every year.
They pulled up to the station, and walked up to the ticketbooth. Even the cold wind and the rain didn't bother Rory's spirits any. His mother bought a ticket for Rory, roundtrip, then leaned in close to whisper to the wolf behind the register. She glanced down to Rory, smiled, then nodded to his mother.
As they were walking to the train, Rory asked, "Mommy?"
She smiled down at him, "Yes son?"
"Why you w'isperin' to her?"
Her smile didn't change, "Just making sure you get to grandma's safe and on time."
Rory nodded and didn't think any more about it.
As they both boarded the train, his mother helped him into his seat, made sure he had his bag of books and crayons and snacks right close to him, then she gave him a tight mommy hug just as the announcement was made that the train would be leaving in five minutes. "Now Rory ... you are going to behave on this train ride aren't you?"
Rory nodded and smiled. "Yeah mama."
She smiled and gave his head a kiss "There's my good tiger. You be good for your grandmother too son. I love you."
He smiled "Love you too mama."
She waved a paw to him, then stepped off of the train. From his window, Rory could see her standing on the platform and waving to him. He waved a paw back to her.
A few minutes later, the train made a small lurch, and then started moving. Rory had always liked trains, and he was very excited to be on one now. When the big, burly conductor, a lion with a mane that was probably bigger than Rory was, came by, he smiled at Rory when he handed the lion his ticket. "I'll be keeping an eye on you little cub." he said quietly, but kindly as he handed the ticket stub back. "You hold onto this now, ok?"
Rory smiled and nodded "Yeah. I no lose it."
The lion nodded and went on his way. Rory got out a coloring book and some crayons, and began to color in the pictures. He liked wildlife pictures the best, and any pictures of tigers and other cats like his books had, he liked even better.
A while later, Rory put his coloring book away, and started to read. He kept looking out the window, but only saw trees and grey skies, not even the cool tropical trees he always saw in pictures either.
He started to look about his seat, and seeing he couldn't even reach his paws to the pawrest by the floor, he hopped down to fold it up. Then he noticed it was attached to the seat in front of him and smiled. He was just about to get back in his seat when he noticed a big black feather, with some white on it hanging down on the side of the seat right in front of him.
Rory sat back in his seat, but started to kick the feather a little with his footpaws, grinning at how it always went back to where it was before.
As entertaining as this was, after a little while, even that became boring. Rory sat down and sighed and tried to think of something to do, but didn't have much success.
He remembered the conductor saying where the restrooms were, so he hopped down and walked back towards them. since he wasn't paying extremely close attention to where he was stepping, he didn't see the black-furred tail tip that was along the side of the aisle.
Then all of the sudden, he felt something underfoot, and heard a very loud, and angry 'HISS!' He hopped back a few steps, frowning and shaking a bit at the look of the panther who was sitting in that seat. He growled at him, and Rory ran back to the bathroom before the panther could say anything to him.
He took his good time in the restroom, trying to avoid having to walk back past the panther for a while. He was almost ready to come out when he heard a knocking at the door and a loud, growling voice on the other side. "C'mon! The rest of us need to go too!"
Rory frowned and quickly opened the door. He tiptoed past the big, grey wolf standing there, trying to avoid looking up at the wolf's face.
He padded back to his seat very quietly, giving as much room to the panther as he could. As he sat down, he saw the conductor padding down the car towards him, but he went right past him. Rory turned a bit to see him talking to that same panther, and saw the panther pointing with a paw in his direction.
Rory frowned and started to sulk in his seat. He started kicking the feather in front of him again, until he heard a sqwawk! from the seat in front of him, and saw a tall neck with a beak rise up and turn to look down at him. The ostrick frowned and then sqawked at the conductor until he cam over and talked to her as well. Rory sat back in his seat and frowned. He wasn't liking the train so much now.
The big lion came back and looked down at the cub. He spoke quietly to him, but his voice seemed a bit deeper to Rory than it had before. "Would you come with me Rory?"
Rory frowned, but gave a nod. He stood up and quickly felt the lion's large paw on his own paw. The lion started to walk towards the front of the train, taking Rory past two more cars of different furs. Then they went into a car that had nothing but boxes and suitcases on it, and was a lot colder than the rest of the train was. The lion took Rory over to a large box, then sat down on the box and looked at Rory with a deep frown on his face.
"Rory ... do you know I've had three different furs complain about your behavior on my train?"
He frowned and shook his head.
The lion only nodded "Now usually Rory ... if someone bothers that many furs, I stop the train and make them get off."
Rory mrewled kittenishly again, but this time in fear.
"Now son ... I don't want to throw you off this train out here in the middle of nowhere. Your mother told us something before you came on board too."
The tiger cub looked at the lion in confusion.
"She told us that if you act up, we're to do whatever we need to do to make you behave. Do you know what I did to my cubs when they were bad growing up?"
Rory shook his head, but he was beginning to form a few ideas.
"I'd put them over my lap, and then cuff their backsides until they couldn't even think of sitting down. Then I'd make them sit down until i said they could get up. And Rory ... that's what's happening to you."
Rory frowned and meeeped! He had almost thought of trying to run when he felt himself getting grabbed by two large paws, his overalls unbuckled and pulled down, followed by his undies. Then he was picked up and saw the world of the baggage car tilt and swim around him, then he was still again, looking down at the side of a wooden box, and the floor. He got a brief feel of a cool breeze blowing over his backside, then felt a large paw whoomp! down and strike his exposed rear end.
He gave a mrewling scream of pain, but that was quickly cut off by another such scream as the big, and very strong paw landed again.
Rory tried to kick his feet, to squirm, to wiggle about anyway he could to get free, but the lion held him fast on his lap. Again and again, the strong paw landed with a loud whack on the poor cubbie's bottom, each time getting a new yelp or scream or burst of tears from Rory.
After about twenty such smacks on his rear, he felt everything shaking and moving again, then found himself standing. The lion made just a hint of a growl, but it was enough to make Rory do as he said. "Get dressed. You're sitting in that seat until we get to your stop. You got me?"
Rory gave a whine, wiped his cheeks with a paw, and nodded.
The lion gave a nod, "Good. And if I have to bring you back up here, I won't stop smacking your backside until we get there. Understand me?"
Rory could only nod, not wanting to imagine what that would feel like. He got led back to his seat by the lion, who then watched him sit down. His rear end felt like it was ablaze with heat and pain, but the stern glare from the lion made him sit on it and suffer.
He stayed in that seat, though every bump of the train brough a small yipe from him. After three more hours of constant fire and pain like that, finally they arrived at the train station.
Rory saw his grandmother out of his window and managed to smile, despite how his rear felt. He recognized her instantly, because even though she was a tiger too, she had white fur with black stripes, which Rory had always found to be very pretty.
As he got his bag and his things together, he started walking towards the stairs outside. He noticed as he approached her, that the conductor lion had given her a note.
THE END