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_ The Beginning Years _

By

Puma Concolor

Hau Kola. Hello Friends.

Let me introduce myself, I am known as Puma Concolor. I am a trader, traveler, guide, and when the need arises, guardian. In my travels, I have seen many things and many places, I have traded goods and medicines with the Nootka Indians of the Canadian north, the Blackfoot, Cree, Nez Perce, Paiute, Shoshone, Sioux, and Pima. The Navajo, and Hopi of the Arizona dessert, even the Mayan People of lands of Yucatán.

All have treated me with great respect and honor. I have set in the Sweat Lodges with the great Chefs of the north. I have danced with the Coyote by the fire rings of the Hopi Indians. I have even Dream Quested with the high priest Ah kin, and kissed the lips of Ix Chel.

Though all of this, I am still but a humble Cat of the Mountains, your servent...

My Past, you ask? It is a story of great pain. (Sigh) But alas, in order to know me, you have a right to know my past.

Many, many seasons ago I was a royal guard to the King and his Queen. We lived, in a valley of great beauty. The Name of this land is of no consequence; it was the land of my people and it no longer exists. It was said my clan descends from the great kings of Atlantis who fled before its destruction. We patterned ourselves and our lives in honor of their nobility and rule.

My King was not a great leader and gave into the temptations of drink and Ladies of the Castle. But, he was my king and I had sworn allegiance to the kingdom, much to my undoing. The Queen was, on the other hand, a beautiful and wise woman; One who could have lead our people if only given the chance.

My story begins with a pilgrimage by the Queen to her family's village. There she was to give birth to the King's child. This was in accordance to the custom of our people. The King, however, declined to accompany his Queen and sent her on with only two handmaidens and myself. This would not have been a hard trip given good weather, wagons, and enough supplies to tend to the Queen in her condition. Scarcely a days journey at most. However in his foolish wisdom, the King sent us forth on horseback, my arguments ignored. We made the best time we could, but a storm over took us less than half a day out.

To complicate matters, the Queen went into labor and despite her insistence otherwise, we were forced to stop. I made a crude shelter from the branches of trees, enough to hold back the rain, but not the cold. There, laying in my lap, and with the help of the handmaidens, she gave birth to twins: a male and a female.

With the Temperature dropping and knowing the Queen and her cubs would not last the night, I sent the handmaidens on to summon help; One back to the King and the other to the Queen's father, the Baron. With the cubs to her breasts, I gathered them into my arms and covered us as best I could with my heavy cloak. Using my body to keep them warm, we settled down to wait out the storm. In the darkness I uttered a prayer, "If one should be taken, God, let it be me, that the Queen and her cubs be safe." A soft purr and a paw on my cheek was my only answer.

The Baron and his men found us late the next morning; the Queen and her cubs none the worst for wear, myself... stiff and very, very cold. I guess a bond was formed that night between the Queen and I. She sat with me and fed me warm broth as I recovered at the Baron's village. On the second day, the Baron himself came to my room. The Queen, with a smile, lay the cubs in my arms as the Baron asked me to swear to him to protect the cubs as if they were my own.

Looking into the eyes of the cubs I answered, " Not to you, My Load, but to them, and you, My Lady. That night in the cold, I asked God ...'if one should be taken, it would be me.' I stand by that conviction, M'Lord."

The next several years went for the most part uneventful. The Baron used his influence to have me promoted to the head of the Queens Guard. I spent my days in her and the cubs company.

Any shinny part of my uniform was always riddled with little finger marks. My Men often teased me, but knew I took great pride in every little smudge. The Queen had my cot moved into the Cubs room next to her own chambers. Never once running me from the room when her cubs fed. Her trust in me that complete.

The King took no interest in his Queen or his cubs, only holding them when protocol so demanded. Always quick to thrust the crying twins back into the arms of their mother. He never came to his queen bed at night, but took sexual favor from the young and plentiful peasant girls that were constantly paraded before him by his counselors. A bottle always at hand to quench his drunken thirst. Unsavory lot all. As the councilors gained the king's confidence, the Queen was slowly loosing her influence over the King and was finding herself more and more confined to her quarters.

Time after time the King ignored his Queen. Time and time again her heats went ignored, with only her handmaidens to help ease her need. Many times I had to remind her of our status and we would not, could not, betray our Kingdom. The best I could do was hold her in my arms, as I had once in the cold, while the maidens eased her stresses. With a kiss to her cheek and nothing more, I would return to my cot in frustration. She would send a maiden to me, but my love was only for My Queen. This went on for six long years.

This time went peacefully in the land. My men and I trained hard, stayed in top condition. I, my duties to the Queen made easy as she and the cubs would come to the training fields to watch. The male, Alexander, "Sir Alex" as the men would call him, would try to stay with us in training. The men taking great pride in his swordsmenship. They would Line up to 'die' at the poke of his stick he called his saber. Little Lexus would cheer her brother on and skip with glee as each guard would bow to her before going off to mock battle.

Yes, Times were good in our land....... Until the coming of humans........

We had seen a few coming into our valley from the east...digging about our creeks and streams, taking great glee in finding the golden stones there. We never paid much mind, as the yellow stones meant little to us. It was the silver and iron taken from the mines to the north we used. Our true value was in the crops we produced in our valley, as we traded it to the people around us for what we needed.

Once the humans got over the shock of mountain lions who could talk and walk upright, they ignored us. Though possessive of the little plots they lay claim to, they seemed harmless enough. We left these few human to themselves. But alas, the few seemed to draw more and more.

At the insistence of the people, the King was forced sent a delegation to the small community that had spring up just inside the opening to our valley. The delegate was to find out what was their intent and when they planned to leave. He however was met with hostility and driven off by the villagers. Persistent, we worked at peacefully establishing communication with them as our scholars knew many languages. One human, we thought was their leader, came forth to speak with our delegation and to set forth a meeting with our King and his court.

On the day of the summit, the human identified himself as a representative of a mining company who was interested in setting up operations in our valley. He offered great money and goods for the rights to any golden stones found there. The goods included something called steel, much harder and lighter than the iron tools we currently had. Something called steam engines that could do the work of 10 horses, tools, and clothing like we had never seen before. And something they called whisky..........

The farmers took great interest in the tools and the steam tractors offered. The councilors took special interest in the money offered. The King.....................

The King was invited to the village, to something called a saloon. He was wined and dined, fed enough whisky by the hairless females to keep him drunk for several days. On his return, he had three of the females he declared his concubine and enough barrels of whisky to satisfy his thirst for many weeks.

Needles to say, this was not in accordance to the Laws laid down for centuries in our land. Prompted by his councilors, he declared that being King, he was above this and any other law. Protests by the Queen only gained her a slap across the muzzle and confinement to her quarters for her defiance. My Men stopped me from doing anything stupid and, for the most part, my actions went unnoticed. My Queen, upon my return to her quarters, bid me to stay neutral as it was my job to protect her cubs, and I could only do so if I stayed out of the eyes of the King.

And so it went, the humans brought in surveyors, who looked for the Gold. The farmers got a two of the steam tractors and plows to work the fields. The councilors were taking in money in great amounts. The King.......... when we did see him, he was drunk, he was nude save for his crown, and had his horde women to please him when ever or where ever he so desired. He had become a puppet to the councilors, and they in turn, puppets to the humans. Any protest from the Queen only led to her spending more time in her quarters.

All went as expected. There were more humans pouring in our valley and the councilors were selling off more and more rights to our Valley. The Barons were being forced to surrender more and more forested lands. The trees would be taken for a damming project up the valley. The Company hired the tractors and men from the fields to work the projects. The farmlands were failing from neglect. With less and less crops grown, there was less trade and with less trade, we were falling out of favor with the tribes and loosing the trust of their Chefs. Things were in decline for our people and all the councilors would do was hoard as much as they could get into their own pockets. The King just stayed in his quarters, drunk.

Every thing came to a head when the damming project was finished and the humans shut off the water to the farms. Within a day, we saw their intent. They started what they called hydraulic mining. Evil machines that blasted whole mountainsides apart with jets of water. They would tear and carry downstream huge amounts of mud and rock, exposing the rich veins of golden stone they were looking for. Within a week, the farmlands were covered with muck and rock, making them useless for growing anything. When the people came to the King their protests fell only upon the deaf ears of the councilors as the king had only time for his whisky and women..

The Queen in disgust and desperation, came forth and ordered the humans to stop the destruction, She sent the army and peasants to tear down the machines............. We discovered too late, the humans had one more technology we knew nothing about. GUNS. My people were cut down by the hundreds by only a hand full of humans.

As a royal guard, I knew there were more humans than guards in the castle in those days. I had less than a dozen loyal soldiers at my disposal. I had not time to summon them when the Kings guards, mostly human, burst into the Queen's chambers. One, a large human, pointed a metal stick at me and, with a deafening roar, pain shot through my shoulder. This was my introduction to guns.. Pausing only for one moment, I sprang at the human making his next shot his last as I opened his throat with my claws. I knew not, nor cared where the bullet struck. A pain along my head soon darkened my world.

When I awoke, I hound myself tied to a pillar, my head hurting from a bleeding crease along my scalp, my ears ringing. The King was there, shouting loudly at the queen. She was laying on the floor as though she had been struck. There was blood running down the corner of her mouth. When my ears cleared enough, I could tell what he was saying. He was screaming of how much of a slut she was to mother the bastard children of a lowly guard. And how it sickened him. I started to protest to his accusations, only to have a councilor hiss "Silence!' and run a lance through my wounded shoulder. I heard the King shout, "Do not kill him yet, I want him to bare witness to this!!"

All I could do was watch as My Queen was picked roughly up off the floor and at the Kings orders bent over a chair and held down. He ordered the cubs bought forth by the humans. Crying, they were held in front of their Mother as the King tore the back of her dress from her, exposing her rear to all in the room.

" A Fine Ass you have, slut. Ripe for the taking by a real King of the Cats!" and with that, he grabbed her tail, pulled down his trousers and raped her anally. Within a few thrust he sent his seed deep within her bowls. Pulling curly from her, his barbs tearing painfully at her insides, leaving his seed to run down her legs.

Jerking her head up by the hair, her tear stained cheeks red with shame he ranted, "Look, Look at the cubs, your bastard and bitch, see the price you pay for being a slut and whore!!... "

Screaming, she looked into the eyes of the terrified children as the two humans produced blades and opened their throats.

" A blade, if you please.." the king asked of the councilors , " Now, Bitch! Pay the price of defying your Lord and Master!!!"

As the dagger slammed down between her shoulder blades the last words on her Lips was my name....................His only comment was to the humans " The hides are yours...."

I am sorry if my tears slows this tale.......... With their death marks my failure..................

To my Queen, to her Cubs, To God ................and to myself............(sobbing)

As the Beast turned to me, I denounced him as a king and swore to take vengeance for his cruel injustice to the Queen and Kingdom. I named him the beast that he was for killing his own flesh and blood.

His laugh was cut short as my men, what was left of them, forced their way into the room. The humans were the first to die, not having time to draw their weapons. Most of the councilors died as well, but somehow the King escaped.

Freeing me, they took the bodies of My Queen, Alex, and Lexus and with me in painful tow made good our escape. My men would not let me go back to hunt the beast. They said my wounds needed tending first of all.

We met the Baron's men as they were coming to the castle to warn of a army of humans entering the valley to the west. With them, they were bringing weapons, guns that could reach great distances and down many men with one blow. The Baron was one of the first to fall to their wrath. With the human's army advancing before us, and nothing back to the castle, we fled to the hills to gather our wits and tend our wounded. There I lay my beloved Queen, her cubs in arm, hidden to protect their graves..

Over the next few years, we tried many times to take back our valley. Our people were either shot or worked to death at the hands of the humans. Their bodies we came across were stripped of their skins. Those we found alive, begged to be put to death ... We were forced to give up our valley, the mountains now lay stripped and scarred, the farmland under rock and mud, my people killed. The few of us left free scattered to the four winds. Even the Beast has succumbed to one last gift from the humans. He died mad of sex sickness and whisky, begging in one of the saloons to the south. His hide now adorns the wall there his crown nailed to his head. A fitting end for a gutter beast................

Through time, I have once again learned to trust some humans. Like us, money, power, or any of a thousand things can corrupt most. But there are those who stay true to their hearts, who still place value in life. They look for beauty inside as well as out. I have seen too much waste of good souls in the hands of others. Too much torture and pain.................

All I wish for now is to lead a simple life, to trade for the things I need, perhaps help others along the way. To hear a child's giggle at the chocolate I offer, The smile on ladies lips from a dress or jewel. A handshake from a gentleman for a favor rendered but not asked returned.

Perhaps some day, I will learn to forgive myself, and find peace....

Oh, but you have sat here and listened to the tale of an old soldier. You have watched my tears fall with memories past. You have been so kind to sit and listen. Let me offer a gift.. A gem stone on a chain of gold, perhaps a Katchina doll for the young ones?