a small nap . . .
Just a quick little blurb I thought of this afternoon: Morpheus as a little angry kitten! I don’t know why I just thought this would be so cute, sorry, it’s really badly written but I rushed through it and I thought it was a cute idea soooo yeah :)
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For a few months now, Morpheus had begun amusing himself by shaping himself into different animal forms and skulking around different cities of the world. Usually he would shape himself into birds, cats, even a mouse once (after he had been chased by a raccoon he decided to not try it again). He would listen to the humans speak in their loud ways, sneak peeks into children’s dreams to ensure they were peaceful, allow himself to simply exist as an unassuming animal. A simple distraction that he indulged himself, he would occasionally do this, and this night was no different.
His animal form of choice this night was a small black cat. Morpheus had been annoyed with some challenging Nightmare creations lately, and did not wish to be disturbed on his Waking outing. Humans had superstitions about black cats, he reasoned to himself, none shall bother me in this form. He may have misjudged the sizing in his haste, as he padded past a window and saw his reflection.
A kitten?!
Morpheus huffed mentally, but did not bother himself with changing his form already. The evening was passing and night falling, his Dreaming coming to life once again, his dreams and nightmares beginning to fulfill their purpose.
Morpheus forced his mind to be blank as he continued to scamper around the city, pointedly hopping over puddles that were forming due to the soft rain that had begun to drop. As more raindrops plopped onto his small kitten's back and a few assaulted his pointy ears, Morpheus scampered to a window ledge, squishing his already teeny body close to the corner to be shielded under the awning of the building. Free of the deluge, Morpheus began to lick his paws clean.
“Oh! Look at you!”
Morpheus had been so absorbed in his attempt to erase the annoying feeling of rain in his ears that he had entirely failed to acknowledge the human that had halted at the sight of him.
The unexpected and loud words caused Morpheus to scramble in a brief flash of panic that made him angrily feel like prey, that anger only growing as his scrambling made him lose his footing on the window pane, nearly slipping off into a massive puddle below. Regaining his footing, Morpheus turned his flustered kitten face and piercing eyes up to glare down the insufferable human that had disturbed his solitude.
“Oh you sweet little darling, where’s your mama?” Morpheus was muddled at this young human woman. She herself was drenched, having no protection from the rain pelting down, not dressed for this weather and shivered violently even as she crouched down to get a better look at the grumpy kitten.
“Do you have a warm home for tonight, hmm? Are you hungry?”
Morpheus was unamused at being spoken to like he was a simple infant, and considered hissing a warning to this human. Before he could make his threat, she began to reach for him, causing him to once again scramble, only this time, he did indeed lose his footing and splashed down into the puddle with indignity. Before he could recover from this embarrassing blunder, he felt cold hands scoop his boney kitten form up and plopped into the arms of this human.
The nerve of this one, it will be only Nightmares for you!
He began to hiss on instinct at being shaken about as the human quickly walked through the rain again, but was softly shushed and ever so slightly rocked in a manner that may prove soothing to other humans, but not to Morpheus.
Before Morpheus had the time to consider making his escape, the human woman turned into a building, out of the rain, and up some stairs until they reached her apartment. Once inside the door, the girl smiled down at the shivering form of Morpheus glaring up at her.
“Here we are little one. Let’s get you nice and warm, huh?”
And there was Morpheus, King of Dreams and Nightmares, an Endless, one of the most powerful beings in the Universe, a god… in the form of a malnourished, grumpy black kitten by his own design… being carefully held in a fluffy towel and the warm air of a hairdryer passing over his fur, making it unnecessarily fluffy. He glanced up at the human, after pointedly ignoring her for quite some time, and wondered why she had taken so much time to dry and warm him first, without doing the same actions for herself.
Seeing the kitten look at her, she smiled and cooed gentle words to Morpheus as she finished drying his fur into a fluffy mess, before carrying him into her tiny kitchen and pulling some milk and tuna from her fridge for him to feast upon.
“Sweet baby,” whispered the girl as she carefully set him down on the cold counter after warming the rest of the milk she had, “eat up okay? Let me just dry off and I’ll be back okay? Stay there baby.” Morpheus wanted to scoff but instead conceded to lap at the bowl of warmed milk for the sake of the human.
Let her believe she is helping me.
Only a few moments later the human reappeared, dressed more comfortably than Morpheus had ever seen a human be, her wet hair tied into a knot at the top of her head, and a soft smile on her face as she saw that he was partaking in her warm milk offering. He sniffed in her direction, accidentally snorting some milk drops, causing his kitten form to fall into a sneezing fit.
Morpheus could have rolled his eyes at the instant cooing the human provided him, scooping him up against her chest and whispered sweet nothings to him.
He simply could not abide this. He was a god!
But before his all-powerful indignation could prompt him into action, the girl plopped herself and him under a warm blanket, and instantly began to gently scratch behind his ears. The low hum and light of the human’s TV engulfed the both of them. Without considering his godly image, Morpheus began to purr and stretch his tiny body across this human’s chest in pure comfort as the combination of a tummy full of warm milk, the warm blanket draped across his frail back, her warm chest against his tummy and under his kneading paws, and the gentle scratches behind his ears overcame his senses.
A simple nap will do neither of us any harm…
This is how I imagined Morpheus as a kitten, but with blue eyes uuuugh how adorable