Maron looked down at her hands in an even mixture of dismay, confusion, and without a doubt a small measure of fear.
"How could this happen?" she asked, quietly.
Cleopatra, a small ball of svelte black fur, watched Maron with the casual and seemingly uninterested gaze that all cats share.
I expected that something like this might happen, to be truthful with you, the feline responded, Maron receiving the message through an amalgamation of both words, thought patterns, and mental images.
Maron crossed to the bed and sat down on it. She was momentarily distracted by the sound of her parents' movement in the kitchen downstairs; dad chattering away gaily in Japanese to Mum, whom Maron understood to be moving slowly about the kitchen, identified by the metallic scrape and rattle of her walker.
"I don't know what to tell them, or the team," Maron said, knowing that Cleopatra would understand that she was referring to her parents.
Tell them the truth, Cleopatra thought-messaged at her, once again entertaining Maron's mind with actual words, effigies, and suppositions.
"This'll badly affect the team," Maron said. "What are they going to do without me?"
Cleopatra continued to watch her lethargically.
"They'll rely on Brahma to be the team brick," she thought.
The puss rose to her feet and stretched, transforming her already lean shape into a long tube of black fur that made her seen a foot longer than she actually was. Her throat and chest reverberating with soothing and calming purrs, she butted her head lightly against Maron's cheek.
Maron sighed, putting her hands around the Mau and pulling her lightly into her lap. Cleopatra continued to purr.
"Everything will be fine, Girl Wonder," she said. "Everything will be fine."
