World of Sins: Genesis

The first thing the infant heard was the wail from it's mouth as it burst into the colder and larger world, it's tail thrashing in open space.The first thing the infant felt when it came into the world was the softness of it's mother's fur and the smoothness of it's father's skin on it's wet, sticky skin. At that moment, it knew-though it did not not know how it knew or why it mattered-that it was different. It felt something connected to it vanish as if it was cut away. The infant next felt the rough feel of it's first towel across it's body and it's wiggling tail even as it continued wailing. The first things it smelled as its mother and father held it was iron, feces, the musky aroma of it's mother and the milder fresh smell of it's father. The infant was instantly comforted by the proximity of the last two scents and began to quiet it's wailing. With the mucus from it's birth cleared, it opened its eyes. The first thing it saw was the flat features of it's father and the short muzzle of it's mother. They were looking at it. At first, it's mother and father had expressions on their faces that it could not comprehend but when they saw it their expressions shifted into smiles. The infant instantly loved them and forgot the differences it perceived. The babe didn't know why it mattered anyway. It's mother brought it up to her soft, furry chest. It smelled milk on them, and she remembered it's light hunger. The first thing the infant tasted was the milk from its mother's bosom. As it drank it curved her tail around it and listened.

"Oh, John it's beautiful." a soft, light pitched voice, it's mother, said as she held her baby to her breast. The large bed the infant's mother gave birth on is crowded with covers and towels, the baby loosely wrapped in cloth. The walls of the bedroom are peeling in many places and a draft could be felt despite the door being closed. Trash is heaped at the corners of the room contributing a dull smell of wet condoms and sex. The light of a full moon illuminated the room from the one window, allowing both father and mother to see the new life they helped make. Preoccupied with her mother's nipple, the infant did not see it's mother's features shift slowly to a worried expression. "Oh, John, what are we going to do?" the soft voice continued. John, the infant's father, could not answer, his face also forming a worried expression as he sat beside his wife. He is a strong, lean black man, his face streaked with scars that told old stories yet knew the feeling of more than a few smiles. "Our child is so different from the rest." the infant's mother continued. "They will label it a freak, and condemn our child. Worse, our child takes after it's mother and you know how humans feel about my kind." John nodded, looking at their black-striped child.

Everyone knew how in the Age of Depravity, Men of the Past took several different species of animals and intermingled them with human DNA in an attempt to appease their lustful fantasies. The results of those misguided acts were the ancestors of John's wife, Teya, an anthropomorphic Siberian Tiger with a short muzzle and no whiskers. Demi-humans like her however were bred with the Taint and because of that her kind and others like her are discriminated and persecuted. They had to flee from their birth city after their parents disowned them-her's out of necessity, his out of anger-to escape north, through the Wilds to more 'tolerable' cities. The couple had delivered their child in an apartment in the southeast slums of New D.C., the northernmost city in the Union of the Twelve Cities before the great ice mountains covered everything. It was seen by many as the city of opportunity but the ghettoes were anything but. John squeezed his hand into a fist. This was not the place to raise a baby, but they had no choice in the matter until the babe was a bit older. "If people wish to put blame on anyone, let it be placed on those who brought disaster on to this world!" John said angrily, venting anger at those who made them flee their home. The infant heard his deep, tenor voice and registered it.

Teya sighed, bringing a clawed hand to caress the infant who had satisfied it's hunger and settled down to sleep. "You can't blame someone who's dead. People want a scapegoat to blame their problems on. Doesn't matter if it's on the Ancients or a innocent child."

John opened his mouth to counter his wife but nothing came out. She was right. He knew as much as her, people will be harsh towards their child because of Teya's heritage. He looked at his child as it drifted into sleep. It is as androgynous as any newborn babe, a small bump on it's groin giving any clue to the infant's gender. The ebony skin and human face the babe inherited from John, but nearly everything else it inherited from its mother. Black stripes covered the babe's dark skin, most on its back but two covering each cheek and ending just below each eye. Said eyes are like a cat's just like the child's mother. Its hands and feet were large in comparison to it's body and the tips were clawed, also like it's mother. What little hair it had was white, though with black streaks here and there. Then there was the babe's tail, unlike anything it inherited from him or it's mother who had a tail of her own. Long as its body, seemingly prehensile and thick around the base. John sighed. "Your right, your always right. But then we must raise our child to be better than those who will treat it harshly. We must teach it to help others even though they might accept it or it's help. We must not only teach it to defend itself-for there will be those who will persecute it-but also to love and forgive those who have wronged it. We must teach it to be honest and good so that people will react in turn." he declared.

Teya smiled. "I'm sure we'll raise a great daughter."

John looked at his wife, bewildered. "Daughter? How do you know?"

Teya looked at John, a twinkle in her cat eyes. "I just do." she said, simply.

John nodded. "Okay. Do you have a name for her then?"

Teya looked at the child sleeping in her arms. "Kimiko, her name will be Kimiko." The infant heard and her name was now and forevermore, Kimiko.