Welcome to Gaia! ::

As you are walking down a secluded street in the mostly-shop-ridden part of town, you somehow find yourself planted in front of a small coffee shop. The sign reads “The Espresso Cup,” and suddenly you are surprised to see that you are unexplainably drawn into the small store. The soft tinkling of silver bells hanging on the large wooden shop door greets you, along with the pleasant aroma of brewing coffee. As the fumes waft through your nose, you almost float over to the counter. You at once notice something out-of-the-ordinary about this shop, instead of having a menu of different varieties of coffees to buy, there is a small display case with a few mugs of steamy brown liquid sitting upon a single shelf in it. You look around, bewildered, but too mysteriously allured to turn around and leave, and presently a small woman with a large bun on the crown of her head approaches you from behind the counter. “Would you like to buy one?” She almost croaks. “Erm…How much are these…Probably day old cups of coffee?” You reply, somewhat skeptically. The woman obviously looks offended, so you hastily add “They still look very lovely, mind you.” This seems to have cheered her up a great deal, or at least you gather that from the large smile that has spread across her wrinkled old face. “Yes, yes. Very lovely indeed…5,000 gold, please.” “5,000 gold?! Are you crazy?! Why should I give you that?!” You almost shout back at the poor old woman. However, she does not seem phased by your outburst. “Because, you said you liked them, so now you must buy one! 5,000 gold I say, now pay up!” Well, by now you’ve realized that this woman is not going to give up without a sale, so you take out your purse and begrudgingly hand her the allotted gold. “I’ll take that pink one,” you say in a far-from-friendly voice. As soon as the woman hands you the warm mug of coffee, you scamper out of the shop.

When you get back home, it is late, and the coffee still does not seem very appealing, so you simply put the mug on your kitchen counter and head up to bed. You sleep well that night, but had you not; you may have been awakened by the strange mewing coming from down the stairs. After a good night’s rest, you head downstairs to see how that cup of coffee is doing, and if you can get yourself some breakfast. Instead, when you look inside of the mug, in which had once been hot, steamy, coffee, a small kitten sits, purring and mewing up at you. You reach into the mug, pull the kitten out, and pat its soft head. “Hmm…This seems just a little strange…Oh well, at least now it was worth that 5,000 gold.” You mumble nonchalantly to the kitten, as you head back upstairs to find your new friend a suitable home.

And THAT is the story of the Espresso Kittens.