"If you say so.  You seem like you're doing a lot of," her eyes flicker over to Nicholas.  "Uh."

"Yes, Ms. Gilbert?"

"Never mind."

"A Princess-human's brother," Cam says, gesturing at Nicholas. "I have sought out some winters on purpose for miscellaneous science consultation but am not otherwise deliberately filtering my circle of acquaintances by birthday at all, it's not a thing where I'm from."

"Sorry."

"What is happeniiiiiiing?"

"Sorry, we're having some complications about getting your mom. Before tomorrow for sure, hopefully sometime today."

"What are the complications?"

"The Twolegs who decide who gets to leave with cats got suspicious and don't know why this many people would want cats. If we don't have an idea that lets us get your mom before nightfall we'll wait for the Twolegs to leave and then go get her without asking them, but it'd be a problem if we tried to get her without asking while they're still there."

"What is nightfall?  - Never mind."

"When it gets dark. I'm sorry."

"I learned₂ that but why is it called that.  I don't like the noises and smells out here and how far away some things are."

"I'm still HUNGRY.  I haven't eaten for SO LONG except what you gave me and it wasn't enough."

"I'm sorry about the noises and smells, there's not a lot I can do about that unless you'd rather be somewhere else farther away from where we'll get your mama." Chicken liver.

"Does she know what's happening?"

(NOM NOM NOM.)

"No, we don't have a good way to tell her what's up... Ivy," he says, switching languages, "if I went in with Cricket ostensibly on the hypothesis that he might be lonely do you think that would work?"

"Absolutely no one would believe you."

"He's really not the ideal candidate, is he. If... another of Princess's people brought her?"

"Could maybe work.  Depends on how good they were at acting like normal people who might adopt a cat for normal reasons."

"Ian's probably fine at that? I'll send a message." He does this.

The less HUNGRY kitten steps gingerly off Ivy's lap to start in on the chicken liver.

I invite you all over to my place if a time buffer and being farther away would be less suspicious or more convenient.

"We can all go hang out at Ian's place," Cam relays. "To defray suspicion."

Nicholas nods and ducks into his car; Felicity positions the carrier so the kittens can crawl in.

"Is that for going somewhere farther away but with less smells and noises?"

"I don't actually know about the smell ratio but it's quieter there, yes. You can tell the cat who lives where we're going how to find your mom, and then she and her twolegs can go try to get her."

"Okhefff," assents the bolder kitten, dragging as much meat as she can into the carrier.

Cats don't eat themselves to death like dogs do, right? Right.

Off they can all drive.