Pussyfooting part 2

[Zodiac]

A gentle wind swept across the slightly rough grass of the park. The cat considered Thornside part of ‘her’ territory and prowled it at will. The breeze was deceptive. Within it held a hint of a coming storm in the distance, but for now it was nothing more than a pleasant late winter evening. A few people passing along– heading home after long days or heading out to meet with others. A tranquil night.

Except for the cat.

Her eyes were glued to the sky above. Her back was arched and the fur on her body bristled as she stood poised ready to fight. Her mouth opened as a loud screech of defiance escaped her. Her eyes could see far more than a human (or vampire) ever could. The Creator was most kind to her kind in this respect. All anyone on 2 legs saw was a black sky with occasional dots of white peppered in.

But the cat saw a firestorm.

She had become used to the sight in the past. It was smaller then, but now it had grown swiftly. It pulsed with renewed energy as if it were alive. Perhaps it was in it’s own way. The two legs who half understood this called it ‘The Rift’. Her own ‘person’ used the term ‘Nexus’. All had ides as to what exactly it was, but none of them had the depths of perception the cat’s eyes gave it. If a thinking person could see through her eyes they might formulate a perfect answer, but humans were blind and the cat worked on instinct and not (supposed) rational thought.

Her eyes and instincts had led her to find the small ones that once appeared in various spots and the overall presence of the large one had become a constant, but this?

Some gut feeling in the cat screamed. This was wrong. Dangerous. It was getting larger now.

A scream broke the feline’s concentration. A woman was running through the park as if her life was in peril. The cat had seen such sights in the past. Humans always preyed upon each other, but somehow this was different.

The sound of a twig snapping caused the beast to spin around. The cat yowled a warning as the zombie advanced towards her. She knew these things. Sometimes when she played in what the 2 legs called the ‘QZ’ she tormented them out of sheer boredom. They were 2 legs, but not. Their inner lights had gone out but still moved as if alive. They were ‘wrong’ (the simplest way the animal could classify them) but harmless as long as one kept their wits and distance.

The cat tensed up as the thing reached down to grab her, then darted between its legs once it had committed to bending over. The zombie’s lack of thought and reaction time did the rest as it fell face first into the grass and began struggling to get back to its feet. The cat paused to hiss a warning before bounding off. Now see saw what the woman was fleeing from. There were more of them lumbering about. Sever males were trying to keep one in place, while another had allowed themselves to be cornered. That one screamed as he was bitten. She had seen this too in the past. Once bitten, their inner light would blink out eventually.

The cat moved like a guided missile. Deftly avoiding the zombies with ease.

This was not her problem. ‘HOME’ screamed in her brain as she left to confines of the park. The cat moved swiftly till she found her path blocked again. This one was new to her, but similar. To the 2 legs, this was a Mooncalf. To her, it was another mindless lump. All appetite, muscle and rage but zero brains. The cat planted it’s feet and shrieked a challenge, much as it did with Fadebeasts in the past. The creature looked down in confusion. It was used to larger prey to fight and devour, so this tiny bit of black fury before it was something new. It flinched as it reached out to grab the new thing, only to have its skin pricked and scratched. The cat yowled again as it watched the gigantic idiot try and puzzle things out.

“WHAT THE ****?”

Both cat and calf turned in response as several people stepped out of one of the buildings and saw the bizarre face off in progress. The Mooncalf roared as it saw more normal prey before it. One of the two legs pulled a gun out and began to shoot. In the ensuing chaos, the cat darted away.

Wrong! Wrong! WRONG!

The impression kept hammering away at the cat’s mind as it entered the Westwal district. The colors in the sky. Zombies and other things in the streets. HERE! It was WRONG.

And dangerous. To all.

[Zodiac]

(Adventure 11. Theodosian Mooncalf)

The ebony elegance that walked thought the night like a ghost could possibly (if she thought in such a manner) count the times on one paw she felt the concept of fear. She faced problems and solved then with that haughty grace most of her kind oozed with. Oh, she could be angry and a variety of other quazi-emotions, but fear was a rare thing. Only when things began to boil over beyond the control of anything living did that particular element enter her being, like the time the world turned upside down with freezing and earthquakes some time in the past did she panic. The world itself was falling apart around her that day, so all she could do was run for safety.

She was rapidly approaching such a moment again.

She had been napping in the old graveyard in her favorite ‘playground’. Her person would have called this place the ‘QZ’ but to the cat it was a maze of things to discover and silent, private places to nap and rest. She had finished her rest and was hungry. A visit to her favorite prey’s normal domains (rats in the sewer) and she would make her way home again. As she headed to the exit, something large appeared in her path. She stood in the shadow it casted. The moon behind it leaving only an unfamiliar outline for her eyes, but her nose was drinking up the clues rapidly. If she could verbalize the information, it would be something like FAMILIAR-NOT FAMILIAR. It was another one of those giant masses of necrotic muscle she found on occasion in her travels. Normally a no brainer problem to resolve.

She stood firm and proud and let out a long note of warning to the beast. She had no fear of the others, so this new one would be no different. The things were normally too stupid to even realize they were alive, much less deal with the crowning glory of evolution that it was looking at now. They were an annoyance to the cat and needed to learn there were things in this world you dare not challenge. Once she felt the creature was properly cowed by her warning, she began to walk again. Only to have a large, taloned hand slam down in her path.

She took a step back and screamed again. ODD would be the word for the cat’s impression of the things act. Was this one unable to hear the sounds she made? She tried again, only to find her way blocked again. Deep in the shadow it casted, she looked up, but instead of the usual dull, blank expression she normally saw in what passed for their eyes, she saw something deeper. She feigned to the right, then darted to the left, but again her path was blocked by a hand that could easily wrap around her entire body with room to spare.

It was PLAYING.

Now the beginnings of concern (which in some cases were the beginning of fear) began to sink into the cat. PLAYING equaled GAMES. GAMES equaled BRAINS. BRAINS equaled DANGER.

If the furry goddess (in her own view) was not so dead set on walking out the front gate, none of this would be happening. No overgrown glob would be the better of her. She jumped on top of the nearest tombstone and displayed her anger and rage for full effect. Her body language screaming BE AFRAID, but she jumped away as one of those clawed hands came crashing down where she had stood a second earlier. Shattering the grave marker with ease.

The cat backed up a few paces (normally unthinkable) and debated the problem. How dare it! How dare this…..thing challenge HER? It’s eyes never left her and a odd sound escaped what passed for its lips. Was it laughing?

Suddenly, it seemed distracted. The cat was ready to bound past it, but she froze in place as well. Her eyes darting about. She saw no one but the feeling the pair was not alone ran thick in the air now. A presence of something now made three instead of two. Something was happening. The eyes of the thing fixed on the cat again and a familiar feeling swept through the animal. The closest the cat could associated the feeling with was when her person tried to SPEAK to her. Like ants crawling inside of her head. The concept of telepathy was alien to the animal, but it felt the same.

Was something…..talking to it? To her? It was just like her person's soothing tones. They made no sense.

The thing shook itself and began to turn around. Like a solider that had been given new orders it began to lumber its way out of the graveyard without a second look. Slowly, the black shadow followed, keeping a distance from it. As it left the graveyard, it continued south into the ruins. Once the cat saw its path was open, it ran east to where the opening down into the sewers waited. She dove into the hole and began to run. Passing her normal toys without hesitation. Her ‘playground’ would be off limits now.

She had felt fear again, and did not like it.