Feline - 2. Now: Spring

2. Now: Spring

I scratched Persephone behind the ears and she purred. The day was cool; I pulled my sweater dress out of my bag. It was long, to my calves, and had a hood. It was kat’s wool. Calico and warm.

It was still dark. I put my lantern on the low door to pull my sweater over my head, then mounted my tuxedo feline and blew it out. We rode so early so no one would be up to see that I rode bareback. They would grow suspicious, or at the very least pay attention to me, which was the last thing I wanted.

We rode along as the birds started to wake up, and the sun started to rise. I leaned forward under the pretense of scratching Per’s cheek, and whispered in her ear.

“Do you hear? It’s the one who’s been following us. I’m going to get off you now, keep going as though I where still on you. Don’t go too far. Come back when I give the signal. I’ll need your help.” I raised my voice. “Yes, you sweet kitty. I mean it. That is how I chose your name, I swear!” I smiled, hopped off, and nodded to her. She went on, and I hid in the woods by the road.

I waited. Five minutes. Ten. Fifteen. There was movement on the road. A feline turned the corner. A big calico, with a boy on its back. He was perhaps two or three years older than I was. Nondescript. Clearly not Tarbin or Waren, but what Tarbin or Waren rode a feline? They preferred hamsters. I put my round whistle in my mouth.

I waited for him to get just past me, and then leapt out of the forest onto the calico right behind him, blowing the whistle, locking my hands around his neck and swinging him off his mount. I leapt off after him, pushing off hard enough that his feline stumbled. I landed on him, straddled him, and pressed my palms one on top of each other over his throat, ready to press at a moment’s notice. I heard a snarl as Per leapt on the calico.

“STOP FOLLOWING ME.” I said viciously.

“You do know” he coughed, deep and ill sounding. Tuberculosis. “That’s a challenge.”

I raised one of my hands and slapped him across the face.

“Next time it will be infinitely more serious.” I pushed hard off him, leaving him with a knee-blow to the gut to remember me by. “Nick her ear.” I said. Per obligingly nipped a tiny dent into the floored calico’s ear and stood. I swung myself onto her back by the harness, and rode off. He wouldn’t be bothering me again.

The birds. The giant ones. There big enough to carry off people and kats and unusually small hamsters. Roads are covered in netting, which they can’t see through. It’s low on the roadways, but a bit higher in towns and cities. Fifty to one hundred feet. Nothing was taller than that, and nothing was closer than fifty miles to the beach, for safety. All electricity is owned by the mafia. People have generators, but there are a lot of medieval type items floating around.

I stole food for us in the next town. Fish heads from dumpsters for Per, and things filched from kitchens for me.

Per curled up on an ally floor, and I curled up tucked into her belly, covered in my sweater. I woke early with a cold drizzle falling on me and a harsh wind pulling at my clothes. Katsfur, like wool did before sheep where lap pets, is warm even when wet, the sun was hot, though.

I pulled myself up, putting my sweater back in its bag and pulling long, wet feline hairs off of my clothes.

“Per.” I said. “We’ve got to get going.”

She rose slowly, then stretched, the full on arched back tail up mouth open tong out kat yawn/stretch.

“Let’s go scrounge breakfast.” I said. She knocked over the dumpster nearest us with one huge paw, and started eating the fish scraps that had been spilled.

“Alright.” I said. “I get it. Each man for himself.” I half-smiled. “I’ll go find something, then.”

I crept down the alley way. There was a door open, and the smell of fresh bread. I peeked in, and then slipped through, trying not to move the door. It was a bakery. I went over to the counter, and slit a few loaves of bread open. I smeared butter on them, and, wrapping them quickly in paper, scoured the kitchen for other items. I found a hunk of cheese and a bucket of milk. I ladled milk into my bottle and slipped back towards the door. There was a noise. I slid quickly behind a door. I spun around immediately to see if the room was occupied, and who did I see but the boy who had followed me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked furiously, under my breath.

“The same thing as you.” He said just as quietly. There where loud footsteps and bangs from the other room.

“Which is?”

“Stealing food.” He said. There was a shout of rage, and footsteps thundering outside and the door being slammed. I waited till the sound of footsteps faded a little, then went back into the back room, and slid some dried fruit sitting by to be baked into bread into my bag. I took a buttered roll for breakfast, then slid outside, and went the opposite way from the person who was looking for me.

I whipped around about half way down the alley.

“Stop following me.” I snapped. He just shrugged.

“My name’s Leo.” He said. “What’s yours?”

“If I tell you will you leave me alone?”

“Maybe.” He said.

“Ugh.” I turned my back on him and went to where Per was waiting. I ate the last bite of roll and hopped on her back. I saw Leo on his kat behind me. “Leave me alone.” I snapped, and turned away as Per started to run.

“Her name’s Ii!” He called after me, and I heard Ii’s paw beats, but he didn’t seem to be following me. I was free of him, hopefully this time for good.

We camped out in the woods that night. Per pulled a couple of fish out of a stream and I cooked one of them on a spit over my fire. I ate that and half a loaf of bread for dinner, and we slept comfortably on the leaf strewn ground.

We rode for a long time the next day, and I realized we were being followed again.

“Threats haven’t worked, and I don’t want killing him on my conscience, so it’s time for evasion.” I leaned forward on Per, hugging her so that I was flat on her back. “Go on and lose him.

She ran forward at huge speed, a speed only achievable on a feline, and darted into the forest. Leaves and branches whipped me, but running through forests came naturally to felines. There was a huge splash and we were in a river. I slid off of Per, and holding onto her with one hand, we paddled down the river. Evasion came naturally, and I was very good at it, especially with my added power. I could escape from anyone.

Per pulled herself onto the opposite shore and shook off. I came up after her and squeezed out my clothing. We continued zigzagging across the river all day, and when the night came, with summer worthy warmth which made me think that spring had finished springing, we were grateful for it. We slept a bit apart, as I didn’t want to be any more covered than necessary in wet kat furs, which cling and stick.

The next morning was cold, dispelling any notions of mine that summer was arriving. Per and I traveled through the woods, making sure we stayed in dense enough parts that we couldn’t be seen from the sky. No bird was insane enough to try and take a feline, but they would dive for me, making it hard for Per to fight them off.

We crossed the river several more times, but it went off west, so we left it. We only went back towards the road that night.

“We’re approaching a city.” I told Per. I had finished the last of my bread days ago, and had been living on rabbit, which Per caught for me, but had no taste for. “That means provisions for me. No more nasty rabbits in your mouth.” I scratched her cheek and she purred loudly. “Let’s go, love.” I said. She had stopped and sat down when I scratched her, but now she leapt up, and bounded forward.

I got off her and put my bags on her for the last hour of the journey. People rarely used felines as beasts of burden. They were rare enough that you had to be committed to have one, and that generally meant riding. Kats where used for burden. Though Per was unmistakably a feline, she was on the small side, so I hoped I could pretend to think she was just a kat. I piled the bags on her back and held her harness.

The path coming in was narrow, so I couldn’t disappear in the crowd. The gate keepers admired Per, and laughed when I said she was a kat. They knew what she was.

“I don’t suppose we could buy that ‘kat’ off you?” One asked, chuckling so hard I could barely understand what he was saying.

“Oh, I could never sell her!” I said. “She was my mother’s favorite!”

“Go on, then.” I went in. “Don’t cause any trouble!” They called after me. I didn’t want to, but I had no money, and I couldn’t get any work in this part of the country.

I found a suitable alley and left Per there to scavenge, and went off to get some food for myself.

I walked through the crowded market, searching for a likely stall. I saw a butcher who was too busy having a conversation to keep an eye on all his meats. I took as much dried meat as I could easily, and shoved into my bag. A stack of flat flower cakes followed, as well as a couple hunks of cheese and a bottle of milk.

I returned to Per and ate a large breakfast. I could always nick more while I was in the city. I saved the dried meat and the cheese and the flower cakes, but drank the milk, and ate some fruit I had stolen. Per was quite happy. She had had breakfast, and was sitting giving herself a bath.

“We can stay another night.” I told her. As tempting as it was to stay here and steal my way for the rest of my life, I wanted to do something with myself. “But we’ve got to hit the road again tomorrow.” I kissed her forehead. “I’ll meat you back here tonight. Stay hidden.”

And I walked off. I stole a bar of soap and snuck into a bathhouse. I washed my damp, dirty clothes, and untangled my hair.

I returned to Per that night with cheese for dinner. In the morning I headed back to the market. I took more jerky and a few loaves of bread and more cheese. Then we left.

We continued to ride north. I paid careful attention to anyone who might be following me, but there was no one. Thank earth I’d lost him. Per cocked her ears forward. There was someone ahead of us. I slid off her and walked by her holding her reigns.

We passed a couple on a hamster, and as soon as they were out of sight I mounted Per again.

I continued to listen for followers. We stopped at a lake by the road, and Per caught and ate a fish out in the open while I ate my lunch well under the canopy of the trees. We continued on, still not being followed.

It was as beautiful as any spring I’d ever seen. Everywhere everything was covered in flowers. Petals spiraled through the air to the pavement and landed in my hair and Per’s fur.

We came to a small town around nightfall, and I left Per in the woods, promising to bring her some fish scraps. I was low on food.

I went into the town on foot, leaving my things all accept my bag with Per. I tried to stay in the shadows, unnoticed. I walked into the tavern, and looked around. There was a murder scene in front of me. A man was stabbing a woman, over and over, even though she was clearly already dead. The other occupants of the bar where hiding.

I slid my wooden shurukin out of the side pouch on my shirt, and threw it. It knocked him in the back of the head and slid back across the floor to me. I flipped it up with my boot, and slid it back into its pouch.

He turned on me, his bloody knife raised. He saw my eyes. He looked afraid then.

“You’re not mad enough yet to miss it, then?” I asked. “My eyes?”

He growled then, all confidence back. He ran at me. I leapt, stepping on his knife and leaping off it, kicking him in the face and tumbling to land again in front of him, on my feet. I shoved my hand, knuckles folded forward into a paw shape, into his gut, and kicked him in the side of the head at the same time I slammed the heel of my hand into his wind pipe. He crumpled to the floor. Not dead, but unconscious.

I went up to the woman. I Shoved my hand into the bloody wound, left it there for a moment, then yanked it out.

Her skin re-formed, and she gasped in a breath.

“Is there somewhere I can wash my hand?” I asked.

“You brought her back from the dead.” One man said.

“She wasn’t dead, she was just cut.” I lied easily.

“This way.” A woman said shakily. She led me into the back room, and pointed me to a basin. “Would you like food?” She asked.

“Yes please.”

“I’ll get you some provisions, then.” She left the room. I scrubbed the blood off my hand, then went back into the main room. The woman was sitting at the bar, shaky but very much alive. It was the first time I had tried that. The first time it had worked, anyway.

“You saved me?” She asked me.

I nodded, keeping my eyes down so she couldn’t see their color.

“Thank you.” She said sincerely. She stood up and took my hands in both of hers, and looked into my eyes. She did not flinch. “Really.”

“You’re welcome.” I said.

The woman who had showed me to the basin came back into the room. Her arms where full of paper wrapped items. She handed the packages to me.

“We know what you are.” She said. “We are very grateful to you for saving Hera, but we’d appreciate it if you shortened your stay. I don’t know if you have a hamster? Or a kat?” She asked.

“A kat.” I said.

“Well, feel free to fish in the river.” She said. “Thank you very much. Hera’s husband was a cruel man. He tried to kill her simply because she hadn’t had a baby yet. You did a good thing.” She smiled at me. I nodded, and went back to Per.

“Plenty of food.” I said. “I wasn’t subtle, though. I’ll have to be more careful from now on. They said to go ahead and fish in the river.” I scratched Per’s head. “Hurry up, I want to get going.”

I watched her lope off into the distance. I would get there someday, hopefully before it was too late.