Forest Cat

[white_unicorn]

Όνομα Συγγραφέα:Αθηνά

Είδος: Φαντασία

Βία; υπονοούμενη

Σεξ; δεν θα το έλεγα

Αριθμός Λέξεων:2472 (Μετρημένες)

Αυτοτελής; Ναι

Σχόλια: Γράφτηκε τον Σεπτέμβριο 2008

 

Andrew woke up with a splitting headache. The sun was setting, painting the sky with all the colors between true red and yellow. He tried to sit up but the ringing in his ears and the nausea in his stomach made him lie down again. The earth under him was soft, too soft. He was used to the hard terrain of his homeland, the desert, and this softness scared him

 

His eyes roamed around him, took in his bearings, registered every aspect of the place. He was in a meadow it seemed, there was a small pond to his left, and tall, massive, trees all around him – trees he didn't remember seeing before. The aura of the place gave him the impression of a trap, a natural trap. A Meadow?. He had heard the stories of course, about the green meadows and the women living there. Women in appearance only. Beautiful to the eyes, but with hearts of stone and an appetite for blood. Human blood....

 

He tried to sit up again and this time he succeeded, maybe his stomach wouldn't revolt after all. He took time to feel his body's reactions and everything responded as usual. Nothing broken, nothing aching. Except for his head, though even the headache seamed to have lessened.

 

The spring was north at a small distance, the flowing water like music to his ears. His throat was dry, he felt the thirst, like a beast prowling, searching for its prey. He stood up and walked the few feet to the pond only to collapse next to it. His luck or god protected him from falling in. It was deep, it looked small but the darkness in it revealed the danger. Like everything here. He drank deeply, the headache finally retreating. He raised his head to breath and felt his muscles tensing, his nose registering what his instincts were trying to tell him ever since he stood up.

 

Someone was there. A musky, female scent on the air, got him on his feet with his sword in hand. He barely registered the gasping of the woman as he turned to face her, the sword raised for attack.

 

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" He asked as his eyes took in the slender figure with the full lips and light eyes. Her body covered by thin, almost transparent layers of a cloth he had never seen in his long life.

 

"My name is Alessa. I would ask you the same thing. What are you doing here?"

 

"I am Andrew. I do not know how I got here. I was... sleeping." He said though his hesitation probably marked his lie. "I was sleeping," he repeated more firmly, "and woke up here. Wherever here might be."

 

Her posture never changed, though her lips formed a small smile, he thought he saw a hint of a predator's anticipation in that smile. The next moment there was only the sweetness of a ripe strawberry in it and he blinked at the sudden change.

 

"I see." she said. "You must be tired and hungry. Come with me, my Queen will be happy to have a guest after so long." he didn't move, his sword never lowering. She sighed, a sound like the tiniest summer breeze. "I promise you, nothing will happen you will not wish to happen. Lower your weapon and follow me."

 

He sheathed Daggar, reluctantly enough that she smiled again, the smile of an adult to a bewildered child. She turned around with a fluid, gracious, catlike move that had his head spinning again, for a different reason altogether. She started towards the east, the setting sun on their backs.

 

He followed her through the trees, feeling a hair-rising cold, that intensified as they went deeper in the forest. He had his hand on his sword, listening to his inner senses.

 

She was walking like she knew every leaf and thorn of the low bushes. She avoided the tricky rocks while he had to try hard to remain on the path. A path he couldn't see, but felt.

 

"It's not much longer now." she whispered, her words came clear, as if she was next to him and not in front of him. The night had transformed the Forest. The moon was full but her silvery light didn't reach the ground, a few slivers highlighted the path and he could only guess their way. She stopped a few minutes later and he stopped with her, stretching his ears to hear for anything that would indicate the danger he felt coming.

 

"We are here." he heard her whisper, and shivered as if he was out in the coldest of winter nights. She turned to face him, her gown whispering, "I promised you. Nothing will happen you shall not wish. There is nothing to be afraid of."

 

He nodded and she turned again. On her next step the whole place appeared to change and yet remain the same. He blinked a few times but he couldn't understand what was different, then he took that one last step and saw. For the first time in his long years he felt his lungs burning, he had forgotten to breath.

 

He felt his eyes opening wide as he breathed hard, his mind registering what his eyes were seeing. It was terrible in its beauty. The beauty of a big cat, when it leaps, as the front paws extend the claws, and the claws tear the flesh of the gazelle... It was beautiful, and yet Andrew's hair stood as if a freezing current of air had touched him in the middle of the desert.

 

He drew in a breath trying to hold the scream he could feel rising in his throat and a strong hand grabbed his arm. "Do not scream! I do not wish you harm. Please. I need your help." she whispered so close to his ear he felt her breath touching his skin. He exhaled, almost hissing, and looked at her eyes of molten gold. His mind shifted to keep him sane then, bringing up the memories of his childhood. The pouch of coins, as old as the sword he was carrying now, handed to him by his mother as a talisman to protect him. He still had that pouch, with the same coins it held so long ago. And then the smell of the burning bracken as the women were making lye soap... The pain on his arm intensified, he was sure he would hear his bones breaking from the pressure but as he blinked the tears away the pressure lessened. "Stay with me!" she almost pleaded and took his hand.

 

His brain scrabbled to understand what was happening as they walked on the path, between the rows of big cats who looked at him with an intelligence he was sure was more than an animal's. The curiosity was there, behind masks of boredom. He could feel the pressure of so many eyes. So many minds, set on him. He tried to keep his hand away from his weapon and for the most part he succeeded. The room was cavernous, one big cave full of big, beautiful, intelligent and scary cats

 

She needs help? What kind of help? What will she offer, when survival will be more than enough? a thought came, he pushed it back down, she would never agree.

 

He breathed deep trying to relax the tension between his shoulder blades but that only brought the acid smell of cats to his nostrils, his mind. He knew then that he was doomed. In the middle of the battle, when he fell from that axe he thought he was dead then, but no. His fate was here. The old prophecy came to his memory again, 'Beware the cat, boy' the old woman had said but he hadn't given it much thought. Until now.

 

Alessa stopped and he found himself in front of a most exotic woman. Her skin was the color of burned caramel, her hair a deep sun-streaked red-gold mane and her eyes... one glimpse was enough to have him shivering all over again. Her eyes were green, green like the meadow in the highest time of spring. Full of the life the sun and rain gave the grass. And yet, in them was the cunning intelligence of the predator. What he thought he had seen before in Alessa's smile was here, a thousand times more intense. He lowered his head with no one asking, That's a first he thought but didn't raise his eyes, not even when the woman spoke.

 

"Alessa, my dear. What have you found in your wanderings?" her voice was smooth, sweet, like honey straight from the bee-hive. Yet the bees were there too. Dangerous on their own rights.

 

Alessa didn't respond, she had let his hand drop and abased herself in front of her Queen.

 

"Sweet Mother." she started only to be interrupted.

 

"What have you done Alessa?" now the whole hive was there, in her voice.

 

Andrew could feel Alessa's panic, as well as the other's eagerness. The hunt will begin soon... he thought, feeling cold to his core.

 

"I promised him my Queen. Nothing would happen to him, he wouldn't wish." her voice was clear, though he knew that had he been a few feet behind her he wouldn't have heard her whisper.

 

The Queen laughed. "Is that so?" he felt the cats stirring behind him but forced himself to stand still. No need agitating them further he told himself as he waited for someone to brake the silence.

 

"So, human..." he felt her Power, he raised his head only a fraction, "Look at me Mortal!" he did. Her eyes, in the fraction of the second that he dared look at her, had turned to pure black. Darker than the darkest night. "My daughter here seems to have... a soft spot for you...What do you wish to happen?" he felt the danger, the poison in her words. Even if he survived the woman at his feet wouldn't. Time to play along

 

"What she wishes, my Lady." he said, low but clear. The Queen was silent. Nothing on her betrayed the war that was taking place in her thoughts. Should she give Andrew to her cats, her daughters?, she would take back a promise given by one of them, should she give both to the cats she would have killed her own daughter... she was cornered and they all knew it. The Queen better than anyone.

 

"And what is it that you wish. Daughter of mine?" the tone had sweetened but the bees would still sting anyone on their path.

 

Alessa shivered, "Him to be mine." she whispered. He looked at her out of the corners of his eyes. Surprised at her request. What game is she playing? The cats behind them stood utterly still he could feel their surprise, and the Queen's contempt.

 

"You wish a child then Alessa? Why, you should have told me... I would have given you my Harem to choose from."

 

"I only wish him, to be mine." Alessa repeated and the Queen sighed, like a parent with a stubborn child who doesn't know what is best for her.

 

"Very well then. You have tonight to explain. If he wishes to stay as yours, he may. If not... you'll leave here for ever. Spend your life.... an eternity... with him. Now go!"

 

Alessa stood warily, as if her muscles ached. He gave her his hand and she took it. They bowed again to the Queen and retreated with their heads lowered. Alessa took him to the entrance of another cave. Smaller than the first, with barely enough space for her sparse belongings.

 

She sat warily on the bed, breathed deep and started to explain. "The Queen... She is my mother. We are an old, old race of shape shifters. Most of the cats you saw in there are my sisters and brothers. We, we do not get many visitors and, when one, like you shows up.... we have a Hunt...." she stopped taking another deep breath but Andrew didn't want that kind of explanation.

 

"What will happen if I refuse to stay with you?" he asked.

 

She shrugged, like it didn't matter anymore. "Most probably... the Hunt... with both of us as Prey... Maybe, they'll allow you to leave..."

 

"And, if I decide to stay with you, but not here?"

 

"I'll be exiled. We'll be transferred to another dimension... Not your world, not mine... something in between...."

 

"And if I stay? Here, with you?"

 

"We stay... Mother might... order your assassination. And I'll have to... pass on my blood with whoever my Queen deems appropriate." she stopped and climbed fully on the bed. Holding her knees to her chest with her hands. Tight enough that her knuckles showed white. "I can help you escape, go back to your world, your time."

 

He sat on the floor. His mind sorting through all the possibilities. Silence grew between them as he decided his next move. He breathed deep, allowing his instincts to take over his logic and spoke, breaking the thin ice of silence..

"I can't go back. Even if I make it back... I'm dead there. What if, if we leave now? Together?"

 

She raised her face, her eyes the color of old, tarnished gold. Her hair falling around her fragile-looking face like woven red silk.

"Would you? Are, are you certain?"

 

He felt a smile forming without any conscious thought. Her slowly raised hopes couldn't be blown down now. "I am. Staying is like going back... it's better to get away..." then we will see he thought but didn't say it.

 

"Let's go then!" she got up again and her energy had him running beside her. They followed another path through the Forest. Taking them to another pond. "Are you sure?" she asked again and he smiled. She took his hand and drew him with her as she jumped in.

 

He was certain he would die, why do I always make the stupidest decisions? his lungs started burning from lack of oxygen. And then they were on dry land. This one was sandy, but not like his homeland. There was a scent of salt in the air and as he looked around he saw the sea. The sun was rising, he was seeing the great ocean for the very first time.

 

Alessa was next to him, "Do you like it?" she asked and he could think of nothing more than what he did as her eyes found his.

The kiss was long, passionate, nothing like any other kiss he had given or received. And then they were falling again, on the soft sand. He understood then, the prophecy was fulfilled. The cat was his.

 

The End (or The Beginning)