Cat Eyes: Acrux [Book 2]

Chapter 1: The last day of my life

Two years ago. South Sector.

«You must always respect those around you, never attack another of your kind, we are all the same, and we must be united. Always be a good man...» My father's words.

We're Evolved Humans, or "E.H." as humans called us, an improved version of them. Perfect vision at night thanks to our strange eyes with slanted pupils, developed canines, pointed fingernails, more strength, and the occasional growl.

They were terrified of us and at the same time resentful, but we managed to get away from their territories, and thus they stopped bothering us. Humans were victims of global warming that they caused, fights, and plagues that ended up reducing them, so it was not our fault to have inherited most of the planet.

We were actually more peaceful.

I walked sideways, staring into a pair of yellow eyes. We both studied the opponent's movements. We were going to fight.

Well, we were peaceful, but it didn't mean we didn't have little "friendly duels." My adversary: ​​enough muscle mass, huge claws, and fangs. I calculated more than two hundred pounds of bestiality.

He growled in fear for his safety.

"Don't look at me like that. I'll just knock you unconscious." The mountain lion didn't reply, of course. "It'll be fun," I purred.

But something frightened him, and he fled. Another evolved young man appeared from the bushes, and I growled at him since he had just scared the animal. Now it would fight him.

I looked at my opponent's honey-colored eyes to see if he was intimidated, but at that moment, he looked to the sides and smiled.

"A run home!"

I smiled too. He constantly challenged me and ran away. My 'repeated' brother, according to our parents. We were always together, leaving aside the fact that it was a duty to be. We were simply inseparable.

Sagittarius had saved the skins of many mountain lions, and it was that I loved fighting with those animals. It could be that I was crazy, in fact, so he told me. Some others in the town hunted animals, and we could also eat raw meat, but it was not very well seen to say, then our stomach got used to it and asked for more raw meat. In the dark ages, as they said, some even ate human flesh.

We had put that behind us. We were focused on remembering the breakthrough things, the good things, but maybe not them. It was said that they didn't forget any date when they had fights and wars. They remembered them and made their children learn them. They weren't letting go, not a single one, and I didn't make sense of that—anyway, 'humans.'

Our names were somewhat different from theirs, from what I heard. Most were from the stars in the sky, like mine, Acrux, the star in the constellation Southern Cross or 'Crux.' But others preferred something more terrestrial, such as natural phenomena, animals, etc. It was said that the leaders gave options of names, so there were no repeating in the same generation.

Be that as it may, whatever they said, humans had made up those words, so we weren't entirely unrelated. The difference was that we didn't use 'surnames.' Our noses were enough to know who a person was and what family he came from. Humans were missing that.

We ran very fast. I understood that humans were not better than us in that regard either. Our society was simple but with many rules to abide by. Rules allowed us to live better than they did.

I got a push and rolled on the ground. I coughed and laughed helplessly.

"You cheated!" I claimed.