Supernatural Blood

Prologue

     I hauled myself over the curb, out of the dead silent road and finally stopped to catch my breath, panting. I had traveled so far from where I had come from, and I was finally here. In Los Angeles. I opened my knapsack, which contained small rations of bread and water. It was for emergencies only, and my water was already almost gone, even with me drinking a few sips of water a day. As I chugged down the cool liquid, my mind reviewed how it had come to this, which immediately made me shiver.

     I was not going to let the past get the best of me, and I was not going to dwell on it. It was too soon, still raw in my mind. And it was so... horrible. I put the small piece of cork in my now empty water flask and hesitantly got up. My muscles were screaming in protest as I did so, making me cringe in pain and rub my kneecap, which was where the center of the pain was. What had happened was pretty brutal, so as far as I'll allow myself to explain, I landed on it badly, and now it was temporarily injured. But for now, I needed a place to rest at. Traveling in such a large world in the middle of the night is quite non-sapient, especially for my kind.

     What am I, you might be wondering? I'm a neko, a diminutive one, about uh... three inches tall? Don't be surprised, I'm actually pretty tall for my kind. Yeah I'm not the only one, there are more of us sort of, but we're even rarer than Borrowers. However, we aren't as rare as an okamimimi or a Kitsunemimi. There are more hybrids, but it's incredibly rare, and starts from a genetic mutation.

     I glanced both ways across the next road before I hopped off the curb, landing before a yellow line painted in the hard surface of the ground with a heavy thump. It's really hard being tiny in this world, I thought gloomily, twitching my ears for any engines roaring to my location. Nothing was coming my way, so I hugged my knapsack and started sprinting, my small necklace flying up and down against my collar bone. I'll explain that later...

     I have been through the hard life an average neko receives, but to make matters worse, I had... I had been tortured... I hated it. You see, the human race has to know everything. Just look at all of the movies they've made for example. The apocalyptic ones, sci-fi, fantasy... people go crazy for those. Because they let their fantasy like mind wander... and wonder, "What would it be like if this and that happened?"

     If they knew we existed, they would-

     I was so lost in thought that I almost didn't hear the engine of the car until the ground started vibrating with a powerful aura. I widened my eyes and threw myself forward, barely avoiding the wheels. I fell to the ground, winded but alive, as the car slowed down about a block down, then pulled up to the garage of a huge house. No no, it looked more like a mansion... Whoever owned a Corvette like that and lived in a place like that meant that they have a lot of money, which means plenty of food to spare. Not only that, but it would be a big enough area to find a safe place!

     I hauled myself back onto my feet and sorely hobbled to the other side of the curb, the same side as the mansion. I'm sick and tired of moving spontaneously, and I'm tired of tripping around the globe like I need help. It's bad enough that one Borrower helped me, I was hoping to be independent... I doubt that'll happen until a long while later. I yawned and started walking along the sidewalk over to the mansion, grateful that even though it was midnight, there were no humans around. I eventually stopped and stared up at the huge building, swallowing nervously. Even a normal sized being would have to back up pretty far away from the house in order to see all of it at once. I suddenly heard sniffing, and my ears shot up. Run, somewhere, anywhere...

     I slowly turned around to see a stray dog, wagging its tail and panting at me. I slowly took a step back, holding my hands up in a placate gesture.

     "Nice... dog..." I murmured quietly, straining to not make any rash moves. I slowly took a couple steps back, closer and closer to the door of the house. Then without warning, the dog snarled and leaped at me. I ducked and rolled to the left, scrambling to my feet and running for the house. The dog was barking madly as it whirled around from its awkward landing from failing to catch me and chased after me. I swung my arms faster, hardly breathing as I finally approached the door. Obviously I couldn't just go under it, the dog was too close. Growling in frustration, I swung around and waited until the dog was a foot away before I flung myself to the right, letting it crash into the door. It emitted a baleful whine, stumbling away and shaking its head. Its ears pressed against the top of its head and it quickly turned and ran away with a bark.

     I sighed and let my shoulders sag in relief. See, this is why we don't travel at night. I lowered myself to the ground and crawled under the door, ready to start a new life, and hopefully never have to deal with humans again.