Cat's Eye

Chapter 4

A stream of pure energy surged out from the heart of the necklace, bathing his fur in vibrant waves of milky green, it soaked into his skin and bones and swelled his blood. His bones cracked, scraping against his innards, and his skin tightened. Hardening like marble as his senses sharpened, the muscles rolling under his skin with a life of their own. The thunder of hearts, both human and horse, boomed in his ears.

Fear and panic turned the air bitter, and the Cat bared his fangs, the weight and length of them now too long to fit behind his lips.

"H-Halt, you demon!" King Reginald's once mighty voice trembled like a frail child's, but the threat rang hollow when the arrow fell from his bow. Striking the ground with a clatter that old bones couldn't match.

The Cat smiled and prowled forward. The water turned to slippery mud, then solid grass. Tufted chunks caught in the underside of his claws, strands of his shaggy coat brushed against the backs of his legs as if the fur had grown six inches in a heartbeat. "I swore to her that she would be avenged. And a vow sworn is a vow I shall fulfill." A voice, creaked and broken with age, poured out of the Cat's chest. The words were not just his but joined by a voice sealed away from life, but still held in his heart. His mistress's voice.

Whether it was blinding fear or the magic of the necklace, the king fell to his knees as he tried to speak. The others stood speechless, pale-faced, and limp-handed, their bows and arrows laid forgotten at their feet. Good. The Cat thought. Raising his head high as he prowled around the group. Let them see the power of magic as it truly worked, and not something that existed for their playtime.

The Cat's whip-like tail slashed back and forth, breaking limbs from trees and slicing grass in half with every step. Whatever enchantment the necklace had worked on his body, it had raised him triple his height, broadening his spine and widening his shoulders. The horses he'd spent so many years fearing now were less than his equal in size, an easy target for the long scythes that curled from his paws. "Mother Earth screams your name in her nightmares, do you realize this? When her tears fall from the sky to the blackened rock below, and the wind shrieks in agony, she knows that her people are gone. The ones who lifted her name in song and verse, the ones who gave everything but accepted nothing in return, the ones blessed with her gifts divine. All gone. Gone too are the creatures created in her image. Ones with gifts of fire, water, earth, and wind. Gifts of flight, speed, and strength unparalleled. No longer do they stand proud, but are displayed as toys for your amusement. A man too weak to wear his own crown without a coat of lies and mockery surrounding him." He finished in a scathing hiss.

"How dare you mock me, you stupid beast!" Bravery or foolishness, the Cat couldn't tell, but the king found his strength. Leaping to his feet, the thick neck reddened as fire, he elbowed one of his men aside and lifted the sword from his belt. Swinging the point level with the Cat's nose, sweat glossed the bare forehead bright, and the previously steady hand trembled under the weight of the truth. "I'll make you regret every word that fell from your cursed mouth!"

The Cat did not blink. The fluffy tip of his tail twitched once, but then stilled. A silence settled over the glade, broken only by the panicked rasp of breath not his own. Swinging his head so slowly that his bones creaked, the Cat looked left, then right. A silent plea of mercy fell from each soldier's quivering lips, and quicksilver tears streamed trails along their grime-crusted cheeks, but it was too late. With far more grace than they had extended to his mistress and countless others, bones snapped like dry twigs, and their end was swift. The husks collapsed backward around their king's feet, a ring of dusty shells and bloodstained memories, and The Cat felt his stomach twist. The bitter iron of spilled blood clogged his throat unlike any bird he'd ever caught, and his newly sharpened claws dug deep, trying to rid himself of the crimson clinging to the tips. But the weight of the necklace pushed on his breast, stilling his legs and raising his chin, forcing his gaze to level on the shivering king. The only one left still standing.

"Do you think that is going to stop me?" The air hissed, a breeze clipping the tips of his whiskers as the Cat twisted, avoiding the slash aimed to open his shoulder. Again and again, the sword blurred, aiming first for his ears, and then for his feet. Ducking low, he scrambled across the grass, fear briefly overriding the magical high, but the necklace brightened. Casting a vibrant green glow over the world itself, the enraged king faltered, trying to throw an arm over his eyes, his feet tangled together. His entire body crashed down at the Cat's feet, the deadly sword now quivering in the grass, and the Cat lifted one side of his lip in a careful sniff of the now bare throat.

It would be so easy to sink his fangs into that soft skin, to feel the panic fluttering of a pulse against his tongue, and finally catch his mouse after the chase. The cat sniffed, one side of his lip curling up in disgust as the king swatted at his paws with limp hands. The fingers clinging to his fur like writing maggots, he lifted his left arm and swatted once. Knocking the human onto his back, The Cat pinned him there with a paw to the chest, his head flopping back to bear his throat even more to the air. Slowly, the cat bent down, his whiskers twitching as he leaned down, his nose level with the stinking human's chin. He parted his lips, letting out a slow exhale that fanned across the skin, the Cat watched the shudder instantly take hold. Raising a trail of goosebumps pebble thick, the king's chin quivered, but the blunt edge of white teeth bit hard into his lower lip. Steeling himself for whatever was to come next.

"Go. Tell your friends and family. Tell the beggar on the street corner and the merchant peddling his wares. Tell them that the ones you hunted have a champion now. One that isn't afraid of magic, but revels in it, and disposed of your army brethren with a few simple steps. "

If his words had any effect on the King, it wasn't obvious. He was still frozen beneath the Cat's paw, a bloodless cast drained the color from his face until it was a sickly gray.

Slowly, as not to inspire him to run away screamed. The cat stepped back, a shake rolling through his entire frame, and his shaggy fur stood on end. Let him see me as I am. Not a creature running for its life anymore, but a hunter strong and proud. The cat thought, slyly watching his own reflection in the King's white-rimmed eyes. With his massive chest puffed out and his fur wild, the twin sabers on either side of his jaw drooped low, pearl white against the midnight dark of his coat. The necklace was the only bright spot in the gloom, shining bright with enough force to become a miniature sun. Perhaps it was his imagination, but the Cat squinted, narrowing his eyes at the crystals embedded in the gold. The center-most shard had changed, no longer smooth and sharp-edged but polished bright. Round as an apple, and darkened to a vibrant green. An ebony line, similar in shape to his own pupil, cut through the heart of the crystal. How strange. Was this his mistress's or Mother Earth's doing?

With a final shudder, the King rolled to his feet and blindly stumbled down the road. Chasing after the horses that had vanished into the forest, the bodies of his friends lay forgotten on the ground, and a curious quiet fell. Becoming somber and thick, as if weeping for the lives lost, the Cat bowed his head. A few scrapes of his mighty paws mounded dirt over the bodies in respect to the lives lost, a hissed prayer, and the Cat turned away. His black fur melted into the forest once more.