Choir of Moths

Chapter 1

The dark shape darted through the tight alley, a blur of black against the concrete. It jumped to the top of the chain link fence, segmenting the space, then launched off continuing its path until it vanished around a corner. Malik swore to himself, his heavy breathing causing the words to droop lazily from his mouth. He'd been chasing this thing for almost 30 minutes and at this point was sure the damned creature was just enjoying itself.

"Float." The word came out sloppily in between Malik's heavy breathing. A pulse of purple energy radiated from his feet as he felt his body go weightless. He jumped into the air, lifting high above the fence before slowly descending behind it, continuing his pursuit.

He sharply turned the corner and stopped, to scan for any signs of his target. Squinting he saw the creature sniffing a dropped box of food near the entrance to the alley. As if noticing it had been spotted, it turned to face Mailk. It lowered its head but didn't take its large eyes off of him. He now had no doubt the arrogant little thing enjoyed the chase and was non-verbally mocking him. As he walked towards it panting heavily and put up his hands in a display of peace.

"Alright, you little shit. How about we call a truce huh ?" He managed to get within ten feet before the thing spun and took off running. Disappearing around the corner and into the flow of people on the sidewalk. He outstretched his hand and had to fight the impulse to lift the creature into the air and maybe let it float upwards until it drifted into orbit. He closed his hand into a tight fist, let out a long deep sigh, and started jogging after it. He turned the corner and saw it running past the people on the sidewalk. Some laughed as it ran between their legs. It was getting late in the afternoon. A rain of day blossom petals swirled in the air, with more and more people spilling onto the street to make their way home from work. It'd be impossible to keep up with his fleeing target, especially given how much larger he was. But that didn't mean he'd give up either.

"Float." This time he put more energy into the incantation and felt a pulse run through him, his muscles tensing deeply, but untensing just as quickly. He jumped as high into the air as he could, feeling himself weightlessly drifting up until he was on the roof of the building that had been to his left. He tensed as he heard the crunch of vegetation under his boots and looked around to see he'd landed on a rooftop garden, luckily with its owner nowhere in sight. He jogged to the other end of the roof and looked down over the edge. "Reveal." As he spoke the incantation, he felt a prickling sensation around his eyes. The city street began to shimmer and darkened to a dull gray before him. As he scanned the street, he spotted a rapidly moving shape glowing a bright green. "Gotcha." He smiled to himself as he watched the green blob come to a halt in front of a food stall. Malik jumped from the building with his spell still active, slowly falling downwards until he landed softly a few feet behind the unsuspecting creature. He'd nearly landed on a woman loudly talking on the phone but luckily she'd made a sharp turn to the right. In one swift motion, he took off his robe and wrapped up the unsuspecting cat, right as it turned to look at him. It let out several shrieks as he felt it pushing against the fabric that bound it.

"Easy there Milkshake," Malik said in an amused tone. He uncovered the cat's head and was greeted by a sharp hiss as it tried to bite his hand. " Yeah, yeah, you little pain in the ass. Shouldn't have run me around the whole damn city." The black cat eyed Malik sharply, continuing to hiss and thrash about.

"You two still don't get along huh ?" The owner of the food stall asked, a wide grin on his face.

" It's not my fault." Malik protested. " I try to help and this thing chooses conflict every time." The stall owner let out a deep laugh that spread to Malik, causing him to chuckle a bit.

"How are ya doing son? Taking care of yourself and your aunt ?"

" I'm good Mr. Lee, and I have to admit my aunt still takes care of me like I'm a kid."