Kitty's Keeper/No Clean Blades

VI

 When they opened their eyes, they had returned to the forest. The dizzy spell behind them, they gathered their barings and stood. Then they swore, spitting oaths that only the saltiest sailors knew in difficult, infuriating times.

"I told myself not to eat anything and I still did it!" they roared in frustration, kicking the dirt before dropping themselves on a nearby rock. They buried their head in their hands. "Oh, what is the point in giving myself good advice if I am not going to heed it?"

"Such is the nature of good advice," a voice in the trees replied. "It is seldom ever followed."

Kitty looked up, but saw nothing. They recognized the voice, it was John's, of course, however they could not see what form it belonged to now. "Who's there?"

They heard a rustling from behind. "No one is there," answered the voice. "But I am here."

A smile hung in the empty air above a low hanging branch. A large smile, too large and too human-like to belong to the black cat that materialized around it. Which, of course, meant it remained stubbornly stuck to the beast like a fly in honey.

Kitty sneered at it. "And who are you?" they demanded.

"Who are you?" the cat asked back.

"I asked you first."

"I asked ye second."

Kitty sighed, sensing the incoming waste of time should they continue to argue. "Call me Kitty."

The cat loafed on the branch. "Call me Puss." Then he cocked his head. "I've never met a cat like you before."

I could say the same of you. "Then I am honored to be your first."

Puss snickered. "Honor. What is honor but a comforting lie exchanged between two beings? A cat should have pride, not honor."

Carum resisted the urge to roll their eyes. "Then I am proud to be your first."

"That's better. What brings you to the forest, Kitty? And why has it tempted you to follow unheeded advice?"

"I'm lost."

"Ah."

"Yes. I need to find someone so they can return me to whence I came."

"Where are they?"

"I know not."

"That is unfortunate."

"Indeed." They sighed heavily. "I would will myself to him if I could."

"Why can't you?"

"I would if I could."

"Why can't you?" the cat asked again.

Kitty rounded on the feline. "That's not how the world works, Puss! I don't even know where I am, how, in Fortune's fickle name, could I figure out where he is?"

"But you don't have to figure, you just want, you said so yourself."

"I—" Kitty stopped mid-word, finally understanding Puss' suggestion. If there was ever a time to test how much control they had over the dream, it was now. Moreover, it would probably spoil John's fun, and Kitty wanted that almost as much as waking up. While it was strange John essentially betrayed himself, Kitty figured Puss was some part of the siren's oft known but rarely explicit or gracious morality. A giver of good advice, good advice that was seldom taken. "I see. In that case, I'll be off now, Puss. It was good talking to you."

"You as well, Kitty."

Kitty walked a few paces away from the branch and sat down, legs folded. They took a deep breath, and tried to relax their body. Not too long ago, George told them that the dreamwalkers taught the band more than their eponymous talent. If one's fellow was troubled, one was behooved to help him, but if all one had was one's self...

Thoughts crowded their mind. They fought the urge to banish them. Meditation was not about being empty-headed. It was about coexistence. "The thoughts can come, the thoughts can go, but they will not trouble me."

Exhale. They felt deeper, better, more grounded. Inner clarity made the outer world brisk with possibilities.

Inhale. The universe was within them, and they were within the universe. So far out, the way out is in.

Exhale. A flicker of the magic the band said existed all around burst into the darkness of their closed eyes before vanishing once again out of Kitty's perception. That was all right. It would come back to stay one day.

Inhale. Energy curled around their being like smoke, wrenching it from some hand reluctant to be rid of even a morsel of it. John.

They grit their teeth. "John..."

And Kitty was gone.