Scars (Part II of J.H. White's Puss in Boots)

Chapter Nineteen: The Tower

Kitty slept, her head rested comfortably against Puss' shoulder, while Puss nervously thought about what could happen when they confronted Scars, if he was even at the tower. What he had done to O was so swift, so horrible, he wouldn't be able to bear losing Kitty again at the mastermind's hand, especially if he couldn't bring her back this time.

He would go alone, he reasoned. He wouldn't let her put her life in danger for him once again. He wouldn't let her die for him again. At least Maria would have her if he was killed.

They arrived in the dreaded place; a dark wasteland where it looked as if the sun didn't shine. Puss looked into the sky and saw it; the moon of blood.

Kitty woke up and said drowsily, "Are we there?" Puss nodded, grimacing. She stepped out and they grasped each others' paws, walking towards the tower. Skulls of people and animals long dead crunched under their boots.

Suddenly, without warning, a fire flared up on the dry ground. Puss and Kitty stepped back hastily and stared at the violent flames. Something was written in them. Puss looked closer and the smoke stung his eyes and clawed at his throat. The words were all too familiar.

Lu omni elipsor, de flori skala.

Puss felt it in his heart. Whatever happened here, it wasn't going to be pretty. He knew he might not return alive.

"Kitty, stay here," he told her. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you." She was about to protest, but then understood the full danger and nodded.

He pulled her close to him and they kissed with the passion of a thousand suns, wrapping each other in a tight embrace, closing their eyes and crying. Her lips set his heart ablaze, her soft tail wrapping around his waist and her leather boots snaking around his legs, entrapping his whole body in slow, painful, beautiful seduction. They both knew that this may be the last kiss they ever would've shared, and they continued for several minutes until they pulled apart.

Remembering a random detail in his dream before the war, he slowly pulled his hat off his head and handed it to Kitty, who gazed deep into his eyes with her cool cyan pools of beauty, tears making them sparkle against the violent crimson landscape.

"Something to remember me by," he whispered forlornly. Then, he hesitantly but eventually turned his back on her and made his way towards the tower, marching toward his death as he once more tried to hide his fear from his beloved as he always did.