Satin Rose and the Witch Hunters

31. Escapologist

Satin

"You could talk this entire time!" I exclaimed, nearing his shadow, the intimidation in its glare not quiet setting into my mind.

"And I could hear your yapping too," The cat replied jumping down. "Sleeping is how one keeps their coat as lustrous as mine. But you Familiars would be too busy for that, would you?"

Inspecting the crate, it was more unstable than I thought, what with the cat just jumping off making the whole thing quake. His question got me off guard though. "What?"

The wizards raven sinking its head under a wing. "Don't bother," came some muffled advice.

"Us free roam types have better things to do than give ourselves up to humans. They can't even bother to look for a lost pet. Truly being a Familiar does not breed familiarity."

It seemed that my companion was fast asleep or at least trying to. A switch turned in my mind, connecting the dots. This was probably why we needed to escape in the first place. How were we suppose to do that though? I didn't exactly have anything on me that could help. Which meant that the only option was getting help outside.

"You're the only one here with a human," I pointed out to keep him talking. Convince the cat? There was no way I could do that.

"My human is a student and I am her teacher. Have you not seen the way she fawns over my every need? In truth she is slowly upgrading into a servant."

Pushing against the wood, it was to heavy for my stick legs though worth a test. If I truly rammed into it with everything I had it would probably wobble. Then what? The hole in exit would still be facing the wall.

"No, I'm new here. Besides I'm not even a raven, I'm a-"

The cat hit the crate with a paw making the whole thing shake again. "I don't care, nap time has come and you are to be quiet."

As he turned away, my voice quickly rose to keep his attention. "That just sounds like being lazy."

He did a complete one-eighty, "Excuse me?"

"Face it, You're not a teacher any more than I'm a familiar. "

"Not a familiar?" Its eyes narrow, tail swishing back and forth. "Another child of the forest then, you of all creatures should understand my words."

"I understand completely. At least we're doing something about it, but don't let us bother your nap time."

My beak was almost poking through to the other side when the cat swatted at the crate once more.

His voice grew dark as he held back a growl. "Remember who's in the cage. The Hunters are about to begin their work, when the iron falls well see who is truly been putting in work."

"This is a bad idea," The other raven whispered.

Jumping to turn his way, the old birds head was still tucked under his wing. His shivering had lessened. My mind wasn't open to ideas at that moment though.

"I've been prod and pocked all night by a stupid hunter, bad ideas are clouding my mind." Returning to the crates edge I continued to taunt, "You've been lying to yourself too much, what do you even mean when the iron falls?"

"Can your bird brain really not wrap around a simple idea. I don't need to explain this to someone not worth my time."

"Oh I'm sorry mr. crytic cat, leave us and you can get back to your wild imaginings."

"You think you can goad me into a fight?"

Sizing him up, he seemed smaller than before. We were actually eye to eye. For the first time I inspected the claws that had replaced my feet. They were quiet sharp, as if each to had a stake at the end.

"I think I can goad you into a fight and can win."

"My claws can slice you into strips of meat."

"Lets test that theory."

The cat popped out its own claws and with a mighty slash moved the crate in one swoop. It spun in place, my bird friend pulled is head out to watch in horror as I jumped through the now open gap and clashed with the cat in a flurry of feathers and fur.