Cataindar

PROLOGUE

CATAINDAR: THE DISCOVERY

www.Cataindar.com

Listen to the audio version on chapter one here. Let me know if you would like more of these!

* * *

The chains had bound him for what humans would call a lifetime. He had fought against them. He had slept in them.

Not for the first time, he studied their heavy links in the flickering torchlight. The thick iron shackles had worn away the fur on his wrists, leaving bare, bluish skin crisscrossed with scars. He squinted at the wall brackets that held the chains, gathered a breath, and then focused the muscles of his huge frame and strained against the chains. The links lifted from the stone-flags of the floor until they were pulled taut. He began counting.

To anyone watching it would have seemed a useless effort. Chains that thick, secured through solid stone would be impossible to break. However he was not trying to break them.

After reaching a count of thirty he stopped pulling. Blood pulsed through his muscles. It felt good. He had to keep his body strong and his mind sharp for the day they made a mistake. His ears twitched. Tentative footsteps were approaching from the floor above.

They are afraid of me.

He let his tongue work between the points of his teeth. The flesh he had eaten last week had tasted so good, so rich compared to the gruel they fed him. He smiled and glanced at pieces of the broken body on the floor. It had taken him two years of kindness, of building trust to convince that guard to get close enough to the grate in his cell door. Pulling him through it had made a terrible mess.

Who knows when I shall next get to eat like that?

The footsteps were closer now. The new guard took the steps down, one by one. The prisoner sniffed, savouring the sharp fear-drenched sweat of his fur. The rapid beat of a frightened heart drummed in his ears.

Scared little kitten.

As the guard approached his cell, the prisoner sank low onto his haunches, curling his long tail behind him to appear as small as possible. He felt the weight of the chains resting on his shoulders as he relaxed and leaned against the wall. The grate at the bottom of the door slid open, sending a beam of golden light into the cell.

"Listen!" the prisoner pleaded, doing all he could to soften his rough tones, squinting into the brightness. "I had no choice with what happened to Tarquen!"

A battered clay bowl skidded into the cell. Gruel lapped at the edges.

"Listen to me!" he called again, crafting desperation into his tone.

Silence. The grate snapped shut. The steps quickened to a run as the guard's courage broke and he ran away.

"Worth a try," the prisoner mumbled.

The light had temporarily blinded him. He extended his thick tail gingerly and, using the sensitive hairs that ran its length, felt out the bowl, carefully hooking the tip of his tail around it and slowly dragging it close enough to pick up.

He poured the contents into his mouth.

--

Thank you so much for reading!

If you are enjoying you can also listen to the first few chapters on audio book.

Go to Cataindar.com and subscribe - you'll receive it in an email tomorrow.

In the meantime please flip over to continue the story...

Tim.