Night Cat | Night Cat #1 (CURRENTLY EDITING)

Night Cat - Chapter 5

That’s Definitely Not Me

A cold breeze blew through my fur and I sighed contently.  I was curled up comfortably in a pile of fall leaves, feeling utterly at home in my wild surroundings. I uncurled and stretched, arching my back and coiling and uncoiling my tail to wake me up. I looked down at the small crescent-shaped patch of black on my left paw and—
Whoa. Paw? Tail? FUR??? 

My eyes flew open.  What the hell was happening? I spun around in circles looking for my room. It was gone.  My bed was gone. My duvet covers were gone. My walls were gone, and instead, I was surrounded by trees. Trees!! I had never hated nature before, but at that moment, when I wanted to see myself in my poster-covered room, I hated it with all my heart. 

I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them, I’d wake up and find that I had been dreaming. Dreaming about having fur, paws and a tail. Like that one time I dreamt that I was a crow stranded in the middle of a cornfield being chased by a psycho-maniac scarecrow (Thanks God that had been a dream). But this time, I was unlucky. When I opened my eyes, I was still in the middle of that damned forest, standing in the middle of a pile of fall leaves, staring blankly down at my paws. Yes, paws. I had paws.

I suddenly wanted to ram my head into a tree and yell “Wake up, Ave. Avery Fallyn, I order you to wake up” but I didn’t see the point. I’d only end up giving myself a concussion or something, and I didn’t want to have one of those again. I opted to instead go look for a river or something. I wanted to see myself. I wanted to see what animal I had transformed into. God, that sentence sounded so wrong in my ears.

I heard a soft gurgling sound in the distance and instantly, my ears twitched. My animalistic senses focused on the sound until it was the only thing I could hear. It took me a while, but pretty soon, I was able to figure out what that sound was. Water.

It wasn’t the human Avery that acted on hearing the sound. No, it was the animal Avery. The minute I realized that I was hearing the sound of running water, I starting running in its direction. I felt as if my legs had a mind of their own. They sprinted with no effort and leapt over protruding roots and fallen tree trunks without any signs of slowing down. Honestly, if I hadn’t been so damn confused about the whole “Waking up as an animal” situation, I’d have been impressed with my new powers.

When my super-legs finally stopped running, I found myself standing in front of a river. The water glistened and shone in the moonlight that spilled through the holes in the canopy of leaves that covered the forest. It looked so magical. But magical was the last thing it felt like. I was just about to see what animal I had turned into for Pete’s sake! I personally saw no magic in that fact. 

Still, I was curious. So, I took a deep breath and stepped closer to the river and peered into the water. I was so utterly shocked by what I saw, that I literally leapt ten feet into the air. And the kicker? Yeah, I didn’t come down.

No, instead, my damn claws – yes, claws – stuck onto a branch of a tree and I had absolutely no clue how to get out of there.

“Crap!” I didn’t bother keeping my voice low. Hey, it wasn’t anyone could understand me. The only people I was in danger of offended were squirrels and owls, and personally, I didn’t think they’d mind much. 

“Retract your claws.” I started when I saw my kitty stalker lounging on the very branch I was stuck to. The panther was back. “It’s like moving your fingers. Just pull them in.”

Just pull the—What the hell? How could I understand it? I was expecting to hear meow or a purr, but what did I get? Did panthers speak English? Or did this one steal my dictionary and learn to talk? With this one, you never knew...

“Um, okay.” I said the words the way I would in normal English, but the sound that met my ears was a soft Meow. Even in cat language it sounded uncertain. 

Oh yeah... Remember when I looked into that river? Yeah, I kinda forgot to mention what I saw there. I had turned into a leopard. And not just any leopard either; I was a snow leopard.

Yeah. School was going to be way more fun now.|

I followed the Panther’s advice and retracted my claws, only to discover something else. You know that saying, “Cats always land on their feet?” Yeah, complete crap. I landed on my spine with an audible thud. “Ow.”

“You’re a very clumsy cat, Avery.” The panther was sitting next to me now, and call me crazy, but it looked like it was grinning. “I’ve never seen a leopard land on its back before.”

I sprang to my feet. “Yeah, well, I guess I’m not cut out to be a cat like you are, Xander.”
A surprised yowl met my ears. “How did you know it was me?”

I laughed, hearing a funny chirrupy noise instead of actual laughter. “No offense, but your eyes kinda give you away.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Panther-Xander sighed. “That’s how I figured out who you were too.”
“What do you mean?”

“Every time we met when you were in your cat form, you never told me your name no matter how many times I asked you.” He explained, his tail moving from left to right in the slowest speed imaginable. “In the end, it was your eyes that made me realize who you were.”

“My eyes?” I found that a bit unbelievable. 

“Please, Avery. Snow Leopards have blue eyes, not topaz eyes.”

“My eyes are light brown” I said, flicking my tail in annoyance. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m not color-blind Avery. They’re topaz. Have you even looked in a mirror before?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “Whatever, Xander. It’s not like I’ll be able to look into one ever again, right? My mom will have animal control shoot me down and lock me in a cage if I ever try to step into the house again.”

Xander burst into peals of laughter. I heard regular laughter, but I could also hear a soft purr twisted with the sound. Panther laughter was weird, but strangely intoxicating…

I shot Xander an evil look and the laughter ceased immediately. “Wait,” He said, suddenly serious. “You don’t remember do you?”

“Remember what?”

“That you’ve phased before. The whole of last week… You don’t remember your trigger-stage.”
Confused… I shook my head. Nope. I definitely did not remember…

 Though, that would explain all the weirdness the whole of last week. Great. I spent so much time wishing for answers to that and now, I was wishing I’d never found out. Great, just great. Xander had a lot of explaining to do.