Marbles: The Hawk Who Refused to Die a Virgin

Chapter 16. Moonflower Crowns and Golem Showrooms

It was maybe a week into their journey through the cave when the cat got caught skulking. It had accidentally activated one of the survival sitar string tripwires that Languin studiously set up around their campsite every night. When activated, these tripwires would topple a tiny stack of black river stones that were imbued with elven magic. The stones would clatter against the ground, unnaturally loud, and begin to spit up torrents of bright white sparks while continuing to clatter against the ground to sound the alarm.

The cat was entranced. It stood there for a full second, which is an aeon in cat time, its pupils minuscule, its right paw still hanging in midair from when it had pulled it back from the trap. Languin shot upright in his bedroll, nocked an arrow, and sent it clattering after the cat, who had shot down a passage and back into the darkness.

"Did any of you recognize that cat?" asked Languin. The stones, spent, lay lifeless in a semicircle. The only light in the chamber came from the low burning coals of the campfire. Languin waved his hand over the stones to recharge them, and then began to stack them carefully back into a trap.

"Yeah," said Opal, still wiping the sleep crust from his eyes. "Yeah Marbles and I saw that cat in the Riverlands." There was no mistaking it, it was the same cat. Luscious ear tufts, ice white eyes. The whole nine yards.

"Oh dear," said Languin, walking off to retrieve his arrow. "How did it get all the way down here with us?" asked Opal.

"It is a questing cat," said Languin, looking down the shaft of his arrow for damage. "A juvenile, from what I could see. That's probably why it didn't know enough to sidestep the clatterlight trap."

"A questing cat?" asked Lucy. "For Opal, Marbles and I? I didn't think we merited one. Maybe now that you're with us we'd be more of a meal."

"I think he was definitely after Opal," said Languin. "Opal had been given the quest directly by Marbles, and because that cat is a juvenile, it thinks of Opal as the leader of this delicious little starter party. When Opal had wished for 'the party' to be taken to a safe place, the lamp must have grouped the cat along with us."

"Oh snap," said Opal. "I have heard of these things. They're like, attracted to adventurers."

"Indeed," said Languin. "When they spot a group of adventurers that they think they can handle, they tether themselves psychically to the party and follow them until the party is ripe

for a strike. The party must not be too hardy, nor too green. The cat lets them turn on the spit of experience until they jussst start to sizzle with ambition. Then it slaughters them all."

"Oh for the love of fuck," said Opal.

"Do not be too worried, for now," said Languin. "Questing cats are built for the environment in which they are eventually destined to strike. I got a good look at its feet. He is built like a lynx, and will attack us in the snow if we survive the cave."

"Wait," said Opal. "Destined? How intricately are we connected to this cat? Like when we die it dies? Or vice versa? Or is it like, we can't die until it kills us?"

"We can die at any time," said Languin. "I think I misspoke earlier. The cat is not so much tethered to us as it is to our deaths. If we die, it feasts on whatever is left, and moves on to stalk hardier parties. If it senses that its target party is getting strong enough, but not too strong to kill, it will attack and try to kill us itself. Either way, it is stuck with us until we die or it dies. And it imprinted on Opal. It pines for his death above everyone else."

"Such a strange lifecycle," said Lucy.

"No weirder than flukes," said Languin. "Or ticks. Or hermit crabs. Anyway I am not overly concerned. It was autumn when it tethered to you, Opal, and its feet and pelt are built for winter. It wanted to attack and kill you within the next couple months. But, I was not part of your party when it attached itself to you. Now your party is half again too strong for it. Still, keep in mind that this thing is genetically, spiritually, almost sexually obsessed with your death Opal."