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empressofweirdos · 7 years ago

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The Magic of Cats Pt. 1

People often forget that cats aren’t magical creatures. Oh sure, we have an amazing six sense and can navigate around magic pretty well, but that shouldn’t be mistaken for magical ability. That’s like saying a chicken is a water based creature just because it can swim. While it is a fact cats are descended from magical beings, cats aren’t inherently magical themselves.

...Well, most cats aren’t, at least.

Once in a generation or so, there is a cat born with the ability to use magic. It’s quiet rare and manifest in many different way. Some can wander back and forth between the spirit and the mortal world, some can control one or multiple elements, and some can even shape shift into different forms. They all show up differently, but most seem to have a mismatched collection of abilities.

Many cats end up using their abilities to assist magically adept humans (witches, wizards, sorcerers, ect;...) and although not all of them do so willingly, most of them are happy with the contracts written up between the both of them. Other cats use their powers for their own personal gain, not caring who the hurt along the way. Unfortunately, these stories have lead to a distrust of magical cats from both people and fellow cats that dislike the bad reputation they spread.

Now you might be asking yourself “You seem to know an awful lot about magical cats. Are one yourself?”

No, I am not. I am just a perfectly ordinary cat. I am a bit smarter than other cats and I have a wonderful understanding of one of the human languages (although I can not speak it myself). However, I have no magical prowess what-so-ever.

My brother though, is a different story.

My mother was one of many mousers for a farm far out in the country, so naturally we were born in the safety of the barn. There were five of us born in total; three boys and two girls. Sadly, I was the runt of the litter, so I was very lucky to have a first time mother that was intent on making sure all of her children survived. She loved us all very much and tried to care for us as best as she could. Still, there wasn’t an awful lot of room when it came time for nursing so I was always pushed off to the side. For some reason though, my brother too a special interest in making sure I still got enough to drink despite my other two brothers drinking their fill and then some. My mother took that as a sign that she was doing something right with her way of child rearing.

When we were about 5 or 6 weeks old, the first hint of my brothers abilities came to light. I don’t remember too terribly much, but I do recall that the farmers family had a group of visitors that contained some mean spirited children. The children had come out to the barn to play when they discovered us kittens.

Mama was away hunting and I was the smallest of the litter, so naturally I was the one to get caught in their clutches. I don’t remember exactly what but they had tied a string to my tail that was connected to something heavy, and I myself wasn’t quiet strong enough to pull it around so I was simply stuck in place as I tried to escape from their devise.

Then next thing I remember is the children running away and turning around to see this... creature (there’s no real way to describe it, it looked like a hodgepodge of a whole bunch of different stuff) over by the edge of the sheep pen growling and crouching as it prepped to pounce. It frightened me so much that I attempted to run away despite my tail still being tied up. I looked behind me to see how close it was, but was greeted with the sight of my brother running over to me, with the creature no where in sight. As he gnawed at the string, I asked him where the monster went to which he responded “What monster?”

The other barn cats realized that my brother had magical abilities after his illusion, and promptly told out mother when she came back and started hounding her about him. They all pretty much demanded that she get rid of him to keep the rest of us safe. My mother was very defensive and insisted that he must have done it out of desire to protect me from the humans. The other cats would have none of it though. So in the middle of the night, my mother secretly moved us from the barn to an old, broken down wagon in the woods.

Regardless of the move though, the other barn cats continued to hound my mother and demand that she take care of our brother for the sake and safety of the rest of us. She would often come back home with scratches and patches of missing fur, signs of fights from when the other cats would attack her. I could see that my mother was very heartbroken over the situation, but held her ground firmly that she would not kill her son just because he was magical.

A few weeks later I, woke up from a group nap while mama was away on another hunting trip to find my brother missing. Curious, but mostly worried, I followed his scent a ways before catching up with wandering down the side of a trail, away from the farm.

“Where are you going?” I ran to catch up to him as quickly as he could.

Stopping he turned around to face me very defiantly. “Go back home! I’m leaving for the good of everyone!”

I slowed myself to a patter before sitting down in front of him. “Why? It dangerous out here.”

“Because everyone else is being treated poorly because of me, that’s why! All the other cats think I’m some sort of bad luck for the rest of them.” He yowled as he crept closer to me. “Mama comes home just about everyday with new scars and tears. There isn’t as much to eat now that mama has to fight all the time. And it’s all because of me!”

He curled up on the ground, his ears flat. “It’s not my fault I was born with magic, but it isn’t mama’s, or your’s, or anyone else’s either. No one else should suffer because of me any longer. So I’m going away so I won’t be a trouble anymore.” He began to quiver and hid his head under his paws.

I padded over to him and gently nuzzled the top of his head. “Well I’m coming with you then. You shouldn’t have to do it all by yourself since it isn’t anybody’s fault at all.”

It took a bit of convincing, but I did eventually convince him to let me come along with him. Because while he did have magical abilities, he wasn’t exactly the smartest. Especially when it came to humans. While I, on the other hand had already received many praises for my natural observant skills and quick thinking. Skills he would need if he was going to go venturing into the world, especially the human world.

I also convinced him to let me go back real quick and at least let one of our siblings know we were going off on our own, so when Mama came back she wouldn’t think that the other barn cats had discovered where she had taken us.

But soon after we were off, to make our way into the unknown world and to discover how my brothers magic worked.

#Midnight writing #Fantasy cat story #Magical cats?#Lemme know how I did #Writing on the fly #part 2 coming #Just a lil sumthin-sumthin

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empressofweirdos · 7 years ago

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Ghostly Fly on the Wall

I sat upon the large wooden crate that was pushed up against the wall. If you could call it that. Being a long dead spirit, it was really more of a ‘floating’ than a ‘sitting’ situation. But semantics. Point being, could anyone had see me, they would have seen me perched on the edge of the crate bent over all huffy and frumpy as I took in my new surroundings.

Why was I frumpy? Because for the last 70 years my soul had been bound to the weapon I had last used to kill before being killed myself. Karma can be a real bitch. So’s the witch that cursed me. Anyways, for that past 70 years I’ve been drug around the world because my spirit has an umbilical cord attached to my sword that won’t let me more than 50 feet away from it before I run into a glass wall. Do you know how small a hundred foot circumference is? It’s painstakingly tiny when you’re in countries and locations that you always wanted to travel to in your waking days but can’t explore BECAUSE YOU’RE MAGICALLY TIED TO A STUPID SWORD FOR ALL OF ETERNITY BECAUSE YOU MADE ONE LITTLE COMMENT!!!

Getting off track.

So anyways, there I was, taking in my new surroundings because I had once again been sold off from one antique dealer to another. (Technically it was the sword that was sold, but we’re a package deal and I’m the only one of us that’s sentient sooooo...) Being a ghost and not being able to sleep, I had been awake the entire journey and knew we were in a little town in the middle of the desert country of Amirtha. Completely on the other side of the continent away from my home country. And my sword was now hung on the the wall behind the counter as a pretty dust catching display. Again.

You think they’d at least recognize master worthy quality work when they saw it and advertise it to wandering swords men or mercenaries. Not hang it up like an aging relic meant for decoration. Glancing over, I could see my new ‘owner’ was unload the rest of his goods from his business trip and stocking up his odds’n’ends store. Place looked like a general goods store mixed with an antiques shop. Guy must’ve been a hoarder cause he had everything from pots and pans to a bookshelf of conjuration crystals and alchemical text books. Familiar items from back up home in the north to what I could only assume were familiar items to him here.

And it must’ve cost him a life time to collect it all because he looked like he had seen a life time or two in his days. Hunched over back, long yellowish-white scraggly beard, colorful robes that dragged on the ground as he hobbled about rearranging the entire room for his new wares... if I had been back home I’d have taken him for a wizard or sorcerer or something. But his skin was far to too tan to be a shut in, even for this part of the world. The man had definitely seen some sun in his time, all wrinkly and saggy and leathery looking skin. There might have been an old scar or two, too, but he was so wrinkly that it was hard to tell between all the folds.

It was about the time that I decided that it was going to be a boring hell to be stuck here for the end of my eternal haunting days so I might as well explore the rest of my tiny bubble, that the door at the front of the quickly opened and shut, the little guest bell by the door ringing from the vibrations in the wall.

Was it robbers? Tax collectors? A scorned little old lady lover from down the lane? It was the middle of the day so a customer wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary, but wheres the fun in that?

I swiveled around to see who had entered with such zeal and what possible drama they could entertain me with. Might as well enjoy what I could, cause this town seemed sleepier than two shepherds with collided flocks. I was greeted with the site of a local looking girl garbed in local looking men’s travel clothes. Not traveling to the big city clothes, but traveling on a long journey with lots of action and adventure. And they seemed fairly unused too.

My incorporeal eyes instinctively rolled back on their own. They had them here too. The girls that demanded to go on the adventures with men because they could too, even though they had no goal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a strong-willed female adventurer that can hold her own ground. But the angsty girls that believe the world is against them all so they need to prove them wrong even though they have no game plan are a real pain in the ass to say the least. More likely to kill a kingdom than save it, if you ask me.

“I need a weapon.” She proudly proclaimed, striding up to the old man. She was speaking in her native tongue, but part of my curse allowed me understand anyone regardless of the tongue they were speaking in. “Something agile and lithe would be preferred, but I’ll take what you have.”

The old man stopped and slowly turned to look at her, still holding the wooden box he had been fiddling with. He eyed her for a moment through squinty eyes before resuming his fiddling. “Ah, off to make your way in the world are you?” He jovially asked with a raspy voice.

Her face twisted up a bit from a mixture of annoyance and aggravation at not having been taken seriously. Mid to late teens, she was definitely in her mid to late teens. “I have good coin to offer you in exchange for a weapon. Good coin I can always offer elsewhere.”

“And tell me,” He clapped the lid on the box closed and set it back on the shelf, scurrying off to the next project.”Where else in this tiny village do you hope to acquire a blade from without being ridiculed and sent home with your tail between your legs? Hmmmm?”

The old man turned his head to look at her, only to see her looking blankly defiant straight ahead, so he shrugged and turned back. “What does a young lady even plan to use a blade for here? There’s nothing but goats and cows around for target practice. Maybe if you had an aerial weapon you could use the lizards too but...” He trailed off as he dug through a pile of rolled up scrolls.

I craned my neck from my seated position to get a better look at her, but all I got was a better profile of her blinking.

“...I never said I was gonna use it here.”

“Ah! Planning on going off on an adventure then! Where to?” He pulled out an armful of scrolls and waggled one in her face as he passed her by to the counter. “The glistening isles of Rik’Ma’Duu? The towering peaks of the whistling craigs? Or perhaps one of the many glittering and bustling cities of the world? I hear Felnerik is lovely this time of year.”

The girl blinked and followed behind him slowly, already looking a bit downtrodden by this point. “I wasn’t quiet sure where yet. Just anywhere that isn’t here.”

The old man dumped the scrolls on a ottoman behind the counter and sat down on the adjacent ottoman, looking right at her still as humored as ever. “That’s all? You just wanna leave town? Well why not just woo and get married to a traveling merchant as they’re traveling through. You’d get stability, wealth, status, AND a one-way ticket out of here. Four birds with one stone.”

I groaned loudly as I prepared myself for the up coming defensive speech.

The girl slammed both hands down on the counter, clearly aggravated at the suggestion she do something more sensible and down to earth than run away from home. “And be tied to a husband I have to follow around for the rest of my life? I don’t just wanna leave this town, I wanna go explore the world. I wanna see things, experience things. On my own watch. My own time. Not some husband who tells me what we’re doing and decides how we’re going to live.”

Was definitely the typical start to the typical speech.

“Furthermore, I don’t just wanna travel for the rest of my life. I wanna do something with it. I wanna make a difference. Somehow, someway, I wanna leave a good impression on the world, even if just a single embroidered quilt square. I wanna help people. I’ve heard about some of the things going on out there in the world, and I don’t wanna just stand by in this sleepy little village when I could do something!”

Slight deviation from the normal speech, but still well within the guide lines. Mean while, the old man just sat there with arms crossed while listening to her. Maybe he’d heard this same speech before, or maybe it was his first time. Hard to tell from his demeanor.

“I just... I just...”

Cue the water works and the pulling of the heartstrings...

“I just wanna leave a bit of good in the world, a bit more than it had before me. Even if it doesn’t last forever.” She leaned up against the counter, looking she might collapse from emotion. “I know I’m not the strongest, or the bravest... but I... I just need to...”

“Well perhaps if you had a weapon that was strong enough to lend you a bit of your strength, you might be.”

I looked at my shop keeper in shock. Did he really buy into it? Good grief, he was both senile and eclectic! I took a side ways glance at the girl, who held an equal look of disbelief on her face. Or at least I think so. Hadn’t really had a good look at myself in the mirror for the last 70 years.

“See this new sword that decorates my shop wall?” He brought his hand up, as though rapping on an invisible wall behind him, to gesture to my sword.

The girl looked at it in questioning disbelief. “It doesn’t really look that new...”

“Well it’s new here, and that’ s a form of new.” He crossed his arms at her once more, this time looking down his nose at her defiantly. “Anyways, I just returned back from a business trip where I haggled for this along with a lot sale. Former owner didn’t know what he had his hands on, but this blade once belonged to a strong and formidable warrior years ago.”

I slapped my palm against my forehead. He was going to give her a figurative pair of slippers.That wasn’t helpful, that was the exact opposite of helpful. And she was leaning right into it given the sparkle she had in her eye.

“Yessire, this sword use to be wielded by high ranking knight from up north.” A sly and mischievous smirk curved across his face. He must’ve made his money off of conning young, naive folks like her. “It’s not overly well known, just a foot note in history really, but I can tell you the tale if you’d like.”

She was looking at the blade all dreamy and starry-eyed by this point, eating up the sales pitch hand and foot. “There’s a story behind it?”

“Yup. Pull up that stool from over there,” He pointed behind here to a wooden stool with a purple cushion hidden beneath some hats,”And I’ll tell you the story of the Arch Knight of Remoana, Thyzal.”

My eyes nearly popped out as my jaw hit the floor when he said my name.

#Midnight writing #story time #Something different from poetry #Should I continue this?#It's mostly improv really #Opinions?

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