Ai sa Bastet Prologue
Hello my lovelies, here is one of the new stories that I was talking about in a previous author's note. I have nothing else to say but to say that I hope you like it.
"Bastet is a rarity. The Goddess of the moon and of the sun. She represents the duality in all women, docile yet aggressive, nurturing yet ferocious."
-Ophelia Catwoman 2004
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o Ai sa Bastet o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
For as long as people can remember, they have been fascinated with Ancient Egypt. Could it be because of the beautiful pyramids that remain standing till this day? Could it be the evidence of the Ancient Egyptians having technology that was ahead of their times? Perhaps it is the mystery that surrounds the daily life of these people. We may know many things about the Ancient Egyptians, but there are just as many things that we don't know about them. One of these mysteries was the existence of the Mai race. They are said to be the the descendants of the cat goddess Bastet. They were neither god nor mortal, but demigods. The role of the Mai was to protect all of Egypt and its Pharaoh. Over time their positions in society grew and they began taking roles in government as well as the Egyptian army. Because of the Mai Pride structure, it made separating Mai into these factions easier. At the very top of the totem pole of power stood the King and Queen who were the mated pair alpha felines who made sure the Pride was happy and well cared for. The three betas and their mates came next who were the peacekeepers of the Pride and the right hands of the King and Queen. Next came the Lead Hunter and Lead Warrior. The Lead Hunter was always a lioness who organized hunting parties to feed the Pride while the Lead Warrior could be either a lion or a lioness who organized the warriors and led them into battle. Then came the pregnant and nursing lionesses. After that came the Trainees who learned to become either a hunter, a warrior, or a healer. The cubs were at the very bottom who ranged from infancy to eleven years of age. There were two other factions that hold the respect from all the others. The first is the Elders who advise the King and Queen should they need it. The other is the Healers who took care of all of the Pride's wounds and ailments. Due to their fluidity and order amongst their ranks, the Mai were looked upon and treated as gods. That is, until one of their own fell in love with the eldest daughter of Remesses III. The Mai thought nothing of it and welcomed her as one of their own. The Pharaoh on the other hand forbade the union. Feeling rejected, both the lion and the princess eloped. That was the worst course of action to take for the couple were captured and the lion was sentenced to death. The Mai were outraged at the audacity of the Pharaoh to turn on them and murder one of their own. While they suffered through their grief and pain, they killed the distraught princess then made an attempt at the Pharaoh himself. Ultimately the Mai failed in their task which marked them as outcasts and traitors. Around this time, an organization called The Order emerged to hunt and kill Mai until they were forced out of Egypt into Syria and Turkey. This allowed the Mai to survive and to regrow their population. To ensure that the Mai did not fall in love with any other humans, Bastet did three things to help her children. One would be that if a Mai were to have intimate contact with a human, the human would perish. Another is that each Mai would now have a zamil, a destined mate if you will. The pairs could be of a lion and lioness, a lioness and a lioness, and a lion and a lion. The last things Bastet did was give her people a savior called the Uniter. The Uniter would be the one to save the Mai race from The Order. To ensure the safety of the Uniter, Bastet appointed her daughter, the Ai sa Bastet, as their personal protector. Like the typical Mai, these two have superior strength, cat-like agility, accelerated healing, heightened senses, night vision, excellent coordination, and retractable claws. Unlike the typical Mai, they both ha an empathetic ability that allowed them to feel what other people can feel and the wonderful gift of nine lives. But because the Ai sa Bastet is the direct daughter of the goddess Bastet, she had a few abilities that is unique only to her. She can alter her hair and eye color and turn into a pure white Egyptian Mau. Every three generations, or sixty-six years, a new Ai sa Bastet is born to take the place of the old. They bean training at the age of five, having received the awakening when they were born, and would normally end at the age of fifteen. The Ai sa Bastet of this generation is me, Caterina Leora King.
My story began with my foster parents being killed by The Order. Sometime during the chaos that ensued my parents had entrusted me to Jonathan King who then took me home to his wife Meredith and his one year old adopted daughter Chloe. Even though all of my new family was white while I had a nutmeg skin tone, they still welcomed me with open arms. I really felt like I belonged until my Mai abilities began to get out of hand. With no one to help me go through it, I felt so alone. I felt like I was a freak. But that all changed when I met out neighbor Velma Douglas and her wife/zamil Verona. It turned out that Velma was the Ai sa Bastet before me. She saw my abilities and swept me under her wing at once. I learned what I could do was normal and found out exactly what I was. Just like Velma before me, I began my training at the age of five. One aspect of my training was physical. We worked on building up my strength, speed, stamina, and reflexes. We also worked on stealth, hand to hand combat, and weaponry. Another aspect of my training was my Ai sa Bastet abilities. I learned how to control my sharp Mai senses, my claws, my empathy, my physical altering, my ability to change into a cat, and the casting of spells. Because I was to be a bodyguard, I learned a wide variety of spells from combat to healing and some miscellaneous ones. The last part of my training was intellectual. I learned foreign languages, math, history, science, and literature so that I could be moved up a grade to be with my older sister Chloe.
On my fifteenth birthday, I was deemed ready to graduate from my training. As a gift to celebrate V and Verny gave me an outfit. I was so excited that I threw off the top of the box to see what was inside only to have my face fall when I saw it. Just to let you in on an inside joke between the three of us plus mys sister and our two friends...
When the Catwoman movie came out when I was eight, my sister Chloe, our friends Paul and Amy, plus V and Verny all watched it all together. As soon as Halle Berry came out in her Catwoman suit, all head turned towards me. I only raised a brow at them.
"What?"
"You look just like Halle Berry," Chloe gaped at me in awe.
"I don't see it," I said after staring at the screen.
"You look like a younger version of Halle Berry," Verny supplied.
"Still don't see it."
"This is your movie now," Amy declared proudly.
"That's right Cat," V agreed with a smirk. "From now on, one of your nicknames is Patience."
Everyone laughed while I was less than pleased with the nickname. Now back to the gift. What lay in the box was a exact replica of Catwoman's final outfit.
"Really V? An exact replica of Catwoman's outfit?"
"It's not an exact replica," Verny denied.
"We had to let out your top and rear of your pants," V added nonchalantly. "You have a bigger chest and ass the Halle does."
I grew concerned and curious at V's words. How in the hell did she know that? I could understand me, but to know for Halle Berry? Could you really look anything up on the internet?
"Right."
"While you have the time, you should pay the Queen a visit," Verny reminded me.
"Preferably tonight after Mery and Chlo fall asleep," V told me.
With a nod I closed the box back up and waited for night fall.
That night once Mom and Chloe went to sleep, I placed a sleeping spell on them that would life with the light of the sun in the morning. My long and curly dark chocolate hair was pinned up and away from my face so that I could put on black cat eye makeup and some red lipstick. From there I put the black leather bra bustier with the two black leather buckle straps that connected to the low rise black leather pants that had decorative rips on the bottom of my buttcheeks, my thighs, and my knees. Next came black peeptoe stilettos along with black leather sleeves that went up to the middle of my upper arm with a cuff down to my elbow and whose ends came to the middle of my hands where the zipper was three quarters of the way zipped. Black leather gloves with slits for my claws to extend adorned my hands and as a final touch the black mask was put on which hid my hair from view all the way down to my nose. Just the feeling I got from wearing the outfit was enough to make my golden cat eyes glow. Alright Leora, let's get this show on the road. Without further ado, I slipped out of the house through my bedroom window to easily scale up to the roof. Let's see, what was her address again? 103 Dillard wasn't it? If I'm not mistaken, that has to be an apartment complex. And it's apartment 1803 if I remember correctly which means they're on the eighteenth floor. Ooh what a challenge, I smirked happily. With that thought I launched myself off of my roof to race across the roof tops on my hands and feet like a cat. While I ran, the exhilarating feeling of freedom and power flowed through my veins and skin along with the wind. I can't wait until Chloe joins me in running through the city. In less than fifteen minutes I was on the roof across from the apartment building that only came up to the fifteenth floor. To get over I backed up then sailed across the gap to reach the complex. Okay so the next row is the 03 apartments so that means I have three more floors to go. As quickly and gracefully as I was able I flipped and jumped from balcony to balcony until I reached my destination and peered into the apartment from the balcony through the slightly ajar sliding ? They left the door wide open? Anyone could overhear them. And that's just what I did. I slipped in through the door to sit on the couch and crossed my legs leisurely.
"I'll have to leave again to look for more Mai stragglers," an older woman said to who I recognized to be Jasmine Diaz and Alek Petrov from school. Well, I never took them to be Mai. But then again, Alek's athleticism made sense now.
"Looks like I picked a good time then," I piped up, a smirk rising when I saw them all jump. Three sets of green cat eyes flashed to me with claws drawn and threatening hisses passing through bared teeth.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the older woman, who I guessed to be Valentina Diaz, challenged me as her Queenly aura filled the room. A frown marred my lips instead of my previous smirk while my own golden eyes flashed at the challenge.
"I am Leora, the Ai sa Bastet of this generation. I am here to officially announce myself personally to the Queen of the San Francisco Pride."
A gasp left Jasmine's mouth when her eyes changed back to their normal brown while Valentina paled when her eyes changed back to dark brown. Alek on the other hand looked at me with mild interest when his changed back to dark brown.
"Forgive me Lady Leora," Valentina uttered at once. "Is there anything I could offer you? Something to eat? Something to drink?"
"Cream or milk would be lovely Queen Valentina."
Jasmine was quick to fetch the dairy drink while Alek still stared at me. What is with him?
"Can I help you?" I questioned with a raised eyebrow. A smirk was his only answer as his eyes raked over my form. Oh my god. Seriously? I knew he was arrogant and believed himself to be a lady killer, but his is insane.
"Maybe."
"I'm flattered," I remarked sarcastically with an eyeroll. "But I'm not interested Pretty Boy."
He frowned at my dismissal like he couldn't understand why I turned him down. Hmm, maybe that took him down a few pegs.
"What of your quest for the Uniter?" Valentina pried hopefully when Jasmine handed me my cream.
"Thanks Jazzy," I said with a wink before I took a sip of the delicious, addictive white dairy beverage. "As for the Uniter, I have found her but she has not awakened yet. Per my duty I am keeping a close eye on her. However, she has not been raised by Mai parents. To rectify this, my predecessor and I have told the Uniter out history through what she believes to be stories."
"Splendid!" Valentina cheered softly while clapping her hands together. "What is her name?"
Before dishing out Chloe's name, I rose to my feet gracefully and sat my drink on the coffee table before me.
"Hold onto that question for me. I need to make sure we cannot be overheard. We don't know who could be listening to our conversation.."
Valentina seemed to take the hint so she nodded her head slightly.
"Valentina, would you get the balcony door for me?"
She was quick to follow my indirect order and shut the door. Once the door was shut, I shut my eyes and called forth my golden magic to my fingertips. Because I was not using a wand, hieroglyphs, or a verbal spell, I needed immense concentration to carry out my magic. To help guide my magic, I kept the idea of the whole apartment being soundproof along with no door or window being able to be opened as I waved my fingers around. I detected no bugs inside the apartment so I finished up quickly then sat back down on the couch and crossed my legs again. Oh jeez, I forgot how draining that was.
"There we go," I sighed in relief to the bewildered and shocked faces of the Mai around me. "Now no one will be able to hear our conversation aside from us."
"What was that?" Jasmine asked.
"Magic," I answered easily. "Surely someone in the Pride knows how to perform such feats."
"I'm afraid not Lady Leora," Valentina admitted. "The concept of wielding magic has been regarded as legends for some time."
"We'll have to remedy that," I mused to myself thoughtfully. "But back to your question. The Uniter is Chloe King."
"You mean the boring blonde who hangs out with the weird shortie and the geek?" Alek wondered out loud in shock, his eyebrows raised. A growl left my lips at his insult of my sister and our friends before I launched myself at him. All he could do was widen his eyes before I was upon him, tackling him to the ground. My knees pinned his arms to his sides as my claws were but inches from his throat. The two lionesses in the room grew uneasy at my authoritative aura that rolled off of my aggressively while the lion under me trembled with fear. Good.
"Don't you dare insult them in my presence," I threatened lowly while I flexed my claws. "Do you understand lion?"
"Yeas," he choked out through his fear.
"Good," I chirped happily as I pulled my claws from him and rose to my feet. "Is there anything else we need to discuss Queen Valentina?"
"No, Lady Leora. Just bring the Uniter to me when she awakens."
"Can do. Would you like for me to keep up the wards?"
"It would be appreciated."
"Got it. Ciao (Bye)," I threw over my shoulder, opening the sliding door to the balcony.
"Wait!" Jasmine called after me when I perched on the balcony edge. "We're on the eighteenth floor. How did you get here from the balcony?"
"Hmm, I wonder?" I smirked while standing up then let myself fall backwards off the edge. Cries of worry left the balcony as all three of the Mai I left behind raced to the edge to peer over. My smirk never wavered as I expertly caught myself on a railing. I flipped once around the railing then landed in a crouch before I stood and strutted away.
"Did she really just do that?" Alek asked in awe from behind me.
"That is the Ai sa Bastet," Valentina murmured to herself in prideful admiration. I think I made a meraviglioso (marvelous) first impression, I smirked to myself on the way back home.
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Well, there we go lovelies! Hope you like the story so far! I have another story that I am going to put up and I am working on a new chapter of my Kamigami no Asobi fic and my Kuroshitsuji fic. I have nothing else to say except that if you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please feel free to review or pm me. Remember, reviews are magic!
-White Wolf