I am dedicating this story to Iridescentdawn443. Thank you for your gorgeous review. I'm also dedicating it to Soulandswords for, not only giving me a lovely review, but for helping me to improve my writing. Xxxxx

This was actually an experiment. Really... quite a time consuming one, to see if I could even do this whole fiction writing thing, and to make my characters shine like I want them to.
As it turns out... I suck! Is that gonna stop me? F*ck no!
As with any new skill, one must allow time for improvement (in my case, a lot of time), thus I am continually working on this to try to make it better, which is why some bits are better than others.
Someone wise once said: Good things can take a long time!
Tips would be greatly appreciated! I'm devouring every prompt and piece of advice going, because I really want this to be good, so badly, but I also keep experimenting, and it doesn't always work. Damn! I wish I'd paid more attention in school!

Disclaimer: The only things I own in this story are my OC's: Doctor Jazzie, Lucitana, Norstara, Hortenseya, Hooker, Tesslar, Poseidon, Maclaren, Mackenzie, Sophia, The Manx/ Mansur, The Ocicat/ Siegel, Goblyn, Grimmel, Meritas, Cindykit, Ajax, Anchises, Delasole, Elias, Hesione, Oenone, Dolcie, Dawson, Gaiana, Paris, Archimedes, Ariadne, Thoran, Nellita, White Bear Merlin, Starlit Dawn, Thor Iron Claw, Iris Dew-Eye, Minky Shona, Morning Rey De Solei, Scrumpletailer, Tomas, Iphigenia, Firanz, Kaleidahan and Thessalonika. A big thank you to anyone else whose ideas I borrowed.

Hello again! Only me. Again. I have now added some facts in at the end in the style of Alexandra Elf. But please read the story first! I hate it when people skip to the end. It gets me so mad!

Prologue

London

27th May 1983

Full moon

He lay on the ground, fur caked with blood.

Excruciating pain ran through his body, the last thing he would ever feel. And as this cruel notion came to him, he realised he no longer cared. He closed his eyes and drifted away…

He was blind. Helpless. Huddled, with his siblings, inside a soggy, cardboard box, trying to extract what little warmth there was. He shivered, and began blindly searching for something to ease his cold and hunger. He bumped into another wriggling body. Could this be Her?

No.

Disappointingly, it was just his sister! Becoming distressed, he began to cry. Cry, cry and cry, sobbing and bleating as loud as his tiny lungs would allow…! Still, nobody came...

But, suddenly, there she was!

He couldn't remember how, but he had somehow managed to escape the confinement of the box and was lying spreadeagled on the rough concrete.

He picked up her scent, first of all. Then, he saw her! It had to be her!

Her short, peuter fur was marbled with charcoal stripes and leopard spots, and seemed to shine in the eerie glow, while a wig of long, silver hair flowed passed her shoulders and danced around her face, as though the wind were toying with it. This was accompanied by the familiar, soft smile of her lips, as she opened her arms and said in a voice that was delicate and melodic, "Come to me!"

Overjoyed, he began to crawl, furiously kicking his feeble limbs to try to shuffle forwards... no wait! That was backwards!

All the while, he blinked furiously to keep open eyes that wanted nothing more than to fuse shut, and mewed plaintively. "Where have you been? I'm cold! I'm hungry!" was what he desperately wanted to say… except, all that came out was, "Mama?"

But, as he struggled to get to her, her encouraging smile gradually faded, to be replaced by a look of desolation. She turned away, as though distracted by something he could neither see nor hear. Then, she took one final look at him. "I'm sorry...!" She whispered, and fled into the dark!

"Mama...!" He cried. "Mama!"

But she didn't return.

He wrapped his tail around himself and started to rub his eyes with his paws, trying his hardest not to cry… but the more he tried not to, the louder his wails became, until they filled the night air like the lonely screams of some tortured machine…!

"Munkustrap? Munkustrap?! Can you hear me? Speak to me!"

Someone was shaking him, ever so gently, but the wave of pain it generated was enough to jolt him back to horrific reality!

A paw slipped into his, the owner fighting to keep her voice calm. "It's alright! I'm here…!"

"Jazz…?" He gasped. "You're alive?!"

"Yes, I'm… fine! I don't think you are, though!"

"... I don't think I am... either… I can't... breathe!"

"Then, don't try to talk, dammit! Save your strength-!" He felt her press something into his side.

He gripped her paw! Gripped on for dear life as he battled through another wave of torture...!

"You're in pain! Where does it hurt?! Tell me!"

"Everywhere…" His breaths were coming short and fast.

"No!" He heard her cry. "Don't fade away on me! You must fight this! Fight it!"

"I can't…!" He was trying. God knew he was trying! "I love you... Jazz… so you know… sorry about... all this..."

She caressed his face and wept, "I love you, too… I love you, so much! Don't leave me...! Munkustrap...?! Stay with me...!"

He blinked, trying to fight through the descending dark haze… but knew he couldn't fight it any longer. He could feel it closing in, like sinking into a chasmic void. Struggling for the last vestiges of air, he managed to whisper one final thing to her, "Your eyes... my love… How blue... they are… how blue..."

Then the darkness closed in.

He tried to open his eyes.

And found that he couldn't.

It was like they were frozen shut!

Lifting his head, he quickly rubbed them with the back of his paw, until the ice melted away. Then, after blinking a few times, he took in the unfamiliarity of his surroundings, and realised that his home, the Junkyard and everything he knew had completely vanished.

He knew he wasn't in London anymore, because all places had a signature smell, and this didn't smell like London. He couldn't even be certain that he was in England, or anywhere on the planet of Earth for that matter.

The landscape was certainly Earth-like, but nothing like he'd ever seen before. Of course, he knew what snow looked like, but this strangely featureless carpet of white, with not a tree, bush or even a building in sight, was completely alien.

At least, if there was anything to be seen out there, he sure as Hell could neither see, nor smell it! Not through the blanket of snow that was falling, and had almost buried him as well!

Fearing he would be buried completely, he began to test his limbs. They were stiff with cold, and protested loudly when he released them from their icy prison and staggered to his feet, with clods of snow sliding from his back and splattering onto the ground in the process. He started to brush the rest off his fur, but as he was doing so, he suddenly realised... No blood!

Further checks found his body to be completely free of wounds, and the pain had all but gone, plus- how good did it feel to be able to breathe?! So? The air he was breathing was a bit strange, as though it wasn't really, quite air... but, he didn't care! He was grateful to be able to breathe something, whatever it was!

Then, his paw brushed against something unexpected. "Huh...?"

He looked down, and saw a strip of brown leather positioned diagonally across his chest. It was attached to a thinner strip, which was belted snuggly around his waist, a bit like a harness. Curious, he followed the diagonal strap with his paw, reaching up and over his shoulder, until he felt the rough handle of a samurai sword, poking out of a lacquered wood and leather scabbard. What was most puzzling, was how it had come to be strapped to his back in the first place! Someone must have put it there without his prior knowledge. But who...?

"Are you ready, Munkustrap?"

He almost jumped out of his skin! The disembodied voice echoed around him, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time!

Shivering violently, he wrapped his arms around himself and turned to look behind…

There, framed by snow and ice, was a wooden chapel, that he was certain hadn't been there a moment ago!

However, he was desperate to get out of the elements, so, shielding his face against the driving snow, he climbed the wooden steps, and then pushed on the heavy, walnut door. To his relief, it creaked open, and he entered into a cavernous space... letting the door whine shut behind him.

Ready for anything unexpected, he proceeded with great caution, taking care to keep to the shadows, so as not to be seen by whatever might be lurking...

And something was definitely there!

He could sense the tingles of its presence on his whiskers, as he crept from one wooden column to the next as silently as only a cat could… keeping a paw on the sword hilt, just in case!

Crouching down behind one of the cylindrical structures, he noticed that it was formed out of a single, long dead, tree trunk, and was intricately carved with effigies of what appeared to be angels and gargoyles.

But on closer inspection, he realised they were actually the petrified faces of Jellicles, their eyes bulging in terror and staring out as though begging for help. Or warning him to beware!

Looking up, he saw that the pillar towered to a great height, supporting an arched ceiling, along with the help of nine others standing in regimented lines along the outer perimeter of the building. Meanwhile, before him, the space was filled with candles.

Candles everywhere! On the floor, on the tables... even lining the pues on either side of the aisle which led to a short flight of wooden steps, which, in turn, led to a high, marble altar. The stone was draped with a black cloth, and this was festooned with candles, too. And hunched in front of it, with its back to him, was a strange, cloaked figure.

Munkustrap gave an involuntary shiver, which, in hindsight, was most odd, seeing as, what with all the candles, you'd think that the room, though spacious, would be nice and toasty? But in reality, it was no warmer than outside!

"Are you ready to go?" it asked again, in a rasping whisper of a voice, that sounded more like the wind that moans through the gap in a door frame on a cold winter's night.

It was a voice that washed over Munkustrap like an icy torrent, and his stomach churned with the realisation that it was well aware of his presence! His fur, too, stood on end! "Go where?" He asked suspiciously.

"Why, to join my army of Dead, of course," came the reply. "Your Soul will make a FINE addition."

Munkustrap felt another shudder trickle down his back. Something told him he did NOT want the figure to stand up and face him... but that's exactly what it did! Slowly… stealthily… growing like a bubble in a tar pit… moving like a creeping shadow!

The cloak, blacker than black itself, hung from the waif-like figure, as though there was little more than bones underneath, while a terrifying emptiness stared out at him from beneath the folds of its hood!

There was something deeply sinister about it, not helped in any way by the object that it grasped in its skeletal claws- a long staff, topped with a curved, sickle-like blade, which it raised threateningly as it began to move, stiffly and jerkily, down the steps towards him, its ragged cloak trailing behind!

"Bring your Soul to me!" It hissed.

"I don't think I want to do that," said Munkustrap, backing away.

The Reaper raised the scythe even higher. Candles that it passed flickered and died, as though it were sucking the warmth out of the air around it!

And it was then that Munkustrap noticed the smell! Like a thousand, putrid corpses, it hung in his nostrils and throat, heavy... and so sickly that it made him want to gag!

"But you are dead…! Your soul is MINE!" it hissed again.

Munkustrap's ears went flat against his skull! "You want it? Come and get it!" he challenged.

And with the Deathly Figure almost upon him, he turned and bolted for the exit!

He reached for the door and pulled on the brass handle...!

It wouldn't open!

The creature was behind him! He could feel its chilling breath on the back of his neck and hear the rattle of bones as it raised the scythe!

He closed his eyes and tried to breathe more slowly. He had to clear his mind.

He felt the power rise within him as he uttered some words and directed his energy at the lock, hearing a CLUNK as the bolt slid back against its will.

Silently praying, he gave the door one last yank and it swung open, the snow blowing into his face feeling almost welcoming!

With the Reaper's menacing laugh thundering in his ears, he exited the chapel and cleared the steps in a single leap, landing in a crouching position, with the fullest intention of running for his life!

However, when he looked up, what he saw made his heart sink into his toes! "What the-!? Oh, you have GOT TO BE JOKING...!"

Something dark reared up in front of him, rising out of the ground in a burst of white powder!

It grew and unfolded, until it towered above him, reaching almost to the chapel's bell tower!

Once its armoured joints had finished clunking into place, it looked to the ground, as though searching for something. Creakily, it bent down, and hefted a great battleaxe up out of it, lifting it high. Then, with a tooth-shattering whine, it turned its mechanical head towards him!

Munkustrap swallowed, as a pair of beams landed on him, like two deadly spotlights. "Oh, great!" He thought. "Now, I'm doomed!"

And it clearly wasn't up for negotiating! It was going to annihilate him, and it wasn't going to show him a shred of mercy! In fact, it looked incapable of doing anything, apart from destroying whatever lay within its path, and this was confirmed, as it let out a tortured scream, and swung its robotic arms, topped with fists the size of two mini hatchbacks!

Then it began to lurch towards him, the thunder of its monstrous feet growing louder and louder, as it ploughed through the frozen ground with terrifying speed!

And Munkustrap knew he only had two options. Fight… or die.

Choosing the former, he drew the katana and brandished it.

Then he let out a "Roooooaaaar!" and charged towards the metal demon, disappearing in a cloud of snow!