Upon a Dawn
Disclaimer: Not my Characters!!
Rating: G - PG
Summary: One small slip and Haru has missed the dawn. Life in the Cat Kingdom moves on, taking a Haru, version Cat, with it while the Baron tries his reluctant hand to sort this mess out.
Prologue
Haru tripped and cursed as she jarred her knees. "Clumsy!" She berated herself as she just barely managed to catch herself on her increasingly familiar paws.
She raised quick eyes to her goal, the portal to home, just a few feet further up. And it was as she tried to stand that she realized her ankle wouldn't support her weight. Down she went once more.
The dawn broke. Sun spilled over the horizon and washed the world in gold. Haru watched the glorious light from within the tower. A stone grew in her stomach and she became numb. She was too late. Too Late. The words pounded through her head.
An agonized cry tore itself from her throat. The cats below hissed and flattened to the ground. Haru wept.
The Baron reached her, Muta bounding along behind him.
A strangely sober procession wound its way back to the Cat Palace. The Prince and Yuki were followed by an oddly solemn Muta. The Baron carried an unrecognizable bundle of girl... or cat… several steps behind the large white cat. They were flanked by Lune's red clad guards.
Haru curled her paws into fists as far as they could go. She could feel tears slip from her eyes and into the soft fur growing on her skin.
Life would never be the same, she was a cat. Home, her mother, opposable thumbs, school, Hiromi, anything normal... It would never the same again.
Baron felt Haru's trembling, but it was her utter silence that worried him. Would she still find that confidence in herself? She was meant to make it home; she needed to make it home. If she chalked this up as one more failure, what would she be? Where would it leave her? He didn't want her broken. He wanted the confident, triumphant, walking tall (even if it was many feet taller than him) Haru. Not this silent, terrified, distressed Haru trapped as a Cat.
It was unfair to her. Unfair.
And yet… And yet... there was a part of him that grinned a purely feline grin at the prospect of Haru as a cat. A part of him was petty, why should she get all the breaks when he was stuck as a statue for most of the time with no company…
But the Baron firmly and resolutely quelled that tiny, triumphant voice that exulted in Haru being a pleasant armful of cat. There were other things to think of at the moment. Time for more complicated questions would come later.
AN: Contrary to author habit this is not a oneshot. Now that I have exorcised this Cat Returns demon of a tiny fanfic prologue (however mildly), there are no guarantees as to when the next chapter will come. But I do have it in my head. Rattling around in there. This is my first time in Cat Returns land. I like it so far. Seems very much like uncharted waters with promise of treasure. Hmm. Review please.