Title: "Felis Domestica"
Author: KimotoCat.
Rating: Not rated, author not too familiar with rating system. A little foul language and a little violence.
Classification: A short novel in a known environment – Washington DC.
Spoilers: None. Takes place somewhere within 6th season.
Requirements: None. (Other than previous knowledge of the X-Files scenario?)
Summary: Mulder can't sleep and decides to go downtown. He tries a new tavern, where he runs into a very unusual woman who tells him a very unusual story about herself…
Disclaimer: I fully understand that special agent Fox Mulder, special agent Dana Scully and the concept of the X-files is a registered trademark and property of Chris Carter and FOX. This is not a work of copyright violation, but should be seen as a contribution to a piece of television art.
However, the Kimoto Takita© character, complete with appearance and abilities, is the property of this author.
This has been on my hard disk for ages – please read and comment…
o o o
Felis Domestica – part 1It was a dry, dusty night and Fox Mulder had trouble sleeping, just as he often did. His friend and colleague, Dana Scully, was down in Frisco on a boring assignment and could not be expected home before late night or early morning. Mulder was not busy doing anything, so he decided to go for a walk downtown. A bit of fresh air had worked miracles before.
His lonesome steps led him to parts of the town, where he had rarely been before, and never in the role of a civilian going for a walk. It was the kind of place, where an outcast lowlife would feel, well, at home.
It came as somewhat of a surprise, as Mulder saw a sign down a dirty alley, flashing in pale orange: "The Sewer - Bar". The scenery was so obviously film-noir, that he could not resist an urge to go and check it out.
Inside was a small room, barely more than a large living room, just enough to display some five tables and a rough desk with a lone figure standing in front of it. Mulder went to the desk, where he was met by the neutral stare of an old man, - the barkeep.
"Good evening," Mulder said with his professional kind smile. "Nice place."
"What?"
Something about the voice and tone of the barkeep told Mulder, that he did not ask what he had said, he asked what he wanted.
"What can you recommend?" Mulder asked.
The barkeeper did not answer this. In stead, he took out an unlabeled flask and poured something into a cup, which he shoved towards Mulder.
"Drink o'the House, two dollars!"
Mulder paid and took the cup. It did not smell bad, but it did look like sewage all right. As he carefully sipped it, it turned out to have a nice, warm herbal taste.
The agent looked up to give his appreciation to the barkeep, but he had turned around, obviously not wanting to talk any more to the guest. In stead, Mulder took a look at the other guests.
Not that there were many of them. Seven or eight people lurked over two of the tables. Another was leaning over a third table, sleeping quietly. And at the other end of the desk, a woman was standing; her side turned towards Mulder and her face seeming very distant as she slowly stirred in a glass with a clear liquid.
Fox Mulder couldn't help but notice the lady at the bar. Unlike others here, she had class.
She also had a tail!
A dark, furry thing hanging discretely under her garments, having the same patterns and colours as the one of a common housecat, only this one was larger. And just before Mulder decided that it was a fake, the tip of the 80-or-so-centimetre tail twitched slightly in a lazy, gentle and very real movement.
Mulder took another sip of his Drink o'the House while trying to decide how to approach this woman. Either she was a fake, but a real good one, or this was rapidly becoming an interesting night out! In either case, things were improving.
Before he could decide what to do or say, the woman suddenly turned towards him, staring at him without blinking with her huge, catlike eyes in an Asian face of great beauty. Mulder could not decide if she also had thin, transparent whiskers as they would disappear towards her golden skin, but at least he could now see, that her hair also had the tabby pattern of a cat. It was long and worn in a knot behind her head, the hairs of her styling partly covering the tips of her ears. He could not help but think, that the hair could be covering something more, well, catlike about the ears.
"Looking for something?" she asked in a soft voice, speaking with a heavy British accent and something more, which Mulder could not place. "I just sensed your stare!"
Mulder did not know quite what to say. He smiled at her, a more genuine smile, as he desperately tried to find a good entry statement. 'I saw your tail' was not a good entry statement.
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" she asked with a teasing and uncanny white smile, revealing canines at almost inhuman length. "By the way, you do not look like the regular clientele down here. Where are you from?"
"I live here," Mulder answered, fighting his desire to stare. To investigate. "Well, that is, I live here in DC, I don't usually come here."
"You don't say," she said with her teasing smile. "But well, nor do I. I... am not from DC"
She sure was mysterious; Mulder had to give her that. But then again, he could already hear Scully's voice, telling him how stupid he was to accept the first dressed up schizophrenic he saw as an alien.
"Wherever you are from, at least you do not look hostile," she smiled. "But you look either bored or lonesome. I am both, so how about this, you buy me a drink, and perhaps we can talk for a while."
Mulder turned to the barkeep, ordering a drink "for the lady" and was surprised to learn that she only wanted a huge glass of water with ice.
"My name is Mulder. Fox Mulder," he introduced himself. "And you?"
"You can call me Kim," she answered. "It's short for my first name, Kimoto. Can I call you Fox? Or do you have something short for that?"
"No, but everybody calls me Mulder. I guess, I like it that way," the agent answered with an excusing smile. "Fox is so... well..."
"Canine," she suggested.
"Hadn't thought of that," he admitted, taken a bit aback by the unexpected turn of the conversation.
"Now we are supposed to tell each other what kind of jobs we have and why we are in a dump like this when we have such nice careers," Kim said, slowly stirring the ice in her glass. "So, what do you do for a living, Mulder?"
"I work with the government," he said, not liking to admit that it was the Bureau, as he somehow was of the impression that it could harm the intimacy evolving between them.
"What part of the government?" Kim asked. "And what government?"
"What government? Ours, naturally. What do you mean?"
"Oh, I don't know, there are so many things to... sorry, I guess I am not making much sense," she said, looking straight at her glass. "It's the late night and I've had some busy days. I was just kidding."
Fox Mulder looked at her oriental face and her eyes. She was hiding something. But then again, so was he.
"So, what part of our government?"
"FBI," he answered. Admitted.
"FBI?" she repeated, looking slightly bothered by this. The tail, or whatever it was, seemed more lashing. Like the one of a cat hunting. Or a cat cornered. "Are you an agent?"
"Yep."
"Are you working now? Here?"
"No, I just couldn't sleep," Mulder explained. "I went for a walk to relax, that's all."
"I see."
At least she seemed to believe him now. He could see that she started to relax again as she took another sip of water. He also relaxed somewhat, but still maintained some alertness. He had a gut feeling about her; whatever she was, she was genuine.
"So, what do you do?" he inquired.
"Walk around in the night, searching, dropping into sleazy dumps for a drop of water," she answered. "I guess I am a tourist of this nation. Of the U.S."
"Where are you from, if I may ask?"
"Ah, you wouldn't know that place," she avoided him. "Asia, and a small and very insignificant bit of it too."
"Try me."
In stead of answering him, she turned her face towards him, meeting his eyes without blinking. He could now see clearly, that her pupils were shaped like almonds, like those of a cat. And her iris had a deep, emerald hue, besides it being bigger than usual.
"You look trustworthy, agent Fox Mulder," she said without taking her eyes from him for a second. "And I feel like telling somebody. Perhaps if I told someone about it, you could help me somewhat."
"Are you in some kind of trouble?" he asked, fighting his urge to consider this a case.
"Some kind, yes, you can say that," she answered. "A lot, actually. I am kind of lost here."
"Lost? In what way?"
"Like lost, like cannot find my way home," she sighed. "Can we go to one of the tables? I would prefer the bit of privacy that gives us."
"Sure."
She led the way towards the table farthest away from the other guests. Not that anyone noticed anything; they were busy, talking in low voices amongst themselves or playing card games over small amounts, fortunes for the likes of them.
Mulder noticed the obviously real movements as she lifted the tail a bit, using "tail muscles", not her hands, thus avoiding sitting on it. She noticed his stare, but she did not say anything. In stead, she looked at him again, as if considering something.
"You're an agent?" she inquired again. "Would an agent of the FBI be expected to hand in unusual suspects or illegal aliens if encountering them on a sleazy bar?"
"Relax, Kim," he said in a tired smile, as always minding the hostilities sometimes provoked by his badge. "I am not working now."
"Okay, sorry, I am just a bit tense."
"Yes, you are," he agreed, leaning forwards, meeting her catlike eyes. "What is the problem?"
"All right," the feline woman said in a crispy dry voice. She took a healthy sip of water and looked Mulder straight in his eyes. "It may seem a bit weird," she continued. "But I will, as they say, tell you the story of my life. The abridged version, that is. Then you can decide for yourself!"
"Sounds okay with me," Mulder said, gesturing with the palm of his one hand towards her, deliberately signalling peace and relaxation. "I'm listening."
"Okay, well, my name is Kimoto Takita and I am the eldest daughter of Inin Takita of Honshu II." Kim looked at Mulder, as if expecting a reaction. When not getting it, she continued: "And Inin Takita is the Emperor of Honshu II, master of the warriors and eternal protector of his people. A true samurai."
"Samurai?" Mulder said, trying to think about Asia and Japan. He had heard of samurais, such places as the big screen or television series, but the only form in which this old warrior form still existed, was on museums. "Continue," he demanded, regarding her carefully.
"I know what you are thinking," she said in a tense voice. "But I ask you, please hear my story out before you either arrest me or have me admitted to a hospital. Deal?"
"Deal," Mulder smiled. "I'll hear you out, but then you also listen to my questions afterwards if I have any. Okay?"
"Okay, I'll listen. Promise."
"So, Honshu II?" Mulder inquired. "Honshu, isn't that one of the Japanese islands?"
"It is, but Honshu II is not," Kim answered. "Honshu II is a planet, situated very, very far from here."
If Mulder started to doubt her, his face did not reveal anything. His instincts and experience told him, that she believed to be telling the truth. Personally, he was no longer to sure.
"As for my nature," she said after another drink. "I was born from one of my fathers concubines. I know it sounds crazy, even disgusting to the human ear, but she was sheerar, a human but also feline race from the planet Zhirr. She looked a bit like me, but with the facial traits of, say, a large mountain lion, only a higher forehead, hiding a more intelligent sized brain," Kim explained in the slightly hectic voice of a person, not wanting to be interrupted. "My father was intrigued by her, and made her his concubine. Naturally, the Emperor could never marry a non-human creature, even as close as she seemed. What nobody had expected was that it created offspring. Me. I am basically a freak of both nature and my father's sick desires. Hence my feline traits in a fairly human appearance."
Mulder looked observantly at her. Perhaps her feline appearance had forced her into delusions about her lineage; he was no longer in any doubt that she was more feline in physical appearance than other people were.
"Unfortunately, I was the first born. Also unfortunately, I was female. Even more unfortunately, I am a female without the ability to breed offspring. That is the sad outcome of the mating between the sheerar and the pure humans." Kim took an angry sip from the glass and continued: "Being female, I cannot inherit the throne. Being unable to give birth, I can also not be the heir. So, my father had me trained in the ways of the warrior and decided that I should be part of his political schemes and was to marry someone important who did not need offspring. I now have a brother, Arturo Takita, prince to the throne, who will follow my father when he dies. A fine, healthy 100 human specimen, who has promised that if he becomes Emperor before I marry, I will not have to marry anybody."
"You do not wish to marry?" Mulder asked, wishing that Scully had been here to see her, as there was no doubt, that she was an interesting biological case. Perhaps an interesting mental case too.
"No, would you want to marry someone for purely political reasons? But my father decided, as a gesture," Kim sighed again. "-To marry me to count Matsudaira, an old but skilled man of Honshu II. He has children, but he appreciates the company of young women. You see, on Honshu, important men can have several wives. Well, that was when I decided that enough was enough and left the planet. Unfortunately for my father, he has had me trained to have a will of my own. That is almost nine months ago for me. I have become a fugitive of my own world!"
"But how did you come here?" Mulder asked, expecting the typical story of bright lights and unknown aliens, this time in a hitch-a-hike version.
"Do you believe in magic?" Kim asked, again piercing him with her emerald eyes. "You see, I do. I didn't a year back, but that was before I crashed on an unknown planet."
Mulder only just avoided saying something like 'another planet?'
"It would take to much time to explain about this other planet. What you need to know, is that magic exists there. Not only as pesky shows and stunts, but real, hard-core magic. Magic allowing the wielder to perform great, unnatural tasks. Tasks such as sending me far away from his planet. Far away, both in time and space. So now, I do not know how to get home. I also do not know if I want to go home. Anyway, home is some 2700 years into the future, and I am not very keen on that place."
She definitely was a mental case, Mulder decided. But a technically interesting one. It would prove an interesting task to persuade her to follow to a suitable clinic. If he could not persuade her, then what? Mulder did not know if she was in any danger to herself or others, and if she was not, admitting her by force was not the way to handle it. He needed to gain even more of her confidence.
o o o
To be continued...