"Dog's Have Owners, Cats Have Staff"- Anonymous
Chloe heard a scream of terror as she leapt into the moonlit alley from the top of the building she had been walking on. Her target, as of yet she had not ascertained who exactly he was, walking on the sidewalk adjacent had just dropped his backpack, spilling its contents onto the damp city streets. She had been tailing him for a few blocks now after spotting him walking away from her house - she had seen him outside her house three nights in a row now, trying to get a look into her windows from the street -, but this slip-up of his gave her a chance to hold still and make a different strategy for finding out who he was and what he was up to.
A woman - the screamer - who looked about 20 or so, was now cowering behind a car which sat idly in the alley. She was watching Chloe with wide eyes, as if her jumping off of buildings meant with certainty that she was a maniac. Her piercing gray eyes sent tingles up Chloe's back, a strange reaction for Chloe- she almost felt... intimidated by this woman. Odd. Most humans didn't affect her this way, now that she had transformed.
The man she was following could wait one more second.
Chloe turned to regard the brunette fully, and said, "It's dangerous for a woman to be out alone at night. You never know what kind of freaks roam the streets." She flicked her claws out, and held them up to the woman with a smirk of victory, who flinched in fear, and then straightened up and glared at her. Whoa. Chloe hadn't expected that kind of reaction.
"What, you're more afraid of leaping off of buildings than of mutant cat claws?" she taunted. The girl's face darkened further, and she growled suddenly, her white teeth bared. Chloe stiffened, and the hair on the back of her neck stood up. The woman growled louder, and put her hands on the hood of her car. "Maybe you should heed your own warning, kitty cat. Walking the streets alone is sure to run you into a few freaks." She growled again, but her teeth looked... sharper. Were there more of them? It looked like she had suddenly grown canine teeth in her mouth. Chloe stepped backwards, and flicked the claws on her other hand out, feeling abnormally apprehensive.
The woman's growling sounded like... like... a dog.*
The woman leapt over her car suddenly with a grunt, and Chloe flailed, turning frantically to flee. She ran into the street, catching the maybe-henchman's attention, who watched them, startled and confused, luckily not realizing who Chloe was. Maybe he really wasn't a henchman, if he didn't even recognize Chloe.
But this wasn't really the time to be considering this, Chloe thought, as the woman swiped a hand at her back, nearly missing grabbing a fistful of Chloe's shirt. Chloe leapt onto a parked car, and scrambled to the top of a light post. The woman let out a frustrated grunt as she tried to follow, unable to jump as high. She yelled at Chloe from below, taunting her ("Kitty stuck in a tree?") and cursing at her. Chloe only hoped she would get tired of jumping before Chloe herself got tired balancing on the post. Where was Alek? Wasn't he always watching her?
This woman could be some other type of half-god, mixed with canines. It was a bit of a wild guess, but then again, Chloe's own kind had seemed a bit wild at first, too. She supposed that it was only natural that dog-gods existed. Everything had to be balanced somehow. The Mai had... enemies? Was this girl an enemy, or merely an opposing force, born with the same type of powers that the Mai were?
The dog continued shouting at Chloe from below her, and Chloe hissed at her, eliciting more feral growling from the woman.
Jasmine and Alek had some explaining to do when Chloe got out of this one.
*NOTE: I WROTE THIS BEFORE JACKALS WERE INTRODUCED. I just really wanted to post it, even though it doesn't line up with the show. :)
I got this little blurb in my head before the show even aired, while I was watching the preview where Chloe flicks out her claws at Amy, and she screams and ducks behind (or in, I guess) her car. It just kind of popped into my head that if she's a cat-god, she would be afraid of dog-gods! I made them a bit more animalistic than they really are, but I think it's funnier that way.
Anyway, this story has been bouncing in my head since then, and I just had to get it out.
Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it, and if there are any mistakes, let me know and I'll fix them tomorrow! Or whenever.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the 'Nine Lives' series, nor do I profit from using its characters.