NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE MINE. They're too awesome. :D This is my first fanfic, so it probably isn't great, but yeah. There weren't enough Felidae fanfics. :) Please review! Sorry for the short first chapter.
The darkness enveloped his green eyes as Francis watched as yet another member of the sea of feline faces broke rank and jumped into the massive bolt of electricity so lovingly powered by Father Joker's paw as his voice rang Cloudandus' name in Francis' perked ears. He watches in horror, his pupils dilating and relaxing as the bright blue bolt struck another body. His paw slipped forward and a piece of rotten faded green wood fell atop Joker's dark black nose. He stopped mid-sentence and changed his inflection, "Trespasser! In the attic!" The prophet cat commanded and the ocean of eyes diverted themselves from the prophet and set their sights above at the attic.. Francis was far gone before he heard the scrambles of paws on the door of the attic.
He found himself in an abandoned room full of surgical equipment. "... Enough to equip a third-world hospital..." He thought to himself. He sniffed around as the banging and scratching of claws on the trapdoor began to climax. A moment later, the door was flung open and alley cats streamed in, charging Francis. Francis looked around frantically, spying an open hole bleeding in moonlight. The echoes of claws raced closer and Francis leaped for the opening, barely making it. He squeezed through, getting a startling scratch on his tail from a quick enemy, but nonetheless worse for wear. He slid down the shingled roof and raced along the gutter. He jumped over the houses with the other cats close behind. He finally was able to beat them for a ways and took shelter behind a chimney, trying to control his erratic panting. The cats neared and he backed up. Suddenly, he felt himself falling and hitting a carpeted floor.
He sniffed around and saw before him a blue shecat. "Youre new in the neighborhood, aren't you?" The voice cooed.
"Yes," he stammered, "that's name's Francis."
"Friend or foe?" The female asked Francis as she stared out the window.
"Friend," he answered, "a friend forever." He walked a little closer.
She looked blindly out the window. "A friend who fell suddenly out of the sky."
"Well, not exactly. Only through the skylight, not the sky. I was escaping from lunatics from the Cloudandus Sect. They objected to me watching their ceremony." Francis explained to her.
"That sounds typical of them. Has it gotten light outside yet?" she questioned as she looked out her window as she perched on the ledge.
"Yes, but surely you can see that for your-" Francis cut himself off and jumped up beside her. "Oh, you're blind."
"I'm not blind." She quickly snapped back in a sweet voice like a grandma trying to tell her grandchildren not to do something.
"Then... What..." Francis stuttered.
"I just can't see." She said with an air of philosophical deepness and jumped down to sit next to the quietly crackling fireplace.
"Do you ever go out?" Francis asked.
"No," she answered. Francis pounced down and sat beside her, listening.
"Though not a day of my life goes by, not one day, that I haven't wished to see this world, evil and cruel though it is." She continued, a sense of longing in her soft voice.
"I- I'm sorry." Francis muttered quietly to her.
"Why? There are much worse things, Francis. We can get used to anything," she commented, "except having to live in a dog kennel possibly." Francis and the cat laughed together, the fire silhouetting them in the dark room.
"But listen. Have you always... Uhh, I mean..." Francis hesitated at the words.
"Being blind?" she finished for him. "Yes, from birth. But, you know what? I see pictures. Pictures in my mind." she told him, looking off into her blind distance.
"What kind of pictures?" Francis asked.
"I see these people grouped around me. And they're so big, tall, and somehow... bright. One of them bends over me. He smiles then he has something that glistens in his hand. Then terrible pain." The fire crackles at her words but she continues. "And I fall asleep." She sniffles, then walks away back to her earlier perch on the window sill.
"I don't think you were blind from birth." Francis said as he followed her. "I'd say that some human has done something terrible to you."
"But that can't be." She told him rather forcefully, "The human race is the kindest there is. Who else would give a useless thing like me a home?" She looked at him as she said the last words and Francis shifted slightly under her gaze.
"Can I change the subject and ask you a question... Uhh..."
"Felicity," she answered. She turned around on her perch to face him.
"Have you ever heard anything you would describe as "unusual" in the last few weeks?" Francis asked.
Felicity was silent for a moment. "Only the death cries." She told him.
"This means you're the first witness I've found to the killings!" Francis said excitedly. He jumped up beside her.
"I don't see why you're so interested in this." she commented quizzically.
"Felicity, we're talking about murder!" He explained.
"Murder? Oh, I'm sure you're wrong." she said with confidence. "I think it's more likely that it's sex that's just gone to far."
"And why do you think that?" Francis asked.
"The death cries- always uttered by tomcats. I could tell by their growls they were... excited." Francis sat down beside her and perked his ears to her.
"Somebody they knew is suddenly there. And although they're excited, they don't attack him." she finished.
"And did this someone speak to our excited expectant brothers?" Francis questioned her.
"Yes. I'm sorry I could hear what he was saying to them. But his tone of voice... There was a sense of urgency in his tone. A persuasive conviction. He was trying to tell them something of great importance." She explained to Francis.
"What though?..." Francis wondered. "So, uh, what then?" he asked.
"And then- then I'd hear those awful cries." She finished.
"You know anything about the Cloudandus Sect?" Asked Francis.
"Not much. Only that they pray to a dead martyr called Cloudandus, a brother who lived around here many years ago and was tortured by men all his life- tormented horribly." She told him.
"How do you know that?" Francis asked.
The skylight opened and Bluebeard popped his fat head in. He was a mangled and scruffy brown cat, stout and had both a black eye and a disfigured paw, but he walked with a sense of dignity.
"Why did you run off?" Bluebeard asked Francis with a tinge of rudeness, as was Bluebeard's way. "The brothers just wanted to talk," he explained.
"I'll bet they did with three hundred volts loosening my tongue, right?" Francis said, anger bubbling in his voice.
Francis turned back to Felicity. "Would you like to accompany us?"
She was silent for a second before softly answering, "Why yes, Francis. I would like that. " She followed him, albeit with a few falls, up the boxes and out into the land of day.