Here's chapter 1! Enjoy and please review.
Lovest Always, Lady Merridell
Chapter 1
Kohaku
Haru jerked awake and looked at the clock: 6 a.m.
She sighed miserably and reluctantly got out of bed. No chance of sleep now. She felt wide awake.
It was summer break, thank goodness. She wasn't sure if she could stand another day at school.
She pulled on some capris, a nice yellow shirt that reminded her of the dress she had been forced to wear at the Cat Kingdom. She pulled on her sneakers and tied her hair in a simple ponytail. Haru tiptoed down the stairs and looked outside.
"Kohaku! Kohaku! Here, kitty," she called. A black cat with a white paw slithered out from the bushes. He stretched and padded over to Haru.
"Good to see you. I wish you could talk, Kohaku," Haru sighed. The cat looked at her sympathetically.
"I just wish I knew why you went mute." Haru picked up the young cat and cuddled him, listening to the tom purr.
"You must be in a good mood, today. You never purr!"
The cat's green eyes looked at her as if to say, that's not true. Haru rolled her eyes.
"You're just grumpy cause you're hungry. Come on, I'll get your breakfast." She carried the tom inside and filled his dish with cat food and topped it with a bit of tuna. Kohaku always loved the tuna she left on his food to give it more flavor.
Haru fixed some miso soup and rice with grilled salmon. She let Kohaku have a tiny bit of the salmon.
"Don't want you to get too fat like someone I know," Haru whispered with a giggle. Her thoughts strayed to the fat cream tom with the one brown ear resting on his usual spot at Crossroads. She sat back and thought of the Refuge and the stone post in the middle that served as a perch for the stone crow Creation, Toto. When someone puts their heart and soul into an object of their making then it is granted a soul.
Then there was the little green and white house among the ring of houses around the little cul de sac. In the quaint little Victorian style house lived the Baron.
Baron...
Haru was jolted out of her thoughts when a loud, painful screech issued from below. She looked down to see something black retreat under the couch, hissing in anger. Her hand had slackened and tea poured onto the tail of the unsuspecting Kohaku.
She half expected her mother to come running down the stairs until she remembered she was at another quilting convention. Haru sighed.
"Oh, Kohaku, I'm so sorry! Here, come here," she coaxed, hoping the neighbors wouldn't come knocking. Thankfully, no one did.
Haru reached under the couch and pulled out a protesting Kohaku.
"Come on, Kohaku, if you want it to stop hurting you have to cooperate," Haru scolded. She looked over at the sink reluctantly. Tea burns were supposed to be run under water for fifteen minutes, but she doubted Kohaku would allow his tail to run under cold water for even five seconds. She might as well ask Kohaku to sprout wings and fly as well. She sighed.
Regardless of the consequences, she sat him near the sink, keeping a close hold on him, held his tail under the faucet, and started to turn on the water.
The response was quick and painful. Kohaku yowled in surprise and instinctively clawed Haru until she let go and the cat, once again, retreated under the couch before she could start the water.
Haru whimpered in pain and got out the first aid kit, cleaned her scratches, and put on bandaids. She remembered her nightmare suddenly and shuddered. The monstrous cat's red eyes still haunted her and she saw them every time she closed her eyes. Kohaku's claws felt disturbingly like the creatures, but smaller.
These awful nightmares had continued to haunt her at night for two weeks now. They had started at least three months after her adventure at the Cat Kingdom and almost never changed.
It was always a shadowy, misty nowhere land with a large black, catlike creature with one white paw, a white-tipped tail, and glowing red eyes.
It would circle her and strike at her, hissing and spitting, torturing her with its nightmarish gaze and striking when she least expected it. Every morning she woke up with only the stinging memory of the wounds the creature gave her. Sometimes she even found a cut on her arm or back. Of course it could have just been an accident since she usually tossed and turned during nightmares.
What was worse was it reminded her of a Dr. Hyde version of Kohaku, but with red eyes and a white-tipped tail. She shook her head. Maybe her subconscious had linked Kohaku with a furry evil panther.
Haru cleaned up the rest of the spilled tea and put away her dishes.
"Oh! That reminds me!" she cried, laughing. How could she forget?
"Come on, Kohaku! Baron and the others don't even know I have a cat. You'll like Baron, Toto, and Muta."
Haru ran for the door and waited for Kohaku.
"You'll get fed," she added. She heard Kohaku sigh, the one sound he seemed to be able to make, and crawled out from under the couch. He padded over to Haru, tail held high. She giggled at his pride and locked the door. The two walked in companionable silence towards Crossroads. Towards Baron, Haru thought.
