Author's Notes:
Seeing as to how I was very EVIL last time and forgot to put these cough-was-too-lazy-cough on here, I would like to make it known that this story was actually once up on but account-related complications and other stuff made me take all my work down. I'm reposting this and trying to write more of it.
Chapter One: It Begins!
It all started on a nice morning. In fact it was the seventeenth of June. Even MORE in fact, it was six o' one AM on a Tuesday. That was the time when Chase decided to wake up. He always got to pick what time he wanted to wake up. Nobody could make him do anything he didn't want to do of course, much less get up at some ungodly hour like six o'clock. Sure, he slept only until six o' one, but six was much too early to consider. To think, wasting sixty seconds of good sleep!
And so Chase got dressed and ate some very nice pancakes for breakfast. Then he drank his daily cup of coffee and decided to go do something evil, or at least beat a few of the cat guards in a fight, he liked to do that too. He decided to go ask Wuya which he should do because he was bored and in a good mood. That, with Chase Young, is rare and a reason to be afraid. Be very, very afraid.
"Wuya?" Chase asked, knocking on her door. There was a loud crash and some scattered curses and the Heylin witch appeared in the doorway, wearing a bath robe. Her red hair was sopping wet and she glared at him frustratedly, green eyes narrowed. Wuya did not like her morning shower being interrupted.
"What?" she snapped. Chase shrugged. He'd already forgotten what he wanted to ask her anyway. Why was he so loopy this morning? Chase shook his head a little, hoping to clear it, but alas he couldn't remember. Funny, Chase could usually remember things...
"Sorry, I forgot what I wanted to ask you." Wuya gave him a peevish look and slammed the door shut again. Then Chase remembered. He'd wanted to ask Wuya what she thought he should do today. Again he knocked on the door.
"What do you want?" Wuya growled again, flinging the door open for the second time. Chase thought about that for a moment.
"I wanted to ask you something, but I keep forgetting what it was." Wuya was about to slam the door in his face again when Chase smiled suddenly.
"I just remembered! I wanted to ask you what I should do today," he said. Wuya's eye twitched.
"Why?" she growled.
"I'm bored," replied Chase flatly. Wuya groaned.
"Go stand on your head or something, just leave me alone!"
SLAM! The door was shut again and Chase was still bored. Nothing had been accomplished here. Two of Chase's most trusted spy/escourts (a tiger and panther) exchanged uneasy looks behind his back. Something was up with their master today.
As you and I both know, Chase had never read that super-super-super fine print on the potion bottle. Also, as you must have correctly guessed by now, this was going to be one of those times when the hyperactivity was randomly triggered by caffeine. And so, the day was promising to be a very strange one.
Chase Young was bored as I have told you, and so he decided to go stand on his head like Wuya suggested until he could think of something more evil to do. He'd just ransacked the five nearest villages yesterday and set the sixth on fire and was feeling a bit too lazy to go flood the seventh right now. Yes, he'd do that tomorrow. Tomorrow was terribly handy for things Chase was putting off, always twenty four hours away.
And so, musing about how clever he was by putting things off until tomorrow, Chase headed down to the citadel garden and marched out into the center of it, then stood on his head for a while. He hadn't stood on his head in a long time, and the blood rushing to his head made him giddy. When he got up, he was a little loopier than he had been before, but now he had to think of something evil to do. So our hero/villain sat down on one of the fine marble stools in the garden to ponder is options.
Meanwhile, a small conference was being held between two of the cat guards. General Half-Fang, a panther whom had once been a fierce warrior cheiftain from the jungles of South America, was sitting on a stone dais in the center of his personal chamber. He was listening to Pale-Scar, a lion and (in the general's oppinion) pathetic waste of fur. Half-Fang didn't have much patience for underlings who thought they knew everything. This particular lion didn't have a full mane, for he had been rather young when Master Chase defeated him in battle. His name came from the savage rip that hadn't healed properly across his shoulders and the white-scarred skin had never regrown fur. He was not much to look at.
Pale-Scar liked Half-Fang as much as Half-Fang liked Pale-Scar. To tell the truth, the older cat frightened the lion a little, his ragged fur striped and his face criss crossed with ancient wounds. Even part of his nose was missing, but Half-Fang was best known for his famously broken left canine.
"Why do you need to bother me, kitling?" growled Half-Fang. His voice was low and slightly rasping, enough to give most people the shivers. Pale-Scar looked resolutely at his own paws. He had been looking at the panther general's, but the sight of his superior's vicious claws was not comforting. He really wished Raven-Claw, the panther escourt mentioned before, could tell Half-Fang this herself.
"General Half-Fang, Lord, Sir, Raven-Claw said to tell you that Master Chase is acting very strangely today-"
"Is it our place to decide what behaviour of our Master is strange?" Half-Fang cut Pale-Scar off sharply.
"N-No, General Half-Fang Sir, but she says she fears for his mental health-"
"Say no more, kitling. I will go and see for myself. Tell Raven-Claw she'd better be right or she can consider herself slashed open five ways," said Half-Fang, rising from the stone dais and making his way for the door. Pale-Scar flinched when the general's back was turned at the harsh punishment he would give Raven-Claw. He really hoped she was right about this, it was Half-Fang himself who had coined the term "slashed" to mean "punished". The young lion quickly left the room and decided to go for a walk to calm himself down. He really wished he was a spy, like Raven-Claw or that tiger Shadow-Theif and could turn into a crow. Getting away would have been nice right now.
As Pale-Scar went off to find a nice place to hide from Half-Fang for the rest of the week, Chase Young had thought of something suitably evil to do. First, he was going to go steal a little kid's puppy. Then he was going to kick it. Repeatedly. It was a glorious plan! But first he would have to bring his two favorite hunting partners.
"Shadow-Theif, fetch Dead-Foot and Blood-Tooth, we're going into town," he smiled sinisterly to the tiger on his right. Shadow-Theif lowered his head in acknowledgement and became a crow, then took flight to find the two hunters. It wasn't an unusual request.
While waiting for Shadow-Theif to find them, Chase realised he should leave a note or something to Wuya. He walked around for a while but found no paper. He sighed, he'd have to go find Wuya before he could put his evil plan to work.
