Chapter 1 of Angel-puss

T-Chan, the totetsu, stared at D's back, an unsettled frown marring his features. He was reclining on a large, velvet and jeweled couch, surrounded by a number of strange human-like creatures; some sported long feathered tails and wings, others bore furred ears and sharp fangs, and still others had scales, claws, fins, and---

Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, T-Chan was annoyed. And an annoyed totetsu was not a key to a happy home. Petshop. Ship. Whatever.

Ah yes. Back to the object of our favorite totetsu's frustration. Count D. This was their 5th move since their hasty retreat from LA, and D still haven't gotten over that bone-headed human. It was undetectable by nearly all of the pets in the shop, except for those who always hung out with the count in the front of the shop. (And maybe HonLon; After all, one of her heads was the manifestation of the count's personality!) So, as one of D's constant companions, T-Chan made it his personal duty to make D as happy as possible. He made oukatou whenever the count left the shop, and the count would die in bliss at the mere smell of it cooking when he came back. This would keep him happy for awhile… before he remembered he had no one to share it with but the animals. T-Chan knew that he would gladly do that, but he also knew it wasn't the same to the relatively young count, the totetsu knew.

T-Chan's frown deepened as Q-Chan(1) fluttered over to D and sat on his shoulder, chittering worriedly in his ear. D absently raised a hand from the ship's wheel and patted the rabbat gently on the head, not noticing as the two sharp horns between the long ears pierced his pale skin.

Squeaking in indignance as a drop of dark red blood hit her between the ears, Q-Chan flew off of D's shoulder and headed to T-Chan, chittering her worries to him, imploring him to get D's attention. T-Chan nodded, and walked up behind the count. He was ready to confront the count on what he knew was the problem when he smelled something. Turning to face the rest of the ship, he raised his nose and sniffed the air. There it was. A sharp, new smell raised in the air. Looked like there was a new arrival coming to the shop. The totetsu glanced back at Count D, debating with himself, then finally said, "There's a new arrival, Count."

D turned his upper body to see T-Chan, keeping one hand on the ship's wheel. His smile was his usual smirk, but his eyes were unfocused and sad, contradicting the rest of his features. "That's very good news. Would you go welcome them, and tell them I am here when they are ready to meet me?"

"Sure thing Count," the totetsu replied, frowning even more at the absent look on the shopkeeper's face. Before LA, D would have gone to meet the new arrival right away, but now, he preferred to stay at the wheel, even though no steering was necessary on this boat. However, T-Chan still turned and began to follow the newcomer's scent. It was oddly familiar, but at the same time, unlike anything he knew.

(time jump)

He reached the back of the boat, growling in annoyance. The new arrival hadn't been spotted anywhere yet, and his patience was nearly at its end. Luckily, the scent's strength here told him that the newbie wasn't too far behind the ship.

Placing a hand over his eyes to keep the surprisingly bright moonlight out of them, he scanned the horizon. A sudden movement caught his eye. He locked onto it as the object flew closer. When he could finally discern its features, his jaw dropped. "Well, I'll be damned…"

The new arrival finally reached the ship, dropping onto the deck and sprawling in an exhausted fashion. T-Chan checked his face. The idiot had passed out, apparently, and there was no mistaking that face. T-Chan grinned.

"Maybe all that the Count needed was a new pet…"

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Leon Orcot closed his eyes for what he thought was the last time… then surprised himself as they blinked open again. He squinted against the bright… moonlight? 'What the heck! Wasn't it just raining?' he thought to himself. Sitting up, Leon found himself lying on something big and fluffy. He looked around in surprise. Clouds? And the moon? He looked around again and shrugged. Falling back onto his back, resting his hands behind his head, he chuckled.

"Well, if this is heaven, this ain't so bad!" he said aloud to himself. Then he stopped and furrowed his brow. "Whoa, dejavu!" And his conclusion wasn't far off when he thought of the circumstances.

"Hey… this is almost exactly how I saw D's magic boat that first time!" Realization kicked in, and Leon shot back up into a sitting position. He looked around with wide eyes, not even daring to hope that-

There it was. The ship he had searched so long for, sailing across the clouds, bathed in moonlight. He looked at it, bug-eyed, afraid to blink or it would disappear. When it didn't he began to run towards it. His feet felt the soft cottony but silky clouds beneath him as he padded towards the boat. To his surprise, so did his hands.

Stopping and checking himself, he realized he had been walking on all fours. And what was even stranger was, it worked. There was no clumsy, rear-in-the-air shuffle to it; instead, it was a strong, steady gait.

Leon shrugged it off; it was probably some weird thing that happened when he reached D's little "world," and he'd ask when he reached the ship.

And speaking of the ship… It was sailing away!

Leon leapt back into running, going as fast as he could to catch up to the ship, but it was going faster than he.

Wait…

Leon could go faster. He felt the wind flicker over feathers and muscle on his back that he didn't remember having before, and angling these new bodily additions, took off from the clouds, flapping furiously. He ignored the oddness of it all; the wings sprouting from his back, the long, tufted tail, sprouting from the base of his spine, the pair of furred ears peeking out of his hair. After all, he was dealing with Count D here. He would have all the answers.

As he neared the ship, he saw someone on deck staring at him. Leon frowned, sweating from the new exertion of flying. D said that humans weren't allowed on the ship… hadn't gained passage yet. So what was this, this stranger doing? Then he realized, that person, he wasn't human. After all, humans did not have fangs and claws and big, curly goat horns and-

Awww SHIT! Leon groaned to himself. It's that damn goat-tiger. How he knew, he couldn't tell. Luckily, T-Chan didn't seem annoyed or angry. In fact, he had a huge, idiotic fanged grin pasted on his face.

Finally, Leon found himself collapsing on the deck, limbs splayed everywhere and his wings lying at awkward angles. He closed his eyes, breathing heavily. Even if D tried to push him off again, Leon would just fly back. D can't get rid of him now. Leon intended to find out everything, 'cause-

"Maybe all the Count needed was a new pet…" a voice rang into his thoughts. He opened his eyes and stood up unsteadily on two legs. T-Chan leapt backwards, surprised. He thought Leon was asleep. Leon grinned at the wild-looking boy.

"Hey goat-tiger." He panted as he caught his breath. "Miss me?"

"Nah, not really." But the goat-tiger still had that idiotic grin glued to his face.

Leon looked around. "Wait- where's D?"

T-Chan shrugged. "Up at the front of the ship, steering." He looked Leon over with a critical eye. "But before you see him, you should definitely get some rest. You look like shit.

"But-!" Leon tried to protest, but the goat-tiger had already turned around and called out to someone.

"Hey! Totem! C'mere for a second!"

Leon looked, and from the nearest cabin emerged a tall, handsome Indian man. He wore a deerskin robe that ran from his waist to his ankles. (To Leon it looked like a dress, but since he remembered his run-ins with D's china cups, he kept his mouth shut.) His arms ended in slightly pointed stubs instead of hands, and his forearms curved like clay that had been rolled for too long. His feet only had four toes each with long sharp nails on each; three in the front and one in the back. His nose seemed too big for his face, and it curved out like a beak. However, it was his skin that really caught the eye. Nearly every inch of visible skin had a tattoo on it. All over his chest, back, arms, shaved head, and even his face had some little piece of color on it.

Totem gave a grin as Leon tried to stop gaping. "Yeah, I get that a lot." He slung one curved arm around Leon's shoulders. "Welcome to Count D's petshop, my friend!" His accent was… Well, Leon decided to be ruthlessly blunt. His accent was weird! It sounded Canadian and Caribbean and Southern and Indian all at once!

While Leon tried to figure out how this was possible, T-Chan did some talking with Totem.

"Yeah, so could you just, ya know, show him around? Find a nice room he'll fit well in? I'll go tell D the new arrival's here. Oh, and make sure he gets some sleep," the totetsu added with a glance at Leon, "'cause he looks awful."

Totem laughed and began to half drag half carry Leon towards the cabins. "I'm sure the petshop has already made accommodations for the new one!"

As they passed the cabin doors, Leon blinked back into reality. Or out of it. Whichever one you prefer.

"Whoa, whoa whoa whoa! Wait up just a second!" Obediently, Totem stopped and Leon fell flat on his face. Sitting up in a crouching, all-fours position, he looked at Totem. The strange man was just grinning at him.

"What is it, new one?"

Leon scowled, trying not to snap about his new nickname. "I need some answers."

"Well then," Totem replied, scooping him back onto his feet and dragging him along again, "walk while you talk. Ask away."

"Alright." Looking around, Leon shot his first question. "What the heck is up with this room?"

Leon's confusion was well placed; the room Totem had dragged him into was a huge oriental decorated room. Leon would've expected this of D, but what he didn't expect were staircases going everywhere. And I mean everywhere! They crawled up walls, formed upside-down rafters, sloping in loops, and slugging to stops in front of numerous, festively carved doors. As strange as this sight was, it was only made crazier by the hustle and bustle of hundreds of animal-humans making their ways from one door to another, often stopping to talk with other animals on the way. Leon sat with his jaw dropped in awe as Totem explained.

"This room, or hallway, or staircase, or whatever you'd like to call it is the main socializing room in the petshop. It's a good start for finding you a new room while you're here."

"A room…?" Leon gaped, then blinked. "That reminds me; what did you mean by the petshop making accommodations for me?"

Totem winked as they began to walk up a set of steps. "Wishes bring us here, and turn us into dreams. As dreams, we stay here and exist until someone desires us. The ship senses the wish, and creates a room or designates a room to the product of the wish; us."

Leon stared at a set of finned men with large flaps of skin hanging down from their throats. Every once in awhile, one of them would make a "BURAPP!" sound, and the flap would inflate into a huge bubble before deflating. He blinked in surprise as something in Totem's answer clicked in his brain, and turned back to the other pet. "But wait… So, who's 'wish' am I?"

Totem shrugged. "It could be anyone, even someone who doesn't exist yet could've wished for you." He gave an enthusiastic thump to his chest. "Take me for example. I used to be the Great Firebird, perched atop a totem pole up in the north. Then one day, a young man was praying for a sign in front of the totem pole and I felt a strange tickling in my feathers. I opened my wings," here, he spread his handless arms in expression, "and found they weren't wooden anymore. I flew off, and found the petshop. I knew this was where I was supposed to go."

Leon puzzled over Totem's story. "What happened to the guy who was praying?"

Totem gave another grin. "He ran and told his tribe about my flight, and when they found I was truly gone, they named him the next chief. Translated literally, his name meant "flies with Firebird".

Leon tried to remember if he had heard about this. "How long have you been here?"

Totem shrugged. "A couple hundred years, human-wise." When Leon stared at him in disbelief, he added, "Time goes slower on the ship, so I haven't been here for that long, really."

"oh." Leon couldn't think of anything to reply to that with, so he jumped into another question. "How's D? I haven't seen him since I last visited the shop, and that was a long time ago." He paused, and as an afterthought, added, "Human-wise."

Totem stopped in front of a large door. He glanced back at Leon, a confused frown making its way onto his face. "You've… visited the shop before?"

Leon nodded. "Yeah, back in LA. I used to visit a lot." He pointed to the door. "Um, are we going in there?"

Totem glanced at the door, then back to Leon. "In just a minute. I think I have a couple of questions of my own." He pulled Leon back into a small alcove to the side of the door, out of the hustle and bustle of the multiple stairwells.

"So…" Totem started, fixing Leon with a strange look, "you've visited the shop before."

"Yes." Leon replied, wishing his new friend would get to the point. "Why, is their something wrong?" Suddenly, he was worried. How could he be back for only two minutes and have already done something wrong?

Totem shook his head. "No, nothing wrong…" he replied, relieving Leon. "I'm just… surprised that D would let you slip out of his grasp." He cast another, studying glance over Leon. "After all, something as rare as you doesn't come around often."

'Wha? But humans come to D's petshop all the time!' Leon thought. Out loud, he said just, "Really?"

Totem nodded, keeping his eyes on Leon. "How did you come to the ship now?"

"Um, I really don't know," Leon admitted. "I was sitting in some forsaken alleyway, sure I was going to die, I blink, and suddenly I'm on some cloud. Some weird things happened, and I flew here."

Totem raised a tattooed eyebrow. "What kind of weird things?"

"Um, let's see…" Leon counted them off on his fingers as he said them. "I had a tail, and wings, and I was funning on all-fours… uh, I was running on clouds too, but that happened last time I saw the boat, so-"

"Wait, wait wait wait. You've seen the boat before too?" Totem threw his stubbed arms into the air. "Why on Earth didn't you stay the first time!"

Leon frowned. "I would have, but D pushed me off the boat. He said something about humans not having passage or something."

"Humans?" Something seemed to click in Totem's mind, and he matched Leon eye for eye. "You were a human?"

When Leon nodded, Totem's face split back into a grin. "Well, that explains everything!"

"THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!" squawked a voice in their ears. Leon leapt a foot into the air, spinning to face the person whose screech it was.

A teenager stood next to them. She had long, red and blue hair, and bright black eyes. She wore a long rainbow colored dress made entirely of soft feathers. The top half of her face was covered by a golden mask that had two oval holes for her eyes and a long hook that came over her nose and ended after curving down about an inch away from her lip. It resembled a large, thick beak. A cheeky smile slid over her lips as she cocked her head to one side, eyes twinkling with mischief. She giggled.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." She took a step closer, her long dress swaying over her tanned Jamaican skin. "So, you're the newbie, huh?" she asked, casting a curious glance over Leon. She grinned even more widely. "You're cute!"

Leon blinked and glanced over at Totem. The Indian man crossed his arms over his chest and looked disapprovingly at the girl.

"Now Tikari, we are trying to make him feel at home, not scare him to death!" he scolded gently. Tikari just giggled again.

"But he needs to get used to it eventually!"

Totem gave a mock frown and shooed her away. "Go on, go on, go talk with the other chatting birds!" Good-naturedly, she winked at Leon, giggled, then hurried off. Totem turned to see Leon, who had finally gotten his heart rate back to norm. "Don't mind her, she's little more than a hatchling." Leon only nodded, and Totem led them back to the door. "Now, let's see what the petshop's prepared for you."

Totem pulled the door open just wide enough for him and Leon to slip through. Leon gasped.

They were sitting on a plain, a huge savannah, with golden grass swaying gently in the night breeze. Leon took a deep breath through his nose, surprised by its sudden sensitivity, and pleasantly delighted by the soft scent of earth and air. He turned his head to look at Totem.

"Where are we?" he asked, his head spinning from it all.

"Your new home," Totem replied, taking a good look around. "The petshop has done a good job, as always."

One of Leon's ears twitched to shake off a piece of dust that had blown onto it. Which made Leon wonder… "Where is the wind coming from?"

Totem was silent for a moment, then burst into laughter. Leon frowned. What was so funny? Was it something he said? His frown quickly turned into a scowl. He hated it when he thought someone was laughing at him!

Totem saw Leon's scowl and stopped laughing. Smiling gently, he explained, "Don't take this the wrong way, new one, but I wonder at the mind that can take such a transformation as yours in its stride, and yet, when faced with this," he waved one hand at the savannah, "only then do you begin to pick details!"

Leon glared pointedly at the ground. "It's not that I don't have questions," he said, snapping more than he would have liked. "It's just that so much stuff is happening I can't keep up with it!"

Totem nodded sympathetically. "That happens to all the new reincarnates. If you have any questions, you can ask nearly anyone in the shop. They may not all be polite, but you'll get your answer. One way or another."

Leon looked back up at Totem, only to see that the Indian man had disappeared. So had the door.

Leon looked around again. So, this was his new room, huh? He took another deep breath. It was nice.

He dropped to all fours and trotted across the field to a tree. He curled up in a little hollow in the roots, realizing how tired he was, and began to doze off. A lazy, contented smile spread over his lips, and the roaring questions in his head quieted until it was a dull buzz, and a thought wriggled through his sleepy mind.

'I made it.'

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Hmm… Six pages, not bad.

I reformatted the prologue. Thank you Hekelachan for the suggestion, and reviewing seriously.

R&R