Be Careful What Mutts Wish For
Disclaimer: I don't own it. And I don't own Lassie either.
Readers: Somehow, I'm back. I've been neglecting all forms of writing for almost a year now, and I discovered this morning that I miss it terribly. So here I am, hopefully here long enough to provide a few more chapters.
Warnings: Be prepared. For butterflies. (No fictional animals were harmed in the typing of this fic).
Notes:
'Kitty speech'
"Normal speech"
/Hikari to Yami/
//Yami to Hikari//
"Thoughts"
Seto: ...You're alive?
KT: Surprising, huh?
Seto: It's been a year!
KT: Actually, only 364 days.
Seto: You can count too?!
Chapter 7: Cat Versus Wilderness Round Two
A full moon hung high in the sky, bathing all below in a snowy light. The lightest breeze danced in the air, rustling the leaves in the trees' dark branches. The only other sound that broke the silence was the chirping on unseen crickets as they serenaded night.
"I hate crickets..." It was the first thought to enter his mind, and it took him a moment before any memories registered. A dull throbbing on the back of his head forced an involuntary wince. "But I hate snakes more..." Despite the chill of the night air, he noted that he wasn't at all cold, in fact he was comfortably warmed by a pleasant heat source nearby. Thin silver whiskers twitched as Seto opened his azure eyes, only to squeeze them shut again quickly. The heat source was the campfire, and he'd opened his eyes to be greeted by the far too bright flames. More cautious the second time, he tried again more slowly, allowing his vision to adjust to the light source. He glanced around the campsite, noting that Yami and Yugi were sound asleep in their tent, the front flaps left open as careless campers tended to do. The tent beside theirs, belonging to Serenity and Joey, was closed tightly, leaving Seto to assume the two Wheelers were asleep as well. With a yawn, he stretched, testing limbs for any injuries and discovering that he was resting on a dark green sleeping bag.
"You're finally awake?" a voice asked suddenly from behind, startling Seto into jumping to his paws and whirling around, the fur on his tail bristled. "Heh... sorry," Joey apologized sheepishly, shifting a bit closer to the fire. He sat on the sleeping bag, a thick fleece blanket draped over his shoulders to ward off the cold. "So... erm... Thanks." The blond seemed to be struggling to find the right words to address his rival-turned-cat-turned-savior,a nd kept his eyes on the campfire.
'Next time provoke a less deadly snake, Mutt,' Seto replied, turning back to the fire with a flick of his tail. He could have been more civil, yes. But it wasn't like Joey could understand anything he said currently anyways and the blond was likely to assume the negative out of habit.
Joey scowled, amber eyes flaring. "Oy! Don't call me Mutt! I was trying to thank you, you ass!" Both froze, turning to stare at each other. Joey shook his head, rubbing his ear. "Wait. Say something else."
'How about, "You're an idiot"?' Seto tried, working to keep the edge out of his voice. He gazed steadily up at Joey, the tip of his tail flicking from side to side as he waited.
The blond teen smirked at the cat. "Yeah, I'm notta idiot. But I might be crazy, since I can hear you loud and clear now." He shook his head vigorously in an attempt to clear his ears, although the action only resulted in further messing of his already disheveled hair. "Doesn't make any sense though, does it?"
Seto heaved a small kitty-sigh, ears flipping back in annoyance. 'Has any of this made sense yet?' Joey winced, a sheepish grin on his face as if to say "Oh, yeah..."
Joey, heaving a sigh of his own, flopped back on the sleeping bag, fixing his gaze on the clear night sky. Silence grew thick, punctured by the occasional crackle from the fire. Seto was certain Joey had fallen asleep and was in the process of doing the same when the teen's voice broke the silence. "Ya know, everyone was worried about you." With that, he turned over and went to sleep, leaving Seto to stare into the flames, lost in thought at such simple words.
A majestic Monarch butterfly flitted across the campground, its weaving flight path making it evident that there was no particular destination. Its only intent seemed to be riding the gentle breeze in tune with the early morning bird song. That is, until it floated past a fascinating creature. The butterfly seemed almost to do a double-take, winging backwards to hover over the tiny ball of fluff. Sure, a butterfly saw all kinds of interesting animals in the forest everyday, but it had never lain multi-faceted eyes on fur so pristinely white before. And that sleek tail, curled so perfectly around the delicate paws that currently hid silver muzzle and tiny pink nose. The butterfly couldn't leave this new sight untouched and daringly danced closer to the sleeping form. Pausing as if to take a breath to ready itself, the butterfly darted forward, landing on the tip of one perfeclty pointed ear.
Seto frowned slightly in his sleep, twitching an ear. The feathery weight disappeared a moment, only to return again on his other ear. Another flick of his ear and it left again. Just as he was settling back into sleep, he felt that light touch again, tickling at his nose. With a growl, he opened his eyes and found himself face-to-face with a mass of orange and black. He jumped back hastily, putting distance between him and his 'attacker'. It was only after he'd moved away did he see it was a harmless butterfly. 'Hmph. Idiot bug,' he huffed, sitting down and fixing the insect with a dark glare.
The butterfly fixed with with its own bug-glare, fluttering forward to rest on Seto's head. If bugs could laugh, it would likely be cackling maniacly. Seto shook his head furiously, dislodging the pest again only to have to land on the end of his tail. Baring his kitty fangs, Seto pounced at his attacker, both paws landing with open claws on his tail. He kept his paws folded over his tail, leaning down to peek under, hoping for the sight of a decimated butterfly. He saw only the tip of his tail as he felt that infuriating weight settle on his back. He froze, feeling the butterfly waltz its way up his back to where the band of his collar was; the butterfly paused, as if thinking, before moving forward and burrowing under the collar.
'You bastard!' Seto hissed, whipping around, fur on end. He shook himself, jangling the collar's bell loudly. The butterfly stayed smugly nestled under the collar, shifting only slightly as Seto scratched frantically at his neck.
"Ya got fleas or somethin', Kaiba?" Joey asked, called over to his sleeping bag by the general commotion. He stood watching Seto curiously, taking an occasional bite of a bagel as the cat battled furiously with his collar. After a moment longer--time enough to finish the bagel--Joey reached down, gripping Seto by the scruff and lifting him off the ground and up to eye level. Surprisingly, Seto only squirmed slightly as Joey shifted his collar up in search of the unseen harasser. "Gah!" the blond yelped in surprise as the butterfly charged at him, fluttering angrily before darting away with a huff. "What the hell...?" was all Joey could manage as he stared after the insect.
Seto exhaled in relief, ears drooping. 'I'll kill that bug if I see it again,' he vowed, sending a patented glare in the direction the butterfly had left.
Joey gave Seto a sidelong look, one brow arched. "You were fightin'... with a butterfly?" He tried to sound disbelieving, although an underlying tone of amusement was obvious. "You're gettin' weirder and weirder, Kaiba."
'Or maybe you're just getting stupider and stupider,' Seto retorted, tail flicking irritably.
"Ya wanna find out if cats always land on their feet?" Joey warned, lifting Seto a bit higher to show his current advantage.
"Joey!" The blond and cat turned to face the voice and saw no one. A few seconds passed before they looked down to see Yugi glowering up at them, his small foot tapping impatiently on the grass. The shorter teen fixed them with his sternest look, although it didn't come off as all too threatening from such wide violet eyes. A snarling mouse would be more alarming. Although the sight was comical, cat and dog both knew better than to laugh. An angry Yugi was a dangerous Yugi.
"W-what's up, Yug?" Joey asked, trying on a smile to appease his small friend.
"Ignore him, Joey," Yami said as he strode regally up to stand beside Yugi, resting a hand on his aibou's shoulder. "He's just in a bad mood because a rabbit got in the tent last night and chewed some of his Duel Monster cards up." The smile on the ex-pharaoh's face was evident that he found this amusing.
Yugi frowned, half-smiling up at Yami. "At least a raccoon didn't make off with my entire deck."
Yami's smile faded completely, some of the color draining from his face. "... What?" A hand went frantically to his belt, checking for the leather pouch that faithfully carried the deck of cards. Empty. "What does a raccoon look like? I'm going to hunt it down and execute it!" He set his crimson gaze on the surrounding trees, making ready to storm straight into them to rescue back his deck-in-distress. A tugging on the back of his shirt halted him as Yugi pulled him back a step. The shorter boy smiled up at Yami, waving the unharmed deck towards him.
"It was just a joke, Yami," Yugi explained, letting the Egyptian snatch back his deck and shuffle through it.
"Aibou-" Yami began, although what he intended to say was interrupted by the sharp blow of a whistle. All heads turned in to the direction of the noise to see one of the teachers waving at them to hurry up.
"Oh, yeah. We're supposed to go hikin', right?" Joey said as he followed Yami and Yugi to the teacher. He paused at a small boulder nestled in with the treeline, placing Seto down on it. "Stay outta trouble, and don't go gettin' yourself lost!" He instructed, hurrying off to catch up with the gathering group of students.
Seto scoffed, lifting his chin up in a superior manner. 'Does he think I'm an idiot?'
'I'm not lost, only idiots get lost...' Seto told himself in almost a mantra as he picked his way through the forest undergrowth. He wasn't sure what posessed him to even go into the woods, but he was there now and seemed to just keep going in the wrong direction with every step he took. With irritation he flicked a wet leaf that tried desperately to cling to his tail.
Preoccupied by dislodging the leaf, Seto didn't see that the ground dropped away just in front of him; however, he certainly felt it when he found himself tumbling down the small hill, coming to a halt sprawled out on a leaf-strewn dirt path, his nose connecting with a metal post. With a groan, he climbed to his paws, glaring up at the post; it was a sign post, holding a large yellow sign with bold black lettering blazed across it:
"BEWARE OF MOUNTAIN LIONS"
'That's comforting,' Seto remarked, rereading the sign once more. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he surveyed the path he now stood on. It looked like it had been unused for a considerable time, but a path still led to civilization. But which way to go... With a sigh, Seto sat down, his tail curling around his paws to rest in front of him, still flicking from side to side. 'All right. You decide, Tail.' As if in answer to Seto's demand, his tail flicked a few more times before coming to rest pointing to his right. 'Works for me,' Seto said aloud, returning to his feet and heading off in that direction.
"Hooooot," an owl called from somewhere amongst the trees, startling the cat enough to hasten his pace. From farther off, a lonely wolf answered the owl with a chilling howl that made Seto's fur stand on end. A rabbit darted onto the path in front of him, twitching its whiskers once at the strange animal before bolting into a nearby shrub. From the dirt embankment beside the path, a small red fox yapped inquisitively at Seto, as if asking what a cat was doing in the woods. 'Nature'd be more serene if you all learned to use e-mail,' Seto snapped back in answer to the fox, receiving a small bark and wave of its bushy tail in response.
Seto continued down the path, ears lying flat against his head as more forest creatures pestered him with their various calls and noises. He was at his last straw when a twig snapped loudly to his left, pushing him past his limit. 'Will you shut up already?!' he demanded, whipping around to face the animal and finding himself staring at the broken twig, crushed beneath an immense paw. Following the paw upward, he locked gazes with the golden eyes of a young mountain lion, the animal's mouth hanging slightly open to reveal ivory fangs.
The lion lifted its massive head a bit, sniffing at the air curiously before looking back down at the cat. Its rounded black ears perked forward as it licked its muzzle once, a soft growl coming from deep in its throat.
Seto took a single step back, realizing as he did so that the incredible feline before him could close the distance in a single bound. And the puma was preparing to do just that when the unexpected happened. The animal's vision was suddenly clogged by a mass of rippling orange and black, and instinctively the cougar backed up, the colors following and blocking all other sights. Hissing, the mountain lion continued to move backwards, trying to pull away from the colored blindfold. With a frustrated growl, the animal turned tail and disappeared into the shrubbery. Seto stared in a mixture of awe and disbelief at his protector, the very butterfly that had harrassed him earlier.
'That didn't just happen...' he breathed, utterly bewildered. But as if to prove it had happened, the butterfly flitted to him, landing delicately on his head. It flicked its wings once, brushing his ears. 'I don't suppose, being the supernatural insect that you are, you'd know the way back to the campgrounds?' Seto asked, more as a way of settling his nerves rather than in search of an actual answer.
But an answer he got in the form of the insect flapping away from him down the path, turning back to move towards him again before continuing on. It repeated its dance back and forth, urgent and eager. If the butterfly had been a dog, anyone would have asked if Timmy had fallen in the well again.
Seto blinked, shaking his head. 'Did I just see that?' With a shrug, he stood and shook himself. 'Nothing makes sense anymore.' With one glance behind him at where the cougar had stood moments ago, he hurried after the butterfly.
End of Chapter 7
KT: Ms. B's a hero!
Seto: You named the bug?
KT: Of course!
Seto: Insane. You're completely insane.
