Disclaimer;
Own it, no, but I sure as hell wish I did. :3 Heeey, I do own Acacia and Behemoth though! That's a plus!
So many reviews! It makes me so happy! :3
imasmurf93- Hmmm...I really think I missed the 93 everytime but just now...Glad you like those two furballs. I love em' too. :3
clueless c- XP Cheering makes me smile
Laurie43- Behemoth says your welcome. Yay, two people like it. -shoves Behemoth and Acacia together-
PonyboySlashLover- Like the Outsiders? Glad you like it. XD
- Thank you. -updates-
sstoons3425- Wow...that is impressive. -hands Wally a cookie- Thank you for the luck, I made it all the way to Semi-finals. :3
WalkingAlong- Thank you! I really like having ideas that others find different. Maybe that's why I get such strange looks sometimes. -shrugs-
CloudwatcherNumbuh7- Look Behemoth, you have a fan! And YAY! I love it when I keep them in character! -strikes victory pose and is smacked-
tater06(regarding all three reviews)- Thank you very much. Aww, that's so nice. Don't feel bad for not reviewing it earlier, as long as your doing it now I'm happy! :3 You think I'm a natural story-teller? Thank you so much! That makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
Sorry if I misseded anybody. Here's the next chapter! ENJOY...I hope, I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to...never mind. XD
Chapter Seven- Something to Fear
Wally was discovering several things fairly quickly. One, just because you admit you love somebody, which he had, doesn't mean you're all that keen on telling that somebody that you do indeed love them. Two, crossing the street is dangerous and rather hard when you are a cat.
The first time they crossed the streets to get to Acacia's it had been dark. No cars had been out because it was late. Now the street was roaring with vehicles, and Wally didn't exactly want to have himself slammed very painfully into the bumper of one of them. He looked longingly at the alley acrossed the street. "Just wait for it, it's rush-hour now, so all the human adults are coming back from work."
"Ah know that." Wally snapped a little irritably.
Behemoth glanced at him, looking ever so slightly wounded. Then he turned and abruptly yowled, "Now!" And tore acrossed the road. Wally's heart lurched, and for the slightest moment he hesitated before lunging onto the black concrete. He wasn't even halfway acrossed with a terribly loud roaring filled the world around him.
Wally grit his teeth and crouched down low as car after car roared over head. He was lucky that he had stopped where he had, or he would have been crushed to death for sure. After awhile the roaring sound stopped, and Wally didn't even look. He just tore as fast as he could across that street until grass was under his paws. His breath whistled out of his lungs, and his pride was a bit wounded by the fact that he couldn't stop trembling. "Well, tha' was cruddy harder than Ah thought."
"Sorry, are you alright?" Behemoth meowed softly. Wally nodded after a moment and the big tom lead them to the alley. Before they could even enter the shaded area a cat slammed hard into Wally, sending him flying backwards. The poor Australian cat-boy was already shaken from his encounter in the street, so he was positively furious at how this cat caught him off guard enough to make him scream in surprise. (Yelp, sorry, yelp. As our Australian hot-head would clearly like to point out that boys do not scream they yelp. Sorry.)
"Cruddy watch where you're goin'!" Wally spat, and then realized a heartbeat after the words left his maw that it was the gray tom-cat, Dusk. The cat was breathing heavily, and his eyes were stretched wide with surprise. A nasty cut was in his shoulder, and Wally stared at it in shock for a moment before turning to him, "What happened to ya?"
"D-dogs!" Dusk gasped, trembling from whiskers to tail-tip. Behemoth looked around as if he expected a pack of the slavering beasts to leap from the shadows behind the gray cat. The tom shook his head, "No, back in the caves! They got in somehow!"
"WHAT!?" Both Behemoth and Wally yelled. Wally because he was trying to figure out how a dog could get through those tiny tunnels, and Behemoth because he was worried about a certain silver she-cat. Still the brown tabby's eyes lit with recognition and he gasped with horror.
"The main cavern! It has a hole in the roof!" Fear flashed in his golden eyes, and Wally spun around. Wally wasn't one for talk, he was an action kid. Or cat...whatever. Either way, he didn't like pondering things. While he could seem like a brute at times he was in the Kids Next Door. Helping others was something he often did.
"Roight! Take meh through that little tunnel ya took before ta tell Acacia we were comin'!" Wally meowed. (While the writer of this story stood off to the side with Behemoth and gaped at him for realizing so quickly that the littler tunnel would be the fastest route to get to the big cavern)
"I won't fit!" Behemoth said, "I'll go through the big tunnels, I can find my way Dusk. You don't have to fight if you don't want to, but you have to take Wally to Acacia!"
Dusk's eyes flashed with terror, and for a moment Wally thought he would have to drag the cat into the hole with him. After a moment though the gray tom nodded and dove for the hole. Wally followed after him. Dusk weaved expertly through the tunnel ahead of him, and Wally stumbled a few times. Still, this route was a straight shot to the cavern, without the hazard of crossing the water. The sound of barking soon roared around him, and Dusk froze. Wally squeezed passed him. "Roight, run away loike a cruddy coward!"
With that the tiny cat sprang from the tunnel and found himself on a tall ledge. His eyes stretched wide with surprise. There were cats EVERYWHERE. He hadn't realized Acacia had so many there. Many were leaping at the dogs, only to be driven back by slavering jaws. The dogs...there had to be a million of them. (in other words Wally couldn't remember how to count at that moment, and there were twelve.) They were deadly looking things. All black, except for the ginger on their eyebrows, paws, and muzzles. They were...pointy. Everything reminded him of sharp edges, their ears, muzzle. The only thing that didn't conform to this, but somehow added to their look of discipline, were the stumps they had for tails. He didn't know it, but he was looking at a dog commonly referred to as a doberman. While they can actually be quite friendly dogs (though any cat would instantly disagree) these ones were TRAINED to do this. Even Wally could tell that.
He looked around until he spotted Acacia. She was fighting with the others, and even though her blindness was something one often forgot due to her wise and almost magical air, she was fairing badly in a fight. Her claws found nothing but air, and the big dog she was trying to fend off was getting dangerously close to her.
With a yowl of fury Wally flung himself onto the massive animal's back. It was a thoroughly unpleasant sensation, landing on the creature. He could feel the strength of it's muscles under it's short ebony coat. He dug his claws deep into it's skin and it barked in rage. It whirled around, it's jaws snapping dangerously close to Wally's ears as it tried to get a bite. After a heartbeat it rolled onto it's back and Wally squeaked in pain as his air was forcably driven from his body. (Plus he was crushed, which was...well...slightly painful)
The dog's teeth snapped near him, and he hardly had time to note that some other cat's fangs were digging sharply into his scruff. He was hauled back, and actually felt the air of that death trap brush his muzzle as the dog's jaws closed in front of his nose. Wally sprang away the next instant, and found himself standing by Shadow.
"You alright kid?" Shadow gasped, looking at him solemnly. Wally nodded and the black cat hurled himself into the fray. Wally looked around for Acacia, she was gone! With a growl of something close to frustration he dove back into the mass of wrathing animals. He was slammed into a dog's muzzle, and before the animal could snap at him he dug his claws into it's muzzle and lunged for it's ear.
Blood flooded in his mouth, and Wally gagged. The dog howled in agony, and shook it's head. Wally held on for dear life, and hated the way those teeth snapped viciously under him. He lashed out with his claws and caught it in the eye, and Shadow was suddenly there once more on the dog's other side. The black cat dug deep into the dog's other ear. It's rumbling barks changed into whines, and it suddenly whipped around. Wally fell down hard and watched as the dog took off with it's tail between it's legs.
"One down." Shadow meowed. Wally stared at the mass of animals around him. He was a fighter, but these odds were TERRIBLE. Sure, they had numbers, but only two of the dogs had fled. How could they possibly survive this? Wally's heart lurched as he realized this. There was a strange new possibility.
Even when he fought adults, even the real crazies like Father who said they'd like to "destroy them" he knew they couldn't really kill him. If they did they'd go to jail, even he knew that. It was a strange feeling, realizing that you were in a position that could end your life. Terrifying but somehow exciting. Still, Wally felt a new fear. He didn't want to die.
Behemoth exploded from the tunnel behind him, and Wally jumped about three feet because of it. The little cat crouched down low as the huge tom flung himself into battle. The massive cat's eyes blazed with fury, and Wally realized a heartbeat later that that was helping them! Behemoth was driving the dogs back, almost completely by himself!
"Woah..." Wally meowed, and Shadow nodded in stunned agreement. The black cat soon joined the massive tabby, and soon the remaining dogs (five) were surrounded by a good twenty cats. All hissing in fury with teeth bared and claws at the ready. Four of them took off, leaving on on it's own to face these enemies. It lunged at the cats, and his teeth snapped shut on one black shape. Wally jerked to attention in surprise. "SHADOW!"
The black cat struggled vainly in the dogs grip, and it shook it's head. Wally suddenly hated himself for hanging back while his friends were fighting, but he couldn't move. I don't want to die... He thought miserably. Never had he felt so terrified, so utterly helpless in his entire life. He hated himself for it too. With a passion. Behemoth's claws tore down the dog's side. It released Shadow, and the black cat fell down with an audible thud. With a yelp it turned tail, and ran for the exit.
For a moment the group of cats just stared at each other in a mixture of relief and shock. The dogs were gone...for now. A piercing wail tore through the air, and Wally jumped again in fright. Behemoth had gone from a terrifying soldier to a weeping heap of tabby fur in an instant. The brown cat's yellow eyes swam with grief as he stared at the group of felines around him. "He's dead..."
Wally whimpered, and guilt slammed into him like a physical blow. Would Shadow be alright if he had been willing to die for him? Wally's whiskers trembled as he pressed forward and he felt sick looking at Shadow's broken body. The cat had helped him TWICE, he had saved Wally's live TWICE, and Wally hadn't been able to find the courage to fight at his side even once? Wally felt a shame like no other shame suddenly burn inside of him.
Wally watched numbly as they patted the soft earth over Shadow's body. Behemoth had rolled some stones on top of the grave, so no carrion eater could get at him. Wally suddenly longed to run back in the treehouse and hide under Kuki's bed. He couldn't bring himself to look at her, not when he was a coward.
"It was not your fault Wallabee." Acacia meowed softly, Wally looked at her in surprise. The silver cat was staring at the ground sadly, "I should have realized that we would need lookouts to guard that hole for danger. I am the cat these cat's follow, almost blindly sometimes. It is my duty to protect them, and it was not your duty to give your life for a stranger."
But he would have given his life for me. Wally thought miserably. Acacia suddenly smiled at him, a half-smile of one who has just noticed a glimmer of something happy in the midst of grief. "What?"
"You have finished the first step." Acacia purred, and touched her nose gently to his forehead. "I promised you a gift."
A strange feeling of warmth and agony flooded through him. Wally trembled after the feeling passed, "What was tha?"
Acacia leaned forward and whispered softly in his ears. He almost didn't catch the words, but his eyes stretched wide with wonder when he did. Confusion swamped Wally, and he looked at her in surprise. The silver tabby shuffled her paws a little guiltily, "I...I'm not sure if it will actually work Wallabee. So do not do anything rash with this gift. Do you understand? Chances are it will not, but in the state I am now it is all I can give you."
Wally opened his mouth to protest this (the writer knows you do not know what his gift is, and is laughing evilly for it because it's a surprise) what did she mean? Why even try and give a gift that won't work? But the she-cat was turning to Behemoth, "I owe you more than I can ever give you, my good friend."
Behemoth's eyes flashed with longing and pain, and he pressed his muzzle gently to hers, "It was nothing."
"I know how you hate to-" Acacia began but Behemoth cut her off by taking his muzzle away abruptly. He shook his head, even though she couldn't see, and stared at the ground where Shadow would stay until nature took it's course.
"When it's for others, I don't mind." Behemoth meowed solemnly. The big tabby nudged Wally with his nose, "Come on kiddo, you're friends are going to be worried enough as it is, what with you covered in so many battle scars and dings. Besides, you have to finish breaking your curse."
"Yes Wallabee. The second step..."
"Prove Ah would sacrifoice mah loife for the one Ah love..." Wally whispered, and his heart tightened in fear. How could he possibly ever prove that if he wasn't sure he could do it himself? Awhile ago he may have said it without a doubt, his life for Kuki's, easy right? But...life was something that one had a hard time giving. That fear...the mind, the heart, the soul, it automatically longs for life. Death is something all things fear, and Wally had found out the hard way that he was terrified of it. Which was frustrating, since he was hardly scared of anything. (except for spankings...and maybe the occassional brussel sprout or two)
The walk back to the treehouse was terribly quiet. Even after crossing the busy street. Wally's mind was churning with so many thoughts that it made him dizzy. (Hey, he got the occasional thought or two sometimes, but there were like THIRTY crowding his head. A new record for him!)
So as his paws met the soft grass he felt a flood of overwhelming relief. Home. He was safe here, or as safe as he could be. He couldn't die here, right? Wally tipped his head to the side, and a sense of...something wrong descended over him. Behemoth must have felt it too, because the big cat wasn't moving.
"Wally..." Behemoth meowed, "Dusk...he wasn't exactly running away from that fight was he? I mean, I don't blame him for being surprised, but he looked BEYOND surprised..."
Wally's head spun some more. Dusk had been familiar in a way. A gray cat, cat...he remembered the unpleasant little adventure he had had, trapped in the psycho cat lady's house for what seemed like a century. Had Dusk been one of THOSE cats? Wally hadn't thought of that before. (It was surprising he was thinking of it NOW which served to confuse him even MORE)
"Those dogs ran away awfully quickly." Behemoth meowed solemnly, staring at the sky, "It was almost like it was something...to distract us...or...or you."
"Tha don't make sense!" Wally meowed. (Doesn't Wally...) His tail lashed twice, "Who would know Ah was a cat!?"
Behemoth shook his head and shrugged but Wally's heart was clenched with worry now. The little cat sprang from his place and into the window he had torn the screen from earlier. Behemoth followed after him with a rather loud ripping noise. Wally's paws pounded the floor, and an unpleasant scent slammed into him from all sides. One that he recognized almost instantly.
Smoke.
The place wasn't on fire, but it had been. He could see burn marks everywhere, and as he entered the commons he saw his friends all beat up. Their clothing had been burned and torn, they all had cuts and bruises. Numbuh One's eye was black, and Numbuh Two had a deep cut in his cheek. Numbuh Five's hand was burned rather badly...
"Where. Is. Kuki." Wally hissed, the three kids turned to look at him in surprise. Numbuh Two picked Wally up and the little cat hissed in fury.
"Numbuh Five can't believe it." Numbuh Five said, "Why would father..."
Wally's heart pounded with terror, she didn't have to finish. Even for him. He didn't want her to, but she did, "take away Numbuh Three? Numbuh Five thought he hated all of us..."
The woman grimaced as she tightly wrapped the rope around that little girl's hands. The poor kid was slumped forward, unconcious. She sighed inwardly, and this had all happened because she had decided to say a few words to scare a little boy. It wasn't like she ever expected the curse to WORK, but work it had.
That day, when that Australian hooligan had been so terribly rude she had lost her temper. So she did what she always did when she lost her temper, she said one of the 'magic' phrases her Gammy used to say to her when she was a snot-nosed child. The hag lost her temper quite a bit, especially as she got older. Turned out that she really was magic, and that little boy passed out after she cursed him. Afraid she had terrified him to the point of unconciousness she rushed to his side, only to find that he was an unconcious little kitten. She had fled then.
It got worse. The little boys clothing had been found, and there was an investigation. They thought he was dead, and some bystander had noticed her talking to the brat before he disappeared. Some OTHER bystander had noticed her poking at his clothes, and that brought the police flocking to her door. She should have played nice granny, but it had irritated her so to see those men at her door. So she yelled at them and said the brat deserved whatever he got, and that she wished the same fate to whatever ilk he had running around.
She had been arrested on the site for "disorderly conduct" and it was only because of Father that she escaped. He had taken interest in this case, so she had found herself spilling the entire story to him.
Now she was stuck here working for that rude man. The woman snarled at the open air. She hated rudeness, it was terribly annoying. The man's brats were almost worse than him, placing a facade of "behaved children" over their cruel intentions. BAH! She didn't need this, but then, she didn't need her house to mysteriously burn down. She didn't need to be back in jail either, she was too old for that.
The footsteps behind her made her freeze, she turned around and was reminded vividly of the days when she had been a child. Smacked around by her grandmother's rough hand. She bowed low, "Greetings Father, the child is secured, I've made sure of it. Nobody could get out of these ropes without help."
The woman looked around, not that help, or the help that Father thought would come for the poor kid could get there. They were on a concrete slab in the very center of a pool. (she and the girl) Father had a boat, of course, but the woman would remain here with that brat probably. What SHE didn't understand was why the man was so set against the kid breaking the curse, and how he was so sure that it was this little girl that would help him do it. He had even gone so far as to buy ten or thirteen trained dogs to, get this, jump into a hole filled with cats. Then again Father was extremely wealthy. Still, with a nervous twitch of her hands she found herself asking the question that had been on her mind, "Tell me, Father-sir, what is it that would drive you to keep this child as a feline. So far as to...kidnap a little girl?"
"What drives me?" Father cackled, a dry cackle of one that is truly insane. He had to be, chasing after children and blaming them for ruining his life when he was rather quite well-off compared to many people in the world. "My drive is the fact that those snot nosed brats have bothered me for too long! My drive is the fact that I can get rid of ALL the Kids Next Door! All I have to do is turn them into cats! That little boy has been part of that group for too long, he has kicked my posterier more times than I care to admit, and I'm going to make him suffer for it."
Poor Shadow, it was necessary though, his death. So I could make it harder for Wally to break the curse. He's in kitty-cat Heaven now...or, you know, wherever dead imaginary cats go...
Dun, dun, duuuun! Father has Kuki!
Of course Father is in this fic, pshaw, he's like the biggest baddy in KND world!
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Plus he HAS to be clinically insane. I mean REALLY come on, what grown man spends that much money on trying to destroy children? Messed up! And is Wally misreading Father? Something I'd expect Wallabee to do, misread someone, I think Father would TOTALLY kill a kid if he could get away with it. Besides, the guy's got, oodles of cash, he could just bail himself out...wait, there isn't bail for murder, is there? -stares off into space-
I've just figured out why Wally is so smart in this fiction at times...
He totally stole my brain...
Reviews are much appreciated XP
