Chapter 10: Cat?
She groaned and rolled onto one side. Strange; her alarm hadn't gone off today. Perhaps she'd actually remembered to turn it off for the weekend this time. What day was it? Yesterday had been Saturday... so today must be Sunday. Good, she didn't have to get up. A tired smile slipped onto her serene face as she curled further into the comforting sheets in a gentle attempt to shy away from the slowly filtering sunlight.
The events from Saturday suddenly came flooding back. The cats, the grey longhair... her managing to knock herself out without any help from the cats. She reddened from the memory. She had basically handed herself over to them with that action.
She tried to sit up, but her head spun and so she let herself fall back down. Well, at least she was on a bed... she'd half expected to be found in a dungeon.
Or something.
Her head was hazy; for some reason she couldn't get her mind properly together and the string of words refused to get into line. Which was weird. Usually when she knocked herself out it wasn't much longer than for a few seconds. That particular knock hadn't had enough force behind it to do anything more than that either – her experience with such happenings backing her up. Her current state of mind led her to believe that she was more of in a... drugged state. She tried to get up again, but her movements were sluggish and her body almost seemed to be refusing to do as she wanted.
She collapsed back into the sheets, staring up at the ceiling. Great. Just great. She had no idea where she was, and even better, she couldn't stand up properly. Add to that the probability that she'd been drugged and that meant she had no idea how long she'd been out. Or even what day it was.
The door swung open and Haru let her head fall to one side to see her visitor. It was the cat from yesterday. Except... now he was her height. Haru tried to make sense of that. Baron had mentioned that where he lived the cream cat was the same height as humans. Did that place her in the Refuge? It certainly didn't place her in the human world. Unless... this cat was half-human... but Haru could see that he didn't have fingers like Baron said he did, but paws. Perhaps this was the Cat Kingdom then... But again, her mind wouldn't put the facts together.
Behind the longhair, another cat stepped out, looking suitably nervous. He wore large spectacles that gave him the appearance of a scholar, and Haru couldn't see whether he had fingers instead of paws, because his sleeves were several inches too long in the arm.
"Sir, you should let her rest," the scholar cat said uneasily.
"I want to see how my wife-to-be is doing," growled the grey feline.
Haru remembered why she'd been taken and suddenly found the energy to sit up. "What? No! I don't want to marry you!" she screeched.
The cat looked confused. "Why not, babe? I am a king."
"Ex-king," the other cat coughed. "Remember? Lune's taken the throne now."
"I can offer you everything you'd ever want," the ex-king continued, ignoring his companion's comment. "Riches, wealth, a castle... riches," he added, just to make that part clear.
"No thank you."
"Clothes!" he cried. "More clothes than you could ever want!"
"No thank you."
He snorted. "I don't think you quite understand what I'm offering you, babe. This is the chance of a lifetime!"
"I'm sorry, but... I don't really know you. And... well... you're a cat, right? And I'm not. So..."
The pair of cats began to chuckle. "Oh, don't worry, that's already being taken care of."
Haru instantly had the image of the greasy longhair as a human but discarded the thought with a shiver. Urgh, she did not need that. And then more of what Baron had told her came to mind. He was a half-cat because he'd stayed too long in the Refuge. And if this was the Refuge, did that mean...? Unless this was the Cat Kingdom... then she'd be full cat and...
She raised one tentative hand to the side of her head. She felt slightly sick when she felt the area where her ears should've been, only to find bare skin. But she could still hear... She raised her hand further and found furry triangles that felt suspiciously like...
"Cat ears?" she murmured to herself. The ear twitched, making her jump. Quickly she was exploring other parts of her face, annoyed at the lack of mirrors in the room, but they'd probably chosen such a room to stop her realising the change until it was too late. Now she realised what had been weird about her face – the tiny nose. Her nose hadn't been massive, but if she concentrated usually she could see it, however now it was miniscule. Too small for a human's. And then there were the whiskers.
And the tail.
'Oh, my...'
Tail.
She had a tail.
She screamed.
Later on she would only remember that the two cats did nothing to attempt to calm her down; only left in a great hurry. She huddled beneath her covers, sobbing quietly once the initial shock had been released in the scream, not knowing where she really was or whether she had stayed too long to reverse the effects. And the thought of marrying that cat... She shuddered pulled herself into a tight ball, into the foetal position. She wasn't sure how long she stayed like that, just wishing that it had all been a bad dream; that she would wake up any moment.
Even that her damn alarm would go off.
After an indefinite amount of time there was the sound of flapping by the window and the room was shrouded into darkness. Haru didn't react; she was past caring anymore.
"Stay there, Toto," a familiar voice instructed and there was another sound – the sound of someone jumping down and onto the stone floor. There were footsteps across the room, coming closer. Soft, quiet footsteps.
"Oh, Haru, I'm so sorry," the voice murmured and there was the light touch of someone touching her shoulder in a comforting manner.
She released another sob and curled herself up into a tighter ball, flinching at the contact.
The hand moved away.
"Haru, talk to me; when did they take you?" There was a pause as the visitor waited for a response. "Haru, I want to help you, but I've got to know how long you've been here. I came as soon as I heard what had happened, but the servants were pretty hazy in giving any details. Please, just tell me... When were you taken?"
Haru reduced her sob to a small sniffle. "Eleven-ish," she whispered. "Saturday."
She felt him tense up behind her. "Damn," he muttered.
She slowly uncurled herself, moving the bedcovers to see a human-sized tawny cat standing to her side, wearing the same style of clothes that Baron had been as human. She recognised him as the same person, and although he was no longer a human, it was a slight comfort just to see someone she knew. "Can you get me back?" she begged. "Can you get me back to the human world? Can you get me back to human?"
"Haru, remember what I said about how if you stay too long, the change becomes permanent? You remember that?" Baron asked gently. Haru nodded tearfully. "You've been at the Refuge for over a day – it's late Sunday evening now."
"So... you can't do anything?"
"It's gone into your blood now – the magic has – and so... no... I can't return you to full human," he admitted. His voice had struggled for a moment when Haru's eyes had dimmed, losing their hope. "I wish I could; I really wish I could."
Outside a crow hopped inside. "Baron, what about the Odette Spell?" he offered.
"Toto, I thought I asked you to stay outside. The guards might come and check on Haru any moment now."
"What about it though?" Toto persisted.
"What's the Odette Spell?" Haru asked. She knew she was clutching at straws at the vague reference, but the hope of a solution was too tempting to pass by. She pushed her bedraggled form up so she could face the familiar feline properly. She knew she looked bedraggled; spare strands of brunette hair was falling past her face, tangled after the unwilling knock into unconsciousness.
"It's... well it'll push the magical change so... so the cat side of your blood will show entirely through for half of the time, and the other half your human blood will become dominant."
"Come again?"
Baron sighed. "Basically, it'll make you human for the night, and cat for the day. It'll mean you're still half-cat, but in time rather than half-cat all day. If that makes sense."
"Can you do it?" Haru asked eagerly.
"Haru, if I do this then you'll be a full cat for the day. Wouldn't it be better to just be half-cat, half-human?"
"Please? I want to be human again. I can't live the rest of my life like this."
Baron was drawn in by her pleading chocolate eyes. He sighed and glanced to the door. "Okay. But we'll do it at my wing of the castle – we don't want this spell to be interrupted."
"Baron, I think they drugged me, because I can't get up properly," Haru told him.
"That's okay," he said. He picked her up in one movement. "Toto, return to where you were."
The crow nodded and flew out of the window, changing size so that he could accommodate his two passengers. Haru stared, despite her slightly hazy mind.
"How...?"
"Toto is my familiar and hence shares a little of my magic. But right now we've got to get you clear of this room."
Haru tightened her somewhat loose grip on Baron, terrified as she saw how far up she was as she was carried to the crow's back. Toto gave his wings a few experimental flaps of his iridescent wings and set off. The ground stretched suddenly too far below her. "Baron..."
"Don't worry; I'm not going to let you fall."
"We're so high..."
Baron moved his arm to around her waist. "Perhaps in time you'll learn to enjoy this."
Haru shivered as a cold wind whipped through her hair. "I don't know. Can we just get to wherever we're going?"
They came to a large window that was obviously fitted to allow the crow's entrance and came to an open room. The crow rested on a thick balcony railing and Baron slipped off his back, Haru still in his arms. He lightly leapt down onto the ground floor, making no noise as his feet hit the wooden flooring. He placed her down gently on a red sofa.
"Are you okay?"
"A little lightheaded," she admitted, "but I think that's just from the flying." Her hands were curled a little too tightly around the sofa's armrest for it to be comfortable, but she didn't seem to care. Even as her fingers went white.
Baron was picking out some books from his desk, flicking through the pages, nodding at her response. "Well, at least you don't get travel-sick," he noted.
"Baron, what are you doing?"
"Trying to find the right spell."
"You do know it, right?"
"Yes. I considered it for myself at one point."
"Then why didn't you use it?"
Baron looked up at her, surprised. "Well... I don't know. It did occur to me, but..." He shook his head. "I guess I had enough of magical changes to last me a lifetime. And switching between two species continuously would drive me mad."
"But... l saw you... at the crossroads you were human..."
"That's my magic. I can change my shape, but it takes time to learn it and effort." Seeing her look expectantly at him, he sighed. "And, no, I can't do it for anyone else. It's the sort of spell that will only affect the caster."
She lowered her gaze. "Oh."
"Ah, here it is." Baron swept up the book with one hand and walked back round to Haru. "Listen, this spell is rather short, and it won't look that impressive, but the bathroom is that way," he said, pointing in the direction behind him.
"Why are you telling me that?" Haru asked uncertainly.
"Because it's very likely that a spell that'll force your shape might upset your stomach," Baron said plainly. He raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure you still want to go through with this?"
"If you're trying to put me off, you're doing a very poor job of it. Yes, I still want to go through with this."
He sighed. "Okay, just don't say I didn't warn you." His hands filled up with the glow of magic.
ooOoo
A/N: Now can people guess what ballet this is? =^^=