Ch. 4: In Which Zelgadiss discovers all is not as peaceful as it may seem. (snippets from the next few days)

i do not seek and do not intend to find

a calmer ocean or a sun that will never rise

my world will never change and time will bring you to my thoughts

and i'll move on and then forget you all over again

moving on, i can forgive you all over again.

~*~

"It's a MONSTER!!!" The lady screeched.

He looked up at his human, who looked stricken at the outburst. That wasn't a very nice thing to say. Sure his human wasn't exactly the best looking from a cat's perspective, but to call his human a 'monster' was a bit rude.

"He's only a kitten!" His human protested.

Oh. They were talking about him. How insulting. He sniffed disdainfully. What a rotten greeting.

"That's not a cat." A second lady scoffed. "It's a hideous creature."

"He's not hideous and he's not a creature. Grey-kun is very well mannered and polite. Just because you're not used to something doesn't make it bad." His human retorted, before turning and walking off. A Champion of Justice did not get into petty fights while acting as an Emissary of Peace.

He hopped down and followed her, his tail waving in the air to show his displeasure. Just because he was a cat didn't mean he was -stupid-.

"Of course, this from a person whose father looks like a troll." The first lady stage whispered. Several people tittered. His human stiffen, but continued to walk on, resolutely ignoring the insults.

He shot the stinky people a nasty glare. There would be many strange nasty things in their beds tonight, oh yes.

~*~

Upon introduction, he decided he didn't like some of the humans that his human was here to see.

They stank.

They still smelled like humans, but there was a different scent to them. Bad smell. Their eyes were too bright, there was too much showing of teeth. They were predators.

He didn't mind predators. He was one after all. But they were trying to hunt his human. That was unforgivable. She was stronger than them, if inexperienced. She was not prey. And they were NOT allowed to touch his human. Not while he was here.

He would keep his human safe from these... stinky 2 leggers. The sleeping part of his mind agreed too. The sleeping part of him understood more of what was going on. It would help.

He narrowed his eyes and purred.

~*~

The back of his head itched. He paused to scratch it, letting his human walk ahead of him a few steps.

Ahh. Blissful relief.

A strange sound caught his attention. A creaky stretchy sound. Odd. He looked around and saw a strange shadow on the roof above them. It had a funny point to it, which was aimed at his human.

The sleeping part of his mind recognised it. Flying sticks with feathers were meant to be used outdoors, away from people. And definitely not pointed at his human.

This was bad.

He tossed himself up in the air, in the hopes of catching the stick.

Only to find that the stick was a lot smaller than he thought.

He looked down. No, he had gotten bigger. A LOT bigger. Bigger than his sleeping part, even. He hadn't known he could do that.

A second creak caused him to drop the first stick. The flying stick bounced off his ribs. He smirked. Sticks and stones couldn't break -his- bones.

The sleeping part spoke up, it had an idea.

'Deim Wing'.

A ball of wind gathered in front of his open jaws, then burst forward to blow the shadow attacker off his post.

He snickered as he turned to trot after his human. He hadn't know he could do that either. The sleeping part of his brain knew a lot of useful stuff.

He was back to kitten size before he had gone more than a couple of steps.

~*~

Zelgadiss sighed, brooding while Amelia was in the one place he wouldn't follow her. The bathroom. 

He caught sight of his reflection in the window and quickly glanced away. He didn't even make a good cat. Cats were aloof, independent. While he-

The door opened and Amelia walked in, fully dressed and ready to face the vultures again. "Grey-kun!"

His ears perked up as he jumped off the window ledge. It was his human! Not just any human, but -his- human! The one that smelled really really nice and knew how to scratch his ears just so and could get all his itchy spots and...

Cats may be aloof and independent, Zelgadiss mused as he purred from his seat in Amelia's arms, but kittens were not.

~*~

It was boring, he decided. He didn't understand how his human could stand it.

The other 2 leggers would drone on and on, one would get mad, they'd all get mad, they calm down, drone on and on and it would start all over again.

His admiration for his human rose several more notches. His human didn't seem to be bored at all. Even if his human was too distracted to give him a proper scratch instead of an absent minded petting.

Of course, it seemed rather silly that his human was here at all. He'd admire his human a lot more if his human would just get up and leave.

But his human couldn't. He knew that. His human had important things to do that he didn't understand. But that was okay. The sleeping part of his mind knew what it was about.

The sleeping part also thought that most of the 2 leggers were being 'superstitious, ill-educated morons', what ever that meant. The sleeping part was also on edge. Something about fighting being good for business.

He didn't understand it. What he did understand was that these boring group meetings gave him the perfect opportunity to check out the other 2 leggers. Especially the ones that didn't smell right. Their eyes were a little too bright when they looked at his human.

He didn't like it. His human was -His- human, not theirs.

When his human's attention was distracted, he slipped from his seat on her legs and padded around under the table in search of something interesting. Or maybe a fluttery thing to play with. They weren't as good as the crunchy ones to eat, but they were still fun.

Boots, boots, boots, toes -Ooo. Toes were fun. But they were also tricky, the 2 leggers screamed if you touched them. Better not. He continued on. More boots, boots, boots with dangly things...

He paused. Those could be fun. It was one of the stinky humans too. And boots meant that he wasn't touching toes.

The sleeping part of his mind commented that the dangly things were called 'ribbons'. Ribbons could be tied into knots.

It then supplied how one tied a knot. He grinned. He liked the idea of knots.

He pulled on the dangly ends of the ribbons, 'un-knotting' them. He then followed the sleeping part of him instructions on how to tie a knot.

The sleeping part of him was smart, he mused happily as he tapped the knot with a paw. Knew all sorts of neat stuff.

Knot completed, he wandered back to his human for a nap. He was tired now. But no longer bored.

~*~

When the council disbanded, the Duke rose, took one step and promptly fell on his face. The fancy bows he had been so proud of on his boots had somehow come loose and knotted together.

When attempting to figure out how it had happened, no one thought to look at the cat.

~*~

"C'mon Grey-kun! Time for bed!" His human knelt down next to the bed and stared at him. He looked up at his human. No thank you. He was comfortable where he was.

Unfortunately, his human had other ideas. A hand reached out and grabbed him, dragging out from the safe confines of the underside of the bed. He mewled his disagreement. "C'mon. Good kitty. You can sleep on the bed, it's a lot more comfortable." His human chided, picking him up completely.

He gave his human a strange look as his human set him down on the soft mattress. Then with a graceful leap, he jump off.

His human grabbed him again and put him back on the bed.

He leaped down.

His human put him back up.

He hopped down.

His human placed him back on the bed.

He jumped down.

Up.

Down.

Up.

Down.

After several minutes of playing kitten ping pong ball, his human finally gave up. "Fine." His human acquiesced, climbing into the bed. "But no crying that you can't get up on to the bed later!"

As if. He twitched his tail, calmly parading back to his spot under the bed. It was nice and dark down here, with a good view of floor, in case someone decided to sneak in. And no one could spot him there either. It was a good place to protect his human from.

Like from those yummy little crunchy things.

~*~

TBC…