Ch. 6 In Which Zelgadiss makes a decision and retrieves several important things.
He made a brusque gesture, and the wine bottle toppled under his arm. He turned and caught it in mid-air with a grace that seemed inhuman to my troubled senses. He paused, looking at the bottle as if it were the future, his head and back bent.
"You-you are very strong, aren't you?" I whispered.
"Strong?" He said in a queer detached voice that did not sound like his own. "Yes, I am strong." He lingered over that last word as if he detested it.
-Excerpt from page 163 of 'Beauty: A retelling of the story Beauty and the Beast' by Robin McKinley.
~*~
"Nyaaaa!!!"
His human was fast asleep.
"Nyaaaaa!!"
His human was in danger.
"Nayaaaaaa!!"
So there fore, he had to get his human up and awake to be aware of the danger.
"Nyaaa!!"
However, his human wasn't co-operating. Staring hadn't worked. Or head butting and purring. Neither had attacking those wiggly things on the ends of his human's feet. Which meant it was time for drastic measures.
"Nyaaaa!"
He plopped down on his human's face face, covering his human's mouth and nose with his side.
"Neh."
A few seconds later, his human sat upright in the bed, gasping for breath. His sleeping side didn't exactly like the idea of attempting to suffocate his human, but was hard pressed to argue the results.
"Grey-kun?! What are you doing?!" His human demanded with a scolding look.
"Myaaaaaah." He ignored the question and jumped off the bed. He stopped, looking at his human with wide eyes. "Myaaaaaaaa."
His human looked puzzled, and slid out of the large bed, pulling on a robe as his human did so. Satisfied, he wandered over to the door and looked at it.
"Nyah."
Still looking confused, his human opened the door and peeked out. Nobody was there of course, and he walked out in to the hall.
"Meh?" He cast one last look at his human before disappearing down the hallway.
***
"Where are we going, Grey-kun?" His human asked, following him down the darkened hallway. His human was smart, taking care to move quickly and quietly in the shadows so not to get caught by the other 2 leggers in the castle.
He would have silenced his human with a look, but they were already to their destination. He ducked into a dark alcove that he'd scoped out earlier and circled it a few times. His human got the clue and ducked in there. He rubbed up against his human's legs and purred.
Voices poured out from the room that smelled of paper, ink and burnt wax. The two stinky 2 leggers from the party were in there and talking. The sleeping portion of his mind bristled, they were talking about his human.
His human let out a small gasp as his human understood what they were talking about. He didn't but the sleeping part was nudging him to complete the next part of the plan.
Satisfied that his human would stay put, he wandered over to where a large moth had been hidden earlier and un-pinned it from the rock holding it. Carefully clamping it in his jaws, he pranced to the door of the stinky room and let the moth go.
As he watched the moth flutter around, the sleeping part of his brain was taking note of what the 2 leggers were talking about and the pieces of paper they were waving around. He didn't understand what was on them, but he knew they were important.
He slunk thru the shadows to the far side of the room as the moth fluttered it's way to the stinky men's candle. Perfect. He crouched down, wiggling his tail around as he got ready...
And POUNCED on to the table, skidding forward and sending rolls of papers flying toward the door. The stinky 2 leggers screamed as several scrolls made a bid for freedom, rolling out the door toward his human.
He snickered. Perfect.
Adopting an 'innocent' look, he started chasing the moth around, tossing papers off the table and on to the floor in the process. A few that the sleeping part said were important, he threw toward the door. Not all of them would make it out the door, but hopefully enough would to be useful.
His play was abruptly stopped when a large hand picked him up by the scruff of his neck. One of the stinky 2 leggers hand picked him up. Ugh.
"It's that deamon cat." He grimaced at the scent on their breath. And 2 leggers said that -he- was a filthy animal! "What's he doing here?"
"Who cares? Get rid of it."
"Right." There was a flash of metal, then a dagger shattered on the skin of his belly.
He gave them a Look. Idiots.
"Uh-oh." The one that had just lost his dagger muttered.
"Oh, just throw it out the door. We'll poison it after the Saillune Princess is dead."
"Right."
With a flick of their wrist, he went flying out the door. He twisted in mid-air, tucking his feet under him and landing in a crouch. He rose, flicking the tip of his tail at them.
They shut the door behind him in response. He snickered.
Mission successful.
~*~
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. The sleeping part of his mind chanted as he pelted down the halls with his human.
Panic rolled around his human like a fog. His human was afraid. His human had just realised that some of the 2 leggers wanted his human dead.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
The sleeping part of his mind was waking up as his humans fear affected him. It understood -why- this was happening.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
His human had accomplished what his human had set out to do. His human had prevented a war with the boring meetings and the squabbles in the hallways.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
This meant that the stinky ones hated his human. If his human was dead, fighting would happen. If fighting happened, the stinky 2 leggers would profit from it.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
The stinky ones didn't know his human knew. The stinky ones didn't know that his human had proof of what they wanted to do. So he and his human had to leave before they killed his human.
Fortunately, his sleeping part had already warned his human. They had a plan. They would get out of here, and back to the 2 leggers who could protect his human and prevent fighting.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
His human dropped a scroll. He grabbed the ribbon that held it closed in his teeth and kept running. They were almost to his human's room.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
His human slipped inside the safety of the room and quickly put the rolls of paper in a pouch, then changed into travelling clothes.
Not wanting to watch, he stayed by the door, looking out for stinky 2 leggers.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
There was a shout from where they had just come from. The stinky ones had just figured out his trick.
"Myahhh!!"
"Let's go, Grey-kun." His human whispered, slinging the pouch with the scrolls over one shoulder as his human picked him up with the other hand.
Everything important had been packed up and sent ahead with the 2 leggers they had travelled with earlier, in preparation of this occasion. The few dresses that still hung in the closet could stay here.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
His human walked over to the window and looked out. The night was peaceful and calm beneath their window.
The other 2 leggers had given them this room because it was far from the ground. There fore theoretically harder to escape from.
Silly 2 leggers.
His human closed their eyes and chanted softly. "Ray Wing."
His human could -fly-.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
A bubble formed around them, lifting them in the air, and out the window. His human kept a tight grip on him as they picked up speed, shooting over the castle rooftops.
Someone shouted at them from below, an arrow bouncing off of the Ray Wing around them. His human faltered slightly, then pressed forward, picking up more speed.
The castle disappeared behind them.
That didn't mean that they were safe. Safe was back at his human's home.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
As they flew, he noticed that they started flying lower and lower. The sleeping part of his mind was alarmed by this. The lower they flew, the more dangerous it was.
He also noticed the scent of blood.
His human noticed it too. "Not now, not now..." His human chanted as the bubble started to fade away from them, dropping them even closer to the ground.
It finally faded away, leaving his human standing in the middle of a road, the castle they had just left was a glowing form in the distance.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
The sleeping part of his mind noted with increasing alarm that it must be 'that time of the month' for his human. Which meant no magic to protect his human.
Only him.
And there was the very faint sounds of horses in the distance. Someone had followed their flight.
His human let out a string of words that both startled and impressed the sleeping part of his mind. He had not known that his human knew such vocabulary.
His human dropped him on the ground and started to trot in the direction of that they had come from originally.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry!
This was too slow, the sleeping part of his mind chided. They needed to move fast, and they needed to move fast -now-. The horsemen were gaining, the lead that they had gained by flying was too rapidly fading.
He was faster than his human, 4 legs being a much superior mode of transportation than 2. But he was too small to carry his human.
Or was he?
The sound of shouts and horses hooves startled his human. They had been spotted. An arrow flew over their heads, hitting a tree next to them.
Hiding wasn't an option anymore. This required speed, not stealth.
Hurry. Hurry! Hurry!
His human started to run. There was no way to out-pace the horses, but his human wasn't going to give up without a fight.
Several arrows flickered at their heels, just barely avoiding them.
Screw this.
Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
With a muted growl, Zelgadiss found himself running like the wind, Amelia on his back.
The cat part of his brain, now a comforting buzz in the back of his skull noted that they were, indeed a lot faster than his human, Amelia.
He was also faster than the horsemen behind them, he noted smugly. And he was arrow proof. They couldn't touch him.
"G-Grey-kun?" Amelia gasped, crouching down to get a better grasp on him.
He supposed he still was Grey-kun, just in a larger form. Much larger. Probably about the size of the tigers Rezo had shown him once.
He wasn't quite sure what had happened, but at the moment, the pound of dirt beneath his paws and the warm weight of Amelia on his back were more important than what he looked like.
With a pleased growl, he raced on toward Saillune.
~*~
Um.. okay, in case no one quite got what's going on, Zel is still a cat, but now he's about the size of a tiger, large enough for Ame to ride easily. And his 'Zel' mind and his 'Grey' mind have basically fused. More details on that next chapter. ~_^
There should be pics of him in all 3 forms (Zelgadiss, Grey-kun and BIG Grey-kun) either on the Amelia and Zelgadiss mailing list (azroyalblue) or on my website. (www.mischif.net)
…which means I'm gonna hafta finish making that In Which page, with alllllll the art work soon. *Sigh*
Considering the fic comes from the pics (1-2 pics per chapter, plus miscellaneous stuff) , that's more than I'd like to deal with! ^^;;
As always, comments are welcome, but not necessary! Ja!
