The Trouble with Demon Cats
By: Crystal Arrow
Disclaimer: do I look like I own Inuyasha…No, thank you.
Chapter 1: A Choice to make
I awoke to find myself cold, like when you wake up only to find you kicked off the blankets in the night. I reached around me in search of my comforter, a comfy albeit, cheap comforter I got on sale from Meijers. However, I found nothing around me, save some dead leaves and dirt. I opened my eyes, desperately hoping to find my bedroom ceiling above me, red light bathing across my bed from my little digital clock I keep at my bedside. Instead, the harsh reality of being in the great outdoors struck me like a brick, I was staring straight up into the foliage of the trees above me, the few peculiarly bright strains of light finding their way straight into my eyes.
"God damn the world."
Rising rather painfully, myself not being a morning person no matter how late that morning might be, I gazed around myself in order to gain my bearings. I'm in a forest. Okay…. I'm on a roll. Yay. Suddenly, I noticed something familiar a few feet away from me sitting upon the revealed root of a gigantic tree nearby. A very familiar something I'm going to blame this entire incident on.
"Pokey." I said, trying to remain calm.
"Yes?" My cat responded, she answered as though it was completely normal for her to be talking, and that it wasn't strange for the two of us to be together in some random forest, when my last memories happen to place me in my own home, which, though close to the woods, has no forest nearby anything like this one I found myself in.
"…Where are we?"
She raised her eyes up to mine slowly, in the feline way that makes you feel as though they don't think you're not worth their time. "In a forest."
My patience was slipping, given my situation; I don't see the problem with that. Taking a deep breathe, "In a forest, WHERE?"
"Japan."
"Pokey… why are we in Japan?"
"Please sweetie," she said waving her paw at me, "Not Pokey, it's such a childish name."
"Then pray tell, what should I call you?" I asked with a sigh. This really isn't my morning.
"Kaida, it means little dragon."
"You're a cat."
"And you're a ningen."
I stared at her incredulously. You have got to be kidding me. "You know what? Forget it, just, why are we in Japan?" I asked brushing curled bangs out of my face.
Now Pokey, no, Kaida began licking her paw, practically ignoring my existence before her. She remained there, seated upon the huge tree roots, contemplating whether or not to tell me why I am in Japan. After several minutes in which I seriously considered picking up a particularly large stick I found beside me and beating my oh so sweet kitty with it, Kaida finally spoke. "You know, this isn't the present." Before I could question her, she continued, her former arrogance mellowed down to something akin to shame, I didn't understand why, until later. "You've been here before because of that stupid mutt. This is my era, the feudal era."
Given that I had believed that to be just another one of my oddly realistic dreams of which I have many, I was too shocked to speak. Kaida continued, "Years ago, a hundred years or so, I was promised as the bride to a yokai lord in order to secure the alliance between our lands. I wasn't a princess, just a noble lady, actually, the reigning lord's niece once removed. He had no daughters of his own, so he thought, 'hey, why not promise my sister in law's niece?' And hey, you know me. I've never been one to follow somebody else's orders, so I refused him. Now, the yokai lord didn't really give a shit. My uncle however…was pissed. As punishment for my insolence and endangerment of peace between our lands, he sealed all my demon powers, thus turning me into a cat. I would remain as such until I found another woman, human or yokai to take my place as a bride worthy of the yokai lord."
I shook my head, "What's that to do with me?"
She stared at me with golden eyes rimmed with green, it's funny, and it almost looked apologetic. Oh, god no. "Not me."
She continued to stare levelly at me. "You're joking."
"My yokai blood will be restored to me when the bride is finally made ready for the lord. Given that you are human, that means you must first become a yokai." Kaida finally leapt gracefully from the tree root and strode before me. "I never meant for it to be you. Before I realized it, the spell was cast. Had that mutt not been there, it would have been your death."
"Death?"
"For a mere human, a youkai's pure blood entered into them is enough to kill them. Had the dog not also drawn blood from you, the yokai essence would have killed you. I guess she was good for something."
"This has to be some sort of dream!!!"
"It is now the full moon, by the next full moon, you will become a full blooded neko/inu yokai. This cannot be helped. In this period of time, you have a single choice. You may head west, towards the setting sun, and to a shrine where your transformation will be completed; or you may head east, towards the rising sun, to another shrine where the transformation may be reversed and you returned to your home. As you come closer the eastern shrine, the path will become dark and dangerous, and whatever yokai powers you may have gained will wane. Upon coming closer to the western shrine, different hardships may arise, but help will come, and your yokai powers will increase. However, if you do not reach either shrine by the next full moon, you will become a hanyou, unwanted by both humans and yokai, and you will be shunned and unable to return home. The choice must be made now, for both journeys will be long and hard. No day may be wasted." With that, Kaida turned away from me, leaping unnaturally high into the foliage above and disappearing from view. "I'll be watching over you."
And so I sat alone in a clearing in the feudal era of Japan, two dark roads set before me, and no friends to aid me save for a former pet, one whom I didn't know whether to trust or flee from. The sun slowly set into the western horizon, as though showing me my way. But by morning, the sun will have changed it's mine showing me it's place in the east. The road to my former life will be dark, and there is no guarantee that I will make it. The sun however remained lighting the path to the west, where my future as the bride to a noble yokai lord lay in wait. No more stupid people, I wouldn't have to sit and watch humans continue to destroy this world. But I must also forsake all my dreams to reach there. All my friends back home, my family, would I ever see them again? What of my dreams to write, work in animation, play music or study to save my world? What of my dreams? Should I forsake them for the easier path? And what of my beloved cat? She's not even who I thought her to be. But no matter how that secret may hurt me, she is still the cat I raised since my childhood. Should I doom her to remain a domestic cat forever? Which path is best? I was never content at home, but do I truly wish to begin anew, married, nobility, and a youkai?
As the sun set my mind raced. The paths grew dark and foreboding in the night, as the light of a full and clear moon filtered through the trees to me. I love the night, so perhaps now it will reveal to me my path. It's so dark, and so peaceful here, nothing like modern times, where even the quiet night is polluted by the sounds of people. "What do I do?"
Author's Note:
Okay…I am seriously going to try to write more. I have to, and I'm going to try and improve writing quality. I want to start getting serious about my writing, both fanfics and originals (I don't post mine online, they're embarrassing). So, what should Crystal do? Yokai or human? What a choice.
Crystal Arrow