One sunny day, Rei Kon was doing his chores. There was a knock on the door all of a sudden.
"Rei! Go get it!", ordered his stepmother.
"I can't Judy. They might realize what I am.", Rei replied.
You see, Rei was a neko-jin and people were afraid of him and his people. They thought the neko-jins would attack them some day so, King Voltaire had them all exterminated. The only reason Rei wasn't was because he didn't live with other neko-jins. He lived with his mom and dad. His mom was a neko-jin and his dad was a normal human. But then his mom died and his father remarried. At first, she pretended to be sugary sweet and nice to him but when his father died, she stopped all that pretend nonsense. Judy made Rei their slave/servant. By they, I mean her two daughters Jane and Jill. They could have turned him in but they wanted a servant and could not afford one so they just kept Rei. And so, when the person knocked and Rei said he couldn't answer, that would be the reason why. Judy just keeps forgetting.
"Fine!" She stomped to the door and opened it. It was a messenger from the castle.
"Yes?", she asked pleasantly.
"The prince is throwing a ball tonight and he wants everyone to come. That include your servant.", said the messenger.
"WHAT! He's just a measly servant!.", Judy screamed.
"Yes, I am very aware of that. However, it is not my decision to make so unfortunately, I can't change anything. Good day." Then he left.
"Jane! Jill! Get down here! We need to go shopping! The prince is throwing a ball tonight!", Judy yelled.
They both came rushing down. " We're here mother! Let's go!"
"Rei, all your chores must be done before we come back if you want to go to the ball.And you need to clean yourself and find some proper clothing to wear.", Judy said smugly. Then she left.
Rei groaned. There was just simply no way he could do all that! The ball starts at 10 and it was already 4.
' Oh well. Might as well try.'
He cleaned the whole house, chopped some firewood, did the laundry, and managed to finish at 7:24. Then he went poking around his father's room in search of something suitable that he could wear. Then he found his father's favorite tunic that was still in good condition.
' Great! Now I can wear this to the ball and I can bath the river.' he thought.
He ran off into the forest to bath. Rei made sure to wash every part of him and unbraided his hair to wash that too. As he was walking along back to the house, he was spotted by a of hungry wolves. The wolves had cornered him up in a tree.
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! HELP!"
Prince Kai was out hunting today ALONE. He had managed to ditch his guards when he heard the scream. He wondered who could be in this forest since hunters don't tend to scream "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! HELP!" He went to look thinking it was probably some dumb kid playing around and got lost in the forest. Kai saw a pack of wolves had corned a poor frightened boy up a tree. He rolled his eyes and shot at them. They scampered away.
"You can come down now.", Kai said.
Rei hopped down. "Thank you for saving me!"
"Wait a minute." Stares at Rei's eyes. "You're a neko-jin aren't you?"
Rei realized his mistake and ran off. Kai followed.
"Hey! Wait! I'm not going to hurt you!"
Kai got Rei trapped in front of a mountain.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know what you were doing in that forest." Kai said.
"I was bathing."
They went chattering away until Rei noticed it had started to get dark.
"Oh Shit! I'm in big trouble!", Rei screamed. "I'm late! Got to go! Bye!"
He ran back to the cottage and looked at the time. Damn! It was already 9:25. He spotted a note on the table. It was from his Stepmother and his stepsisters. It said that they were going to the ball and Rei that has to find his own transportation...
'Damn! I never thought about how I was going to get there! Oh……..What do I do now?' Thought Rei frantically. All of a sudden, this big weird tiger with green stripes showed up.
"I can help.", it said.
" Who are you?", Rei asked cautiously.
"I am your spirit beast. Everyone has one. We're suppose to help our masters but it can't be like bring back the dead or make someone you like like you back. Since you want transportation, I can easily provide that.", it replied.
"Do you all look like tigers?", Rei asked
"No. We tend to be in animal form and we represent what our masters are like. For example, you're a neko-jin so, therefore, It would only make sence if I was a tiger."
"And what do I call you?"
"Oh right! How stupid of me! I'm called Drigger. Oh and another thing. We can talk mentally to our masters and other spirit beast. However, we can't harm humans. We can only protect or fight other spirit beasts."
"Oh. Ok." Rei said. Then he looked at the time. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!. It's already 9:48!", exclaimed Rei. "I'll never make it in time."
"Not to worry. I can get you there before you can say ….ummmmmmmmmmmm…………….I don't know really." Laughs.
"And how do you plan to do that?", asked Rei.
"I'll show you. Climb on my back.", Drigger said.
Rei climbed on. Drigger jumped up and started to run really fast.
"Don't worry. No one can see us." Drigger assured. "I'm going to fast for them to see."
"Then she stopped. Alright. Here we are. I'll make a carriage for you to come home ok? But just to let you know, it has a two hour time limit so you have to be back by midnight ok Rei? Have fun!"
Then she went poof.