Fable

Quest of the Black Cat

Chapter 1

I woke up.

My head felt dizzy. It was like I just woke up from a really long slumbering. I opened my eyes slowly, my vision was worse than ever. After a few or so, my eyes were getting to focus. Although it's not really clear, I could see people around me, well crowds actually, like thirty to forty people, some people were in white clothes, maybe doctors, maybe I got into a fight and badly injured or something. But then, I saw people with black uniform, with long-black stick on their arms, maybe they're cops, and maybe I was the one who was in charge for the crime.

The people around me began to move, slowly, backing off from me, a cop was saying something, but I couldn't hear it. It was like I lost all my senses.

Then I saw my mom, somewhere in the crowd, looking really nervous and scared.

"Mom?" I asked. The crowd screamed, the cops were getting tense, what exactly I've done too scare cops like that?

Then I'm getting all my sense back. I knew I'm in a hospital, because I was curled up in a bed, and the bed felt warm and soft, and the clean air too.

"Back off, really slowly, he's not going to attack us if we didn't do anything stupid" said a cop in the middle to the crowd behind him. Then there were thousand of flashes from camera, as my vision got clearer, the lights hit my eyes again, so I covered my eyes with my arms. I groaned, and more people, especially women, screamed.

"Hey no cameras!" said another cop who was backing away slowly.

"He likes it!" said one of the cameramen. And he took more photograph of me. Am I really, really, really that bad? I racked my brain for something, but I really don't remember a thing.

Now I could see clearer, here's what I saw.

There were people, but most of them are journalist with those giant cameras and their sickening flashes. And there were doctors, some cops, some unknown people came to watch and of course, my parents. Like I guessed, I'm in a hospital, a room exactly, with white sheet, white floor, white that and this. A window was open nearby my bed, snow was falling.

Everything seemed normal, except for the scared people around me, as though they were looking at a very dangerous criminal.

"Mom? Dad? What's going on?" I asked. Some of the people screamed and ran away, some of them stayed, even my parents. Their faces were no different from the other, except for the tears that were raining on their faces.

Slowly, I got to my feet.

"Whoa! Slow there big guy" a cop said nervously.

"What's wrong?" I asked, totally confused.

"Don't move!"

"What are you guys doing?" I asked, I was freaked out . I moved towards them.

"Stop right there! Stop! "

I stopped at my feet on the ground. It was cold, and I was bare feet.

"Good, now where's the sleeping bullet? This animal is very dangerous" a cop was saying to the others. This animal?

"What do you me-…" but I knew the answer before I even asked for it, I was looking at a mirror, and I saw myself, but I'm not looking into any human, I'm looking at an adult lion.

Eh?

"What the…" I looked to every part of my body, it was full of yellowish-fur, that must be why I didn't feel cold, and I had paws, scratch that, four paws, A long tail with hairs at its end, and a very bushy-red mane. I was looking at a shocked face of a lion, my self.

"This cant be happening!" I shouted and I roared, I didn't believe it, this must be my imagination, I looked at my hand once more, it was definitely paws, with three balls around a larger one on its center, typical paws for lion, but not me. I looked into the crowd horrors face.

"Hey what's going on?" I asked as I walked closer to them.

"Stand back I said! Don't move!" a cop was shouting nervously, pointing a shotgun at me. Crap, it was a shotgun, not a stick.

"Mom…Dad…" I groaned. The people were really scared and started to back off towards the door.

"If you moved more than three steps I'm going to shoot you!" a cop said shakily, but his face was deadly serious.

But then, I moved three steps.

BOOM! A crater was made just next to my left feet, err, my left paw. I thing I knew about that guy, he's not joking.

"One more step, and your head will be the same as that"

Lesson number one as a lion, never, ever, denied what a cop said.

I moved backward slowly, the cop gained his courage, still pointing the shotgun at me and told people to get out of the room.

Soon, there were no one except three cops, my parents, a brave young reporter and her cameramen also someone who wore a black coat.

"Give me back my son! Give him back!" my mom said furiously after a long silence. Tears leaked from her eyes.

"Nancy he's dead!" my dad said to my mom while he patted her.

"But I'm here!" I shouted.

BOOM! A second crater was made just where my tail was there before. I moved backward.

"You don't like me when I'm mad animal" the cop shouted, somehow, he gained his courage. Then someone got in, some vet I guess, he brought a black briefcase.

"Here it is!" the vet said to the cop. He opened his briefcase and took a bullet, with some wicked rainbow feathers. That would mean one thing, have a nice nap.

"We could see here…" the reporter said, "An escaped lion ate an injured boy without leaving a single part of him…"

"How could you say that?!" my mom shouted.

I roared, I couldn't just sleep here and let the police took me to some weird laboratory. I lunged at them, all of them screamed and scattered away, and I jumped towards the door, and looked over my shoulder, to look at my parents. They were terrified. I need to get out of here.

BOOM! A third carter was made above my head. I didn't need another one to know what it meant, stop right there.

I ran along the corridor, people screamed and yelped, patients ran for their life, I didn't dare to hurt them so I searched for the rooftop, maybe I could clear my head there or maybe I could suicide there, yea that would be nice. A pinch wouldn't work to wake me from this stupid dream, I need a real pain.

BOOM! CK! BOOM! Two craters were made behind me while I was running, two cops were following me, and they got nearer as I ran towards the emergency stairs.

The corridor went cross, two more cops appeared from the left and the right lane, I ran as fast as I could, I could see a door with a picture a man and a stair, I hope the stairs work for a lion.

Four cops were now in front of me, blocked the way, I roared, and I saw one cop raised his gun to me. I decided to move left, but then, it came to my mind, something, and it was saying Your left. And then I dodged into right as the cop shotgun bullets made a crater just to my left. A miracle?

I lunged at them, and they moved sideways, I didn't want to hurt them, so I prefer to scare them away. Then, it was ahead of me, the emergency stairways, thankfully, the door was open, I ran faster than ever towards the door. I passed door by door, patient by patient, nurse by nurse, doctor by doctor, and…

"Mom I don't want to be here" said a boy who was refusing to eat the medicine.

"Hey, if you say that, a lion will eat you"

And both mother and son saw me, the kid immediately drank the medicine from the spoon and closed his eyes as if her mother curse came true, on the other side, his mother fainted.

I was near the emergency door when,

"Stop right there!" a cop shouted. Damn, I thought I've lost them.

Your right. I dived to left as BOOM and another crater was made at my right side. A patient-bed blocked my path, Jump or move? Jump. I jumped for the bed as a BOOM and another crater made where I was before. BOOM and the patient-bed exploded into thousand of feathers. I knocked most of the hospital things, medicine, tools, blanket, etc. I hope they got insurance for that. Finally, I reached the door, and ran for the stairways.

Phew, how tall this hospital is? I've been running like age trough the stairs, forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, and fifty. I faced a metal door, I raised my hand, err, paw, to the door-knob, but hey, I couldn't grab them.

"Where's the lion?" I heard a cop was shouting.

"Let's check upstairs" another cop advised. The other grunted on agreement.

Ugh, I got like one or two minutes before I turned into a zoo attraction or something. I couldn't think any of another escape plan. Then another miracle came, the door opened, and a nurse and a doctor came in, giggling at each other, and when they saw me, their smiles turned into horror.

"Thank you" I said to both of them as I slipped through the door, but I received screams instead, well, bless them.

I shivered when I reached outside.

The rooftop was totally covered with snow, my paws were freezing. Snow hit my head and in no time, I wore a snow-made cap over my head.

"It's on the rooftop" a cop shouted. I panicked; it was game over.

I couldn't run anymore, do I have to give up? No. Eh? No. What should I do? There was a moment of silence in my head and then, Jump. Eh where? Jump. I could hear some voices, the cops were getting nearer, and I've got to do something.

Bong! The door opened, four cops, brought my favorite item, shotgun. Two of them raised their gun and pointed at me, Left BOOM! I managed to dodge at the right time.

"Little devil aren't you?" a cop said.

"Nowhere to run eh?" another cop said. I glared and grrr-ed at them, hoping that it would scare them away. And it worked! The laugh faces of the two cops before turned into frighten.

"Just give up" said another cop, and I knew him, it was the first cop that I met as lion.

He raised his gun so fast I could barely think to dodge, BOOM! Two bullets flew to me, one missed badly, but another missed my face by an inch. The strength of the bullet cut my cheek, and blood start trickling from it.

Lesson number two as lion, never, ever, befriend with a bullet.

Now, the cops were sneering at me, like a cat got its prey. I looked back, there's another building nearby, I could jump there, but its too far, I could never reach that. I faced back the cops.

I saw eight holes were pointing at me. Lesson number three as a lion, never look back when a man with long black stick is in front of you.

"Stay" my 'rival' said.

Stay? I asked in my mind. No. I knew you'll say that. In a swift moment, I bared my claws and slashed all four shotguns, CLANG! All four shotguns sliced to half.

"What the…" the 'little devil' cop said. All of them shocked of what just happened, that was enough for me to make a quick run before I jump.

I ran past them, and I circled the stairs, so I faced the cops again, still looking shocked, I ran as fast as I could. The hospital was big, so my run-way was long enough for me to hop. But the gap between the hospital and my landing-target was no less than twenty feet. I hope to my dear life, that I could do this. When I was running, snow hit my face like an icy little knife but I could saw New York very clearly. I could see all the shimmering light, all the tall buildings, all the people also all this and that. I wish I could remember something, or know something, this wasn't right, I'm not a lion, I'm a human, and my name is…

Wait, who am I?

But before I could answer my own question, the edge of the hospital was getting nearer.

My heart was beating fast. I heard voices from behind, I looked back for a second, more cops came, with the 'friendly-long-black-sticks'. They raised their guns, and shot at me, but no one could stop me now, I need to get out from here, somewhere safe.

Left BOOM! Right BOOM! Jump BOOM! Duck BOOM! Roll BOOM!

Now? , I asked, No. now? Not yet. Hello? Hello.

Count to three. Err…right…

One, I remember a truck, two, I remember a cat, and three, I remember, oh dear.

I jumped for about twenty feet long, over five-thousand feet in the air.