Pain was what greeted him when the fuzzy edges of consciousness begun to seep in. And slowly, Yusuf opened his eyes and forced himself up to his paws. His stomach gnawled and sent harsh peircing hunger pains every so often, it was difficult to keep his mind focused.

To him, there were two options, he could forget about the cats who dragged him out of the bushes, and look for Ezio despite telling them that he would help. Or he could hope Ezio would last without him for X amount of time while he took care of this dog issue of theirs. Neither one of those options told him about how he would get food in his belly; well the first he'd be fed at least. But, just as he was about to turn and head towards the headquarters, the words of Issak floated to his mind, "Yusuf, no matter what, when someone needs your help, you must do what you can to assist in the situation." And with them, he cursed to himself as he padded towards the edge of the roof and looked down.

It did look like a bad drop, now it would have been made easier if he could grab handholds and climb down. But a verticle slope would pose as impossible in his physical state. So he jumped down to the wooden beam that had been in his path up. When he landed, he dug in his claws out of slight fear of slipping. Then he looked to the next beam, just a yard away, it wouldn't be so challanging. He unhooked his front paws from the wood and launched himself at the next beam, and gripped with his back paws hanging off. He clawed his way on until he was standing on the narrow beam. This process continued until he reached the stack of crates, and more easily reached the ground.

Releif to be on the ground never felt so short lived.

"Hey there little kitty-cat."

He turned around and found himself facing glittering gold eyes and huge sharp teeth, and hot, reaking breath clung to his fur. Slowly, he padded backwards from this huge creature, quickly figuring out that it was a large dog. Fear made him take on a defencive stand, lowering to a pounce ready position and the fur all along his spine standing up on end. He hissed at them in a failed attempt to scare them off.

"Aw, is de wittle putty-cat afwaid?" Another teased, his glossy black fur shining in the morning light and eyes equally hungry.

"Iz thinkz you zcared himz bozz!" A different dog added with what seemed to be the canine version of a chuckle.

"Shut up," The main one barked, ears pinned back a moment before he turned back to Yusuf. "Looks like we just found breakfast."

"Hiz a zkinny thingz! Probably leanz." The third pointed out.

"Dis is gonna be yummy!" The second said hopefully.

"Youz zo immature..."

"I thought I told you two to shut up!" The first growled without looking away from the still fear stricken Yusuf. "Now where were we?"

"You were going to let me go?" Yusuf tried to joke, but found his throat dry and voice scarce. He'd turn into that tom cat he saw upon his arrival.

With that, the first bit down on him, sharp teeth puncturing his skin as he thrashed him about. Then he threw Yusuf to the wall with a sickening thud. Blood stained where he hit and where he laid as he looked up with wide eyes as the dog started at him again. WIth agony clouding his mind, he swiped at the dog's muzzle and clawed at his face, soon reaching a more sensitive spot.

"AGH! MY EYES!"

Breathing heavily, Yusuf climbed over the blinded pack leader and ran as his body trembled with exersion. He was leaving a trail of blood where he went, and it worried him for obvious reasons. What if he lost too much blood? What if something important was damaged? As an after thought, he hid away in a cart of hay as he whimpered and purred in pain...

He came to to hissing and barking, and with sharp cutting pain hidnering his movements, he stood and looked out of the safety of the haybale.

There he saw Hükümdar and a few others battling the dogs, a dead cat thrown up on the wall,the pack leader sniffing the ground. He was looking for him, the cat who blinded him. The thought brought Yusuf's fur to bristle at the thought of those sharp teeth cutting through his flesh again.

A younger cat, one who didn't appear much older than a year, leapt down and clawed one of the dogs across the neck, and then through his eyes, he jumped and did the same to the other one. Both of the dogs howled and whined with pain as they shook and tore about looking for the scent of cat, and were clearly overwhelmed by the other cat scents around them.

An idea came to Yusuf, and he jumped out of the hay, and right away, the pack leader detected him.

"THERE! THAT'S THE LITTLE FLEABAG! GET HIM!"

He hissed before running towards the docks, and then came to a skittering hault at the edge. Now came the difficult part. Behind him were the three dogs thundering down the wooden walk after him, and he stood there ready to defend himself. Then just as they were blindly about to leap at him, he lept out of the way and onto a gondela. Before the three had a chance to correct themselves, they slide off the edge and into the water, whining and yelping as they squirmed and kicked in search of land.

Yusuf merely chuckled at this. "Funny, I thought dogs could swim."

"WHERE ARE YOU, STUPID CAT!" The leader barked as he paddled around in circles in search of something to stand on.

"I'm on the docks." Yusuf lied. "You can follow my voice if you wish."

And that's exactly what the dogs did, they went after Yusuf's taunting voice and pawed at the side of the boat in attempts to get on. Once the pack leader managed a hold on the edge, the whole boat capsized, and Yusuf was taken down with it. Salt water stung his eyes as he kicked up towards the retreating surface. Then a hand grabbed at his scruff, pulling him roughly out of the water.

The cats behind him stared wide eyed in the shadows at Yusuf and the person holding him.

Now any person could see that he was in bad shape, his skin clung to his bones and some very lean muscle, chunks of fur were pulled out, and there were still all the wounds from the dog's teeth. It even hurt to be held by the scruff, as this woman was doing.

It only took a moment though until he reconized the robes to be that of one of his recruits. Elif maybe? He wasn't so sure seeing as he could hardly keep his eyes open. A moment later, he was cradled up in the recruit's arm, the small cape removed and wrapped around him to provide some warmth. The soft reassurence and the slight bob of footsteps soothed him until he let his eyes fall closed with total exhaustion.

Back at the headquarters, Ezio held his head in his hands as he stared at the glowing key that turned his friend into a cat. How would he ever change him back? Would he ever be able to change him back? He didn't know the answers.

Then there was quiet footsteps, he looked up to see one of his younger recruits, Annette, with something wrapped up in her cape, which she had taken off.

"Mentor, I heard you shouting at Yerman the other day." She told him quietly.

"Yes, I know. I think he probably told everyone by now..." Ezio sighed tiredly. He was getting too old for this.

She stepped forward. "You said it had something to do with him throwing a cat out the window?"

"Where are you going with this?" He stared at his recruit uncertainly. Had she figured out that Yusuf was the cat?

Annette shifted foot to foot as a smile crept to her face. "I think I found your missing cat."

That brought shock to Ezio's expression. How could a recruit find Yusuf when he clearly couldn't? He stood up and she placed Yusuf's limp form down on the table before pulling off the cape she had wrapped in him, letting the pink fabric fall off to reveal the sickly thin, badly beaten form laying within. Ezio's thoughts were wrapping like wasps attacking the source of their broken nest. Only two questions stuck to his mind. What happened to his friend? And will he recover?