Through Kat's closed eyelids, she saw the dusty mirror above the fireplace shimmer. Rippling with light, it drew her in into darkness.
...Oh, good. She was dreaming again.
This time, as the monochrome scenery faded in, it looked like the inside of some huge, rocky cavern...
And, apparently, she'd been dropped right in the middle of some kind of musical number. Because... Why not, right?
"--So prepare for the chance of a lifetime," the singer belted proudly in a dry, sophisticated British accent, pacing back and forth on top of a ridge of stone. "Be prepared for SENSATIONAL news!"
The singer...
It was a lion.
For... Some reason.
This-- definitely wasn't the lion from her other dream... This lion had a rangier, longer build than the first. That wasn't to say that it wasn't intimidating, though...
In fact, it-- or he, judging by the dark, coarse mane rippling across the thin shoulders-- was... Kind of scary. The way he moved, the taut, sinewy muscles flowing beneath his hide... And his eyes.
Sharp, cunning, wicked... And a pale scar slashing diagonally across his left eye. Well-- that was familiar...
"A shining new era is tiptoeing nearer," he continued, shaking his mane back.
"And where do WE feature?" Another voice-- sardonic and possibly female-- complained.
Kat realized there were... Other animals in the cavern.. A crowd of them, milling around in almost an 'audience', looking up at the lion. They were roughly dog-shaped creatures with spotted hides, large ears and short, rough manes along their spines. One of them-- presumably the one who'd just spoken-- sat towards the front of the crowd, scowling up at the singer.
"Just listen to teacher," the lion almost purred, crouching at the edge of his 'stage' and smirking down at the other animal. "I know it sounds sordid, but you'll be rewarded when at last I am given my dues! And injustice deliciously squared--"
Tossing his head back proudly, he sang at the top of his lungs, so loud it almost sounded like an entire chorus was joining in with him. "--BE PREPARED!"
The crowd of... Of animals... God, what were these? She couldn't think much during her dreams, and this one was no different, but she swore these creatures were familiar to her...
Whatever. The crowd of animals, whatever they were, were getting more and more worked up, starting to pace and skitter.
"Be PREPARED?" Another animal asked, cocking its head. "For what?"
"For the death of the king," the lion replied dramatically, head still tilted back with his eyes closed.
"Why, is 'e sick?" The animal asked, looking more and more confused.
Looking back down at his audience, the lion rolled his eyes, looking disappointed but not surprised.
"No, you fool-- we're gonna kill him," he snapped. "And his son, too! And then I--" Squaring his shoulders, he put a paw to his chest, tossing his head again and swelling with pride. "--Will be king!"
On cue, the dark, eerie cavern was suddenly illuminated. Golden light bathed the walls, casting the lion's shadow behind him, larger than life. "Stick with me," he continued, voice echoing dramatically, "and YOU'LL NEVER GO HUNGRY AGAIN!"
This made the gathered animals absolutely lose their shit. Jumping up and down, running back and forth, pouncing and playfighting with each other, they erupted into a cacophony of shrieks, cheers and cackling laughter.
"YEAAAAH!"
"ALRIGHT-- NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT! LONG LIVE THE KING!"
"LONG LIVE THE KING!"
"LONG LIVE THE KING!"
Kat could practically feel the sound of the cheering crowd bouncing off the insides of her head, making it throb.
The lion smirked proudly, basking in the sounds of adulation for a few moments before continuing to sing.
"So be prepared for the coup of the century-- be prepared for the murkiest scam!" He declared, starting to pace again. "Meticulous planning-- tenacity spanning-- decades of denial-- is simply why I'll..."
Rearing back, he stuck his chest out again, voice rising above the absolutely deafening sound of the other animals.
"Be king-- undisputed! RESPECTED! SALUTED! AND SEEN FOR THE WONDER I AM! Yes, my teeth and ambitions are bared-- BE PREPARED!"
This last stanza was echoed by the crowd of animals, in a chorus that was, somehow, even louder than before. "YES, OUR TEETH AND AMBITIONS ARE BARED..."
"...BE PREPAAAAAARED!!"
The last thing Kat saw was the lion's face, lips curling into a cold grin full of sharp teeth. His eyes gave a single glint of green-- like emeralds catching a sliver of fading light.
I-- I know it's... Kind of a trope, but.. Why'd he wanna be king so bad? Does being king get you any benefits that he wouldn't already have, just by virtue of being an apex predator? He's-- literally at the top of the food chain as-is, so...
Kat realized, suddenly, that she was awake.
Not FULLY awake-- she'd literally only just woken up. She was still in the groggy, drowsy, almost-falling-asleep-again stage, but awake nonetheless.
"Mmm," she mumbled, rolling over onto her side and curling up, pulling the bedding over her head.
Ugh-- gooood... She hated waking up. She hated getting up early, she hated it, she hated it...
...She'd dreamt about animals again last night.
Maybe it was because of the events of yesterday that she couldn't catch a break from hordes of predators, even in her sleep.
Eyes still closed, she mulled over the memories of the dream. There had been-- a lion... A different lion from her first dream, definitely.
The first one-- it wasn't really like she could compare, but the first one had seemed a lot bigger... And-- healthier? Kind of?
The new lion, though... Dark mane, slim, lean build, and frighteningly intelligent eyes... One of which was crossed with a scar.
Just like Leona...
And-- the other animals. Were they... Hyenas?
Yeah-- they were probably hyenas, she thought. The D-and-D gnolls were based on hyenas, right? And-- yeah, the animals in her dream looked about right. For spotted hyenas, at least... The striped ones had funky lil' mohawks on their backs, and were kinda built like that German Shepherd with short-spine syndrome she'd seen on the internet one time.
...There were a lot of them, though. The hyenas. Hundreds... Maybe even a thousand, at the very most. Rows of spotted backs, large, almost batlike ears, canine tails...
...Wait.
Frowning, she held up a mental image of the swarm of beasts, examining the shape of the ears and tails.
Then she held up another image next to it-- Ruggie, grinning out at her from the darkness behind her eyelids.
...They were the same.
Sitting up sharply, she threw the covers off over her head, eyes flying open as she stared at the blurry room.
"...He's a fucking HYENA," she said out loud.
"Oh-- hey!" Grim's voice enthused, and she looked around to see him padding back across the room, paws on his hips. "You're up, huh? Good timing-- breakfast's waitin' for us in the cafeteria! Hurry up an' let's go, okay?"
Grumbling loudly, Kat rubbed a hand over her face, fumbling for her glasses on the bedpost. "Ugh... Alright, alright, just--"
She yawned. "Just gimme-- five minutes, okay? Or-- ten at the most... Ugh."
"Okay," Grim replied, hopping up onto the bed and dropping onto all fours for a big stretch. "Hey-- what'd you say just now? WHO'S a hyena?"
Kat paused in the middle of putting her glasses on.
"...Nevermind," she muttered. "I'll-- tell you later..."
She wasn't a hundred percent sure yet... Maybe she'd stop by the library today to find, like, an encyclopedia or something to check.
"Anyway-- I gotta get dressed, so go wait downstairs or something..."
"Okaaaay," Grim chorused, hopping back down off the bed and padding over to the door. "Open the door for me, 'kay?"
"You are such a cat," Kat sighed, putting her glasses on and swinging her legs off the bed. "Here you go..."
Shuffling over, she opened the bedroom door, letting Grim slip out and bumping it closed with her hip.
Walking towards Main Street, Kat gave another sullen yawn, pushing her glasses up and rubbing her eye.
"Jeesh-- you still tired?" Grim, on her shoulder, asked. "Didn't get enough sleep, or what?"
"I guess you could say that," she grumbled, replacing her glasses and shaking her head. "I mean-- I'm not really a morning person to begin with, but... God. Yesterday was a fuckin' nightmare..."
How had so much stuff happened in just one day? The blot 'lesson', Trey's accident, the twins, Savanaclaw... Was it any wonder that she ended up having such weird dreams?
"Well-- maybe you wouldn't be so tired if you didn't get up an' wander off somewhere in the middle of the night," Grim continued, smirking.
Kat shot him a flat, disappointed look, which didn't seem to do much.
"Where DID ya go, anyway?" He continued, swiveling an ear and tilting his head. "I woke up, an' you weren't there..."
Kat gave him another look-- this time, a more puzzled, slightly suspicious one. "Huh? Whadd'you mean? We talked about it when I got back, remember?"
"We did?" Grim asked, looking surprised.
"Uh-- yeah," she confirmed, nodding. "We did... After I showered, remember? About the guy?"
Now it was Grim's turn to give her a suspicious look. "The... Guy?" He repeated. "What guy?"
"The weird guy with-- do you seriously not remember?" She asked. "I drew a whole-ass picture of him-- we had an ENTIRE conversation about it!"
"Drew a-- ohhh," Grim mused slowly, nodding. "Riiight... Yeah, I kinda remember that... I thought it was a dream, though... Huh. So? What DID happen?"
Shaking her head, Kat rolled her eyes. "I went out to get some air, and-- there was a guy out there," she explained. "A pretty weird guy, actually-- super tall, talked like a... A renaissance fair actor? And-- he, or they, had... Horns. Like, on their head."
"Horns?" Grim repeated. "A weird guy with horns on 'is head... Ohhhh! Okay, yeah-- I guess that DOES kinda ring a bell..."
Rolling her eyes again, Kat stepped out onto Main Street.
The wide path was already buzzing-- students were strolling back and forth to and from the castle, chatting and laughing eagerly.
"So?" Grim asked, raising his voice a little over the chatter of milling students. "What was the dude's name?"
"He didn't tell me it," she sighed. "We talked about it last night, but whatever... He said I should call him with a name of my choosing-- a nickname, basically? And-- you came up with 'Tsunotaro', remember?"
"Tsunotaro?" Grim repeated. "Ohh-- yeah, that's right, I DID!"
Grinning, he cackled a little, puffing out his chest proudly. "Man, I really AM a genius-- comin' up with a name like that, even when I was half-asleep!"
"But-- okay, I mean, it is catchy," Kat mused, tilting her head. "But... I'm not really sure they'd... Appreciate it? Doesn't really... Fit the whole-- elegant man of mystery thing he had going on... Maybe I should pick something different."
"Tch!" Grim scoffed, pouting. "No way-- if I picked 'Tsunotaro', then he's gonna be 'Tsunotaro'! If you say somethin' like 'a name of your own choosing', then you don't get to complain when the name's not a HUNDRED percent to your liking!"
"Alright, alright," Kat relented. "Tsunotaro it is... I-- don't even know if I'm ever gonna see him again, though, so... There is that."
"Well-- if he was on campus, then that means Tsunotaro's probably a student here, right?" Grim grinned. "Who KNOWS when we might run into 'im! If we do, you better introduce me, okay? AND tell him I came up with the killer nickname, too."
"I'll-- do my best," Kat sighed.
Catching sight of something out of the corner of her eye, she slowed to a halt.
...She was standing in front of the statue of the King of Beasts.
A lion... A slim, lean lion with a long face, and lurking, slinking sort of posture. He was standing tall and proud on the pointed tip of some kind of cliff, and...
He had a scar.
A scar across his left eye.
...She'd-- dreamed about this lion last night. This exact lion-- the- the King of Beasts...
But-- why? How?
At first, she'd thought that, maybe, she'd like... Turned Leona into an actual lion in her mind. A lion with-- a completely different personality and mannerisms... The one in her dream was elegant and almost theatrical, with a sophisticated, menacing British accent that Leona definitely did not have. But-- this statue, it was...
A throb of pain interrupted her thoughts, making her wince and squeeze her eyes shut. Ow-- oh, god, not again...
Grim, still on her shoulder, didn't seem to notice her moment of discomfort. "I ain't NEVER seen a human with horns before!" He continued, grinning eagerly.
Shaking her head, Kat turned away from the statue, starting to walk up the path again. "I'm-- not sure he WAS a human, actually," she said slowly. "He-- aside from the horns, he had pointy ears... And fangs."
"Fangs?" Grim repeated, flicking an ear. "What, ya mean like Crowley?"
"Yeah- pretty much," she replied, shrugging. "Oh-- his ears were actually longer, though.. I dunno why."
"Hey, hey!" A cheerful voice called over the sound of the early morning crowd. "Prefect-chan-- good morning!"
Turning, Kat blinked, spotting the crowd parting for Riddle, with Cater jogging along next to him. Winking, Cater gave her a wave, which she returned with a nod and a smile.
"Yes-- good morning, Kat," Riddle nodded. "And Grim as well, of course..."
Stopping in front of her, he gave a small bow, straightening up and putting his hands behind his back. "You're well this morning, I hope?"
"Yeah-- more or less," Kat shrugged, smiling. "Still pretty tired from yesterday, though..."
"Yes-- I can imagine," Riddle said, a frown flickering across his face. "Cater, Ace and Deuce informed me of what happened when they returned... Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Kat assured him, waving a hand. "Really, I think I should be more worried about Cater, though... How are you? Not too banged-up?"
This last part was addressed to Cater himself, standing nearby and watching the two of them with a smile.
"Aw, shucks-- I'm fine, Kitty-Kat!" He grinned, giving a two-fingered salute and another wink. "It'll take more than THAT to get to ol' Cay-kun here, don't you worry!"
"Hm?" She heard Riddle muse, and looked back over at him. "Kat-- your tie is a bit crooked... May I?"
"Huh? Oh!" She said, blinking. "Oh-- y-yeah, sure, go ahead."
Nodding, Riddle stepped forward, reaching out and beginning to adjust the loose, floppy bow of her tie.
"A disorderly uniform belies a disorderly dormitory, you know," he informed her. "As Prefect, you should strive to set a proper example for your dorm students... Even if you only have the one."
He eyeballed Grim briefly, then stepped back, brushing his hands together with a smile. "There," he declared. "Much better."
Looking down at her chest, Kat blinked at the suddenly much neater bow.
"That's very sweet of you, Riddle, but... Have you seen where I live?" She asked, looking back up at him. "Disorderly is-- well, it's probably one of the NICER things you could say about it."
Riddle shifted a little, coughing politely into a fist. "Mmm-- yes-- well." He muttered. "I suppose you're right, but-- no harm in trying to better oneself..."
Shaking her head, Kat laughed quietly.
On her shoulder, Grim looked around, swiveling his ears. "So," he said after a second. "Where ARE Ace an' Deuce, anyway? They ain't with ya?"
"In accordance to the Queen of Hearts' Rule Number 249, it is their turn to feed the flamingos whilst wearing pink," Riddle replied.
"Pfft-- HEH!" Grim cackled, smirking. "Pink, huh?! Man, wish I coulda' seen that-- OW!"
Kat had bopped him sharply on the top of his head. "What is your problem?" She asked flatly. "Pink is literally just a color."
"Yeah, but," Grim complained. "I mean, for THOSE guys-- OW!"
She'd done it again. "It's. A fucking. COLOR," she repeated. "There's nothing 'funny' about guys wearing pink-- it's literally just a color. Which also happens to be my favorite, by the way. I didn't come out the other side of my 'not-like-other-girls' phase swinging to tolerate any pink slander in my presence."
"Geez-- okay, okay," Grim grumbled over the sound of Cater's stifled laughter, rubbing his head. "So-RRY..."
"Oh-- yes, by the way," Riddle said, turning to Kat again. "It seems--"
Looking around at the other students, he frowned, then leaned in a bit closer. "It seems there was another incident last night," he breathed.
"FNYAGH!" Grim spluttered quietly, bristling. "F-For real?!"
"Oh, no," Kat murmured, putting a hand to her mouth. "What happened?"
Cater came over, lowering his head. "According to a portrait who saw it, the victim was a second-year from Scarabia House-- Jamil Viper-kun," he said quietly. "Apparently, it happened in the kitchen."
"Oh," Kat said, blinking again. "Okay... Scarabia, um-- which dorm is that? The one with the..."
She wracked her brains. "...Red-and-gold armbands? Is that it?"
"Yep!" Cater confirmed, nodding. "Good job rememberin', Kitty-Kat!"
"Indeed," Riddle nodded as well, folding his arms delicately. "It's breakfast time, so he may be in the cafeteria... Let us go and investigate. Perhaps he'll speak to us..."
"Right-- good idea," Kat agreed, nodding. "Okay..."
She started to walk again, with Riddle and Cater next to her.
Heading up to the castle, something else caught her eye-- and she paused briefly.
The last statue on Main Street... The... The-- Thorn Fairy?
A tall woman, with an elegant face, incredible cheekbones, and... Horns.
Well, maybe horns. They could still have been one of those medieval hats-slash-cowls... But-- they... Might have been real.
She-- the Thorn Fairy-- actually... She actually looked a lot like the guy last night. Or-- he looked like her, rather.
The resemblance was-- uncanny...
"Hey, Kitty-Kat-- whatcha starin' at?"
Blinking, Kat turned her head, seeing Cater grinning at her again.
"Oh-- sorry," she apologized quickly, shaking her head. "I just-- got a little distracted..."
Hurriedly, she started walking again.
Cater, however, didn't seem to be content, speeding up his own pace a little to catch up with her. "Were you looking at the Thorn Fairy's statue?" He pressed, waggling his eyebrows. "She's a stunner, right? I always thought so, anyway-- she's at least on par with the Fairest Queen, right?"
Kat felt herself blushing a little. "Y-Yeah, I guess," she muttered, adding another slight boost of speed to outpace him.
Putting her head down, she tried to ignore the feeling of his mischievous smirk burning against her back.
.
Author's Notes:
...It was hard to figure out how I wanted to do the 'Be Prepared' dream sequence, 'cause-- I felt like it needed a little more explaining to make sense, without falling back on 'everybody knows the plot of The Lion King'. And some of the lyrics, I feel like, offer a little bit of insight into Scar, and thus Leona's, mindset, so...
Therapy Simulator. You know.
(Also, 'Be Prepared' goes hard AF. Easily one of the top villain songs of all time.)
Cater's gaydar's been pinging this whole time. He wants confirmation.
...Getting back into Critical Role and. I had a dream that it was announced that Matt Mercer would be voicing Malleus in the English dub of the anime.
...He would actually do a KILLER Malleus, though. Look me in the eyes and tell me that's not true.
...Honestly, who WOULDN'T he do a good job for, though? Really only, like... Epel, Ortho, Riddle, and maaaaybe Cater. And mostly only because I think Epel, Ortho and Riddle need to have a higher... Base voice? I guess?
Maleficent is hot and if you disagree you are wrong. Pressing the family resemblance with her and Malleus because... They're deffo related. You can't convince me otherwise.
(CHAPTER 7 SPOILERS BELOW)
She's not his grandma (rip that theory) but she might be his grandma's mom, or grandma, or something.
This... Puts a little bit of a damper on my... Not really 'theory', I guess, but... I am CONVINCED that Lilia got that acorn bracelet or whatever from Aurora. I am CONVINCED.
So... Yeah, IDK how the timeline works, exactly. Unless he got it from Aurora when he was just a kid himself, maybe?
(Watch the next Chapter 7 update completely SINK that theory, lol. Bet you... a quarter.)