"Hello?" Kat called, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Hello?"
The darkness didn't answer back.
Huffing, she leaned against the crooked fence, putting her chin on top of her crossed arms.
...Looks like he wasn't out here.
Somehow, she was... A little disappointed.
Logically, she knew she shouldn't be-- if anything, she should probably be relieved.
She was, not to put too fine a point on it, a girl- woman-- alone in an all-kinda-male space. As somebody in that position, it probably wasn't smart to go out and try to find a weird guy...
Or another weird guy, that is.
...But she couldn't help it. She was curious... Really, really curious. Even though she wasn't, like, happy here, generally speaking, this was still a fantasy world. She wanted to know more, see more, experience more...
She still hadn't worked up the nerve to ask any beastfolk if she could touch their ears yet, even though she wanted to.
If the guy-- Tsunotaro, as Grim had insisted- had showed back up tonight... Okay, she wouldn't have asked him to touch his horns-- it was way too soon for that. She could've at least asked him what he was, though.
Obviously, she would've put it in a better way... Or at least, she would've tried to. She might've gotten a little tangled up in the words, but she didn't really think they-slash-he would get offended. Judging by that meeting-- even though it was really short-- they'd probably find it funny...
...Why was she thinking so hard about that one guy? She wasn't attracted to him, definitely- it wasn't that. And it wasn't like he was the only non-human she'd seen here... But-- most of the non-humans were beastfolk.
It wasn't that she'd 'gotten used' to them, exactly. They were still definitely strange to her, but she definitely knew more beastfolk than she knew, for example, fae... For a given number of 'know'.
So far, it was just Lilia and... Crowley? Probably?
But-- well, he was- that is, 'Tsunotaro' was- so- so... Mysterious.
...Okay, he was kind of laying it on thick there, to be honest... But she couldn't tell if it was on purpose or not.
But- whether he knew how over-the-top he was being, he was still intriguing... Intriguing, but-- not really scary.
Honestly, she felt like she was way more scared of Jack and Riddle at first than she was of him... Those twins and the hat-guy were a completely different story, though.
Sighing, Kat looked up at the night sky again.
...Honestly, coming out here to check for the guy was just an excuse.
The fact was- she couldn't sleep.
More like she didn't WANT to sleep... Or, actually, the truth was that she was way too nervous to sleep.
The Magishift tournament was tomorrow- or, hell, maybe it was today. She literally had no idea...
And, for whatever stupid reason, she and the only, like, five people she was even on speaking terms with (not counting Grim and the injured Trey) were gonna try and stop... Whatever the hell Leona was gonna try and get his dorm to do.
A whole dorm... Up against six assholes and a cat.
And one of the assholes couldn't do magic... And wasn't even good at running or anything.
...That was her, obviously.
She'd been trying to avoid this as much as she could, but...
Eh, what the hell. God knew she deserved this, with all the shit she'd been dealing with so far...
Straightening up, she turned around, stretching her arms above her head. Then she wandered back up to the dorm building, sitting down on the front steps with her head on her knees.
And she let herself crumble into a little pile of nerves and anxiety, buzzing so hard it was almost painful.
Kat knew, she just KNEW things would go wrong.
...Okay, she DIDN'T know. Not technically. But she FELT like she knew... And that was really all that mattered, at this point.
God, she hated this feeling...
Not as much as she hated trying to keep going and pretend everything was fine, though. Somehow, that would've been worse...
She'd been trying-- really, REALLY trying-- to keep it together. It'd been easier than she'd expected, for the most part. And she'd outgrown her existential dread phase... Or at least, she thought she had. But actually ending up isekai'd had been a bigger shock than she'd anticipated.
And then she'd gotten thrown head-first into-- well, all this. And all this had... Just kept happening. And now--
It was all just-- so much. All of it was.
For a while, she sat there, head on her knees and arms wrapped around her torso, and just kind of... Felt bad. She didn't cry-- this wasn't that kind of- episode, or breakdown, or... Whatever it was. She just... Felt.
And she felt for what felt like a long time.
Eventually, the feeling of exhaustion outweighed the feeling of general badness. Lifting her head, Kat yawned, pushing her glasses up and scrubbing at her eye with a fist like a child.
...Ugh, she was tired. Like, REALLY tired. So tired she could barely think... Negative emotions really took a toll on the body, even if the body wasn't doing anything about them.
She stood up, blinking as hard as she could a couple of times. Her vision was still pretty blurry... Which, she realized after a few seconds, was because her glasses were still up on her forehead.
Replacing them, she made her way inside, closing the door behind her and wandering groggily upstairs. Finding the bedroom doorknob mostly by feel, she kicked her sneakers off, leaving them somewhere on the dark floor. A blur of faint blue light was, of course, Grim, sprawled out on his back on the pillow.
Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Kat took her glasses off, fumbling them onto the bedpost. She sighed. Then she flopped over onto her side, pulled her legs up against her chest, and closed her eyes.
She didn't remember falling asleep, or even trying to sleep.
But now, she was starting to dream.
...At this point, she wasn't even really surprised. Or at least, she wouldn't have been, if she'd been lucid enough.
The mirror rippled, the darkness swallowed her up, and...
The first thing she noticed was the smell. This actually did surprise her a little-- she'd never, like, SMELLED anything in a dream before.
Luckily, it wasn't anything BAD, per se... It smelled like- like dirt.
Or earth, if she was being less casual. The really, really dry, dusty kind... The smell clung to the inside of her nostrils like it was trying to suffocate her.
She could hear more singing, too... But this wasn't a full-on, ceiling-shaking musical number like her last dream. A reedy little voice was part-mumbling, part-droning something. It sounded like the type of 'sad song' that was basically just whining to music.
Except without the music.
And the voice wasn't even that good... It kind of sounded drunk, actually. Or at least what drunk people in movies and TV sounded like. Kat hadn't actually been around any drunk people... Or at least, no OBVIOUSLY drunk people.
"--Body knooows the trouble I've seen," the still-unseen singer lamented. "Nooooobody knooooows my sorrow..."
Finally, the blackness faded away, revealing the inside of a cave. Definitely a different cave than last time... The ceiling here was a lot lower, and it looked like different kinds of stone, maybe. There was even what looked like natural light creeping in from an unseen entrance... Either moonlight, twilight or the light of a very cloudy day.
The new singer, as it turned out, was a bird. It was... Was it a toucan?
Ehh-- no... It had the right beak shape for it, but other than that, it didn't look right.
It definitely didn't belong in this cave, though... Especially since it was in a cage.
A literal ribcage.
The bones looked like it used to belong to something medium-pig-sized. One long end was shoved up against a wall, and the other end had a chunk of stone wedged into it to stop it from escaping.
There was still only one splash of color standing out in the black-and-white scene... The bird's long, curved beak was an almost reddish orange. Even that one spot of color seemed a little dull, though...
And not just that. The walls, the ceiling, the dusty floor-- if there was really a monochrome 'filter' over all this, it must've all been gray to begin with. It was just so gray, so lifeless...
Well-- shit... This sure is a depressing scene.
"Oh, Zazu-- DO lighten up," a second voice complained. Something sailed through the air, clattering against the bony cage and making the bird flinch. It was another piece of bone, sharpened to a point.
The slim, dark-maned lion-- or rather, the King of Beasts-- was there, lounging on his back on a small outcropping. He had one front paw behind his head, back legs crossed in a weirdly human pose.
"Sing something with a little..." Pausing, the King waved his free paw in a circle, gesturing vaguely. "...Bounce in it!"
Kat had never seen a beak that could crinkle up in disgust before... Until now.
The bird pulled a face, rolling its eyes. Then it took a deep breath and started to sing, in a cheerful voice that was so fake it almost set her teeth on edge. "It's a small world, after all- it's a small world, after all--"
The voice was pretty high-pitched, but sounded like a fussy little British dude... And-- the melody was... Familiar.
Hang on... Isn't that the ice-cream truck song? Or- one of them, anyway?
"NO!" The King of Beasts interrupted, whipping his head around with a scowl and a shudder. "No. ANYTHING but that."
The bird rolled its- or his?-- eyes again. "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts," he sang begrudgingly. "There they are, a-standing in a row..."
Apparently, this was the King of Beasts' fuckin' jam. He started singing along, conducting with both front paws and twitching the tip of his tail to the rhythm. In fact, he got so into it that he didn't notice at first when the bird stopped singing. "Ohhh-- I would NEVER have had to do this with Mufasa," he grumbled, slumping against the 'bars' again.
"WHAT?!" The lion demanded, pouncing down off his rocky bench and glowering into the little cage. "WHATdid you say?!"
"Oh-- nothing, nothing!" The bird squeaked, pressing himself against the far side of his cell. "I just--"
"You know the law," the King was continuing, almost snarling now. "Never- EVER-- mention THAT NAME in my presence. I... AM... THE KING!!" At this point, he even stuck his muzzle through the bars, punctuating his statement with a snap of his teeth.
"Yes-- YES!" The bird interjected frantically. "Yes, sire-- you ARE the king! I merely mentioned his name to- to... Illustrate the differences between your respective- royal managerial..."
" 'Ey-- BOSS!" A new voice interrupted. "We got a bone to pick with you!"
"Oh-- what is it THIS time," the King of Beasts groaned, rolling his eyes and pacing away from the little cage.
A trio of animals were padding into the cave... Animals she definitely recognized now as spotted hyenas. As they loped in, their eyes caught the light, gleaming like cats' eyes in the dark with a weird, sickly golden sheen.
"Look-- Scar," the one in the lead said matter-of-factly. The voice sounded female-- a very tough-girl, almost biker-esque kind of drawl. "There's no food, no water--"
"YEAH!" The one right behind her complained, scowling. This one was definitely the one who'd spoken first, and was also male, judging by the voice. "It's dinnertime, an' WE ain't got no stinkin' entrees!"
The King of Beasts rolled his eyes even harder. "For the last time," he sighed. "It's the LIONESSES'job to do the hunting--"
"Yeah, but they won't go HUNT!" The second hyena protested.
"What are you complaining to ME for?" The King interrupted. "Go..." He waved a paw idly in the direction of the bird in the cage. "Go eat Zazu."
"Oh-- no, no, you wouldn't want ME!" The bird- presumably Zazu-- protested, almost starting to babble in his nervousness. "I'd be so tough and-- and gamey, and..."
The lion actually chuckled, shaking his head like the bird had just told a wry joke. "Oh, Zazu-- don't be ridiculous," he scolded. "Why, all you need is a little..."
While he and Zazu(?) started to argue, the hyenas gave each other exasperated looks... Or at least, the first two did. The third one looked like it had nothing going on behind its slightly bulging eyes besides elevator music.
"Sheesh," the second hyena muttered, holding the back of a paw up to his mouth. "And I thought things were bad under Mufasa--"
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" The King of Beasts demanded, whirling on them with his eyes burning.
"I said Mu--" the hyena tried to continue, but was elbowed hard by the female. She flashed him a sideways look, and he winced. "I-- I said- uh... Qué pasa?" He finished.
The lion obviously didn't buy this, but didn't seem to want to pursue the matter. "Good," he said flatly, face a mask of displeasure. "Now get. Out."
Lowering their heads, the hyenas scurried back towards the cave's entrance, then paused on the 'threshold', looking back.
"Yeah, but, uh-- we're still hungry," the last speaker said meekly.
"OUT!" The King roared, voice echoing off the walls and ceiling.
The hyenas yelped, skittering out into the weak light. The sound of a panicked cackle echoed distantly, and the scene faded back into darkness.
Kat woke up.
Kind of.
...She was cold.
Why was she cold?
...Oh. Because she was still lying on top of the bedding instead of under it, that's why.
Eyes still closed, she managed to wriggle her way under the covers, plopping her head onto the pillow next to Grim.
Ahh, that was better... She was definitely nice and cozy now, thanks to those fiery ears warming it up for her.
...The dude had-- sung a whole musical number before. So why was he just, like... Moping around a cave? What was the point of him even BEING king if he wasn't gonna do anything?
The concept of monarchy wasn't supposed to be, like, a 'Bestest Boy Trophy', for fuck's sake... There were real consequences if you fucked it up.
And if he was big salty about always being compared to the guy before him, what the hell was the point of just... Sitting there and refusing to do anything? Wouldn't the smart thing be to try to outdo him?
She must've fallen back asleep, because suddenly, she was being woken up.
"Hey," a gruff voice said. A large hand touched her side, shaking her firmly. "Get up."
Giving a strangled yelp, Kat smacked it away reflexively, flinging off the covers and sitting bolt upright.
Jack Howl, in his P.E. uniform, was standing over the bed.
She blinked at him.
A few more seconds passed.
Then she gave a short, sharp scream, yanking the sheets up to her chest.
On the pillow, Grim rolled over, sitting up and shaking his head. "H-Hey-- Kaaaat," he protested, rubbing an eye. "What's with all the yellin' this early in the... Huh?"
Lifting his head, he noticed the blurry, somewhat startled-looking Jack. "What the... What're YOU doin' in our dorm, huh?"
"I was out on my morning run," Jack replied, folding his arms. "Today's the Magical Shift tournament-- so I thought I should stop by. Wouldn't want you two to mess everything up by sleeping in an' missing it, after all."
"Fuah-- hey, that's RIGHT!" Grim yelped, eyes widening. "Today's the day... Heheheh!"
Cackling, he punched the air proudly. "We're gonna catch those culprits, earn the reward an' get Ramshackle a slot in the tournament! Right, Kat?!"
He turned to her, grinning.
Kat looked at him for a few seconds. Then she looked up at Jack.
She took a deep breath.
"Get out," she ordered, voice rising with every word. "Get. Out. Get OUT. GET OUT!!!"
The out-of-focus Jack froze, head whipping around the room like there was someone else there she might've been addressing. "What're you--" he began.
"I. Am. GOING. To. FUCKING SCREAM!!" She interrupted, feeling her voice start to crack. "We. Do NOT know each other well enough for you to DO THIS SHIT! HOW THE FUCK DID YOU EVEN GET IN?!"
Jack was actually backing away now, one hand raised defensively. "Uh... The door was unlocked," he muttered, ears going back. "Look, I just--"
"WHAT DO YOU--" Kat began, then stopped. Smacking herself hard in the forehead, she hissed, clenching her teeth.
Dammit... Dammit, dammit, DAMMIT! She'd completely forgotten to lock it last night... Or this morning, or whatever. Dammit...
But-- still. STILL! SERIOUSLY?!
"Rrrrrrrrgh... It was NOT. SUPPOSED. TO BE UNLOCKED!" She yelled. "GET OUT OF MY FUCKING ROOM! RIGHT NOW!!"
Jack stood frozen for about another second. Then he... Okay, he didn't really bolt for the door. He had a little too much- what was the word, machismo? Dignity?- to actually bolt, but he came pretty close, all things considered.
"Uh-- guess I'll see you at the tournament grounds," he said, a little awkwardly. "...Don't go back to sleep, got it?"
Growling, Kat yanked the pillow out from under Grim and hefted it.
Jack ducked out of the room, pulling the door closed behind him. His heavy but somehow agile footsteps hurried away, stairs creaking as he descended them. The front door slammed shut.
Then there was silence.
Groaning, Kat flopped back onto the bed, holding the pillow to her chest. "What is WRONG with these people," she complained aloud.
...What time was it? Through the dirty windows, it looked like the sky was barely even starting to lighten...
She rubbed her face with one hand. Today was the day, huh?
Her stomach started to buzz, and she rolled over onto her side, hugging the pillow.
All the anxiety she'd gotten too tired to keep feeling last night was trying to make a comeback. She was still tired, but the adrenaline was starting to pump now-- there was no way she could go back to sleep... Especially not after that wakeup call.
Rolling upright, she fumbled for her glasses, putting them on and struggling out of the sheets. "C'mere," she said, scooping up Grim. "First things first--"
She yawned again, shaking her head. "I gotta lock that fuckin' door."
.
Author's Notes:
I'm re-listening to Discworld audiobooks ATM, specifically the Watch/Ankh-Morpork subseries, which is probably why my writing is getting... Like that.
GNU Terry Pratchett, by the way.
Anyway... The last Lion King dream sequence! Wow, we're really pulling up to the final stretch of TUFTW, huh?
Unfortunately, this means an overblot fight relatively soon, and this time I won't have the manga to go off of.
...Hoo boy.
Well, I'll figure it out, I guess. And I do still have Seekers Of The Spark and A Day With Sebek if I really can't figure out what to do with it until either the novel or manga gives me something to work with.