Cat Name: River
Gender: male
Rank: Wandering Adventurer
Clan: Lissidom
Age: L-112 moons
Prompt:
The heavy fog rolled ominously behind River, as Oro's caws rang through the air, coming from some distant point in the dark sky. Something's wrong, River thought to himself. His scarf flapped wildly in the air, buffeted mercilessly by the strong gusts of wind that carried the overpowering scent of damp earth and iron rust to his nose. A storm was on its way.
River had seen many storms in his time, having travelled for dozens of moons through all the different lands this earth had to offer, accepting dangerous commissions that most others would never dare to touch with a ten-foot pole, but something about this one was... different. It wasn't just that it seemed bigger than the rest, and was still growing bigger with every second. No, the smell was off. Something about the iron scent was registering a hidden memory in his mind, one that brought a bad taste with it. An ill omen.
Oro swooped down from the skies, her previously distant caws drawing nearer and nearer. As her white, dusty feathers came into view, ripping a hole through the muddy clouds, River looked up, his eyes locking onto her growing form.
"Oro!" he called.
An eerie hoot echoed through the skies, its tone relaying a slight sense of horror and terror. And soon enough, with a flurry of feathers, Oro landed on River's shoulder and let out a continuous stream of nervous hoots. Something truly terrible that way, she told him. And the scent... there was that ominous scent.
"The village we got the commission for? How bad is it?" he asked. Oro shivered in response.
With growing unease, he continued on this trek through the fog, the scent of rust and earth growing stronger with each step. But he had to investigate; he couldn't run, he had to face things head on. Whatever sights awaited him, he needed to see them and right the wrongs done, to help the poor cats who commissioned him in their time of great need. That was his duty as an adventurer. Oro took off again in understanding, flying into the dark skies ahead.
Before him, rather than the lively village he was hoping beyond hope to see, instead stretched out an enormous forest of petrified cats, their mouths parted in eternal pleas, begging for a savior. The frozen forest of souls was deathly silent, and each soft pawstep rang out like thunder in his ears.
It was terrible. River had never seen anything like this. What sorcery could this be? he wondered. The commissioner had been unable to give many details, only listing that something bad had befallen their village, and that they wanted it to be checked out, they themselves too terrified to come out and investigate. Petrified cats...
Calming his pounding heart, he boldly continued onwards and tried to collect as many details as he could about the case. The petrified souls were solid at some moments, he noticed, and pass-through at others. When solid, they felt just like a smoothed out tree, with only the slightest of indentations. When pass-through... River took a step through one, and the cold tingling wave that rushed over his body caused his body to be wracked by intense shivers for the half hour after. He started to feel like something was out there, watching him. But he persevered.
And as River stood there, he realized that the iron scent was back, and stronger than ever. It was the strongest it'd ever been, in fact, and so overpowering he swore he could even see it at moments.
As time passed, he realized that its visibility was indeed growing. As his nose started to feel like it would never be free of this smell, he could see the faint red scent trail winding through the forest. He started to follow it, with his mind and body on opposite sides.
His heart urged him no, but his mind and his dedication to his work overrode it, and pushed him to go. And so, despite his instinctual rejection of this place and the end of the path, he continued, one step at a time, almost unconsciously, into the place where the scent grew stronger and stronger.
~*~*~
At the end of the trail, he saw a river, and across it, lush trees with ripe, round fruits that had cute hanging twin tails. His mouth started to water. What was that, he wondered vaguely. And he plunged into the river, and waded over to the other side, reaching out for that fruit. It was intoxicating. And he all wanted was just that one bite, just one.
If he thought about it, the smell was the same as the rust and earth that he had smelled earlier, but he only wondered passingly about why that scent no longer seemed to disgust him. It felt like he had always breathed in this air, this scent. He let the thought go.
The scent came closer and closer, and his mind could only think of the fruit, the happiness it'd bring him. He felt some distant prickles at his paws, but he continued on. Something brushed past his fur, but he ignored it. And a quiet, nagging sound ringing in his ear. He turned his head away.
But the ringing continued on. It was sounding less and less repetitive, less and less monotonous. There was an urgency leaking through that made him wonder, and a familiarity that made him stop. The erratic, increasingly panicked caws, over and over. It sounded like Oro. Oro?
River tried to shake off the heavy haze clouding his mind, to pay attention. Oro wouldn't sound like this if it wasn't important. Still, it was hard. The dense fog in his mind faded at an achingly slow pace, and he still felt dazed, as if he was on the urge of falling back into a mindless numbness. It was Oro's caws that kept him trying to regain clarity. The sensation of pain swung in and out of his body as he struggled. At moments, it was sharp, and at others, he could hardly feel it even if he tried.
But he endured, and kept pushing onwards. And finally, he could start to see through the haze. Color he hadn't realized was missing was coming back, reds, yellows, reds, reds, reds.
It was startling to realize how much he had missed, and still more sensations were coming. His paws were bleeding, and the prickling he felt before had been thorns, large and scary. He had been walking through densely packed rows of thorns. His yellow scarf fluttered a little, but the edges were dyed a dark red. He had been wounded at some point prior, he noted. The ground was stained with a bright red, and the sickly sweet smell of something was leaking, oozing out of the red stains.
Even now, there were moments he wavered between thinking this was the most heavenly smell he had ever smelled and the most sickening one. But he pushed the illusions away as hard as he could, letting rationality take over. Oro's caws sounded a little more relieved as he looked up at her and signaled that he was fine.
And when he turned back to the front, he saw it. That creature.
~*~*~
River had seen many storms in his time, having travelled for dozens of moons through all the different lands this earth had to offer, accepting dangerous commissions that most others would never dare to touch with a ten-foot pole, but something about this one was... different. It wasn't just that it seemed bigger than the rest, and was still growing bigger with every second. No, the smell was off. Something about the iron scent was registering a hidden memory in his mind, one that brought a bad taste with it. An ill omen.
Oro swooped down from the skies, her previously distant caws drawing nearer and nearer. As her white, dusty feathers came into view, ripping a hole through the muddy clouds, River looked up, his eyes locking onto her growing form.
~*~*~
"Oro!" he called.
An eerie hoot echoed through the skies, its tone relaying a slight sense of horror and terror. And soon enough, with a flurry of feathers, Oro landed on River's shoulder and let out a continuous stream of nervous hoots. Something truly terrible that way, she told him. And the scent... there was that ominous scent.
"The village we got the commission for? How bad is it?" he asked. Oro shivered in response.
With growing unease, he continued on this trek through the fog, the scent of rust and earth growing stronger with each step. But he had to investigate; he couldn't run, he had to face things head on. Whatever sights awaited him, he needed to see them and right the wrongs done, to help the poor cats who commissioned him in their time of great need. That was his duty as an adventurer. Oro took off again in understanding, flying into the dark skies ahead.
~*~*~
~*~*~
However, when the heavy fog finally parted to show the terrible scene before him, River's breath almost stopped. Nothing could have prepared him for this sight.Before him, rather than the lively village he was hoping beyond hope to see, instead stretched out an enormous forest of petrified cats, their mouths parted in eternal pleas, begging for a savior. The frozen forest of souls was deathly silent, and each soft pawstep rang out like thunder in his ears.
It was terrible. River had never seen anything like this. What sorcery could this be? he wondered. The commissioner had been unable to give many details, only listing that something bad had befallen their village, and that they wanted it to be checked out, they themselves too terrified to come out and investigate. Petrified cats...
Calming his pounding heart, he boldly continued onwards and tried to collect as many details as he could about the case. The petrified souls were solid at some moments, he noticed, and pass-through at others. When solid, they felt just like a smoothed out tree, with only the slightest of indentations. When pass-through... River took a step through one, and the cold tingling wave that rushed over his body caused his body to be wracked by intense shivers for the half hour after. He started to feel like something was out there, watching him. But he persevered.
And as River stood there, he realized that the iron scent was back, and stronger than ever. It was the strongest it'd ever been, in fact, and so overpowering he swore he could even see it at moments.
As time passed, he realized that its visibility was indeed growing. As his nose started to feel like it would never be free of this smell, he could see the faint red scent trail winding through the forest. He started to follow it, with his mind and body on opposite sides.
His heart urged him no, but his mind and his dedication to his work overrode it, and pushed him to go. And so, despite his instinctual rejection of this place and the end of the path, he continued, one step at a time, almost unconsciously, into the place where the scent grew stronger and stronger.
~*~*~
At the end of the trail, he saw a river, and across it, lush trees with ripe, round fruits that had cute hanging twin tails. His mouth started to water. What was that, he wondered vaguely. And he plunged into the river, and waded over to the other side, reaching out for that fruit. It was intoxicating. And he all wanted was just that one bite, just one.
If he thought about it, the smell was the same as the rust and earth that he had smelled earlier, but he only wondered passingly about why that scent no longer seemed to disgust him. It felt like he had always breathed in this air, this scent. He let the thought go.
The scent came closer and closer, and his mind could only think of the fruit, the happiness it'd bring him. He felt some distant prickles at his paws, but he continued on. Something brushed past his fur, but he ignored it. And a quiet, nagging sound ringing in his ear. He turned his head away.
But the ringing continued on. It was sounding less and less repetitive, less and less monotonous. There was an urgency leaking through that made him wonder, and a familiarity that made him stop. The erratic, increasingly panicked caws, over and over. It sounded like Oro. Oro?
River tried to shake off the heavy haze clouding his mind, to pay attention. Oro wouldn't sound like this if it wasn't important. Still, it was hard. The dense fog in his mind faded at an achingly slow pace, and he still felt dazed, as if he was on the urge of falling back into a mindless numbness. It was Oro's caws that kept him trying to regain clarity. The sensation of pain swung in and out of his body as he struggled. At moments, it was sharp, and at others, he could hardly feel it even if he tried.
But he endured, and kept pushing onwards. And finally, he could start to see through the haze. Color he hadn't realized was missing was coming back, reds, yellows, reds, reds, reds.
It was startling to realize how much he had missed, and still more sensations were coming. His paws were bleeding, and the prickling he felt before had been thorns, large and scary. He had been walking through densely packed rows of thorns. His yellow scarf fluttered a little, but the edges were dyed a dark red. He had been wounded at some point prior, he noted. The ground was stained with a bright red, and the sickly sweet smell of something was leaking, oozing out of the red stains.
Even now, there were moments he wavered between thinking this was the most heavenly smell he had ever smelled and the most sickening one. But he pushed the illusions away as hard as he could, letting rationality take over. Oro's caws sounded a little more relieved as he looked up at her and signaled that he was fine.
And when he turned back to the front, he saw it. That creature.
~*~*~
~*~*~
It was vaguely cat-shaped, he thought. Rounded, for sure, but its triangular, pointed ears seemed feline. Even its short stubby paws seemed like those that would belong on a rotund kit back in a nursery.
But the long claws protruding out of those paws told another story. They were more like those of a bear, or a wolf. They were much too large to belong to even the biggest cat. And its tail... it was dripping that sickly red liquid, he noted. It was shaped like that of a scorpion, the ones he had seen in the endless sandy deserts, small and poisonous, deadly in numbers. But this was much larger than a scorpion's tail. The stinger looked deadly, a club that could kill a cat with just brute force, rather than needing the poison that real scorpions needed.
The same liquid dripped from its mouth and claws, and its eyes looked hollow and addiction-crazed. Around it lay the strange fruits, shells of the round, juicy ones he had seen upon his arrive. The remains of the twin tails the fruit had were strewn around the ground. Had it eaten all of that?
With a crimson smile, it grinned at him. And then without warning, without giving him more time to think, it pounced over. The snarls that ripped out of its throat sounded inhuman- or incat-like, he supposed. It was rough and scratchy, but there seemed to be some high frequency vibrations rumbling out with every snarl.
River did his best to dodge, and turn back to a more open area where Oro was ready to dive into battle. The trees cluttered the skies where he was; he was truly into the forest. But no matter. Batting away the scorpion-cat creature's attacks was hard, but the survival instinct and warrior's heart within him at least helped clear away the last vestiges of haziness with the urgent battle rage that was welling up within him.
His paws touched the water's edge, instantly staining the water red. He nearly slipped at the change in environment, his paws scrabbling on the rocks to keep himself upright. The scorpion-cat was not far behind, once again leaping over, claws outstretched.
He watched the creature fly closer. He wouldn't be able to regain his balance in time, he realized. His short tail swished wildly, but couldn't help him much with balance.
Then, a white figure shot through, as quick as a meteor, loose feathers fluttering in its wake. Oro!
Oro knocked the scorpion-cat straight out of its path, her claws gripping securely onto its flailing body in the air and dragging it higher with all her might, taking it further from River and allowing him to catch his breath.
He could see that Oro dropped the creature up ahead; it was too heavy to carry far or high. But the drop was enough to stun it enough for Oro to try to drag it up again for another attempt with her diminishing strength.
River leapt over as soon as he could, and pinned it down once Oro dropped it once more.
It snarled once more at him, but he pressed down its paws firmly with his own. Its tail tried to swing around and sting him, but he kept his hind paw pressed down right next to the stinger, much like he would do when subduing a snake.
"What are you?" he asked. The creature could only keep snarling, and he wondered if it was even able to understand him. He repeated his question, and received only more snarls. Further questioning was done, but to no avail.
Oro helped him use his scarf to bind the creature up, and he stood up. "Let's take it with us," he told Oro, who nodded. Dragging the creature along as he went, he arrived back at the forest of petrified cats. The little wisps of twin tails were there too, he realized. He studied the expressions of the cats around him.
He wondered if it was terror, after all. In their features laid an expression that he now noticed mirrored that of the scorpion cat; an addictive, all-consuming desire. Had they been frozen while desperately yearning for another taste of that fruit? The scorpion cat had certainly gorged itself on those fruits, and even now, made little struggles that seemed to indicate a desire to go back to the forest. Bound up as it was, though, it hadn't made much progress.
He shook his head. He couldn't get answers now, from either the petrified cats or the scorpion cat. He needed to inform the commissioner, and let them draw their own conclusions from the information he could provide.
~*~*~
River stared at the sunset, sitting alone on the grass. His thoughts wandered back to the commission he had completed, a few days ago. The commissioner had burst into tears right away, as soon as news of the petrified cats was given. He had passed off the scorpion-cat to the guild, who promised to take care of it for him. He himself was not much of skilled interrogator. If there was information to be had from the scorpion-cat, it was better off being handled by the other adventurers in the guild.
He had his own guesses about the situation. A village of cats petrified, the site of their frozen beings filled with the scent of an addictive, mind-numbing fruit guarded by a fierce scorpion-cat. Perhaps the scorpion cat could petrify cats, or perhaps the fruit's withdrawal would cause petrification. Anything was possible, but he was sure that the guild would let him know once they completed their tests. For now, that forest was better off sealed, marked as a danger zone as other adventurers investigated the ruins of the village. He had lent Oro to them for the investigation.
The guild didn't have many owls, and with such a potent hypnotic scent, the investigation team needed as much help as it could get from owls like Oro without a sense of smell. They were the only ones who could be trusted to remain clear-headed from start to finish, especially when all the others fell to their first exposure to the fruit.
In the meantime, he could rest. One commission, one storm, one chapter was complete. A new commission would come soon, he was sure. That was how life as an adventurer always was. When the time came, Oro would be at his side and they headed off together.
