Memoirs of Kitty Siam Ch. 19

Memoirs of Kitty Siam -- A Wild Cat Did Growl.

The enemy of my enemy is the enemy I'll kill last. -- Klingon Proverb

Once the bodies were disposed of and the prisoners locked away safely in the dungeon, the Reeve returned to the scene of the carnage just as Teela and I were finishing our clean up. I kept my black battle suit on and my weapons close by in case any more trouble came our way. I was thankful that it had been peaceful while the Reeve and his men were busy elsewhere.

When he returned Sir Tausin like any other constable or police officer had many questions for me about the events of the evening. He had been away for several hours while his men interrogated Glena and the other prisoner. They had both confirmed my version of the night's events including the use of some unusual weapons. The Reeve's side of the conversation turned to the battle suit I was wearing. I did my best to avoid giving him exact details on the suits construction and capabilities until he seriously pressed the issue. Not wanting to be disrespectful either, I described the suit to him and compared it to the chainmail that his men wear on duty. He moved next to me and inspected the fabric noting that it is much lighter than chainmail. I explained that the fabric comes from a plant in my native land. He took that to mean a plant that grows from the ground, not a factory, which is the way, I meant to say it.

I tried to tactfully get him off the subject of my suit but he kept pressing the issue. His questions turned to the construction and the level of protection that the suit provides. That is when I asked him to take out his sword and strike me with the sharp edge of the blade. He was not prepared for this sort of challenge from me, nor was he prepared to go through with it. I wish I could have told him that my suit would protect me from blades, bullets, explosives, and particle beam weapons, but that would have been a bit too much information, instead I assured him that I would be ok, but he still hesitated. Finally after a bit more coaxing he unsheathed his sword and drew it in a slashing motion across my tummy. He could have sliced harder and used more force, but there was enough behind his halfhearted attempt to make my point about the suit.

The fabric showed a slight indentation along the track of the blade but it did not penetrate. Knowing that this would deflect and absorb the force I once again implored him to strike me hard with the sword. Once again it took some coaxing but finally the muscular Reeve stood before me drew back his sword and sent the blade arching toward my abdomen. I steeled myself for the impact of the blade and when it came I felt as if I were punched in the gut by the best boxer who ever lived. I bent over slightly and gasped for breath as the blow drove the air from my lungs, but other than that I was unharmed. Both Teela and the Reeve took me by the arms and supported me until I could stand upright on my own. Both had expected to see a bloody gash in the torn fabric of my suit but when I straightened up, there was no mark of any kind that indicated that I had been damaged.

The Reeve inquired of me if I could assist him in designing and constructing these suits for his constables. Unfortunately the answer was a disappointment to him. I informed him that the suits were hand made by the Royal alchemists for members of the Royal house and the high-ranking members of the Imperial army. I explained that the suits were a new design and had yet to be fully distributed to the bulk of our military. I closed the conversation on this matter by saying that should I find a way back to my homeland that perhaps a deal could be made with my owner and that should the occasion arise, I would put in a good word for him with Emperor Drax. He smiled and thanked me, and I knew that his thanks were honest, though I knew he would never meet Mister Drax and there would be no way that even if he survived, Mister Drax would never give up this valued technology to such a backwards culture.

Sir Tausin engaged me in conversation about my suit for a while longer until I stood up and unzipped it from the front and slipped out of it. Normally the wardrobe collar or some other similar device deploys the battle suit, so no zippers or fasteners of any kind are required. While Teela distracted the Reeve for a moment, I made a quick adjustment to the suit using the wardrobe collar and added a thin zipper to the front of the suit. As I stood before him naked I turned to the table that held my backpack, opening the Velcro closure I retrieved my nightshirt then offered the nightshirt and the suit to him to show that the weight was about equal. He looked the suit over and inspected it quite thoroughly before handing it back to me. As I took both garments from him and looked me up and down, his eyes stopping to check out my firm little breasts and hairless kitty. As I started to put the nightshirt on he stopped me and suggested that I put on a dress fit for travel as he was moving up my departure from the castle given the night's events.

I was informed that the plan not only had been moved up, but that some of the details had been changed. With the arrival of the Prince and the need for numerous meetings with the Shire's elders, the Reeve was being kept quite busy, and being that the meetings ended in the customary trip to the bath house... well, as I heard it, some of the meetings were conducted in the bathhouse. Due to all these meetings and preparations, it would seem out of place if Teela did not accompany her owner to these meetings and the ritual bathing and fornication that took place afterwards, so I was being sent on by myself which for some reason caused my internal threat meter to spike.

I looked at Teela as her owner turned and left the room; she shrugged her shoulders as if to say she had no idea that the plans had changed. I thought to myself that this is not good as I packed what little belongings I had into my backpack. My instincts told me that I should dress for battle but instead I chose a simple white dress and leather sandals and dressed myself in the same manner as Teela, Shilka and the other girls of the Shire.

When the time came for me to leave, two of the Shire's constables escorted me from the room and down the hallway. As we turned into the spiral stairwell I slung my backpack over my shoulder and secured the straps tightly as I prepared for fight or flight depending on what was about to happen. Neither Sir Tausin nor Teela were anywhere to be seen as we trekked to a simple covered wagon hitched to a single old horse. I wanted to sit up front with the driver as I had when Shilka and I traveled with the wagon train, but instead I was instructed to lay on the floor and over myself with a large canvas tarp. The driver of the wagon appeared to be a civilian. He wore no uniform, chainmail, and carried no weapons. His build appeared to be that of a farmer, not a soldier or constable. He seemed to be someone that I would have enjoyed talking with had I not been made to hide out in the back of the wagon. The distance from the castle to the outer gate was a long and winding journey that was rather smooth as the wagon's wheels traveled well in the well-worn grooves in the cobblestone streets. The bumps and such came as we cleared the keep's drawbridge and rolled along the unpaved farm roads.

Unfortunately there was no GPS system in orbit above this planet, but I was able to instruct the PDA to keep track of our journey given the time of travel, the turns that we made, and the distance between each turn. The PDA was keeping a pretty good record of my travels since I left my cave and even though it was crude, I had a fairly decent map in the PDA that would aid me in the future. With the PDA set I pulled my backpack to my head, fluffed it up as if it were a pillow then nodded off to sleep.

We stopped once during our trip for water. We were stopped outside a small cottage, the wagon's driver instructed me to stay still while he went for water for his horse and us. I heard bits and pieces of conversation as the driver entered the cottage. Most of what I could make out centered on getting water, and when the driver returned I was presented with a cup of cool water to drink. Being that my mind was in defense mode, I raised the cup to my nose and sniffed at it several times. My heightened feline sense of smell told me that the water was unaltered and safe to drink. I quickly emptied the cup and handed it back to the wagon driver.

It was another hour or so that we traveled before stopping at our final destination. By my reckoning we were about two hours from sunrise, and two of the three moons had set, the third was in the waxing crescent phase and gave very little light to the farmhouse we were stopped in front of. The wagon driver came to the back of the wagon and lowed the tailgate, pulled back the tarp and assisted me down from the wagon. My legs were cramping a bit from the long ride, and as I stood upright and looked around. Even with their enhanced night vision, my eyes could detect no movement, though my nostrils were telling me different. There were three, possibly four scents being carried on the wind as it blew in from the trees and past the farmhouse, and there was another scent on the wind that I could not identify. The short hairs on the back of my neck were bristling as my senses alerted me to possible danger.

I thanked the driver and bid him well. He quickly secured the tailgate of the wagon, bid me well and headed on his way back to the castle. I hoisted my backpack onto my back and secured the straps to my shoulders as I carefully and cautiously strode the over-grown path to the farmhouse. Nothing seemed out of order, but the scents that I had detected earlier remained as I made my way to the front door. The door was unlocked so I made my way inside quickly and closed it behind me, making sure to set the latch to lock the door from the inside. Once inside I could tell that the humans that I smelled outside had been inside as well. I was beginning to think that perhaps they were lingering odors of the people that the Reeve had sent on a head to scout the way, but there was a chemical odor that I could not identify and it seemed stronger inside the house.

I tapped my wardrobe collar and packed my backpack away for now, and set off to find my way to the backdoor of the farmhouse. The closer I came to the back door, the less I smelled of the chemical and the humans, but when I reached the backdoor it not only was locked, it was boarded up with thick planks from the outside. I tried pulling and pushing on the door but it was secure and would not budge. I turned to make my way to the front of the house when I heard a thud followed by a loud "whoosh" sound. A quickly flowing fire that sealed off the front of the house lit up the inside of the farmhouse. As I tried to race to the front door I could hear hammers striking what appeared to be nails and I assumed that the front door was now boarded shut. The fire was now racing toward me and heavy timbers had sealed both avenues of escape.

I tried several of the ground floor windows and found that they also had been nailed shut and the shutters on the outside had been nailed in place as well. I was trapped on the ground floor with a fire now rolling across the ceiling. The smoke was starting to catch up to me and I was beginning to cough violently. As the fire lit up more of the ground floor I found a stairway to the second floor and made a leap for them as the fire closed in on me. I scrambled up the steps on hands and knees but when my knees hit the fourth step the stairway collapsed and crashed down into the fire that had moved under me. As the stairs collapsed I reached out and my hands hit the sixth or seventh steps. It was hard getting a grip on the wood, as it also had been prepared with the same chemical that was accelerating the fire on the first floor.

As I hung there trying to hold on and keep from falling in the fire, my feet began kicking, trying to find purchase on anything that was not burning, but not having too much luck. As my hands began to slip and without thinking my claws deployed and sunk deep into the wood, and a powerful shudder ripped through my slender form. As my front paws dug in, my back paws dug their claws into part of the stair supports that was dangling from the upper part of the stairs. On all fours I pulled and pushed myself up to the top part of the stairs that had not collapsed and made it to the second floor as the fire consumed the fallen part of the stairway.

As I lay panting on the floor of a short hallway I had realized that something was wrong, my body just did not feel right, it felt strange and very different than normal. Through the smoke and flickering firelight that was rising up the fallen stairway I could not see my legs below the bottom of my now soot and oil stained white dress. I struggled to pull my dress up to see my legs but when I reach down I noticed that my arms were now covered with a thin layer of black fur, and in place of my hands and fingers were paws covered with fur.

I clawed at my dress and shredded it away from my legs to find that my legs were not my legs any longer, they were perfectly formed feline hind legs topped off with perfectly formed and muscled haunches, and curled over the top leg as I lay on the floor was a long tail covered with black fur. It took some concentration to force down the panic that was rising inside me, and only when I came to the realization that this was the transformation I was hoping to bring about after the first time my claws came out I was able to calm myself and focus on the fire that was burning its way up the stairway walls toward the second floor.

As I felt the burning embers from the wall fall on my tail, causing a loud guttural growl to escape my mouth. I quickly used my front and back claws as well as my mouth to shred the white linen dress away from my body. My wardrobe collar was still fastened securely around my neck as I pushed my feline body up to all fours and began searching for a way out. I went from room to room looking for an open window but could find none, and in my feline state I could not open a window as a human would. I could see that the windows upstairs had been nailed shut but the shutters were open on the outside. I suspect that those who nailed the windows shut figured that after sawing through the stairway supports that no one would make it this far.

I tried to focus and return to my human form to open the window, but the fire was racing toward me down the narrow hallway and now my exit from the room was blocked. I circled the room several times as my mind raced. I knew that the only way out was through the window and it was a long fall to the ground. As I backed up to the far wall, I was not sure of the advantages or limitations of this feline form but there was only one sure way to find out. With a quick powerful thrust I sent my 132-pound feline form in motion taking several steps before pouncing on a bed, then with a powerful push from all four paws I thrust myself toward the window. As my body flew toward the window and just as my front paws were about to hit I closed my eyes to protect them from the flying glass. The glass shattered and fell away from me and as I hurtled toward the ground I kept my eyes closed and trusted that somehow my feline form and instincts would land me feet first on the ground as I had seen so many cats before land this way when jumping from high places.

I landed on the ground on all fours with the grace and coolness expected from any cat, but as I hit I went into a roll then quickly came to my feet again and then bounded for the tree line. Being that we were between moonset and sunrise, it was still dark enough that the henchmen stationed at the front and back of the farmhouse did not see me land in the dark side yard. I made it quickly into the brush and ducked down to conceal myself from their view. After a few minutes on my tummy catching my breath and trying to answer the thousands of questions that were circling around my brain, I pushed all of that aside for now and sat up, carefully peeking my head through the brush to see what was going on. The fire was consuming the farmhouse and the roof had collapsed into a heap on the second floor of the structure. It was not long before the second floor collapsed as well. As the wooden house collapsed in on its self, a rider on horseback approached the burning wreckage and called the henchmen to him. I tried to see who it was but the smoke from the fire was drifting in his general direction, which also meant that my scent was drifting toward him and I was unable to identify him by smell. Through the sparse brush I stalked my way closer and being that I was approaching from the wrong direction, his horse got a whiff of me and started to whinny and canter in place as it sensed danger.

I thought I could use the horse's discomfort to my advantage and without really knowing how, but remembering the growl that came from me in the house I did my best to replicate the same sound, and replicate it I did. I was so proud of myself when the big cat growl came out of me causing the horse to rear back and toss its rider to the ground. If I were still in human form I would have been laughing my skinny little Asian butt off as the rider bounced on his backside on the ground and the horse raced off down the road. I still could not see or smell the rider, but from the sound of the curses emanating from his mouth, I could tell that the rider was Lord Hetch himself.

My first instinct was to break into a dead run and pounce on him with my claws out, but there were still four of his henchmen around and they were armed and armored. Being that I was not too familiar with this new form, an assault on them was out of the question. I tried to revert back to my human form with thoughts of picking them off one at a time with my bow, but all attempts to transition back failed. I was not sure if it was the adrenaline surging through my body or the inability to focus clearly on the task that was stopping the change. As I thought it over, I thought it best to make my way through the woods as planned to meet up with the coach that was to take me to the cabin. Perhaps by the time I reached the coach I would have solved the transformation problem.

As I wandered through the woods in feline form, the scent of the carriage's horse and driver struck my nostrils and led me to the clearing where they were waiting for me. As the sun rose and as I made my way out of the brush I could see the carriage with the seal of Grimsod Shire painted on the door, and to my dismay the horse had been speared several times through the neck and ribs and lay dead on the grass still connected to the carriage. Carefully I emerged from the brush and padded my way around the carriage, but the driver was nowhere to be found, until I stopped and gazed up the road. I found him hanging from a sturdy tree limb, a noose around his neck, and his hands tied behind his back. I looked around then sampled the air with my nose and could detect no one in the area. I moved down the road to have a look at the driver in the hope that I could identify him or at least understand what had happened.

As it got near him I circled around the hanging body, the ground under him was stained with his urine and fecal matter. I could see that he did not die without a fight, as there were several knife or sword wounds to his leg, arm, and torso. I sat in front of him as he twisted in the wind, and when I looked up a shiver ran through me. The facial features of the dead man were the same as Sir Tausin, but the smell was not the same. I know that Teela's owner said the driver could be trusted, and now I knew why. The driver of the coach was the Reeve's brother. His death would not sit will with the Reeve that I was certain of. Another thing that I was certain of is that the Reeve could be trusted, which I was not so sure of when I was trying to escape the burning farmhouse.