Amor Fabula Ep. 05

She pulled away, taking one last look at him over her shoulder. Then she leapt, she actually leapt, into the air. When she landed, it was on feline legs that propelled her far into the brush and trees. Her cat army fled with her.

"Wham, bam, thank you ma'am, and thank you very much!" The old man grinned. "Ya'll come back now, you hear!" He was grinning as he composed his clothes, but he stopped when he saw his faithful pet lying there, still in cat form. He looked back in the direction his cat lover had gone. "Can I have my dog back?"

No reply was seen or heard.

"Well, shit." The old man grumbled. "Come on, Rambo. Let's go home."

The humiliated former dog whimpered and followed.

The old man was bouncy and happy as he returned to his house. He walked a lot faster than usual. He attributed all of this good feeling to the fact that he hadn't gotten laid in a good while. When he walked inside, he made sure Rambo came in with him.

"I need a shower, boy." He said, shedding clothes all over so he'd end up naked when he got to the bathroom. He didn't care where the clothes landed, as nobody lived with him to complain about it.

The old man was a little dumbstruck, when he took his first look into the mirrored front of the medicine cabinet. He looked ten years younger, at least.

"It's an illusion." He decided. "I'll wake up from this fantastic dream I just had, and everything will be back to normal. You hear that, Rambo? Come morning, you'll be your old self again." This disheartened him a little bit. "And so will I."

After his shower, he fed his pet. Rambo was okay with eating dog kibble, despite that he wasn't a dog anymore.

"It's late." The old man scratched his head. "We must have spent the entire day out there, huh? I could have sworn it was only a couple of hours."

As he made his way to bed, Rambo followed, as if the animal was scared of sleeping alone. The cat jumped on the bed and curled up next to its master.

"Tomorrow, you'll be on the floor again." The old man told it. "I'm only making an exception tonight because I'm dreaming that some witch cast a magic spell on you. You'll see, everything will be right side up again when we get up."

Past midnight, the old man was woken up by a loud, angry mewl. It scared him for a good second, until he remembered that Rambo was no longer a dog that could bark.

"What is it, boy?" The old man asked. "What are you scenting out there?"

The cat did not leave the bed; it would be up to the old man to find out. He went to grab his shotgun, until he remembered he'd left it out there in the woods.

"I've got to remember to go grab it tomorrow." He grumbled, already frowning at the long walk his tired legs would have to go on. He left the bed and ambled his way over to click the light on.

Rambo jumped off the bed. The old man followed it through the house, toward the back door. It stopped just as it had been trained to, sitting up and facing the direction he'd caught the scent coming from.

"Too bad you can't bark anymore." The old man grumbled. "You can annoy the shit out of anything when you get to barking like you do."

He turned on the back light and peered out a window. Out there behind the house, he saw two cat-women instead of one. The orange ocelot was there, ahead of the other. The second cat-woman had darker fur. She looked like a different kind of cat, maybe a lynx or something, but the old man couldn't be sure. He'd have to think about all those animal shows he watched, because he didn't think lynxes had dark fur like that.

"Looks like she brought a friend along." The old man chuckled. "Didn't I tell you, Rambo? Didn't I tell you I was going to give it to her good?"

He unlocked his back door to let them in.