Beware the Margay

Hey everyone!

It's been a while huh?

So to start off, for those of you new to my stories. This one's gonna be along the lines of The Beast (and its sequel). I've got another fantasy realm full of monster women for you all to enjoy. So sit back, relax and enjoy the 85k word fruit of my labour.

Take care

Monty

***

Chapter One

It was just another day in the office, like any other. You just have to be a tad looser on the definition of office. Glancing down, I was more than halfway to the top. So I still probably had a good hour before Frank and I arrived.

"Feel that breeze!" He called from above.

I looked up at the old grizzled tower climber and grinned. "C'mon old man, you keep taking rest stops, I'll beat you to the top!"

I grinned at his booming laugh as he continued on his way. Was a simple job today. Just changing a light and checking a couple cables at the top. Only issue was climbing the radio tower to do it. Five minutes of work, after a two hour climb, followed by another two hour climb back down. I fucking loved it.

Hand over hand, I climbed the makeshift ladder. The only sound other than the wind, the slight scrape of my carabiner dragging along the safety rail. I glanced up, seeing Frank at the crossmember, above, shimmying sideways. Once he was moving to the next safety rail, I clipped on my safety line, before moving my carabiner over to the one Frank just vacated. Releasing my safety line, I climbed up to the crossmember and started following my older colleague.

"Oh SHIT!" Frank yelled.

I watched his arms flailing. He must have been changing spots and slipped. I could clearly see the terrified look on his face as his torso moved further from the tower. And I leapt. Kicking off with all my strength, I threw my arms around the old man and we tumbled off the tower together. My momentum carried us to the end of my short tether, before snapping taught. Swinging back towards the tower like a pendulum, Frank slipped in my arms, and I found myself clutching his wrist as we impacted the tower.

"Frank!" I yelled.

But the old man seemed stunned for a moment. His head must have hit one of the beams. Glancing up, I could see where I was attached to the tower. The rail must have rusted from the inside, because it had snapped at the end. It was slowly bending under our combined weight and would let us fall.

"FRANK you stupid old bastard!" I screamed.

He seemed to snort and kick himself back in gear. Glancing around, he looked up, saw me and reached for the tower. He got a single foot on a crossmember and his free arm wrapped around a post, before my line slipped. As gravity overtook me and I fell away, I shot the old man a sad smile as I released his wrist. If I kept a hold, he'd come with me. In less than a second, the sound of rushing wind pushed out everything else, and I closed my eyes. I wanted to try and enjoy the feeling of freefall, without thinking about what was at the bottom.

"You're relatively calm about the situation then," A soft feminine voice said, cutting through the sound of rushing wind.

Opening my eyes, I looked around. I was still falling, the ground rushing to meet me. But... It was coming so very slowly. "That's a tad creepy."

"It is what it is, Samuel."

This time I turned and looked at where the voice was coming from. "Did I already hit the ground or something? I swear I'm meant to see my whole life flash by or something."

The being smiled. She had dark fur, sharp teeth and feline ears poking out of the top of her head. "Not yet. But that will happen eventually. I just wished to make you an offer first."

"Will it save my life?"

She paused for a moment, before shaking her head. "Not this one."

I nodded, before it occurred to me why this all felt so surreal. I was still falling, pretty much headfirst towards the ground. The wind whipped by, flapping my clothing. And yet, this strange, beautiful, catgirl thing, seemed to be lying on an invisible couch, suspended beside me.

"You meant that too," she smiled.

I frowned, "Meant what?"

"When you thought I was beautiful. It's been a very long time since I've spoken to a mortal, who could think such thoughts. Mostly they're all, AHHH SAVE ME!" She waved her hands over her head.

I smirked and shook my head. "Always had the feeling I'd fall one day."

"Is that why you have so few friends?"

I sighed, "Partially. Never really fit in to begin with."

The catgirl nodded, before offering her hand to shake. "Bast. And I'd love to be your friend."

I looked at the furry paw she'd offered. It looked somewhat dexterous. Like she could hold a knife, or eat with a fork, but she'd probably never be able to write a letter or play the piano. Reaching out at the odd angle, I took her hand and frowned as we seemed to right ourselves and slow to a stop. Hovering in the air.

"I'm Samuel, as you're already aware. But, Bast? The cat goddess of fertility?"

Bast smiled, that toothy smile again. "The one and only."

"Y'know, if I hadn't read so many isekai books, I'd be freaking out right now."

"Which is part of your charm," She said, baring her sharp fangs with a grin. "Would you care to hear my offer, Samuel?"

Glancing at the ground, I gave a small shrug, "Why not. I'm not going anywhere."

This time the goddess laughed. It was a beautiful sound, filled with the soft yowling of her feline complexion. As she calmed, I couldn't help but smile back at her expression.

"Oh Samuel, I do hope you agree," she sighed, as she schooled her expression. "I require a champion, in another world, to help... Rectify a situation I have neglected for too long."

I nodded, "Sounds very iseki-like. Are you allowed to tell me this situation, or am I supposed to figure it out?"

Bast cocked her head slightly. "I really do like you Samuel. You have absolutely no fear of saying exactly what you want, to get to what you need. I wish to bond you, as a being of my choosing, with your help of course. This bond will allow you to travel to this world as my champion. It is populated with various races. I wish for you to use your best judgment and help the people of this world."

"So, new body, new world, figure out how to fix whatever's broken?"

Bast smiled again and nodded. "Yes, Samuel."

I nodded slowly. "And, if I refuse, I hit the ground anyway, and everything's over?"

Again, Bast nodded her head. "Though I will respect your decision. Moving to a new world in a new body will be difficult to adjust to. No running water, no electricity, no modern comforts."

"Thanks for being honest with me," I shrugged. I really had no qualms about my own death. Bast was correct. I had no real friends outside of work. Even then, Frank... "Will Frank be okay?"

Bast smiled softly and nodded her head. "He will arrive back on the ground and meet with officials. Your death will be recorded as negligent manslaughter after the manufacturer of the tower is investigated for using substandard materials and practices. The resulting lawsuit will allow Frank to go on holiday in Brazil, where he will meet a young woman who will bear him a child. They will name their son after you and Frank will grow old in the arms of his loved ones. His remaining years will be filled with joy and love."

"Not even going to ask how or why you can tell me this."

Bast shrugged and shot me another grin. "Who will you tell that matters?"

Chuckling, I nodded my head. "Alright, fuck it. Where do I sign up?"

"Oh, that's easy," Bast smiled toothily at me. "I'm a feline goddess, so pick a cat and any other details you might like, or feel necessary and I'll fix up anything else I feel I need to."

My immediate thought was a tiger. King of the jungle, strength, power, cunning. But... Did I want to be like every hero I'd ever read about? Did I want to be in battle after battle, fighting to my last breath? I tossed up the idea of a cheetah. Speed, grace and intelligence. But speed was only your friend when you had the room to use it. Thinking hard back to the documentaries I watched over the years, a thought came to me.

"Yes, I like this idea," Bast grinned. "I will of course be making some changes, but if you agree, I will set your course."

"A margay then," I nodded.

It was an interesting concept. Margays were basically tree dwelling miniature leopards. They relied on skills like balance, stealth and camouflage. They were as versatile hiding in clumps of grass, as they would be climbing wet boulders and moss covered tree branches. I looked at Bast, who was now standing beside me in mid-air. Her hands moved rhythmically, while her eyes glowed a deep purple.

"Your body is prepared," she said softly.

And before I could respond, gravity took over.

"Oh SHIT!" I cried out, tumbling through the air.

I caught a glimpse of Bast, before the ground came into view. I closed my eyes before slamming into the ground with a heavy thump. I laid still, wanting to curl up as my whole body was wracked with pain. My chest ached, my nose stung and my head throbbed.

"Oh fuck," I groaned.

"That looked like it hurt," A harsh, high pitched voice hissed.

Lifting my head, I froze. Despite my pain-wracked body, I rolled quickly away from the terrifying figure. It was slightly shorter than me, with green skin, long kinked ears and a mouth full of jagged teeth. The creature was wearing what looked like a butler's outfit, missing shoes because of its clawed, three toed feet.

"Get back!" A taller, cloaked figure hissed and clicked, pulling the small creature away.

The figure moved with a strange gait. It didn't seem to bounce with any form of step. The hood of the cloak made seeing what was inside impossible. But as it pulled back it's sleeves, showing a sharp, rear facing blade attached at the wrist, I jumped.

Now, I liked to think I was rather physically fit. I had a decent running speed, I practiced jumping, and I carried myself well. But the airtime of my leap caught me completely off guard. In an instant, I was high above the hooded figure and still climbing. As I passed into the lower canopy of the surrounding trees, I flailed wildy and my fingers caught on a nearby branch. Gravity brought me back towards the earth, but it seemed my hand was somehow stuck to the branch and I swung limply under it.

"Let me go, I have to kill it!" The hooded figure hissed.

I caught a glimpse of an odd protrusion to the rear of her abdomen, but immediately lost interest when I heard those words. Throwing my dangling arm over the branch, it managed to catch as well and I lifted my leg to try and swing it over. Except... I was uber flexible. Then all at once, I remembered what I'd discussed with Bast. And like that I could see the strange mottled pattern down the fur on my arms. I hadn't been looking at myself when I saw those creatures below. I'd have to take some time to familiarise myself.

Without thinking, I sensed danger and ducked my head, as a rock smacked into the branch beside me. I felt my weight at my hips shift and caught the glimpse of a fluffy tail swinging around. I used it's leverage and momentum to flip to the top of the branch. And as I watched the hooded figure wrestle free of the smaller, I ran.

Running was... Odd... I felt extremely out of place. As a human, I ran upright in long strides. As... A catboy, I ran on all fours. Almost by instinct I knew how far apart each branch and tree was. My tail kept me steady and my head stayed level as I raced through the canopy away from the sound of the hooded creature following me. Leaping over gaps and darting under vines, I dodged a rock or two thrown in my direction. But eventually started to outpace the horror below me.

Not wanting to risk myself, I kept going until well beyond my range of hearing for whatever was chasing. Coming to a stop, I sat and leaned against the trunk of the tree I was on. I huffed and my tongue rolled out of my mouth as I tried to cool myself. The pads of my... fingers... paws... My pads. My pads formed small beads of sweat, but the rest of me was covered in fur. Speaking of. Looking down at my body. The outfit I wore to work this morning was long gone. I was nude, not that it mattered. I was covered in thick fur. As I ran my paws over my chest, I could feel the thickness of my soft exterior. I had a light colouration, with blotchy dark spots all over. I mimicked a margay's fur perfectly and while I couldn't see my own face, I imagined it was rather similar. Speaking of my face, running my paws over it, I could feel a slightly elongated nose. My eyes also felt a little too large and I wondered how my night vision would be. Moving up, I found a pair of ears sprouting from the top of my head. They were sensitive to touch and powerful as senses went. I could hear far more than I thought humanly possible. I could also hear the direction sounds came from and even their approximate distance.

Taking a deep breath, I inhaled through my nose and was stunned by the massive influx of new information. I could smell the moisture in the air, the scent of each individual tree, the herbivore shit on the ground upwind of my position. Shaking my head, I filed away that piece of useless information. You think of animals having stronger senses of smell, but it's not like everything is amplified. It's that you pick up all the subtle differences, that as a human, you couldn't tell apart. Things still smelled good and bad, but it was more like picking up a wine with hints of chocolate and cherries and taking a sip, only to find an actual piece of chocolate and a cherry in the wine.

Movement caught my eye and I wondered if the casual twitch of my tail meant anything. When I thought about it, my tail did what I wanted. It was like using your hand while it was asleep. You knew it was there and you had control if you thought about it. But otherwise it just existed as part of you. Same as my tail. The moment I left it alone, it went back to twitching and shifting on its own without my conscious input.

Following the downward trend, I frowned at my crotch. I had a pair of balls, but they were covered by my fur. My cock on the other hand, seemed to be within a sheath. I gave it a quick pat, and it felt like patting your crotch while wearing jeans, so I didn't worry too much about it for the time being. Lower still, I had human-like knees, but they gave way to the strange feet of a regular cat. With my heel held high with my ankle and my clawed toes the only part touching the ground. Then I gave my hands a quick look over. Blinking, I checked twice. Four fingers and a thumb, making five digits. Glancing down, I had just four.

"Do I have to be so accurate?" I growled, realising even my voice had a feline growl to it.

"Indeed," Base said from beside me.

I yowled in shock and tumbled backward from the tree. Thankfully there was a branch below and as it came into view, I tucked in my legs and rotated around to land on my paws.

"That was..."

"Quite well done," Bast grinned down at me.

With a sigh, I nodded my thanks and climbed back to where I was. Only now I realised how much larger Bast was.

"You chose Margay. If you'd picked a tiger, I'd be looking at you from your perspective."

I sighed, "How tall am I?"

Bast grinned, "Just over four feet tall." She gave a soft feline giggle as I yowled quietly in despair. "Don't worry about it too much. Most of the species you'll deal with aren't much bigger. The average goblin is a little shorter in fact."

I thought back to that creature, "Was that-"

"Yes," Bast said sadly. "It was pure luck they were in the area. I had no idea about the Mantid."

"That... Thing, in the cloak?"

Bast sighed, "She, and yes. Rather angry one I might add."

I nodded, "Yeah, I might just stay away from them."

"I hope not."

Looking up, I saw her smile as she vanished into nothingness. "Really?" I called softly. But no reply came.

Looking around, I decided I needed to get my bearings. Turning to the trunk, I experimentally sunk my claws into the wood and found they held rather well. Using a bear hug motion and kicking off with my legs, I quickly scaled the tree to the top, spooking a pair of birds in the process. Poking my head out of the canopy, I couldn't see very far. This was hardly the tallest tree in the area. I could see mountains all around, but the terrain itself was quite hilly. I guess we were in some kind of valley. As I scanned the horizon, I noticed a gap in the trees that snaked through the area. A gap like that was either a road or water. Either way, it was a good bet for finding what counted as civilization in these parts. There was only one problem... How the fuck was I gonna get down?

Flexible wrists. My saving grace. I'd tried to hobble down, step by step, same as I had climbed up to begin with. But it was slow and just as exhausting as climbing. I'd then taken a deep breath, and tried something else. Using my flexibility, I was able to essentially hang upside down on the bark of the tree by the claws on my toes. Then, through a combination of gravity and clawing with my front paws, I was able to shimmy down at an impressive speed. Not that, sliding down a tree head first wasn't terrifying. But I made it to the base of the tree in just a few seconds. When I was still a couple meters from the base, I released and jumped from the trunk, landing on all fours like... well, a cat.

Standing up on the other hand. "Oh shit," I grunted as I fell over.

Trying to balance my feline form on two legs was... Difficult. I could do it, but it was like trying to walk on the tips of your toes. With the help of my tail and several stumbles, I soon had it under wraps and kept moving. I catalogued everything I found. Every sight, every scent, every sound. Birds I didn't recognize chirped. Lizards rustled in the scrub and I even spotted something that looked like a large rabbit had its way with a small moose, run off when it caught my scent. The one thing that really stuck in my mind though, was how familiar it all smelled. It was... right. Every scent just fits into place like a puzzle piece. So it was glaringly obvious, when, as I stepped over a fallen log and I caught the breeze, that I smelled something... different.

I froze in place and listened, but couldn't hear anything moving. But the scent seemed to move ahead. That told me it was a ways off, but moving. I thought about running in the opposite direction, but... Oh fuck it, this is an Iseki, just like every other. Of course I'm going to find out what it is!

I started moving at a lope. Sometimes on two legs, sometimes on four, both were comfortable in each situation. As I crested a hill, I leapt up to a lower branch and frowned as the scent vanished. Leaping to the next tree and using it to jump down onto a fallen log I caught the scent again. I slowed to a stop and listened. In the distance, I could hear something moving. Blinking, I looked up and saw the orange fading light. I couldn't help but let out an excited 'YOWL!' into the darkening sky. What cat didn't like a good hunt?

By the time true darkness had set in, I could just make out the figure in the distance. I was downwind of it, and I wasn't liking what I could smell. There were more things ahead. Almost a dozen beings in total, including the thing I followed. It had slowed down, and was making clumsy attempts at stealth as it moved closer. I, on the other hand, was silently creeping through the tree branches above. Whatever it was, it was even uglier than that goblin from earlier. Dark grey, pebbled skin, with thick lower trusts and a thick, bulbous body all round. Guessing from what Bast had told me, it was around six feet tall. Typical, that the first thing I was stalking would be so much larger than I was.

The scent of a fire drifted through the air and I could make out the faint glow in the distance as we got closer. The large being I shadowed paused at the edge of a break in the trees. From here, I could smell the scent of the river nearby. Creeping silently overhead, I moved up to see the large creature's targets. Shifting through the branches, I pushed through the canopy until I made it to the edge of the trees, and looked down. I barely suppressed the groan, seeing a familiar cloaked figure sitting by the fire. I had no idea what a mantid was, but I didn't want to find out.