Fang zigged and zagged through the maze with the frantic energy of a roadrunner in a cocaine desert. He zipped between the legs of the blue-robed woman, scorched a hairpin turn into the grass when the flutter of a leaf in the wind reminded him of a butterfly, barely teleported in time to avoid splashing into a fountain, dashed across an ashen line burned into the maze, flickered out of a cage of grass that surrounded him, rebounded up off of a hedge when he decided he wanted to be closer to the sun, set the green-robed man’s hair ablaze while using him as a springboard, remembered the wall in the air just in time to flip and bounce off of it, darted away from a blast of golden fire that incinerated the hedges in front of him, stopped for a split second to admire a topiary shaped in a way vaguely reminiscent of his glorious feline form, ran circles around a central courtyard filled with every color of flower, ran away from the small fires that some maniac had spread all over the flowers, chased his human’s bond for healing scritches, ran into a wall.

…

Fang looked in confusion at the hedge in front of him. The way the leaves clustered to stop him meant it hadn’t really hurt, but it had been enough of a shock to snap him out of his hyperactive zoomies fugue. Fang tried to ghost through the wall again, and was again stopped by the soft green leaves. It was only then that he realized what was missing. Fang couldn’t feel his sunshine.

That inner warmth of safety and power that he’d felt ever since his first taste of flashy sunshine bird, that had sat like a miniature sun in his chest ever since it condensed there, was suddenly cold and absent. Fang shivered, fur standing up as he looked around at the tall, looming hedges casting the passage between them in shadow. He slunk along the passageway, body held low to the ground and tail out straight behind him, ears twitching at the faint sounds of fire and angry shouting. He ran into a dead end first, followed by turning back and following a couple blind turns. Before long though, he found a passage aligned just right, towards the sun, such that the sunshine actually reached the grassy floor.

He settled down against one of the hedge walls, hiding his paws beneath him and curling his tail around the side as he let his eyes drift closed. He did his best to tune out the distant sounds which would have been scarily intimidating to someone with less mental fortitude than a cat, and tried to focus on sunshine. Warming his fur, turning the darkness behind his eyelids dark red, and slowly trickling into him in that strange other way. As he focused, he also noticed another faint trickle of sunshine flowing the other way, filling his body from within. He focused on it, and followed the flow back to his core, that hard little marble inside him that was utterly his. He gently prodded it with that intangible extra limb he used to control his blue box minions and extra legs, pulling the rays of sunshine that had started to pool in his core out into his body, feeling the warmth settle into him the same way as the warmth of the sun settled into his fur, lingering and slowly spreading out.

Fang purred, relaxing as the familiar warmth returned to him, and something thrummed within his core. A new ray of sunshine formed, but rather than pooling like a spot of sun peeking through a tree, it vibrated apart, spreading its warmth out from the core like a candle. Fang’s purr ended, and the next ray of sun pooled normally as he breathed in, the rest of his sunshine slowly seeping back towards his core. Then his next purr started, the sounds filtering through the maze forgotten in light of the pleasant warmth suffusing him. It pulsed outwards again, the little pool of sunshine in his core spreading out.

Previously, any time Fang had used his ethereal limb to push his sunshine out into his body, it had flowed back the moment he stopped holding it, but now he felt like if he just-

A blast of bright light and hot air washing over Fang’s face jolted him out of his sunbathing and had him springing upright. The area just a few feet in front of him had turned into a streak of eye-dazzling golden flames, and a pair of glowing, slitted eyes emerged unscathed from the fire, resolving into a familiar face. “Finally done running?” Aurelia asked, one hand half-raised and a vaguely manic grin matching the glint in her eyes as updrafts from the fire lifted stray strands of hair around her head.

Fang was rather conflicted by the sight in front of him. On the one hand, Fire. A clear sign that he should run away at top speed. On the other hand, that strange cat was back. Babbling in human sounds and walking around with clothes instead of fur was one thing, but no cat should be so mentally deficient as to stand in a fire. It was frankly an insult to the entire feline race, a deficient member of his community who needed to be put right.

Ultimately what decided it for Fang was that he was feeling lazy. He’d just had a good session of zoomies and was in the middle of settling in for a nap when this uneducated mutant cat had interrupted, he didn’t feel like running. Besides, the flames didn’t appear to be spreading, and despite the stupidity of the act, the cat-person had just walked through them. Maybe these flames weren’t as dangerous as those he’d encountered in the past. The woman wasn’t standing in the flames currently anyway, so Fang strode towards her.

The heat wafting off the flames got a little uncomfortable as he got closer, but the sunshine inside him seemed to resonate, almost pleasantly pressing out against his fur without his input as he got closer, so he ignored it. When he arrived at the blonde’s feet she still hadn’t moved, aside from making some more human babbling.

Fang thought for a moment about how to educate this wayward kitten. Her head was a bit too high to easily swat, and she didn’t seem to properly speak cattese anyway. He elected to stride past her, towards the fire. It wasn’t spreading, and he stopped well before the heat got to the point of discomfort. No burning tail for Fang thank you very much.

Well aside from the strange way the tip painlessly burned even now. But that was just part of his feline glory now. He turned around, and kicked some dirt at the fire, the same way he would after filling his litterbox. Even Alice understood that gesture, indicating his disdain for the flames and the fact he wanted nothing further to do with them. The small-person-cat had turned to face him, as she should. Proper feline magnificence demanded witnesses after all, no matter how small the act. Fang trotted back up to her, tail held high, and then reared up onto his back legs, planting his front paws on her shoulders.

The mutant cat was tall, but Fang could become quite a long cat when he wanted to. He had quite a bit of experience with this as well, after all, he had to inspect the preparation of the offerings Alice gave him, and the counter was just a bit higher than this cat’s shoulders. Fang meowed pointedly at her, showing off his well-developed, battle-scarred fangs, demonstrating that he was a proper cat and should be listened to. Then he lightly bit her nose to chastise her for her carelessness in walking through fire.

Lesson delivered, Fang returned to the proper mode of standing, and headbutted Aurelia’s waist, nudging her away from the fire. She made some more human babbling but did start walking. Fang attempted to correct her with meows and nudges, but she seemed resolute in her adherence to the human nonsense that she spoke. At least it was better than talking to a dog. She actually stopped speaking when Fang meowed, as though listening, even if his hopes of her understanding were dashed every time she replied.

Once they left sight of the fire, Fang kept walking with the woman. He’d had rather enough of sprinting around for now, and craved a good sun-nap. But the hedge maze had no good sunning spots, and the one location he’d found had been set on fire shortly thereafter. The mutant cat seemed to know where she was going, and the area around her felt almost like the air was giving him sunshine in the same way as his human, only with a much less pleasant, more burny taste, and without the scritches.

Fang tried nudging the cat’s hand, but as expected, she didn’t know how to respond. Truly a terrible fate, all the worst parts of being human and none of the good ones. Probably would have had the worst parts of being a cat too, if there were any. Fang would have to be very careful with his blue boxes to avoid becoming anything like her.

Eventually, they left the maze, and returned to the large field that had replaced his sunning-stone clearing. The tall buildings surrounding it cast shadows over most of the field, and the stones on this side didn’t have the same weathered, vine-covered look as his real sunning stone. Perhaps the big-cat-girl was leading him to a nice, warm sunning spot. Or at least to his humans for some sunlight scritches, the direction was right for that. Really, Fang was just holding out some hope that there was some aspect of feline nature that had survived this mutant’s changes.

Fang summoned his big blue box, glaring at it suspiciously as it hovered alongside him.

Name:

Chairman Meow

Age:

6

Class:

Thrice-Charred Cat

Level:

13

Hit Points (HP) / Max HP

103/117

Mana (MP) / Max MP (Mana Regen)

12/3420 (+0.137/minute)

Stamina (SP) / Max SP / Peak SP

31/85/269

Status

Healthy,

Marked, Mindlink

Strength (STR)

63

Intelligence (INT)

51

Dexterity (DEX)

199

Perception (PER)

174

Constitution (CON)

107

Charisma (CHA)

141

41 Ability Points available.

1 Skill point available.

Assign points automatically

View skills (+)

The numbers were different. Fang didn’t know what the numbers meant, but he could tell they were different. His keen feline instincts told them they were bigger than they had been the last time he summoned this box.

There were some other instincts at play as well. The ‘Assign points automatically’ button seemed to call to him more than before, with that big number in the box above it. But those weren’t feline instincts, so Fang ignored them with determination born of a thousand ignored strings attempting to interrupt his naps.

His Dexterity also irritated him for some reason. Somewhere between his own feline instincts and the strange instincts coming from elsewhere. Like trying to nap on ground that had just a slight tilt to it. Fang pushed a point into Dexterity, bringing it to 200.

Confirm changes?

Yes

No

Fang promptly refused, banishing the box and returning his Dexterity to that odd, slightly tilted number. Fang bullied the boxes a bit more, punishing them for their potential insubordination, attempting to mutate him like the other two he’d met. He drew some odd looks from the mutant cat alongside him, probably marveling at his command over the boxes that had ruined her own feline magnificence. Fang would not allow his own nature to be tarnished in such a way. The boxes changed at his command, not the other way around. He finished his session of blue-box discipline by putting a full 9 points into Charisma. He immediately felt better about his ability to impose his will on the boxes, as his fur seemed to gain the luster of being freshly groomed, despite him not having had the chance to do so since his fall jump through the void.

Fang picked up the pace as he dismissed the remainder of the boxes, skirting around a blackened, ashy streak some irresponsible creature had left on the grass. Aurelia was making for a large building, inside of which he could feel his familiar. He took his rightful place in front of her, leading her inside with head held high, paws padding against the polished marble of the entryway as he slinks up the stairs, ignoring the statue sitting at a tall desk as the mutant cat hastened her steps to keep pace. The top of the steps was covered in a thick white carpet which felt heavenly against Fang’s paws as he strode down the hallway towards the sense of his familiar at the end of it. There, next to a large, ornately carved wooden door, was his familiar, sitting on a hard wooden bench and fidgeting with her staff.

Fang darted forward at the sight of her, causing her to stiffen in awe at his masterful running form, then leaped onto her lap, turning in a circle to rub his side against her front and then craning up to brush his whiskers against her cheeks, purring thunderously all the while as he demanded scritches in return for the grace of his presence.

Fang was reminded of why his familiar was the best of his human minions as she clumsily stroked his back. She had a long road of training yet before she was as proficient as Alice, but the sunshine infused through the pets very nearly made up for it. Especially as his paws stopped aching, a pain he had already forgotten about fading away, his paws returning to their pristine jellybean state. His familiar looks to the mutant cat following behind him and asks “Aurelia? You were gone for a long while, what happened? He seems all right, but his feet were all pricked up, and it’s like he barely has a scrap of mana left in him.” There was some stammering as she retracted her boldness and Aurelia replied, but Fang didn’t care to pay attention any further beyond conveying amusement at the hunting-challenged human asking if he was all right. He much preferred to nap in his familiar’s aura, curling up in her lap and masterfully launching into a light doze.

The humans did some things, said some words, the flashy one even poked at his head in something faintly resembling actual scritches before recognizing his lack of reaction as the dismissal it was.

Then the large, wooden doors creaked apart, and Fang slowly blinked the sleep from his eyes to peer inside. The interior was dim and glittery, metal and crystal implements hanging on designed for mysterious human tasks littering the dark wooden walls, lit by a large window taking up the entire side of the office behind the desk. There was an old human sitting behind it, and a few chairs arranged in front of it, but what caught Fang’s attention was sitting on top of the desk.

Amid various papers, pens, stamps, and a teacup, sat a red velvet cushion. And on top of that cushion was the most magnificent marble Fang had ever seen.