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[ The Indentured - Forward ] [ Welcome - Prose ] [ Parting ] [ The WereCat's Tale ] [ Chapter 1 ] [ Chapter 2  ] [ Chapter 3 ] [ Chapter 4 ] [ Chapter 5  ] [ Chapter 6  ] [  WereCat's Directory  ]

The Legends of the Time of Change

The WereCat's Tale


The chase was on. The older woman in regal, but simple clothes had seen her hunter not long ago and was desperately trying to avoid her. All she could think of was this was no way for a woman of her rank to have to behave. She had survived some of the hardest times, the Times of Change. She had supported the Fey Queen and her Consort since before the beginning. Still she was their friend, advisor and confidant. She was one of the most influential and powerful women of the new society and yet they had 'sicked' this wet behind the ears scribe from the historians guild to come sniffing after her for her telling of the story. There were far more productive ways to enjoy her golden years than sitting with this child dictating her story. She had been ditching the girl for the last several days. Now, at the celebration for Last Battle Day, the girl had once again appeared and was now obviously scanning the room looking for her. She muttered a rather rude reference to the mating process and sighed.

Her nephew looked at her with concern. "What's going on?" He was twice the age she had been at the beginning and yet he lookd little more than early twenties. It was one of the advantages of the Fey bloodline that most of the people at the celebration shared. They age at only a fraction of the rate the so called 'True Humans". If her line had remained unchanged they would have both been dust now and several generations would have come and gone, but the Fey reproduced only at will rather than the random way in which the 'True Humans' insisted. She turned to face him. "Michael..." She reached up to stroke his face, gently directing his face and gaze toward the historian without letting her be seen. His six foot broad frame was an excellent shield. "See that lovely young girl over there? The one in the long white gown?" He looked back at her and laughed. It was a rich, full sound, and for a moment she was distracted by the thought of how all that she had gone through, all that they all had gone through, was worth every miserable moment. They were still working on the racism the 'True Humans' felt toward the 'Children of the Fey', but it would all work out. The rich sound of her nephew's laughter convinced her of that. He and all the children to come for generations would be safe. "The one in the Historian robes? Auntie, are you still hiding from her?" He asked. Smiling from ear to ear, he shook his head. "Look, you." She told him with mock severity. "Have a little sympathy for an old woman." He was laughing again and this time they were beginning to have people around them turn to look. She made 'shushing' motions at him. "I have better things..." "And men." He put in with a mischievous grin only to receive a moments glare in exchange. "to do then deal with some scribe who wants me to play narrator so she can add my words to The Legends of the Time of Change. I don't want to be a legend. All I did was what was necessary. No more. No less. Let them forget me... leave me in peace for the rest of this life and the next." She looked at a lose and tired. That alone concerned him. This was the lady Tigress, one of the protectors of the Fey Queen. She was the builder of the first keep, the one to which she, and the rest of the Queens guards, guided the first of The Children of the Fey to. She was a warrior, and could be ruthless and blood thirsty as hell. He had seen her in a few battles as he was growing up. To see her looking at such a loss was un-nerving. He had originally thought the historian was just going to interfere with one of his aunt's rendezvous, but he could now see this was not the case. "O. K." He gave in. "I'll see if I can charm you a head start. She sighed in genuine relief. "See if you can charm me a free night." She winked at her nephew and smiled to a young man of somewhere to his left. That relieved him a great deal. This was more the woman he was familiar with. She leaned up on tiptoes to kiss him lightly on the cheek and noticed the little historian making her determined way towards them. "Shit!" They looked at each other and shared a thought. His eyes lit up and energy softly crackled around him. A glowing sphere a few yards from where they stood appeared, growing slowly grow to gently push the mingling people out of the way. When a large enough gap had been created, the sphere dissolved. She leaned up to quickly hug him before she began to glow herself and ran into the opening in the crowd. As the glow completely enveloped her, her silhouette could be seen to bend at the waist and take to the ground on all four's. The glow receded and a huge tigress, not the simple black and orange of any common beast, but the black and pristine white of Fey legend, stood to look back over her shoulder at the little scribe. Michael scooped the girl up off her feet as she tried to break past him to still go after the werecat. He did so as much to protect the girl's life as to protect his aunt's privacy. His aunt watched from a few feet away and roared and hissed a warning to the girl before she leaped to the top of one of the ballrooms many alcoves and down it's associated passageway to find relative solitude and privacy to meet her handsome playmate in.

She came awake slowly, stretching and smiling contentedly as she did so. She laughed softly think of his behavior last night. He had been so tender in the beginning, almost reverent; as if he was afraid she would either disappear or break. She shook her head at the thought of such a thing. She? Break? One of the reasons she had allowed herself to give in to his attentions and seductions was because he was of the draconian bloodline, another of the protector races. He could survive her true passions as easily as one of her own kind would. She remembered cheerfully the look of first surprise and then hunger in his eyes the first time she had growled low in her throat and become aggressive with him. She opened her eyes finally, sitting up and looked around at the shambles they had made of her bedchamber in their passions. "Oh, am I going to be in trouble..." she said. Her voice was still a bit low and husky. She got out of bed to wander over to where the mirror hung, slightly lopsidedly now in the aftermath, and after looking at her reflection she understood why her voice sounded as it did. Her eyes still remained green and feline in appearance. She looked over at what had once been a small stand for the pitcher and bowl she normally used to wash the sleep from her eyes. Now all that remained was broken porcelain and splintered wood. "Deep trouble..." she sighed. "Hm... I wonder where..." and then she vaguely remembered him kissing her on the forehead and saying something about bringing up breakfast before he had left the bed. She shrugged and went to the bathing room to get cleaned up while he was gone. As she lowered herself into the warm, effervescent mineral waters that bubbled up from a spring somewhere beneath the keep muscles she hadn't even realized were sore began to relax and be soothed. She tilted her head back on the edge of the bathing pool and mumbled something as to how it was a bad combination to have a young mind and libido in a body that was finally beginning to age. As she leaned back in sated relaxation, mentally reliving the activities of the previous night, she heard a light knock at the outer door to her chambers and then the door quietly open. "Shit!" She quickly dunked her head beneath the water hoping to be able to claim that the water in her ears impaired her hearing. As she reached for the bottle of scented shampoo she heard an indignant "What the hell!..." from the bedchamber. Quickly she began to work lather into her long hair. She heard the noise of the beaded curtain being parted and could easily imagine her 16-yr old fosterling standing there, hands on her hips, looking the picture or righteous fury. She didn't even need to turn her head to look to see her earlier assumption was correct. She was in trouble. "Well?!..." With a sigh she once again dunked her head, rinsing the soap from her hair. When she came up, pushing the mass out of her face and eyes, her tormentor had moved to position herself directly in front of the werecat. She was average height and strongly built with shoulder length tawny hair and eyes as green as the first leaves of spring. The werecat tried to look just as indignant but it didn't phase her fosterling one bit. "Well?!" She asked again. "Well what?" She snapped back. Damn! This child could ruin a morning 'glow' at 100 paces. "Shall I summon a healer for him or did you finally kill one outright?" Instead of looking ashamed of herself, as the fosterling thought she should, the werecat laughed out loud. "Relax, Angel. Please." The girl had only been with the werecat a year and still hadn't completely come to terms with the feline passions of her own that ran in conflict to the things she had been taught before crossing The Veil. The werecat actually, secretly, adored this child almost as much as her own blood kin. So much in the child reminded her of herself so long ago, right down the fear of giving over control to the feline side of herself. She smiled an obviously satisfied smile. "He survived..." she laughed mischievously. "Quite well in fact," and she wiggled her eyebrows comically, trying to make the girl laugh. She reached for another bottle kept beside the pool and began to work its contents through her hair as the girl sort of 'harrumph-ed" and showed the werecat her back. The werecat in turn looked thoughtful a moment. "He's the draconian..." she coaxed. Trying to lead the child to giggling 'girl talk'. Angle's general seriousness always slightly worried her. There were things to be taken seriously, but life should be filled with laughter and joy as well and she worried the child didn't have enough of those things. The girl turned her head slightly. "The one from the wing covering while your nephew's squad takes leave?" She was still trying to sound uninterested, but the werecat knew she had her. "Uh-huh", she smiled. The girl swung around, eyes light with eager pleasure. "Really??" The werecat relaxed a bit as Angel became a complete teenager, all excitement and conspiratorial giggles. "I knew it! He has been looking at you with soft eyes for ages!" She smiled and then laughed. "Yeah. A Draconian is about what it would take to survive you during your season." She shook her head. "Well, isn't it better that I take a companion?" She asked with an eyebrow raised in mock drama. "Remember the shrew I was last time when I didn't take one?" Angel just sort of screwed up her face as if in pain. "Ouch. I remember", then she burst into giggles. "Well then..." She took a deep breath and dunked her head for the last time to do a final rinsing. She shook her hair full and wild beneath the water and ran her fingers loosely through to make sure the very last of both shampoo and conditioning oils were released before coming up with a gasp. She ran her hands back through roughly wringing it out to temporarily knot at the back of her neck. "Hand me a towel and help me make both the bedroom and me a bit more presentable before he gets and Ill give you some barter marks to spend the morning shopping with. Make a day of it and I will make sure to be in a great mood by the time you come back." She wiggled her eyebrows again and Angel just rolled her eyes as she handed the werecat one of the large thick towels kept folded on a shelf against the wall.

A surprisingly short amount of time later she was dressed in a simple silk robe with her damp hair braided down her back and she was putting the last of the broken stand in the wood bin next to the fire place. She poked a bit at the last of the coals left from the previous nights fire to bring it back to life as Angel deposited the broken porcelain into the trash bin. The room looked somewhat less opulent than the same time the previous day, but it was back to a presentable state. She dusted her hands together and stepped over to where he barter marks were kept in small draw string pouches and testing the weight of each she eventually chose one that with a casual "heads up" she tossed to Angel. She tested the weight herself and looked a bit surprised. "Are you sure?" She asked. There was quite an amount of barter marks in the pouch. The werecat just laughed. "Yes, child." She smiled. "I seem to be in an amazingly good mood." She winked and continued. "Go find something beautiful to catch the eye of some young man." At Angel's blush she knew there was a particular young man she wanted to impress, but that particular conversation would have to wait till later. "Hurry now. He's almost here." They could both hear what sounded like hurried footfalls on the way up the corridor. Her apartments were the only ones off this hallway so it must me him. As the footsteps became louder and a bit more frantic they looked at each other in confusion. He burst through the door. "Kathryn, I can explain." It all came out so fast it sounded like one word as he used his foot to kick the door shut. He looked quickly at Angle, "bolt that!" The two ladies stood there looking at him as though he had slipped a few gears. He was breathing a bit hard, standing there looking for someplace to deposit his burdens. His leather pants that looked to have the laces pulled tight but not tied. His white dress tunic, open at the neck and un-tucked, fell loosely around his hips. One hand held the handle of a basked of what, by the scent, had to be sweet rolls that a friend of the werecat's made sometimes in the morning and the other held a ceramic teapot. His feet were bare and except for him looking a bit out of breath and being obviously concerned as to how she would react to something looked quite adorable. He looked to Angel as he set the basket on a table in the sitting room. "I told you to bolt that door!" Still a bit surprised by his actions Kathryn nodded to Angel and she moved to do so. She was almost knocked over as the door burst open a second time that morning and as Angel was picking her self up off the floor she heard Kathryn hiss and growl low in her throat. In the doorway stood the scribe from the previous night. "OUT!" Kathryn's voice had become dangerously low and gravely. "I mean it, Get OUT!" The scribe looked confused for a moment. She stood there clutching a leather packet of papers with pencils sticking out at odd angles from her ponytail. Then she turned to glair at the draconian. "Damn it, Jack!" She told him. "You said you had gotten her in a better mood." Angel whispered a soft 'oh shit' as Kathryn turned to face her companion of the previous night. "EX-Cuse ME?!!" The air vibrated around the werecat as angel moved carefully past the trio back to the bedchamber to send a silent mental call for Kathryn's nephew before it was too late. That done, she peeked back through the door to helplessly watch. The scribe was a fool and the draconian should have cut his losses and just run, but angel gave him credit for staying to try to salvage things. Most smart men ran from her guardian long before she got in this state. "It's not the way it sounds." He was trying to make soothing, calming gestures. Angel shook her head at the futility of such actions. "I know what you're thinking and that is not how it was. That isn't why I was here." She ignored him, turning to the scribe. "What are you talking about?" Her voice was so low it almost didn't sound human any more and as angel watched she saw Kathryn's braided hair begin to shift. The dark auburn became almost pitch black and white streaks began to appear in the braid. She couldn't believe it. This foolish woman, who was probably half again Angle's age, was standing there getting ready to argue with an adult werecat female, well into a feral and uncontrolled shift, as if she was safe as a babe in arms. Angel closed her eyes tightly and sent another mental call to Michael, this time stressing that speed was of the essence. "Well..." the scribe began, taking a deep breath as though she was the injured party. "He told me yesterday that you were in an awful mood and I should stay away from you till you were in a better one. When I asked why, he said to think about what time of year it was." She shrugged. "Well, then when I saw him down stairs just now looking all pleased with himself, I asked him if you were in a better mood yet. He told me you were in a MUCH better mood. So I came up to get your story like I was assigned to do," she ended on a much-abused sigh. From Angel's perspective she noticed that Kathryn kept flexing her hands open and closed tightly into a fist trying to control or slow the shift. Her weight seemed to be all on the balls of her feet and her knees were slightly bent. She rolled her head on her shoulders and let out a hissed breath as the bones in her neck audibly popped. "And just what is Jack to you?" It was obvious to both Angel and Jack, that it was becoming more and more difficult for Kathryn to speak, but the scribe just kept tightening the noose around both her and Jacks necks. "He's my brother; of course" she answered with a tone that basically said "DUH!" Angel gasped. Kathryn swung round to face Jack once more. "So..." she spoke with dangerous calm. "You used your body and mine to pay for the story your sister wanted." Again he tried to deny what she thought they had done, what she believed they had planned. Thank the gods, Angel thought, that he had enough sense not to try to touch her at this point in time. "Michael!!" Angel practically screamed into his mind. "Hurry! Before she looses it completely!" Then as she watched in horror, the scribe did the unthinkable. In an attempt to turn the werecat's attention back to what she thought was the subject at hand, her story, the scribe put her hand on Kathryn's shoulder in an attempt to physically turn her around. In the blink of an eye, Kathryn had her held helpless and immobile. In that same split second she had also shifted to full hybrid form. It was obvious from her heaving breaths that she was still fighting to regain control of her rage. As Angel was readying herself to contact Michael once more he stepped through the door, closely by the Fae Queen herself.

Before the draconian could do anything that would only make matters worse, Michael put himself between him and the werecat and her prey. "KAT!" was the next thing to be heard as the Fae Queen gave a sharp command for attention from the furious were. This Elvin lady and the werecat's own bloodlines were probably the only ones to be truly safe around her at this time and they both used it to the advantage. "Let her go." The queen told her friend. The beast and the woman battled for control a bit longer and the queen finally used humor to reach through to the gentle caring woman who shared spirit with the cat. "Come on Kat, You aren't going to make me hold a murder trial in the middle of all this heat are you?" The werecat blinked twice and burst out laughing, promptly dropping the girl who fell gasping, into Michaels arms as his aunt began to quickly return to her normal human form. He scooped her up and handed her off to one of the guards left standing in the hall. "Get her packed and get her out of here, NOW!" The man ignored her as she attempted to argue that she had an assignment to finish and carried her off. "Heat??" The werecat asked when she could finally stop laughing. "Are you nuts Rae? If I had been alone last night I would have had to build the fire much higher than I did just to keep from freezing." That thought lead her to return her attention to the draconian who still stood his ground, hoping to salvage something. "Hold it," the queen said stepping between the two of them. She put up a hand to hold Kathryn's progress and with the other took off a tiger's eye charm she wore. "Just ask him first. If your right, then you can pound him, but ask him first." She handed the charm to Kathryn and stepped clear. With a sigh she took and put it on. "Why were you here with me last night?" She asked. The charm worked quite well, but in a literal sort of way she realized as he answered by saying simply, "to have sex." She heard her nephew burst into completely un-reverent chuckles. At least Rae had had the decency to try to cover her laughter with a fake coughing fit. She glared them both back into silence then focused on Jack again. "Were you here because you wanted to be with me, or because you wanted your sister to have her story?" She looked smugly confident that she had worded her question correctly this time to get the needed answer. He turned to look into her eyes a moment before answering. "I was with you because I wanted to be, for me." He assured her. Carefully, he took her face in his hands and continued. "Because I find you beautiful and desirable, not as payment for giving your story to my sister."

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