Alley Cats

Julian nodded at Daniel's speech, but it probably looked strange as a hawk. He'd done his share of investigating humans at night as well. <We'd be great spies,> he responded with an inwards grin; he tried not to make a habit of peeking into peoples' lives, but he couldn't resist the chance. <No one would be looking out for birds! We could trail people from way far off, and no one would guess.>


If the phenomenon was wide-spread and the news got out, though, his plan wouldn't work too well. There was the crow they'd met yesterday; but how many, was the question. And, like Dan had said, whether they were all birds.


<Do you ever just...> Julian tilted his head a little in consideration. <Let the animal instincts take over a little? It's cool, you can just sit back and watch, and the bird'll fly on autopilot. I mean, it gets hungry and agitated all the time, so I figured it's fine with the physical mechanics and stuff too.> He stretched out his wings, leaping off his perch. It was a little difficult to let something else control your body at first, but after some time it was natural to him. Often he'd let the hawk fly while just wasting time gliding about the city.


The hawk was eyeing a ferret on the ground below. Julian - metaphorically - shrugged, from his backseat controls. If it did catch it, it wasn't like he was going to eat it. Just drop it in a dumpster somewhere.


Feeling nothing holding it back, the hawk dove.
 
The owl didn’t seem to care much for her passing by and Aubree was about to count herself lucky until she noticed the hawk’s wings twitch. That was all she noticed from it, before she could even run into a rabbit’s hole or up a tree, the hawk was flying. She felt the claws dig into her sides and the ferret side took over in a panic, hissing and screeching as the hawk picked her up.


<Let me go!> she managed, realizing that if she was eaten all of her research would be wasted. If Aubree wasn’t so panicked, she may of realized that the hawk gave off a very distinct aura.
 
<Whoa, weird, look Nica, that bird is picking up that smelly animal thing- what are those called? Fairies? They don't look much like fairies, they look kind of like weasels, isn't that a weird name?> Rinji derails herself, sitting back on her haunches and watching Aubree's entrapment with her slanted cat eyes widening with interest. She biffs Veronica with one paw. <Look, should we go help her?>


<It's FERRETS, not FAIRIES> Veronica groaned, hanging back apart from her. <And the last thing we need is to go get ourselves involved with MORE animals, don't you think you've made enough so-called friends by now without->


But Rinji being Rinji, she is already darting forward, tail held high, leaving Veronica no choice but to slink off after her. <Hey! Let the fairy go! Only not too fast because if you drop it on its head it might, like, break its back or something...hm, do you think fairies always land on their feet? Oooh Nica, do you think WE do, that's what they always said about cats...>


By this point Veronica was almost ready to ask the hawk to test out the theory, using her sister as guinea pig.
 
<It is a little weird. I've never had a penis before. Although a cat's one is slightly different from a human's.> Jin wondered if the girl even cared. Well she was talking about sex, so maybe she did. She then made a weird noise that would have been okay as a human, but as a cat made her sound like she was about to cough up a hairball. What if this Rinji person offered to sleep with her but as a cat? No, no, no. That was messed up. Even if she was attracted to girls, the thought of doing anything beyond sleeping and occasionally licking up milk or marking her territory, made her insides squirm. She was a human, not a cat. She would not do anything like that as one.


Jin looked at Rinji's sister and said to her only (or so she hoped), <If I just sat her quietly would she just continue to yammer on?> Jin had a feeling this would be the case. But, thankfully, the cat sisters seemed to have listened to her and decided to leave. She wondered if they would find their friend and more importantly, if she was going to run into them again. Oh she hoped not.


She took off in the opposite direction, hoping to find peace and quiet. She only wish she knew what time it was, but it was still pretty dark. The sun might not be out for a while and six was still plenty away.


Jin wandered a bit, mostly on autopilot. She let the cat take control as she tried to relax after what had happened. Geez she really needed to be careful. Even if she wasn't alone, she'd rather not have to put up with...well that. She heard a noise as she turned and spotted a dog. She thought of what Rinji had said about their friend.


<Hello?>


----


<One time I almost made a nest,> Daniel admitted. It was an interesting experience near the beginning of when this all happened. The instincts had been stronger than. He had felt less in control, but since he hadn't eaten a mouse or anything, he much enjoyed it. Flying was simply the best. He turned to watch Julian. He felt a friendship with the boy. He also felt a bit responsible for him as he was older.


He watched him take off after a ferret and almost made a noise of protest. What was he going to do with a ferret? Eat it? He rather hoped not. He had thought Julian to be more in control of his animal side even if he didn't mind letting it take over. Unless he had eaten an animal before and now had a taste for it. Yuck.


But it didn't seem that way and the ferret didn't seem to like-well wait. Was it talking? It sounded like it. Well there went his theory on them being all birds. He wondered for a moment if he was jealous that whoever this was could scamper around on the ground or if they would be jealous of them for being able to fly. Oh well. He joined Julian in the sky, about to tell him to let the ferret go.


<They don't seem to be enjoying your ride Jul. Maybe you should put the ferret back down.> Then more noises. At first Daniel thought they were human, but no. Cats. Cats? Well they had to be a variety then. Fairy? This ferret wasn't a fairy. Did a kid get turned into an animal? That would not be good at all. Daniel stoop low and landed on a landing, peering down.


<He isn't hurting the ferret...too much. I am sure he will let them go soon. No worries. Now who are you two?>
 
Saffire stared at the the dumpster, listening out for the same cry for help. The voice had gone. The thing inside the dumpster had died. She took off and went in search for Reginald. CRACK! Saffire tumbled down, plummeting down to earth again... Ouch, she had had broke her wing.
 
The owl was talking now too, backing up Veronica's remark to Rinji that a ferret was certainly not the same thing as a fairy, and Rinji gasped as she looked up at him, her cat's eyes somehow rounder than their usual slanted appearance as her tail twitched wildly with her excitement. She began to circle around Veronica, nuzzling against her and flicking her tail back and forth so it brushed Veronica's nose in a rather irritating fashion as she exclaimed, <NICA!!! THEY CAN ALL TALK!!! Well maybe not the hawk but the owl and ferret...ohmygod this is SO AWESOME!!! Do you think EVERYONE is an animal?!>


Veronica certainly hoped not. It was one thing to know that she and Rinji weren't the only ones, that it wasn't all some strange, prolonged hallucination or dream...but for everyone in the world to be having the same experience would be too bizarre to even comprehend, and it would also mean that every stray animal she could find, Rinji would be determined to talk with and rub against. Even if it was a huge, angry rottweiler in the mood for some calico crunch.


<I'm Rinji and this is my sister Nica> Rinji was racing ahead with, still circling Veronica happily. Veronica hissed at her, biffing her tail out of her face as she replied <My name is VERONICA. My sister has trouble with multisyllabic words.>
 
He shouldn't have been as suprised as he was, should have known better by now, or perhaps anticipated the potential of others being trapped in human form as he and the sisters were, and yet the sound of the feline's voice had him looking up, initial not at the cat but the area about him. The terrier tensing, head turning, searching for the man that had called out to him . . . and then he spotted it. The tom cat near by.


Alexander glanced away once more before turning his head back, tail swinging idly in several beats as the terrier's curiosity was perked before stilling, ear twitching and then it moved closer, bowing it's head slightly to sniff at the ground with it's steps, before holding. On toes, poised and ready move if need be as Alexander spoke with curiosity of his own.


< . . . You just spoke right now?> He said, primarily a question as much as it was an obvious statement of fact.
 
Ew, ferret.


Frankly, Julian hadn't really been expecting the hawk to succeed in grabbing the animal. It was rather hard to keep a hold of, with all its squirming and thrashing. Before the hawk could do anything with it, he eased back into control, looking down at the prey he'd just-


Gah it talked!


The hawk almost seemed to falter, dipping in midair and nearly dropping the ferret before tightening its grip again. <What?> he said in surprise, even as a cat yelled at him from the ground below. <What? You're a fairy?> he asked the ferret, the question somehow taking precedence in his mind.


Falling a little as his forward movement ceased, the instinct of just releasing the ferret crossed his mind but, instead, he dove back to the ground, taking Daniel and the cat's advice. Although, the feline seemed to have gotten a bit distracted. He looked down at - oh, look, there were two of them!


Nearing the pavement, Julian dropped the ferret quickly, saying, <Sorry! Really, my bad!> then flapping past and back up. <Sorry!> Daniel had started talking with the cats, acting quite civil, as Julian flew back up to perch beside him. One of them seemed to be so very excited about meeting them, and the other one just looked annoyed.


Feeling a bit awkward after trying to eat a thinking creature, he turned his attention to the conversation between the cats and the owl. <Hey, I can talk,> he said, a little miffed at being left with the sole dumb-animal label. <I talk a lot, really. Ask Daniel.> So there were at least several of them! A varied amount of species, as well. How'd they been chosen? Just a couple strangers randomly picked from the city, a couple animals selected from thin air? Or maybe even over the whole world?


<So, hi, Rinji!> he greeted. <And, uh, Veronica.> Rinji was an interesting name. Was she asian? <I'm Julian,> he introduced, <and I swear I don't normally go around eating ferrets. Too smelly for my taste. Uh - well, uh, no offense,> he directed at the white animal down on the floor. <It's not like there's anything wrong with your... uh, odor.>


Great job, Julian, insult the person you just nearly killed.


He shuffled his feathers.
 
So the owl was Daniel, the ferret-eating hawk was Julian...great. Veronica had no interest in the ferret's name. She had no interest in whether he ate other speaking creatures every night of the week, which would technically make him a cannibal, as long as he didn't snatch up her or Rinji. Well, it was borderline with Rinji. Either way, she could make use of her claws to protect herself. Ferrets were useless in that regard.


Rinji, of course, cared considerably, and demonstrated her interest in between purrs and milling about between the others, talking away. <Why are you trying to eat things if you're really a person? I don't go around eating mice, especially if they're a person. That's just gross. All the little bones and the tail, it would be like chewing on chicken bones, and that would break your teeth! I pay a lot of money to have decent teeth and I don't even have but two cavities so why would I break them on mouse bones? What's your name, ferret person? Do you feel bad about how you smell when you're a ferret? That would kind of suck. Cats smell pretty good because we're clean, I would hate to be a ferret or a skunk! Aren't we lucky not to be skunks, Nica? It could totally be worse!>


<Yes, it totally could be worse. We could be roadkill, and wouldn't that suck> Veronica said with sarcasm, but Rinji nodded enthusiastically.


<Yes! It totally would!>
 
<He does,> Daniel said about Julian's habit of talking a lot. It seemed the one of the cats, Rinji, seemed to have the same habit as well. He wish he could smile as an owl. He was amused by Rinji's ramblings. He found it endearing.


Daniel listened to her go on and on. <Actually you wouldn't have to worry about the teeth part. Your human teeth and cat teeth are technically different. A cat's jaw is much more able to take care of a mouse's bones compared to a human. And yes it is odd to eat animals as one, but humans are animals and we still consume meat. It's just a difference to what kind per body.>


Daniel cocked his owl head to the side. <You are quite an interesting person Rinji. You seem young. How old are you?>


----


<Yes well, I am just as surprised as you are,> Jin told the dog. She wondered again if this was the same person Miss. Chatterbox Rinji had mentioned and her sister as well. She could always ask, but she had just gotten away from the cats. No need to bring them back up.


<So I must assume if you can speak as well you aren't really a dog,> Jin said, starting to lick a paw. She still watched him incase she was wrong. No need to provoke a dog. She had been chased before and it was not fun. Not at all. She had gotten stuck in a tree until it was time to turn back. She swore she had pulled a leaf from her hair, but it was gone as soon as she had thought it, so who knew? <At least not all the time.>
 
<Yeah, but mice, ewww, that's just sick, who would ever want to eat mice? I don't! I might chase them around a little and play with them, but I don't want to eat them, I could just eat, like, tuna or something in cat form. Cats like tuna, right? Hm, I wonder if I would like cat food right now? Nica, we should totally try to get hold of cat food somewhere and test it out!> Rinji turned to her sister, who rolled her eyes to demonstrate her disdain, sitting back on her haunches in a very prim fashion as she kept her distance from the others.


<Be my guest. Good luck operating a can opener with your paws. Also good luck in going into the grocery store, locating it on the shelf, knocking it down, and dragging it out without anyone stopping you.>


<I could always eat dry food, I could rip the back with my teeth, and then I could eat it right away> was Rinji's inspired idea. <We totally should, we could be missing out, you know.>


When Daniel asked her age, Veronica rolled her eyes, replying with sarcasm, <Old enough that you shouldn't have to ask or care about her age, believe it or not.>


<Oh thank you!> Rinji took this as a compliment, beginning to purr, and she drew as close to Daniel as he would allow, tail flicking back and forth with her pleasure. <I'm 26. People say I look young for my age though. I think maybe it's the dinosaurs. How old are you?>
 
26? That took Daniel by surprise. He eyed the cat as she drew near. Although he knew she'd do no harm to him, the owl didn't like having her so near. He ruffled his feathers a bit, but tried to keep himself calm. Nothing bad was going to happen.


<I am 28. I am glad to know I am not the only older person here then.> He looked at Veronica. She must be around the same age then. She seemed to be more mature than her sister, but who knew? He didn't want to assume anything. Still it felt nice to know that he wasn't the only "old" person who this was happening to. Even if he did like Julian, he was still a teen. Now he had other adults to talk to.


<You shouldn't be so down on her ideas. After all we are stuck in these bodies. Why not try out new things?>
 
Veronica could see Daniel staring at Rinji and watched him, wary, beginning to clean her whiskers slowly from where she sat as she attempted to puzzle through his possible motives for doing so. Did he have a thing for her sister too, like that Alexander guy had? Or did he just think she was odd? Or was he thinking of eating her, like the hawk had the ferret? Maybe that was just the way owls looked at people in general.


If Rinji even noticed him looking at her, it made no difference to her. She drew even closer, purring through her continued rambling on and flicking her tail back and forth with increasing speed.


<Oh cool!!! We're close in age, just like me and Sashali were! Nica's only eighteen, you'd never know it because she acts like she's like 81 or something instead sometimes->


<No, I act like I'm my age in years rather than months, you mean> Veronica snapped back, but she was irritated that Rinji seemed as usual to be ignoring her.


<Yeah, she's soooo unadventurous. I'm always telling her she should live a little. You know she doesn't have a tattoo yet? Not one single tiny little tattoo and she has a tattoist for a sister! I would do it totally free, whatever she wanted, and she won't let me. She didn't even go out and get drunk on her birthday, and she was turning adult and everything!>


<Eighteen is not 21, Rinji> Veronica reminded her through clinched teeth, before registering Daniel's remark. This on top of Rinji's comments only served to further irritate her, and she turned towards him abruptly. <Try out what, exactly? Killing rodents and eating old animal intestines shaped like fish pellets? Giving myself a sexually transmitted disease available only to felines? No thank you, I think I'll stay with my not-exactly-ordinary experience of being in the body of a freakin' cat every day, thanks.>


<Yeah, but that part wasn't a choice, it just happened> Rinji put in, to Veronica's disgusted eye rolling response. <You wouldn't have chosen it all on your own.>


<No kidding, Rinji, because YOU would have, I take it?>


<Well, yeah...this is kinda cool, and I'm meeting new friends now!>


There was no response Veronica could give to this except to clean herself even more thoroughly so she wouldn't have to look up at her sister and be further annoyed by the very sight of her.
 
Daniel chuckled. What a pair these sisters were. Still it took him by surprise that Veronica was young. Younger than he would have thought. Still he liked that she acted mature for her age. He found it to be a refreshing change from some of the girls around her age that acted pretty wild. Daniel still thought that it would make more sense if their ages were switched, but hey.


<Not that exactly. But cat food doesn't sound that bad. Well to me it would since I'm an owl. No I meant more just trying something as a cat would. You aren't in your normal body. There is no reason to think you have to follow all the normal human would.> Daniel wasn't sure if he was making since. <Also I doubt anything that these bodies contract would infect us as humans. What happens to us as animals and as humans seemed to be separate. At least as far as I have been able to tell. I am not fully sure on the subject.>


Daniel was glad he couldn't blush as an owl. Now he was rambling, but he just had a lot of thoughts on what was happening and just seemed to be more open to what was going on as well. <You've met someone else as well? A Sashali? Where they a cat as well? Possibly a bird? And ah a tattooist I am an office worker. It's a pretty boring job but being an owl at night seems to make up for my mundane-ness.>
 
Veronica just stared at Daniel. If she could have raised eyebrows in her cat form, she would have, but she did give a slight yowl of irritation for emphasis. He seemed like a great match for Rinji, at any rate, if his ideas were anything to go by. Try cat food?! Just because she happened to LOOK like a cat?!


<Just because I look like a cat doesn't mean I am one> she informed him, to Rinji's protest and confusion.


<Yes you are, Nica. Look at your tail, and your fur, and your whiskers, and how you can jump so high, and the way you->


<I'm a person, not a cat,> Veronica spoke over her, her tone determined even when not spoken aloud, as she turned to stare then in her sister's direction. <I'm a PERSON.>


She was glad not to have to argue the point further, finding it incredibly stupid that she even had to at all, when it seemed so very obvious to her to be true. Rinji was distracted by her continuing conversation with Daniel and let it drop without further pursuing the matter.


<Yes, Sashali was a dog, but he's usually a bar tender. And he's REALLY hot and I think he likes me and Nica both, but Nica is too silly to go after him much> she noted, cutting her eyes to Rinji and giving a slight yowl that sounded almost like human laughter. <We met him later but I'd already seen him before. He looks like a lion...oooh I wonder if anyone's turning into a LION! What if people are at the zoo!>


If this was a new destination that Rinji had in mind, and from the bright gleam in her eyes, it certainly seemed to be, whatever her earlier rules to the contrary, Veronica wasn't accompanying her. If Rinji wanted to nuzzle up to some huge lion and get her head ripped off, or get stomped on by an elephant, that was her deal.
 
As Aubree was panicking, voices reached her form in mid-air, almost dropped by the hawk that is side-tracked momentarily. <DON’T DROP ME!> it only comes out as squeals in her ferret state, alarmed as the grip on her tightens. She wasn’t sure where the other voices were coming from, so disorientated she was in flight, but she was sure she heard… fairy? When the hawk talked to her, she momentarily stopped her control, the ferret playing dead in the hawk’s hold.


Did it just…? It had finally dived towards the ground a loosed her and Aubree had to regain control before the ferret ran off in fear. Shaking off the hawk’s saliva…or whatever… she turned and looked at the group. There was no Jin there, but there were two cats who were definitely talking and the owl that she saw next to the hawk was talking as well. There was…so many of them…all of them humans turned into animals...


Aubree was amazed. Question flooded her head and every time the more hyperactive cat asked something it seemed to spark something else in her mind. Something snagged her mind though, and when she was about to introduce herself she realized what it was. <JULIAN!> the ferret is excited and bouncing around again, and although he hadn’t said his full name, Aubree knew. <Julian Locktar!?> Still, she checks again, always one to be double sure of something.


<Who’re you to say I smell! You should catch a whiff of you after gym!> she notes, running up to him and nipping at his talons. <And to think you tried to eat me!> she chastises, mentally rolling her eyes before realizing the others presence. She inclines her head slightly, recalling their names in her head…Veronica, Daniel and Rinji. Strange name…


<Sorry, I’m Aubree…As to why I smell so funny, often people think me a rodent so I’m forced to vacate to the sewers> she notes. Looking at the two sisters, she remembers what Daniel was saying and frowns slightly. <All ferrets eat is meat…>as if this is a complaint itself.
 
Rinjii was very distracting, but the ferret caught his attention quicker; after he introduced himself, she seemed to recognize him and called out his name. And his last one too, to boot.


<What?> Julian swiveled and cocked his head, surprised. <You know my- do I-> The ferret did sound familiar, somehow, even through nothing but ferret squeals.


He blanked for a moment. Then, came the revelation- <Aubree? What?> Julian looked as startled as a hawk had probably ever looked before. <You're a ferret!> He hopped back as Aubree came to nip at his talons, acting reflexively. <I don't- I don't smell after gym- I mean, compared to all those- have you ever smelled the guys' locker room? It's nasty.>


The realization sunk in. Hah, he'd just tried to eat Aubree! He gave a hawk equivalent of a chuckle, which he decided immediately not to do again because it sounded horrible.


<Ferrets are carnivores?> he asked, curiously, looking at the ferret and trying to picture it as the girl he knew. He couldn't correlate the two, but he couldn't help but be certain that that really was Aubree. There was a sort of... aura about her.
 
<Sewers? Oh, no wonder you smell! That really stinks> Rinji sympathized, not seeming to get the unintentional pun. <It's not that bad though, Aubree! If you just have some perfume or something it will be fine! Put it on before you go to bed and maybe you'll smell nice as a ferret too...what scents do you like?>


Drawing close to the ferret, she began her usual act of greeting, which involved rubbing against her and purring, her tail flitting back and forth to convey her interest. <See, you don't smell that bad at all, I'm this close to you and I'm okay with it!>


She looks up at Veronica briefly, distracted by the talk about carnivores. <Are cats carnivores? I haven't tried to eat anything...does cat food count as meat? Is there meat in cat food or is it like hot dogs?>


<Look, fascinating as all this meet and greet is, why don't we do something productive about all these amazing coincidences?> Veronica had no patience for small talk or chitchat as she sat on her haunches, curling her own tail tightly around her flank as her eyes shifted to regard each of the others in turn. <We're people who are animals. Fine. Whatever. It's weird and we can't stop. So none of you actually WANT this...do you?>
 
Amica notices the animals and stops, feeling the change overcome her. She then observes the circle from a distance, wondering if she might be accepted into their chat.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 3 (members: 0, guests: 3)
Back
Top