A Kat's (GOD AWFUL!!!) Blessing (4)

Kat was in a state of shock. One second she was a regular human, and the next she was a giant bipedal cat.

“Omigoshomigoshomigosh!!!” she said with an intense worry while looking at the fur covering her arms.

She let out a squeal when she put her hands to her face, only for her whiskers to get brushed back. It was a strange sensation feeling something so sensitive on her cheeks.

Her tail had pushed out from under the bottom of her tank top. It brushed against the ground, only to shoot up into the air when she realized she now had a tail and could feel it move around. She looked behind to get a better look, only for her body to twist around, making it difficult to see the tail. When she took a step to get a better look, her tail once again moved out of sight from the corner of her eyes. Before long she was spinning around in place, falling onto her butt from dizziness.

What did that talking cat do to me?

Realizing that the cat god had already up and left, she jumped to her feet and started running toward the direction it ran to.

“Waaaiiiit!” she yelled. “Come back! How do I change back?!”

The cat god had long since gone, she realized. There was no way it would’ve heard her yells.

She collapsed to her knees as tears began to well up in her eyes. What should I do? What’s going to happen to me?

There was no way she could go out in public looking like a bizarre humanoid cat creature. People would call her a freak of nature. Or worse, think she was some sort of demon, come to bring about destruction and chaos. She pictured her neighbors, friends, and family chasing her with pitchforks and torches. They’d tie her up and burn her at the stake like a witch in Salem. If not that, they’d sell her to a circus as some creepy sideshow freak.

“Come one, come all! Come see the freakish woman born from the matrimony of a man and a cat!” the person outside her cage would say as people come to see her and throw popcorn kernels at her.

Kat slapped her cheeks and got to her feet. “This isn’t the time to be all doom and gloom!” she told herself. “I’ve got to find that talking cat and get it to change me back!”

She crossed her arms and tilted her head as her tail curled up. “But where do I start? It could be anywhere by now!”

Her ear twitched as she heard the sound of tires moving across gravel. Out in the distance was a pair of headlights coming towards her.

“Ack!” she cried, not wanting to be seen in her feline form.

Kat ran in circles, unsure of what to do. Moments before the headlights shone on her position, she leaped into the brush on the side of the road and hid. An old battered truck that has managed to keep truckin’ on for almost half a century by its owner slowly drove by. Its tires kicked back the loose gravel, launching a rock into the brush.

“Ouch!” Kat cried as a rock hit her on the forehead.

The truck continued onward, not noticing her presence.

That was close, Kat thought with a sigh of relief.

Still squatting in the brush, she planned out her next course of action. It was foolish to try to search the entire county by herself in the search for one cat. It was way too much area to cover, with millions of hiding places. Not only that, but it had transformed from a tiny kitten into a hind-leg standing, gold-wearing feline. Who knows if it was still in that form, or if it had disguised itself yet again. For all she knew, it could transform into something other than a cat.

The best thing to do would be to ask for assistance, but coming out and asking for help could potentially bring about the pitchfork-wielding, torch-carrying, stake-burning scenario she envisioned earlier. If she were to ask for help, she had to be picky about who to choose. It would have to be close friends and relatives.

Wait, no, I don’t want mom seeing me like this, she thought. If she learned that I had fought the wild dogs after she specifically told me not to, she’d skin me and turn me into a fur coat!

Her mom was scratched off the list of potential people to assist her.

“Maria!” she said aloud. “Of course!”

Maria always kept a cool head, no matter the circumstances. Even seeing her best friend turned into a giant cat shouldn’t phase her.

I’ll text Maria and see if she can help me!

Kat pulled out her phone and placed her finger on the finger scanner to unlock it.

“...Huh?”

The phone did not recognize the paw pads that had now adorned her hand.

No problem. I’ll just unlock it the old fashion way.

She turned on the screen and entered her passcode.

“...Oh, come on!”

The passcode she had entered was wrong. She had gotten so used to using the fingerprint scanner that she had forgotten what she had set her passcode to. After numerous attempts, her phone warned her it was going to lock her out after three more attempts.

“Bah!” she cried out in frustration.

As she was fiddling with her mostly useless phone, a large, pimply toad hopped directly behind her.

CRROOOAAAAKKK!

Kat screamed at the top of her lungs as she jumped out of the brush like a scaredy-cat. She ran back to Maria’s house as the toad watched in expressionless amusement.

***

Kat ran nonstop to Maria’s house. She felt like she must’ve set a new personal record on the way there. Had her new cat form made her a faster runner or did fearing for her life from the mysterious creature that had scared the ever-loving crap out of her give that extra boost? Regardless, she was back at Maria’s house. The lights at the house were still on to her relief.

Good. They’re still awake, she thought.

She approached the house, spotting Charles Bark-ly lying inside his dog house. When she tried to do her usual whistle to alert Charles Bark-ly that she was here, her feline lips made it impossible. Only bursts of air and spit flew outward.

“Dang,” she whined, lamenting her inability to whistle in her current form.

Not that it mattered. Charles Bark-ly was sure to recognize her. They’ve been friends for his entire life.

When Kat got close to the house, Charles Bark-ly’s head rose.

“Hey, buddy!” Kat said, waving at him.

Charles Bark-ly sprinted out of his doghouse toward Kat. She smiled as she held out her arms, expecting him to leap into her arms and give her lots of love. But when she looked at his face, she did not see the usual fun smiling dog. What she saw was a guard dog baring its fangs as it madly barked. It had a thirst for blood, and Kat’s was on the menu.

Kat’s tail and fur stood up as she let out felinish yelp, running away on all fours as she tried to escape Charles Bark-ly’s chomping jaw. The two chased around the house before Kat jumped into the apple tree and gripped onto a low branch with her arms and legs. She raised her tail a split second before it had the chance to become dog chow.

She climbed higher up the tree as Charles Bark-ly jumped and clawed at the tree, trying desperately to hunt its prey.

“Come on, Charles Bark-ly! It’s me! Kat! Not a literal cat!” she cried out.

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as Charles Bark-ly continued to try getting up the tree and wring Kat’s neck with its jaw.

After minutes of nonstop barking, the front door opened to reveal Maria. She came outside to inspect the commotion, flashlight in one hand and pistol in the other. She whistled for Charles Bark-ly, but he ignored her.

“What is it, boy?” she asked, approaching the tree.

“H-help!” Kat called out.

Maria was confused. “Kat? Is that you?”

“Yeah! Charles Bark-ly is trying to kill me!”

“Kill you?” she asked. “Why on Earth would—”

Maria aimed her flashlight into the tree. Where she expected to find Kat was instead a humanoid cat creature wearing the same outfit Kat wore earlier. Its eyes glowed brightly from the light of the flashlight.

She turned the flashlight off, continued looking up in the darkness of the tree, then turned it on again. The giant cat creature was still perched on the branch of the tree.

“It’s me!” it cried out, tears streaming down its face.

Maria raised an eyebrow. “Kat?”

Kat nodded her head up and down rapidly.

“I think you’re taking your name a bit too literally.”