Chapter 0:

Prologue

To Save my Wife, I Became a Cat


"Please, I'll give anything…. Anything to save my wife!"

The dark being laughed, a deep rhythmic rumbling in it's throat. One large, chitinous hand reached out, hovering over the tear stricken man and the withering corpse of his disease ridden, soon dead wife.

"Anything?" The foul otherworldly thing twisted the corner of it's lips into a wicked grin.

"I'll give anything! Everything! My life, my soul, even my faith! Damn the gods, they have done nothing! Just cure her and give her a long happy life! I'm begging you!"

The creature laughed again, and with naught but a waggle of it's fingers, the woman's flesh was restored, filling out plumply and with vigorous color.

The man nearly broke down, hugging his cured wife. The entity gave him a moment, then cleared it's throat. He gently laid his unconscious love back onto the bed, and meet the beings gaze.

"I am ready. What would you have of me."

A single digit was placed on his forehead. "Life…."

The young man felt a deep stirring in the very core of his being. It rumbled, then felt as if his entire existence shattered. Finally, he could feel life force, memories, and his accumulated life experience being drained through that touch.

I will not kill you, but I will take the life you had. Your form, your experience, memories, history. For all the good it will do you… but she shall live on. Only you will never have her again!