The Knight and a Purple Cat

We had to have traveled for like 3 days now, periodically needing to make stops to collect food and water for everyone, or deal with some other ailment that was causing us to slow down our progress.

The issue really wasn’t that we needed to travel, it was that it almost seemed like the closer we got to the castle, the land before us would stretch out and invalidate our progress.

I’m not sure if that’s exactly what was happening, but it sure felt like it…

The biggest boon we received was when we found a stone outpost tower out in the middle of a big field. I spotted a few of the bowalker demons firing down on something that was trying to raid it.

At first it looked like monsters fighting to get inside, but something tall and shiny was amongst them, a human clad in knightly armour.

My Combat Mode kicked in, and I flew down the hill with my spear to reinforce the human knight.

The bowalkers didn’t expect me to join the fight, so their ammo was split between dealing with the knight, monsters and me.

I flew right up to the top of the tower, striking each of the demons with my spear and watching them transform back into human beings.

The knight was finally able to break through the outpost door. The rat monsters swarmed in, immediately being met with a Lesser Nephilim and perishing.

But the knight showed his might by swiping a broadsword across the torso of the Nephilim. The tall demon was wounded, but not defeated.

A purple cat looked out from the bag at the knights side, tossing a sparkly vile of glass at the demon and stunning it with a flashy explosion of glitter.

The broadsword of the knight stung right through its chest! That demon was dust in the wind.

One final bowalker remained, and as I dealt with him, he fired off a bright arrow into the air.

FWEEE!

BOOM! CRACKLE!

The arrow exploded like a firework.

Once that was done, my sensors were reading all clear.

“Thanks for the help.” The knight said. “I owe you one, Young Mistress.”

There was only one person I could think of with that voice.

“Uncle!”

I gave him such a big hug. Even though now I was just a foot under him, which he towered over me at 6 feet, it was still the same feeling of love as always.

“All grown up, but still the same kid  I remember.” He pat my back.

As our embrace faded, Marek and the kids had finally caught up, amazed at the short battle here they’d seen from afar.

Uncle had to take a second to process the changes he was seeing in each of us, but he was able to pick out who was who.

It’s weird that my name tag system wasn’t functioning, so nobody had designations above their head. I’m so used to it that my vision looks so clear and empty now. He was probably having a similar issue.

“Uncle, why are you a knight?” I asked.

“When I arrived here, I was wearing this and battling a dragon.” He said, hitting a fist to his chest plate. “Not as strong a Ferronium, but it does the job.”

As he hit his armour, a little purple cat head popped out of his bag.

“I’m here too, if anyone cares to know.” Mella said, waving her paw out from Uncle’s bag.

It was good to see she made it alright too. Our group was forming back up pretty nicely after all the mess we’d gone through.

Although I might have been happy to see everyone…I noticed Hanako was glaring at the witch in Uncle’s bag.

“Baka!”

She threw a rock at the bag, but Uncle dove out of the way to protect her.

Mella made a feline scream and leapt to try and find safety.

“Foolish Child Mage, don’t throw rocks at me!”

“I hate you!” Hanako…or actually, at this point, Indena shouted. “I hate you, stupid cat!”

So a little miko girl was throwing rocks at a cat witch. I started laughing at how silly it was.

I guess gone were the timid days of little Hanako, and back in was the vulgarity of Indena.

“GRRR!”

She was really chucking those rocks, It took Marek a lot of work to grab her and attempted to hold her back. Meanwhile I took the baby from him.

“Let me go, Blue Suit!” She pouted. “I hate her!”

“You’ll kill her!” Marek argued.

“I know!”

Uncle stepped in and grabbed Indena’s little ear, tugging it with moderate aggression.

“Ouch! Let go of me!”

“Calm down.” He ordered. “Nobody’s killing anyone, especially not you. Understand?”

Indena looked like she was about to lash out with fury, but then she started to tear up and cry really loudly, hugging him. As a little girl myself, I knew the ‘I’m sowwy’ mode all too well.

Once she was acting like that, Uncle released her ear.

“Indena, is that you?” I sheepishly asked.

“Yeah. It’s me.” *Sniffle* “But don’t make fun of me for being small! I can still kick butt!”

In that tiny form, she looked all bark and no bite.

Once all that calmed down, I mentioned to Uncle that one of the bowalkers shot a flair out. Either they were alerting someone of where we were, or he was calling for reinforcements. Possibly both.

Whichever it was, night time would soon hit, so traveling wouldn’t be as safe. We had to hunker down here.

~☆☆☆~

At the base of the outpost, we gathered up around a small fire pit to weather the night.

The strange sky was getting even stranger. Cats leaving trails like rainbows in the clouds, tie-dye waves washing over those colours, causing them to turn into temporary stars.

The sky wasn’t the weirdest part. I think that award went to a Ferris wheel on an island in a lake, but all the little cabs were giant cats with different coloured flowers on their heads. People would go inside the mouths, and once they hit the highest point on the Ferris wheel, the cats would fly up and away.

I didn’t want to mention this, but it seemed like some of the potted plants around us were growing faces…just staring at us, bobbing back and forth like a cheesy cartoon. It might have been cute, but they looked really uncanny, and slightly disgusted with us, like they know our deepest secrets…

Indena got so upset with it that she plucked a shrub and chucked it into our campfire. It squealed in horror as it turned to ash.

“Anyone else wanna judge me?!” She gave all the plants a nasty look. Even in her child form, she was still intimidating.

They all closed their eyes and pretended to be asleep.

“Thank you.” Marek commented, as he coddled the baby. “That shrub kept winking at me for some reason…”

Uncle was eyeing him too, but for a different reason. He must have been curious why we were taking care of the baby.

“Yalda, what’s the story there?” Uncle asked.

“We went to a big pyramid made of gold, then found her inside on a table. Then two big statues told me she was left there to die.”

That explanation prompted Mella to hop out from the inside of a big treasure chest, then she prowled her way over to me and sit down.

Her little cat paws brushed at her ears, and she gave me a cute little blink.

“A pyramid of gold. Not many of those exist in our world.”

“You know something, witch?” Indena asked.

“I do. That pyramid belongs to Cassana.”

The god of life and death. I’ve heard that name more than a few times. He was responsible for creating the Reaper demon that we fought back at Urnan, but he never intended it to attack a whole city.

Come to think of it, those statues did mention that the baby was under the watch of the god of life and death. So Cassana had to be involved.

“I hate stupid gods.” Indena commented. “Why’s this guy always trying to mess with us?”

“Foolish child mage, Cassanna has no vendetta against you.” Mella commented. “If this baby was left there, she was left to be purified of her evil, and in rare cases, good nature.”

“Who would want to be purified of good?” I asked.

“Good and evil exist to balance one another.” Mella started. “If one overtakes the other, aspects of it reign over that generation. Having no opposition, good will become carless, over emphasizing justice and punishment for crime, perhaps even becoming arrogant and over confident…and if evil is to take over, I don’t feel justified to explain that horror.”

Personally, I don’t think that’s what I believe at all.

Good is what protects people from evil, and evil only wants to destroy good things. What balance comes from letting evil things happen at all?

“Let’s focus on the baby," Uncle said. "What does she have to do with this?”

“My theory is that this baby is actually Yamin.” Mella replied.

That would make sense. Everyone else here was one of my friends, and it only stands to reason she would be one of us too.

“Oy, Yamin!” Indena yelled at the baby. “You in there?”

“Wahhhh! aaaahh!” The baby got scared.

“Don’t yell at her.” Marek pulled baby Yamin away from Indena.

Something was different about Yamin compared to the rest of us. We’d all been able to come back to our senses, even in our dream forms. Yamin was still just a baby. Even if she remembered everything, I doubt her young mind would be able to think like it used to.

“Mella, she’s different from us right now, right?” I asked.

“Correct, Little One of Hyem. This version has a piece of her soul, but not the whole thing. It’s more of a memory of her human self. I think...”

“So, why aren’t you trying to fight me over her?” Indena asked.

“Because this part of her is pure. I don’t see any evil present.”

If only she’d been around to see the awful little gremlin woman this baby was at the pyramid…

“The true spirit of the Evil One remains with Yamin’s actual body.” Mella’s paw pointed to the direction of the castle.

We were heading to that castle already. I’m sure the demon is there waiting for us. He’d already shown he wanted to protect Yamin, even from us. Whatever he wanted out of her, it probably was no good.

Marek had the question I was thinking. “Why does he want Yamin so badly?”

“Are you a fool?” Mella gave him as disappointed a look as her cat face would allow. “What demon would not be attracted to the power of darkness she holds within her? He would tower above all the forces of Hell with it, committing any number of grave atrocities.”

“So, the demon wants to steal that darkness from Yamin.” I concluded. “If Mella’s right, and Yamin does have this darkness in her, we have to stop him.” My fist slammed into my opposite palm.

“First we need to get there.” Indena mentioned. “What’s the plan, Old Man?”

Loud noises could be heard outside, like metal objects cautiously rustling against each other.

We peeked through a slot in the door, witnessing a small army of armoured demons approaching from the shadows of the forest.

“Looks like we’ve got company.” Uncle said.