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This vignette was written for Catprog as part of my Patreon request days for February 2020. It contains transformation and gender shifting involving a consenting adult.

The World's Protector

"Hey, c'mon, leave it alone!"

Leonard almost winced at the sound of his own voice. He shouldn't have been getting involved, most likely. But, fuck, he couldn't not get involved either.

"Fuck off, bro!"

One of the kids yelled, flipping a pale skinned middle finger towards the older guy as he and the other four teenagers crowded around the stray cat, obviously weak and malnourished.

"You fuck off."

Leonard grunted, the teenagers yelling and cursing a storm at him as he pushed between them, ducked down and wrapped up the trembling, terrified animal in his jacket before they could poke at it or purposefully terrify it any longer. He smelled stale cider on the kid's breath, the oldest probably no more than fourteen, and scowled as one of them launched a kick at one of his shins, thankfully too tipsy to aim straight thus only connecting with air. Using that momentary distraction as the drunk kid's friends laughed at him for his poor aim, Leonard scooped the cat up and began to walk away as fast as he could without breaking into a jog. He winced as he heard the kids yelling after him a few moments later, and felt a plastic bottle thankfully empty strike him between the shoulders.

They didn't pursue him for long, either finding something else to occupy their attention or actually worried that following a guy home might be a step too far even for kids so lacking in empathy as to be resorting to animal cruelty for fun. Whatever the reason though, Leonard was glad that before long he was able to make it back into his home, slip into the kitchen, close the doors, and finally lower his jacket to the ground. For about ten seconds the cat didn't move, and during that time Leonard was horrified at the idea that he might have gotten there too late to save the poor feline. In the absence of his touch though the jacket in which the cat was gently wrapped did begin to move, and after poking its head out and looking around, the scrawny stray cat bolted underneath the kitchen table, and sat glaring and trembling out from the furthest corner.

Slowly, carefully Leonard moved back across the room, filled a cereal bowl with fresh water, and carried it over to place under the table. The cat hissed. He left the water there and withdrew.

He boiled some water in a pan, pulled a chicken breast out of the fridge which had originally been intended for his dinner tomorrow, and after cutting it into pieces tossed it into the boiling water, hoping that method of cooking while not exactly pleasant to the human palette would be suitable for the cat, at least temporarily. As the chicken boiled away he heard a soft slurping sound, and slowly turned his head to see the cat lapping at the bowl of water. He smiled. The cat glared up at him suspiciously, but kept on drinking.

The cat had long since retreated back into its corner, and hissed once again as Leonard set the chicken down on a plate some half an hour later after cooking and sticking it in the fridge again to quicken its cooling. This time it barely waited a minute after Leonard had stepped back from the table's edge before creeping forward, sniffing at the chicken, and proceeding to absolutely devour it. As he watched the cat eat, Leonard slowly moved into a sitting position upon the kitchen floor, his back pressed up against one of the cupboards. He didn't know why he found it so calming to watch the cat eat. Maybe it was just knowing that it was healthy enough to do so. Maybe it was a sort of catharsis, letting his mind know that the animal hadn't been so injured by those kids and in general by its time out on the city streets that it couldn't at least take care of itself when given the opportunity. Whatever the reason, Leonard watched the cat eat until there was nothing left, and then just smiled as it warily glanced up and seemed at last to acknowledge the fact that it was being watched from across the room.

For more than a minute the cat stared silently at Leonard, but then, to the human's surprise, took a step forward; out from under the table. That first step was followed by another, then another, slowly padding towards Leonard as he made an effort to sit calm and still, to not react and not move in any way that might spook the stray kitty. He couldn't help but gasp however, a happy, wondrous sound, when the cat got right up to him, and put a paw up on his knee. That gesture however was swiftly followed by another paw as Leonard realised that the cat wasn't just reaching out to touch him. It was climbing onto him. Onto his lap. It crawled onto his crossed legs, shifted its position a little for comfort, and then, like it was the most natural thing in all the world, settled down, closed its eyes, and began to purr.

Feeling like he might cry with happiness, Leonard slowly, gently lifted a hand, and stroked the back of the cat's head. Its fur was slightly matted, but thankfully short enough not to be in too big a state. The cat was black from head to toe, but while it was thin and somewhat bedraggled now, Leonard could imagine how beautiful its sleek black form would have been, and would be again once it was nursed back to full fitness. He chuckled to himself softly as the cat craned its neck back to allow him to scratch it under its chin, purring like a motorboat. A day ago if you'd asked anyone whether he'd be owning a pet in the next year or even the next five, Leonard would have said no. But, unless it turned out that this cat was someone's beloved and painfully lost pet rather than an abandoned or street-born stray, right now he couldn't imagine giving it up to a shelter. He couldn't imagine ever not caring for it. Protecting it. In fact, now that he was thinking about it, his heart ached at how many others were out there just like that cat in need of protection. Not just cats of course, people too. Lost, hungry, abused creatures of all shapes and sizes that needed a protector.

Leonard was so lost in his own mind as those thoughts raced through it, he scarcely noticed as his body began to change. Lush black fur sprouted across the back of the hand stroking the cat. It spread up his arm, seeming to absorb the fabric of his shirt into the flesh in order to provide sustenance for the fur to grow, and soon began to cross his chest. By the time the now rapidly changing human did recognise that something was happening, something as far as he could go given how utterly unprepared he was for the reality of his situation, the fur was spreading up his neck, and as his shirt melted away in almost its entirety with only portions of its left arm remaining he looked down not only to see a torso clad entirely in luxurious black fur, but with two modest but firm breasts rising, equally fur clad thus concealing anything truly intimate beyond their shape, to prominence from his chest.

He should have been panicked by all rational understanding, and yet just as this sudden and impossible transformation was beyond the rational, so too was his response. He chuckled softly, and scratched the cat behind the ear as his mind, and his heart were filled by an absolutely certain sense of knowing.

"It's okay..."

He murmured to the cat, glancing up at him as his mouth bulged outward into a muzzle, and his ears began to migrate up to the top of his skull.

"It's all gonna be okay. You're safe now. Everyone who needs my help is going to be safe now."

Leonard closed his eyes, but when they opened again a few seconds later, amber rather than pale brown in the iris, they were no longer his. Not taken, but freely given, changed for all the good Leonard knew that his new self would be able to do for the world and so many within it.

A long tail snaked out behind her where she sat; her fur clad body now bearing no clothes, though several golden banded bracelets had formed around her wrists in place of Leonard's old watch. She purred, and stroked the cat upon her lap with tender reverence.

"It is time for the powerless to know that they have an ally."

Bast murmured to the first of her followers in this new world, perhaps just a simple cat to some, but to her a mark of divinity within itself, and a lingering bastion to her eternal connection to these lands and civilisations spread across the globe.

"Time for those who would harm them, those who would persecute the powerless to maintain their own strength to know that those they would mistreat are protected..."

Her eyes glowed, just for a moment, and though it was still seated calmly, contentedly in her lap, the cat's eyes glowed too.

"...and that with my strength behind them, the powerless are powerless no longer."

By Jeeves

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