Moments
#2 of Awakening of One
Ok first off these stories are my intellectual property, do not copy them or the constrictor's within without my express permission. This chapter was written as a short story a few years ago and I decided to pull it out and expand on the plot. This is the first story I have posted so please votes are good comments are encouraged, feedback will let me know weather I should continue writing the story or not.
I have been told that there are moments in our lives that stand out. Moments that make us who we are. Events that help to shape what we do for the rest of our time on this planet. This is my story of one such moment.
It was late in the day. I was sitting alone in a national forest. I liked to come here every once in a while. I would leave the main picnic areas behind and hike up to a spot in the woods, which overlooked a large creek. Here you can find a large clearing, one that was perfect for camping or a day out with someone you love. I, of course, was always alone when I came here.
At 18, I was no prize catch. A skinny, nerdy guy; I, like most people my age, had acne. And I wore glasses. There was very little for girls to see in me. So I would go off to the woods by myself and write stories. This is where it all began. You see, as it turned out, I was being watched.
Sitting in the clearing, my back against the large oak tree that dominated the center of the clearing I dazed in and out of consciousness. The feeling of the late-afternoon sun pouring down on me through the think green foliage of the massive oak, combined with the fresh smell of late summer helping to smooth away all the stress of the world.
Then, I heard a crack. It was the sound of a branch breaking. The sound rang through the clearing as clear as day. Followed by the sound of something moving quickly in the waste high brush that circled the clearing.
Then, as quickly as it started the sound just stopped. At first, I thought it was just a forest creature. A raccoon or something. No matter how much I tried to pass it off, I couldn't stop thinking about it. The sound had come from somewhere slightly off to my right, so I decided to go investigate. It was getting towards dusk, but there was still more then enough light to see by. A movement not too far off, and directly in front of me, caught my eye. Just the briefest flash of a fur covered something, too big to be a raccoon and way too fast to be a bear, and it didn't move like any deer I had ever seen.
I was a little scared, but my curiosity got the better of me. I slowly crept in the direction of the movement, trying to conceal myself in the brush as much as possible. Then, I felt it. A shiver ran up my spine. Someone was watching me. I spun around just in time to see a massive creature jump at me. I ducked, but somehow, it twisted in mid air, and collided with me head-on. As I struck the ground, the air rushed from my lungs and everything started to spin. Just before I blacked out, I saw what looked like a beautiful woman; only she was covered in fur, and had the face of a cat. That's when everything went black.
Coming back to myself with a start, I jumped up. "Settle down. You will be fine. I didn't mean to hit you that hard, but you moved." came the almost purring voice.
"Who are you?" I asked, looking her over.
She wasn't very big; she was a little shorter than I. Her fur was a golden tan; she looked almost human in body. The grace of her movements and the fur on her body defined her as an animal. Her face was a cross between a cat and a human's. She wore no clothing. Her breasts were small, but perky. The fur on the front side of her body was bright white, it extended from her neck, down across her breasts, and narrowed as it progressed down her stomach until it disappeared into the V between her legs. It was the most awesome thing I had ever seen.
"Who... What... Are you?" I stuttered. Trying not to let the vision before me cause any reaction in my groin.
"My name is Cyin, and I am a Kilmath." She answered.
"Well Cyin" I asked, a bit shocked. "What exactly is a Kilmath?"
She cocked her head at me as if she was confused by what I had just asked.
"Well, I am, silly." She answered.
I felt stupid. I had fallen into that answer. "No, I mean where do you come form?"
She crouched and leaned a little closer to me. "From a place not like this, a place that used to be part of this place but no longer is." she whispered.
All I could do was stare at her. That was the most ridiculous answer I had ever heard, and yet, coming from a cat-girl, it also sounded perfectly reasonable. "I don't know what you mean, 'A place that is no longer part of this one.' No such place exists." I said
"You are wrong, what's more, you can see it if you want. It exists. Always on top of this world, and in some places, they come so close together that you can cross between them if you try."
"And next your going to tell me I'm not dreaming?" I asked
Cyin just laughed. It was a quiet laugh that seemed to light up her whole face. "Of course your not."
"Ok then take me there!" I demanded. If this place she was talking about did exist, then by God she was going to show it to me.
"That's not a good idea. There are lots of things there that don't like humans. They would kill you if they got the chance."
"Why would they hate me? If they aren't part of this world, how do they even know of humans?" This was getting more confusing by the minute.
"Well, humans are the ones who split the world and trapped us in the other place."
"What do you mean we trapped you in the other place? How... no. Why would we do that?"
"It happened a very long time ago. You see; many ages ago, humans had wars. Much like they do today. But unlike your wars these days, the old wars involved what you have come to call magic. When these wars killed almost all of the humans, and most of the other creatures, a group came together to stop the fighting. These mages made the leaders of each side come together without their followers and fight it out. The leaders of both sides had a massive battle, during which, they killed each other. After these leaders died, the desire for war seemed to dwindle.
"Humans blamed all the wars, the death and destruction on magic. They said that if magic didn't exist, the wars would have never happened. Therefore to prevent war they decided to ban any knowledge of magic. Humans also realized that banning magic would be very hard to do so long as magical creatures ran free in the world. They knew it would be impossible to make people forget that magic exists if creatures who were magic continued to walked the earth." Cyin paused for a moment to let this sink in.
"This dilemma was answered by some of the most powerful mages. These mages found a way to split reality. They created what we call The Other Lands. These mages then gave all nonhuman species a choice; go to the other lands before the boundary is finished, or be hunted and killed. This forced all species that were not human or had magical abilities to make the choice, stay here and risk death or go to The Other Lands." Cyin stopped her history lesson to pick leaves from her tail. "The Other Place is not nice." She continued "It is always twilight. There is never summer or winter. The trees are barren and the plants sparse. The greedy humans kept all the life and magic of the world, we got what was left over. So many of the creatures in The Other Lands have grown bitter and hateful toward humans." Cyin had a far away, sad look as she said this.
Her voice took on a determined tone. "And now that the boundaries between 'That Place' and this one are getting weak, more and more places exist where one can cross over. And soon, those who have been twisted by hate and a need for revenge will soon figure this out."
"This clearing is one such boundary. Using it, I came here to find you." This was all a bit much for me to take in. This girl was telling me that another world existed on top of this one. Magic was real, and humans were responsible for even more terrible crimes than pollution, war, poverty, greed, and the "American" way.
"Why did you come to find me?" I asked.
" When the angry creatures where I come from start to cross the boundary, there will need to be people who can protect those in this world from them." She answered. "You have a natural knack for controlling the energies of the world around you. You do it all the time and don't even realize it. That's what attracted me to you. You see, all people can do what you call magic. But there are some to which it comes easy, so easy in fact that they don't even have try. You are one such person. You would have been a mage in the Old World. I am giving you the opportunity to be one now."
This was more then I could take. I had always been able to do things I should not be able to. That was true. But...
"You know what I say is true. You are drawn to places like this, are you not? And you seek out strange happenings in your world. Events that are out of the ordinary, things that defy normal explanation."
She was right, of course, but that didn't help.
"Ok, so maybe you're right. But why are you looking for me? I mean, what exactly are you up to?"
She smiled at this, "Can't you feel it? The draw; the feeling that there is something you must be doing. Something greater than just living out your stale life in the same drab way your parents have?"
Ok now she was getting scary.
"Yeah, but all people feel that way."
"Not like you do, and you know it." she interrupted. And she was right.
"Ok, so what do you want from me?" I asked.
"Let me explain" she said as she sat down. It was obvious this was going to take a while, and it was already getting dark, or at least it should have been getting dark. Now that I took the time to look, the sun was still up.
"I told you about the group who brought an end to the Great War?" Cyin asked, interrupting my thoughts. "Well, they also spoke out against dividing reality. They said it was not magic, but hate and greed that caused the wars. Their ideas were unpopular, blaming the whole thing on magic was a much easier answer."
She paused for a moment. Looking in her eyes, I could tell she was deep in thought. Her eyes were slit like a cat's, and they held the most startling green color. Coming out of her private thoughts, Cyin continued, "Most of the mages who spoke out against dividing reality were forced to cross the boundary to the other place. Shortly after, some of the creatures who were also banished there decided to take their anger out on these humans."
She paused as if waiting for me to say something. Not knowing what to say, I just waited until she continued. "The mages who were banished to the other place were killed! They were trying to help, and the twisted couldn't see that. All they wanted to do was extract revenge." She said this with tears in her eyes.
"What do you mean by 'the twisted'?" I asked. She took a pause to wipe her eyes.
"That is what we call those from our world who were taken by hate and revenge. They have become twisted dark versions of what they once were. And now their only goal in existence is to find a way to come here and have their revenge on all humans. Some of us knew the Mages that tried to stop the division. We knew they tried to help us, and therefore not all humans were bad. We knew that one day the two worlds could be reunited. And the sleeping brought to an end. We became the brotherhood of the White Bear."
This name I had heard before, but I didn't know where. "So you are part of this brotherhood? What do you want exactly?" She gave me a stern look. "It's not what I want, but what must be done to prevent needless deaths."
I was still not convinced, "So what if these 'twisted' creatures come here. We have police, and military to deal with such things." As I finished I got the feeling I had just said the dumbest thing ever uttered.
"I told you these were once creatures of magic. They still have magic, a twisted and dark form of it. Your military will stand no chance against them. What's more, most humans will not even see them." This last statement was the most preposterous of all.
"Do you mean to tell me they are invisible?" I asked.
"No, but humans have been told for so long that magic and magical creatures don't exist that they have brainwashed themselves into ignoring such things. They try to make excuses for what they see and ignore the truth."
"That sounds about right, I have always noticed people doing that, when I checked up on ghost stories, or strange events, there always seemed to be a rational explanation for it. Even if it didn't seem to make any sense to me, everyone else thought it was perfectly normal." I couldn't believe myself; I was actually starting to believe this strange creature. Then I noticed that it still appeared to be late evening.
"Ok, what's going on here? We have been talking for hours, and the sun still hasn't finished setting." Cyin just smiled, "I have been holding us in time. A bit of that magic we have been talking about."
Cyin refused to meet my gaze as she explained this, almost as if she was embarrassed. "I knew you would want proof, and this gives us more time to talk."
Here it was, I was looking at the proof I was going to ask for, and still I could not yet bring myself to fully accept it.
"How did you know I would ask, and why do you shy away when I ask about it?"
Cyin looked startled, "Well I knew you would want proof, and if I did it this way it would counter your disbelief."
I just looked at her for a second; her entire attitude had changed in the last few moments. No longer was she the confident teacher, she seemed almost afraid... "What do you mean counter my disbelief?" I asked.
"Well, you see, with the brainwashing that has been bred into all humans, they can't believe in magic, so they unconsciously stop magical events. It is a type of defense mechanism. The more sleepers there are the more disbelief there is to stop the magic from working."
"Ok, so if those who don't believe are called sleepers then what do you call people like me?" I asked "Well you are an Awakened, you believe in strange things, and you don't try to explain off events like the others. So your disbelief is weaker, but still there. I'm here to teach you to be a Mage. One who not only believes in magic, but also uses it. You, as well as many others like you all over this world, have been chosen to become part of the Brotherhood."
I was overwhelmed, this cat-girl was part of a group of non-human magicians, and she wanted to teach me to be one also... but why?
"Ok, again, why me? I know I can't be the only person around here you could have picked. What is it about me that...." I wasn't quite sure how to finish the question. As luck would have it, Cyin seamed to know exactly what I meant.
"I have been watching you for some time. I have read almost everything you have written. You want to help people, and you always dream of yourself as the hero. Now I am giving you the chance to do that." All I could do was stare at her.
"You have read my work, but how... I don't let anyone read it. I mean...." I trailed off not sure how to express what I was feeling. "When you are here you always take a nap, don't you? Well that's kind of my fault. You see I had to know, and your writings are... well, you express what I feel and how things in life should be. Your vision of the world is so beautiful. I just know you will help bring the worlds together again, and keep the twisted from hurting anyone..."
She was staring into my eyes, but it felt like she was looking right into my soul. No one had ever read my work before. I was always to embarrassed to let anyone read them. Now this girl with the brightest green eyes I had ever seen, was telling me she not only read my stories, but she liked them. And those writings were the reason she was talking to me now. Realizing I had been sitting there staring into her eyes, I turned away. As I tried to fight the heat rising up my neck turning my face red, I asked, "You have been watching me. For how long... I mean..." I didn't understand this, I should be mad. She had been stalking me for... who knows how long, but instead of anger I felt kind of flattered.
"Well almost since you started coming to this clearing. You see I kind of called you here. Not you in particular..."she said almost shyly. "Not at first. At first, it was just a call. A call that would cause someone with a gift for magic to feel it, and draw them to this place. When you showed up, I watched you, but then you came back. The others who came here stopped coming when you started coming back. You seemed to take the place over. It was almost like the clearing was made just for you. I didn't intend for it to happen, but something about you just changed this place. Now people come here a lot when you are not around. They sit and have fires, talk, and laugh. But I always know when you are coming. Everyone here just decides to leave. And the whole place seems to hum with expectation. The animals here aren't even afraid of you. More than once, some of the fae have even crossed the boundary to play when you were in the clearing late at night."
I had to admit I felt very at home in the clearing. The large oak tree in the center always seemed to welcome me when I got there. And it always felt depressed when I had to leave. That's why I would stay late; sometimes I would bring some bedding and just sleep there all night. No one ever bothered me. As a matter of fact, I had never had anyone interrupt me when I was there...not until today.
As I thought of these things, I took a moment to look over at Cyin. She was sitting cross-legged on the ground across from me. Her body resembled a human in every way, except the golden fur that covered her. As I sat there thinking, I found myself tracing the white fur of her chest. From her small, but perky breasts, down to her stomach, and then toward the spot between her legs. Realizing where my eyes were going I quickly looked away. I tried looking at anything but her. The silence continued, each of us caught up in our own private thoughts.
"So you have been watching me that long. And you chose now to approach me?" She had a look of shock on her face. "It was you who found me remember. I was not supposed to approach you for a few more months, not until they no longer had any doubts about your naturally high tendency toward magic." It was my turn to look shocked.
"Don't look at me like that. Had you not found me today, we would not be having this conversation." I started laughing. "Well in that case, I'm glad I didn't pass that branch breaking off for something as simple as a forest creature." The look on her face brought me to silence.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, still a bit giddy from my laughing outbreak. "You mean that's how you found me. When that branch broke?" She asked in a slow quiet voice. "Ya what about it?" I asked.
"But that happened on the other side of the clearing, it wasn't me, why did you look in my direction?" I took a moment to think about this. Her question bothered me a little.
"I don't know, I just did. I guess I just kind of knew where to look."
She stood up after I finished. It was quite a sight to watch her flex as she stood. So much like a cat stretching. Exposing her very unclothed body, I quickly looked away before those thoughts could go any further.
"Why do you do that?" She asked interrupting my self-scolding.
"Do what?" I asked. Still not looking at her, but instead looking around.
"You keep turning red, and you refuse to look at me. Is there something about me that bothers you?" She said it in such a matter of fact way it made me feel stupid for being embarrassed.
"Well, you are quite naked, and very beautiful." I answered without thinking. I almost choked when I realized what I had just said. When I looked up she had moved closer to me.
"I never thought about it. Of course you would have a problem with my lack of garments. Human culture has developed some strange qualms with lack of coverings." She said this as if she was talking to herself. In the blink of an eye she had in her hand a very odd-looking robe. As she put it on, I realized it was more of a coverall type of garment than a robe. It hugged her frame nicely, accenting her long legs, and breasts. But it did help some that she was no longer naked. "Well Kaid, I must go meet with the counsel. Come back tomorrow and I will tell you what has been decided." She seemed almost reluctant as she said this.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Well... never mind, goodbye for now." was the last thing she said before there was a flash of light. The air around Cyin seemed to almost bend in on itself, and then she vanished.
I was sitting alone in the wood line that surrounded the clearing staring at the spot were a few seconds ago a beautiful cat-girl had been standing. Looking at my watch it said several hours had passed, yet, the sun was only just now setting. I quickly gathered up my things and ran for my car. I had to write this all down. And get some sleep. I had a feeling tomorrow was going to be very interesting.