Illusions--a reading from my third novel--a really moldy oldie, and quite amusing. :)

Audioblogging my pieces of string--a cut piece from Fire and Water

Um. Early "Nine Lives and Three Wishes". Really, really early.

A "Lost in My Documents" find--this was written on my birthday in 2001. It didn't make the final cut, or even the second cut of Nine Lives and Three Wishes. However, I kind of like Brutus. He's ruthless in more ways than one. Perhaps a sequel is in order? Hmm.

When Brutus was three weeks old, his human, an old man who stank of tobacco and whiskey, gathered up Brutus and his brothers and sisters, dropped them into a stained pillowcase, and threw the whole lot into a drainage ditch on the side of a lonely highway. Of the nine blind, defenseless kittens, six survived the initial impact. Four managed to claw through the fabric before they starved. Two were killed on the road. One was carried off by a hawk.

Brutus alone survived, more by luck than any divine providence. He survived and grew into a rangy black killing machine, cold eyed and feared by cats and dogs alike. Brutus was the only cat in Beth-hill who had fought a rottweiler and survived to tell the tale. Brutus was the only cat truly above the law; a wild embarrassment on the fringes of polite society.

Brutus hated humans. Even with his scars and battered face someone always wanted to take him in, and he had played the same scam over and over again at the animal shelter. Time after time he would purposely be caught, only to play on the sympathies of humans who didn’t know any better. Time after time, he would be taken home, pampered and cared for, until he exacted revenge and was eventually driven out of the house.

He had a collection of flea collars hanging from a tree near his hideout, a testimony to his power.
He batted one now and the little bell echoed across the silent forest.

"Boss!" A filthy white kitten who looked more like a rat than a feline scampered up the tree and quivered for attention. Brutus blinked lazily and turned his head. The kitten shrank back.

"Boss, I was scrounging around behind the wizard’s house, you know? He leaves scraps out sometimes, and I thought I smelled garlic bread last night. But those damn birds ate it all."

"Your point." Brutus liked to see his subjects react to his growl.

The kitten ducked down. "Point, yeah, boss. My point! So there I was, sitting on the compost heap, and here comes Misty! You know that calico chick with the toddler?"

Brutus narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, boss, the point. She comes running down the road yelling for Tib and babbling about fairies."

Brutus cocked an ear towards him. Encouraged, the kitten straightened up.

"She said fairies had kidnapped her kid, and the kid’s mother was missing. She wanted to know if Tib could help her find him."

The feud between the wizard’s cat and the mainstream felines had not really interested Brutus. He was not a member of their parliament; he made his own rules. But it did pay to know what the rules were, so it meant something when he broke them.

"Tib told her… he told her…" the kitten almost wet himself from the excitement. His voice dropped to a whisper. "Tib told her he could change her into a human. To get the kid back."

Brutus stared. He was rarely shocked, preferring to know everything that would happen in advance. But this… this was something new. And it had the possibility to become something good. He gave the kitten a tight-lipped smile and rose, stretching to his full length. "Walk with me and tell me more."

The kitten bounced along beside him as he dropped down to the ground and slithered through the underbrush. A couple lazy sentries watched them pass; Brutus made a note to deal with them later.

"Tell me everything you heard," he instructed as soon as they were within five feet of the waterfall. The noise would ensure that no one would overhear their conversation. "Was there anyone with you? Did you tell anyone else about this?"

"Nah, no one else likes garlic bread," the kitten said, full of self-importance. "Only me, Tib, and that Misty chick knows anything about it."

"Did you see her as a human?" Brutus asked. He did not want the kitten to realize the import of what he had overheard, but he also needed to know everything before the kitten met with a fatal accident. He moved closer to the waterfall, just in case. It would not do for spies of the parliament to find out what Tib could do. They would sentence him to death, and then Brutus would not be able to exact his revenge.

"They went inside," the kitten said. "And I thought you’d want to hear what I heard, so I didn’t stick around."

"I see." So he had no way of knowing that Tib had been telling the truth. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to kill the kitten anyway and find out for himself if Tib could change a cat into a human.

"Let’s go over it one more time," he suggested, moving even closer to the edge of the bank. The waterfall’s roar almost drowned out his voice.

The kitten followed him blindly, as always.

Brutus waited until he heard the whole story before he made his final decision. "Come closer. You’ve done well."

Quivering, the kitten crawled towards him. Brutus licked the top of his head. Startled, the kitten jerked backwards, his paws scrabbling in the soft soil of the bank.

Brutus snagged his tail before he could go over the edge. "Is it so bad?" he asked. "I only wanted to thank you."

The kitten stared at him for a moment, still clearly frightened. It took him almost a full minute to crawl back to Brutus, who licked him again.

Five minutes later, a rusty purr rumbled out of the kitten’s throat. His eyes were closed, his guard down completely.

"Roll over," Brutus suggested. "Let me get the rest of you clean. The kitten tasted faintly of garlic and greasy dirt, but Brutus didn’t mind. He wouldn’t have to lick him for much longer.
The kitten obediently rolled over and stretched out on the soft ground, closing his eyes and exposing his throat for Brutus’ pleasure.

He made sure it was clean before he bit down as hard and he could and tossed the body over the cliff and into the waterfall below.

copyright belongs to me, as always.