A Cat and His Human
a novel
by Michael Atamanov
League of Losers
Book#1
Magic Dome Books
League of Losers
Book #1: A Cat and His Human
Copyright © Michael Atamanov 2020
Cover Art © Ivan Khivrenko 2020
Art Designer Vladimir Manyukhin
English translation copyright © Alix Merlin Williamson 2020
Published by Magic Dome Books, 2020
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-80-7619-167-9
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
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Table of Contents:
Introduction
An Argument in a Restaurant
Chapter 1
A Day to Pack
Chapter 2 [Andrei]
Ghost Train
Chapter 3 [Sergeant]
A New World
Chapter 4 [Kitten]
I have paws!
Chapter 5 [Kitten]
First Meeting
Chapter 6 [Sergeant]
Vengeance for Misdeeds
Chapter 7 [Kitten]
Night Beasts
Chapter 8 [Sergeant]
Along a Stream
Chapter 9 [Kitten]
A New Home
Chapter 10 [Sergeant]
Evening in the Village
Chapter 11 [Kitten]
Second Alpha
Chapter 12 [Sergeant]
Choice of Paths
Chapter 13 [Kitten]
A Little Hero
Chapter 14 [Sergeant]
On the Sandbanks
Chapter 15 [Kitten]
Father and Daughter
Chapter 16 [Sergeant]
Hairy Visitors
Chapter 17 [Kitten]
League of Losers
Chapter 18 [Sergeant]
Riding
Chapter 19 [Kitten]
Ruins on the Marsh
Chapter 20 [Sergeant]
Beast Catcher
Chapter 21 [Kitten]
Unsettling Settlers
Chapter 22 [Sergeant]
Cartographer
Chapter 23 [Kitten]
Battle in the Night
Chapter 24 [Sergeant]
Deadly Enemy
Chapter 25 [Kitten]
Plans for the Future
Chapter 26 [Sergeant]
Special Assignment
Chapter 27 [Kitten]
A People Invisible
Chapter 28 [Sergeant]
Orshi-Ur
Chapter 29 [Kitten]
Unavoidable Split
Chapter 30 [Sergeant]
The Last Giga-Komodo
Chapter 31 [Kitten]
Nighttime Visitor
Chapter 32 [Sergeant]
Speed and Teeth
Chapter 33 [Kitten]
Cards on the Table
Chapter 34 [Sergeant]
New Faces
Chapter 35 [Kitten]
Havoc
Chapter 36 [Sergeant]
End of an Era
Chapter 37 [Kitten]
Rumbler’s Refuge
Chapter 38 [Sergeant]
Road to the Big Wide World
Introduction
An Argument in a Restaurant
“YOUNG MAN, they’re going to kill you!”
I tore my gaze away from my bloodied fingers, stopped my fruitless attempts to pull out the shard of glass stuck deep into my palm, my dripping red fingernails sliding off it. My eyes lifted. The speaker was a tall and slender man in an old-fashioned dark suit with fancy golden buttons and cufflinks. Weird clothes. For some reason, they made me think of the days of Sherlock Holmes, Queen Victoria, Alice in Wonderland. All the stranger needed to complete the look of a late nineteenth-century English gentleman was a top hat and gold pocket watch. His clothes were entirely unsuited to the weather. Even in my army dress uniform, I was boiling. What was it like for him..?
In the meantime, the odd stranger repeated that phrase of his again, that they were going to kill me. Only this time, he went into detail.
“They’ll knife you twice as soon as you leave the restaurant. A grievous wound to the liver. But the second thrust is worse, the one that cuts through the mesenteric artery. You will bleed out. The ambulance called by your ex-girlfriend will fail to get you to hospital in time, Andrei.”
I shivered. I hadn’t mentioned my name. But then I realized that it had come out a few times during the recent fight, while my girlfriend, unfortunately now ex, tried to shout sense into me and pull me away from her new boyfriend. All the same, this strange man’s words made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. How could he know what was going to happen? With such precise details of future events? But the stranger obviously believed what he was saying to the very end!
He was either a madman or just brave, I didn’t know which… If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t have gotten mixed up with a guy who’d just been in a bloody fight, his emotional state obviously not most receptive to advice and lectures. Nonetheless, I saw no sign of fear in the stranger’s eyes. On the contrary, he emanated icy calm. He was absolutely certain that he could deal with me if he had to. To be honest, that scared me more than his creepy predictions.
He wasn’t young, but was still far from old. It was tough to figure out his age — his dark hair contrasted sharply with his gray streaks and too-youthful skin without a hint of a wrinkle. His eyes stood out — black, sharp, piercing straight through me. If not for those eyes and the gray streaks in his hair, I’d have said he was thirty-five. But no, nobody that age had eyes so piercing, full of the wisdom of long life. Smooth, olive skin. Drawn face, thick brows, aristocratic nose. It wasn’t just his age that was hard to figure out, but his nationality too.
Who was he? Where had he come from? He sure didn’t look like a waiter or restaurant musician — I’d seen the workers’ uniforms at this joint; they were nothing like this. And he was too confident, his voice too used to giving commands. Maybe the restaurant owner? The man stood patiently, awaiting my answer to his warning.
“Um… Why will they kill me?” I said, trying to argue with this strange man after the long pause. “I could call the police, and they’d come and scare off those bastards. Or I can go out through the back door and avoid any deadly knifings.”
The stranger thought for a moment, then shook his head and spoke with a strange certainty in his voice:
“No, Andrei, that will not change your fate. Calling the police will only delay, not prevent, the inevitable finale. As will an escape through the restaurant’s back door. In that case, the killer will simply ambush you outside your apartment building. Karina has already reported your address to your foe’s vassals.”
I go
t upset. I recalled with crystal clarity that nobody involved in the recent fight had spoken my ex-girlfriend’s name aloud. And what was that strange word, ‘vassals’? Not ‘lackeys,’ ‘stooges’ or ‘thugs’ as any modern person might say. The half-forgotten word ‘vassals’ smelled like musty tomes.
A madman, for sure! Now he sighed as if he really felt sorry for me. He slowly sat down at my table and languidly stretched out, crossing his hands on his belly, fingers intertwined. I couldn’t help but notice the massive golden signet rings inset with large gemstones adorning the man’s carefully manicured fingers. At the same time, for some reason it became unbearable for me to look the man straight in the eyes. I broke off my gaze, looked down again at my broken hand.
What surprised me was the feeling in my gut that he was right. No doubt my ex-girlfriend Karina had passed on the address to her new love interest, so he and his buddies could easily find me. Karina knew which apartment I lived in; we’d spent some time there together. Stupid! Stupid ! Everything had turned so stupid ! For the last three months of my army service, I’d felt that something had gone wrong in my relationship with Karina. Back when my girlfriend stopped sending her daily string of messages of love, declarations that she was waiting for my tour of duty to end. At some point Karina started giving monosyllabic answers in our calls, tried to cut off the conversation quickly, saying it was an inconvenient time — she was about to do an exam, she had a girlfriend visiting, didn’t want to talk with someone else around…
I swept a crystalline salad dish off the table onto the floor. It had somehow survived the recent fistfight, but now the heavy dish smashed with a piercing ring, sending shards of glass and remnants of Greek salad across the floor. The bouquet of flowers that Karina hadn’t picked up met the same fate — rich red roses fell to the floor and I trampled them mercilessly. The restaurant’s customers turned at the noise and shook their heads in clear disapproval as they observed my antics, but none of them seemed eager to get involved and draw my attention. On the contrary, as my rage-filled eyes crossed the hall, the other diners hurriedly turned away and took to studying their plates. Nobody wanted to try talking me down. Alright! I unclenched my fists.
Only the man sat at my table maintained complete equanimity as he watched me… no, not with judgment at all, but with interest, as if waiting for something. My anger and annoyance was slowly abating, giving way to the fatigue and desolation that follows outbursts of emotion. I followed the example of my surprisingly calm new companion and sat down at the table with him. Then I spoke, tired and indifferent:
“So my fate is predetermined, and Annie already spilled the sunflower oil…”
The strange man suddenly perked up, raised his head, looked at me in surprise. A pleased smile stretched across his thin lips.
“Oh, you should have said! For you see, he didn’t like my suit, and I had no golden watch in my jacket pocket. Excellent, Andrei! It’s so nice to meet someone so well-read, to talk to someone so intelligent and discerning. I also love the meeting at the Patriarch Ponds in that great master’s book. That means I won’t have to introduce myself. Let’s get straight down to business.”
As if by magic, small metal tweezers appeared in the man’s hand, and he offered the instrument to me. Somewhat in shock from his words, I placidly took the tweezers. Grimacing in pain, I somehow managed to get a grip on the shard of glass in my hand and pull it out. It started bleeding again and I stemmed the flow with a napkin the man offered.
“Thank you… But please don’t look at me like that! I’m not usually this violent. I know I don’t come off too well from this,” I said, feeling truly awkward over my recent explosion and especially my appearance; face covered in bruises, hand bloody, dress uniform collar torn, the left shoulder pad displaying my Corporal rank hanging off… “But today was a bad day! My ex-girlfriend’s new loverboy is going to need a trip to the dentist. And probably a surgeon too, since I messed up his nose pretty good. Look at all that blood on the floor!”
The man stayed silent, and I wasn’t expecting him to answer anyway. It was dumb to brag to a perfect stranger (and particularly one of a less than human disposition, if my suspicions were correct) of my daring deeds in a restaurant fistfight. I sobered a little and told him I was listening.
“Good, Andrei. I’m sure you already know the first outcome of recent developments: you can leave everything as it is, and you will die today.”
I gave a quick nod, surprising myself with how calm I was. The man had already mentioned my death, and more than once. But right then, I wanted to hear the other options of how things might go — after all, this chat was for a reason, right?
The mystery man smiled happily.
“Yes, young man, you are very perceptive. I really do have something to offer you. No, no, I don’t want you to sell your soul,” the stranger suddenly laughed, and I blushed. He read my fears and doubts far too closely. “My dear Andrei, you have such outdated views of our interests. There are almost eight billion people on the planet Earth, and the truly righteous among them can be counted on the fingers of one hand. There are more than enough sinful souls to go around. The deficit of a millennium ago has long since disappeared. No, it is something else entirely that interests me and mine.”
My creepy interlocutor fell silent as a frowning and decidedly official-looking restaurant manager in a severe suit with a bow-tie approached our table. I saw it. He was about to ask me to pay my bill, plus all the property damage I’d done, and then leave his respectable establishment and never show my face there again. I couldn’t fault him for that at all. I was even a little grateful that he and his colleagues intervened in time and stopped the fight, preventing the posse of my defeated and floored opponent from rearranging my face. Four on one, and two of the attackers had knives. How was that fair?!
I was already mentally preparing myself to listen to all the tedious lectures, and even put my hand in my pocket, ready to take out my wallet and pay. But I was wrong. No lectures came. The manager wordlessly placed two shot glasses of vodka on the table — one in front of me, the other in front of the important gentleman in the dark suit — then called over an older cleaning lady and ordered her to clear away the mess of glass, food remnants and blood on the floor.
“Let us return to our conversation,” the man suggested. He downed his vodka, then looked at me in surprise. “You aren’t going to drink, Andrei?”
I mechanically took my glass, held it and… put it back on the table. My mood was too far gone.
“I’d prefer to keep my mind sharp for such an important moment,” I explained. My answer seemed to satisfy the man.
I didn’t bother voicing the second reason, that it was best to stay sober before the police arrived, and arrive they would; they’d have gotten a call about a fight in a downtown restaurant already. That way, when they questioned me at the police station over the fight with the rich kid and his ‘vassals,’ they couldn’t say I was drunk. The stranger seemed to read my thoughts, as another clever comment showed.
“When your flashes of impulse release their grip on you, you become an incredibly perceptive man for your twenty years.”
“People have told me that all my life,” I admitted, since I really had regularly heard similar from all kinds of people. “But I can’t do anything about it!”
I really do seem to be two completely different people at once. One is calculating, careful, not rash, even a little boring. Thanks to his diligence and love for the exact sciences, I was nearly the best in my class in the state exams, and was accepted into the most prestigious university in the city. And the opposite of that nerd is the second me — impulsive, explosive, spontaneous in his decisions. Leaps before he looks. Fun, companionable, very popular with the ladies. He got me kicked out of university in the first year by getting tangled in a bad idea involving fake tickets to concerts and sporting events… Incidentally, my girlfriend Karina was the one that pulled me into that. Oh, well. Didn’t matter anymore.
The army draft saved me from more serious consequences in that fiasco.
“It’s great to have two characters. It can lead to the most interesting outcomes… But let’s get back on track. What do you think about starting your life over, Andrei?”
Seeing nothing but confusion on my face, the stranger decided to explain further.
“No, I don’t mean being reborn and living your life’s path again from an ignorant infant onwards. I mean this: keeping your memories and all your knowledge and life experience, but fundamentally changing your life. Sending you to an entirely new world. Unexplored. Primal. Mysterious. Dangerous. And at the same time a hell of a lot of fun, that I can promise you!”
The offer was a great surprise to me. I couldn’t answer right away. First I wanted to clarify a point of some importance.
“Do I understand right that it won’t be on Earth?”
“Yes, you understand perfectly,” the gentleman in the old-fashioned costume confirmed without hesitation. “There’s no sense whatsoever in starting a new life here on Earth. The Great Game on this planet has already reached its final stages, the outcome is already clear. And although this was, as it were, ‘easy mode’ for humanity — no competitors, wild beasts your only danger, all demonic creatures barred from your world — your civilization has nonetheless passed the peak of progress and is inexorably dying, rapidly degrading, and fast descending into a passive consumerist society.”
The man spoke confidently and assuredly, although I immediately noticed a contradiction.
“If demonic monsters can’t enter this world, then why do we have so many fairytales and legends of them, even references to them in religious texts? How do people know about demons at all?”
“Another point to you, Andrei,” the stranger laughed, clearly pleased. “You’re very perceptive. But I’m sure you can appreciate that isolated summonings of lone demons by complex ritual are one thing, and a full-scale demonic invasion is quite another. Incidentally, note that you also have no dragons in your world, but almost all your civilizations have myths of them. Although there were dragons in the last, long since ended Great Game, in which you humans defeated the atlanteans and forced them out.”
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