by Eric Vall
“I haven’t forgotten,” I squeaked. “I know all of this city’s rules, sir.”
“That is none of your business.” Valerie growled, leaned against the side of the wagon, and glared, I noticed that her tail was pushing back against the cloth of her baggy pants, and I quickly averted my eyes so that the other three men wouldn’t wonder what I was looking at.
“W-What?” the warden scrambled off his horse, took two menacing steps forward, and then stopped. “You can’t speak to me that way!”
“You may be the warden,” the feline-woman simpered as she made sure to face him. “But you’re still a man, I can speak to you in whatever way I want, youuuuu, you idiot! The Duchess hired the Alchemist for a top-secret task, very tight-lipped. You know Edony, never wants anyone in her business.”
“B-But this is her property, I’ve been put in charge of it,” Milton pressed on. “I have to know why you’re here.”
“No, you don’t.” the cat-girl snarled. “You just want to put your pointy little nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“How dare--” The warden’s voice was cut off as one of his companions broke in.
“Sir,” the rider on the left cleared his throat. “Should we take them in now?”
“You can’t do that,” Valerie tutted, crossed her arms and cocked her hip.
“Oh, yeah?” the Warden snapped. “Are you going to stop us?”
“W-Well,” I stammered. “What you’re doing is insubordination…”
“Insubor-what?” Milton spat.
“I’ve already told you we’re here on direct orders from the Duchess, top secret orders,” the cat-girl explained. “You’re pressing us for information. If we went to the Duchess after we finished up and told her what you’ve done and said, you’d be thrown from your positions, not that it matters, and then executed.”
“W-What?” the younger rider gasped.
“That’s not true!” Milton shouted. “We’re here to protect the duchy, and your trespassing!”
“That’s not true.” Valerie shook her head. “The Alchemist works with Edony, he has explicit permission to enter and exit her property. Go ahead and check your records, you’ll find his name.”
“Well, let’s at least check their cargo,” the warden sighed, stepped closer to my wagon, and waggled his fingers.
“You can’t do that either.” The feline-woman growled. “These are our instruments that Edony paid for with her money, therefore, you cannot search our wagon or question us further. You might damage them, and then the duchess will be really mad at you. I’ve heard she kills men when she’s mad at them.”
“What if we did it anyways?” Milton snarled, but the other two men looked doubtful. “Who would the Duchess believe?”
“I have permission to be here,” I stated. “Edony would have all of your heads if she found out you were meddling in her business. Just… leave it alone, Milton.”
“Fine,” Milton snapped, grabbed the hem of his jacket, adjusted the article with a huff, and then pointed at me. “Listen here, Alchemist, if I find out you were here illegally, without the permission of the Duchess, I’ll come after you and personally throw you in a jail cell.”
“We’re not,” Valerie snapped. “Now, get out of here! Scat! Begon, idiot! Ha!”
Milton’s lips curled in outrage, but there was nothing he could do so. As far as he knew, Val was a woman who could destroy him with a flick of her fingers, and he did know that I worked for the duchess. He really didn’t have any grounds to argue, so he turned on his heels and mounted his horse. Then the warden glared at the two of us for a moment, let out a low whistle, turned his steed, and galloped off into the darkness while his two men chased after him.
“Shit,” I let my body go slack, leaned against the wagon, and regained control over my body. “That was a close one…”
“Charles?” the cat-girl whimpered, scurried closer, and gripped my sleeve tightly in her hands. “What happens if they check? Will they come after us, take you away and lock you in a cell? I just kept getting mad at him and talking. I dunno if I said anything wrong.”
“You did great,” I said as I cupped her chin. “I’m on the list thankfully. Edony put me on it the moment I agreed to work with her. I may not come here often, but sometimes I do have to visit and give her updates on the experiments and my machine.”
“Do you think he’ll come back anyway?” she asked as her eyebrows raised with concern.
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” I shook my head, reached into the wagon, and pulled at the folded cage. “Here, help me get this thing out. We may have had an exciting start, but the night’s not over yet, my dear.”
Chapter Nine
“I think that about does it,” I sighed, leaned back on my haunches, and brushed off my hands.
Valerie and I’d dragged the cage out into the open, assembled it, covered it with broken tree limbs, and then I’d placed the fresh slices of meat inside. I wasn’t sure what type of beast we were going to catch, but I hoped it would happen sooner, rather than later.
I felt on edge from our encounter with the warden, and I knew that if the mood took him, he could reappear at any moment. If it happened again with the cage fully prepared, I didn’t think that he’d accept our excuse for a second time. We weren’t poaching for beasts out in the woods for food, but with our cage set-up, it certainly looked like it, and I couldn’t just explain to him that I was going to use the creature we caught to make another monster girl.
“Alright, Valerie,” I breathed, stood up from the ground, and turned. “Go guide the horses away and out of sight. I’ll set the trap door’s mechanism while you’re gone, I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Don’t be too long.” The cat-girl nodded. “Something is coming, it’s deafening, and it’s kind of scary.”
I raised my head, glanced around at the darkness, and listened hard to anything in the distance. The sounds of rustling leaves reached my ears, but nothing else caught my attention, so I shrugged, pursed my lips, and then turned back toward the feline.
“I can’t hear anything,” I stated. “Can you tell what it is?”
“No.” Valerie shook her head, narrowed her eyes at one spot, and lowered her ears underneath the hood. “I just know that it’s big, and it’s making a lot of noise.”
“Okay, my dear, move the horses as quietly as possible then. I’ll get to work on the door, and then be right there beside you. There’s no need to be scared.”
“Can I just stay here with you?” the feline-woman whined. “I’ll be all by myself if I move the horses, and I haven’t been away from you in a long time..”
“Well, that’s not entirely true, and the horses will be there with you,” I snickered. “They’ll protect you, if they don’t, they’ll make a lot of noise to scare off whatever’s coming, I promise.”
Valerie glanced at the horses, sized them up with pursed lips, and then nodded in agreement.
“Oooookay,” the cat-girl drawled out. “But don’t be too long. I’ll miss you too much.”
“Sure.” I snorted. “Give me a minute, it won’t take long.”
Valerie grabbed one of the horse’s leather halter, tugged on it a few times for the animal to follow, glanced over at her shoulder, and then guided the animals into the darkness.
I bent down beside the cage, held onto one of the bars, and lifted the inner swinging door. I hooked the locking mechanism into its cradle, tested it a few times with my weight, and then stood. I glanced over my shoulder as the sound of crunching leaves and breaking branches reached my ears. It seemed that the beast that Valerie heard earlier was finally showing itself, and I moved my gaze over the darkness where all the sounds emanated from.
I needed to get out of there fast without drawing too much attention to myself.
Then, I turned, stepped purposefully, and avoided any brush that would make too much noise until I was a reasonable distance away. Then I glanced backward toward where Valerie disappeared.
The cat-girl led the horses a bit farther away than I would’ve preferred, and she waved at me frantically. I ran toward her and stopped when I got to her side.
“Get down,” Valerie whispered. “It’s coming.”
“I can hear it now.” I dropped to my knees and rolled underneath the bed of the wagon. “It sounds massive, I wonder what it is?”
“It smells awful, like really bad.” Valerie wrinkled her nose, covered it with a hand, and gasped for air in between her fingers. “Almost like a wet dog that chased me down the street one time, but worse than that.”
“Big, smelly, wet-dog.” I named off. “Maybe a wolf?”
“What is a wolf?” the feline-woman whispered.
“Like a dog,” I told her. “But bigger, meaner, and jaws full of massive teeth.”
“Oh, no,” Valerie whined. “I hope we don’t catch a wolf and use it in the experiment. Dogs are mean to cats. I can’t have a little sister that’s mean to me, I’d be soooo sad.”
“You’re right,” I breathed as we nuzzled closer together underneath the wagon. “But it sounds too big to be a wolf, maybe a gorgon? Or a smaller ogre? They tend to live in this region.”
“Sh, sh, shhhhh.” Valerie urgently murmured, pressed herself against the ground and gazed out from in between the horses’ legs. “It’s here… it’s smelling at the meat. It’s not in the cage yet, but it’s about to step inside.”
“You can see it from all the way back here?” I whispered. “Man, I wish I had your eyesight sometimes. What does it look like?”
“It doesn’t have a lot of crazy characteristics,” the cat-girl murmured, kept her head low to the ground, and then scooted closer. “It’s big, brown, kind of round, really furry with teeny tiny little ears. It’s really cute. Does that sound familiar to you? Any type of beast that lives in this territory and looks like that?”
“Maybe a mountain lion?” I offered. “That’s the only thing that sounds kind of similar.”
“You said no more cats.” Valerie pushed out her bottom lip. “I get to be the only cat-girl.”
“Well, if it’s a mountain lion,” I stated. “We’ll just tranquilize it, and then set it free. I made a promise, and I’ll keep it. You’ll be the only cat-girl in my life, okay?”
“Yaaaay!” the feline-woman rocked back and forth on her elbows.
“What’s it doing now?” I asked, lowered my head, and attempted to peer out toward the cage. “Is it inside yet?”
“Both of its stubby front feet are in,” Valerie breathed. “It hasn’t gone fully in yet, it’s still sniffing the meat. Just a few more inches, girlie, get inside, come on, I know you wanna taste that delicious food we brought for you. Yummm, yummm, yummmm! Come on, you big lug, that delicious meat is just waaaaiting for you.”
I heard the enormous creature lumber forward, its claws clicked against the metal bars, and then it stepped on the trap-door’s mechanism. The clatter of the swinging door rang in our ears, but the roar that came after made the both of us wince.
“Charles!” Valerie cried. “It’s in! We caught a beast! We can repeat the experiment! I get to have a little sister!”
“Yes, yes,” I shouted over the noise, slammed my fists down, rolled out from underneath the wagon, and leaped to my feet. “Come on, let’s go look at what we caught.”
“Whatever it is,” Valerie cried as she clapped her hands over her ears and winced. “It’s not happy with us.”
Before we moved forward, I grabbed the smaller bag from the back of the wagon, wrapped my hand around the vial of tranquilizer inside, and held it in my fist. Then I picked up the long pole with the needle attached, leaned it against my shoulder, and then stepped toward the cage and the rage filled snarls erupting from within.
Valerie pressed herself to my side, held on to my forearm tightly, and peeked out from behind my shoulder. The cat-girl stepped with me, but I kept my eyes straightforward with my hands tightly clamped around the tranquilizer. The rocking cage and the beast trapped inside came into view, and I froze, open-mouthed and wide-eyed.
“By the gods,” I murmured, kept a tight hold of the spear and vial, and attempted to keep my feet under me. “How in the hell are we going to get that monster back to my laboratory?”
“What is it?” Valerie hopped from foot to foot.
“It’s a bear…” I exhaled. “It’s a goddamn bear!”
The enormous beast must have stood at least nine feet when on its hind legs, but even with its four legs pressed to the ground, it had to be at least four feet high. The raised hair at the scruff of its neck brushed against the top rungs of the cells, and it barreled into the sides of the cage. Then the beast ripped at the metal bars with its four-inch-long talons, bit at them with its yellowed fangs, and roared toward the sky.
“Bear?” Valerie echoed. “That’s a bear?”
“Bears are carnivorous mammals of the family Ursidae,” I explained. “Generally classified as ‘dog-like carnivorous.’ Though eight of their species are extinct, but there are eight other species which are alive and thriving like this one.”
“Do you know what species this is?” Valerie cocked her head.
“I’m not entirely sure,” I breathed, ran a hand through my hair and then down over my tired eyes. “Maybe a grizzly? Or a brown bear? It certainly can’t be a northern arctic bear.”
“Why not?” the cat-girl quipped.
“Because northern arctic bears are entirely white,” I clarified. “And much, much larger than this, but this one… this one is so big. It barely fits in the cage.”
“But this is exciting!” Valerie threw her hands into the air. “I get a bear-girl little sister! That’ll be so much fun, Charles!”
“By the science,” I sighed. “It’s a bear. Why? Why? Why did it have to be a bear? Why couldn’t it be something smaller? Like a fox, coyote, anything but a damn bear!”
“Well, it’s not a cat,” Valerie giggled, rested her hands on her hips, and nodded once. “It’s cute and fluffy and chubby. I love it! Let’s get started, shall we? We have to get this thing back to the lab before the warden comes back.”
“You’re right.” I groaned, hung my head back, and took a tentative step toward the cage. “Let’s hurry up and get this done.”
I flipped the spear, glanced at the empty canister for the tranquilizer, dipped into the full vial, and filled it to the brim.
“I’m not sure how much of this tranquilizer is going to work,” I stated. “I’ll most likely have to give it double doses. I know how much to give grown men, but a bear? I have no idea. Stay back, the beast will probably react badly when I inject it and attack the cage again.”
“Oooookay,” Valerie nodded, held her hands tightly to her chest, and squinted toward the cage. “Just be careful, you can create other monster-girls, but I can’t create another Charles.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I snickered, turned around, and gulped loudly.
I held the spear tightly clenched in my fists, stepped sideways toward the cage, and lifted my arms. The bear roared even louder, threw itself sideways into the bars, and rocked the cage. It wobbled for a second, and my breath caught in my throat as it nearly tipped over onto its side. I wasn’t sure how much longer the metal bars of the cage would hold under all of the pressure. They could only hold so much, certainly not the full weight of a grown bear.
My eyes homed in on the spot right above the shoulder, below the crease of the neck, and jabbed forward with all of my might. The needle glinted in the light of the moon the second before it entered into the bear’s dark fur and broke through the skin. The bear threw back its back with a low, sorrowful growl, swung its massive weight toward me, and smashed against the side of the cage.
“Shit,” I grunted. “Goddamn it.”
The spear clanged against the bars, began to bend in half, and nearly came free from my grasp, but I ripped it free with a guttural cry. My eyes stayed on the massive animal for a second before I pulled away and refil
led the canister one-handed. Then I breathed shakily, shook my shoulders, cleared my throat, and took a decisive step forward with the spear raised.
“Wait, Charles,” Valerie called, rushed forward, and came to stand a few feet away. “I think one hit was enough.”
“Are you sure?” I asked over my shoulder, peeked back at the bear, and held even tighter to the spear. “It still looks pretty angry, Val.”
“Just hold off for a second… please,” the cat-girl whispered.
I sighed, shrugged, lowered the spear beside me, and leaned against it like a cane. My eyes settled onto the bear as its trashing slowed, and the massive animal began to move sluggishly. It’s beady brown eyes swiveled in the darkness, attempted to find me again but wandered off into the distance. The brown beast’s sides rose and fell with labored breath, and guttural cries rose from its meaty throat. Finally, the bear’s own weight was too much for it, and it collapsed to the metal floor of the cage.
“I guess one shot was enough,” I sighed, slumped my shoulders, and breathed the night air in. “I can’t believe we caught a goddamn bear. How are we going to get this thing down into my laboratory? The beast has to weigh almost one thousand pounds, we can’t just toss it down the stairs and hope for the best. The creature will wake up if the fall doesn’t kill it, then what will happen? It’ll wreak havoc in my laboratory. Think of what it’d do to the machine!”
“The bear isn’t an ‘it,’ Charles,” Valerie chided, came forward, and knelt beside the bars of the cage. “It’s a she.”
“How do you know that?” I chuckled. “Did you peep under the bear’s dress or something?”
“I don’t know how I know,” the cat-girl shrugged. “I just do, I can sense it. Look how pretty she is, all sleepy and ready for a nap. I love her already. I can’t wait until you turn her into my sister.”
The feline-woman tilted her head, leaned in close, grinned, and cooed at the wild animal. Before I could make a move, Valerie reached in between the bars and stroked the enormous animal’s flank.