Catheroes

by A. J. Chaudhury

  I told of my idea to the others. Riya was unsure of it, but as more and more dogmen appeared in the street trying to get a look at us through the gate, she nodded, saying there was no other way. At the same time, I was happy that all of us had reactivated the shape changing spell.

  The three of us climbed onto Rupasur and sat on his shoulder. Junaki waved her hand and uttered a word. I felt a queer sensation. But none of us disappeared.

  “I activated the spell,” Junaki said, though she herself seemed unsure if it was working. “The notification says that we would be still able to see ourselves, but other people wouldn’t be able to see us.”

  “Well, that settles things,” Riya said.

  Ruapsur was easily able to step over the wall that surrounded the palace. The dogmen and the cats would freeze whenever we approached them, looking around with terrified expressions on their faces. The rampage from yesterday night continued however. We saw cats being beaten up by dogmen soldier. It hurt that we couldn’t help them all. But whenever such a happening was going on along our way, I would ask Rupasur to help the cats. Rupasur would simply grab the dogmen, who would cry out in horror, and fling them away like they were toys. Heck, we frightened even the cats that we saved, so that they ran away from us like their lives depended on it.

  As the morning matured, I asked Rupasur to run. He was glad to do so. He said that the last time he had run was about a thousand years ago, and that had been a run in the jungle, not through the middle of a city.

  It was towards noon when the dogmen soldiers began to surround us. At first we thought that they were simply among the ones that were going about harming the other cats, but it was after a while that Junaki pointed out that the dogmen soldiers were appearing more and more and they were forming a circle around us. Of course, they still kept a good distance away from us, so that they were just out of Rupasur’s reach.

  “I think they suspect it is an invisible giant,” I whispered to Junaki who was sitting beside me on Rupasur’s shoulder. Riya was sitting on his other soldier.

  “What should I do about this, master?” Rupasur asked.

  “Shh!” I said, “Keep quiet!” The moment Rupasur had spoken the dogmen that were moving with us in a circle seemed to become even more alarmed.

  “But we really need to do something,” Junaki said. “My mana is going low again.” I had been giving the mana vials to Junaki so that her mana didn’t deplete and we all became visible again. So far I had given her three, only a few more remained. While we had finally come out of the capital city, we still had a long way to go. More trees were there around us now. Perhaps we had come about ten kilometres so far.

  “Look out!” Riya said suddenly, “They are going to shoot arrows at us.”

  Barely had the words left her mouth that the first arrow whizzed past between Junaki and me. Had it been aimed only a little differently the arrow would have hit one of us.

  More arrows came. While most bounced off Rupasur’s metal body, there were a few which nearly hit me, Junaki or Riya.

  “Rupasur,” I said, “Put your arms up, protect us from the arrows.” Rupasur did so, providing us some protection. After a minute or two the soldiers stopped shooting the arrows. They seemed to have come to the conclusion that doing so was mostly pointless.

  “Can’t we just kill them all?” Riya asked, casting a look of disdain at the guards that were following us.

  “No,” I said, “no killing unless it is absolutely necessary.”

  Rupasur was not someone who cared about making a swift kill. He would just separate a couple of limbs from each dogman and throw them away so that they would begin to wish for death. The carnage that Rupasur had caused in Amina’s palace was something that would never leave my mind. Crushed heads of dogmen were not something one could forget easily.

  Junaki suddenly smiled.

  “But we can definitely scare them away, can’t we?”

  “That we can,” I said. “Rupasur, do something that they get scared and flee.”

  “Aye, master,” Rupasur’s voice boomed. Rupasur stopped. He grabbed a tree by its trunk and applied such force that the tree was pulled out from the ground, complete with its roots. I grinned, seeing that the eyes of all the dogmen had gone wide in horror. I imagined them seeing a tree coming out of the ground on its own. Heck, that would be a scary scene even for me. Rupasur then began to rotate the tree over his head. The dogmen began to scatter and run, they probably knew what would happen next. Rupasur let go off the tree. It flew away, and by mere inches did it miss crushing five of the fleeing dogmen.

  “That should teach them something,” Riya said in her tattered but happy voice.

  Chapter 38

  For a few hours we couldn’t see any dogmen follow us. It was a good relief, not to see them around all armed. For the first time since last night, I allowed myself the luxury to close my eyes. Soon, I dozed off.

  I felt a tight grip on my arm, and opened my eyes. It was Junaki. I had nearly fallen off Rupasur’s shoulder. The fall would have cost me at least a few health.

  The moon was up in the sky. A crescent moon with barely any light. A cool breeze was blowing and I caught a chill. My stomach grumbled.

  “I guess I am hungry,” I said.

  “Should we wait master, and get you something to eat?” Rupasur asked. Perhaps because of the darkness, he was trying to speak in a low voice. He wasn’t succeeding very much though.

  We were now in the woods, quite a distance from the capital. I reckoned we were between the forests that grew between dogmen villages.

  “That would not be a terrible idea,” Riya said, “even a young girl like me is beginning to feel the aches, sitting on metal shoulder. And my stomach feels like it no longer exists.”

  “If you are a young girl,” Rupasur joked, “I am an infant, just a thousand years old.”

  Rupasur stopped and let us climb down. All of us were still under the invisibility spell, and if there were dogmen journeying from one village to another, they would not see us.

  Being invisible had its benefits. In mere minutes we were able to catch two rabbits. Plus, Rupasur saw a bird’s nest high up a tree and took three eggs from there for us. We created a fire and cooked the rabbits and had a nice dinner.

  “Shouldn’t we take off the invisibility spell for a while?” Junaki said, wearing a concerned expression. “What if the mana vials deplete before we reach the Lair?”

  “But what if there are dogmen soldiers hiding around waiting for us to reveal ourselves?” Riya said. Both of them had given good reasons.

  “Maybe take it off for a few minutes?” I suggested. “If there is any sign of the dogmen approaching we can put the spell back on.”

  And so, for the first time since we had left Amina’s palace, we were no longer under the invisibility spell. I felt rather exposed, and the slightest sound would make my hair stand on their ends.

  Riya and Junaki fell asleep. I stayed for the watch. But soon, my eyelids began to drop, my stomach was full and I felt relaxed although all I had for a bed was the ground. Plus, Rupasur was already on watch and I allowed myself to fall into the land of dreams.

  ***

  “Get up master!” a voice boomed in my ears. My eyes snapped open and for a minute I struggled to make any sense of the world around me. Then I realised my location. The voice was that of Rupasur.

  “Dogmen are coming,” he said, and there was high alarm in his voice. “Hundreds of them!”

  The words sank into my mind fast and I got up quickly. The other two were stirring as well.

  “Junaki,” I said, giving her a light shake. “Turn us invisible again.”

  Her eye lids still were heavy and she seemed to be struggling to understand what I was speaking. I could hear the motion of hundreds of feet not far away. I repeated my words to Junaki. She suddenly became alert. In a few seconds she had activated the invisibility spell. Rupasur had barely picked us up and placed us on his shoulder, when I began s
eeing the shapes of the many dogmen. Fear sank into my heart. Even Rupasur the metal giant could not deal with that many dogmen.

  “Do not move,” I whispered to Rupasur in the smallest voice that I could use. Then my eyes fell on the fire. It was smoking. My fears came true when a dogmen pointed at the fire and yelled “There!” The smoking fire had given us away. Staying still was no longer an option.

  “Run Rupasur!” I said. The giant obeyed and began to take great leaps. The dogmen following us began to shout.

  “Should I frighten them again, master?” Rupasur asked.

  “Doesn’t look like they are going to get feared easily this time,” I said. Suddenly a stone came flying from behind and hit Rupasur. No, it wasn’t a stone. It was a mud ball. The moment it struck Rupasur, some of the mud got stuck to his frame. More mud balls followed. The dogmen had found of a way to make us visible!

  In a matter of minutes, Rupasur’s entire back had been hit by the mud balls and they only continued to rain from the hands of the dogmen. They could probably see him quite well now. They were carrying torches, and the glow fell on the mud on Rupasur’s back, illuminating his shape well.

  I didn’t want to bear the guilt of killing even more dogmen, but I was struggling to find a solution. And then it dawned upon me. Just as I had summoned Rupasur, I could also tell him to go.

  “Rupasur, let us down,” I said.

  “Are you crazy, Kitty?” Riya asked.

  “The mud balls have hit Rupasur, but we are still invisible,” I said. Only a few specks of mud were on my fur, and I reckoned that would be missed by the dogmen easily.

  Rupasur stopped. The three of us jumped down.

  “Now go running towards them,” I said to Rupasur, “maybe get a tree and scare them. Keep running for a short distance and then you can return to your own world. I will summon you when I require you again.”

  “As you wish, master,” Rupasur said. He pulled out a tree from nearby. He let out a roar and then he went running towards the fast approaching dogmen, swinging his tree like mad.

  We watched from our spot. The plan was working, for the dogmen were scattering again, and all their focus seemed to be on the mud hovering in mid air and the tree swinging around it. Rupasur had gone a considerable distance from us, when we saw the dogmen throwing oil onto him. Next the dogmen threw torches at Rupasur. The fire caught easily over Rupasur. I felt sad for him. His form was very much visible now for the dogmen.

  “You can return to your world,” I found myself muttering.

  Ploof.

  The ball of fire ahead that was Rupasur disappeared.

  “I think we should get moving,” I said, “before the dogmen can smell us out.”

  ***

  Chapter 39

  We moved in the dark, trying to make the best use of the night to cover as much ground as we could without using the invisibility spell. I observed that Riya had lines on her forehead, and even as she walked, supporting herself with her staff, she was occasionally looking skywards as though she was trying hard to remember something.

  “Everything all right?” I asked, concerned by her behaviour.

  Riya looked at me, but then she scratched her chin and again looked up at the night sky.

  It was a minute later she replied, by which time I had grown pretty confused.

  “I think I am forgetting something,” Riya said.

  “Forgetting something?” Junaki asked her.

  “Yes, something important,” Riya said.

  “How can you know it’s something important if you are forgetting it?” I asked.

  Riya let out an exasperated sigh.

  “My hunch tells me it is something important,” Riya said. She shook her head, apparently getting frustrated with her inability to recall whatever was not coming to her mind. “Darn it, I am really getting old, aren’t I?”

  “Has it got something to do with the Lair?” I asked, just to nudge Riya’s memory.

  Riya’s eyes went bright.

  “Yes!” she said, “It’s got something to do with the Lair. And something important about it.”

  “Have you seen the Lair before?” Junaki asked, “even if from a distance?”

  “No,” Riya said. “But what I am not remembering is still something important. Very important actually. Perhaps if I don’t recall it we’d have a hard time in the journey ahead.”

  I exchanged glances with Junaki. Junaki shrugged, as though she thought Riya was really going gaga with age. I began wondering if what Riya couldn’t remember even had anything to do with the Lair.

  And then, quite unexpectedly, a notification appeared in my vision.

  A quest message appeared.

  You have received a new quest!

  Save the Mother!

  Rewards: Control the mother and her followers!

  Note: This quest does not interfere with any of your previous quests.

  Mother? Had something malfunctioned?

  I had a feeling near my ear, like a mosquito bite. I was about to scratch my ears with my paw, when suddenly Junaki motioned me to stop.

  “Wait!” she said, “I think there’s something on your ear.”

  Junaki came close to me, and then she touched my ears with her paw. When she withdrew her paw, she was staring intently at what was a really tiny ball of light, the size of a point. If not for the night, the ball of light wouldn’t have been visible at all.

  And then the realisation dawned upon me. The ball of light was not a ball of light in the first place. It was an insect, a really tiny one. A fly.

  The fly took off from Junaki’s paw and began flying around me in circles. I didn’t understand at all. Was the fly actually trying to say something to me? I looked from Junaki to Riya with confusion. The fly again landed near my ears. The quest message that had started to fade in my vision again became bright.

  You have received a new message!

  Save the Mother!

  Rewards: Gain control of the Mother and her followers!

  Note: This quest does not interfere with any of your previous quests!

  And then it hit me. The fly had sent me the quest message for help. When I told about this to Junaki and Riya, their jaws dropped. The fly then took off from my shoulder and began to circle Junaki and Riya.

  Help a fly? I thought. That is ridiculous.

  “So what do we do?” Riya said. “Help it?”

  “I think we should,” Junaki said, her eyes moving with the fast moving fly. I slapped my forehead.

  “Come on,” I said, and there was much anger in my tone, “what are you two saying? Are you out of your mind? We have got a bigger quest at hand!”

  “I have a feeling we should help it,” Junaki said. I was bewildered with how determined she looked. I gaped.

  “We need to get to the Lair, and as fast as we can,” I said, “we don’t have the time for this!”

  I began to regret why I had told the two of them about the quest message in the first place.

  “Please Kitty, I feel we should help it,” Junaki said, “it’s what you would have done in your previous life.”

  Was this the same Junaki I had known? Why had a little fly the size of a negligible point making her behave like that?

  I shot her an ‘are you crazy?’ look.

  Junaki glared at me. Why was she losing her head over this?

  “Look,” I said, “I don’t need to behave now like I did in my previous life. I have regained all my memory already!”

  “Your behaviour was part of the reason why you ended up becoming a king,” Riya said, so that I was befuddled that she had to join in too, “you always used to help others, regardless of whatever difficulties you faced. It was what made you popular. Do you not remember?”

  I grimaced. I felt like lava was running in my insides instead of blood. The fly could barely be included in ‘others’. I whirled at the spot.

  “Go help it!” I told them and began marching away from them. Hell, I would get to
the Lair myself.

  But after going a short distance I realised that inwardly I expected them to follow me. When I couldn’t hear their footsteps behind m, I stopped. I exhaled. I turned around.

  The two of them were still standing where they had been and they were looking at me with anger. Should it come to this? I let my shoulders drop, accepting defeat. I walked the way back to them.

  “Okay,” I said, “we’ll help the fly.” I accepted the quest, hoping that whatever problem the fly was facing would not be a big one, considering its size.

  I was so wrong.

  ***

  Chapter 40

  The fly let us through the forest. We were no longer in the narrow road that connected different villages of dogmen. Now it was getting difficult to even take a step forward without having to battle bushes and branches of trees that kept hitting my face and forehead. The plants here grew so close to each other, unlike the forest areas I had been in before.

  I could hear Riya and Junaki occasionally grunt behind me. It made me happy. You wanted to go on the new quest, right? The fly meanwhile kept flying in front of us, leading us on. It would have been faster for us to climb trees and jump from one to the other, but I didn’t know how to tell this to the fly and so I just followed it.

  It took almost an hour, or at least it seemed that long, when the forest suddenly gave way to a field. It was a large circular field, no trees growing in it. Only tall grasses covered it. And there at the very centre of the field was a great hill. It towered hundreds of metres above the trees.

  What was interesting about the hill was that it stood all alone, and it… almost looked artificial, though I didn’t see how a hill could be artificial after mother nature of the world of Arun had put it there. The hill was covered all about with what I at first thought were trees. But I let out a gasp of astonishment when I realised they weren’t trees.