Poesje

A/N Yes yes, I've started a new one. It's sort of medieval fairytale, sort of romance, and sort of strange humour. Anyway, it was inspired by my own cat Maxi. So, here is Poesje, the tale of a cat that really should have been a cat but was also sort of human. To the prologue!

...Prologue...

Poesje was only a kitten when his owner began to dabble.

He knew damn well what was happening; humans have always been stupid and easy to figure out. Like dogs. His owner, Adair, was messing with magic. And while Poesje did not really agree, well, he didn’t really care. Adair put food in his bowl and a pile of cloths by the back door for him to curl up in, and past that Adair was nothing. Just a human.

That was, until Adair started testing his magic out on his kitten.

Poesje knew from the talks of the town that magic was a dangerous thing. And yes, Poesje knew. Cats have always learnt to understand the language that was spoken around them, just like children. It is why sometimes a cat would obey a command. However, the majority of the time said cat would just not listen. Why should any human be the boss?

Anyway, back on track. Poesje the kitten, who had absolutely no interest what-so-ever in Adair's magic, of course ended up being the proverbial hamster. Many magical spells were by this point banned, because they often came with side-effects, and the only people who dared experiment with magic were those who studied it for years on end. Adair, being a young boy with the dream of becoming a wizard, had read only a few books on the craft before he decided to test one out.

Poesje had not been happy, and had tried his hardest to display this. He hissed with all of his might, claws bared, eyes narrowed into slits, but still Adair's voice tore on through the air.

"Iliscione ti de amont, iliscione bar, ti trey lupon fetrinis nare, lucos timon adian trahr--"

And then it had happened. Poesje had suddenly stopped hissing, yellow eyes flying wide as a strange new feeling flooded him.

Light burned behind his closed eyelids, but Poesje continued to sink his claws into the earth, the meadow around him fading. Everything began to change, and Poesje grew, bones creaking and moving unbearably, too fast and too slow and when would it be over? His senses began to mute, dull, and--

"Do not finish it!" Words sounded so strange coming from his mouth. They tasted nothing like a meow that would resound from the back of the throat, and his tongue was not used to the alien movement, accent sounding peculiar.

Adair had gasped and stumbled back, staring upon his kitten. Not kitten. A human in his kitten's place, pre-teenaged and naked, yellow eyes drawn into a glare, stark black hair as glossy as the cat's fur had been sticking up in odd directions from his head.

"Glory to the Gods, I have done it," Adair said, laughter evident in his tone. He glanced down to the book in his hand and Poesje hissed loudly.

"Do not finish it, you fool!" He spoke slowly and too precisely, still not used to language. Eventually he shook his head. "Do not finish it and I may return--"

There was no way in the seven Hells that Poesje was going to stay human. Humans were stupid and careless, killed each other for no reason, traded gold for goods - now what use was that? No, no, no, Poesje was very content being a cat, thank you very much!

At first Poesje did not know how he had done it, only that he had wanted to be a cat again, so much he had pushed with his mind, and then the blinding light was back and instead of creaking to grow his bones were creaking to contract, his skin was shrinking, fur was growing and it hurt, it ached, it itched, and then... well, then Poesje was a cat again. And thanked the eleven Gods of Justice for this fact.

As Adair stared in complete awe, Poesje turned on his (now four) feet-- er, that is, paws, and ran as fast as a cat could run. Which in actuality is pretty damn fast.

And so begins the story of Poesje, who was sometimes a cat, and sometimes a human. But usually a cat, because humans are pretty stupid.