[Adv, Calm Lands] Kitten in the Tall Grass

The tall grasses of the Calm Lands waved in the wind, though there was a soft rustling near a large rock. In the shadow of the rock a small rodent scurried back and forth, looking for seeds or other small goodies to munch on. It was something akin to a kangaroo rat, in that the long tail had a tuft of fur on the end and the large ears and beady eyes made it look more like a mouse than the scarier rat.

Who could be afraid of a cute little mouse anyway?

The rodent twitched its ears as it fell very still at the sound of the rustling in the grass, and the rustling stopped. After a long moment, it decided that there wasn't any danger after all and went back to munching on the crust of bread that one of the sightseers had dropped. There were sightseers all over Spira now that the Eternal Calm had made travel much more accessible to all people, not just Summoners and their Guardians who undertook the Journey at the risk of their lives.

There were still monsters out there, and travel was still dangerous, but without Sin to ravage whole coastlines and flatten island cities in a single pass, it wasn't as dangerous at it had once been and so people were able to see things in their world that once only Summoners and their Guardians had been able to view.

The tuft-tailed rodent scampered forward a couple of steps and claimed another scrap of breadcrust. The eating was so much easier in the Calm Lands where the sightseers passed on their way to play various games which had been set up to attract their attention. And it was generally safe, too. Enough that the rodent felt safe enough to come out foraging and wasn't paying attention to the rustling in the grass that had suddenly started up again.

In the shadow of the rock, a small form, much larger than the rodent, crept forward, crouching low to the ground. The feline shape had golden fur, with pink highlights making it look distinctly odd in comparison to a more naturally colored cat. A long tail swished back and forth as the little huntress crept closer to the rodent, her attention focused on the mouse-like creature, and she kept her wings tucked close to her body.

Yes, most unusual of all, the little cat had a pair of brightly colored wings on her back, making her resemble some strange form of chimera, though she didn't have the multiple heads of the Chimera-type monsters that were common in Spira. She edged forward, a little further, a little further, and then…

… she pounced!

The little rodent squeaked in fear as the feline caught it in her paws and struggled to escape the inescapable grasp of the claws as the winged cat leaned down and… began washing it? The little cat licked it several times with her rough tongue and then let the rodent go, watching it scamper away as fast as its little feet could carry it.

No harm befell it, other than the humiliation of being treated as a kitten with a very odd mother, but it was an experience that even the rodent would remember for longer than three seconds. The cat sat back on her haunches and seemed to laugh as she began grooming her fur, stretching her wings in the sunlight, pleased at her hunting.

The gentle wind that flowed over the Calm Lands pushed the Siang Tien Tang gently along as it lazily passed over head. John stood at the rail on the Port side and looked down on to the grass below watching the tall stalks sway. The Air Ship made no sound. There were no engines or machines on board to cause a single noise. The Siang Tien Tang was as noiseless as a mouse and it was times like these The Shaman enjoyed. He could sit back and relax as Zheng Hui navigated and drove the ship. Today they had the sails up catching the breeze for momentum, but if need be the ghost of the ship’s creator could use the large yellow crystal embedded into the ships rudder.

The crystal was a dichotomy of two worlds, of magic and science. Zheng had created the crystal with his extensive knowledge of Alchemy, but it was a traveling Magic User who was able to fuse the stone with the magic necessary to complete its transformation. Now part of the ship the crystal controlled the Siang Tien Tang’s flight totally. If Zheng thought up the ship would lift free from the ground and if he thought ‘up fast’ then the ship would hurtle skyward right up into space. Once moving the ghost of the Alchemist controlled the Siang Tien Tang and no one else could lay claim to it. John had been training to use the yellow crystal in an emergency and as of the moment he really hoped one wouldn’t come along. His ability to fly the Air Ship was nowhere as good as Zheng Hui’s and the Shaman had been practicing for some time now…almost ten years.

A bird crossed the sky and never saw the ship as it passed by. John could have shot it out of the sky with a well placed bullet, but he just watched it glide by. It was oddly funny not being seen by someone or something as it passed by. Of course that’s how John lived his life, hidden in the back instead of out in front trying to garner attention for heroic deeds. The Shaman’s role in his tribe was that of a communicator to the spirit world, a walker who talked with spirits and guides to gain knowledge to help his tribe. Only John had no tribe, no community to look after. He only had Wahkan, his faithful follower who was standing by the Starboard rail looking at the sky. There was Zheng, but a ghost really has no need of someone who can speak to other ghosts. It just added a lot of confusion and the last thing anyone needed was a confused spirit wandering around.

John’s black hat increased his sight and from where he stood he caught sight of something. It was a kitty hunting a mouse who wandered out to eat bread crumbs from passers-by. The Shaman has seen plenty of kitties before, even touched a few, but this one was special. Never mind the strange color of its pelt, the pink highlights standing out, which John thought he recognized. No, it was the wings that caught the medicine man’s eye, kind of hard to miss those.

“Zheng, lower the ship.” John said with a smile.

“Why may I ask?" The ghost asked.

“Oh, I think I want to see a friend.”

The little winged cat was paying no mind to the skies above, quite happily involved in grooming her fur and stretching her wings. She paused this only when she decided that she wanted to look around and see if any of the rodents had come back out to play, but unfortunately it seemed as though they were all still recovering in their burrows. She flapped her wings briefly and looked around at the grasses and that's when she noticed the butterfly. It was a beautiful butterfly, with purple-white wings and it fluttered around the rock like it was looking for something.

She crouched on the top of the rock and watched the butterfly for a time, gradually realizing that it wasn't a butterfly at all… it as a fairy. That almot made the cat grin at herself. She knew this fairy and she was going to have some fun stalking her.

That was the moment, though, that she was startled out from her concentration by the unfamiliar feel of a strange thread of energy and there was an odd shimmer to the air and she had to look around for the source of that magic. That was when she noticed the airship which seemed to be doing its best not to be seen by anything. Not by the people, not by the animals, or the monsters. It was distinctly odd.

She looked up at the skyship for a moment and tilted her head curiously before leaping up onto the top of the rock beside her, using her wings for balance and then tucking them back against her body and sitting down to await the arrival of… well, whoever it was.

She knew that she was an unusual creature and that anyone who had met her before would instantly know her again, but she wasn't certain that all those who she'd met knew the fact that she was more than she seemed, no matter what she seemed to be. Some had a way of seeing beyond appearances and to the heart of a matter, like the Samurai-boy she'd met on the banks of the Moonflow.

Sometimes she wondered what happened to him. But there was so much for her to see and do that she hadn't gone looking for him again.

She waited for the airship to finish landing so that she could find out who was on board and why they were here. She was exceptionally curious about the Airship and its passengers, though, because other than stalking her fairy friend there wasn't really anything else going on that was half as interesting to her since the little rodent had scurried off to its burrow to recover from the close encounter with a cat's tongue. And stalking the fairy was only fun if the fairy wasn't aware of her.

And sadly Elanor had noticed the kitten when her attention had been drawn away and she flitted up to the top of the rock, looking curiously at her. "What are you doing here? You scared me when you ran away like that." She blinked in surprise. "And why are you a cat?"

The cat seemed to laugh at the fairy. This was a very funny circumstance to her.

The Siang Tien Tang floated down to just a foot off the ground gently and the small gang plank slid out with no problem touching the ground with a small pop. John started to walk down it when a strong hand caught his shoulder stopping him. He was sure Wahkan had a reason for stopping him. The large man always did. Only most of the reasons never quite fit the situation. Like now, John was sure Wahkan was being just a little over cautious. So the Shaman turned to his friend and smiled from under his black hat.

“What worries you my friend?”

“Oh Nothing,” Wahkan smiled looking out at the plain, “just wondering who you would know out here is all?”

“You should not ask who John Greywolf knows out here. You should ask who he does not know.” Zheng offered from his position by the rudder.

Wahkan looked from the ghost to the Shaman and back twice before answering. “The ghost has a point.”

“The cat on the rocks, it has pink hair.” John pointed out to the rocks where the cat he had spotted sat patiently waiting.

“Pink hair?”

“Yes, pink hair, and I think I know who it belongs too.”

“You know a cat with pink hair?” Wahkan asked with a raised eyebrow.

“She’s very friendly when she’s a human.”

And before a stunned Wahkan could reply John stepped down the gang plank and headed out to the rocks to greet the cat. He could hear Zheng call to the large man. “I told you, only ask who he knows.”

The Shaman walked across the grass feeling it crunch beneath his moccasins with each step. The sun was high, Father Sky made sure to gibe all on the plain a nice warm reception. John walked up slowly hoping not to scare the cat, and with each step forward he was assured this was no ordinary feline. The aura of the small thing looked like no animal he had ever seen, but it did resemble one he had seen before on different journey. One where he met a pretty little girl and a fairy while rescuing a certain old staff from a wall. He still had the gnarled hunk of wood in his room back on board the Siang Tien Tang propped up in a corner with his other staffs. He had asked them, his staffs, to be nice to their new brother even though it could not speak to them and all had, even the snobby one his teacher had given him when he set out.

The cat sat right in the same spot as he approached waiting for him it seemed like. He stopped just short of the rock to give the feline her space if needed. “Good afternoon, I’m hoping I’m not bothering you.”

There was no response from the cat.

“My name is John and I was wondering if I could ask you a question?”

There was no response from the cat again. To anyone else the whole scene might have looked off kilter, kind of crazy, and John had to admit it was a little strange but then he had seen worse. Boy, had he seen worse. Wahkan was probably having a ball on the deck of the Air Ship laughing it up but the Shaman stood waiting for the cat to do or say something.

He just had a feeling it was going to do something grand.

The fairy saw the airship land and fled to behind the rock. Elanor still wasn't certain that she liked all the people that she met while following her shape-shifting friend around the different worlds. The figure that walked towards them, though, was an unexpectedly familiar one to both of them. She blinked in surprise when she saw the shaman walking up to them because it was the same shaman who had been with Mairi when the little girl had built her house and made friends with her.

That had been a very strange day for all involved, though it had ended well enough. There was a staff and an old ghost that needed dealing with the remnants of a very old conflict. That had been the shaman's doing because he was the one the staff had called to its side to resolve the matter.

That whole event had scared Elanor, but her friend had seemed to take it in stride. It made Elanor wonder what sort of madness her friend saw as regular, daily events. Since traveling with her, though, she'd come to understand why she'd been so accepting.

Today was a good example of one of those things that made life distinctly odd to see from the outside. Her friend was a cat today. And not just a regular cat. She was a cat with fur colored like her hair and she had wings on her back with the same colorshift as the cloak she sometimes wore. It made the wings look almost like a cloak on the cat's back, which Elanor supposed could be fun and interesting in its own way.

The little winged cat sat back on her haunches and looked up at John with her blue and purple eyes and lifted a paw up to her muzzle, as if she were hiding laughter behind her hand in the way people sometimes did that. The shaman had asked if he could ask her a question… if she'd been a person she'd have said that he'd already asked a question and then laughed like a fool. She found a lot of odd things funny.

She wasn't certain that she wanted to give up being a cat, not just yet at the moment, though she wavered back and forth on the edge of decision because she really wanted to brag about getting her wings back. So she nodded her head to him and walked forward on her paws to nuzzle against his hand, purring happily.

She knew that someone was laughing, though, and that made her happy. It wasn't cruel laughter, and that was the only sort of laughing that she didn't like. This little kitten didn't get mad about much, and cruel laughter was one of those things she did not like. Cruel laughter would make her hiss with anger and want to show her claws and that just wasn't as much fun for her as more friendly sorts of laughter and joking.

She waited patiently for John to ask this question he had asked her permission to make, the absurdity of the situation making her feel like giggling, even though she couldn't giggle, really, when she was a cat.

The little cat, and from its actions and look the Shaman knew it was his friend, waited patiently for his question like no other cat in history. John arched one eyebrow and with as serious an expression as he could muster he asked the question.

“Well, you see, I have a friend who looks a lot like you.”

It was probably, no wait, it was definitely odd to be having a conversation with a cat on a grass plain the Shaman thought. He was sure though he was right as the little cat cocked its head to the side intently listening to every word.

“And I know there are some in this Middle world who can change their shape into whatever form that suits them.”

Back on the Siang Tien Tang Wahkan looked over to Zheng. “Do you remember him hitting his head anytime in the last day or so?”

“No,” The ghost replied with a smile, “John is in perfect health.”

“He’s talking with a cat.”

“Yes, I can see.” Zheng sighed watching the Shaman instead of looking to Wahkan.

“And that doesn’t surprise or shock or cause you to wonder about his ‘perfect health’ for a second?”

The ghost didn’t respond at first, but then after a minute it turned to Wahkan and spoke. “The cat is special I assume or John would have passed it by.”

That was it; all Zheng was going to give. As Wahkan’s face went slack from the retort the ghost turned its attention back out to the grass and the shaman, who at the moment was carrying on a very nice conversation with the cat.

“So when I saw you from above on board my ship I thought I recognized the colors of your spectacular coat. My friend, Mairi, she has the same color hair.”

With his hat amplifying his hearing John picked up the slightest sound of a giggle, like a little fairy laughing and enjoying the whole scene as it played out. The cat turned its head to the other side with a look that said Yes, please continue.

“Would you have seen my friend Mairi? I’m sure she’s been around here. She likes kitties from what I remember.” John said sitting down by the cat.

He gently reached out and stroked its head as it purred. The cat’s aura changed color to one of pure joy and satisfaction.

“I’m sure you would remember Mairi, she’s hard to miss.I’m sure the two of you would make great friends and with those wings, why she’d be beside herself all day long.” The Shaman said watching the cat walk from the left to the right under his hand. It was easy to see Mairi was keeping her cat form so he just played along petting her gently. There was no rush and no need to make his friend change back to her other form. Anyway, he could imagine the look Wahkan would have when Mairi did shift back.

It was going to be priceless.

The little cat liked being petted and having her fur stroked so kindly and gently. She had known from the very first moment that she saw the Shaman that he was a good sort of person, and she had an excellent sense of who the good people were and who the bad ones were. She knew what her fairy friend found so humorous, and she shared the joke, but she couldn't exactly giggle along while in this particular shape.

It was one of the oddities of the shape. Though it stood to reason that she could alter the throat muscles and such to allow speech, she just wasn't certain what it would sound like and she actually liked being the mysteriously intelligent and oddly aware winged cat.

When the Shaman said her name, though, she couldn't help but be pleased that he got the joke so quickly. Almost as quickly as her brother, though she hadn't seen him in a while and she needed to track him down at some point. She missed her brother and wanted to see him again.

She rubbed her head against his hand, purring loudly, communicating her contentment and peace much more effectively than words ever could. She'd figured out centuries ago how to say more without words than with them and it was a useful sort of ability when she was trying to be all kitten-mysterious… even if she knew full well that the Shaman saw through the disguise. Still, he was polite enough to play along with the joke and, for that, he was a friend.

She fluffed her wings and sat back on her haunches and took a deep breath. She didn't mind ending the charade now. It was more fun this way because she knew full well that the Shaman had someone watching from the Airship who thought that he was, likely, out of his mind for talking to a cat like she was a person. Well, she was going to prove that appearances weren't always accurate.

This was going to be so funny.

The transformation was slow, mostly because she wanted to take her time and make sure that the observers on the airship could see that she was transforming. It wasn't, though, painful. She'd seen shapeshifters in the past who went through great pain to change from one form to another and she knew that some healers didn't take as many precautions as they should against the pain of altering muscle and bone structure.

She, though, also learned centuries before that she had a lower than usual pain threshold and she really couldn't endure much of it. That was part of the reason she had Tiran at her side for so long. He did the fighting, and the bleeding, and she put him back together again and kept him whole. He was her Knight in Dark Blue Armor. She was his Princess.

She wished it could have stayed that way forever.

She stretched and shifted as she sat on the rock until, in place of the winged kitten there was a thirteen year old catgirl with furry ears and a furry tail and two great wings on her back, colored turquoise, blue, and purple, just like her clothes. She grinned at John and reached her arms out to hug him.

"Hiya!! Whaddya think of my wings!!! I finally got my wings back! Aren't they pretty? I can make them come and go if I want and it feels so good to finally be able to fly again!!" She giggled again. "You're very smart to figure out that it was me! I need to play with colors again at some point and see what I'd look like as a blue kitty, or maybe a purple one. Do you think I'd look good with blue or purple hair?"

As Mairi shifted back to the form of a thirteen year old girl John sat and watched with fascination. He had seen other shape shifters on other worlds and those worlds when he journeyed and none seemed to have it down as well as Mairi. She seemed to feel no pain and in when she had fully transformed she still had her wings. The two wings on her back, colored brightly like a butterfly, were second nature to the girl and John was sure the last time they had met she didn’t have them.

He hugged Mairi and smiled. “I think your wings are very beautiful, just like you.”

The little girl giggled as the fairy popped out of hiding and landed y John. “Do you remember me John?”

“Well yes, how could I forget Elanor Rosecloud?”

The fairy smiled and blushed. Mairi giggled at her friend then turned back to John as he spoke. “You know, I thought it was you. I haven’t come across many like you little one, a rare gem indeed.”

The girl blushed as the fairy jumped up and called out. “Mairi is the bestest friend ever, but why are you here John?”

“Oh, I was just travelling by on my ship and low and behold I saw this cat with the prettiest hair and I only know of one who has that color.”

“Mairi!” Elanor laughed.

“Yes, only our little one,” John smiled.

On the Siang Tien Tang Wahkan’s face was just returning to normal after it had been stuck in shock. He turned to the ghost pointing to the field. “The cat turned into the little girl we met a while back.”

“Yes,” was all Zheng said.

“No, she can shape change. How did John know she could do that?”

“I have learned to not question John Greywolf, it is much easier to accept him and his…ways.” The ghost answered again with a tired tone.

Wahkan shook his head wondering how the Shaman had figured this out, and then he decided to just do what the ghost did. Go with what John says, it’s just easier.

“That’s a pretty ship John.” Elanor remarked.

“Why thank you Elanor, the Siang Tien Tang is a very special Air Ship. It’s the only one of its kind anywhere on any world.” John nodded.

The fairy went back to looking at the ship as Mairi sat quietly enjoying the sun. John looked skyward and noted the sun was quickly making its way over head. Soon the night would come and he would be aboard the Siang Tien Tang somewhere over another piece of land. He didn’t mind the trips; it was a grand adventure being able to see all the worlds aboard an Air Ship. It was kind of li-

“Where are going to John?”

The question caught the Shaman off guard breaking him out of his trance. He wasn’t sure which of the pair asked him the question so far out it was the Shaman. “Oh, I’m just going to see some friends. But may I ask, why are you out here Mairi? What does a grass plain do hold your attention?”