Closed What's New PussyCat? [Veldrys + Lucette]

[Lucette]

Lucette’s animal mind could not remember anything or anyone from before her arrival to the forest surrounding the Spires. The fog from the Djed Storm had taken her and stripped the humanity away. Her needs became the primal needs of a predator, instinctual, focused and deadly. In the changing fog and between immense trees, Lucette had forgotten the world, and her place in it. Within this world of green growth, she was no longer Kelvic - she was only Cheetah and she was feral. Hunger drove her, ever compelling and unending. For fast as she was, the trees too often thwarted her hunt; she could not rise to full speed between them. As the days passed, the hunger grew more insistent, and Lucette ate what she could catch, usually animals smaller and slower than she. But larger, unnatural beasts hunted her in turn. The Cheetah could afford no injury if she wished to live, so she gave ground readily to anyone more dominant than she. The Kelvic had been lost in the midst for so long; she could not tell when it had finally begun to dissipate. To the animal, time meant nothing. It was an elusive, unnecessary thing. She lived and ate. Slept and searched for a mate, though she found none. Once while hunting, the Cheetah paused midstride. Her head rose and black-tipped ears pricked with interest… Only the natural forest sounds could be heard - the bird calls and the insects in the brush. But the forest felt odd… and Lucette’s senses were on edge. Something was different! The feline would find it! Shifting her gaunt body to the left, she sniffed the air. Alert and ever restless now, her neck craned upwards to study the canopy of leaves above her. Nothing was there... She sidestepped once more and padded silently beneath the close knit branches of a low-growing sapling. The feline’s eyes scanned the undergrowth; it was difficult to see, for like a dreamer’s cloak, mist and fog surrounded her. Lucette’s head hung low and shifted from side to side, searching for… what? There was nothing the Kelvic could detect. Yet still, unease sat heavily upon her spotted body. The Djed mist was thinning; she could not know or understand what that meant. A moon-time later, in the shady glen of afternoon, the Cheetah laid unaware, twitching through her dreams. The air that blew through the forest was clearer than any since the Djed Storm. Images of soft, silky beds and raw meat on platters of silver paraded through her mind. Even in sleep, the Cheetah’s large pink tongue licked her black muzzle hungrily. Within the dream, she was strangely human… simply fragile, yet the dream vanished upon waking and Lucette was wild once again. Each day and week that passed, Lucette slowly woke from her long slumber as the fog thinned. The stray bits of herself that had been missing began to return. Once lounging on a splash of leaves on the forest floor, the Kelvic remembered being a girl… though she could not transform – what remained of the fog would not allow it. And the Kelvic had forgotten how. She also remembered a binding looped tightly around her neck. No. It had a name. There was a name for such a thing… A Collar. She had worn one. But why? The thought made her agitated, and her tail thrashed in the leaves. Yet her mind toyed with the remembrance, refusing to let go of this new thought, as if she worried a bone. The fog continued to lift and freshness came to the air. Memory returned slowly, this time she remembered the hunger that had plagued her days here. Once she had come upon a man injured, the scent of his blood had lured her near. Desire coursed through her, she had been starving. Meat and blood! The feral anger flamed. Hunger had pushed her. For one who had misplaced their human heart, control was a wispy, imaginary thing. The Cheetah chittered deep in her throat, mouth slightly open as she slowly drew near, one paw at a time. Wounded prey. Weak and infirm. It was the natural order. His hands rose to ward her off, but they were bloody and the heady smell drew the Cheetah more quickly. Brutally, the death song of screams only fueled the feline blood lust. She wished to live! And afterwards, the Kelvic, red tinged and pink from snout to paw, lay panting against the ruined carcass. She was content. And full, as the dappled sunlight poked down through the canopy. Time passed and Lucette could now see the forest without the haze of mist to blind her, even as she sat in the rain, miserable beneath a large leaf. Fur soaked, she was cranky and annoyed. Rainwater slushed off her fur in rivulets and small beads of moisture clung to her whiskers. Between the leaves and behind the sheets of rain, Lucette remembered distinct faces. There was a fat man and an unbelievably, handsome man. There was also another… The Cheetah blinked to think of him... the rail thin man with hair of whitest white. And amethyst eyes. That one… he… Her misted mind struggled to free itself from its slowness. Yet, seemingly lazy, the Kelvic licked a paw, but the man was still in her memory. She watched him there and remembered his name. Veld… Veldrys. Lucette scrambled to her feet and stood startled. Veldrys? The face was his… and… she remembered the man. Bits and pieces of images flashed through her mind. Though she could not yet remember specifics, only that he was important. So very important… The Cheetah paced the clearing. Why should she see him? The need was elusive, though the desire was compelling. Where could he be? She could not see him; her head turned to look, as if after all the time passed, he might simply appear next to her. Into the brush she ran impulsively, having now a very different reason to hunt. But no matter how she searched the forest, she was unsuccessful. How strange that he had disappeared from her… Days upon days, upon days the Cheetah searched. She was restless, even the prey no longer called to her. In the past, she had avoided the Ape places, and the man places with their foul odors and their powerful aggressions. But now Lucette traveled closer. Was his scent here? Perhaps he had been here… But she could not find him in the discarded buildings of the unused settlement. So she moved on. Veldrys! This new hunger did not vanish over time as the fog had, it only grew stronger. Lucette could not ignore its call upon her mind or body. Forced to eat by her protesting belly, the Kelvic had caught a bird. She pulled its head off, striping it with powerful teeth. And she stopped… the bird dangled from her mouth. Nostrils flared to take in the scent of the familiar, trees, leaves, and shadowed decay. And… something else at once familiar, yet… She could not place the smell memory, being more of a sight animal, but it drew her seductively closer. Feathers floated to her feet, and still she held the bird as she stalked, her body sinking lower and lower and tail twitching with excitement as she used the brush for camouflage to discover this new thing.

[Veldrys]

All the days were the same since she had disappeared. Veldrys got up in the morning, ate breakfast, went to work at Nature’s Nurture and went home again. His home had been a house in a tree recently. He had thought that he would be happy in the Spires because it was so similar to the floating city his people had lived in before the Valterrian, but in its own way it had begun to feel just as suffocating as Kalinor. It was all an illusion. He was breathing fresh air and living under the sky now, but his race was still doomed. He was still doomed.

He would never escape his fate.

He had begun to think that he would spend the rest of his life alone. He had loved twice, and twice his lovers had left. There had been that halfblood in Lhavit, all those years ago, beaten by his father because he dared to spend the night with a Symenestra. It had not worked out. It might not even have worked out if the halfblood’s father had been accepting. He couldn’t possibly have taken another man back to Kalinor and spent his life with him. It just wasn’t done.

At least he was most likely still alive.

Lucette though, the Kelvic who had given him hope, his love, had probably died – because of him. He should never have shared her bed, not without taking precautions against a pregnancy. The knowledge that the baby would most likely kill her and the subsequent miscarriage had taken their toll on her. Her weakened state had made it so much easier for the djed storm to take her sanity. She had disappeared into the forest shortly after their arrival in the Spires.

He had looked for her for days, but there had been no trace of her. The people of the Spires had been kind, they had tried to comfort him. His race had never mattered to the Jamoura. It might have been a good life if Lucette had been with him, but without her he felt nothing. He had once thought that serving Viratas and treating his patients would make him happy, but after meeting Lucette he had realized that living for his god was not enough.

Still, he went on. Lying down and dying was not an option. He took care of the sick and the wounded. Occasionally he would make trips into the forest to replenish his stock of herbs – like that day. Once he had worn robes of precious silk robes, but he had given them up in favour of more practical leather. Carrying a large basket in one hand he walked through the wilderness. For some strange reason he felt better when he was alone, when nobody was trying to comfort him.

He enjoyed being surrounded by nature. It wasn’t quiet in the forest – the sounds of numerous animals could be heard – but those sounds were less annoying than the sounds that humans and Jamoura made. They comforted him and calmed him down in a way that humans were unable to. Maybe, he thought, he would disappear into the forest like Lucette and leave his current life and identity behind. Mabye he would use his magic to become somebody else. Maybe it would lessen the pain.

As he bent down to pick a plant, he felt something for a moment. It seemed to him as if there was something out there, just out of reach, at the edge of his awareness, a presence that he yearned for with every fibre of his being, but of course it was all just wishful thinking. There was nobody out there. She would never come back to him. He was alone.

[Lucette]

The leaves drew along her spotted body, stroking her coarse fur as she passed. The Cheetah stalked this half remembered, forgotten thing, slowly and with purpose. Each paw landed silently, leaving identifiable claw marks in the earth. Through the undergrowth Lucette moved, drawn amid the maze of jungle foliage as if lead by a string and the peculiar scent of memory. As painstakingly as she moved, she slowed even further, pushing the brush aside with her black muzzle and flattened ears. And then, a noise! Lucette froze automatically and she saw Him… It was the Veldrys of her dream! She watched him. Her eyes studied him. Her heart wished to run to him, to nuzzle and mark her scent upon him with her rubbings. He had come for her! And she had looked for such a long time! Her eyes would not leave him, but Lucette saw that he was man, yet not man. She nodded to herself – he was… But memory was still a difficult thing! Nose lifting, the Cheetah sniffed the air; Veldrys scent was at once familiar, but yet different too. The intimate memory of it came to mind… earthy smell and silky scent, mingled with her own scent within the pillows and cushions of the Temple cell. And not man. And this Veldrys in the wood, was almost the same… but he was coated in the leather smell of regular men. Why? The feline wondered. Why would Veldrys change his scent…? Lucette rose slightly higher in her stance to see him more clearly through the brush. Her regard was intent and predatory. Why did he smell like leather… when he had not smelled of it before? The cheetah cocked her head confused, and one feathered wing of the bird still in her mouth flopped over. And Veldrys did not smell of her! This thought agitated Lucette greatly. Had he taken another mate? The Cheetah needed to pace, to think as much as she was able. She moved again, turning her body to circle the Symenestra from a safe distance. He had told her… he had promised… something. Lucette’s tail thrashed wild in the undergrowth. He did not see! He did not look for her… he looked at plants. The feline circled again and stopped. Veldrys was there, just there before her; he touched her Kelvic mind so deeply she couldn’t leave the sight of him, even if he had changed, even if he had a new mate. To disappear into the forest was no longer an option. She couldn’t! The unending Kelvic need and Lucette’s previous connection to the Symenestra made it impossible. Within the fog it had been easy to forget, within the mist, Lucette had no need of anyone, or anything. But now, with him here… she couldn’t function on her own. She had forgotten how upon seeing him… Her paws would not move, neither forward nor back. Her eyes would not leave him. And again she inhaled his scent and remembered… meat and blood and Veldrys, and his blood god.

[Veldrys]

Another plant went into his basket. The Spires was so different from his native Kalinor. Hardly anything grew in the city of the Symenestra or in the mountains above it, but the forest here was filled with life. Everything around him was green. Flowers bloomed, and birds sang in the trees that were ripe with fruit. He had never seen so many healing herbs in one place before. Svorador Hellebore, the doctor he had learned from probably wouldn’t believe it if he told him. But he would probably never see the old man again. He had changed too much to ever fit in again.

With a sigh he rose again and walked on. He had considered returning to Kalinor after Lucette had disappeared, but he didn’t think there was a place for him there anymore. He was the oldest son. He would be expected to capture surrogates for his Web, and he couldn’t do that, not after having lived among humans for so long. And he had no interest in being an outcast either. But neither was staying in the Spires where everything reminded him of her an option either. Maybe he would really disappear and go to a faraway place where nobody knew him.

There it was again. That awareness, that memory of a memory, that strangely familiar feeling. It seemed to him as if he were being watched. He stood completely still for a moment and held his breath. It felt like her. But how could that be? She was dead. She had been gone for more than a season. She had disappeared without a trace, without leaving a message for him. People usually didn’t come back after such a long time. Nobody had ever returned from the dead, at least not without divine intervention, and he had done nothing to deserve such a gift from the gods.

And yet, even though he had given up hope a long time ago, he called out, „Lucette? Are you here?“

[Lucette]

Veldrys moved! Lucette’s body immediately crouched down in the brush. She wanted to follow the Symenestra from a safe distance. With infinite patience she waited for him to travel a bit further, only her gold-flecked, hunter’s eyes tracked the long, thin torso as it moved away. The Kelvic was surprised to find that it hurt! It pained the Cheetah to see him retreat… again he would leave her? For plants? The Cheetah’s eyes narrowed. Her heart could not take it! She had just found him! Powerful jaws closed more tightly upon the little bird trapped in her mouth. Blood pooled onto her tongue, but Lucette’s enjoyment of such a treasure had waned with the finding of Veldrys. The small morsel was inconsequential now. There was a deeper, more rewarding sustenance to be had from the man. Hidden within the brush behind him and patient no longer, Lucette wiggled like a new born cub, unsure of what to do – to stay hidden or to follow. The djed storm had made her nervous and angry around anyone with two legs, but strangely now she only felt cautious and shy. The Kelvic was not aware that it had been almost two seasons since she had run off to wander the forest in feline form, alone. It was hard to remember what was expected of her… she had forgotten so much. Veldrys stopped. And as he did, the Cheetah stopped too, immobile while she waited for him to make a move. Her heart beat terribly fast and strong. What was he doing? Lucette looked around the path with him, her head turning majestically. She saw nothing, only a stray feather that floated to the ground. The feline was on alert and back went her black-tipped ears. Lucette crouched, ready to sprint. She was wound too tight and it was hard to remain still. She would run, run away… the sudden feelings that drew to the surface were too many! He was here! She needed him! The fragile state of her mind wished not to think and to feel so strongly! But still she remembered his soft touches and kind words, and the Kelvic’s feline aggressions diminished further in Veldrys’ presence. Veldrys called... His voice! He called her, her name – and… she remembered! A hundred times he had said it. A hundred times she had answered to it in the foggy past. Lucette. Lucette. Lucette. It was her! Slowly she rose from the brush to stand tall on the all four legs. For him. The Cheetah huffed, and wanted her presence known. Within her mouth, the bird, her former prize began to fall apart in mangled pieces. A chunk of meat fell from it. Yet, she stood, large paws working the ground beneath her. She waited for him to see, to acknowledge. And when he glanced her way, slowly and gently she let the bird drop to the ground. It was an offering of the highest kind. Only once did she touch the bloodied thing, lovingly and delicately with a clawed paw. Then the once proud Cheetah backed up slowly a full two paces and lowered her head submissively to chirrup at him from the a safer distance. She wanted to go to him, but she was afraid. It had been so long. Hesitant and skittish, she couldn’t leave him now, and she couldn’t go to him either. The muscles rippled beneath her gaunt frame. She backed up, only to move forward once more. The memories within her heart and soul bound her to him, even now. Especially now, for the need and the emotions she felt for him lifted high above anything else in this forest. Lucette maintained her distance and chirped again. It was clear she wished to come closer. It was clear that fear kept her at bay.

[Veldrys]

The Symenestra held his breath, stood completely still and waited. For a while nothing happened. Moments passed, then several chimes until he was almost convinced that he had just been imagining things after all, that he had finally begun to lose his mind. The djed storm had taken so many lives. Why should Lucette, of all the people in Mizahar, have survived?

Something compelled him to call out her name again, as if he could make her answer, as if he could bring her from the world of the dead back into the world of the living by sheer force of will. He could feel her, could almost see her, a great cat moving through the forest. Did she feel him as well, this ghost of a woman he had once loved, that he still loved and needed?

„Lucette!“ He moved forward, looking left and right. Where was she? Why didn’t she answer?

And then he heard a sound. It wasn’t the human voice that he had gotten so used to after their desperate flight from Denval across the ocean, but the sound of an animal. Was that what had happened? Had she been trapped in animal form all that time? He dropped the basket abruptly and moved in the direction of the sound. It took him a few moments to find her. His hearing was not as good at the cheetah’s.

And then he finally saw her. His heart began to beat faster. It was really her. But why was she just standing there, as if she didn’t know what to do, as if she were afraid of coming closer. Did she not recognize him? How much of her was left inside that body?

He noticed the dead bird that was lying on the ground in front of her, as if it were some kind of gift. He arched an eyebrow questioningly and looked at her, and then he slowly bent down and picked it up.

A dead bird would be of little use to him. He couldn’t digest solid food, but he smiled at her nevertheless, because it had come from her.

„I thank you, Lucette“, he spoke to her. He tried to make his voice sound calm and reassuring, despite the fact that countless thoughts were running through his mind at the same time.

„Come closer“, he continued. He held the bird with one hand and extended his other hand. „You don’t have anything to fear from me. I won’t hurt you. I’ve missed you. Do you remember me? I’m Veldrys.“

[Lucette]

He picked up the blood-mauled thing! Happiness swelled through the Kelvic’s heart and Lucette’s entire head moved. Her eyes rose from the bird in his hand, to settle upon Veldrys’ uniquely handsome face. But her gaze returned to the once-bird, drawn by the little smell of death; then back up to observe the Symenestra’s newly formed smile. The Cheetah’s ears pricked forward, senses fixated upon the man’s expression. No detail escaped her predatory gaze - he was pleased! Leaning against an ancient tree truck, Lucette shifted her weight to draw her spotted torso along the rough bark. Her chin lifted to catch its caress also and rubbed along her jawline up to her ear as she watched him. A sudden, loud purr erupted deep in her chest. More animal, than human, Lucette struggled to understand his words. She had to listen carefully, for some of the word-meanings she had forgotten. But the tone of Veldrys’ voice – it was as the forest breeze at night, quieting her fears and lulling her to a calmness she had not felt since leaving Denval’s Temple… such a very long time ago for a Kelvic. Suddenly, Veldrys hand extended! She thought he reached for her and the Cheetah responded angrily, crouching low to the ground to avoid the touch, far away as it was. Hissing a low warning, her tail was wild behind her. How long had it been since she had felt the touch of a hand upon her coat? The pressure of man’s fingers against her? The Kelvic couldn’t remember, but it seemed a foreign, uncomfortable thing after the time spent without companionship. Even as the animal aggression surfaced, Lucette’s human half, sleepy as it was, cowered inward and trembled at her own behavior with Veldrys. She knew it was wrong! The fog had taken her, but her early training had been forcibly seared into her subconscious: Never fight your owner – or you will suffer regret. Vicious and deadly, she might have appeared, but humanity too simmered within. Veldrys was not Roland… Veldrys was not Roland… Veldrys had large thoughts and grand ideals. Veldrys spoke comforting words. Veldrys had never once hit her… even after she had lost his baby, even after she had gotten them kicked off the refugee ship. Even… even when he was angry at her for wanting to eat that child. Even… oh! Thoughts rushed into her head too quickly! And – oh! She wished for Veldrys touch! Lucette remembered too much to process. The Cheetah shook her head, ears flapping to try to clear it, to make the images in her mind slow and not hurt her heart. Disoriented, the great cat wished to flee what she could not understand. Lucette heard Veldrys voice again; it caught her attention and she had no will but to listen. She watched the way his words formed, the way his lips moved and the tongue behind them. She wished to hear his words against her ear, his breath warm upon her fur. The Cheetah crept towards Veldrys, closer and visibly shaking. She shrunk as she neared, her normally impressive frame appearing smaller than when they had last met. The edges of the Kelvic’s ribs showed and her coat was dulled from meager meals. Her long legs, once so majestic looked scraggly and a new scar ran across her left shoulder blade, upsetting the line of spotted fur. In submission, she cowered, tail tucked close to her rump as she moved towards him. Her eyes stayed upon his, the animal she was had to see, and be aware… Her black, velvet nose flared, wanted to explore each part of him, but she stopped just short. It was torture to hold herself back and away, and now that she remembered… The need to be his again overwhelmed the lost Kelvic and she tried to speak, forgetting that in this form she could not. The sound was more a yowl than anything else, and Lucette tried again, three times… each more plaintive than the last. She wanted him to know…

[Veldrys]

As Lucette rubbed her body agains the bark of a nearby tree, the Symenstra tilted his head a little to the side and looked at her curiously. He didn’t know the meaning of the gesture. He might have known once when they had been in Denval together before the baby had forced her to stay in human form, but it had been such a long time. Such a long time since he had let his hand run across her fur, since he had held her human self in his arms.

Was she feeling well? Was she happy to see him? Was she trying to distract herself by focusing on the three? He couldn’t tell. He only knew that she didn’t mean any harm. An animal that was about to attack would hardly rub her body against a tree. The gesture encouraged him to extend his hand a little further. As she hissed at him rather than coming to him and rubbing her head against him, his eyes widened. What had he done wrong?

Did she not trust him anymore? Of course she wouldn’t. She had been alone in the wilderness for months. For all he knew she thought that he had abandoned her. The last time they had been together she had just suffered a miscarriage, and the djed storm had changed the world. She probably wasn’t used to being touched, to somebody treating her with kindness anymore.

He didn’t move away though. Nor did he show any fear at that sign of agression. He simpy withdrew his hand a little and knelt there, calmly looking at her, waiting for her reaction. If she decided to attack him, then so be it. There were worse ways to get hurt, but he hoped that it wouldn’t come to that, that somehow he would be able to get through to her.

„Lucette“, he whispered her name, and finally she came, slowly, hesitantly. He could see that she had lost a lot of weight now. Her ribs were showing through her fur. She didn’t seem to have gotten enough to eat these past couple of months. Her once shiny fur was dull, and there was a scar she had not had before. By Viratas, what had happened to her?

He was looking into her eyes now, looking for a trace of the woman she had been, looking for answers. As she yowled he hesitated for a moment, and then he reached out again, hoping that she would allow him to touch her this time. He needed to, to make sure that she was real. He wanted her to be his again.

[Lucette]

Veldrys knelt in front of her... and the Cheetah watched his movements carefully. She sensed his was not a submissive gesture, after all the man did not smell of fear. Instead the Symenestra exuded calmness and confidence, and the raw power of self-control drew the Kelvic closer. His nearness empowered her, his voice enraptured her; she had been too long away from the subtle energy of a man such as Veldrys. She felt such things strongly, but even so, the connection between them was more powerful than mere personality. Theirs was a union that drove her heart to beat frantically and her muscles to ripple in excitement beneath her coarse fur. She needed his presence! The Kelvic starved for it! The innate hunger and desire of her species for soulful belonging pushed her to ignore the feral skittishness that had consumed her for far too long. With newly awakened purpose, Lucette’s head lifted as she devoured Veldrys with her steady, golden gaze. But the Cheetah could not hold it and her pointed gaze shifted away, always submissive to him and his strangely colored eyes. She had forgotten their name; it was unimportant. For a great while, the Kelvic stared, reading as animals are wont to do, the unspoken and unsaid in a foe or a lover. The chain binding Kelvic’s resolve loosened and fell away. Veldrys wanted her closer. Lucette chortled in answer, a wet, bubbly sound. As his hand reached out, the Cheetah’s great head fell low once more, but this time she butted his hand with her head and drew her ear along his fingertips. Her head turned, and her eyes pressed closed contentedly, as Lucette’s woman-mind remembered this man’s touch - all of them. Her jaw moved along his palm, under his fingers. He would feel her teeth in the impromptu caress. Once she felt his touch, Lucette could not get enough. Her rubbing became more needy, more heavy and forceful, also pressing. The Cheetah’s full weight now in pushed into Veldrys as her head caressed his outstretched hand, and her paws kneaded the earth with large claw marks. His scent clung to her nostrils; she sniffed his air and pushed closer into his chest to rub against him and this new leather scent. It was her Veldrys. It was him! He wouldn’t hurt her! He said so! Her Veldrys! Turning sideways, her head rubbed happily, her weight leaning into him, and pushing for more with her gaunt body. A large paw lifted, she wished to climb upon his knee and into his lap, but she didn’t yet dare. Her wet nose stretched to touch his cheek, and her forehead butted against his shoulder. Her control began to slip, and she frenzied to see him, to feel him. Without thought or plan, and without knowing she could, a thousand tiny, white, sparkles filled the air around the Cheetah. Immediately, the human body had returned and the velvet muzzle had given way to soft lips. Lucette, naked and long limbed against him, knelt in the dirt and the leaves, tears in her eyes as she rubbed an unbelievably pale cheek against him.