Chatterbox: KYNGDOM™ Archive

I trudge through the woods, and see a few of Moonshadow's footprints in the soft mud as I walk along. As I head farther and farther into the woods, the paw prints begin to fade until there are none left. I've been walking for hours, I don't know how many, and the sun is beginning to set. I see a small clearing not far off, and decide to camp there for the night. As I try to start a fire, I hear something coming from behind a tree. I freeze. It sounds very strange, as if a dog was whining and a cat were yowling at the same time, but it was a single sound, not two animals. I see a limp tail, barely protruding from the bottom of a tree. I cautiously walk toward it. I see an animal behind the tree that looks like a cat married a fox and had a baby. It looks like a large cat, but with the fur, face, and tail of a fox. And the ears of a cat. It opens its eyes and begins to make the awful yowl/whimper sound again. As I approach it bares it's teeth and tries to back away. When it tries to stand, then topples over, it makes a sound so horrid I can't even describe it. It sounds like the thing is in terrible pain, though. "It's alright" I try to tell the animal. If it can talk at all, it doesn't seem to be able or willing at the moment. Then a see a large, painful gash on the animal's side. I immediately rush to my pack and grab my first aid kit. I rub some ointment on the wound, then wrap a bandage around it, but not without a fight. Just then, I notice that her leg is bleeding, and the paw on that front leg, is gone. I'm not one to get queasy at the sight of blood, but this was more than I could handle. I quickly wrapped it in a bandage, with much howling from the fox/cat thing. Then, I opened her mouth and popped in some healing medicine. It would make the wounds stop hurting, and put the fox/cat into a deep, restful, sleep. When she had finally woken up, i had finished dinner. "So you're finally awake," I said. I hand her a bowl of broth. She doesn't take it. I set it down where she's lying. She scoots it away with her good paw and quickly laps it up. "I'm Anwen," I say. "Don't worry, I fixed your side and your paw." She scooted forward an inch. "Can you talk?" I asked. "How do I know I can trust you?" she said. "Well, I'm not here to hurt you, I bandaged your wounds, gave you dinner, and you can camp here with me if you like," I say. "Wait, you can understand me?" "Oh, yes. I have a strange ability to communicate with animals, I guess." "Still, how do I know this isn't just a trap?" "Well, you can always not trust me. I'll be going in the morning, and leaving you here. All alone. No one will care for your wounds and help you then, but hey, you won't have to trust anyone after that, will you?" "I'm Ferra," she says. "I'm going to find out about FaFA. What are you doing?" I ask. "Well, I guess you want to know what I am. My mother was a cat, my father was a fox. They fell in love, and even though everyone thought it was crazy, they married. And then, well, this is what came of that." She pointed to her chest. "The official name for a cat/fox is Gatapou. It's derived from Greek and German roots, my mother says. But I'm here because I ran away. My sister got engaged to this guy fox named Koroux and she thinks he's the center of the universe now. I figured I would rather run away than watch MY sister be married and then taken away by some strange fox." "We could run together, you know," I say. "Ya that sounds ggggrreeeeeeeeeaaaaaatttt," she yawns. I look over. She's snoring loudly.