August is a month for Prompts #2
Three sets of footsteps marched in rhythmic unison down a narrow hallway that led to a vibrant garden of wild followers and sprawling vines. In the middle of the garden sat an old woman hunched over in a rocking chair. She stroked a large thin cat with curly blonde poodle-like fur covering its body. When the owners of the footsteps began to tread across the grass the cat hissed in warning.
“Shut up,” a large muscular man growled with his arms draped over a giant kanabo.
“Oh be nice Kyan,” a woman with a veil covering her face and a battle axe resting between her shoulder blades quipped.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Kyan grumbled.
A voskia man, gold of skin with powder pink hair and eyes smiled genuinely in the old woman’s direction, “I assume you know why we’re here?”
The old woman looked at Saddensen with a sad look on her wrinkled sagging face. She shook her head and said, “I knew you were coming. I don’t know why.”
Saddensen looked at the woman with the veil and asked, “I thought you said, she could help.”
“Not the woman,” Jack whispered, “She’s a Gato Priestesses, she might already be dead.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a silk pouch. The cat's nose began to twitch and to both Kyan and Saddensen’s surprise…
“Is that nip from Melpo?” The cat asked with a ginger laced voice. She started to stretch on the old woman’s lap and purred, “Okay, you’ve got my attention for five minutes. What do you want?”
Jack smiled and said, “We need a spell check.”
The cat’s bright yellow eyes gleamed, her predatory ancestry exposed as her lips curled back flashing her maw of fangs, “That will cost you more than Melpo Nip, what have you prepared for me? My talents don’t come cheap.”
“Of course,” Jack said.
Kyan shook his head, “I don’t trust her.”
“You shouldn’t,” Saddensen said, “She’s a Gato.”
“A what?”
“We! Are the most sacred of all beings in Tucy! We are the oldest and most accomplished. All who have come after fall to our natural wiles and praise us. Even in death lowly beings such as your selves serve us. We are scratched and doted on in life and after. We are Gato, mighty and proud! More intelligent than the Ectogantha! More beautiful than the Voskia! More violent and powerful than the Galva! We Gato rule Tucy and Flow bends to our whims. Forever moving forward for the glory of Gato!”
The cat crooned her pledge of Gato pride and hadn’t noticed the trio of guests turned away from her.
“You foolish groveling creatures have come to my den to ask of my favor without presenting me with scratches and praise! How dare you? I will no longer waste my breath expressing the loathsome view I have of you. All of you are crass! Muscle bound ogre! Goldie scum!”
She whirled to call out Jack for daring to wear a veil in her presence and found they had left. Fury welled up in her and she unleashed a deafening yowl that echoed through the hallway bouncing off the walls. She scurried down the halls bounding after the lesser beings that besmirched her presence and toyed with her as if she were yarn. As she pursued them she clenched her jaw, her anger had peaked. Her unsheathed claws cut at the ground as she pushed herself harder. Her pupils dilated into slits and honed in on her prey. Her body coiled tightly like a spring and she pounced.
Jack suddenly tripped and Kyan caught her as the raging Gato roared past them. With a quick flick of his wrist Saddensen caught her by the scruff of the neck. Her body went limp immediately. She looked at him and hissed disdainfully.
Jack gently scooped the cat in her arms and said, “Be nice Saddensen, she may be a Gato but she’s old.”
The cat’s eyes widened and she swiped at the veil covering Jack’s face. The light that erupted from beneath the veil was so beautiful the cat purred with delight.
Jack was the most gorgeous being the Gato had ever laid eyes on. She quickly assessed her own heart and found no malice or envy for the perfect creature in front of her.
Jack’s voice resonated on a frequency that gave her peace, “What’s your name?”
“Sissy-Fizzy Poppi Top,” she responded with a voice so sweet she didn’t even recognize it as her own. Her paws moved to her mouth and she was absolutely mortified.
“That’s really cute,” Jack said, she bopped her nose with her finger tip and smiled. “About that spell check.”
Sissy-Fizzy Poppi Top offered her full service and then some to Jack as she cradled her in her arms.
Kyan and Saddensen looked at one another.
“She didn’t stand a chance against Jack’s beauty,” Saddensen said.
“Why didn’t we start off with that?”
“Gato’s can nullify the effects of sway and burden if they can see it coming. Because she followed us and unveiled Jack on her own she wasn’t able to counter the effects.”
“Ahhh,” Kyan said with a thoughtful expression and started to laugh, “I don’t get it.”
“Never mind,” Saddensen said, shaking his head, “Let’s find out what Siss-Fizzy Poppi Top can do.”
“Stupid witch, Cassidy why haven’t we killed her yet?”
“She’s called the Undying Hag of Tucy for a reason.”
“Oh yeah.”
Kyan and Saddensen returned to the garden to find Sissy-Fizzy Poppi Top purring and muttering an enchantment while weaving in and out of three glass bottles. Jack stopped them and placed her finger on her lips.
They watched as an aurora of lights appeared over the Gato and the three bottles began to fill with different color liquids. The aurora began to fall over the cat and then disappeared. Sissy-Fizzy Poppi Top sat with her eyes closed and meows when it was complete.
“The one on your right is the spellcheck. The middle is a curse remover. The last one is a gift for you gorgeous creature of light, beauty, radiance, and peace. If you ever are in need of magical assistance, with two drops I’ll be summoned immediately to your aid.”
Jack smiled and curtsied, “Thank you.” She collected the three bottles and rubbed Sissy-Fizzy Poppi Top’s head and turned to the others and said, “Let’s head home.”
In a plume of red dust and the taste of cinnamon lingering in the air the trip was gone and Sissy-Fizzy Poppi Top stretched and purred. She swayed back over to the old woman in the rocking chair and allowed her to resume her eternal duty.
Sissy-Fizzy Poppi Top played with a dangling sack Jack left and chuckled, “Spellcheck.”
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