A soft, crackling sound wakes me. Warmth suffuses my tired body, and a deep rumble comes from my throat; I'm purring for the first time since I've become a cat. What an odd sensation. I'm tempted to curl up into a ball and fall back to sleep, but... I can't. This world is too dangerous to sleep for long.
I slowly open my eyes. I'm wrapped in a tattered, old school jacket. In front of me is a campfire made from sticks and stones. I can see paper in the fire, it looks like someone's math homework. I let out a silent, relaxed yawn at the sight. There's something so magical about seeing homework burning.
I'm in a dusty classroom, and the desks have all been shoved to the side. There's only a little bit of sunlight coming in from the dirty windows that line one of the side walls; it's nearly night time. I see the ocean through the window. The waves flow calmly, rising up onto the shore and receding in a rhythmic fashion. It looks so peaceful against the blue-black sky filled with twinkling stars. The girl is propped up on the window sill, staring at the ocean as if she's lost in thought. Around her shoulders is a jacket similar to the one I'm wrapped in. It has "SUNY Maritime" stitched on it, which must be where we are. She doesn't have her spear with her, so I guess she lost it earlier during the fight against the zombies. Propped against the wall next to her is a metal pipe that she must have found lying around. I guess that's her new weapon for the time being.
Speaking of weapons, I check on my mana core. It's not fully recharged yet, but it grew again, this time by about a quarter. I don't even know what to say at this point about its growth speed. All I can think of is that I've constantly been in life or death battles since I've become a cat. In novels, that tends to be a catalyst for growth, so with that perspective I guess it makes sense that I'm becoming stronger so rapidly.
How did we get here? We were fighting against the zombies... and then we fell. Off the bridge, into the ocean. I remember flailing wildly... I can't help but look at the girl's arms. They're mostly covered by the jacket, but I can see long red scabs on her skin. They look suspiciously like claw marks. Oops... She rescued me too, so I can't help but feel guilty about it. I may have died if she hadn't carried me here. Though I guess I probably could have abandoned her back on the bridge. It would've been fairly easy for me to evade the zombies' attention and slip away, especially with my grappling capabilities. So maybe we're even...? I snort unintentionally.
No, I couldn't have abandoned her. In the first place, I'm not the type to run away unless if I have to. And in the second place... right now, she's my only lead. Except I have no idea how to talk to her.
I feel an uncomfortable gaze on me. I raise my head, meeting the girl's eyes. She looks warily at me, probably unsure of what I'll do. Her hand slides down to the metal pipe, preparing to fight. My ears pull back and my fur starts to rise in response to her movement. But I force myself to sit still. I have to show her that I don't mean any harm, despite my instincts.
We remain like that for awhile. Her staring at me to make sure I don't try anything, and me gazing back at her while keeping my impulses at bay. After awhile of inaction, the tension slowly starts to bleed from the room. Her gaze becomes a little less hostile and more curious. My ears and fur settle as the situation calms down.
This is probably my chance to communicate with her... except I have no idea how to do that. After all, even if I was once human, I'm a cat right now. I already tried talking before, in the sewers, and all that came out were really cute meows. I guess I could try writing on the floor using my claws. Normally, they wouldn't be able to pierce through, but I assume that if I do what the girl did earlier and reinforce my claws with mana... that would probably work, right?
Actually, speaking of using mana, I'm sure there's a way to communicate telepathically. Yeah, now that I think about it, haven't I technically already telepathically communicated before? The insects in the sewers. They somehow created threads of mana that linked their mind to mine. Granted, they did that to attack me by screaming into my brain, but it still counts. I don't know if she'll let me do that though... for now, I'll just stick with writing.
I slowly rise from my spot by the fire. The girl is looking at me a little more intensely, but she's not hostile. I step out of the jacket while I internally lament having to leave my comfortable position. I slowly circle the fire, getting closer to her so that she can see what I'm about to do.
Once I reach the other side, I take a moment to puzzle out how to reinforce my body with mana. From what I understand, it's probably just a matter of sensing the mana within my mana core... and then letting it flow into my body... but focusing it most heavily on my claws... A dark, shadowy mist rises from my body, dissipating into the atmosphere. It comes mainly from my claws, which are completely black now from the mana inside them. My body feels strong, very strong. I daresay that I never even felt this strong as a human. What a useful technique.
The girl erupts into action. She immediately stands up, taking the pipe into her hand and lowering herself into a combat-position. Mana surges through her body, emitting a light blue mist. Without thinking, my body sinks into a combat-position as well, my ears and fur on edge and my teeth bared. Even though she's just a thin girl holding a small metal pipe, I can feel how dangerous she is right now. If I tried to fight her, I don't know if I'd lose, but we would both be injured by the end of it. Except I don't want to fight her right now; I was just trying to communicate and acted without thinking.
Luckily, the girl doesn't attack me right away. Instead, she just watches me like a hawk, ready to attack or flee in an instant. I lower my gaze from her to the floor and concentrate on writing. What should I say? Hello? Should I introduce myself? Do I tell her I'm actually a human? I don't know if she'd believe that. I don't know if I'd believe that. Maybe I should just ask her what her name is? I guess I'll start there.
I carefully extend a claw and touch it to the ceramic floor. I push against it, gently increasing the pressure until my claw sinks into the floor. I do my best to write as the girl stares at me with her weapon at the ready. It's kind of sloppy, but I manage to write "HELLO" on the floor in all caps, since I figured it would be easier. I step away, allowing her to see it clearly.
Her face twists in shock and confusion. I can't blame her. How often does a cat talk, after all? Or, well, write. Whatever. I keep going. "NAME IS CATHAN. YOURS?"
She stares at me with bewilderment for a moment before speaking. "...Alice. My name is Alice." That's the first I've heard her speak. Her voice is raspy, as if she hasn't used for a long time.We stare uncomfortably at one another for a second, both of us unsure of what to say next.
I'm the one who breaks the standoff. "ARE YOU GOING TO SANCTUARY?" I know it would be much easier to just write "U" or "R," but it bothers me somehow to abbreviate like that.
She looks at me cautiously before replying. "...Yes." I figured, but I thought I might as well ask. Now if only she knows the way...
"KNOW HOW TO GET THERE?" I ask.
"No, I've never been there before... do you?" She replies. She hasn't lowered her guard yet, but she seems more relaxed. Seems like the tension has passed... again.
"NO. TRAVEL TOGETHER? BE EASIER FOR BOTH OF US." My heart patters as I ask the question. Why do I feel like I'm asking her out, dammit? I just want to get there safely. I figure that she probably has more experience surviving in this apocalypse than I do, which is why I asked. Plus, I can ask her questions regarding mana. I might even get an answer.
She bites her lip, hesitating for a moment before opening her mouth to answer.
CRASH!
Glass explodes into the room from the window. The girl, Alice, rolls into the room while snatching her metal pipe on the way. I summon my shadow tendrils, ready to fight. The aura of mana around my body depletes a little, but not by much.
In the window is a tan, desiccated arm. It belongs to a zombie, one of the ones from the bridge. It must have been fallen over, or it could be one of the ones I smashed off. Regardless, it's here now, and it's making a LOT of noise, which I don't appreciate. My tendrils surge for its body, puncturing into it as if it were a pincushion. It screams one last time as it dies, making my head ache. Despite how it looks, it sounds a lot like a human yelling in pain, which makes me feel uncomfortable and irritated. I pierce its throat to stop it and throw it to the ground outside. Silence reigns.
I start writing on the ground again, this time with my tendrils. It'll be good practice for controlling them. Just as I start... a horrible clamoring fills the air. Ear-grating voices mix together, screeching and roaring. But it's not the zombies. They sounded like humans when they screamed. This... this is inhuman.
"Damn..." Alice curses under her breath.
I tilt my head at her, as if to ask what's wrong.
"That noise... it's the merkind. The zombie must have woken them... and they're going to be angry."
Merkind? So, like, fish people? What's so bad about that? I could go for some fish right now. She points to the window. I turn to look, curious about what a fish person will look like.
Hundreds of dark silhouettes surface from the ocean, approaching the beach just outside the school rapidly. As they approach, they become larger and more distinct in my sight. The silhouettes stomp onto the beach, rapidly approaching the school. Finally, they get close enough that I can make out some of their features. No two of them are the same; their heads all look like different mixes between human and various species of aquatic creatures. Most of them are incredibly muscular, but some are even bigger and more muscular than the rest, such as the shark and whale men.
Alright, well I see why this is bad. There's a lot of them, and they look much scarier than the zombies. But why are they so furious about noise coming from the island...? I look at Alice questioningly.
She catches my eye and waves her hand to the back of the room, which I hadn't examined closely before. The walls are covered in green vegetation, seaweed perhaps, and so are the floors. The vegetation is thickest in the corners of the room though, where there are large bulbous pods nestled inside of it. Don't tell me...
"This school is hatchery. All of those pods... are merkind eggs."