Boots was just dozing off on the pristine white floor…
'screee…' "For f…..sake…"
…but every time he…
'reeee' "…un-believable!…"
…nearly got away…
'reeeeeeeee' "…why is this…so heavy…"
…the sound of something metal being dragged…
'REEEEEEEEEE-REEE-RE' "Never…in all my life…"
…and a touch of disdainful muttering…
'REEEEEEEE-EEE-EEEEAAK' "...insufferable pillock…"
…ruined it for him.
'How loud can you be, honestly?' Boots thought to himself, frowning at the lack of consideration.
This person clearly wasn't going away.
With a sigh he opens his eyes, briefly making eye contact with the black cat. Who was smiling.
"Good morning"
Like a murderer.
Bop! Bop! Bop! Bop!
A flurry of black paws caught Boots in the face before he could react.
"Do you know who I am!" the black cat roared indignantly.
Bop! Bop! Bop!
"I ah.." Boots barely managed to squeeze out between blows.
"I."
Bop!
"Am."
Bop!
"A."
Bop!
"Goddess!"
Bop!
Boots squinted out between his paws. The tirade seemingly over. It had been a long time since he'd taken such a thorough plastering.
"Do you think that you can ignore me! Do you think I should have to walk over to you?! That I; Fenix, the Goddess of all felines. Should have to stoop so low just to satisfy one arrogant house cat!"
"Yes well ah…I can see how that might…well… I ah… I apologise for my discourtesy." Boots said from behind the protection of his paws.
The black cat huffed. Then walked around the desk, which was mysteriously closer than it had been previously. The black cat then sat down on a small red cushion on the opposite side of the desk. Busying itself arranging the papers strewn across it.
Boots's tail immediately flicked when he noticed there was no little red cushion on his side of the desk. But after glancing at the still pouting Goddess sat across from him, decided not to make a big deal out of it and sat on the floor.
While the angry Goddess shuffled her papers Boots pre-occupied himself with surveying the desk. There was a cup full of pens and pencils that was perilously close to the edge of the table…
'No, no, no.' he shook his head, pushing things off the side of the table was something a kit would do! Not a king!
'…although…' he raised an eyebrow in consideration.
"If you touch my pens I will throw your soul into the sea of time." Fenix said firmly, catching his gaze.
"I wouldn't dream of it, of course, I was simply…admiring them?" Boots said convincingly, straightening his back in the process.
"Hmm." she returned, raising an eyebrow.
With nothing to do beside wait for her to finish organising her desk. 'Something she should have done before my arrival.' Boots thought to himself, although he decided not to raise the point.
He got a good look at her for the first time, her fur was black as pitch, so dark in fact, that it made her facial features hard to read. And on closer inspection she had tiny little stars dotted all over her. It was as if the universe itself was trapped within her fur. He found his face edging closer and closer as he got lost in the tiny galaxies and systems dotted around her body…
"Ahem…my face is up here, you know" she said clearing her throat.
"S-Sorry I…ah…I don't know what came over me." Boots snapped to attention, embarrassed. 'Gah, now I bet she thinks I'm some kind of weirdo!' he chastised himself in his head.
"It's fine," she says with a dismissive wave "anyway I'm ready to begin now, let's get this over with."
'Finally.' Boots thought, although he didn't say it. His reasons were his own.
"Boots, as I'm sure you're aware, you've come to the end of your 9th life. Congratulations, you made it." she says before offering a quick round of sarcastic claps. "Yes you were a good boy and somehow managed to get chosen for reincarnation eight times, across eight consecutive lives. Somehow. I don't need to explain to you that it's impossible to reincarnate after your ninth life do I?"
"No, no, everybody knows why you don't get a tenth shot… which is why I'm slightly curious as to why I'm here?" he said expectantly.
Seemingly lost in thought, Fenix's violet eyes surveyed him for a moment.
"I have a job for you." she said, placing her paws on the table.
"Well, what if I don't want a job?"
"Oh, don't tell me you really want to go to the afterlife and do whatever you want for eternity!" she says rolling her eyes.
"…"
"Seriously? It gets pretty boring, pretty fast, the mortal realm is where it's at! What's existence without challenge! Life without strife! Why do you think we created it in the first place? C'mon this'll be fun." she says with a smile, "at least hear me out ok?"
"I'll listen to your offer." Boots said warily. Although Fenix seemed to have cheered up, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was going to regret this.
"Great! Ok so, basically in case you haven't noticed" she said gesturing around at the empty white void. "I'm in pretty bad shape up here, I'm out of followers and, well, quite frankly that just won't do." she said sheepishly, wringing her paws together.
"I see." says Boots, taking in the poverty.
"Now wait, wait, I know what you're thinking," she says holding up a paw, "but let me give you a bit of context." she begins, clearing her throat, "So, up here in the realm of the immortals, the more devout your following; the more comfortable your existence is. Now this is all perfectly fine and dandy for the gods of the 'intelligent' species and that bastard Solaris. They have large, dedicated followings…"
"…I'm sorry, who's Solaris?" Boots interrupted…
"Solaris…urgh…" she furrows her brows, "I'm surprised you've never heard of the most 'popular' god in the universe."
Boots shrugs, unsure what to say.
"He basically cheated the system," Fenix continues, "He's the 'God of Light and Stars' and was basically a nobody. He had a small following of reptilian species, that was about it. Then some idiot goes and just, invents artificial light. Solaris then declared that all lightbulbs, street lanterns and other forms of artificial light; were shrines devoted to him! He gained the following of literally trillions of insects, almost overnight! He's a dirty cheat!" she harrumphs, crossing her arms, "His moth following alone brings in numbers I could never dream of.." she finishes dejectedly.
"Moths certainly are devout believers." Boots said sincerely, paw on chin.
"I'd hardly call them devout!" she snaps back. "Anyway, listen, me and a few of the other under-represented Gods decided to make a world of our own. We took our various different species and pushed them down the old 'evolutional road' and basically ended up with; walking, talking, intelligent, magical, slightly mythological; beast-men, women, boys and girls. And all the stops in-between!" she finished with a smile, clasping her hands close to her heart.
"All to gather followers?" Boots asked with a hint of incredulity.
"Well, ah.." her smile cracked a little, "not just for that, no. We want to see them flourish! Not be cooped up in pens and eaten by humans or owned by abusive masters, hunted for their skin, culled for existing…" she said with a heavy heart, "Humans have a lot to answer for! This was our answer; a world of our own, where we could do what we wanted, free of oppression." she said with a revolutionary little fist clench.
"But what has this got to do with me?"
"Well, the other Gods found out about our little world, Arca. And decided to ruin it with their own filthy species. The humans and the Mothmen turned up, after that everything got really bad. The Felinnian's in particular have been horribly oppressed. Most of them live in servitude or slavery to the other races. I can't stand it."
"…"
"I need a King".
"O-ho-ho.." Boots chuckles, raising an eyebrow.
"Not the king of a tiny apartment in Neo London, an actual one." she says rolling her eyes.
"The Kingdom of 311-A Mayfair Heights may have been but a humble one, but still I.." Boots's retort trails off as Fenix raises her paw to silence him.
"I know most Earth born cats operate with a monastical structure. But across your nine lives, you've been a king, nine times. That's a 100% King rate, young man. That's what I need."
Even Boots was surprised at this, he couldn't recollect the specifics of his previous lives, but he never had a clue he was a king before. Nine kings in one cat. The idea of being a Ten King Cat was starting to sound surprisingly good in his mind.
"Could you tell me a little about my previous lives?" Boots asked inquisitively.
"No," she refused, flatly, "I don't have the time or patience to inflate your already enormous ego any more than it already has been."
"Oh.."
"But I'm not going to send you to Arca under-equipped. Don't worry! I'm going to give you the collective experiences and abilities of all of your previous lives…without, the memories. There's simply not enough space in one mortal mind to house everything. Ten lives and personalities crammed together in one head…" she grimaced slightly, "well, it would make a pretty bad mess, lets put it that way."
"Hmm, yes I suppose that makes sense.." Boots mumbled, "But what about being reincar.."
"Reincarnation into the tenth life?" she finished for him, smiling, "Of course we both know that's impossible."
"Yes."
"No reason to talk about why."
"None that I can think of."
"I'm not reincarnating you." she said with a mischievous smile.
"Then this whole conversation has been pointless! Why did you even bring me here?!" Boots demanded, throwing his paws in the air dramatically. Looking at Fenix's smiling face incredulously.
"I'm transmigrating you as you are!" she positively beamed at him, "With a few upgrades, obviously!" she added quickly.
"I recently expired from old age you know. I'm not so sure.."
"Twenty might be old for an earth-born cat, but if I refashion you into the body of a Felinnian from Arca. You'll be in the prime of your life, you could even live another hundred years! Maybe even two hundred!" she said eagerly, clasping his paw in hers. "But seeing as you were born on earth….you might be a little more….primal, than most Felinnian's. Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't fit in straight away." she said stroking his paw, almost condescendingly.
'Did she just call me stupid…?'
"Will you help me Boots? Will you be my messiah and carry my love to my lost children? Be their guiding light and sworn protector?" she said seriously, looking deep into his eyes.
"I ah.." Boots tried his best to avoid her gaze but found himself unable to.
"…"
"I will."
"Thank you." she whispered earnestly, "This won't hurt a bit."
'Clap! Clap!'
Everything went black.
Boots was flying through the nothingness of space.
One by one, planets, stars, galaxies, nebulas and other celestial bodies started to appear as Boots rocketed at unimaginable speed through the cosmos.
Huge balls of electricity started to accumulate around him, orbiting him slowly. Before one by one, slamming into his chest and burning their essence into his very being.
It was the worst pain he'd ever felt in his entire life.
Yet as each ball struck and combined with him. He felt stronger. Younger. He felt the strength of the kings before him. He felt his body changing and growing. The muscles in his legs and chest expanding. His back extending and straightening. His shoulders and arms rolling outwards.
He roared in agony. Hearing nothing in the cold vacuum.
As the pain finally subsided he slipped in and out of consciousness. His aching muscles sapping all his newfound strength.
A planet drifted closer and closer.
He felt as though he was slowing down.
Unable to keep his eyes open any longer, he finally passed out.
***
The sound of birds tweeting their morning calls filled the forest.
And in the desecrated, long forbidden temple to the goddess of all felines.
On a pile of rubble, under a newly formed hole in the roof.
Lay a slightly scorched, black and white felinian, with perfectly symmetrical white patches, and a scowl.
"Won't hurt a bit." it muttered to itself, staring murderously at the sky.