Welcome to Gaia! ::

this is where the idea for the City came from.

Chapter One: a Hard Day's Night

The streets were dark. They usually are at night. And cold too. The scents of the city filled the air: car exhaust, building exhaust, biological exhaust. Rats scurried hither and thither under the streetlamps making fearful little rat noises, little rat movements, little rat smells...
The very idea prompted my hunting skills, just like that all senses were acute and attuned to one thing. For a moment all I could think about was chasing one of the creatures to the limit of my abilities - as of yet I have not been able to fit into those tiny cracks they call home - following that long hairless tail wherever it led, then pouncing on my prey and sinking my teeth into its flesh, tasting blood...
I calmed myself down, almost as fast as the sensations had risen, and went along my way. I had somewhere to be.
Quite suddenly I was there. On the corner of King and 31st stood the square brick building. It carried its own assortment of smells through the air. But instead of images of prey and hunting, these scents brought images of partners and sex.
And no, it wasn't a strip joint, brothel, or pimp house.
I pattered my way down the steps to the door and scratched on it gently. There was the sound of movement inside. Goading the being in there further I meowed urgently. That should get its attention.
More movement, then the peeking door slid open revealing dark brown eyes with a tint of gold. The smell of musk wafted heavily out of the tiny window to my sensitive nostrils. "What's the password?" growled a gruff voice, clearly male in origin.
"Meeerowwwwwwrrr," I yowled. Then, in case he wasn't convinced, I mewed a bit and said, "I am the daughter of Goddess Bastet. Worship me."
The door opened.
I trotted quickly inside and it shut with a wooden *bang* behind me.
All over the next door were posted signs. A few of the messages read: "WILL MALES PLEASE MARK THEIR TERRITORY IN THE SAND BOX", "PREGNANT FEMALES ARE ASKED TO HAVE LITTERS AT THE VET", "ALL VISITORS ARE REQUIRED TO HAVE RABIES VACCINATIONS, PLEASE CHECK YOUR TAGS WITH THE GUARD AT THE FRONT DOOR", and "NO DOGS ALLOWED".
As I read them, the large leopard (as I could now see his spots and strong yet lithe frame) asked, "May I see your license?"
I showed him my ID, which proved that I was not some inexperienced kitten. He grunted in response and climbed back into his tree to nap.
I walked over to the coat rack and took off my outer covering of synthetic fabric, carefully hanging it up, revealing my full beauty. A shorthair, tortoise-shell colored, splotched pelt, and a mane of longer, wavy black hair and bright blue eyes.
I cleaned myself up a bit before continuing. Then, swishing my tail expectantly, I opened the door covered in signs.
The first thing I noticed, as a warm blast of air from the room engulfed me, was the over powering scent of pheromones. Both male and female. A lot of them.
So much for this not being a brothel.
As soon as the shock of hot, humid air abated I was able to more accurately assess the scene.
The room was filled with felines. Almost to overflowing. The occupancy sign hanging over the back door that all public buildings are required to post said 68 persons. Of course, that only applies to humans. The only humans here were the ones that didn't wish to be so. Myself included.
Felis domesticus, Felis erectus, Felis tigres, Felis panthera, Felis ferae, and even some Felis vampyrae. Nope, no humans here.
There were over a hundred living beings in the room, all claiming to be feline, sentient or otherwise.
There were a number of different places for relaxing, stretching, courting, and playing. The bathrooms had been converted into giant sandboxes for relief of waste, the doors saying simply "TOMS" and "QUEENS".
There were rooms in the back and upstairs in case the space I was seeing was not enough for the activity needed.
Feeling content now with my surroundings, I walked further into the compound.
A male bobcat approached me, gave me a quick glance over and started purring, giving off heavy musk. Enticing as he was I had a different purpose to being here. I searched the room quickly but didn't find what I was looking for. So I walked over to the bar.
The bartender, a male jaguar, saw me almost immediately and asked, "What can I get you my lady?"
"Rum and coke. Can you tell me where the manager is?"
"Sure I can," he replied mixing up my drink "On the couch, in that corner; the silver tabby courting the red-point siamese."
The glass appeared in front of me and I sighed. Figured he'd be courting some poor female. That's probably where most of the pheromones are coming from.
Taking my drink, I walked easily towards where I saw the silver tabby, despite the crowd. I almost tread over several felisat tails. I thought sarcastically.
As I got closer I could see that the manager had bright green eyes and a short mane the color of egyptian gold. The siamese he was with could have chosen worse. A black felisat, also with green eyes, sat on his shoulders. Probably his favorite.
I finally arrived at the couch and looked over the three of them. The tabby gave me a glance and the little one glared at me. Then he was back to purring in the females ear.
I cleared my throat "Excuse me sir, I demand your attention. I also desire that we speak under the tree where the striped felisarem is sleeping." I gestured to the tiger.
He sat up, setting those eyes on me. Both the cat on his shoulder and the one he was courting mewed in protest. "Sorry Goddess of all that is delicious. She demands me." He handed her a key. "This is for my room. Meet you up there, yes?" not taking his eyes off me, he grabbed his own glass and stood up. The black one jumped off his shoulder and trotted away. "Who are you?" he asked.
I answered as we walked towards my chosen destination. "My given name is Kaitlin, but you can call me Goddess of the lotus and other pretty things."
"That would make you Goddess of me then, yes?" he chuckled and sank into the pillows under the tree.
I smiled as well, relaxing next to him. "Of course. Who are you?"
"My given name is Chris, but you can call me God of the Heavens."
"You know Chris, this will go a lot faster of you stop giving off so much musk."
He looked pained. Only for a brief moment, but he was definitely hurt. He then started to clean himself. "Boy, you don't take feces from anyone, do you?"
I sipped my drink, looking amused. "Of course not. Especially not from randy little kittens."
His expression was more one of surprise than of anger, but the anger was not invisible. "Why did you want to talk to me?"
I sighed mentally. The information had to have come out eventually, so I thought hard on the answer, and longer than maybe I should have. Chris was starting to get impatient. "The... organization that I work for has a need for your... personal expertise."
It piqued his interest. "And what exactly is my 'personal expertise'?"
"I'm not sure. But what we need your help to do is build a cat army for us."
"A cat army?" he muttered, staring into his gin and tonic. "Cats don't fight in armies. Cats fight in small street gangs or, more often, singly. But never in such large numbers as you are clearly asking for. Therefore, what you are requesting is not only impolite, but impossible."
"Not impossible." I whispered to myself, trying to find another tact to get what I wanted from him.
"You do me no honor by disagreeing kitten."
I looked up sharply, eyes dilating dangerously. "Why call you me 'kitten'?"
"Because you can not have been cat for very long if you dishonor our society thusly."
If I had been human then I might have paled. He came dangerously close to blowing my cover. I should have become even stealthier then, but Chris had aroused my anger at being discovered and I blurted out things that I should not have in retrospect. "My people believe you can do this, and I believe anything they believe. So, no matter what you say to me about cat culture and society, I will continue to believe that it is possible for you to muster enough felines to make a workable army."
His mouth quirked into a half-smile. The tabby's amusement further goaded my ire. I glared at him. "What's so funny?"
"One would think you were lion the way you talk of community and armies and such."
Whatever it means in the human world, in the cat world being called a lion is an insult second only to being called an outright dog. Because lions, despite being feline, act like no other cat, being communal and pack-like. Essentially, the insult is in the dog-like behavior; calling someone a lion is saying that they are a cat who acts like a dog.
I felt the insult fully, knowing it to be true. Flashes/images of my past blinked in my head: orphaned... found... cared for... initiated... "A lion indeed..." I muttered, not caring who heard.
Christopher's pupils contracted, cat-like, at that, and he sipped his drink casually.
As his attention was wandering, I was trying to regain control over the situation. Struggling through the etiquette and protocol, not to mention the words themselves, I attempted again to acquire his help. "God of the Heavens, I come to you demanding your assistance in the creation of a feline army to aid our cause."
He looked back at me, eyes dilating in the expression of renewed interest. "What is your community Kaitlin, lion, and what is your cause?" the tabby replied, being frustratingly, felinely, blunt.
I sighed, cat manners dictate that I would have to be as roundabout in my answer as he was blunt with his question. This went against my upbringing. I was brought up to give straight answers to ambiguous inquiries. So I changed the subject. "I desire that you refrain from calling me 'lion' as it does not serve this conversation and it calls unnecessary attention to us." I knew I had phrased that correctly for he gave me a smirk.
He leaned closer. "What I call you effects the conversation not, LION," he whispered, then pet the tiger. "The felisarem cares not, and none of the felisat that house with me are anywhere nearby. Your reputation, if you had any to begin with, is safe." Christopher then leaned back on the cushions, finishing his drink.
I thought. No choice but to answer him now. I knew that my secret would be kept, so there was no reason to hold back. "My past is that of an orphan, my present is that of a spy, and my future is that of a dishonored carcass if you deny my demand Chris."
His eyes seemed to stare through me, and I took that as a sign to continue. "In my community, I am alone a lion, raised to be such. The pale ones want our herds. We are few, they many. I desire an answer."
His smirk turned into a grin as he puzzled out my secrets. From the amusement in the manager's expression I was afraid that I had revealed too much. But he soon cast aside my fears. "You are well versed for one so far removed from cat society, wolf-kin, but I must refuse your demand to make an army for your war with the vampyres." He paused, kneading a cushion in thought. "Tell your garou caretaker this, kitten: we will not fight for we are creatures that do not choose sides, except our own. And even if we were to choose a side in this war of yours, then it would be the soulless ones, because they are true hunters, like ourselves. Now be gone, werewolf trash. The sign outside clearly states 'no dogs allowed', I would that you respect our rules and leave."
My heart had sunk further for every word of refusal. This would be hard to tell my superiors.
Almost immediately after his speech, the silver tabby had walked away towards the back of the room where his previous engagement awaited him.
I stood and arranged myself like an irate feline, stomping and clawing my way out of the building.

Chapter Three: Secrets and Revelations

Daytime. In a far distant corner of the city, a humane rat trap snapped shut on its quarry.
A young girl that lived in the nearby building came out slowly, and inspected the well-hidden trap from down the alley. The trap shutterd a bit, as if the prey was hard to contain and the girl shrank behind the brick corner until the rattling stopped.
She waited half an hour. Then, when nothing happend, she cautiously approached the rat trap. Piece by piece, the young blond removed the trash and refuse piled on top. Not touching it yet, she examined the trap again.
A beedy-eyed rodent glared back at her, its irises swirling into a firey red color, then streaked to a dull yellow. Beside the angry creature was another rat, dead; drained of all its blood.
"Hello there," the girl whisperd to her captive. "How are you this afternoon?" In responce, it bared sharp teeth at her and hissed menacingly.
Seeing that the rodent had been renderd harmless momentarily, the blond didn't even flinch at this display. "I see. Well, I'm not here to make you feel better, sorry to say. You'll just have to deal. I'm going to pick you up now, but I'll be wearing heavy gloves so that you can't bite me." She put on the gloves. "Yes, strong enough even for your teeth."
The rats eyes flashed red as she lifted the cage, and all in it, out of the trash in the alley. Holding it out far in front of her body, the girl carried it towards her building. Inside the trap, the rodent scratched and gnawed at the thread in the gloves.
By the time they arrived at the blond girls apartment the creature was starting to gain headway, but by then it was too late. She set the cage down on the floor in the kitchenette.
Examining the gloves, she tsked at the small hole the rodent had started. "Now i'll have to get more gloves." the girl went to the cupboard and took out a sauser, laying it in front of the trap. Then she took off one glove and cut a shallow gash into her palm with a knife. She squeezed the blood out over the sauser so that it pooled neatly in front of the rat. Its eyes swirled from red and yellow, to purple and yellow. It was hungry.
The girl bandaged up her hand and put it back in the glove, then opend the trap. The animal looked cautiously from the girl to the sauser and back again. "Relax," she insisted. "If I wanted you dead, I could have killed you. Why feed one you wish dead?"
The rat didn't give an answer, instead it slowly crawled out of the cage and began lapping up the blood. As it drank, the girl put away her gloves, then went to the refrigerator.
Inside was the usual; vegetables, ketchup, a half-finished package of breakfast sausage, and a six pack of soda. Under a shelf, in one of the drawers, was a whole mess of blood packets. They probably added up about three gallons worth in all. She took one of these packets and emptied it into a bowl, then microwaved it, heating it up.
When the blood was warm and she had tunred back, the rat had grown. it ws now about the size of a small dog, yet also seemed sluggish. It waddled slowly towards the smell of fresh blood.
"Now just hang on a second. It's coming, calm down." she set the bowl in front of the rat creature that was obviously no ordinary rat.
Indeed, even as it drank, it grew bigger. Now a foot high at the shoulder. Now 18 inches. While the animal was engaged in supper, the girl snuck into a side room to do something secret. When she came back out, she had an expression of grim determination as she looked over her furry guest.
The bowl was empty. The rat was nearly human-sized. In fact, it was almost human in shape with longer hind legs and a well-defined torso. It looked up when it finished tidying up it's fur, then narrowed its eyes when the blond began to take off her bandage.
The blood started to run down her hand and fingers and the rat thing stood on its hindlegs, like a man, yet hunched over, like an ape. "Come at me." she said in a strong, clear voice, then tossed her hair, revealing a smooth, clean, enticing neck.
The rat obeyed, catiously, moving slowly, timidly, one step at a time. The girl never swayed. When it was only five feet away, the rat beast lept up, meaning only to attack the girl. While it was in the air she revealed what was hidden in the other hand, brandishing it like a weapon.
When the creature landed, it was impaled on the wooden stake in her hands and pure horror was written on its rodent face as she pushed it up, into the wall, jamming her weapon there, suspending the rat.
The girl stepped back from her counter attack. Before her very eyes the rat morphed into something that at first glance appeard to be a young asian man. At second glance one could see that he retained the beedy eyes and bony, claw-like fingers and toes of the rodent. He also had big pointy ears like the predator elf, and teeth like no living creature; the bicuspids in the top jaw were huge fangs, the canines behind were half as long, yet just as impressive.
It was screaming. It was a rodent scream, knocked down two octives, but still high pitched enough to give one a headache. The only parts of him that were moving were above his neck. Below that, he was paralyzed by the wooden stake in his chest.
The girl frowned and coverd her ears. After a short while she said calmly, "Scream all you like. Till your throat closes up, for all I care. Noone can hear you, I've soundproofed this apartment." Despite his loud noises and her quiet, calm voice, the long-toothed rat-person heard her and stopped screaming, understanding the futility.
"Who are you? What do you want with me?" it growled in a frightened tone.
"I am the slayer of this territory, She Who Kills by Day." at that his eyes widend. Slayers were bigger than celebrities in the vampyre underworld. "And you are going to tell me everything i want to know." she then jammed a second stake into his left wrist, pinning that, and he screamed again.
She smiled; the torture was on.

I took a deep breath, hesitating to open the door. This man insulted me, deprived me of honor, and discharged me out of his cat brothel without ceremony. Suddenly I shook my head, blinking. Those were not wolf thoughts. A wolf or lion would not be insulted by the truth. So why was I?
Clearing my mind, I took another deep breath. Despite my faulty reasoning I did not want to speak to him again, but my instructions were to aquire the much needed information and I was going to try my best for the second time.
Without giving myself time to panic, I opened the door to his office and strode in as well as I could in the high heels and skirt that came with the expencive dress suit. Chris was sitting at his desk, working, and looked up, surprised by my unannounced arrival.
"Who are you? How did you get past Michelle?" he asked, standing up and staring into my eyes with those green jewels he had.
"Your secretary was out. I let myself in." I replied, not exactly lying. Michelle had been called away by a 'family emergency' which was more than I was supposed to know.
A cat jumped up onto Christopher's desk and mewed impatiently. It was then that I noticed the more than a few domestic cats around the office. I recognized the green-eyed black one on his desk as the felisat from last night and felt the color leave my face.
He pet the little one kindly with a confused expression, then looked at me again with open accusation. "Who ARE you?!" he demanded again, stalking towards me.
I was frightened and would have run out the door if he hadn't closed it behind me before my thought had a chance to form. He glanced at an old female, cleaning herself in the corner, then stared into my eyes again. His red-gold hair sparkled in the dim office light, just like the gold from egypt. I winced, more from this observation than his potent glare, but I was still cowed by his presence.
After what seemed like several minutes of studying my face, he locked the door and sat back down, holding his black cat on his lap and looking like one of those evil James Bond villans. "I would have thought you smarter than this Kaitlin, to come back after I kicked you out of my club."
I didn't know I had been holding my breath untill I let it out then. He recognized me! How? "My elders did not like your previous answer and request a differnt one." Did the little cat say something to him? Is that how?
"I have an answer. Now, what is the question?"
Just as frustrating as always. But now I had no front to keep up, so I could be myself. Whoever that was. "We need an army. The one we have is not big enough. My superiors say you can give us a cat army so I am demading that you give it to us."
He shook his head, sighing. "you know kitten, I would like to help you out. You're just asking the wrong questions. I can't give you a cat army, it's impossible."
I was furious. How dare he reject me, looking so beautiful and smelling like a tea shop? I stamped my foot and almost fell over. These stupid shoes! His eyes seemed to laugh at me, which made me even angrier. Straightening myself I then asked him my other question. "how did you know it was me?" I growled.
Chris smiled and gestured to his companion sleeping in his lap. "The General here said he knew you. From there I simply narrowed down the time frame by asking Isis over there if she had seen you too." he pointed towards the old female who was now eating contentedly. "She did not, thus narrowing it down to last night. You do look different without your tortoiseshell fur, but we both know that Maat's Glory does not change the eyes."
"Indeed it doesn't." I muttered. Maat's Glory is one of many names of the type of talisman that allows human kin without shifting abilities to go to clubs like Christophers. Among the wolves that type of talisman is called Gaia's Eye.
"My turn to ask a question of you." He stood, upsetting his pet for the second time since meeting me, and walked around his desk.
I blushed and began stammering. "Y- yes?"
Chris sat on the edge of his desk facing me. His eyes, feline even without the enhancement of Gaia's Eye, bored into mine as if searching for something. "Last night, a friend of mine, a lawyer, by the name of Maxwell Largosi, died. I am attending his funeral two days from now."
The confusion was plain on my face. "Huh? What does that have to do with me?"
His eyes seemed to grow brighter in the shadows from his desk lamp. "He was a vampyre." My breath caught in my throat. "He was murderd by werewolves."
I tried to breathe, but all that came out was a choking sound. "I was wondering if you knew anything about it, being wolf kin and all." he continued.
Somehow I found air to speak. "I- I-... this is knews to me. A lawyer? From this lawfirm?" he nodded slightly, just a tilt of his head that shifted the light behind him setting his hair afire with color. "That was THIS firm?!" I nearly fainted, holding myself up with the doorknob behind me. "Oh dear. How this must look to you. That was a seperate event, unrelated to our... negotiations. I... am sorry you lost a friend. This was not a personal attack. I only found out this morning, told simply that we had lost a great leader in a vampyre ambush outside a Glasswalker firm. I am so sorry Chris."
"I suggest you leave now, Kaitlin, and bring back my secretary." He sat back at his desk and returned to his job, ignoring me.
I shook a little out of emotion, mostly fear. Then found my composure, unlocked the door, and left the building, hopes seriously low.

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