Chapter Seven: Through the Streets

Rushing down the stairs after the crashing sound. I saw a giant feline person, seem to reset a dislocated shoulder then begin shouting a series of cat meows and growls, not in like a cute little house cat sort of way but in a pissed off mountain lion sort of way. As I watched, stupefied, the giant feline then began to shrink down from well over seven feet tall furry hulk down to a somewhat familiar cat girl shape.

System Message: Skill activated Comprehend Language: Pantheren Language Learned

“Great none of you have any idea what I’m saying do you? I get that none of you can speak Pantheren but is it so hard to at least learn to understand?” The cat girl shouted.

Snapping out of my stupor as the System Message disappeared from my vision I spoke up. “I understand you, now. What’s going on?”

“Wonder of wonders the Prince understands Pantheren.” She said her amusement came through clearly. “That’s a surprise but at least it’ll make this damned System Quest a bit easier.”

“System Quest?” I asked.

“Something to worry about later, We need to move. There is a mob on its way. The Owls were battling them but three verses more than half a hundred. Even for the Owls, those are losing odds. We need to get out of here and get somewhere safe.” She gave me a pointed look and motioned exasperatedly at me to convey the message.

“She says there is a mob coming for us and that we need to leave because the Owls won’t be able to hold them off because there are more than half a hundred of them.” I said to the others. As I finished we heard the first sounds of fighting coming from beyond the doorway.

“No time. Forgive me Elder Summoner.” She said as she scooped up the old woman and Started running out the door. “Follow me!”

“You heard her follow her.'' I yelled to Zazjek as the cat woman took off through the doorway and then took my own advice and followed her.

The scene outside the doorway was already looking like a war zone. Leema’s home had been completely inset into the cavern wall creating a greater space between it and the other homes around it and that space showed pock marks and scorched lines already. I could see the three Owls fighting against fifty or more people, most of them the same crocodile centaurs like that asshole Elder. Running seemed like a really good idea if they were anywhere near his strength.

The cat woman had stopped just a bit outside the doorway observing the situation.“I hope those wings aren’t just for show because we’re going to need to go faster than two legs can manage.” She paused looking at me expectantly.

“They aren’t just for show but I've never gotten the chance to really fly any distance.” I told her honestly.

“Just going to have to hope you can keep up then. Tell the other two to get up on my back and hold on like their lives depend on it. Because they do and my System Quest doesn’t say anything about them, just you.” With a snarl and the disconcerting sound of snapping bones and tearing muscles she transformed once more into her giant sized form. Tossing Leema over her shoulder and up on her back she waited for me to relay her orders for Zazjek to climb on.

“She wants you to climb up on her back next to Leema. And she says for both of you to hang on for dear life because she’s got something called a System Quest about saving me but it doesn't say anything about you.” Once I finished Zazjek climbed up onto the cat woman’s back and got two good handfuls of fur. Leema, hearing the part about the System Quest, did the same.

As soon as both of her passengers had a firm grip she took off like she was shot from a cannon. I’d never seen a real animal move the way she did, she looked something like a cross between a bear and a tiger at a full run if either of those animals had human arms and hands literally grabbing the ground in front of them and pulling themselves forward while their back legs pushed. She was terrifying and at the same time graceful since she looked natural running on all fours. I'm not sure how her hips and spine worked but she went from looking right moving around as a biped to looking just as right as a quadruped. With a start I realized I was just standing there and she was getting further and further away. Then I heard the chanting mob and the sounds of fighting getting way too close. “Time to go!” Running forward a few steps I flexed and extended my wings getting a feel for them then with three bounding leaps I got air under my wings and took off.

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“I’m flying!” I screamed in my head enjoying the ultimate freedom. I looked out over the red-brown buildings and roads totally engrossed in the indescribably exhilarating feeling of flying. Then there was a swish of air and then the tink of metal striking stone off to my right side pulled me from my daze. “What was that?” Looking around I caught sight of several Crocadore’s pointing some weird combination of gun and crossbow at me. As they fired I took evasive action swinging wildly to the left and right and then rollercoastering myself in the air. Up, down, and sharply banking to the right to narrowly avoid a building. Then things got interesting. Bolts of condensed magic, fire, water, and even lightning whizzed through the air around me along with the more mundane projectiles. I couldn’t avoid them all and eventually I was singed and bleeding.

Losing speed I dropped down among the buildings trying to close up to the cat woman. I caught sight of her fairly easily as she was running along the wider streets. Leema looked back and saw my burned and bloodied state and shouted something in the cat woman’s ear. Turning her head without breaking stride the cat woman saw the state I was in and slowed her pace just enough for me to catch up. As I was gliding just behind her almost in reach of Leema who I could tell was casting some sort of spell thanks to my Mana Sight the cat woman’s tail wrapped around my left arm that had been hanging a little lower than the right as it had taken a nasty strike from a lightning bolt and wasn’t obeying me quite so well. My eyes bulged as I felt the massive strength and grip in her tail. It was nothing like a cat’s tale feeling more like I’d imagine a monkey’s tail would feel as it gripped a limb or vine. With a jerk my arm felt like it was nearly pulled from its socket as the cat woman again sped up now pulling me behind her.

I now knew exactly what a kite felt like being pulled along behind a running child. Only it was more like being pulled behind a truck moving at a hundred miles an hour. I may have screamed just a bit, alright I screamed a lot. She left the more open roads and streets we’d been taking as the mob started to catch up with us. As I figured out how to let myself be pulled through the air between buildings and along narrow alleyways where there was no way to keep my wings at full extension my terror abated. But the bruises and scrapes I’d taken as I pinwheeled into various walls and even the street a few times left me even worse for wear.

Things got both better and worse when the cat woman parkour-ed her way up a series of fences and detritus up onto the roof tops. I could let my aching cramped wings fully extend at last. The brief feeling of exposure turned into terror pretty quickly as we were dodging around various roof top structures. The vice grip the cat woman’s tail had on my arm didn’t loosen even for a second as she ran here and there and even through a couple of smaller obstacles. Soon however, along with dodging various obstacles she soon had to dodge bolts and magic spells as our pursuers had somehow caught up with our madcap pace.. Looking behind me after another close encounter with a bolt of lightning I could see that it was some fliers who had joined the chase and not the Crocadore’s that had somehow managed to catch us. They looked very much like the description of harpies from the Greek myths except they had hooded cobra heads and were shooting lightning out of their mouths along with firing bolts from crossbows.

I had no idea how we were going to get out of this situation when Leema’s Spell went off. A dozen swirling purple and green orbs appeared in a flash of red-orange light around us. In moments the orbs grew from the size of a softball to the size of an elephant and then creatures slid out of them. Twelve elephant sized floating, writhing, unholy masses of rubbery purple and green tentacles now surrounded us.

“Oh, hell no!” I shouted as I saw the creatures appear. The horror got even worse as the things started to unspool. Thousands of tentacles ranging in size from the thickness of a pinky finger to a fire hose began to ungulate and writhe seeking something to grasp. My gibbering mind calmed ever so slightly as all of the tentacles were seeking outward away from us. I calmed further still when I saw them pluck bolts from the air and intercept lightning bolts. Then of course they started grabbing the harpy things and the terror came right back. I forced myself to look away and try desperately to block out the screams and squishing sounds from my mind as we sped away.

Zazjek gently held Leema close to him with one arm as she went limp drained from casting. Leaning close he whispered to the cat woman “Elder Leema can’t hold on. That summoning took too much from her.”

The cat woman’s pace didn’t decrease in the slightest but she made fewer abrupt movements and stopped barreling through obstacles. Thanks to her pace and the creatures Leema summoned there were no further signs of pursuit as we approached the city’s edge and its wall.

“Damn, now, that is a wall.” I said looking up at the massive red wall stretching into the distance in both directions. With the dwellings dropped away I realized for the first time the real scope of the city. The ceiling was easily a hundred or more feet from the city’s floor and the wall before us was close to ninety feet tall and disappeared into the distance in both directions and was easily forty feet thick from what I could see from the tunnel we were quickly approaching. Four guards stepped in our way, their halberds levered to skewer us. “Looks like they don’t want us leaving.” I said concern heavy in my voice.

As if on cue the cat woman took a deep breath, her sides ballooning out then let out a powerful roaring scream. The sonic wave her scream created was visible as it rushed out slamming into the guards and throwing them to the side and away from the opening clearing our path. The guards tried desperately to get back up and into position but the cat woman was just too fast and we dashed through the gateway and left the city of Ymata behind.