Twilight.  I had once missed that hour when the brilliance of the sun was replaced by the softness of the night.

Now I dreaded it.

The shadows had crept up on me shortly after I left my landing spot and now I found myself in a strange land that was about to dissolve into darkness.  I could only imagine what animals lurked in the shadows waiting to chomp on little me.

There was also a problem with this mysterious new body of mine.  I had dirty paws, dirty fur, and a tail that just wouldn’t stop swishing about.  And the whiskers!  Those poking things that had awoken me on that icy barge were constantly twitching.

The last rays of the sun were disappearing behind a horizon of hills as I slunk under a thick mess of brambles.  Tiny stickers on the plant stuck to my fur and trapped me in its harsh web.  I twisted around and hissed at the offending bush.  It didn’t care.

Go figure.

I yanked myself free and tumbled head over four heels to land with a hard thump on a patch of bare earth.  My legs ached and my teeth chattered as the chilly night air descended upon me.

What I wouldn’t give for a cat coat.

A crack of a stick made me freeze.  I whipped my head about and I could feel my eyes dilate.  The world turned from night to daylight as if by magic, but the darkest shadows couldn’t be penetrated.  The sound had come from one of those patches of darkness.

The tip of my tail furiously twitched as I hunkered low to the ground.  A faint rustling of leaves came to my large ears and my nose detected. . .something.  I couldn’t make sense of all the information it was giving me but my brain knew something was wrong.  Dangerously wrong.

I crept on my belly forward with the direction of the trouble staying on my right.  The darkness was an impenetrable hunk of fallen branches and bushes.  A rotting tree ran in one end of the mess and out the other, its moss-covered surface gleaming with twilight dew.

A squealing roar made me freeze and the next moment a pot-bellied creature came crashing out of the darkness.  It landed nearly on top of me and I was rolled across the ground, coming to a stop on my back.  The thing charged and swung its head down.  A pair of thick horns scooped me up and flung me into the air.  I yowled and flailed all four legs.

Good thing cats always land on their feet.  I landed on my paws but the ground I crashed onto was a spitfire of trouble.

It was the back of my nemesis.

The creature squealed and bucked, tossing me about as my front claws viciously dug between the long bristles and into its rough pelt.  I was flung to and fro like a bronco rider until I lost my grip.  The wild bucking threw me several yards away where I landed hard and rolled across the rough, prickly ground.

I came to a stop on my side among a mess of stickers and dried leaves.  My aching body complained about the rough treatment while my head spun from the hard fling.

A heavy snort shattered my rest.  I whipped my head up and my blood froze in my veins.

The creature stepped into my field of vision and I saw it was a huge boar.  The heavy tusks curled out of its mouth and up past its face.  Its weathered features were mere decorations when I beheld the terrible look in its dark eyes.  There was a madness in them that made my heart skip a beat.  This creature hungered for blood and I had a fresh supply.

The boar threw its head back and let loose a terrible squeal before it charged.  My eyes widened and I rolled out of its way, missing being stomped by its sharp hooves by a mere inches.  I scampered to my feet and dug my claws in for grip before I shot off.  The boar pursued me, its terrible huffing breathing coming closer and closer to my tail.  I ducked and leaped over bushes and fallen trees, but the creature crashed through it all.

One of those fallen trees proved to be more rotten than I predicted.  I landed on its bark prepared to vault to the other side when the bark gave way.  I yowled as I crashed through into the hollow center.  The boar flew over me, snapping its jaws where I had just stood.

I landed hard on my side and a sharp stake stabbed itself into the upper arm of my front leg.  Warm blood ran down my fur coat and dripped onto the forest floor.

A shadow stretched over me and I had only a fraction of a second to react.  The boar shoved its tusks through the frail walls and I scampered down the slick rotting innards of the tree.  It crashed into my little hollow and raced about me, destroying everything in its path.  I shot out the far end and dashed through a mess of brush before I stumbled into a small clearing.  My wound pounded with pain and I felt a little dizzy as blood gushed from the hole.  The world spun around me and the edges were a hazy mess.  I could only make it halfway across the clearing before I collapsed onto my side.

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The boar slammed through the brush behind me and raced at me, its hungry eyes promising a terrible death.  I closed mine and waited for the end.

The boar’s hooves skidded along the hard-packed floor a foot shy of where I lay.  It let out a terrible squeal before I heard it spin around and stampede back into the forest.

I peeked open my eyes and watched its behind disappear into the brush.  Hope was rekindled inside me, but there was also a rising fear.  What had caused the boar to take off in such terror?

A strange shuffling noise made me turn my head to the center of the clearing.  I creaked my head around and my heart stopped.

A strange slender plant branch slithered toward me.  Its black skin shimmered like rotten flesh and tiny spikes covered its surface.  I hissed and scrambled back but my lame leg dragged me down.  The thing wrapped around my other front leg and its spikes sank into my flesh.  A screeching yowl burst from my mouth and I scrambled back, or tried to.  The thing kept its tight grip on me and tugged me toward the shadows at the other end of the clearing.  A horrible feeling fell over me as I beheld a strange darkness in those woods.  Something terrible awaited me, far more terrible than the end the boar had promised.

I thrashed and dug my heels into the dirt, but nothing worked.  The thing dragged me toward the abyss of some hideous unknown nightmare.  I was on the precipice of despair when a shimmering light came down from above.

A shadow dropped from on high and sliced the tendril with a flaming weapon.  The tendril was cut in twain and my half released me and flopped onto the ground.  I limped back but not too far because both my front legs were now wounded.  The sliced end shuddered and drooped before it fell into a pile of black ash.  The other half slithered backward into the ugly shadows.

My savior straightened and partially turned to me.  I hissed in surprise as I beheld the angelic face of Lord Eastwei.  He held a flaming sword in his hand which he kept at his side as he strode over to me.  I wanted so desperately to lung into his arms but my feeble attempt at a jump ended with me dropping chin-first onto the ground.

Eastwei knelt by my side and inspected both wounds, dirtying his hands with my blood.  The blood congealed in my fur and dripped onto the ground.  He pursed his lips and examined the rest of me.  “You have seen better times.”  I could only wag my tail in appreciation.  He turned his face about and his eyes fell on the darkness.  “Remain here until I return.”

He stood but I was having none of that.  No way I wanted to be left alone in this creepy beast-infested forest.  I yowled and tried to stand but my shaky front legs collapsed beneath me and I dropped onto the dry dust.

Eastwei studied me for a moment before he stooped and scooped me into one arm.  “Stay still.”

I bobbed my head, only too happy to be tucked against him.  He strode forward into the woods where the tendril had vanished.  My heart pounded in my chest but I felt nothing from the god who carried me.  His heart was as impassive as his face as he used his sword to slice his way through the dense forest.

A disgusting squishing sound echoed through the trees and a hideously noxious smell wafted past my nose.  I wrinkled my schnoz and pressed closer to Eastwei.

He stopped and studied me.  “Do you smell something?”

I nodded and lifted my bloodied paw to point at the way ahead of us.

Eastwei tightened his grip on both me and his sword before he ventured ahead.  The odor worsened and I found myself gagging.  Even the lord’s impassive expression took a hit as he curled one corner of his lip up in disgust.

The trail of the tendril was easy to follow as the thing had left a black patch of rot in its wake.  The path meandered through the woods before those began to thin and finally parted, revealing a small settlement of some dozen homes.

Standing there at the edge of the buildings, I was struck by the eerie silence.  The atmosphere was like that of a graveyard.  Nothing stirred save for a few bits of clothes on the ground.  Eastwei approached the strange pile and used the tip of his sword to burn away the hem of a pant leg.

I screeched as it revealed a shriveled human leg.