“Quiet!” he hissed. The sharpness in his voice made me clamp my mouth shut.

That’s when I felt it. A shift in the air. A terrible wind blowing at our backs.

Eastwei spun around and swung his sword in front of us. His flaming blade illuminated the shadows, revealing a hideous menagerie of black tendrils. They loomed upon us like a cloud of death. Eastwei’s fiery magic sliced the limbs and the ends dropped to the ground with a squishy sound. They flopped about before they shriveled and turned to ash like the first one.

I followed the trail of dark tendrils as they curled back behind one of the houses. Eastwei carried me after them and we cautiously turned the corner.

A putrid black plant grew out of a hole in the ground. Dozens of tendrils oozed out of its pulsing core. A mess of broad fetid leaves covered most of the fat body, but I could make out throbbing veins all over the thing. A stench of death hung over the thing and that was made even more evident by the piles of clothes that littered the area around its base. Whatever had happened to the people, there was no doubt this thing was responsible.

The plant lifted its tendrils above its body and rattled them. Large balls of rancid mucus flew in all directions. Eastwei leaped back and used his sword to slice those aimed straight at us.

The lord set me down near the corner of the house and walked toward the creature. A faint reddish glow surrounded him and the flames around his sword lengthened, creating a huge blade that stretched for some five feet.

The creature slapped its tendrils against the ground before it flung them at him. Eastwei reacted so quickly that I could barely follow his movements. He dodged, parried, and ducked, all the while slicing at anything that dared brush against his clothes. Each of his counterattacks took him closer to the center.

That’s when I noticed movement beneath the ground behind him. A dirt mound swelled up until a tendril wiggled its way out of the tip of the earthen pile. The slender limb stretched itself to some six feet high and leaned its tip toward Eastwei.

I didn’t even think. I just reacted.

I darted forward with a loud hiss and leaped at the thing. My sharp fangs sank into the tendril and a disgusting tar flooded my mouth. I shut my eyes and forced myself to ignore the bile and focus on keeping my grip as the thing tried to throw me off.

Eastwei spun around and swung his sword in front of him. His blade cut the limb asunder and both it and I dropped to the ground. I fell on my side but managed to spit out the twitching part before it turned to ash.

Eastwei knelt beside me and looked me over. I managed a soft meow and a twitch of my tail. A terrifying red fury slipped into his eyes. He stood and turned to face our foe. The sloppy mess was now a ball with a mess of short trunks for limbs. It flopped about as if trying to pull itself out of its hole and run away.

Eastwei stalked toward it and held his sword out at his side. A fierce heat emanated from the blade and the shortened tendrils the thing swung at him were burned away by his magical aura alone. He reached the throbbing center and grasped the hilt of his sword in both hands before he brought it down on the thing. His fire cut the creature in two and its whole body caught fire. The tendrils were consumed and the squishy center melted into a puddle in the hole.

A strange white cloud floated out of the creature at the same time the thing oozed out of existence. The nebulous fog appeared to hover for a moment over the ruins of the creature and I swore I saw dozens of small golden lights twinkle inside its murky depths. A soft breeze blew past us and the mist dissipated. A faint sigh filled the air that both made chills run down my spine and lifted my spirits. Something wondrous and horrible had happened.

Eastwei stepped back and his sword vanished. He stared unblinking at the pool of black ooze. My heart skipped a beat when I noticed a few bubbles bob up to the surface. The froth worsened and grew into a pile of black bubbles before a dark shape in their center arose and popped them. A twisted, gnarled plant slithered out of the putrid pool and grew to six inches. Horrible black leaves sprouted all over its slender body, as did a few stubby tendrils.

Eastwei reached out to grab the plant. His fingers had hardly touched the slimy stalk when the thing stiffened before flailing about. A black smoke rose from the point of contact and Eastwei jerked his hand away as boils popped up all over the thing’s body. It twisted about and more bubbles boiled up from the pool. The plant shriveled and sank back into the dank water, and a moment later the puddle dried up. Only a hollowed-out blackened hole remained.

The lord draped his arm over his bent leg and examined the hole for a moment before he stood. He turned and walked over to me. I tried to lift my head but a coughing fit overcame me. A few bits of black flesh flew from my mouth and splattered on the ground. I’d never felt as sick in my whole life as I did now.

Eastwei picked me up with all the gentleness of a mother cat and cradled me in one arm. He stroked my back as he turned away from the empty shell and to a heartbreaking sight.

The village had remained as quiet as the grave during our fight, and we soon discovered why. Eastwei trudged up the muddied main street and we beheld dozens of piles of clothes. Shriveled remains stuck out from some of them but most were too shrunken to be seen.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

We peeked inside houses and in every outbuilding. Nothing stirred save for the dust and a few homemade wind chimes. They twinkled sadly, singing a song of emptiness.

The domesticated beasts had not escaped unharmed, as we discovered on inspecting one of the small barns. Eastwei pressed a hand against the partially opened door and a shaft of light fell on the barn floor. Shrunken hides and blackened hooves were all that remained of the poor animals. A stench of decay hung in the air. He drew his long sleeve over his face but that didn’t hide the horror and anger in his features. I looked up at him and softly meowed.

I couldn’t stop an ill-timed cough from coming out. A few black specks flew out of my mouth and my stomach did such a flipflop that I let out a whimpering meow and sank deeper into his arms.

Eastwei cast a worried look at me and stroked my head. I couldn’t even manage a purr, so sick did I feel.

He turned us away from that horrible sight and walked down the lonely street. A faint cloud of fiery flakes surrounded us and obscured the area around us for a few seconds. One moment we were in the destroyed village and the next we were walking along the river bank. I noticed the gate to the heaven realm standing not far off.

The lord didn’t move toward that but instead knelt beside the river. He drew out a handkerchief from inside his sleeve and dipped the cloth into the river. I had no idea what he was doing until he pressed his handkerchief against my face and began rubbing.

I shrank from the cold water and twisted my head this way and that to avoid his fingers.

“Hold still,” he commanded me as he dipped the cloth back into the river. “I cannot allow you to return with me without cleaning you of this filth.”

I froze as the implications were clear. No wash, no go back home.

Eastwei continued his cleaning until my face felt fresh and soaked. He tucked the handkerchief back into his sleeve and dipped his cupped palm into the waters. The lord then held the trickling pool of water up to my face.

“Drink.”

I leaned down and habit forced me to try to drink using my lips. My short snout wouldn’t let me do that and I found myself inhaling water through my nostrils. I jerked back as a familiar tingling teased my nose. An adorably tiny sneeze escaped me.

The faintest of smiles crossed Eastwei’s lips before he turned away to get another scoop of water. “This time with your tongue,” he reminded me.

I leaned down and flicked out my tongue like I’d seen cats do a million times. My inexperience meant I dribbled more than I drank but I managed to get enough to whet my mouth and remove some of the taste of that horrid plant.

Eastwei flicked his hand and stood. Now that I was more comfortable I enjoyed the ride as he carried me up the gentle slope toward the center of the island. He raised one hand and the gate activated, revealing the foggy outline of the large gates.

We stepped through and into the bright light of the sky kingdom. The gate stood there imposing and guarded as before. I desperately wanted to swipe at one of the guards but my stomach flip-flopped. A groan came out as a low whining meow.

Eastwei glanced down and stroked my fur. His gentle touch brought a faint purr from deep in my throat but that caused me to suffer another coughing fit. The last remnants of the horrible black flesh flew out and tainted the ground.

The guards stiffened and one of them stepped forward. “What is that matter with that creature, Lord Eastwei?”

“I’m not sure,” Eastwei replied as he brushed his hand over the black spots. Fire shot up from the little specks and they were burned out of existence, leaving nothing behind. “But remain vigilant.”

The guard stood at attention. “Yes, My Lord!”

Eastwei continued, his footsteps taking a purposeful path but I soon realized it wasn’t toward either of our palaces. He strode past the many palaces and across a few bridges to a large island. My ears perked up when I beheld an assortment of stables and pens, all crowded with animals munching away at food or snuffing around for the sake of curiosity.

The home of the caretaker was a timber construction with two floors that more resembled the barns than any of the other palaces in the heavenly realm. A familiar face strolled out the open front doors and leaned against a huge beam that held up the porch roof.

The person was Lord Kang, and he had a curiosity-filled smile on his face. “This is a surprise. What brings you-” He noticed me and pushed off from the beam. “What do you have there?”

“A cat,” came the bland reply as Eastwei stopped short of the porch. “She is hurt.”

Kang hurried up to us and began a thorough inspection of my person. The checkup was so thorough that I would have felt insulted if I were still in my human body. As it was, his touch was gentle and his examination brief.

He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “It looks as though she swallowed something rather unpleasant and her legs will need to be bandaged. We can do that inside, but do you know what she ate?”

“No,” Eastwei replied as we followed Kang into his home.