Fan Fiction ❯ Illusia ❯ Koura - A Lonely One 5 ( Chapter 51 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Serenitychan13 
Chapter 5: Cat Games
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Suspense / Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy / Action / Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.25.2004 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 159 | Status: Completed
Chapter 5: Cat Games
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction | Genre(s): / Suspense / Supernatural / Romance / Fantasy / Action / Angst / Drama | Type: Other | Uploaded On: 01.25.2004 | Pages: 3 | Words: 2.8K | Visits: 159 | Status: Completed
Chapter 5
I went over and put a hand on Terran’s unoccupied shoulder. He looked up at me, his expression just slightly confused.
“Sorry to say this, but you two are going to need to get up… We really should get going before too long.”
Illusia lifted her head off Terran’s shoulder and looked up at me sadly.
“I don’t see the point,” she said softly. “We can’t do it. We’re probably too late to get to Mother and Sawyer’s probably long gone by now.”
I bit my lip. There was a good chance that she was right. But still, there was a chance, if a slight one, that we could still make it. Terran tightened his hold on her for a moment and she looked up at him, that same hopeless expression on her face. Gently, he took her hand and looked down into her eyes.
“Come on honey,” he said quietly, smiling at her. “We still have a chance. If you’re right about that second path, and I think you are, there’s still a very good chance that we can make it.”
“I don’t want to see what it looks like if you’re wrong,” she whispered, looking down at the gradually-melting snow.
I touched her shoulder gently and she looked back at me. I could see the tears in her eyes and I watched her trying to hide them.
“Just last night, you were trying everything to get there as fast as you could. We could barely hold you back and now you won’t go anywhere. That doesn’t make much sense. You don’t want to see what it looks like if he’s wrong; I can understand that. But what about if he’s right?”
She just looked sadly at me and tried to blink back her tears.
“Is that possible?” she asked, her voice slightly choked.
“I think so.”
I tugged a little on one of her ponytails.
“Now come on. It’s not possible if you don’t try.”
She looked up at Terran, tears still filling her eyes. He cupped her chin in his hand, leaned down and kissed her gently. She smiled up at him and brushed her tears away. I turned a little bit red and looked off in another direction.
After about a minute, I heard a rather odd noise and turned back around. I turned bright red and almost passed out right then. Those two were all over each other! Illusia was in Terran’s lap, wrapped comfortably in his coat (While he was still wearing it!) with his arms around her. One of her hands was tangled in his hair. Her other hand rested over his heart. Terran had her held so close to him that I was surprised she could breathe. Or could she? I couldn’t tell. Their eyes were closed, mouths pressed together, both making soft moaning sounds.
“WHAT THE HELL!? You two know I’m still here, don’t you!?”
Slowly, Terran opened one eye. He saw me glaring furiously at him and panicked. His other eye snapped open and he pulled away from Illusia’s mouth at lightning speed. She gave a startled squeak and her eyes flew open. She looked around for a second and saw Terran staring up at me, a look of terror frozen in his eyes. She followed his gaze, got one look at me, turned a fairly interesting shade of what seemed to be hot pink and promptly let out a shriek of embarrassment, panic and injured dignity.
“I did NOT need to see that! Can’t you save that for some other time, oh maybe, when you’re ALONE!?”
I think Terran was trying to come up with something intelligent to say. All he was getting so far were some very strange choking noises and a strangled exclamation of “Holy sh*t…” His face turned white, then darkened to a sunburned-looking shade of red.
Illusia was the first to calm down. Without a word, she slid off Terran’s lap and started straightening her hair out. She smoothed out her skirt and pushed part of her top back onto her shoulder where it belonged. Terran started to calm down as well, trying his best to straighten out his coat and get most of his hair going in one direction again.
“Uh…” was Terran’s brilliant opener. “I can explain-”
“Save your breath. I don’t want to hear it.”
Illusia got up, still not saying anything to either Terran or me, and started back up the same path we had come down. She was walking about three times as fast as a normal person. When she got about halfway up it, she started running. I smacked a hand to my forehead. She was probably going to go and get herself knocked out again. I picked up Terran by the back of his coat and set him on his feet.
“There she goes again. You need to go after her; no telling what she’ll run into. With our luck it’ll be that mountain lion she was going on about.”
Terran rolled his eyes at me and took off after her. These two were responsible for keeping this world safe? I don’t think so! At this point, it was all Terran could do just to keep up with her when she pulled a stunt like this. My guess was that we’d last another week maybe before something went seriously wrong. I sighed and started off after the two of them.
It was actually a fairly long time until I caught up with them. I saw Illusia’s ponytails swirling as she jumped straight up onto a tree branch about eight feet up, then bounce to another one at about fifteen feet up. She really was graceful when she wanted to be. I just wondered what the hell she was doing up in that tree. Terran was standing at the base of the tree, his arms folded across his chest. The two of them were obviously arguing about something. Probably about whether she really should be up in that tree or not.
Hold on a second! Terran can do those straight-up high jumps too…
I knew he could, so why was he still on the ground? I saw Illusia sitting on a branch, still about fifteen feet up, and cut through the brush to get to where Terran was standing. His head was tilted up so he could see up to some of the higher branches.
“Terran, what’s going on? Why is she up there? And if she’s up there, why are you still down here?”
He rolled his eyes at me and pointed up into the tree.
“Look at what’s up there with her! You think I’m going up there with that thing!?”
I looked up at the general area of where he was pointing and nearly choked. There was Illusia, alright, stretched out in a fork between two large branches. Curled up on one of the two branches next to her was a full grown mountain lion.
“What the f*ck!? Illusia, what the h*ll are you doing!?”
“Huh?” she said, looking around, seeming a little bit confused. After a few seconds, she looked down and saw me. “Oh, hi Koura! This is Ginny. See? I told you she’s an angel!”
“Illusia, leave that cat alone and get back down here!” yelled Terran. “We don’t exactly have the time to socialize!”
Big mistake. Cats hate loud noises.
Within seconds, the huge cat was out of the tree and advancing on Terran.
“An angel, huh?”
Illusia stood up, jumped off the branch she was on, turned a flip and landed easily on her feet at the base of the tree. Slowly, she approached the tawny lioness from the side. Terran had backed up against a boulder and got himself cornered. There were only about six feet between him and those deadly claws and teeth and the cat could spring at any time. Hopefully, Illusia would get to him before anything happened.
“Ginny,” said Illusia softly, in a voice I had never heard her use before. “Ginny, leave him alone. He won’t hurt you.”
The cat stopped in its tracks, sat down and looked at her. It looked at Terran then got up and went to sit by Illusia’s side. What happened next almost killed me.
“Princess, so sorry about that,” said the cat in a low but light voice. “I’ve never seen him before so I assumed he---”
“Wait a second!”
I pointed at the mountain lion.
“You didn’t tell me the thing could talk!”
Immediately, two huge green eyes were glaring at me from a tawny face.
“Excuse me,” said the lioness, her voice lower than before and deadly calm. “But what did you just say?”
Oh sh*t!
“Illusia, do something! Call it off!”
Illusia just stared at me with the same disgusted expression as the lioness. Silver sparked in lavender eyes and I knew she was serious.
“For one thing, Ginny is a she, not an it,” she snapped.
Oh great, now I had both the lioness and Illusia pissed off at me.
I’m a dead man…
I looked the other way and braced myself for the worst. I must have jumped four feet in the air as a tawny brown paw barely touched the side of my right knee. The cat gave me another disgusted look and turned away. Obviously I wasn’t worth her time.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked Illusia.
“I have no idea,” Illusia replied. “We’re still trying to figure that out.”
Slowly, Terran was starting to calm down. Carefully, he approached Illusia and her feline companion. Taking a deep breath and swallowing hard, he held his hand out to the cat. Alright, now I knew my brother was crazy. But to my surprise, the lioness just rubbed her head against his hand, obviously accepting him as a friend.
Funny, not more than two minutes ago she was ready to rip his throat out.
“Koura! Come here!” called Terran. “I think if you apologize, she won’t hurt you.”
“Apologize? For what!?”
Illusia gave me that same disgusted stare. Suddenly, it hit me. Slowly, I approached the huge brown cat. I could feel my heart pounding and I hoped she couldn’t sense my fear.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to offend you… I’m just not used to talking to cats.”
The lioness looked up at Illusia, apparently asking without words whether or not my rather lame excuse was at all viable. I swallowed hard and I could feel the color rapidly draining from my face. Now my heart was not just pounding, but racing a mile a minute. Two green eyes stared up at me, as if to say “I’m waiting.” Obviously the cat was not satisfied with my excuse.
I changed my tone, quieter this time.
“Really… I’m sorry. I’m only here to help… And I’m sorry I called you an ‘it’… Now will you at least consider forgiving me?”
The two green eyes softened and I could have sworn the cat smiled. Tentatively, I reached my hand out to the huge cat. I closed my eyes again, still fearing the worst. All of a sudden, I felt something crash into my chest, flattening me on the ground. I opened my eyes, surprised that I was still alive. I found myself face-to-face with Ginny, who was sitting on my chest and looking very pleased with herself.
“Hello,” she said. “I don’t believe I’ve met you properly, have I?”
“Uh… hi…”
The cat tilted her head, looking almost puzzled. I was starting to get very nervous. She had a straight shot at my throat from where she was. She lifted a paw bigger than my hand off my chest. I thought for sure she was about to finish me off. I closed my eyes again, this time saying a silent prayer and hoping it would at least be over quickly.
Instead of what I expected, the cat got up and off me. I heard laughter and it sounded like Illusia. I opened one eye to find Illusia beside me, laughing hysterically. I sat up slowly and looked around. Ginny was still sitting by Terran, watching me out of one eye as she worked at her claws with her teeth. She looked bored with the whole situation.
So that was Illusia… Just playing a joke on me!?
Ok, the little black cat act was one thing. At least then it was cute. This time, I had actually thought I was going to die. I pushed myself off the ground, royally pissed off. I looked again at Terran and Ginny to find them also laughing. Terran got one look at me and his laughter ceased instantly. I watched his face turn white.
“Illusia,” he said quietly. “I think the joke’s over now…”
“What makes you say that?” she said between giggles.
“Just look up,” he said, sounding as if he were choking.
Illusia looked up to find me standing beside her and looking like I was about ready to kill somebody. She squeaked (“YEEP!”) and scrambled off the ground, running to Terran and trying to hide behind him. Ginny was the only one still laughing, her eyes closed and her powerful shoulders shaking slightly, though she made no sound at all. I finally managed to get myself under control enough to speak without saying something I would regret later. My voice came out steady, calm and deadly quiet.
“What in the h*ll made you think it was a good idea to do that to me again? I could laugh at the little trick you pulled this morning, but I thought I was a dead man just now. That’s when it stops being funny.”
To my surprise, it was Ginny who spoke first.
“I’m afraid it was my idea,” she said softly. “The Princess told me about what she and her Guardian did to you this morning and I mentioned something about trying the same thing again, only a little bit… modified. I suppose the two of us are even now.”
“But I thought… Didn’t Illusia… Wasn’t that…---”
“It doesn’t matter now,” said Terran, his voice low and very quiet. “It’s over and no one actually got hurt---”
“Do you think it was comfortable being knocked over full force by a full-grown mountain lion?”
“And right now, we are trying to make sure that vampire bastard doesn’t---” he started off.
“Terran!” interjected Illusia.
“---Doesn’t get another piece of the Planet Heart,” he finished, as if nothing had happened.
I was still angry, but when I thought back to Illusia crying herself to sleep in Terran’s arms when she thought she would never see her mother again, I decided to put my anger aside. After all, Terran was right; I wasn’t actually hurt. And I knew what it was like to lose my mother. Terran had been too young to remember our parents, but I was about twelve when it happened. That day still haunted my dreams.
“Alright… I’ll let it go… this time. Just remember this: try that again, and somebody is going to die…”
I went over and put a hand on Terran’s unoccupied shoulder. He looked up at me, his expression just slightly confused.
“Sorry to say this, but you two are going to need to get up… We really should get going before too long.”
Illusia lifted her head off Terran’s shoulder and looked up at me sadly.
“I don’t see the point,” she said softly. “We can’t do it. We’re probably too late to get to Mother and Sawyer’s probably long gone by now.”
I bit my lip. There was a good chance that she was right. But still, there was a chance, if a slight one, that we could still make it. Terran tightened his hold on her for a moment and she looked up at him, that same hopeless expression on her face. Gently, he took her hand and looked down into her eyes.
“Come on honey,” he said quietly, smiling at her. “We still have a chance. If you’re right about that second path, and I think you are, there’s still a very good chance that we can make it.”
“I don’t want to see what it looks like if you’re wrong,” she whispered, looking down at the gradually-melting snow.
I touched her shoulder gently and she looked back at me. I could see the tears in her eyes and I watched her trying to hide them.
“Just last night, you were trying everything to get there as fast as you could. We could barely hold you back and now you won’t go anywhere. That doesn’t make much sense. You don’t want to see what it looks like if he’s wrong; I can understand that. But what about if he’s right?”
She just looked sadly at me and tried to blink back her tears.
“Is that possible?” she asked, her voice slightly choked.
“I think so.”
I tugged a little on one of her ponytails.
“Now come on. It’s not possible if you don’t try.”
She looked up at Terran, tears still filling her eyes. He cupped her chin in his hand, leaned down and kissed her gently. She smiled up at him and brushed her tears away. I turned a little bit red and looked off in another direction.
After about a minute, I heard a rather odd noise and turned back around. I turned bright red and almost passed out right then. Those two were all over each other! Illusia was in Terran’s lap, wrapped comfortably in his coat (While he was still wearing it!) with his arms around her. One of her hands was tangled in his hair. Her other hand rested over his heart. Terran had her held so close to him that I was surprised she could breathe. Or could she? I couldn’t tell. Their eyes were closed, mouths pressed together, both making soft moaning sounds.
“WHAT THE HELL!? You two know I’m still here, don’t you!?”
Slowly, Terran opened one eye. He saw me glaring furiously at him and panicked. His other eye snapped open and he pulled away from Illusia’s mouth at lightning speed. She gave a startled squeak and her eyes flew open. She looked around for a second and saw Terran staring up at me, a look of terror frozen in his eyes. She followed his gaze, got one look at me, turned a fairly interesting shade of what seemed to be hot pink and promptly let out a shriek of embarrassment, panic and injured dignity.
“I did NOT need to see that! Can’t you save that for some other time, oh maybe, when you’re ALONE!?”
I think Terran was trying to come up with something intelligent to say. All he was getting so far were some very strange choking noises and a strangled exclamation of “Holy sh*t…” His face turned white, then darkened to a sunburned-looking shade of red.
Illusia was the first to calm down. Without a word, she slid off Terran’s lap and started straightening her hair out. She smoothed out her skirt and pushed part of her top back onto her shoulder where it belonged. Terran started to calm down as well, trying his best to straighten out his coat and get most of his hair going in one direction again.
“Uh…” was Terran’s brilliant opener. “I can explain-”
“Save your breath. I don’t want to hear it.”
Illusia got up, still not saying anything to either Terran or me, and started back up the same path we had come down. She was walking about three times as fast as a normal person. When she got about halfway up it, she started running. I smacked a hand to my forehead. She was probably going to go and get herself knocked out again. I picked up Terran by the back of his coat and set him on his feet.
“There she goes again. You need to go after her; no telling what she’ll run into. With our luck it’ll be that mountain lion she was going on about.”
Terran rolled his eyes at me and took off after her. These two were responsible for keeping this world safe? I don’t think so! At this point, it was all Terran could do just to keep up with her when she pulled a stunt like this. My guess was that we’d last another week maybe before something went seriously wrong. I sighed and started off after the two of them.
It was actually a fairly long time until I caught up with them. I saw Illusia’s ponytails swirling as she jumped straight up onto a tree branch about eight feet up, then bounce to another one at about fifteen feet up. She really was graceful when she wanted to be. I just wondered what the hell she was doing up in that tree. Terran was standing at the base of the tree, his arms folded across his chest. The two of them were obviously arguing about something. Probably about whether she really should be up in that tree or not.
Hold on a second! Terran can do those straight-up high jumps too…
I knew he could, so why was he still on the ground? I saw Illusia sitting on a branch, still about fifteen feet up, and cut through the brush to get to where Terran was standing. His head was tilted up so he could see up to some of the higher branches.
“Terran, what’s going on? Why is she up there? And if she’s up there, why are you still down here?”
He rolled his eyes at me and pointed up into the tree.
“Look at what’s up there with her! You think I’m going up there with that thing!?”
I looked up at the general area of where he was pointing and nearly choked. There was Illusia, alright, stretched out in a fork between two large branches. Curled up on one of the two branches next to her was a full grown mountain lion.
“What the f*ck!? Illusia, what the h*ll are you doing!?”
“Huh?” she said, looking around, seeming a little bit confused. After a few seconds, she looked down and saw me. “Oh, hi Koura! This is Ginny. See? I told you she’s an angel!”
“Illusia, leave that cat alone and get back down here!” yelled Terran. “We don’t exactly have the time to socialize!”
Big mistake. Cats hate loud noises.
Within seconds, the huge cat was out of the tree and advancing on Terran.
“An angel, huh?”
Illusia stood up, jumped off the branch she was on, turned a flip and landed easily on her feet at the base of the tree. Slowly, she approached the tawny lioness from the side. Terran had backed up against a boulder and got himself cornered. There were only about six feet between him and those deadly claws and teeth and the cat could spring at any time. Hopefully, Illusia would get to him before anything happened.
“Ginny,” said Illusia softly, in a voice I had never heard her use before. “Ginny, leave him alone. He won’t hurt you.”
The cat stopped in its tracks, sat down and looked at her. It looked at Terran then got up and went to sit by Illusia’s side. What happened next almost killed me.
“Princess, so sorry about that,” said the cat in a low but light voice. “I’ve never seen him before so I assumed he---”
“Wait a second!”
I pointed at the mountain lion.
“You didn’t tell me the thing could talk!”
Immediately, two huge green eyes were glaring at me from a tawny face.
“Excuse me,” said the lioness, her voice lower than before and deadly calm. “But what did you just say?”
Oh sh*t!
“Illusia, do something! Call it off!”
Illusia just stared at me with the same disgusted expression as the lioness. Silver sparked in lavender eyes and I knew she was serious.
“For one thing, Ginny is a she, not an it,” she snapped.
Oh great, now I had both the lioness and Illusia pissed off at me.
I’m a dead man…
I looked the other way and braced myself for the worst. I must have jumped four feet in the air as a tawny brown paw barely touched the side of my right knee. The cat gave me another disgusted look and turned away. Obviously I wasn’t worth her time.
“What’s wrong with him?” she asked Illusia.
“I have no idea,” Illusia replied. “We’re still trying to figure that out.”
Slowly, Terran was starting to calm down. Carefully, he approached Illusia and her feline companion. Taking a deep breath and swallowing hard, he held his hand out to the cat. Alright, now I knew my brother was crazy. But to my surprise, the lioness just rubbed her head against his hand, obviously accepting him as a friend.
Funny, not more than two minutes ago she was ready to rip his throat out.
“Koura! Come here!” called Terran. “I think if you apologize, she won’t hurt you.”
“Apologize? For what!?”
Illusia gave me that same disgusted stare. Suddenly, it hit me. Slowly, I approached the huge brown cat. I could feel my heart pounding and I hoped she couldn’t sense my fear.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to offend you… I’m just not used to talking to cats.”
The lioness looked up at Illusia, apparently asking without words whether or not my rather lame excuse was at all viable. I swallowed hard and I could feel the color rapidly draining from my face. Now my heart was not just pounding, but racing a mile a minute. Two green eyes stared up at me, as if to say “I’m waiting.” Obviously the cat was not satisfied with my excuse.
I changed my tone, quieter this time.
“Really… I’m sorry. I’m only here to help… And I’m sorry I called you an ‘it’… Now will you at least consider forgiving me?”
The two green eyes softened and I could have sworn the cat smiled. Tentatively, I reached my hand out to the huge cat. I closed my eyes again, still fearing the worst. All of a sudden, I felt something crash into my chest, flattening me on the ground. I opened my eyes, surprised that I was still alive. I found myself face-to-face with Ginny, who was sitting on my chest and looking very pleased with herself.
“Hello,” she said. “I don’t believe I’ve met you properly, have I?”
“Uh… hi…”
The cat tilted her head, looking almost puzzled. I was starting to get very nervous. She had a straight shot at my throat from where she was. She lifted a paw bigger than my hand off my chest. I thought for sure she was about to finish me off. I closed my eyes again, this time saying a silent prayer and hoping it would at least be over quickly.
Instead of what I expected, the cat got up and off me. I heard laughter and it sounded like Illusia. I opened one eye to find Illusia beside me, laughing hysterically. I sat up slowly and looked around. Ginny was still sitting by Terran, watching me out of one eye as she worked at her claws with her teeth. She looked bored with the whole situation.
So that was Illusia… Just playing a joke on me!?
Ok, the little black cat act was one thing. At least then it was cute. This time, I had actually thought I was going to die. I pushed myself off the ground, royally pissed off. I looked again at Terran and Ginny to find them also laughing. Terran got one look at me and his laughter ceased instantly. I watched his face turn white.
“Illusia,” he said quietly. “I think the joke’s over now…”
“What makes you say that?” she said between giggles.
“Just look up,” he said, sounding as if he were choking.
Illusia looked up to find me standing beside her and looking like I was about ready to kill somebody. She squeaked (“YEEP!”) and scrambled off the ground, running to Terran and trying to hide behind him. Ginny was the only one still laughing, her eyes closed and her powerful shoulders shaking slightly, though she made no sound at all. I finally managed to get myself under control enough to speak without saying something I would regret later. My voice came out steady, calm and deadly quiet.
“What in the h*ll made you think it was a good idea to do that to me again? I could laugh at the little trick you pulled this morning, but I thought I was a dead man just now. That’s when it stops being funny.”
To my surprise, it was Ginny who spoke first.
“I’m afraid it was my idea,” she said softly. “The Princess told me about what she and her Guardian did to you this morning and I mentioned something about trying the same thing again, only a little bit… modified. I suppose the two of us are even now.”
“But I thought… Didn’t Illusia… Wasn’t that…---”
“It doesn’t matter now,” said Terran, his voice low and very quiet. “It’s over and no one actually got hurt---”
“Do you think it was comfortable being knocked over full force by a full-grown mountain lion?”
“And right now, we are trying to make sure that vampire bastard doesn’t---” he started off.
“Terran!” interjected Illusia.
“---Doesn’t get another piece of the Planet Heart,” he finished, as if nothing had happened.
I was still angry, but when I thought back to Illusia crying herself to sleep in Terran’s arms when she thought she would never see her mother again, I decided to put my anger aside. After all, Terran was right; I wasn’t actually hurt. And I knew what it was like to lose my mother. Terran had been too young to remember our parents, but I was about twelve when it happened. That day still haunted my dreams.
“Alright… I’ll let it go… this time. Just remember this: try that again, and somebody is going to die…”