Fan Fiction ❯ The Nekos ❯ Famous Neko History ( Chapter 2 )

The Nekos: Chapter 2

By Space Ghost

Many have contemplated the question: Where did the nekos come from?

The answer is actually quite simple. The nekos have always been around. When the ancient ancestors of humans, the first civilizations, the Sumerians, the Egyptians, the Etruscans, etc.; The nekos were there. The simple fact was that they mainly stayed away from humans, at least out of the eyes of history, because neko tolerance still had a great deal to go before they could TRULY be equal. So, any forms of literature, art, and historical events that focused on neko or nekos had been destroyed by the humans that hated the species.

Throughout history, nekos have had many forms of oppression, and many enemies, but the most popular account, and one of the only historical accounts to survive throughout time was during the early 1400's, in Canterbury, England. The story began on a rainy night, accompanied by a gray sky. A family of nekos, a father, a mother and a baby she held in her arms, wrapped in a blanket, were attempting to flee from Canterbury. Guards everywhere were hunting for the family, for a reason that will be told later. But the nekos were swift and agile, and had managed to evade the guards that hunted them. Until of course, they reached the end of the town. There stood fifty guards , and standing in front of them was a figure whose countenance was that of an malignant phantom or apparition. The archdeacon of the Canterbury cathedral, Siras Wyrm. His face was paler than that of a corpse that had decayed for over five years, his eyes were slanted, and he was so thin and scrawny, his venomous, serpent-like eyes were the only way one could really tell that he was not a skeleton.

" Capture those spawns of Satan and burn them at the stake!", the frightening archdeacon shouted, while pointing at the family of nekos. The guards began to charge forth, and the female with the baby ran as fast as she could, while the male stayed and fought the guards, to save his family, and he fought extremely well, so much that all of the guards had to fight against him, but he was still severely outnumbered, and would not win this fight. " You fools! The girl is getting away!", shouted the archdeacon, Wyrm.

But the guards were to too busy dealing with the male, so Siras Wyrm simply shrugged and ran after the mother and child nekos himself. For a figure of such malnutrition as the archdeacon was, he could run quite fast, and soon caught up with the mother and caught her by grabbing her by the hair. The intense pain not only caused the mother to shriek in agony, but also to drop the baby. It did not seem so at first, but the baby had fallen into a dark alley, and did not cry because it had been knocked completely unconscious. " Back to the pits of Hell with you!", shouted Siras Wyrm as he drew a dagger from his robe and drove it into her spine. The first known record of an ambassador of God committing murder.

The archdeacon Siras Wyrm let the body fall to the floor, then began to look around frantically, for he knew that the woman was carrying a child, and he did not see the child laying beside the mother's corpse. He looked into the alley near to where the corpse had fallen. However, he did not see the babe, for it was pitch black in the alley, and the he would not hear a cry from the babe, for it was, as aforementioned, knocked unconscious from the fall.

" Oh forget it", the archdeacon Wyrm said to himself, " The child will never survive the night out here anyway.". Then Wyrm pulled the hood of his robe over his head, then headed back to the Canterbury cathedral.

And there laid the young neko babe, left to his deadly fate in the cold alleyway, or so he would have, were it not for the figure that was passing through the alleyway. It was a young human woman, but you would have thought her very old, for she was slightly bent over and covered with a hood to shield herself from the rain. She had just left the tavern, not from drinking, but that is where she worked as a bar maid. Her name was Madeline Eduard, wife to Jonathan Eduard, who was a clerk in the city's library. Aside from the hood and coat she held to, she also held a small latern, wherein a small candle that was half melted flickered dimly in the dark night. It was because of this miniscule lantern that she saw the neko babe. Now, in Europe during the century of this event, it was not uncommon to see a dead body lying in the streets, in fact it was recommended that you kept a good distance from it, and Madeline would have, had she not notice the sheet which the babe was wrapped in rise very slightly, then fall, and rise, the child was still faintly breathing, but evidently unconscious. Even then most people would leave the baby to die, neko, OR human. A baby was an extreme burden during those times, life was a struggle enough as it was. But Madeline, could not help herself but to pick up the small babe. She held it gently in her arms and slowly removed the fold of the blanket that covered the baby's face. The face looked like a human face, except of course, there was a light coat of gray fur, a small feline nose with no whiskers, and feline ears, the kind a common housecat would have. It was a male neko baby, but regardless, Madeline still held him and took him home, trying to keep the rain from falling on the little one. This sight would be unbelievable to any human at the time, because almost everyone hated nekos, especially in Canterbury, thanks to the archdeacon of the Canterbury cathedral. However, out of the few people in the world, Madeline, and her husband, were among the select view that did not feel the hatred for nekos.

When she finally got home, her husband Jonathan was waiting for her, and was shocked to see a baby in her arms. Jonathan was not a strong, rugged man. He was more of the scholarly type, he was kind, understanding, accepting, and loved his wife with all his heart. However, even this spectacle managed to catch him off guard, regardless of how unpredictable Madeline was.

" What the meaning about the bundle that you hold in thy arms, Madeline?", Jonathan asked.

" I beg forgiveness, husband. I found the poor little soul in the alley, left to die.", she replied.

" Why bring it here?"

" I could not think of anywhere else to take him.."

" You could have taken him to the orphanage."

" Nay… The orphanage would not take him in…I daresay that no orphanage would take him in."

" Why not?", Johnathan asked.

Madeline looked down solemnly and moved the fold from the blanket, revealing to her husband what the baby was.

" I see…", Jonathan mused, " What do you propose we do with the lad?"

" May we keep him, my darling?", she asked, while gently stroking the babe's forehead.

" Keep him?", Jonathan said with an incredulous tone, " But dear, he's a Neko."

" What's wrong with him being a Neko?!", she said, shooting a glare at her husband.

" Nothing my dear,", he replied, his voice calm, " But you do know how the people around here feel about Nekos…".

" Aye", she responded, " But I won't leave him to die…Could he live in the basement, where no one will see him?"

Jonathan stood silent for a moment, pondering, then he spoke, " Well… Yes I suppose we can… I will make a crib for him tomorrow after I close the library."

Madeline smiled bright and kissed her husband deeply, then squeaked in excitement, " Oh thank you Jonathan!". Jonathan didn't hate Nekos, he wouldn't even mind raising one as his son, but it wasn't his kindness for the child that made his decision, it was the fact knowing that Madeline desperately wanted a baby , and she could not conceive her own. Now she had what she had wished for waking hour and every dreaming night.

" What shall we name him?", Jonathan asked.

" I will call him Ebion ( Eh-Bee-On)", she said, smiling to the baby.

" What an odd name! Why that..?", Jonathan asked.

" It is derived of the moon goddess, Niobe… Because his fur seems so much like the glowing moon..", she said, still smiling.

" Now that you put it like that, I think it's a wonderful name for him", Jonathan replied.

Now I shall explain the reason that Nekos were hunted down mercilessly. True hatred against Nekos actually began in Canterbury, in the most unlikely of places, the Canterbury Cathedral. A young minister began to preach that Nekos were spawns of Satan and malicious devils that steal souls and rape women and children. Of course, none of this was true, but since a priest was saying it, it had to be true, as was the belief back in that time, and the priest announced that he would begin a campaign to "Cleanse Our Lord's Earth" by exterminating all the Nekos. Unfortunately for the Nekos, religion was highly backed by the common public and the crown as well, so many soldiers were enlisted to help the priest in his campaign. Without a doubt, many of you readers know who the priest is that started this, but for those that don't, that priest was the archdeacon Siras Wyrm.

Jonathan and Madeline raised Ebion as their own son and he thought of them as his mom and dad.. But twenty years later… he would truly experience the events that made him go down in history.

< Story continues in Chapter #3, " The innocent against the hidden Evil", or, " The Neko Messiah">