DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Hall of Fame - Latest Top 10 completed games OAHE: Once upon an All Hallows Eve OHAE: Who is training whom?

The old cat whips its tail back and forth while it prowls. "It is something foul and evil. Nothing like what I know, but I can sense, something. I think," she howls in pain as she is struck by something and flung up and away.

=========================
Jayden knows that the actual Halloween night is still two nights away, but most bars would offer some kind of a special, if he were so inclined. Happy hours were that way for such a reason.

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

She is startled as Jezzabella seems to have been attacked. Her backs arches and she looks around quickly to try to determine the threat and then goes to check on the old leader if she seems nothing.

Jayden


He thought long about a drink or three, but finally decided to wait for the return of the damn cat.

The old cat is lying on her side breathing hard. With a strain she meowed "spirit".

No visible attacker ad far as Tiger can see.

==========
DC doesn't return immediately even though Jayden was definitely trying to think her home.

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

With that warning still echoing in her eyes, she immediately goes on the defensive, casting her invisibility by chasing her tail in a full circle and then bunching all her muscles to add protective armour.

Feeling a little braver now, she extends her preternatural senses to see if she can tell what is around.

Ideally she would like to ward Jezzabella but she needs to stay guard for the moment.

Jayden


Grumbling to himself, Jayden made his way to the kitchen to get a beer from the refrigerator.

Whatever it was that attacked the old cat doesn't show itself to Tiger's senses. Although an eerie calm comes over this area of the forest as if something odd was occurring.

=========
The beer was cold and waiting. But if he had more than three, he would need to resupply this evening.

The news ticker flashed as he reentered the room. Talk of reduced patrols for the missing boy. Officials state they are not giving up, but...

Tiger-Lily/Dizzy

Her senses, even her preternatural awareness, tell her nothing. She doesn't know what to do. Maybe she should try to get Jezzabella to a safer place?

"What should I do? Can you walk at all?"

She wishes the others were here. Even her burden..

Jayden


Only three? I thought... but then again, nothing that Jayden had thought lately had made much sense to him in retrospect.

He sipped the beer slowly and walked back into the room where he read the news stream sliding across the bottom of his monitor. The boy again... he wondered and turned toward the outside door.

And stopped, returned, picked up the revolver and some spare cartridges. Jayden went to his bedroom, got a light jacket and put it on with the gun and extra bullets in the jacket pocket. It made the jacket swag to one side, but he somehow felt more comfortable armed.

Funny, he'd never felt that way before.

As he got closer to his car outside, the odd, compelling thought from moments past came to him again. What if that damned cat had made its way back to that spot in the woods where they'd gone looking for the lost boy.

Why would she? He shrugged, got in the car and headed out, following the way they'd gone before, his beer between his legs, convenient for the occasional sip.

The car rattled and bounced it's way out of town. Soon he was at the spot he parked at before. The afternoon light was waning.


Tiger heard the familiar sound of her burden's conveyance.

In town Shadow was patrolling his territory and noticed yet another burdens car head through. The odd thing that his senses notice is a spirit gathered in it near the burden. The burden is completely unaware.

Jayden


Sitting in the car, he finished the beer and tossed the can into the backseat floorboard. He sat there for a long moment, trying to recover or remember the what had brought him back out here.

After all, he didn't even know the boy. Jayden shrugged and grunted to himself.

He didn't even like cats.

Finally he got out of the car and locked it. He zipped up his jacket so the weight of the gun wouldn't cause it to drag too far to one side and headed into the woods in the direction he and the cat had gone earlier.

He wondered to himself why he hadn't thought to bring a flashlight.

Shadow

The wiry ginger tom looked sharply at the mobile burden-container. It and its occupant were grudgingly permitted as were they all, but a spirit trying to sneak along with them? That was an insult to his territorial integrity.

Silently, he bounded after the vehicle, keeping it in sight.

Tiger-Lily

It is almost as if she had summoned him. Surely that was the metal thing they used to come here earlier? But how had he known to come here? It is all too much. As soon as she hears the door open, she yowls at him to hurry up.

Jayden


Jayden's head jerked in the direction of the feline-sounding yowl? Could that be the damned cat?

He shook his head... what would the odds be of that?

Nevertheless, he didn't know what else to do so he headed in the direction the sound seemed to be coming from.

Shadow bounds up and hears Tiger-Lily's call. He sees the burden head in the appropriate direction.

A few steps and Jayden nears where Jezzabella lay sprawled.

To Shadow's senses and that of Tiger they are abke to detect the presence of a spirit hovering near the right hand side of the burdwn. It doesn't seem agressive but one never knew with spirits.

Shadow

He paced around, taking in all before him like lapping up a pawful of water. Tiger-Lily, besides Jezzabella. The old matriarch sprawled on the ground, not looking her best. The Burden from the container apparently heeding Tiger-Lily's bidding. The Spirit along beside him.

The ginger tom kept to the outskirts but crept near. This seemed important, perhaps more so than an oblivious spirit crossing into his borders. If it wasn't oblivious, that was another matter...

Tiger-Lily

She feels a strange sense of relief as her burden comes into view. At least he can carry Jezzabella to safety if nothing else and she doesn't feel quite so alone now. Then she perks up even further as she spots Shadow coming in behind her burden. Maybe now she can salvage something from this?

She meows a greeting to those coming to help.

Jayden


"Dizzy?" Jayden paused and sighted in on the direction of her meow as he made his way carefully through the gathering twilight, barely avoiding the form on the ground.

"Are you hurt?" he asked as he went down on a knee but, even as he asked the question, he knew the feline sprawled out on the ground was too big and not even the same color as his cat. He carefully touched the cat. It seemed alive and he looked around for his cat.

His cat was off to one side near the roots of a large tree. And there was something else. Tip of a little boy's shoe tinged with some dull brown staining.

Shadow

He padded forward to glower at the spirit accompanying the burden. Sotto voce, he hissed,

"Identify yourself, little spirit. Why have you attached yourself to this one?"

The spirit turned its hunched amorphous form to the cat and hissed. "Leave him be, he is protected."

Jayden


Without quite getting to his feet, Jayden half duck-walked, half scrambled toward what looked to be the cat and the small shoe.

Shadow

He growled low in response to the spirit,

"He is not yet Mine and I make no claim upon him here. His kind are permitted to pass through. You, on the other hand, broached my territory in his company. I claim my due in answers and truth. By whom is he protected, and from what?"

Tiger-Lily

She sits there waiting for him, her senses still alert to any dangers around them. Now she has to protect him as well. She is glad Shadow is here.

The spirit seems physically attached to the burden as he moves closer to his cat. The boy lay near the DC. But he wasn't against all hope, alive. No Jayden could see the boy was a corpse now.

The spirit ssid"you have no authority. But I will entertain you with answers. I claim him and protect him."